Section: theSun (Malaysia)
European lawmakers demand Russia World Cup boycott
BRUSSELS: A group of EU lawmakers on Friday urged the bloc’s leaders to boycott this year’s football World Cup in Russia to protest over Moscow’s “mockery of European values”. The 60 MEPs said all European Union countries should follow the lead of Britain and non-EU member Iceland in refusing to send official...
Russian whistleblower ‘violently sick’ before he died: Mistress
LONDON: Russian whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny was violently sick in a luxury Paris hotel the night before he died in 2012 in Britain in unexplained circumstances, his Ukranian mistress told a court Wednesday. The 44-year-old businessman had been helping investment firm Hermitage Capital Management investigate a money-laundering operation...
Poland demands Russia return 2010 presidential jet wreckage
WARSAW: Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday demanded that Russia hand over the wreckage of a 2010 presidential plane crash that has stoked friction with Moscow and divisions at home as Warsaw marked eight years since the disaster. President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were among the 96 people who died in the crash in Smolensk,...
Indonesia seizes alleged ‘slave ship’ wanted by Interpol
JAKARTA: Indonesia seized an alleged “slave ship” following a dramatic high seas chase sparked by an Interpol alert after the vessel escaped capture in China and Mozambique, authorities said Tuesday. Interpol tipped off Indonesian authorities that the stateless STS-50, a vessel with a notorious maritime rap sheet, would be entering...
US imposes sanctions on Putin’s oligarch allies
WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs accused of supporting and profiting from President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine western democracies. Senior US officials described the wealthy international businessmen as members of Putin’s “inner circle” and said that any assets...
Long-range drones return to monitor Ukraine conflict
STEPANIVKA: Drones with night vision that can fly at more than 200km per hour are the latest tools being used to monitor the most volatile areas in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Along with 700 human monitors, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is using an armada of short-, medium- and long-range drones to check...
Russia expels diplomats from 23 countries as spy crisis escalates
MOSCOW: Russia has expelled diplomats from 23 countries in retaliation against the West in an escalating spy row, in the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory. The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the heads of missions from 23 countries to tell them that some of their diplomats had to leave. France, Germany, Canada...
Poland buys US Patriot anti-missile system for US$4.8b
WARSAW: Poland signed on Wednesday a $4.75 billion (RM10.33 billion) contract to purchase a US-made Patriot anti-missile system, a move that is likely to irk Russia as East-West tensions rise. The weapons deal is the largest-ever by NATO-member Poland. The first deliveries are expected in 2022 with the system due to become operational a year...
EU tackles tank transport troubles in face of Russia threat
BRUSSELS: EU to make it easier to move troops, tanks in face of Russia threat The EU will on Wednesday present detailed plans to make it easier to move troops and equipment around the bloc as Europe seeks to boost its defences in the face of the growing threat from Russia. Officials want to create a “military Schengen zone” similar to...
Skripal case has sparked new Cold War: Russian media
MOSCOW: Russian media on Tuesday shared the view that Western countries’ coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats following the poisoning in Britain of a former spy have plunged Moscow’s relations with the West into a new “Cold War”. Twenty-four countries — including 17 member-states of the European Union — have...
