Turkey & Russia Reach Agreement for Cease-Fire in Syria's Idlib

Desk Report: After weeks of tension, Turkey and Russia agreed on Thursday to continue their cooperation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, declaring a cease-fire while expressing an intention to provide a new status quo for the war-torn province.

Turkey and Russia have reached the agreement during a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The cease-fire was expected to begin at midnight Friday, leading to a new status quo in Idlib.

Speaking in a joint press conference, Erdoğan said the Syrian regime and its aggressiveness are the main reasons behind civilian suffering in Idlib.

“Considering all the recent developments, a new status quo is inevitable in Idlib,” he added.

“We have deployed additional military units to Syria to ensure regional stability. Our priority is to enable de-escalation in Idlib. The cease-fire in Idlib will begin tonight a minute after midnight,” he also said.

Putin said: “We have always solved our problems by working together. Today was no different.”

Underlining attacks in Idlib must stop, Putin added: “We agreed to continue the will and conditions of Astana deal. We have prepared a document as a result of today’s meeting, hoping that it will put an end to civilian suffering in Idlib.”

The meeting comes amid growing tension in northern Syria’s Idlib province, where the Russia-backed Bashar Assad regime's offense has targeted civilians and Turkish soldiers, raising the prospect of a direct clash between Russian and Turkish forces.

The nearly three-hour-long summit between the two presidents was followed by an inter-delegation meeting for more than two and a half hours.

In Russia, Erdoğan is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, among other high-profile government representatives.

Both leaders underlined the need to reach an agreement at the start of the Kremlin talks.

In his opening remarks at the Kremlin, Putin had thanked Erdoğan for accepting his invitation for talks on the recent escalation.

"Thank you for coming. There is always something to talk about, but now the situation in a well-known area – Idlib – has escalated so much that it requires our direct, personal conversation," he said, offering his condolences over the fallen soldiers.

"The loss of life is always a great tragedy. Unfortunately, as I told you on the phone, no one, including the Syrian military, knew about their (Turkish soldiers) whereabouts," he added.

Putin went on to say that the Syrian regime forces have suffered great losses in Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in Syria.

"We need to talk about the situation that has developed to date so that nothing like this happens again, and so that it does not destroy the Russian-Turkish relations, which I, and as I know, you too, treat very carefully," he said.

Erdoğan said the decisions taken at the meeting will ease tensions in the region and in Turkey.

Erdoğan had said on Wednesday that he expected his talks with Putin to lead to a rapid cease-fire in northwest Syria.

The two leaders were set to discuss the recent developments in Syria, including cease-fire violations in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

The Syrian regime and its allies, Russia and Iran, have consistently broken the terms of the 2018 cease-fire and a new one that began on Jan. 12, launching frequent attacks inside Idlib province.

Especially since April 2018, the attacks on the last opposition stronghold dramatically intensified and caused new waves of refugee flows that move toward the Turkish border, putting the country, which already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, into a difficult position.

As a result, Turkey, which has the second-largest army in the transatlantic NATO alliance, has funneled troops and equipment into the region in recent weeks to stop the Syrian regime advance and avoid the wave of refugees.

However, the incident that acted as a tipping point in regional tension was the killing of more than 34 Turkish soldiers in regime attacks last month. In response, Ankara launched Operation Spring Shield against regime targets in Idlib.

Currently, Turkish soldiers are stationed in the region to protect the local population and counterterrorism groups. Still, despite the military escalation, Ankara also has been putting forth efforts to keep diplomatic channels active with Russia in hope of a finding political solution, urging the country to uphold the peace agreements and ensure an immediate cease-fire.

In the last few years, Erdoğan and Putin have worked closely to try to resolve the nine-year conflict, proving that the unique dialogue between the two leaders may overcome the differences in the end. They managed to coordinate their interests by avoiding direct confrontation between their forces in Syria, even though Moscow has been backing the Bashar Assad regime while Ankara has supported opposition groups. Both Russia and Turkey appear eager to avoid a showdown despite conflicting interests in Idlib province, making it difficult to negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise.

The talks in Moscow mark the 10th encounter in just over a year between Putin and Erdoğan, who call each other “dear friend” and have polished a fine art of bargaining.

The relationship has been strained in recent days, with the two sides trading accusations of violating the Sochi deal, which created a buffer zone and allowed for the deployment of 12 Turkish observation posts.

Last October, they reached an agreement to deploy their forces across Syria's northeastern border to fill the void left by President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces. Prior to that, they had negotiated a series of accords that saw opposition fighters from various areas in Syria move into Idlib and in 2018 carved out a de-escalation zone in Idlib.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops into Idlib to repel the Syrian regime army while Russia, which has helped Assad reclaim most of the country’s territory, has signaled it wouldn't sit idle to see Turkey rout his troops.

The Turkish defense ministry said in the last 24 hours it had destroyed four tanks, five rocket launchers and a dozen military vehicles in artillery and airstrikes.

The Syrian regime's attempt to take Idlib has forced close to a million civilians to flee their homes and prompted Erdoğan to open Turkey's border with Greece to refugees and migrants.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot handle more. Erdoğan warned Europe on Wednesday that it must support Turkey's "political and humanitarian solutions in Syria" if it wants to avoid a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis.

Ankara wants Assad's forces to cease their assault on the province and pull back behind lines agreed under a 2018 deal with Russia brokered in Sochi.

Turkey has long backed some opposition groups fighting against Assad, but its priority now is to stop another influx of refugees.

The Kremlin, which launched an air war in support of Assad in 2015, sees it as a key success of Putin's foreign policy – with newfound clout and military bases in Syria that establish Moscow as a major player in the Middle East.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Pro-Putin activists say warning system should prevent extremist reposts on the web

Law enforcement personnel exercise combating extremists and mass unrest at the Command Post Exercise © Sergey Venyavsky / Sputnik

Experts have proposed creating a system to find extremist text and pictures on the web and social networks and mark them with special warning, to avoid unwitting reposts from users.

It is hoped the development and introduction of such a system would bring down the seemingly excessive number of convictions for spreading materials inciting hatred and strife, an issue that has recently resulted in a lot of concerned comments from mass media, rights groups and politicians, including Vladimir Putin himself.

The experts from the United Popular Front movement – a broad coalition of people who share Putin’s views on Russia’s development and its role in global politics but prefer not to join the main pro-Putin political party United Russia - also proposed that such system must be created and maintained by companies that own social networks on the basis of the federal list of extremist materials.

Also, the United Popular Front reported on Tuesday that the movement would continue to study the situation and examine cases where people may have been wrongly charged or convicted.

In particular, the activists criticized the current situation when a citizen can be prosecuted for spreading images of Nazi symbols, saying that courts had already issued sentences in such cases without looking into the context of reposts. The Nazi symbols were present on images that had clearly anti-Nazi meaning and if such principles were applied universally no TV channel could broadcast any film about the WWII without violating the law, they said.

Criminal liability must be applied only in cases when such demonstration or reposting of Nazi symbols is done together with actual extremist propaganda, which the group’s experts propose to define as “Spreading the materials and information that create an attractive image of Nazi ideology in people’s minds as well as ideas that such activities are acceptable in society.”

Under current Russian law, inciting hatred and strife as well as degrading human dignity in public speeches, in mass media and also in internet publications, can put an offender behind bars for up to six years. However, over the past few years the number of such cases grew in an explosive pattern and often people get convicted for simple reposts of some materials on the internet.

The situation has seen intervention from mass media, rights activists and politicians and later from the Supreme Court which recommended in September that judges look more thoroughly into the cases and only pass sentences after proving that suspects had actual criminal intent.

Eventually, the matter was brought to Putin’s attention and in early October the president drafted amendments to the Russian Criminal and Civil codes ordering that criminal responsibility for hateful speech or internet posts should be replaced with civil responsibility when the action is committed for the first time and does not pose a serious threat to society.

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Russia will fight other nations’ attempts to contain its activities in global arena: Prime Minister

September 24, 2018. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev holds a meeting with his deputies © Alexander Astafyev / Sputnik

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will not hide behind protectionist barriers as the world becomes more turbulent and competitive. The country will fight for a dominant place in the global economic system, he added.

Medvedev outlined Russia’s position concerning current international and political relations in an extensive article published in Economic Issues magazine.

Every time our country actively positions itself in the international arena, it encounters harsh attempts to hinder these steps. We cannot ignore any tendencies of this kind and we will actively fight for a decent place in the global political and economic systems.

The head of the Russian government also stated that the acute politicization of international economic relations had resulted from a period of general turbulence caused by a wave of technological and social changes. He said that trade wars and politically motivated sanctions had already become a reality that has to be reckoned with.

However, Medvedev emphasized that Russia would not isolate itself from the global economy in a bid to avoid turbulence.

Russia will not create barriers for international economic relations. We will not close ourselves from the international markets or ignore it. [We will broaden] Russia’s participation in international trade, building our own chains of added value, and participation in economic unions and agreements.

The Russian PM said that the next six years would determine the limits of possibility for Russia and the country’s future role in the global economic and political systems. He also outlined two major principles that, in his view, would help the nation to assume a decent position: social stability and a high level of trust between the state and its citizens, as well as high mobility in society in general – the ability to adapt to new conditions and address new challenges.

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Putin and Rouhini find consolation in isolation

• Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are reporting on ideas to develop strategies on energy
• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has referred to his country and Russia as "strategic partners"
• The improved ties between Iran and Russia follow U.S. President Donald Trump's decision in May which saw Washington withdraw from the nuclear agreement negotiated between Iran and members of the UN Security Council

MOSCOW: One thing Iran and Russia have in common is that they are both being subjected to ever-increasing U.S. sanctions.

The pressure from the United States is driving the two countries together.

On Monday of this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a telephone hook-up, worked on ideas to develop strategies on energy.

A statement from the Russian foreign ministry, released on Monday, said the ministers additionally worked on increasing trade interaction between the two countries, and easing mercantile regulations. The pair also exchanged views on international and regional issues, the statement said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has referred to his country and Russia as "strategic partners."

Earlier this year in June, Rouhani and his Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting in China to promote economic cooperation.

The improved ties between Iran and Russia follow U.S. President Donald Trump's decision in May which saw Washington withdraw from the nuclear agreement negotiated between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia, which resulted in the lifting of a raft of sanctions in exchange for concessions by Iran on it's nuclear power program. The deal had been structured between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in 2015 when Barack Obama was U.S. president.

The Trump administration reimposed the sanctions that had been lifted, while imposing new ones on the Islamic Republic.

Punitive measures were also introduced to punish other countries that insisted on continuing to do business with Iran.

A first round of U.S. sanctions took effect in August, targeting Iran's access to the U.S. dollar, metals trading, coal, industrial software, and auto sector.

A second round, will follow on November 4 2018. These will target Iran's oil sales and its Central Bank.

The reintroduction of sanctions, and the imposition of new ones have had a devastating effect on Iran, collapsing its economy, and sending its currency plunging.

Source: Russia Herald

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US indicts seven Russian military intel agents in global hacking conspiracy

They were indicted in connection to the attack on the OPCW, on Fifa and the US and global anti-doping agencies, and on the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse among others

WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department Thursday indicted seven agents of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency as part of a joint crackdown with Western allies on a series of major hacking plots attributed to Moscow.

The indictments were announced as Dutch security services said they had thwarted a cyber attack on the global chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW expelling four Russian agents — and after Britain and Australia blamed the GRU for plots that notably targeted the US Democratic Party and global sports bodies.

John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, confirmed the seven agents were indicted in connection to the attack on the OPCW, on football’s governing body FIFA and the US and global anti-doping agencies, and on the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse among others.

The indictments also include charges of money laundering using bitcoin, wire fraud and identify theft.

“Nations like Russia and others that engage in malicious and norm-shattering cyber and influence activities should understand the continuing and steadfast resolve of the United States and its allies to prevent, disrupt and deter such unaccountable conduct,” Demers told a news conference.

“The defendants in this case should know that justice is very patient, its reach is long and its memory is even longer,” he said.

The defendants, all Russian nationals and residents, were named as Aleksei Morenets, 41, Evgenii Serebriakov, 37, Ivan Yermakov, 32, Artem Malyshev, 30, Dmitriy Badin, 27, Oleg Sotnikov, 46, and Alexey Minin, 46.

While the latest case did not arise from US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling, it overlaps with it.

US poll meddling

Yermakov, Malyshev, and Badin were among the 12 GRU officers indicted in July this year by Mueller, over alleged interference in the US polls of 2016.

Demers said the operations — dating back to 2014 — “involved sophisticated, persistent and unauthorised access into the victims’ computer networks for the purpose of stealing private or otherwise sensitive information.”

A major part of the indictment details an alleged concerted campaign by the Russians against major international sports organizations in retaliation for the International Olympic Committee’s July 2016 decision to exclude Russian athletes from the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics due to a state-backed cover-up of doping.

The hackers ultimately stole and released personal files of top world athletes including tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, and celebrated British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.

Russian reaction

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly and angrily rejected similar charges, and Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, reacting to the British and Australian claims, said that the allegations had been mixed together “indiscriminately.”

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg separately warned Russia to halt its “reckless” behavior.

Canada confirmed Thursday it believes itself to have been targeted by Russian cyber attacks, citing breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

“The government of Canada assesses with high confidence that the Russian military’s intelligence arm, the GRU, was responsible” for these cyber attacks, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

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India has signed a $5b deal to buy Russian S-400s

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for a photo during their meeting in New Delhi, India.

NEW DELHI: India has signed a $5 billion (Dh18.36 billion) deal to buy five Russian S-400 air defense systems despite a looming threat of US sanctions on countries that trade with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the deal in New Delhi on Friday and discussed nuclear energy, space exploration and economics.

Modi and Putin Friday held the India-Russia annual summit after which eight pacts, including on cooperation on India’s ambitious human space mission project Gaganyaan, nuclear energy and railways were signed at a televised news conference.

Talks with President Putin have given new direction to the bilateral strategic partnership, Modi said in a press statement after the 19th India-Russia annual summit.

Pacts were also inked in the fields of space, nuclear energy, railways and space.

A crucial MoU was signed between Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) and the Federal Space Agency of Russia ‘ROSCOSMOS’ on joint activities in the field of human space flight programme Gaganyaan.

India and Russia are committed to cooperating in the fight against terrorism, Modi said.

President Putin said the two countries have agreed to step up cooperation in combating the menace of terrorism and drug trafficking.

India has requested a waiver from US sanctions intended to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea and alleged interference in the 2016 US elections.

The US did not spare China from sanctions last month for purchasing Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and fighter jets.

Officials confirmed the deal was signed after Putin and Modi made no reference to it during a news conference following their talks.

But the United States has said countries trading with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors would face automatic sanctions under a sweeping legislation called Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

A State Department spokesperson said this week that the implementation of the sanctions act would be focused at countries acquiring weapons such as the S-400 missile batteries.

Last month, the United States imposed sanctions on China’s military for its purchase of combat fighters as well as the S-400 missile system it bought from Russia this year.

India is hoping that President Donald Trump’s administration will give it a waiver on the weapons systems which New Delhi sees as a deterrent against China’s bigger and superior military.

-AP

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Russian military: Ceasefire breaches recorded in Syria’s Idlib safe zone

The Russian Centre for Reconciliation in Syria said that it registered ceasefire breaches in four areas of the Idlib de-escalation zone in Northern Syria.

"Despite the ceasefire regime being established throughout the country, there are still cases of ceasefire regime violation by illegal armed formations in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Insurgents attacked the following towns over the past day: Rasha, Nahshabba, Ikko in Lattakia Province and Western outskirts of Aleppo city (two times)," Lieutenant General Vladimir Savchenko, head of the center, said according to Sputnik report.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous foreign-backed militant and terrorist groups. Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. Moscow has also been providing humanitarian aid to residents of the crisis-torn country.

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