Foreign News
Little chance of change as Vladimir Putin is sworn in again
For the fifth time Vladimir Putin will be taking the long walk through the Grand Kremlin Palace to the St Andrew’s Throne Hall. There he will take the oath of office and be sworn in as Russia’s president for a new six-year term
The route may be familiar, but much has changed since Putin’s first inauguration ceremony in May 2000. Back then, President Putin pledged to “preserve and develop democracy” and to “take care of Russia.”
Twenty-four years on, the Kremlin leader is waging war against Ukraine; a war in which Russia has suffered heavy losses. At home, instead of developing democracy, President Putin has been curtailing it: jailing critics, removing all checks and balances on his power.
“Putin thinks of himself now as Vladimir the Great, as a Russian tsar,” believes Fiona Hill, a former White House national security advisor. “If we took ourselves back to his first two presidential terms, I think we’d have a fairly favourable assessment of Putin. He stabilised the country politically and made it solvent again. The Russian economy and system were performing better than at any other previous time in its history. “The war in Ukraine, going back to the annexation of Crimea 10 years ago, has dramatically changed that trajectory. He’s turned himself into an imperialist instead of a pragmatist.”
It’s remarkable to think that since Vladimir Putin first came to power, America has been through five different presidents and Britain has had seven prime ministers.
After nearly a quarter of a century running Russia, Mr Putin has certainly made his mark. In the past, people rarely spoke of “Brezhnevism”, “Gorbachevisim” or “Yeltsinism”. But Putinism: that’s a thing.
Most people have grown used to one man running Russia and no imminent prospect of change in the Kremlin (BBC)
“We have one more -ism in our history: Stalinism,” says Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Eurasia Russia Centre.
“I would say that Putinism is one more incarnation of Stalinism. He behaves like [former Soviet dictator] Stalin. His power is personalised like in Stalin’s time. He prefers to use a lot of political repressions. And like Stalin he is ready to keep himself in power until the physical end.”
The challenge, for the West, is how to deal with an increasingly authoritarian Russian leader determined to restore what he sees as Russia’s greatness; a modern-day tsar… with nuclear weapons.
“On the issue of nuclear weapons, there’s an awful lot that we can do,” believes Fiona Hill. “Some countries, like China, India, Japan, have been extraordinarily nervous when Putin has engaged in nuclear sabre-rattling in Ukraine and have pushed back against that. We can enforce restraint on Russia by creating an international framework for pushing back on this wild and speculative talk about using nuclear weapons.
“Perhaps that is something of a model for how we can deal with Vladimir Putin, who in many respects is something of a rogue leader. We need to create a more constraining environment, less permissive for the kinds of actions that he wants to undertake.”
Officially Vladimir Putin won more than 87% of the vote in the March presidential election. However, he’d faced no serious challenger in a contest widely seen as neither free not fair.
So how do Russians view the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin?
“We don’t know who would come next if Putin goes,” says Valentina
To find out I drive to the town of Kashira, 70 miles from Moscow. Here a gigantic Putin portrait, a massive mural, takes up one whole side of an apartment block.
In Kashira Big Vladimir is watching you. “I like him,” says pensioner Valentina who is selling flowers by the roadside. “Putin has good ideas and does a lot for people. True, our pensions aren’t big. But he can’t fix everything in one go.”
“He’s had nearly 25 years,” I point out.
“But we don’t know who’d come next [if Putin goes],” Valentina replies.
“In Russia we’re all expected to think the same way,” says Victoria, who is walking past the Putin mural. “If I say anything against Putin my husband says: ‘You criticise Putin again and I’ll divorce you!’ He’s mad about him. He says that if it wasn’t for Putin life here would be as tough as in the 1990s.”
When I ask another passer-by, Alexander, what he thinks of the president, he replies: “It can be dangerous now to express an opinion. No comment.”
Most of the people I talk to say that they walk past Putin’s portrait without even noticing it now. They’re used to it.
Just like they’ve grown used to one man running Russia and no imminent prospect of change in the Kremlin.
(BBC)
The Indian state of West Bengal has been on the boil for the past few days over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The body of the child was fished out from a pond on Sunday – a day after her family reported her missing.
The incident in Surjyapur village in Baruipur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, has triggered days of violent protests, a mob lynching of an innocent man and the police killing of one of the suspects. Three other men who have been arrested remain in custody.
Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.
The child’s rape and murder – and the subsequent killing of the suspect – has snowballed into a huge political row, with the opposition parties accusing the state’s newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of failing to protect women.
Family members of the girl said they last saw her on Saturday afternoon when she went out to buy a birthday gift for a friend. When she didn’t return home, they went to the police station at around 20:30 to seek help in finding her.
The family and villagers alleged that the police did not take their pleas seriously and said they would look into it the next day.
Desperate family members and villagers then themselves looked through the CCTV footage from nearby shops and spotted her walking with Prabhash Mondal – a local man who has since been killed by the police.
Early Sunday morning, a mob went to Mondal’s house, caught him and handed him over to the police.
A few hours later, a sack containing the girl’s body was pulled out from the pond, with media reports saying Mondal had led the police to the exact spot.
According to the post-mortem report, the cause of death is drowning, leading to claims that she was alive when she was dumped in the pond.
“Had the police acted earlier, she could have been saved,” her relatives have said.
The police complaint has since been amended to include charges under the Pocso, India’s stringent law on child sexual abuse. The police have yet to hold a press conference on the case or respond to the allegations.
The government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to inquire into the case.
The recovery of the body saw anger pour out onto the streets, with a mob vandalising roads, shops and a local railway station. A young man was beaten to death by the crowd – Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has since said he was innocent.
Several police officers were injured and vehicles damaged as they tried to contain the mob. Police have registered three cases and detained 40 people so far.
The area remains tense, with a ban on public gatherings and heavy police and paramilitary deployment to maintain order.
The unrest poses a huge challenge for the BJP, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time ever in May, campaigning heavily on the issue of making the state safe for women.
Analysts say one of the main reasons three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost the election was growing concern over women’s safety and her government’s shoddy handling of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a government hospital.
This case has also become mired in a political controversy and is threatening to take on religious overtones as the victim was Muslim whereas the arrested men are Hindus.
A local BJP leader, Sushant Mondal’s home was attacked and ransacked by a mob that accused him of helping the suspects. He denied the allegations saying they were “false” and that he had in fact “helped catch the perpetrators”.
To contain the public anger, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited the village on Tuesday and met the victim’s family.
“Our government is committed to curb any such incidents in the state. The police is doing what needs to be done. The family has spoke to me, they have lost their beloved daughter. I believe that they are satisfied talking to me.”
Less that 24 hours later, Prabhash Mondal was killed in a “police encounter”.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, Baruipur police said Mondal had been taken to the pond to recreate the crime scene as part of the investigation, but he attempted to snatch the weapon from a policeman and opened fire at them. The police retaliated and fired back, striking him. The injured accused was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead, the statement said.
Even though no allegations had been proven against Mondal, his mother appeared to have disowned her son and refused to accept his body.
“Two policemen came to my house. I had just woken up. They told me that my son had died and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I told them I couldn’t because my husband was ill,” she told news agency ANI. “I said, do whatever you want to do. I have no objection. My son has been punished for what he did. I will not accept his body. I will not even bring his body home,” she added.
Opposition politicians and rights activists, however, have questioned the killing, saying it went against the rule of law.
Ranjit Sur of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights called the matter “suspicious”. Sur said the story of police encounters in many states of the country is almost the same – the accused tries to escape by snatching the police weapon and is then killed in the encounter.
In 2019 in a similar incident, four men accused of gang-raping and murdering a young woman in Hyderabad were killed by the police in an encounter.
[BBC]
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, marking the first state visit in more than a quarter-century as Ottawa and Riyadh explore deeper mining and energy ties.
Carney visited on Thursday, on the heels of the NATO summit in Turkiye, doubling down on calls to diversify trade relationships as United States President Donald Trump imposed tariffs that have weighed on the Canadian economy. The visit included agreements covering mining, energy and artificial intelligence, which Carney’s office said would be finalised next year.
The two countries signed 13 new agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) covering areas including health and defence. The agreements are worth $1bn. Among the deals are agreements that would help Canadian companies develop mining and clean energy projects in Saudi Arabia.
During his visit, Carney also met with Amin Nasser, head of state oil giant Saudi Aramco. On energy, Carney’s office said the two countries are working together on agreements related to liquefied natural gas, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
Carney’s office also said he would lead “a delegation of Canada’s pension funds” as part of efforts to invest in Saudi Arabia’s energy and AI sectors.
In talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Carney signed agreements aimed at expanding several key partnerships between the two nations following years of strained relations under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor, had been critical of Saudi Arabia’s treatment of human rights activists, including Saudi writer Raif Badawi and his sister, Samar. In response, Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian ambassador and cut trade and investment ties in 2018.
Ottawa and Riyadh began restoring diplomatic ties in 2023.
Carney was asked by reporters about the decision to re-engage with Saudi Arabia, to which he responded:
“Engaging with the country doesn’t mean that we agree with everything that a country is doing.”
“We are actively engaging with key partners around the world,” Carney said.
“Lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective.”
Carney was also asked about ongoing negotiations with the United States. Reporters pressed him on whether there had been any progress in trade negotiations with Trump amid tensions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement. “I’ll keep you posted,” Carney said.
[Aljazeera]
Seven students and a teacher have been killed in Bangladesh after a landslide hit a girls’ school inside a refugee camp
The Islamic study centre in the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar was buried by mud and debris on Wednesday afternoon, sparking frantic search and rescue efforts. It is unclear how many people were inside the school.
The country has been battered by monsoon rains since Sunday, with several deadly landslides reported in Cox’s Bazar.
More than one million Rohingya people live there in what is the world’s largest refugee settlement, having fled a deadly military crackdown in Myanmar.
Rescuers pulled 13 people from the mud that engulfed their school hut, eight of whom died, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said.
“Some of them are seven, eight, 11 or 12 years old,” Panna Akhter, a local district officer, told BBC Bangla.
The other five children were taken to hospital for treatment.
Earlier, officials said other landslides had killed at least eight Rohingya refugees, including five children, since Sunday.
Thousands of Rohingya, one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities, were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in Myanmar in 2017
The group, which is primarily Muslim, are denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country.
Many face poor living conditions in Bangladesh, living in makeshift homes of tarpaulin and bamboo on steep hillsides.
More rain is forecast for the coming days, with authorities issuing warnings for more landslides and floods, and evacuating families in high risk areas.
(BBC)
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