УКРОПИ

Georgia investigates election rigging claims 

State prosecutors in the country of Georgia said Wednesday that they had initiated an investigation into Saturday’s parliamentary election amid claims that the vote was rigged.  

The Georgian Dream ruling party won the election with 54% of the vote, according to the electoral commission, a figure that would give the party a clear majority in Parliament.

The opposition alleged the election was rigged. Western countries and international observers also raised concerns, citing instances of voter intimidation, vote buying, double voting and violence.

The opposition took its protest to the streets of Tbilisi early this week in a rally condemning the results.

Prosecutors have summoned President Salome Zourabichvili, who is aligned with the pro-Western opposition, to testify, but she questioned why she should provide testimony about election rigging.

“It’s not up to the president to provide proof of election fraud,” she told reporters Wednesday. “Observers and everyday citizens have shown proofs of how massive the rigging of elections was.”

The investigative body, she said, “should have found the evidence itself.”

Zourabichvili charged in an interview with Reuters on Monday that Georgian Dream used a Russian methodology to falsify some election results.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a member of Georgian Dream, has called on  Zourabichvili to turn over any evidence of rigging to authorities. He said he believed she did not have such evidence.

Zourabichvili said the opposition was calling for an investigation “conducted by an international mission with the adequate mandate and qualification” to look into how the election was conducted. Until that can be done, she said, “this election cannot and will not have legitimacy or trust.” 

Some election observers have been cautious about labeling Georgia’s vote as rigged.  Some observers, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, admitted there were reports of voter irregularities, but the organization stopped short of labeling the election as rigged.

Russia has denied any interference in Georgia’s election.   

Georgia’s election came at a crucial moment for the former Soviet republic as it seeks to join the European Union. However, Georgian Dream is seen by many as more aligned with Russia than with the EU.
…

Concerns about Elon Musk, Russia’s Putin not fading yet

WASHINGTON — Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are still reverberating among current and former U.S. officials, almost a week after news of the conversations first surfaced.

Musk, who owns electric car maker Tesla and the X social media platform, also owns SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company that has numerous contracts with the U.S. government, doing work for the Department of Defense and U.S. space agency NASA.

Some of that work is so sensitive that the United States has given Musk high-level security clearances due to his knowledge of the programs, raising concerns among some that top secret U.S. information and capabilities could be at risk.

According to current and former U.S., European and Russian officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, such concerns may be warranted.

During one conversation, those officials said, Putin allegedly asked Musk not to activate Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet services, over Taiwan as a favor to China.

“I think it should be investigated,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the Semafor World Economy Summit on Friday, a day after The Journal published its report.

“I don’t know that that story is true,” Nelson said, adding, if it is, “I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.”

Russia and Musk deny frequent calls

Musk has previously denied frequent calls with Putin. In 2022, Musk said he had spoken to the Russian leader just once, but The Journal said there have been repeated conversations since then.

Musk has not commented or responded to the Journal article on X. Russia has also denied there have been frequent conversations between Putin and Musk.

The Pentagon has so far declined to refute or confirm the allegations.

“We have seen the reporting from The Wall Street Journal but cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports,” Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told VOA in an email late Friday.

“[We] would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications,” Gough said, adding that, by law, the department does not comment on the details or status of anyone’s security clearance.

“We expect everyone who has been granted a security clearance, including contractors, to follow the prescribed procedures for reporting foreign contacts,” she said.

Former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to VOA said the reported conversations, since confirmed by other U.S. news organizations citing their own confidential sources, raise significant questions.

“There is no doubt that Russia is cultivating many possible channels of influence in the United States and other Western countries,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who now teaches at Georgetown University.

“Russia would regard a wealthy and influential business mogul such as Musk as potentially a highly useful channel and thus a relationship worth nurturing,” he said.

Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and former senior director of the White House Situation Room, is also wary.

“It does get the spider-sense tingling,” he told VOA.

“If the reports of Musk’s repeated conversations with Vladimir Putin are true, I would definitely have some concerns,” Pfeiffer said. “Russia under Putin will cultivate support wherever it can be bought, cajoled or coerced.

“Putin has equal opportunity security services that will take advantage of any opportunity to get foreign business leaders to influence their governments to align with Russian interests,” he said.

Concerns don’t equal wrongdoing

Former officials like Pillar and Pfeiffer, though, caution there is a difference between concerns and actual wrongdoing.

Other former officials note that even if Musk engaged in conversations that could make some in government uncomfortable, just having those conversations is not necessarily illegal.

“Americans are allowed to talk to essentially whomever they want,” said a former national security prosecutor, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity. “There’s no inherent limitation.”

And in the case of a high-profile individual who oversees companies with global reach, conversations with foreign officials could be unavoidable.

“For a businessman, there may be commercially legitimate reasons to have those communications,” the former prosecutor said. “It’s when a businessman is having those communications, perhaps for political reasons or even proto-diplomatic reasons, that it gets probably more concerning from a counterintelligence perspective.”

There also may not be any legal issues with a potential failure by someone like Musk to voluntarily disclose conversations with foreign leaders. Hiding such conversations when asked about them, however, could wade into criminal territory.

Still, given the value the U.S. gets from Musk’s companies, U.S. officials may feel like they have little recourse.

“It is one of those unfair things in life that if the government has a unique need for you, you can get away with more and still get a security clearance,” the former prosecutor said. “Someone who has unique value is going to get more accommodation.”
…

Britain identifies its first case of new mpox variant

LONDON — Britain has detected its first case of new mpox variant clade Ib, the country’s health security agency (UKHSA) said Wednesday, adding that the risk to the population remained low.  

The clade Ib variant is a new form of the virus that was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to neighboring countries in Africa.  

The case, in a patient who had recently traveled to affected countries in Africa, was detected in London and the individual has been transferred to a specialist hospital, the UKHSA said.  

Close contacts of the case are being followed up by UKHSA and partner organizations, the UKHSA added.  

There have been cases of mpox clade Ib reported in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Sweden, India and Germany, as well as Congo. It is a different form of the virus from clade II, which spread globally in 2022, largely among men who have sex with men.  

Mpox is a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and while usually mild it can kill. Clade Ib is thought to cause more severe disease than clade II.  

Both forms can be transmitted through close physical contact, including sexual contact.  

The United Kingdom authorities said they would not provide any more details about the patient, but added that the person’s contacts were being followed up and would be offered testing and vaccination as needed, as well as further care if they test positive or have symptoms.  

According to the latest WHO figures, there have been more than 44,000 confirmed and suspected cases of mpox in Africa this year, and more than 1,000 deaths, largely in Congo.
…

US cracks down on Russia’s sanctions evasion in fresh action

WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday imposed curbs on hundreds of targets in fresh action against Russia, taking aim at sanctions circumvention in a signal that the U.S. is committed to countering evasion.

The action, taken by the U.S. Treasury and State departments, imposed sanctions on nearly 400 entities and people from over a dozen countries, according to statements from the Treasury and State departments.

The action was the most concerted push so far against third-country evasion, a State Department official told Reuters. It included sanctions on dozens of Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian companies, the most from those countries to be hit in one package so far, according to the official.

Also hit with sanctions were targets in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The action comes as Washington has sought to curb Russia’s evasion of the sanctions imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed or wounded thousands and reduced cities to rubble.

The U.S. has repeatedly warned against supplying Russia with Common High Priority Items — advanced components that include microelectronics deemed by the U.S. and European Union as likely to be used for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“This should send a serious message to both the governments and the private sectors of these countries that the U.S. government is committed to countering the evasion of our sanctions against Russia and to continue putting pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 274 targets, while the State Department designated more than 120. The U.S. Commerce Department added 40 companies and research institutions to a trade restriction list over their alleged support of the Russian military.

“The United States and our allies will continue to take decisive action across the globe to stop the flow of critical tools and technologies that Russia needs to wage its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

A senior administration official said Wednesday’s action was designed to signal the U.S. would act against Indian companies if progress were not made through communication.

“With India, we have been very direct and blunt with them about the concerns we have about what we see as sort of emerging trends in that country that we want to stop before they get too far down the road,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

India-based Futrevo was among the companies targeted by the State Department, which accused it of being involved in the supply of high-priority items to the Russia-based manufacturer of Orlan drones.

The Treasury also targeted Shreya Life Sciences Private Limited, which it said since 2023 has sent hundreds of shipments of U.S.-trademarked technology to Russia, totaling tens of millions of dollars.

A second senior State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday that more than 70% of the high-priority goods getting to Russia was from China, more than an estimated $22 billion worth since the start of the war.

“That’s over 13 times the next largest supplier,” the official said, which as of the end of 2023 was Turkey.

Among those targeted Wednesday were Hong Kong and China-based companies involved in the shipment of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of high-priority items to Russia-based companies or end-users, the State and Treasury departments said.

The U.S. also took actions on a variety of entities supporting Russia’s Arctic project, which is 60% owned by Russia’s Novatek and was to become Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas plant.

Novatek has been forced to scale back Arctic, which had been planned to reach an eventual output of 19.8 million metric tons per year, following a raft of U.S. sanctions starting in 2023 with additional measures in August and September.

But the U.S. held back from using an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last year that threatened penalties for financial institutions that help Russia circumvent sanctions. The senior administration official said banking sectors had taken notice of the authority and sort of moved into compliance.
…

Spanish authorities report at least 51 dead from devastating flash floods  

BARCELONA, Spain — At least 51 people have died in Spain’s eastern region of Valencia after flash floods swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers and disrupted rail lines and highways in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory. 

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed the death toll on Wednesday. 

Rainstorms on Tuesday caused flooding in a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain. Floods of mud-colored water tumbled vehicles down streets at frightening speeds. Pieces of wood swirled with household articles. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and cars. 

Authorities reported several missing people late Tuesday, but the following morning brought the shocking announcement of dozens found dead. 

Over 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas. 

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were still missing in his town. 

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to three meters,” he said. 

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years, but nothing compared to the devastation over the last two days. 

The death toll could easily rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in areas with difficult access. In the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, Mayor Sergio Marín Sánchez said six people were missing. 

A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter lines. 

Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home so as not to complicate rescue efforts, with travel by road already difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. 

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck. Everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters deep.” 

Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts. 

The rain had subsided in Valencia by late Wednesday morning. But more storms were forecast through Thursday, according to Spain’s national weather service. 

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought earlier this year. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. 
…

In Georgia, some voters balanced EU hopes with the fear of war with Russia

TBILISI, Georgia — For some Georgians who supported the ruling Georgian Dream party in Saturday’s disputed parliamentary election, the aspiration to go West toward the European Union had to be balanced by the brutal reality of the need to keep the peace with Russia.

The opposition and foreign observers had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to Europe or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

The ruling party, which is seen as loyal to its billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, says it wants to one day join the EU but that it must also avoid confrontation with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia that could leave the South Caucasus republic devastated like Ukraine.

“We’ve had peace these 12 years in Georgia,” said Sergo, a resident of the capital Tbilisi who has voted for Georgian Dream in every election since the party rose to power in 2012.

Georgian Dream clinched 54% of the vote on Saturday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties and the president claimed the election had been stolen and the West called for investigations into reports of voting irregularities.

Observer groups, including the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said alleged violations, including ballot-stuffing, bribery, voter intimidation and violence, could have affected the election’s outcome.

The EU and the United States said there was not a level playing field but stopped short of saying the result was stolen by Georgian Dream. Russia accused the West of meddling.

Beyond the rhetoric, though, the result poses a challenge to Tbilisi’s ambitions to join the European Union, which polls show the overwhelming majority of Georgians support.

Brussels has effectively frozen Georgia’s EU accession application over concerns of democratic backsliding under Georgian Dream and what it casts is its pro-Russian rhetoric.

Georgian Dream backers say that while they want to join Europe, they don’t want to sacrifice Georgia’s traditional values of family and church.

EU aspirations?

For them, Georgian Dream’s party slogan, “Only with peace, dignity, and prosperity to Europe,” appeals.

Official results, which the opposition says are fraudulent, showed the party securing huge margins of up to 90% in rural areas, even as it underperformed in Tbilisi and other cities.

Ghia Abashidze, a political analyst close to Georgian Dream, attributed the party’s showing to its emphasis on keeping the peace and preserving traditional values.

The Georgian parliament passed a law this year curbing LGBT rights and Pride events have been attacked by violent mobs in years past. The topic remains sensitive in conservative Georgia, which is devoutly Orthodox Christian.

Abashidze said that Georgian Dream was still committed to EU integration, but found more to like in some of the bloc’s Eastern European members such as Hungary, whose premier Viktor Orban flew to Tbilisi on Monday and hailed the election as free.

He said Orban’s Hungary, which has also been accused of democratic backsliding, shared the Georgian ruling party’s core values of “family, traditions, statehood, sovereignty, peace.”

In Isani, a working-class Tbilisi neighborhood and one of the few in the capital where Georgian Dream received more votes than the four main opposition parties combined, Sergo, who did not want to give his last name, echoed the sentiment.

“We want to go to the European Union with our customs, our traditions, our mentality,” the 56-year-old said, passing freshly-baked bread to customers from his shop window. He said he believed LGBT people should receive medical treatment and go to church to become “normal people.”

Russia or EU?

By contrast, opposition supporters say the ruling party’s positions on foreign policy and social issues are incompatible with Europe’s, and keeping the peace with Russia depends on Georgia aligning with the West.

At a thousands-strong protest against the election results on Monday, Salome Gasviani said the opposition was fighting to preserve Georgia’s freedom and independence.

“We’re here to say out loud that Georgia is a very European country and our future is in the EU, in the West,” she said.

Russia, which ruled Georgia for about 200 years, won a brief war against the country in 2008, and memories of Russian tanks rolling towards Tbilisi are still fresh for many.

During the campaign, Georgian Dream played on fears of war, with posters showing devastated Ukrainian cities beside picturesque Georgian ones to illustrate the threat.

“The main thing is that we don’t have a war,” 69-year-old Otar Shaverdashvili, another Isani resident, said before the vote. “I remember the last war very well. No one wants another one.”

Kornely Kakachia, head of Georgian Institute of Politics think tank, said the opposition had struggled to allay fears that a change of government could risk Georgia being sucked into the Ukraine war.

“If someone asks you to choose between war and the European Union and you have this kind of choice, then of course people will choose the status quo,” he said.
…

No nuclear risk from fire at submarine yard in northwest England, police say

A significant fire remains ongoing at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England, that builds Britain’s new generation of nuclear submarines, but there was no nuclear risk from the incident, police said on Wednesday.

UK’s Cumbria police said in a statement that two people had been taken to a hospital after suffering from suspected smoke inhalation and that there were no other casualties.

The police said that everyone else had been evacuated from the Devonshire Dock Hall facility and accounted for.

BAE’s site in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, manufactures Royal Navy’s Astute and Dreadnought submarines, according to BAE’s website.

The incident was reported at 12:44 am local time, police said.

BAE did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Police have advised residents nearby to remain indoors.
…

North Korea’s troop deployment to Ukraine could test Beijing-Pyongyang ties

WASHINGTON — As Ukraine braces to face North Korean troops who are believed to be in the Russian border region of Kursk, analysts say China should be concerned about stronger pressure and responses from NATO, which sees Beijing as an enabler of Pyongyang and a supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said on Tuesday it has obtained information that North Korean troops are moving to the front lines of the war in Russia near Ukraine.  

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday that North Korean military units have been deployed to Russia’s western border region of Kursk. He made the remark after a South Korean delegation briefed NATO, Australia, Japan and New Zealand on North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

Rutte continued that North Korea’s troop dispatch, in addition to shipments of ammunition and ballistic missiles, represents “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war” that threatens both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security.

In return for North Korean troops and weapons, Moscow is providing Pyongyang with “military technology and other support to circumvent international sanctions,” Rutte added.

The U.S. estimates that North Korea sent about 10,000 soldiers to train in eastern Russia.   

North Korea said on Friday that “if there is such a thing” as North Korea troops in Russia, “it will be an act conforming with the regulation of international law.” 

Growing signs of strain

Analysts say North Korea’s commitment of troops to help Russia would further strain its relations with China, which undoubtedly will dislike the development that would lead to the strengthening of NATO’s ties with South Korea. 

“China should be concerned about NATO paying more attention to North Korea, especially since many NATO member countries see Beijing as Pyongyang’s enabler,” Ramon Pacheco Pardo, who was part of European Union delegations to previous talks with North Korea, South Korea, China and Japan, told VOA on Friday.

North Korea’s troop dispatch will lead NATO to focus further on Pyongyang’s cyber activities and nuclear and missile programs and proliferation, and this can have “a knock-on effect on China,” continued Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London.

“China can’t afford to sever ties with North Korea, due to its own security interests. So, Beijing has to endure North Korea siding with Russia and being labeled as part of an axis of authoritarian revisionist states, even if it doesn’t like this label,” he added.  

Earlier in October, NATO held talks with its Asian partners to enhance the security link between Europe and the Indo-Pacific, expressing concern over countries such as China and North Korea that can become “security spoilers” in their “backyard.”  

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, told VOA on Friday that Beijing is uneasy about Moscow’s growing influence in the region through military cooperation with Pyongyang.

He said China tolerated North Korea’s sending munitions to Russia because it viewed that as having “a limited time frame,” but after North Korea’s troop deployment, Beijing is concerned about their long-term ties contributing to Moscow’s growth as a dominant power in East Asia, which threatens Beijing’s view of itself as playing that role.

Responding to VOA’s inquiry on the development of North Korea-Russia military cooperation, the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Tuesday sent a statement saying Beijing hopes “all parties will promote the de-escalation of the situation and strive for a political settlement.”

Keeping the status quo

Chinese President Xi Jinping, while attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, said there is a need to stop “adding fuel to the fire” in the Ukraine crisis without mentioning specific countries.  

Beijing, seeing North Korea as a buffer zone between its mainland and U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, has long been Pyongyang’s main ally as the biggest trading partner. To prevent it from becoming unstable, China has maintained the economic lifeline of the regime that is heavily sanctioned and closed off from the global economy.  

But trouble in their bilateral ties seemed to begin when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia last year and were exacerbated when Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual defense treaty in Pyongyang this summer. 

The latest development in the deepening military relations between Pyongyang and Moscow could “complicate Beijing’s own plans to have it both ways in the Russia-Ukraine war,” according to Roy Kamphausen, a senior fellow for Chinese security at the National Bureau of Asian Research.

Kamphausen said on Friday that China wants to “support Russia enough” so Moscow “can win slowly” but “avoid too much blowback, especially economic sanctions on China itself.”

He added, “Escalation in the current conflict which comes from Asia itself might have the negative impact of putting more pressure on Beijing itself, just what it wants to avoid.”

The U.S. earlier this month sanctioned China-based companies for collaborating with Russia to produce drones for use against Ukraine.

Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, told VOA on Friday that “Beijing would see little benefit to establish a more formal trilateral alliance because being too closely linked to Russian and North Korean provocative behavior could trigger secondary sanctions against China.” 

China in 2023 was the largest trading partner for EU imports and third largest for EU exports.
…

For expats in Ukraine, election back in US hits home

The outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. presidential elections. In few places is that outcome more tangible than in Ukraine, where a few thousand Americans have, for various reasons, chosen to live after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Lesia Bakalets speaks to several expatriates in Ukraine and sends this report from Kyiv.
…

Russian activists abroad keep the memory of Soviet purges victims alive

Every October, events are held worldwide to mark a Day of Remembrance for the victims of purges in the former Soviet Union. With growing restrictions on memorial ceremonies in Russia, opposition activists see events abroad as more crucial than ever. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story from Seattle.
…