Thousands of Russians are fleeing Russia’s military conscription, hoping to wait out the war in neighboring countries. But those who have wound up in Belarus might not be safe from Moscow. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.
Produced by: Dana Preobrazhenskaya
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Ukraine’s bid to fast-track its efforts to join NATO, following Russia’s annexation of four more Ukrainian territories, is being met with caution in Brussels and Washington, where top officials are trying to shift the focus to their unwavering support for Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted video to social media Friday that shows him signing a formal bid for an accelerated membership with the Western alliance.

“De facto, we have already made our way to NATO,” Zelenskyy said in a statement that accompanied the video. “Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure.”

But when asked during a briefing whether the alliance would move quickly on the application, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg demurred.

“Our focus now is on providing immediate support to Ukraine, to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian brutal invasion,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

“That is the main focus and the main effort of NATO allies as we speak,” he added, saying such support would be forthcoming “for as long as it takes.”

Officials with NATO and NATO member countries have long said that sovereign nations, like Ukraine, should have the freedom to seek membership in the alliance. And this past June, Ukraine attended a NATO heads of state and government summit in Madrid.

There has been no rush, however, to grant Ukraine full membership.

“Our view is that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical on the ground support in Ukraine, and that the process in Brussels should be taken up at a different time,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday.

Russia has repeatedly called the possibility of NATO expansion an existential threat, while arguing prior to its invasion of Ukraine in February that Ukrainian membership in NATO would be a provocation.

Western and U.S. officials, though, argue Russia’s actions have had the opposite effect, with Sweden and Finland moving to join NATO in July.

The U.S. Senate approved NATO membership for the two countries in August. Only Hungary and Turkey still must ratify their applications for membership.
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Tensions between Greece and Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus appear to be escalating. Turkey says it’s increasing its military presence on the island in response to Washington’s lifting of an arms embargo against the Greek Cypriot administration.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the United States Friday for its stance toward Greece, saying it has become a toy of Athens in the Cyprus dispute.

He said the ones standing with the Greeks just for the sake of pleasing the Greeks should not expect friendship from Turkey.

Earlier this week, Cavusoglu announced that Turkey will increase its military presence on Cyprus after Washington lifted its military arms embargo on the Greek Cypriot administration.

The Mediterranean Island has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities since 1974. The Greek Cypriot administration is the only internationally recognized government.

Washington’s action comes as U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price appeared to offer support to Athens amid rising tensions with Ankara over Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

“Greece’s sovereignty over these islands is not in question,” said Price. “But we call on countries, including our allies, to respect territorial integrity and sovereignty and avoid actions that inflame tensions.”

Ankara has condemned Greece’s militarization of some of its islands close to Turkish shores, which Turkey claims violate an international agreement. Athens insists it’s only protecting its territory from Turkish threats.

University of Athens political scientist Cengiz Aktar said the Greek government is calculating that it has Washington’s support and is in no mood to back down from what it considers Turkish bullying.

“There is a common wisdom in Greece, don’t belittle small countries. We have a live example of Ukraine and Russia. I mean, yes, the Greeks are ready,” Aktar said.

Turkish-Greek tensions are nothing new, with the two countries going to the brink of war in 1996 over an uninhabited islet. U.S. intervention prevented open hostilities.

But with Turkey saying Greece is using U.S.-supplied weapons to militarize its islands, observers say Washington’s status as an honest broker is in question.

Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution, a Washington research group, said he is worried the countries are moving closer to war.

“I think this is significant and potentially very dangerous,” said Aydintasbas. “Clearly, both countries feel each other as a threat. We are used to occasional flare-ups in this relationship, but I think right now, the global environment is very uncertain, chaotic, and almost conducive to a military confrontation between Turkey and Greece.”

For now, neither Athens nor Ankara appears ready to step back. Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said Friday that Turkey is prepared to resolve tensions diplomatically but warned Turkey wouldn’t hesitate to use hard power if diplomacy failed and Turkish interests are threatened.
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The U.S. on Friday sanctioned more than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including its Central Bank governor and families of Security Council members, after President Vladimir Putin signed treaties absorbing occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia, in defiance of international law.

The Treasury Department named hundreds of members of Russia’s legislature, leaders of the country’s financial and military infrastructure and suppliers for sanctions designations. The Commerce Department added 57 companies to its list of export control violators, and the State Department added more than 900 people to its visa restriction list.

President Joe Biden said of Putin’s steps: “Make no mistake: These actions have no legitimacy.” He said the new financial penalties will impose costs on people and companies inside and outside of Russia “that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.”

“I look forward to signing legislation from Congress that will provide an additional $12 billion to support Ukraine,” he said.

The U.S. and European Union are stepping up the intensity of sanctions after Russia announced it was mobilizing up to 300,000 more troops to join the invasion of Ukraine and Putin ratified the results of Kremlin-orchestrated annexation “referendums” that Kyiv and the West call sham elections.

Putin warned that Russia would never give up the absorbed regions — the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — and would protect them as part of its sovereign territory.

In Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine.”

“The Treasury Department and U.S. government are taking sweeping action today to further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war.”
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Uzbekistan has no plans to deport Russians who are fleeing en masse to Central Asia to evade conscription amid Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, the Tashkent government said on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of men, some with families, have left Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization last week; many headed to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian former Soviet republics.

Some draft dodgers, however, remain concerned about their safety in those countries since their governments have close ties with Moscow.

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement it remained committed to principles such as respecting other states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity and supported a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

“…Foreign citizens who have not broken the law are not subject to forced deportation,” it said.

Uzbekistan has not said how many Russians have arrived in the country since the mobilization announcement. Neighboring Kazakhstan has said it saw about 100,000 arrivals.

Uzbek officials this week reprimanded a Russian ballet dancer for performing to a song in Tashkent that could be seen as supporting Russia’s war effort.
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Russia is set to formally announce annexation of four Ukrainian territories — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — on Friday. The Kremlin is to mark what many view as an illegal move with celebratory concerts and rallies in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Finland is the latest country to close its border to Russians. The Finland closing comes as hordes of Russian men are leaving the country to escape Russia’s military mobilization for continuing the invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Russia has begun opening draft offices at its borders to intercept men who may be leaving the country to avoid the mobilization.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the planned annexation, saying it is illegal and “must not be accepted.”

“The U.N. Charter is clear,” Guterres told reporters Thursday. “Any annexation of a state’s territory by another state resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter and international law.”

He said any decision to proceed with the annexation would have “no legal value and deserves to be condemned.”

The move has been dismissed as illegitimate by Ukraine and its allies, who are readying new sanctions against Moscow in response.

“This can still be stopped,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in in his daily address Thursday in a direct appeal to Russians with an indirect reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “But to stop it, you have to stop that one in Russia who wants war more than life. Your life, citizens of Russia.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday’s ceremony will include Putin, who is to make a major speech, and the Russian-appointed heads of the regions, where the Russian orchestrated referendums ended earlier this week.

U.N. chief Guterres said Thursday, “I want to underscore that the so-called referenda in the occupied regions were conducted during active armed conflict, in areas under Russian occupation, and outside Ukraine’s legal and constitutional framework. They cannot be called a genuine expression of the popular will.”

He warned that if Russia goes ahead with the annexation, it will be a “dangerous escalation” and will further jeopardize the prospect for peace.

“It is high time to step back from the brink,” Guterres said.

Guterres’ spokesperson said the U.N. chief had conveyed this message to the Russians when he spoke with their U.N. ambassador Wednesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted Thursday that he assured Zelenskyy that Germany will never recognize the “so-called results.”

“The sham referendums carried out by Putin in the illegally occupied areas of Ukraine are worthless,” Scholz said.

In Washington, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal spoke about proposed  legislation he and Republican Senator Lindsay Graham are supporting in response to Russia’s latest moves.

“Senator Graham and I are introducing today legislation that would very simply immediately require cutting off economic and military aid to any country that recognizes Vladimir Putin’s illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine,” he said Thursday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that no matter what Russia says, the areas remain Ukrainian territory.

“In response, we will work with our allies and partners to impose additional economic costs on Russia and individuals and entities inside and outside of Russia that provide support to this action,” she said.

At the U.N. Security Council, the United States is working with Albania on a draft resolution condemning the “sham referenda,” calling on states not to recognize any altered status of Ukraine and compelling Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Russia will certainly use its veto to block the measure, but that will then allow member states to move to the General Assembly to seek condemnation there. A similar strategy following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea drew the rebuke of 100 countries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday the EU is planning to respond with “sweeping new import bans on Russian products” and to expand its export ban “to deprive the Kremlin’s military complex of key technologies.”

“This will keep Russian products out of the European market and deprive Russia of an additional 7 billion euros in revenue,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels. The EU’s 27 member countries would have to approve the sanctions for them to take effect and the bloc has had difficulty in reaching agreement on some previous sanctions.

“We are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” she said.

The Ukrainian territory Russia wants to annex represents about 15% of the country.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Italy has elected its most right-wing government since the end of World War II, and China watchers are anticipating a different type of relationship between Giorgia Meloni, in position to become Italy’s next prime minister, and Beijing based on her comments about Taiwan during her campaign.

Diplomatic issues in Asia are not usually the focus of political debate in Italian elections, but analysts noted that before the election, Meloni made a rare statement on Taiwan, voicing opposition to China’s military threats to the island. She also said she would promote bilateral contacts between Italy and Taiwan, something Beijing strongly opposes.

In July, Meloni posted on Twitter a pre-election statement on Taiwan. The post showed a photo of her and Taiwan’s representative in Italy, Andrea Lee Sing-ying. Meloni called Lee an ambassador.  The tweet continued by saying she “always stands alongside those who believe in the values of freedom and democracy.”

Taiwan and Italy do not have formal diplomatic relations. Like many other nations, Italy has diplomatic relations with China. Beijing claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and bristles at any official contacts between Taipei and other nations.

Last week, in an interview with Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, Meloni said the party that she leads, the Brothers of Italy, would join democratic countries in condemning China’s military threat to Taiwan and that the European Union should use all of its diplomatic and political means to exert pressure to avoid conflicts in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan as bridge

Meloni also noted she would deepen exchanges with Taiwan in culture, tourism, public health, scientific research and the semiconductor industry, despite differences in political philosophies with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

Meloni did not specify in which areas she differed with Tsai’s philosophies. Tsai is Taiwan’s first female president, and Meloni is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister, but it is widely known that Tsai supports same-sex marriage, something Meloni opposes.

At a regular briefing this week, China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin voiced confidence that ties with Italy would remain strong but urged “certain individuals” in Italy to recognize the “highly sensitive nature” of what Beijing calls the “Taiwan question.”

“The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair, which brooks no foreign interference,” Wang said. He also cautioned against “sending wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

Guido Alberto Casanova, an associate researcher at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, told VOA Mandarin that as a nationalist, from Italy’s far-right, Meloni’s adversarial position on China speaks to the need to protect the interest of Italian industries from Chinese takeovers. But her position is also aimed at building up her international credibility, he said.

“She has a very controversial background. She comes from a post-fascist era of Italian politics; she was mutating in the far right. … So, she needs to calm people both in Europe and the United States,” he said, speaking with VOA in a phone interview.

“The hot issue, in the United States, at least, is the defense of democracy and human rights. Taiwan, of course, is the key. That’s why she needs to present herself as in solidarity with the American support for Taiwan, because she needs to win approval,” he said.

Belt and Road in the balance?

The Italian government has long had friendly relations with Beijing and has rarely spoken out on China issues. Chinese state media reports on Italy have mostly been positive.

However, the changes in Italy’s political landscape and the dramatic shift in opinion toward China globally, as well as among Italian citizens, could have an effect on relations between Rome and Beijing, analysts said.

One area in question under the new leadership is China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure project that Italy has previously supported.

Italy is the only G-7 country to have signed a memorandum of understanding with China on the BRI. It was signed by then-Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and China’s President Xi Jinping during the Chinese leader’s visit to Italy in 2019. The document is valid for five years and will remain in force if there are no objections from either side.

The Italian government had hoped the deal with Beijing would boost Italian exports to China. However, some observers said China was more interested in building infrastructure in the country and buying up companies than boosting trade. For her part, Meloni has already voiced skepticism and called the signing of the agreement with China a huge mistake.

“If the memorandum is renewed tomorrow, I hardly see the right political conditions,” she said in a September 23 interview with Taiwan’s state Central News Agency.

Francesco Sisci, a longtime political analyst of China affairs and a visiting professor at LUISS University in Rome, told VOA Mandarin that the BRI had practically stopped in Italy.

“The Italian government has promised a lot but very little has been carried out – in fact, almost zero. The memorandum is completely empty,” Sisci told VOA in a phone interview. “The Belt and Road Memorandum is a failure for both Italy and China. Both sides had a big misunderstanding, so the document should not have been signed.”

While Meloni is expected to become the next prime minister of Italy, it will take weeks for the new Italian government to be formed.

Bo Gu contributed to this report.
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The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and three associates with violating U.S. sanctions.

The indictment grew out of Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement group formed in the wake of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion to enforce the sweeping economic sanctions, export restrictions and other measures the United States and its Western allies imposed on Moscow.

“In the wake of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I promised the American people that the Justice Department would work to hold accountable those who break our laws and threaten our national security. Today’s charges demonstrate we are keeping that promise,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Along with Deripaska, 52, the indictment charged two other Russian nationals — Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova, 45, and Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina, 33 — as well as Olga Shriki, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Bardakova and Shriki face charges of flouting sanctions imposed on Deripaska and one of Deripaska’s companies, Basic Element Limited.

Shriki, who was arrested Thursday morning, is also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting electronic records related to her role in Deripaska’s alleged sanctions evasion scheme after receiving a grand jury subpoena to produce the records.

Voronina is accused of making false statements to agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when she sought to enter the United States to give birth to Deripaska’s child, according to the Justice Department.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned  Deripaska and several other Russian oligarchs and entities in 2018 in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other malign global activities.

As part of the sanctions, the Russian oligarchs’ assets were frozen, and U.S. nationals were barred from doing business with them.

In the wake of the Treasury Department’s action, however, Deripaska conspired with others “to evade and to violate those sanctions in various ways and over the course of several years,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Through a company known as Gracetown Inc., the Russian billionaire allegedly used the U.S. financial system to maintain three luxury properties in the United States, the indictment alleges.

According to the document, Deripaska allegedly hired Shriki and Bardakova to use U.S. banks to conduct hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of services on his behalf.

In 2019, Shriki allegedly helped Deripaska sell a California music studio he had owned through a series of shell companies, according to the indictment.

Deripaska then allegedly tried to transfer the more than $3 million in proceeds from the sale through a California shell company to an account in Russia, the indictment alleges.

In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the indictment “reflects the FBI’s commitment to use all of the tools at our disposal to aggressively pursue those who attempt to evade the United States’ economic countermeasures against the Russian government.”

“We will continue to aggressively prosecute those who violate measures imposed to protect the national security and foreign policy of the United States, especially in this time of Russia’s unprovoked aggression toward Ukraine,” Wray said.   
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Residents of the Ukrainian city of Izium say they’re determined to rebuild their lives after six months of Russian occupation. Ukrainian officials say 90% of the recaptured city has been destroyed after enduring nearly 500 airstrikes. For VOA, Anna Chernikova has more from the eastern city, which is only 20 kilometers from the front line. Camera: Eugene Shynkar, Stephen Boitano   
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Ukraine is again urging its companies and private organizations to immediately bolster their cybersecurity ahead of what could be a new wave of Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian government’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) published new recommendations Thursday, warning that its experts had identified software vulnerabilities that could allow Russian cyber actors to get deep inside a computer network.

The advisory further warned that the vulnerabilities could allow Russia to launch a renewed series of targeted cyberattacks on Ukraine aimed at disabling communication and information systems or designed to compromise and alter the information being processed.

“The risk of new attacks remains very high,” Volodymyr Kondrashov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, said in a statement, adding that for security purposes, “every single PC, every smartphone and every security circuit of a company or organization” should be viewed as part of the country’s border.

Earlier this week, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency formally warned that Moscow is planning to launch cyberattacks aimed, in combination with missiles strikes, at crippling Ukraine’s energy sector.

Monday’s statement followed warnings issued by top Ukrainian cyber officials earlier this month that Russia was looking to use cyberattacks to target critical infrastructure, and Ukraine’s energy and financial sectors in particular.

“We saw this scenario before,” Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Georgii Dubynskyi told reporters on the sidelines of a cybersecurity conference in Washington. “They [Russia] are trying to find a way how to undermine, how to defeat our energy system and how to make circumstances even more severe for Ukrainians.”

Dubynskyi also said Russia appeared to be developing cyberweapons that could be deployed not only against Ukraine but also against countries supporting Kyiv.

Despite Ukraine’s warnings, several key U.S. officials have been more cautious in their assessments.

“Do we have particular indications of an increase in that way at this time? We don’t,” Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber Anne Neuberger told VOA last week.

But she added that Russia’s use of cyberattacks has been “a consistent part of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, so it’s something we expect.”

Moscow has consistently denied involvement in offensive cyberattacks, including some that targeted Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion.

U.S. military officials, however, have noted Russia’s increasing willingness to target Ukrainian infrastructure, including power generation stations, with what one senior official described as “precision strikes.”

Whether Russia is prepared to ramp up its cyber offensive in Ukraine and beyond, though, remains unclear.

“We don’t know exactly where they [Russia] may go in the future in terms of this conflict,” U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Executive Director Brandon Wales told a forum in Washington on Thursday.

“Russia is behaving in a way in both the physical and cyber realms that are incredibly destructive,” he said. “We need to be prepared for whatever they do next.”

U.S. Representative Jim Langevin, a Democrat who has long been outspoken on issues related to cybersecurity, agreed.

“I’m not naive to think that Russia doesn’t have strong cyber capabilities,” he told the same conference. “We could see more effective or offensive cyber operations on their part going forward.”

Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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The Finnish government announced it is closing its borders to Russians with European tourist visas effective at midnight Thursday night, after thousands of people streamed over their shared border with Russia in recent days.

At a news conference in Helsinki Thursday, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters the government is taking the action because the current situation “endangers Finland’s international relations.” He said Finland had discussed the plan with Ukraine and other nations before making a decision.

Since last week’s announcement Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking to “mobilize” 300,000 reservists for his war in Ukraine, nations sharing borders with Russia have seen thousands of Russian citizens entering their countries. Reuters news service reports Finland saw an 80 percent increase in border crossings.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer land border with Russia, and Haavisto said the mobilization announcement “had a significant impact” on the decision. He said Russia’s “illegal” annexation referendums in eastern Ukraine and the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea were also considerations.

But Haavisto says the measure was under discussion in Finland even before Putin’s order due to the significant visits of Russian tourists during the summer, which caused controversy in Finland.

He said exceptions will be made for family visits, health, work or studies and humanitarian reasons.

The foreign minister said Finland will continue to work with the European Union on solutions to the border issues, adding it is important to strive for a more “unified line with Russia’s Schengen and EU border neighbors.”

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The Vatican said Thursday it had imposed disciplinary sanctions on Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in the past two years, following allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor during the 1990s.

The Vatican admission came a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, exposed the claims against the revered East Timor independence hero, citing two of Belo’s alleged victims and reporting there were others who hadn’t come forward in East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.

Spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases received allegations “concerning the bishop’s behavior” in 2019 and within a year had imposed the restrictions. They included limitations on Belo’s movements and his exercise of ministry, and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with East Timor.

In a statement, Bruni said the sanctions were “modified and reinforced” in November 2021 and that Belo had formally accepted the punishment on both occasions.

The Vatican provided no explanation for why Belo resigned as head of the Roman Catholic church in East Timor two decades early in 2002, and was sent to Mozambique, where he was allowed to work with children.

News of Belo’s behavior sent shock waves through the heavily Catholic, impoverished Southeast Asian nation, where he is a regarded as a hero for fighting to win East Timor’s independence from Indonesian rule.

“We are here also in shock to hear this news,” an official at the archdiocese of Dili in East Timor said Thursday, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Neither the Nobel Committee nor the United Nations immediately responded to requests for comment.

De Groene Amsterdammer said two alleged victims, identified only as Paulo and Roberto, reported being abused by Belo and said other boys were also victims. It said its investigation showed that Belo’s abuse was known to the East Timorese government and to humanitarian and church workers.

“The bishop raped and sexually abused me that night,” Roberto was quoted as telling the magazine. “Early in the morning he sent me away. I was afraid because it was still dark. So I had to wait before I could go home. He also left money for me. That was meant so that I would keep my mouth shut. And to make sure I would come back.”

Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for East Timor, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva.

Ramos-Horta went on to become president of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. Upon his return Thursday from the United States, where he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, Ramos-Horta was asked about the allegations against his co-Nobel laureate and deferred to the Vatican.

“I prefer to await further action from the Holy See,” he said.

Belo, who was believed to be living in Portugal, didn’t respond when reached by telephone by Radio Renascença, the private broadcaster of the Portuguese church.

Belo is a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Roman Catholic religious order that has long had influence at the Vatican. The Portuguese branch of the Salesians said Thursday that it learned “with great sadness and astonishment” of the news.

The branch distanced itself from Belo, saying he hadn’t been linked to the order since he took charge in East Timor. However, Belo is still listed in the 2021 Vatican yearbook by his Salesian initials “SDB” at the end of his name.

“As regards issues covered in the news, we have no knowledge that would allow us to comment,” the Salesian statement said.

It said the Portuguese Salesians took Belo in at the request of their superiors after he left East Timor in 2002 and because he was highly regarded, but said he had done no pastoral work in Portugal.

The Dutch magazine said its research indicated that Belo also abused boys in the 1980s before he became a bishop when he worked at an education center run by the Salesians.

Paulo, now 42, told the Dutch magazine he was abused once by Belo at the bishop’s residence in East Timor’s capital, Dili. He asked to remain anonymous.

“for the privacy and safety of himself and his family,” the magazine said.

“I thought: this is disgusting. I won’t go there anymore,” the magazine quoted him as saying.

Roberto, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was abused more often, starting when he was about 14 after a religious celebration in his hometown. Roberto later moved to Dili, where the alleged abuse continued at the bishop’s residence, the Dutch magazine reported.

It is unclear whether or when any alleged victims ever came forward to local church, law enforcement or Vatican authorities.

St. John Paul II accepted Belo’s resignation as apostolic administrator of Dili on Nov. 26, 2002, when he was 54. The Vatican announcement at the time cited canon law that allows bishops under 75 to retire for health reasons or for some other “grave” reasons that make them unable to continue.

In 2005, Belo told UCANews, a Catholic news agency, that he resigned because of stress and poor health.

Belo had no other episcopal career after that, and Groene Amsterdammer said he moved to Mozambique and worked as a priest there.

Belo told UCANews he moved to Mozambique after consulting with the head of the Vatican’s missionary office, Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe, and agreed to work there for a year before returning to East Timor.

Efforts to reach Sepe, who is now retired, were not successful.

By 2002, when Belo retired as head of the church in East Timor, the sex abuse scandal had just exploded publicly in the United States and the Vatican had just begun to crack down on abusive priests, requiring all cases of abuse to be sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith for review.

Bishops, however, were exempted from that requirement. Only in 2019 did Pope Francis pass a church law requiring abuse and sexual misconduct against bishops to be reported internally, and providing a mechanism to investigate the claims.

It is possible that Belo’s sexual activity with teens might have been dismissed by the Vatican in the early 2000s if it involved 16- or 17-year-olds, since the Vatican in those years considered such activity to be sinful but consensual, not abuse. Only in 2010 did the Vatican raise the age of consent to 18.

Belo is not the only church official in East Timor accused of abuse. A defrocked American priest, Richard Daschbach, was found guilty last year by a Dili court of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the first such case of its kind in the country.
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The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) cites top-ranked Switzerland, followed by the United States and Sweden, as the world’s most innovative economies. 

WIPO uses some 80 indicators to rank the innovative performance of 132 economies. These include measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure, business sophistication and knowledge creation of each economy.

The latest annual report shows some interesting moves in the rankings and the emergence of new powerhouses. Switzerland, once again, comes out on top. The United States moves up one position in the rankings to second place, followed by Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

A co-editor of the Global Index, Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, said 11th-ranked China is the only middle-income country to have made it this far. He said other emerging economies, such as Turkey and India, have put in strong performances, and countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have made some significant upward moves.

“Several developing countries are performing above expectations relative to their level of development,” Wunsch-Vincent said. “So, these are, of course, countries which have GDP capita which are lower. Eight of [the] innovation over-performers, and that is good news, are from sub-Saharan Africa, with Kenya, Rwanda and Mozambique in the lead.”

The Global Index also focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on innovation. The report shows that research and development, as well as other investments that drive worldwide innovative activity, continued to boom in 2021. This despite the pandemic.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang said this result defied expectations. He noted that after the dot-com bust in 2001, the 2008 global financial crisis, the matrix for innovation dropped, but that was not the case for the last two years.

“In fact, the report shows that investments in global research and development in 2020, two years ago, grew at a rate of 3.3 percent,” he said. “Top corporate R&D spenders — in other words, the most innovative firms worldwide — increased their R&D spending by nearly 10 percent last year, in 2021, which is higher than pre-pandemic growth.”

On a more sobering note, Tang warned that conditions may take a turn for the worse as the pandemic recedes, as high inflation and geopolitical tensions pose new economic and social challenges. He said innovative approaches will have to be developed to help people worldwide navigate through tough times ahead.
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The Kremlin said Russia will hold a ceremony Friday to officially incorporate four areas of Ukraine into Russia, a process that Ukraine and its allies have dismissed as illegitimate while promising retaliation in the form of new sanctions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday the ceremony will include Russian President Vladimir Putin along with the Russian-appointed heads of the four regions where Russia orchestrated referendums that ended earlier this week.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted Thursday that he assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Germany will never recognize the “so-called results.”

“The sham referendums carried out by Putin in the illegally occupied areas of Ukraine are worthless,” Scholz said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that the United States expected Russian “to use these sham referenda as a false pretext to try to annex Ukrainian territory in flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.”

Jean-Pierre said that no matter what Russia claims, the areas remain Ukrainian territory.

“In response, we will work with our allies and partners to impose additional economic costs on Russia and individuals and entities inside and outside of Russia that provide support to this action,” she said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday the EU is planning to respond with “sweeping new import bans on Russian products” and to expand its export ban “to deprive the Kremlin’s military complex of key technologies.”

“This will keep Russian products out of the European market and deprive Russia of an additional 7 billion euros in revenue,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels. The EU’s 27 member countries would have to approve the sanctions for them to take effect and the bloc has had difficulty in reaching agreement on some previous sanctions.

“We are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” she said. 

The Ukrainian territory includes the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, representing about 15% of the country.

Pipeline leaks

NATO said Thursday that all available information indicates multiple leaks in undersea pipelines that carry gas from Russia to Europe are the result of “deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage.”

A NATO statement said the leaks are a matter of deep concern and that the alliance supports investigations into the origin.

“We, as allies, have committed to prepare for, deter and defend against the coercive use of energy and other hybrid tactics by state and non-state actors,” NATO said. “Any deliberate attack against allies’ critical infrastructure would be met with a united and determined response.”

Sweden’s Coast Guard said Thursday a fourth leak had been detected, with two total near Sweden and the other two near Denmark.

The leaks are in international waters.

The pipelines are not currently in operation, but still contained gas that escaped into the Baltic Sea.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Wednesday of violating a cease-fire agreement that ended two days of warfare this month – the second such violation in five days.

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said that at about 6 p.m. (1400 GMT), Armenian units had started firing at Azerbaijani positions in the Kalbajar region, wounding one serviceman, and that Azerbaijani forces had taken “retaliatory measures.”

The Armenian defense ministry gave an opposite account, tweeting that Azerbaijani forces had fired towards Armenian positions near the common border using mortars and large-caliber weapons, and that the Armenian side had retaliated.

After border clashes two weeks ago that killed almost 200 soldiers, the worst bout of fighting since a six-week war between the two ex-Soviet countries in late 2020, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia.

Armenia said then that Azerbaijan had attacked its territory and seized settlements inside its borders; Azerbaijan said it was responding to “provocations” from the Armenian side.

Last Friday, both sides accused each other of breaching the truce by firing across the border.

The fighting is linked to decades-old hostilities over control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.
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Private American pilots with a group called “Ukraine Air Rescue” are working to get supplies into Ukraine. VOA Russian met some of them and has the story. VOA footage by David Gogokhia.
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Cyprus released griffon vultures into the wild on Wednesday in the latest attempt to boost a once thriving population now critically endangered by poisoning. 

The island’s largest bird of prey has seen its population fall dramatically to the smallest in Europe in recent decades, either from accidental poisoning or changing farming techniques leaving them short of food. 

Earlier this year, the population suffered a massive loss from poisoning, reducing numbers to just 8, conservationists say. 

They will be joined by eight vultures from Spain, home to Europe’s largest population of griffon vultures, which were released on Wednesday in the mountains north of the coastal city of Limassol. They form a group of 15 brought to the island last year, with seven released in mid-September. 

Another 15 are expected from Spain in November. In the past decade, Cyprus had also brought griffon vultures from Crete. 

“We were only left with eight birds because of the poison baits placed in the countryside mainly to kill foxes and dogs,” said Melpo Apostolidou, project coodinator at BirdLife Cyprus, one of the partners in the part EU-funded Life with Vultures project. 

The birds with names like “Pablo” and “Zenonas” have been fitted with satellite trackers to monitor their movements. 

Big, gangly and smelly, griffon vultures play a vital role as nature’s cleanup crew, feeding off dead carcass and reducing the spread of disease. But the use of banned poisons to kill perceived pests which the scavenging bird will then feed on has a knock-on effect. 

Nicos Kassinis, a senior officer with Cyprus’s Game and Fauna Service, said authorities were operating several feeding stations and had set up dog units trained to detect poison bait. “It is a serious problem,” he said. 

Conservationists say only when the use of poison is effectively addressed can the bird start to thrive again. “Even if we continue to bring vultures from elsewhere, we are just delaying their extinction if we don’t do anything to reduce the frequency of poisoning incidents,” Apostolidou said. 

 
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As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalls, tensions have been unleashed throughout Russian society. Voices of protest are emerging, despite the government crackdown on dissent. The city of St. Petersburg, a center of opposition to the war, is again at the forefront of citizen unrest. Henry Ridgwell narrates this report by VOA’s Moscow bureau.
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Ukraine urged its backers Wednesday to make clear to Russia that “its attempts of annexation, blackmail and ultimatums” will only bring more support to the Ukrainian side in the conflict that began with the February invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

“Ukraine calls on the EU, NATO and the Group of Seven to immediately and significantly increase pressure on Russia, including by imposing new tough sanctions, and significantly increase their military aid to Ukraine, including by providing us with tanks, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, long-range artillery, anti-aircraft and missile defense equipment,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The appeal came as the Russia-installed leaders in Luhansk and Kherson appealed Wednesday to Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex those territories based on what they said was the support of residents.

Russia-installed officials said 93% of ballots cast during the five days of voting in Zaporizhzhia supported annexation, along with with 87% in Kherson, 98% in Luhansk and 99% in Donetsk. Together, the regions make up about 15% of Ukraine’s territory.

Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have denounced the referendums as illegal. International recognition is highly unlikely.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Russia must be isolated internationally for its sham referendums in his country.

“There is only one way to stop this all,” he said by video. “First, it is the complete isolation of Russia in response to everything it does.”

More sanctions should be imposed on Moscow, he said, and it should be deprived of its veto at the U.N. Security Council and suspended from all international institutions.

“The annexation of the captured territories … is the most brutal violation of the U.N. Charter,” the Ukrainian president said. “This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state. This is an attempt to erase the norms of international law.”

If Moscow annexes these territories, Zelenskyy said, it “will mean that there is nothing to talk about with the president of Russia.”

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told council members that the referendums are not a “genuine expression of the popular will.”

“Unilateral actions aimed to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the attempted acquisition by force by one state of another state’s territory, while claiming to represent the will of the people, cannot be regarded as legal under international law,” she said.

“Now, Kyiv is being rejected not only by the people of Crimea and Donbas, but Kherson and Zaporoizhzhia regions,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told council members. “This process is going to continue if Kyiv does not recognize its mistake and its strategic errors and doesn’t start to be guided by the interests of its own people, and not blindly carry out the will of those people who are playing them.”

There are concerns in Ukraine and the West that should the territories be annexed, Russian President Vladimir Putin would claim any attempt by Ukrainian military forces to recapture the land as an attack on Russia itself.

Diplomatic action

The United States and Albania have circulated a draft resolution to Security Council members condemning the referendums, calling on countries not to recognize any altered status of Ukraine and compelling Russia to withdraw its troops from the country.

“If Russia chooses to shield itself from accountability here in the council, we will then look to the U.N. General Assembly to send an unmistakable message to Moscow,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “The world must stand together and defend the Charter of the United Nations.”

She told reporters after the meeting that she hopes to seek a vote in the Security Council either late this week or early next week.

“We call on all U.N. members — everyone for whom the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders have meaning — to oppose Russia’s actions, condemn the referendums and their anticipated results, and never recognize any attempt to steal Ukrainian land through violence and terror,” Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha said.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday that all indications are that leaks from two Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea “are the result of a deliberate act.” 

“We will support any investigation aimed at getting full clarity on what happened and why, and will take further steps to increase our resilience in energy security,” Borrell said in a statement. “Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response.” 

The U.S. State Department said late Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the situation with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod and that the United States “remains united with our allies and partners in our commitment to promoting European energy security.”  

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that the U.S. is supporting efforts to investigate the apparent sabotage.

Denmark’s defense minister Morten Bodskov is due to discuss the matter with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to speculate on the cause” of the leaks, replied White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to questions about the incident Tuesday, adding that she had nothing to report on whether the United States had been requested by European officials to help determine the cause of the ruptures.

“An act of sabotage”

The 1,222-kilometer-long Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been, until recently, a major source of gas for Germany. Nord Stream 2, which is 1,234 kilometers in length, has yet to go into commercial operation.

“We have established a report and the crime classification is gross sabotage,” the Swedish national police said Tuesday, announcing a preliminary investigation into possible sabotage of Nord Stream 1.

“There are three leaks, and therefore it is difficult to imagine that it could be accidental,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen Tuesday.

“We see clearly that this is an act of sabotage – an act which likely means a further step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” concurred Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Frederkisen and Morawiecki spoke in Gloeniow in Poland at the opening ceremony for Baltic Pipe, part of a Polish plan to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. The line will connect Poland to Norwegian gas fields through Denmark.

“No option can be ruled out right now,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, regarding the possibility of sabotage, adding that the leaks are a cause for concern.

Russia closed Nord Stream 1 earlier this month, ostensibly for maintenance work.

The majority owner of the network’s operator, Nord Stream AG, is Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company.

“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” said NordStream AG in a statement. “It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.”

“The biggest leak is spreading bubbles a good kilometer in diameter. The smallest is creating a circle about 200 meters” in diameter, according to a statement from the Danish armed services, which included photographs of the leaks off the island of Bornholm.

Powerful blasts recorded Monday

Scientists in Europe say seismographs on Monday recorded powerful blasts in the Baltic Sea, the same day the two gas pipelines dropped pressure.

“There was a spike and then regular noise,” said Josef Zens, a spokesman for the German geological research center GFZ. “We cannot say if that could be gas streaming out.”

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas, quoting the late British author Ian Fleming.

“The leaks are more likely a message: Russia is opening a new front on its energy war against Europe. First, it weaponized gas supply, halting shipments, including via the Nord Stream pipeline. Now, it may be attacking the energy infrastructure it once used to ship its energy,” said Blas, author of The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources.

Amid much speculation on social media about who might have sabotaged Nord Stream there is no credible evidence of a likely culprit or motive. Analysts and amateurs on Twitter contend the Russians may have deployed divers or unmanned submersible vehicles to poke holes in the pipelines.

The leaks are a result of a “terrorist attack” and “an act of aggression” against the European Union, declared Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian presidential office.

Some anonymous accounts on Twitter, parroting Russian state media, sought to blame Washington and Kyiv. On social media on Tuesday, a video clip from early February recirculated of Joe Biden vowing to “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 project if Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Kremlin has stated that if Western Europe wants Russian gas, it should end sanctions against Moscow imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seven months ago.

“My understanding is the leaks will not have a significant impact on Europe’s energy resilience,” Secretary Blinken said in Washington.

“This just drives home the importance of our efforts to work together to get alternative gas supplies to Europe and to support efforts to reduce gas consumption and accelerate true energy independence by moving to a clean energy economy,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told VOA.

While the impact to Europe ahead of the winter as a result of the loss of the pipelines remains to be seen, the trio of leaks poses an immediate hazard to wildlife and maritime navigation.

The gas could suffocate animals and is an explosion threat to passing ships, according to environmental groups.

Contributors include Patsy Widakuswara at the White House; Nike Ching at the State Department, and Chris Hannas in Washington. Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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