Archive for the ‘European Union’ Category

Everton sponsor Alisher Usmanov sanctioned by European Union over Vladimir Putin ties – The Athletic

Alisher Usmanov, the man behind several of Everton's sponsors, has been named on a list of oligarchs to be sanctioned by the EU for alleged links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Usmanov, a billionaire whose company USM Holdings sponsors Evertons Finch Farm training ground as well as other deals including the option for a 30 million naming rights of their new stadium is one of several individuals to be targeted by measures designed to hit back at the Kremlin for invading Ukraine.

The 68-year-old Uzbek, who is a friend and business associate of Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, will have his assets in the EU frozen and others will be prohibited from making funds available to him. He will also be banned from entering or transiting through EU territory.

On Tuesday Usmanov stepped down from his role as president of the International Fencing Federation and vowed to challenge the measures imposed.

On 28 February 2022 I became the target of restrictive measures imposed by the European Union, a statement from Usmanov read.

I believe that such a decision is unfair, and the reasons employed to justify the sanctions are a set of false and defamatory allegations damaging my honor, dignity, and business reputation.

I will use all legal means to protect my honor and reputation.

In a statement on Monday evening, the European Council confirmed 26 persons had been added to a list of those subject to sanctions.

It added that measures had been taken against those individuals in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

In an updated regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union, Usmanov was named as a pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The document added: (Usmanov) has been referred to as one of Vladimir Putins favourite oligarchs. He is considered to be one of Russias businessmen-officials, who were entrusted with servicing financial flows, but their positions depend on the will of the President.

The report also said that Usmanov actively supported materially or financially Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine and actively supported the Russian governments policies of destabilisation of Ukraine.

Moshiri acts as chairman for USM while the Everton owner has a stake in MegaFon, a company of which Usmanov is the majority shareholder. MegaFon and Russian smartphone company Yota, which is part of the MegaFon group, sponsor Everton women.

USMs naming rights agreement with Everton began in 2017 on a five-year deal, with the clubs Halewood training ground renamed USM Finch Farm. In January 2020, Everton announced that Usmanovs USM had agreed to pay 30 million in order to have the first right of refusal for naming rights of Evertons new stadium. This was not for the actual rights, but merely the right to buy them.

Everton and Moshiri were approached for comment. Moshiri declined to comment, and Everton had not replied by the time of publication.

(Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

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Everton sponsor Alisher Usmanov sanctioned by European Union over Vladimir Putin ties - The Athletic

Ukraine Invasion Getting "More And More Ruthless": European Union – NDTV

Ukraine War: Borrell warned EU citizens that punishing Russia was "going to have a price".

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is becoming increasingly merciless, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday, as strikes were reported on residential areas.

"The Russian military campaign is becoming more and more ruthless and Ukrainian armed forces are fighting back with courage," Borrell told journalists.

"There are a lot of civilian casualties... and the flow of people looking for shelter, escaping the war is increasing."

The EU on Sunday unveiled a 450-million-euro ($500-million) package to fund the supply of weapons to Ukraine, the first time the bloc has agreed to send arms to a third country.

Borrell said the EU had in addition "mobilised" its satellite centre in Madrid to provide Ukraine with geospatial intelligence following a request from Kyiv.

Borrell sought to clarify a statement he made Sunday that the 27-nation bloc would supply fighter jets to Ukraine.

"Some European countries, if they want to, bilaterally can mobilise any kind of aid to help Ukraine to defend itself, and they also need aircraft," Borrell said.

"But they would have to be those European countries, if they have them, that have fighter jets which could be piloted by the Ukrainian air force pilots."

In addition to military support, the EU has also unleashed its strongest-ever barrage of sanctions against Moscow, including blocking transactions with Russia's central bank.

Major energy exporter Russia has threatened to hit back over the measures, and Borrell warned EU citizens that punishing Moscow was "going to have a price".

"Sanctions will backlash. Sanctions have a cost," Borrell said.

"But we have to be ready to pay this price now because, if not, we will have to pay a much bigger price in the future."

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Make Sense of Belarus Interests through Full Support to Russia for Invasion in Ukraine – Modern Diplomacy

We make decisions based on available information. If we have not completed formation, it is very much possible to make the wrong decision. Unfortunately, in todays world, the West controls the worlds major media, especially the Internet companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple in the United States, they control the global Internet public opinion. Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the West has been hanging Russia in the field of public opinion. In early February, Bloomberg reported fake news that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Since the Ukrainian war started, Russia has been in a position of being beaten and scolded in online public opinion, and there are still many supportive voices on the Chinese Internet. In other countries in the world, all voices supporting Russia have been blocked. American Internet companies, the Russian government, and even the new media accounts of the US embassy were blocked.

There is no doubt that Russia has fought very hard in this battle. In fact, Russia has always been very restrained on the battlefield. From the beginning of the battle, it has not launched a large-scale attack. It has tried its best to avoid casualties of the people. The Ukrainian government has a chance to negotiate, even knowing they are stalling for time.

All of this is inseparable from Russias passivity on the battlefield of public opinion. But even if Russia tolerates everything, in the Internet world, Russia is still smeared and demonized by all kinds of fake news. For example, foreign media took the video of the Ukrainian army bombarding civilian houses and blamed the Russian army.

This time Russia finally came up with this trick, and it really is extremely clever. Using the Soviet Union as the main contributor to the worlds anti-fascism, in the name of convening a world anti-fascist conference, fundamentally shake the hegemony of the West. This time, the World Anti-Fascist Conference will definitely have more influence than Bidens Global Democracy Summit and deal a heavy blow to Western hegemony ideologically.

First, Russias primary goal in launching the Ukrainian war is to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine.

Ukraines neo-Nazis are notorious for brutal massacres of civilians in the Eastern Ukrainian region for eight years, creating at least three mass graves. I saw on the news that they massacred at least 13,000 women and children. And all this is not reported by the mainstream media controlled by the West.

Russia held the World Anti-Fascist Congress to nail the Ukrainian puppet government to the pillar of neo-Nazi shame.

Moreover, Russia sent the most powerful Chechen armed forces to Mariupol and Kyiv to deal with neo-Nazis. In particular, the Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization Azov Battalion, which participated in the intervention in the Hong Kong riots in 2019, received key receptions.

Second, suppress German ambitions.

This time during the Ukrainian war, the Germans jumped high. On the one hand, the president of the European Commission, the German von der Leyen, took over the Ukrainian war and invited it to join the European Union (Ukraine plans to join the European Union, Europe is brought to the table!), this von der Leyen is not simple, Her ancestor is a Junker noble, who has lived and worked in the United States for a long time, and served as the German defense minister. She was originally expected to be Merkels successor, and later became the president of the European Union.

Another is that the German government announced to provide Ukraine with 1,000 anti-tank missiles and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, which are very deadly for the Russian army. Then, through a special fund, Germany invested 100 billion euros to equip the troops at one time; in addition, the defense expenditure must be increased to more than 2%. Germanys GDP is 4 trillion US dollars, and 2% is 80 billion US dollars. In this way, Germany will become a military expenditure. The third-largest country after China and the United States.

These signs indicate that the German Nazis will be resurrected and break the seal left by the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. After World War I, Germany was resurrected after only a dozen or so stops. This time it was sealed for more than 70 years, and it felt the opportunity to be resurrected. Russia will definitely not agree to borrow the revival of neo-Nazism in Ukraine and bring back the dead! It is estimated that other Eastern European countries will also be scared to death.

Third, shake the moral foundation of Western hegemony. Western white leftists really think that by putting on the halo of democracy, freedom, and human rights, they have really cleaned up history, which is obviously a dream. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a nightmare for the West in the field of ideology, and developing countries yearned for the Soviet Union. Now Russia has picked up the banner of anti-fascism, and it is a sword that pierces the heart of the West.

The media has the responsibility of conveying facts, letting the readers decide who is right or who is wrong. Media is only an information provider, not the narrative builder or brainwasher. We need to follow a balanced approach of matters up to the possible extent. Definitely, personnel affiliation has an impact on ones writing, but, try best to have an unbiased approach and reflect both sides narratives.

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Make Sense of Belarus Interests through Full Support to Russia for Invasion in Ukraine - Modern Diplomacy

France seized a yacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch – NPR

Amore Vero, the yacht owned by a company linked to Igor Sechin, is pictured in the shipyard of La Ciotat in southern France on Thursday. Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Amore Vero, the yacht owned by a company linked to Igor Sechin, is pictured in the shipyard of La Ciotat in southern France on Thursday.

French authorities say they have seized a yacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Igor Sechin.

Sechin served as Russia's deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2012 and is the current CEO of state oil company Rosneft.

He is among the several "elites close to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin" that the U.S. Treasury Department targeted with sanctions last week. The European Union imposed sanctions against Sechin on Monday, calling him one of Putin's "most trusted and closest advisors, as well as his personal friend" and saying the two were in daily contact.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire announced on Thursday that French authorities had seized Sechin's yacht named "Amor Vero," or "True Love" in Italian at the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat on Wednesday.

"Thanks to the French customs officers who are enforcing the European Union's sanctions against those close to the Russian government," he said, according to a Reuters translation of his tweet.

The 280-foot yacht had been docked in southern France's La Ciotat since early January, and was set to remain there undergoing repairs through the end of March, CNBC reports. But the French ministry of finance said the yacht was preparing to cast off when authorities began their check, which lasted several hours.

The ministry said it had identified Sechin as the main shareholder of the company that owns the yacht, according to The Guardian.

"As part of the implementation of European Union sanctions against Russia and in support of Ukraine, we seized a first yacht," French Minister at the Ministry of Public Action and Accounts Olivier Dussopt wrote in a tweet on Thursday translated by France24.

The U.S. announced a fresh round of sanctions against Russian oligarchs later Thursday.

It enacted "full blocking sanctions" on eight oligarchs and their families and imposed visa restrictions on 19 others as well as 47 of their family members and close associates.

"These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people, and some have elevated their family members into high-ranking positions," the White House said in a statement. "Others sit atop Russia's largest companies and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin's invasion of Ukraine."

It said those targeted by the sanctions will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, with their assets in the U.S. frozen and their property blocked from use. The individuals named include Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, and billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Citing data from shipping database Marine Traffic, CNBC has reported that at least four Russian billionaires began moving their superyachts toward Montenegro and the Maldives which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S. after the U.S. and other Western countries announced a raft of sanctions against Russian oligarchs and financial institutions.

President Biden has repeatedly pledged to pursue the crimes of Russian oligarchs, including in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

"We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets," he said. "We are coming for your ill-begotten gains."

The following day, the U.S. Department of Justice announced "Task Force KleptoCapture," which it says will enforce sanctions and other financial measures imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, seize the assets of people who violate them and leave no stone unturned in investigating criminal acts that support Russia's aggression.

France's announcement comes a day after Forbes reported citing three yacht industry sources that German authorities in the port city of Hamburg had seized Usmanov's superyacht.

The status of the yacht is unclear.

Hamburg officials have since denied the report, with a spokesperson for its economic authority telling The Guardian that "no yachts have been confiscated." Any order to seize properties subject to sanctions would have to come from higher federal customs authorities, they added.

But when the White House announced sanctions against Usmanov and other oligarchs on Thursday, it said the superyacht which it called "one of the world's largest" had been seized by Germany. Officials said property like his yacht and private jet will be blocked from use in the U.S.

The yacht in question, named "Dilbar," measures 512 feet long and is valued at $600 million, both outlets report. It can accommodate as many as 24 guests in a dozen suites, as well as up to 96 crew members, according to luxury yacht comparison site YachtCharterFleet.

Satellite imagery obtained by CBS News shows the superyacht believed to be owned by Putin docked in Kaliningrad, a "highly militarized port in Russian territorial waters" and out of reach of U.S. sanctions.

Marine Traffic data suggests "the Graceful," Putin's alleged yacht, left Germany two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the "hacktivist" group Anonymous took credit for changing the yacht's call sign to "FKPTN" and its destination to "hell."

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France seized a yacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch - NPR

Local government in the European Union: Completing the integration cycle – EUROPP – European Politics and Policy

When people think of EU policymaking, they generally think of developments within the EUs institutions. But local authorities across Europe are responsible for a wide range of social and economic tasks that are regulated by the EU. Marius Guderjan and Tom Verhelst explain why understanding this local dimension of EU politics is vital for appreciating the impact of the integration process.

Looking at European integration through the prism of local government might seem a little odd at first. Since the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty, major reforms to the EU have been off the table, and the EU has faced a number of regional and global challenges during the last decade, including the euro crisis, an influx of refugees, the climate emergency, a global pandemic, Brexit, autocratic regimes breaking the Unions fundamental principles and laws, and external security threats at the member states doorsteps.

In response, national governments have returned to more intergovernmental and even unilateral modes of governance to steer through difficult times. Even in less troubled waters, the relationship between the European and the local levels of government were never a hot topic among scholars of European integration. In political science, the study of local government in the EU has remained a niche subject for a rather small community of enthusiasts.

And yet, we believe that the lack of a comprehensive contemporary account of EU-local relations presented an urgent need and a great opportunity for a systematic study. This is why in a new book we link the macro-trajectories of European integration with micro-developments at the local level. Drawing from a combination of European integration theories and approaches (including intergovernmentalism, functionalism, fusion, post-functionalism, multilevel governance and Europeanisation), we introduce the idea of an integration cycle to explain how local government responds to the evolution of European governance in different domains and phases.

Next to the high politics dealt with in Europes capitals, politicians and scholars tend to forget that without cities, towns and counties EU policies could hardly be realised. Local authorities across Europe are responsible for a wide range of social and economic tasks that are regulated by the EU, including environmental change, energy transition, the integration of refugees, healthcare and other essential public services.

Through regulations and directives, but also through policy programmes and funding schemes, local authorities are drawn into the European polity. Policymakers in Brussels have therefore turned to the local level to find effective and innovative ways of developing and implementing their objectives. In particular, the European Commission and the European Parliament clearly acknowledge the essential role of local government for delivering the EUs agenda, as a 2018 Report on the role of cities in the institutional framework of the Union indicates:

new global challenges posed by security and immigration, demographic shift, youth unemployment, challenges relating to the quality of public services, access to clean and affordable energy, natural disasters and environmental protection demand local responses and, therefore, a stronger commitment on the part of cities when designing and implementing EU policies.

In line with our metaphor of an integration cycle, local government is not only at the receiving end of policies and laws coming top-down from Brussels. In response to European integration, municipalities adjust their practices, orientation, organisation and politics both internally and externally. Some local authorities and actors engage proactively in European affairs and connect themselves in European-wide networks and associations; the most prominent examples are the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, and Eurocities.

Local government drives ambitious initiatives that feed bottom-up into European policies around urban mobility, social service provision, environment, procurement, transport, and housing, and has strengthened the local dimension within the Cohesion Policy and the Urban Agenda. Significant constitutional and procedural reforms highlight the growing role of the local level within European integration. The Committee of Regions, the right to local self-government, and the principles of subsidiarity and partnership promoted local and multilevel governance within the EUs formal and living constitution.

While local actors have to make strategic choices on how to approach European decisionmakers, it is often the interplay of formal participation and informal lobbying that provides them with conditional but substantial influence in EU policymaking. According to our findings, local influence has expanded far beyond what is commonly assumed. Being systematically and officially involved in decision-making increases their chances of affecting policy in advance. In turn, informal mobilisation is more effective to wield concrete political power and to prevent unfavourable outcomes and interventions in local autonomy.

Our theoretical reflections suggest that European integration of local government represents a third way between an intergovernmental and a supranational perspective. Functional spillover of constraining laws triggers a sovereignty reflex to preserve local autonomy, while cultivated spillover shifts the focus of local government towards European agendas.

Political spillover then activates a small group of entrepreneurial local authorities and actors, who understand that engaging in European affairs is both a necessity and an opportunity for the future of their municipality. Considering the vast diversity of local government across Europe, the different stages of the integration cycle do not equally involve all local authorities. Yet, as local pioneers seek to shape and access EU policymaking both formally and informally, local government completes the integration cycle. Subsequently, this may trigger a new loop of top-down and bottom-up dynamics in return.

We neither suggest that European integration is an ever-continuing, irreversible process, nor that local government is its main driver. The UK and examples from other member states have shown that Eurosceptic politics set clear limits to the integration of all levels. Nevertheless, in times when both long-established and fairly young, democracies are challenged by populist and radical movements, cities, towns and counties can be a vital locus of political discourse and legitimacy.

Taking municipal insights and preferences better into account can make European governance more effective and in line with local practices. It can also help strengthen the links between citizens and EU institutions. This way, the European integration of local government enhances both the EUs input and output legitimacy. After all, local governments are democratically elected stakeholders within the EU with clear expertise concerning their policy challenges on the ground.

Being in direct touch with their citizens, local authorities take a vital role in overcoming national borders and contributing to a mutual understanding of differences and commonalities. It is in this spirit that our research seeks to improve our understanding of local government in the EU for politicians and people working in public authorities at multiple levels, as well as for academics who may find our empirical and theoretical insights useful for their own endeavours.

For more information, see the authors new book, Local Government in the European Union: Completing the Integration Cycle (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

Note: This article gives the views of theauthors, not the position of EUROPP European Politics and Policy or the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

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