In a move that sounds like a warning ahead of next month’s G7 summit, Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing the confiscation of American property in Russia as compensation for expropriations suffered in the United States by Russian subjects. And this while Washington speaks more and more insistently about the need to confiscate Russian government assets frozen in the West, putting pressure on its European allies in this sense. The decree, number 442, published on the Kremlin website, intends to respond to what are defined as “hostile actions contrary to international law by the United States”, in order to “protect the national interests of the Russian Federation”. In the event of “unjustified deprivation of the right to property” of Russian subjects by order of the government or American judges, the text states, the injured parties will have the right to seek redress by turning to Russian courts, which will be able to establish compensation with the use of movable and immovable property in Russia of the American government or American citizens, as well as shares held by them in Russian companies.
After the start of Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, Western countries froze about $290 billion in Russian state funds. Last month, the US Congress passed a bill allowing President Joe Biden to use Russian assets to benefit Ukraine. But only 5 billion dollars of these funds are deposited in the USA, while as many as 210 billion lie in Europe. But so far the EU has limited itself to giving the green light to the withdrawal of profits from Russian capital, which should generate almost 3 billion euros a year.
Meanwhile, in Russia, anti-corruption initiatives continue within the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces with the news of two other excellent arrests: that of General Vadim Shamarin, head of the Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces and deputy chief of staff, and Vladimir Verteletsky, head of the Department in charge of state defense supplies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that a “campaign” to clean up the military is underway, stating that the investigations are part of “continuous and coherent work”. But it is clear that these initiatives have intensified in recent weeks, coinciding with the replacement of Serghei Shoigu at the head of the Ministry of Defense, entrusted to the economist Andrei Belousov.
The arrests include those of Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov and General Yuri Kuznetsov. Meanwhile, Putin flew to Minsk for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the “strategic partnership” between the two countries. The Russian president had recently announced that Belarus would participate in the tactical nuclear weapons exercises started by Moscow two days ago. And in this scenario, France announced that it had carried out the first launch test of an updated nuclear-capable missile, the Asmpa-r, designed to be carried by a Rafale fighter.
The Minister of Defense, Sebastien Lecornu, specified that the missile was launched without a warhead from an aircraft “over the national territory” and underlined that the exercise aimed to support “the credibility of the airborne nuclear deterrent element”. On the ground, the advance of Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine continues, announcing the conquest of another village, that of Andreevka, in the Donetsk region. The governor of the north-eastern region of Kharkiv said that 7 people died and 16 were injured in Russian attacks on the capital city of the same name, from where around 11,000 people were evacuated.
For his part, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod declared that a woman died in an attack with a Ukrainian drone on the Yakovlevsky district. While the pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk said that one civilian died and 11 others were injured in a bombing by Kiev forces on the town of Gorlovka.
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Putin in Belarus: Lukashenko, security first topic in talks
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said security would be the main topic of talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who arrived in Minsk for a two-day visit. This was reported by the Tass agency. “I think that, as usual, security issues will be at the forefront,” Lukashenko said after a brief conversation with Putin at the Belarusian capital’s airport. Economic issues will also be discussed in their long-format talks, the Belarusian leader added.
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