POLICY
Putin sends a message to the world with a ‘spontaneous’ election announcement.
When Vladimir Putin, the most powerful leader in Russia, announced his desire to remain in the Kremlin for at least another six years as the head of the world’s most significant nuclear power, he did not even glance at a television camera.
A number of the men and mothers of those who had lost their lives in Ukraine rushed up to one of the most closely guarded leaders in the world, who was located in the Grand Kremlin Palace after they had pinned the gold star “Hero of Russia” medals on the lapels of troops who had fought overseas in Ukraine.
“You are our president; we are your team,” Artyom Zhoga, a lieutenant colonel who was born in Ukraine during the Soviet era and now fights for Russia, said to Putin in an attempt to convince him to run for reelection. You are essential to us. Russia needs you.”
Putin is grateful to him.
“I will not conceal the fact that I have experienced a variety of ideas at various times, but it is now time for me to make a decision. His comments were silenced, but a nearby microphone caught them up, and Putin responded with his back to the camera. “I will run for the post of president,” Putin stated.
Other people, such as Sapizhat Mazayeva, the mother of a slain soldier who was honored as a hero of Russia, conveyed to the 71-year-old president and former KGB spy that his work needed to be maintained.
Some Kremlin watchers think that Putin’s presentation setting, which included decorated soldiers and the mothers of fallen soldiers, may reveal how he feels about his authority. Additionally, some Kremlin watchers believe it may offer indicators about the future of the conflict in Ukraine.
“Putin is going to the polls as a military leader of a country that is at war,” said Sergei Markov, a longtime advisor to the Kremlin.
“This is exactly what the choice of the place of Putin’s statement says: at the request of officers, heroes of Russia, heroes of the war in Donbas.”
The sheer fact that Zhoga, who was born in Donetsk and whose Sparta Battalion fought alongside Russian-backed troops in eastern Ukraine before the 2022 invasion, agreed to run for president at Zhoga’s request, according to Markov, suggested that Putin planned to gain control of the whole Donbas area.
At the present moment, Russia exercises authority over a little less than a fifth of Ukraine, which includes Crimea, which Russia occupied in 2014. On the other hand, Russian forces do not have complete authority over the whole Donbas region, including the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Even though Kyiv’s counteroffensive this year has not been successful in penetrating Russian lines, Ukraine has stated that it will not stop fighting until every enemy soldier is eliminated.
THE RUSSIA OF PUTIN
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated that the statement was made on the spur of the moment and disputed that the scenario had been pre-prepared. Peskov has recently stated that he hoped that Putin would run for president.
A question was posed to him, and he took the time to respond. Peskov stated, “Well, yes, it is done in a completely spontaneous manner.” “He reacted to the appeals of heroic people, so yes, it was a reaction to the appeals of people.”
According to political observers, how the revelation was made, in which Putin admitted that he was carrying the burden of office, also provided signals about the Kremlin’s perspectives from the perspective of domestic politics.
“The television puts it in context: a modest Putin, occupied with real affairs,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the R.Politik consultancy. “The TV puts it in context.”
Putin, whom Boris Yeltsin gave the presidency on the final day of 1999, has already served as president for a more extended period than any previous ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin. He has even surpassed Leonid Brezhnev’s term from 1964 to 1982.
Putin was able to emphasize that his leadership would be required as Russia squared up against the West in the most significant conflict since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He did this by assenting to the requests of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
“You can see that Russia and Putin, at the head of Russia, have led a process of tectonic changes, tectonic shifts,” according to Peskov. “Russia is very determined to defend its interests.”
Putin portrays himself as a leader who has saved Russia from the downward spiral of catastrophic collapse that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This self-perception is prevalent inside Russia. Polls indicate that he has approval ratings that are higher than 80 percent.
Putin was not portrayed as accompanied by high-ranking officials but by troops serving in front-line positions, even though Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was present in the glittering Georgievsky Hall for the award presentation.
“Today, under the arches of the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin, which embodies the greatness of Russia’s military glory, we honour the heroes of our Fatherland,” stated Russian President Putin.
“I am convinced that together we will definitely achieve all our goals.”
As he pursues the Republican presidential nomination for 2024, Donald Trump met with the leader of the Teamsters on Wednesday. He agreed to meet with rank-and-file members later this month, the former president and the union stated in releases.
Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Trump had “an in-depth and productive discussion on worker issues most important to the Teamsters Union.” The labor organization, representing 1.3 million workers, including truckers, police, nurses, and film crews, posted about the meeting on the X social media platform.
The conference takes place amid a 2024 presidential campaign when unions are vying for power on the economic front, hoping to take advantage of the historic shift in the American labor market and secure a string of recent labor agreements with the backing of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
If the Republican front-runner wins his party’s nomination, Biden, who defeated Trump’s 2020 reelection attempt and has long emphasized his union credentials, will almost certainly run against the billionaire in November.
“The Teamsters Union is making sure our members’ voices are heard as we head into a critical election year,” O’Brien stated Wednesday night. “There are serious issues that need to be addressed to improve the lives of working people across the country.”
“Looking forward to more discussions about important issues in the near future,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, describing the dinner meeting as “great.”
At a roundtable in Washington in January, he also promised to meet with union employees and other Teamsters leaders, according to the organization.
A self-described tough “SOB,” O’Brien is among a new generation of union leaders hoping to revitalize the struggle for workers’ rights, including Association of Flight Attendants (CWA) President Sara Nelson and United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain. Union members at Detroit’s Big Three automakers, significant airline carrier pilots, and UPS recently obtained labor agreements with significant wage increases and job protections.
Their support may be vital in a presidential contest with a sharply split electorate when a few thousand votes in a few pivotal states might make a huge difference. Trump has already had the backing of blue-collar workers, especially in conservative areas.
Like the Teamsters, the UAW has not yet endorsed a candidate. But before striking historic deals with General Motors (GM.N.), Ford (F.N.), and Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI), the union’s head has been skeptical of Trump and welcomed Biden to a walkout picket line last autumn. While not going to a union picket line, Trump did give a speech outside of Detroit, asking autoworkers to back him.
Unions representing public employees have also opposed Trump’s desire to remove federal worker rights to replace loyalists in the civil service.
A UN report deplores the ‘rapid deterioration’ of rights in the West Bank. In a report made public on Thursday, the United Nations denounced what it called a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. They urged the Israeli government to stop using violence against the local Palestinian population.
It was said in the study that 300 Palestinians had been slain in the West Bank since October 7, the day when Hamas terrorists embarked on a violent rampage in southern Israel and carried captives back to Gaza. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued the report.
When Israeli security forces were engaged in operations or conflicts with other Israeli troops, the majority of the deaths took place.
Air strikes and other military actions carried out by the Israeli government in refugee camps and other densely populated regions are responsible for at least 105 deaths, according to the Israeli government. It said that Jewish settlers were responsible for the deaths of at least eight individuals.
Regarding the news, Israeli officials did not immediately provide any reactions or comments. Israel has asserted that its actions in the West Bank are preventative and are planned to reduce potential security risks.
“The use of military tactics and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary, and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling,” said Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“I call on Israel to take immediate, clear, and effective steps to put an end to settler violence against the Palestinian population, to investigate all incidents of violence by settlers and Israeli Security Forces, and to ensure effective protection of Palestinian communities.”
Furthermore, the Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that it has documented instances of mass arbitrary detentions, illegal detentions, and reported instances of torture and other types of ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees. Since October 7, it has been reported that around 4,785 Palestinians have been held in the West Bank.
“Some were stripped naked, blindfolded and restrained for long hours with handcuffs and with their legs tied, while Israeli soldiers stepped on their heads and backs, were spat at, slammed against walls, threatened, insulted, humiliated and in some cases subjected to sexual and gender-based violence,” according to OHCHR.
Over the 18 months leading up to the attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, the West Bank had already been suffering the worst levels of unrest in decades. However, confrontations have drastically increased as a result of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza.
Turkey to reinforce military bases in Iraq after 12 soldiers were killed. Following the deaths of twelve Turkish troops in the region, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey will strengthen its recently created permanent outposts in northern Iraq over the next few months.
In the last week, twelve people were murdered in northern Iraq as a result of battles with militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is a banned organization.
In the past few years, we have constructed highways in northern Iraq that are hundreds of kilometers long to accommodate our permanent bases. At a meeting that was broadcast on television in Ankara, Erdogan stated, “We carry out the same activities in new places that we have controlled.”
“By the arrival of spring, we will have completed the infrastructure of our newly established bases (in northern Iraq) and make terrorists unable to set foot in the region.”
The onslaught that Turkey is conducting against PKK militants includes frequent strikes carried out by the Turkish military in Iraq, which is a neighboring nation. After Erdogan announced “a new security concept in combating terrorism” and a strategy to “neutralize terrorism and terrorists at source,” Turkey has begun a series of operations in northern Iraq since 2019. These operations have been ongoing since 2019.
Turkey, the United States of America, and the European Union have all labeled the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization. The PKK strives for more Kurdish rights and maintains significant fortifications in the northern region of Iraq. Since 1984, when it began its campaign of violence against the Turkish state, it has carried out several assaults in Turkey that have resulted in fatalities.
Despair in Gaza as fighting intensifies despite Israel’s promise to scale back the war.
The Maldives upgrades ties with China amid pivot from India.
Ecuador’s president says the country is at war as gangs hold prison staff hostage.
Despair in Gaza as fighting intensifies despite Israel’s promise to scale back the war.
The Maldives upgrades ties with China amid pivot from India.
