ІНСАЙДЕР УКРАЇНА

Following a red carpet arrival Saturday at the New Orleans Museum of Art, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain enjoyed music by a jazz group and a cultural performance by Mardi Gras Indians as they ended a visit to the city celebrating its tricentennial.

After a private lunch with New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and other dignitaries and officials, the royals departed New Orleans for San Antonio, Texas, which is also celebrating 300 years of existence.

“It was a great and amazing weekend for the city, our residents and the king and queen for them to come back to a former Spanish colony,” said Trey Caruso, a spokesman for Cantrell’s office.

Musical connections

Clarinetist, music historian and Xavier University Spanish professor Michael White said he and his Original Liberty Brass Band played two pieces with a connection to Europe and New Orleans at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

The first piece was Panama, a march in the traditional European style.

“It was published in 1911, and all over the country it was played by and read by brass bands,” White said prior to the performance. “But in New Orleans they kind of threw away the sheet music and improvised, and therefore made it personal. I think it’s a good way to show the interaction between European culture and New Orleans culture.”

The second piece, Andalusian Strut, was one of White’s compositions. It combines a common flamenco structure and flamenco-type rhythms and melodies with classic New Orleans jazz style and improvisation, he said.

“That one went over really, really well,” White said after the event. “The king and all of the people there really loved it.”

White said their third song was When the Saints Go Marching In, which White described as “probably the most famous song in New Orleans history.”

“We surprised them by singing the chorus in Spanish,” he said.

The Mardi Gras Indians, groups of African-Americans who create elaborate feathered and beaded costumes in which they strut and dance through the streets on Mardi Gras, performed as well.

“Though the program was relatively short, I think overall it gave a good idea of New Orleans’ culture,” White said.

Arrived Thursday

Felipe and Letizia flew in Thursday evening to Louisiana, which was a Spanish colony from 1763 to 1802. They arrived at New Orleans’ airport at sunset and were greeted by several officials, including Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Cantrell.

They saluted New Orleans’ centuries-old Spanish heritage at an event Friday at Gallier Hall, a former City Hall opened in 1853 and renovated for the city’s 300th anniversary. That evening, they visited two buildings erected under Spanish rule: St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, the Spanish government seat in Louisiana.

On Monday they’ll go to Washington for a White House visit Tuesday with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
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The phrase ‘don’t mix politics and sport’ is often heard in Moscow these days. But it’s difficult to escape the unique circumstances of this year’s World Cup. As the tournament gets underway in Russia, the country remains subject to a range of international sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin sees the World Cup as an opportunity to break that isolation and present a different image of Russia.
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After trading insults this week over the fate of a migrant ship, French and Italian leaders presented a more united front Friday, demanding an overhaul to Europe’s migration policies ahead of a European Union summit on the subject later this month.

As French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte in Paris, their rhetoric seemed very similar, even though they come from two very different political backgrounds. Their message: European policies for taking in migrants and sharing the burden aren’t working.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Conte at the French presidential palace, Macron said Europe’s collective response toward migration was not good, adding it was unable to respond to today’s challenges.

Macron outlined a number of areas that he believes need reform, from tougher patrolling and control of the EU’s external borders, to working more closely with countries of origin and transit, and more fairly sharing the migration burden within Europe — a concept that has so far not worked in practice.

Macron also tied migration reforms closely to eurozone reforms, which he is leading.

In remarks translated on France 24 TV, Conte also argued for the European Union to change direction on migration, including establishing hot spots to process asylum claims outside European borders.

“We have to establish centers of protection in Europe and the countries of origin and transit to prevent and accelerate processes of asylum seekers,” he said.

The show of unity was a sharp change from earlier in the week, when Italy’s new government demanded an official apology from Macron, who denounced it of being cynical and irresponsible’ for refusing to take in a roving migrant ship. The ship, Aquarius, is now heading to Spain. It is due to arrive in Valencia on Sunday.

Macron has also faced some domestic criticism for not taking in the Aquarius migrants, although the French government now says it may accept some asylum seekers. Hard-right politicians, in contrast, are sharply against the idea.

These divisions are reflected across Europe, where populist parties in Italy, Austria, and Hungary have adopted tough positions on migration. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her interior minister are also at odds on the issue.

Amid the disagreements, the number of migrants arriving in Europe has dropped sharply, from a high of 1.2 million in 2015 and 2016, to about 650,000 last year.
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A leaked video of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vote sparked fears of possible vote rigging ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June 24.

The video shows Erdogan telling party officials to secure majorities on ballot box monitoring committees to “finish the job in Istanbul before it has even started.”

In the video, Erdogan also comments on the pro-Kurdish HDP: “I can’t speak these words outside [publicly]. I am speaking them with you here. Why? Because if the HDP falls below the election threshold, it would mean that we would be in a much better place.”

The HDP is hovering around the 10 percent electoral threshold needed to enter parliament. Failure to pass the threshold would result in HDP votes being transferred to the party’s chief rival in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, the ruling AKP. That would give the AKP around 60 parliamentary seats, which, analysts say, could prove decisive in the closely fought campaign.

The video of the closed-door Istanbul meeting held earlier this month was published on social media by an attending official. The official quickly removed the recording, but not before it went viral.

“AKP chairman Erdogan openly incites people to commit a crime. He plans to steal our votes by cheating and pressure to bring us below the election threshold,” tweeted the HDP.

​Pledge on election security

“I watched the video of Erdogan. I felt very sad for Turkey,” Muharrem Ince, the presidential candidate of the opposition CHP, said Friday. “He [Erdogan] hopes for a solution with these tricks because he has not internalized democracy; he does not believe in it. Because he does not believe in it, he thinks he can succeed by leaving certain parties below the threshold with tricks, but this time it will not work.”

Ince also pledged to ensure the security of voting. “We will protect the ballot boxes. … I don’t want my nation or people to feel any doubt about this,” he added.

Erdogan has so far refused to comment on the video, but analysts warn the controversy will only fuel existing concerns. “Already there are extreme doubts about the security of the polling stations,” political scientist Cengiz Aktar said. “The entire system has been redesigned to ensure Mr. Erdogan and his party will win the upcoming elections.”

Last year’s ballot proposal to extend presidential powers won narrow approval amid allegations of fraud. International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe strongly criticized the vote, highlighting the use of ballots without an official stamp. Stamping is seen as an essential measure to prevent tampering.

Shortly before calling the June elections, the government pushed through electoral changes, including allowing the use of unstamped votes, relocating some polling stations and allowing security personnel at those venues.

The government said the measures ensured the security of the vote, in particular in southeast Turkey, which has been a center of fighting against Kurdish insurgents.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch strongly criticized the move. “There are concerns that the decision is designed to — and will — prevent effective monitoring of fairness at the polls and that the presence of police and gendarmes could intimidate voters from voting for their chosen party if it is not part of the AKP alliance,” the rights group said.

​Voter suppression assertions

More than 140,000 voters will have to travel as far as 30 kilometers to reach polling stations that were moved in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Critics say the areas affected are strongholds of the HDP and that the move is aimed at voter suppression, which authorities deny.

The monitoring of voter stations, particularly in the predominantly Kurdish region, is seen as key by the opposition to ensuring a fair vote. Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Edam research institution said voter security concerns are bringing together a traditionally factious opposition.

“The opposition now is better organized, compared to the past, even to [last year’s] referendum, especially the emergence of the Iyi and Saddet parties, which are part of the opposition. Because in the past, election monitoring by the opposition rested on the shoulders of the CHP in most of the country and the pro-Kurdish HDP in the southeast of the country,” Ulgen said.

Opposition cooperation over voter security has led to ideological barriers being broken down. The Iyi, a hardline Turkish nationalist party, and the pro-Kurdish HDP are now collaborating as part of a broader alliance to ensure a fair vote.

“They are in talks to coordinate their approach to prevent any election fraud. Whether it is sufficient, we shall see,” Ulgen said.
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Iranian fans at the national team’s first match at the World Cup unfurled a banner protesting Iran’s ban on women attending soccer matches back home.

The banner read “#NoBan4Women” and “Support Iranian Women to Attend Stadiums” and it was held aloft during the match against Morocco in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Friday.

After it was initially unfurled, during the first half of the game, there was a brief commotion as it was put away. The reason for the commotion wasn’t immediately clear as three stewards moved across to where the banner was, on the bottom row near to one of the goals.

It then remained unfurled for the remainder of the first half. Then, in the second half, the banner moved up the field near the other goal.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranian women have been banned from attending soccer matches and other male-only sporting events.

A partial exception to the ban on women was made in June 2015 when a small number were allowed to watch volleyball in Tehran.

The decision came following public outcry a year earlier, after British-Iranian student Ghoncheh Ghavami was detained while trying to attend a men’s volleyball match at Azadi. She spent more than 100 days in prison, much of it in solitary confinement.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sajedeh Norouzi waved a small Iranian flag during an Olympic volleyball match — her first time in a sports stadium.

Before Friday evening’s match, fans from Iran and Morocco mingled on the streets of St. Petersburg, wearing their countries’ flags, blowing whistles and chanting songs without any animosity. Enthusiastic Iranian women were among them.

That contrasted with the one of the main squares in Tehran, where a billboard portrays fans celebrating and holding aloft the World Cup, accompanied by the slogan “One nation, one heartbeat.” There were no women on it.

Some fans were keen to express themselves as they arrived at the imposing St. Petersburg Stadium.

“It’s my first time as an Iranian female to be in a stadium. I’m so excited,” a young Iranian woman, who gave her name only as Nazanin, told The Associated Press. She had the colors of the Iranian flag drawn on her cheek.

One couple came with a banner reading “4127 km (2,564 miles) to be at the stadium as a family” expressing protest against the ban. Having traveled so far to be together in a stadium, they were keen to make the point.

“We should come here, 4,127 kilometers to be at the stadium as a family. Why? This is stupid,” said the man, who gave his name only as Amin. He was supported by his wife, who said she was extremely happy to be finally going to the stadium.

Nazanin and Amin asked not to be identified by their last names because of the sensitivity of the issue at home in Iran.

Players have also previously lent their support to the cause.

Iran captain Masoud Shojaei, who is playing in his third World Cup, has been a vocal advocate of ending the ban, as has former Bayern Munich midfield Ali Karimi — who played 127 matches for Iran and was formerly assistant to Iran coach Carlos Queiroz.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Tehran on March 1. On the same day, 35 women were detained for trying to attend the Tehran derby between Esteghlal and Persepolis, known as the Red-Blue derby and which Infantino attended.

Women disguising themselves as men have tried to enter soccer stadiums in Iran before, some of them successfully doing so and posting photos of themselves in beards and wigs on social media. A group known on Twitter as OpenStadiums has been pushing for access, describing itself as “a movement of Iranian women seeking to end discrimination (and) let women attend stadiums.”
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Kellogg Co said Thursday it is recalling an estimated 1.3 million cases of its Honey Smacks cereal from more than 30 U.S. states because of the potential for salmonella contamination, in the latest case of U.S. food products possibly tainted by the illness-causing bacteria.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration said it worked with Kellogg to issue the recall after preliminary evidence linked the product to more than 60 illnesses.

“The FDA is working with the company to quickly remove this cereal from the marketplace,” the agency said in a statement.

Cereal pulled

The FDA said it has asked Kellogg to request that all retailers of the product immediately put up signs saying Honey Smacks cereal has been recalled and to remove the potentially contaminated product from shelves.

The U.S. health regulator also said it is inspecting the facility that manufactures Honey Smacks.

Kellogg earlier Thursday said it launched an investigation with the third-party manufacturer that produces the cereal immediately after being contacted by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding reports of illnesses.

The company said the affected products had use by dates of June 14, 2018, through June 14, 2019. The voluntary recall involves its 15.3 ounce and 23 oz. Honey Smacks packages. No other Kellogg products are impacted by the recall, the company said.

Outbreak linked to melon

Earlier this month, the FDA warned residents of eight U.S. states about recalled packages of pre-cut melon linked to a salmonella outbreak. They had been distributed to stores operated by Costco Wholesale Corp, Kroger Co, Walmart Inc, and Amazon.com Inc’s Whole Foods.

The FDA and CDC are investigating that outbreak, which has also been linked to more than 60 illnesses and at least 31 hospitalizations in five states. No deaths have been reported.

Salmonella can cause diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps lasting up to three days and is particularly dangerous to young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. 

It causes an estimated 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths in the United States each year, according to the CDC.
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The Greek parliament began debating a no-confidence motion in the government on Thursday, with opposition lawmakers furious over Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s deal aimed at solving a decades-old dispute with

neighboring Macedonia over its name.

Tsipras and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev reached a landmark agreement on Tuesday to call the ex-Yugoslav republic the “Republic of North Macedonia,” settling nearly three decades of wrangling over its name and removing an obstacle to Skopje’s bid to join the European Union and NATO.

But in a reflection of the depth of feeling over the issue, both Zaev and Tsipras were accused in their home countries of “national capitulation.” The issue has triggered mass protests both in Skopje and Athens in previous months.

The Macedonian president has said he would try to block the deal, and in Greece, the opposition initiated a censure motion against the government, a first since Tsipras came to power in 2015.

The debate in parliament is expected to wrap up on Saturday.

Tsipras’ governing left-right coalition has 154 seats in the 300-member parliament, so the government is unlikely to fall, but if parliament were to back the no-confidence motion Tsipras would have to hand over his mandate to the country’s president.

Tsipras is already trailing in opinion polls, hurt by the economic reforms introduced as a condition for a third multibillion-euro bailout for Greece in 2015.

The no-confidence motion, submitted by the opposition New Democracy, said the accord was the final blow for Greeks who have suffered years of austerity.

“This is a damaging agreement to our national interests,” the motion said. “It is a major national concession which cannot be tolerated.”

Tsipras’ coalition ally, the Independent Greeks, have said publicly they would not support the accord reached with Skopje but would not topple the government, either.

Protests were scheduled outside parliament on Saturday night, although demonstrations in central Athens were also expected on Friday.

North Macedonia

Under the deal, Macedonia would become formally known as “the Republic of North Macedonia.” It is currently known officially at the United Nations as the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.”

The deal still requires ratification by both national parliaments and by a referendum in Skopje.

“I am compelled, it is my duty, to exhaust every possibility offered in the constitution to avert this development,” New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

In another debate earlier, Tsipras shrugged off the no-confidence motion, saying it gave him an opportunity to expose the seesaw tactics of New Democracy, whom he blamed for a series of blunders on the issue when it was in government.

“What goes around, comes around,” Tsipras said.

Athens has long objected to its northern neighbor’s use of the name “Macedonia,” saying it implies territorial claims on a northern Greek province of the same name and amounts to the appropriation of Greece’s ancient cultural heritage.

In Macedonia, Zaev’s government adopted the agreement, government spokesman Mile Boshnjakovski told reporters after the session.

However, Macedonia’s leading opposition party, the rightist VMRO-DPMNE, called on those who reject it to protest on Sunday.

Zaev does not hold the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to push the measure through automatically.

And while the government holds the executive power, President Gjorge Ivanov said on Wednesday he would not sign the deal, contending it violated the constitution.
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Like prizefighters slugging it out this week, Italy’s populist leader Matteo Salvini clashed with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The immediate cause for the bout was Salvini’s closing of Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships carrying migrants from Africa.

Few doubt, though, the cosmopolitan French leader and the iconoclastic Italian nationalist, who is the interior minister in Italy’s new coalition government and its driving force, will clash time and again in the coming months in a prolonged contest to shape the future of the European Union.

Both men defied naysayers and flouted conventional political norms to get where they are: Macron created a centrist political movement, Salvini transformed the regional far-right Northern League into a nationwide insurgency.

But they represent conflicting visions of Europe and are being seen as the key champions in a struggle for mastery between centrism and nationalist populism.

Their first-round clash this week was sparked when Salvini banned NGO ships carrying migrants, mostly African, rescued from the waters off Libya to dock in Italian ports, part of his hardline policy, popular in Italy, to curb new arrivals. Salvini also plans to deport more than 500,000 illegal migrants.

In the past five years Italy has taken in more than 640,000 mainly African migrants and says its EU partners must ease the burden.

France reprimanded Italy for closing the ports, focusing on the stranding at sea of an NGO ship carrying 629 migrants picked up in the Mediterranean, arguing it breached the rules agreed by EU member states.

Macron scolded the Italian government for “cynicism and irresponsibility,” triggering a tit-for-tat trading of insults with Salvini, with other ministers on both sides piling on.

“Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not,” insisted Salvini. Instead he urged Malta to receive the migrants and suggested France could take them.

A spokesman for Macron’s party La Republique en Marche shot back, “The position, the line of the Italian government, makes you want to vomit. It is inadmissible to use human lives for petty politics.”

Salvini retorted in the increasingly ill-tempered dispute that Italy had “nothing to learn from anyone about generosity, voluntarism, welcoming and solidarity” and demanded a formal apology. Italy summoned the French ambassador to protest the French reprimand and cancelled a planned meeting between the Italian economy minister and his counterpart in Paris. It also threatened at one point to postpone a scheduled meeting Friday between Macron and the new Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte.

A “spat” was how many European newspapers described the clash, but it has widened the most dangerous fault-line in European politics over how to share the burden between EU member states for migrants from conflict zones and poor countries trying to enter the bloc or and whether they should be welcomed at all, while exposing divisions over the rights and prerogatives of nation states.

The populist governments of Hungary and Austria leapt to Salvini’s defense. Salvini told Italian lawmakers he is open to a possible “axis” with Germany and Austria, before an EU summit this month that will consider possible changes to asylum law.

Macron has pitched himself as the antidote to the “illiberal democracies” of Central Europe and the defender of the European Union threatened by populist-nationalists like Salvini. The French leader wants to reform and revive the bloc by increasing the political and economic integration of Europe.

The 44-year-old Salvini wants the opposite, not only a brake on further integration, but a reversal with the bloc being a looser grouping of nation states not ordered around by Brussels or too hedged by EU treaties.

Both embrace opportunism and are nimble. According to Davide Vampa, an expert in Italian politics at Britain’s Aston University, Salvini, nicknamed by supporters Il Capitano (the captain), has borrowed much from other populist leaders.

His language is direct and often guttural. “È finita la pacchia per i clandestini, preparatevi a fare le valige” (Illegals, the gravy train is finished, pack your bags), he announced earlier this month.

A graduate of France’s elite institutions Sciences Po and École nationale d’administration and a former Rothschild investment banker, Macron is more intellectual. “In the face of authoritarianism,” Macron told the European Parliament in Strasbourg in April, “the response is not authoritarian democracy, but the authority of democracy.”
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Up to a million football fans from around the world are expected to travel to Russia over the coming weeks for the World Cup, which kicks off Thursday. They include hundreds of thousands of supporters from South America and Africa, who are famous for bringing their passion and partying to the tournament. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, there are concerns that stem from a record of racism and violence in Russian football.
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Rights groups and unions in France are slamming the involvement of French companies in the building of a tramway in Jerusalem that has links to Israeli settlements — even as the French government has long criticized the building of Israeli settlements and, more recently, the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. 

A new report endorsed by more than a half-dozen French rights groups and unions singles out three French companies involved in the West Jerusalem tramway construction. One, Alstom, is privately owned. But two others, Egis Rail and Systra, are mostly or completely state-owned. 

The groups say the tramway is a “tool of Israeli colonization and annexation,” and violates international law.

Contradiction in foreign policy

The report’s author, Didier Fagart, of the activist group Association France Palestine Solidarite, says the firms’ involvement in the tramway project marks at the very least a contradiction in French foreign policy.

On the one hand, Fagart notes, the French government has criticized Israeli settlement building, as well as the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. But when it comes to the construction companies, it doesn’t follow that condemnation with action.

Two of the companies declined to comment, while a third could not be reached.

Two-state solution

France has been a longtime supporter of a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and a future Palestinian state. Tensions in the region periodically spill over to France, which has Western Europe’s largest communities of both Jews and Muslims.

Last week, President Emmanuel Macron again criticized the U.S. embassy move, saying it did not advance the cause of peace.

Fagart said France’s government must put pressure on the companies to pull out of the Jerusalem tramway project.
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Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili says he has decided to resign after a dispute with the leader of the Georgian Dream party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in the country.

“We’ve had some disagreements with the leader of the ruling party,” Kvirikashvili said in a televised statement Wednesday. “I think there is a moment now when the leader of the (ruling) party should be given an opportunity to staff a new Cabinet.”

According to Georgia’s constitution, the Cabinet is required to resign along with the prime minister.

Kvirikashvili said the squabble was over economic issues.

Ivanishvili stepped down as prime minister in 2013 after just a year in office, but since then he has been widely believed to be the man in charge in Georgia. He made a political comeback in May, assuming chairmanship of the Georgian Dream party.

Experts say Kvirikashvili’s resignation is not a surprise.

“There has been friction between the now former Prime Minister and Ivanishvili for some time,” sad Paul Stronski, a senior Russia and Eurasia Program fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told VOA’s Georgian Service. “And, the wave of protests in Tbilisi over the past months indicates there is a large segment of the population that is unhappy with the status quo.”

“Kvirikashvili is a decent man who did his best to move Georgia forward,” David Kramer, a professor at the Florida State University, told VOA. “But he was burdened with constantly having to look over his shoulder to get approval from Ivanishvili. That kind of situation is not very sustainable.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kenneth Yalowitz said he’s concerned that “the government seems to be directed from outside.”

“Mr. Ivaniashvili, I am sure, has good intensions and good ideas, but he is not a prime minister and he is not above the process. And yet that seems to be what’s happening here,” Yalowitzm told VOA.

Ani Chkhikvadze of VOA’s Georgian service contributed to this report.
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Back in 2010, President Vladimir Putin helped secure Russia’s bid for the World Cup with guarantees he would introduce the world to an open and welcoming Russia.

This week, Putin said Russia had made good on its promises.

“We’ve done everything to ensure our guests, sportsmen, experts, and, of course, fans feel at home in Russia,” said Putin in a video address released by the Kremlin.”We have opened our country and our hearts to the world.”

With the final countdown to Thursday’s opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia underway, the stadiums appear ready, the fan zones (nearly) built, the bartenders ready to pour the beer, and the hooligans instructed to stay away.

But as Russia prepares to host world football fans of “the beautiful game”, human rights defenders warn the Kremlin is failing to meet obligations for social and political freedoms at home.

“There is no doubt that the government is craving this international prestige and wants to put Russia in the best light possible,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a researcher at Human Rights Watch’s Moscow division.

The problem, added Gorbunova, is, “The situation of human rights now is the worst it’s been since the fall of the Soviet Union.”

Sochi Redux

Near identical charges were levied against Russia before it hosted the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.Then as now, concerns ranged over everything from political repressions, migrant labor violations in building sports infrastructure and pressure against LGBT groups to environmental and animal rights violations.

In 2014, Putin sought to appease his critics to a degree. Before the Sochi Games, the Russian leader made several high profile gestures, including the amnesty of jailed Greenpeace activists, members of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot, and oligarch-turned-prisoner of conscience Mikhail Khodorkvosky in a bid to ease Western pressure.

This time? Not so much

“Russia has grown more and more resistant to international criticism,” said Gorbunova. “And as the international criticism intensifies, Russia becomes more self-assertive and shows how the Kremlin basically doesn’t care what the international community thinks.”

Four years later

Key to this shift is Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the subsequent fallout in Russia-West relations over Western sanctions, the downing of Malaysian Air flight MH17, election meddling allegations, and charges the Russian government engineered a doping program aimed at securing a (now tarnished) 1st place finish in Sochi among other issues.

The constant criticism has so inured the Kremlin to Western harangues that most are now merely met with a shrug and denial.

“Putin saw that there’s no need to worry about these things,” said Leonid Volkov, a pro-democracy activist and key advisor to opposition leader Alexey Navalny, currently serving a 30-day jail term for organizing anti-government protests.

“Political prisoners, downed passenger planes over Ukraine, bombs in Syria … it doesn’t matter.Everyone’s coming to Russia anyway,” noted Volkov.

Government critics say they are not out to ruin World Cup fun, but argue the political realities of the Putin regime also shouldn’t be ignored.

Sport and politics

The Kremlin has long argued politics and sport simply don’t mix, a statement Kremlin opponents find absurd.

“Of course, Putin uses sport as a key part of his rule,” said Volkov, the pro-democracy activist.

The World Cup, he notes, is the latest in a series of high profile sporting investments by the Russian president aimed at showcasing Russia’s resurgence under Putin’s rule.

Only it’s not clear the party is for everyone.

In the run-up to the Cup, students at Moscow State University say they were subjected to harassment by security services for protesting the location of Moscow’s fan zone, located just off the university grounds.

“They accuse protesters of trying to ruin the World Cup,” said Igor Vaiman, 21, a physics student, in an interview . “But the security services and repressions hurt World Cup much more than we could ever do.”

Great tournament, bad team?

Meanwhile, Russian football fans have another concern: the national team.FIFA ranks it 70th, the lowest ever for a host country in pursuit of a World Cup championship.

Russian fans are preparing for the worst, despite a record $12 billion spent on hosting the event.

Russia’s most recognizable star, veteran striker, Artem Dyzuba, finally lashed out at the critics’ read of Russia’s chances before even a single match. “We also dream of winning a World Cup,” he reminded fans.

But Viktor Levin, a retired sportscaster who called games for the legendary teams of the Soviet Union, said the problems with modern Russia football ran deep. “In the Soviet Union, our team battled out of genuine patriotism,” said Levin. “Now it’s all about money.”

Even the fans have changed, he argued. “Before we went to watch football with our kids. It was a family event. Now all these young people do is drink, wave their scarves, and fight.”

His friend Marshan nodded in agreement. “What can I say? We’re bad at football,” he said, before adding a caveat worthy of the Kremlin.

“But nobody hosts better than Russia! I guarantee it!”
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Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov says an agreement reached Tuesday with Greece to change his country’s name is detrimental for the Republic of Macedonia and that he would not sign it into law.

In a televised national address, Ivanov said the agreement reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras violates constitutional law. The deal called for Macedonia to be renamed as the Republic of North Macedonia.

“The government did not have the strength and courage to initiate the building of a common stance and consensus,” he said. “The entire process lacked transparency and the end result is a testimony to this.”

The vast majority of Ivanov’s opposition VMRO-DPMNE party have long said they would refuse to support such a deal, which has been in the works the 20 years. Although Zaev’s ruling party negotiated the name change, Macedonian law says any international agreements require a presidential signature for ratification.

Greece and Macedonia have been feuding over who gets to use the name since Macedonia’s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Many Greeks say allowing the neighboring country to use the name insults Greek history and implies a claim on the Greek territory also known as Macedonia — a key province in Alexander the Great’s ancient empire.

As a result, Greece has blocked Macedonian efforts to join the EU and NATO. Despite recognition by 137 countries, Macedonia is officially known at the U.N. as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM.

This story originated in VOA’s Macedonian Service. 
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China and Russia see the now-concluded Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as vindicating their views on how the thorny issue of a nuclear armed North Korea could and should be approached. Security analysts, however, are less certain about the outcome of the summit, especially Trump’s announcement that he would halt “war games” on the peninsula.

Some argue the announcement is not only in line with Pyongyang’s interests but Beijing’s bigger strategic objectives as well.

Commenting on the summit, the Kremlin said the meeting had shown that President Vladimir Putin had been right to advocate direct dialogue as the only way to reduce tensions on the peninsula.

Beijing took the opportunity to give itself a pat on the back as well.

At a regular press briefing Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Trump’s post-summit remarks about the “war games” validate its “dual suspension” proposal.

“When it comes to Trump’s statement yesterday [Tuesday] that he would halt South Korea and the United States’ military drills, I can only say that China’s proposal is reasonable and practical. It is also in line with the interests of all sides and addresses all sides’ concerns,” Geng said.

China has long advocated that the best way forward is for North Korea to halt its nuclear and missile tests and for Washington and Seoul to suspend military exercises.

The proposal has long been a point of heated debate among analysts and former officials in the U.S. who argue that the North’s nuclear activities are illegal and in violation of United Nations sanctions, while military exercises are legal and a key part of the United States’ force presence abroad and relations with its allies.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Trump called the exercises “expensive” and “provocative.” He also said the suspension of military drills will only be on the table as long as efforts to denuclearize the peninsula move forward in good faith.

The announcement has already stirred up a vigorous debate in the United States, but some argue that Trump’s gestures and flattery of Kim were necessary steps.

Shen Dingli, a political science professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said that Trump’s approach to Kim has raised the bar for expectations on what Kim should do going forward.

“In Pyongyang, there’s still internal opposition to giving up their nuclear weapons which they have worked so hard to obtain and they are waiting for the U.S. to extend more goodwill, so a narrative can be built up for the domestic audience that America is sincere,” Shen said.

For some, the debate is about more than just exercises and by announcing that he would end the “war games,” President Trump has given Beijing just what it wanted.

Before the Singapore summit, Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping twice. Oriana Skylar Mastro, an assistant professor (of security studies) at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, said that her read of those meetings was that China wanted Kim to get the United States’ military presence on the peninsula back on the table.

“So, it’s not just this freeze for freeze, but the fact that the United States is now willing to negotiate about its military activities and its force posture is something that China has been pushing for,” Mastro said. “China is going to try to kind of milk this for as much as they can before it falls apart.”

In addition to the exercises, Trump expressed a wish to one day withdraw troops from South Korea.

Lindsey Ford, director of political security affairs for the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Trump’s announcement strengthens the Chinese narrative about the destabilizing nature of the U.S. security presence in the region and how it is a relic of the Cold War.

“To have the United States President out there using similar words (to China) and saying these things are really provocative, it’s like he’s writing their talking points for them,” Ford said.

In China, state media coverage of the summit and its results have been largely low key. On Wednesday, reporting on the summit was limited on CCTV’s domestic news channel, compared to lengthier reports on the Group of Seven dispute between the United States and Canada.

Analysts said China is clearly pleased with the outcome, but developments on the ground in North Korea will be key going forward.

Frank Aum, the senior expert on North Korea at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said that the agreement does many things that are in line with Beijing’s goals. It starts the diplomatic process, avoids war on the peninsula and in turn instability in North Korea as well as carrying out the dual freeze, he said.

“The outcomes of the summit basically provide China everything that they’ve been seeking,” Aum said. “So, I think they’re very happy with the result of the summit.”

Analysts were also quick to raise concerns about the lack of detail in the agreement and clarity about future steps.

The Asia Society Policy Institute’s Ford said that the lack of specifics in the joint agreement gives negotiators a weak foundation on which to start.

“The big question for me now is, does this give Mike Pompeo and his team and the other negotiators what they need to actually run a process that leads to something credible in constraining North Korea’s nuclear program?” Ford asked, referring to the U.S. secretary of state.

Also, by removing military exercises, she worries that the United States has handed over a lot of political leverage.

In the aftermath of the summit, Secretary Pompeo traveled to Seoul for talks Thursday with President Moon Jae-in. Pompeo will then fly to Beijing to brief Chinese officials on the summit. Pompeo and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton are expected to meet with North Korean officials next week to begin working out the details of North Korea’s denuclearization.

 Joyce Huang contributed to this story
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The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents on Tuesday inaugurated a key pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets and eventually to Europe, part of a wider Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to diversify gas supplies and reduce countries’ dependence on Russia.

The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, or TANAP, is also part of Turkey’s ambition of becoming a major energy hub.

“We are taking a historic step,” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in central Eskisehir province with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev marking the delivery of the first gas. “We are inaugurating a project that is the ‘Silk Road’ of energy.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also attended.

Erdogan said the pipeline would not only ensure energy security but also increase the “welfare of the people on its route.” It will deliver 6 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe.

Although it has no financial involvement, the United States has strongly supported TANAP, said Sandra Oudkirk, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, who also attended the ceremony.

“We take energy security for ourselves and allies and partners really seriously and we see this as an important component of the bigger energy diversification and energy security picture,” she told a group of journalists in Ankara earlier.

The pipeline will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, at the Turkey-Greece border. Erdogan said that could take place in June 2019.
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Greece and Macedonia reached a historic settlement Tuesday to their long-simmering dispute over the name Macedonia — shared by the former Yugoslav republic and an ancient region of northern Greece.

Under the deal between the two prime ministers, the country will now be called The Republic of North Macedonia.

“Our investment in the compromise is a definition of a specified Macedonian name for our country, a dignified and geographically defined name,” Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the deal ends any claim he believes Macedonia may have had on Greek territory.

“This achieves a clear distinction between Greek Macedonia, and our northern neighbors. … [Macedonia] cannot and will not be able in the future to claim any connection with the ancient Greek civilization of Macedonia.”

Greece will also stop blocking Macedonia’s efforts to join NATO and the European Union.

European Council President Donald Tusk congratulated both sides. “Thanks to you, the impossible is becoming possible,” he tweeted.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the deal and Macedonia’s possible membership “will help to consolidate peace and stability across the wider Western Balkans.”

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the settlement will have “positive repercussions” in Europe and beyond, and hopes it will inspire others to negotiate deals to end other “protracted conflicts.”

But Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks Party, said his party will not vote to ratify the agreement. 

Other Greeks said the new name should not even include the word Macedonia, while backers reject nationalism and said the dispute has gone on long enough. 

Opponents in Macedonia have called any alteration of the country’s name a form of treason and a cave-in to Greek demands.

Zaev said he will put the deal to a vote in a referendum, while the Greek parliament will consider ratification before the end of the year.

Tsipras said if Macedonia does not change its constitution to reflect the new name, Greece will again block Macedonian membership in NATO and the EU.
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