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French government supports Slovakia’s call to delist Alisher Usmanov
Delisting push
The French government has joined Slovakia in calling for the delisting of Russian-Uzbek businessman Alisher Usmanov from the EU’s sanctions list.
The French government has joined Slovakia in calling for the delisting of Russian-Uzbek businessman Alisher Usmanov from the EU’s sanctions list.
Sanctions Framework
EU sanctions currently affect over 3,000 individuals and entities linked to Russia, making their renewal process critical to ongoing geopolitical stability and collective security efforts.
EU sanctions currently affect over 3,000 individuals and entities linked to Russia, making their renewal process critical to ongoing geopolitical stability and collective security efforts.
French Position
“The delisting of Alisher Usmanov is a political compromise,” stated a French official, highlighting ongoing negotiations amid escalating tensions within the EU.
“The delisting of Alisher Usmanov is a political compromise,” stated a French official, highlighting ongoing negotiations amid escalating tensions within the EU.
France joins Slovakia in asking to delist Russian oligarch Usmanov
By Luca Bertuzzi & Maria Tadeo & Jorge Liboreiro
Published on •Updated
The French government has joined Slovakia in seeking the delisting of Russian-Uzbek businessman Alisher Usmanov, causing “huge frustration” among other EU countries, four EU diplomats told EU News.
Slovakia has long pushed for Usmanov and another Russian oligarch, Mikhail Fridman, to be removed from the EU’s sanctions list targeting individuals close to Vladimir Putin’s regime and the military-industrial complex sustaining the war in Ukraine.
But Bratislava is no longer alone. Paris has also called for Usmanov, who has been under EU sanctions since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, to be delisted.
Usmanov is an Uzbek-born Russian billionaire who built his fortune through investments in metals, mining, telecommunications and technology and is considered close to the Kremlin.
Usmanov denies this.
The French move has caused “huge frustration” among other member states, particularly against the backdrop of escalating hybrid threats in Europe, including the latest case of an attempted drone attack on Leipzig airport in Germany.
“It raised a lot of questions about the motivation — seems mostly economic reasons at play here. Not a lot of understanding on the side of other member states,” an EU diplomat told EU News, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks.
The EU sanctions regime currently targets more than 3,000 individuals and entities linked to Russia’s military-industrial complex and its contribution to the invasion of Ukraine. The regime is due for renewal on 15 September, with member states under pressure to reach an agreement by then.
Individual listings have so far been renewed every six months, but a 12-month renewal is now on the table. Sectoral sanctions already shifted from six-month to 12-month renewal cycles in July.
In several meetings of EU ambassadors, Slovakia has opposed the renewal, pushing for both oligarchs to be delisted and the six-month timeframe to remain in place.
The Slovak demands are not new. Bratislava has repeatedly called for the delisting of the two high-profile Russian oligarchs, including when the sanctions were last extended in March.
EU sanctions require unanimous approval for renewal, meaning a single country can veto an extension. Slovakia’s opposition has already caused frustration among member states, but France’s new position is likely to complicate the talks further.
Paris presented Usmanov’s delisting as a political compromise, betting that Slovakia would not abandon its two delisting demands as it did last time.
EU ambassadors are due to meet again on Monday to discuss the renewal and will be under pressure to reach a political agreement before the 15 September deadline.
A French official said Paris supported the renewal of sanctions, but declined to comment on the discussions, citing confidentiality.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
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To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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