European Union leaders meeting in Brussels Thursday are considering a proposal by France and Germany to holding a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a proposal that is receiving a cool response from member nations bordering Russia.
 
France and Germany proposed the summit in the wake of Putin’s summit with U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month. As he arrived in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that a summit is necessary for the stability of Europe, and such a meeting could be done without surrendering any values or interests.
 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was glad to see the summit between Biden and Putin and said Europe, being much closer geographically to Russia, must do the same.  
 
“We cannot just stand by and watch the dialogue between the U.S. and Russia, while many issues such as Ukraine affect us more than the U.S.,” Merkel said.
 
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Putin agrees, saying the Russian president sees such a dialogue as truly necessary for both sides.
 
But eastern European nations are wary. As they arrived in Brussels, the leaders of Lithuania and Estonia told reporters they do not trust Russia, and said its recent aggressive behavior has not earned it a summit with European leaders.  
 
Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins agreed, saying a summit could be seen as rewarding Russia for actions such as its annexation of Crimea.
 
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, holds the same view. Poland has suffered recent cyberattacks that intelligence agencies have traced back to Russian sources.
 
Both the 27-nation EU and the NATO military organization are searching for ways to respond to Russia’s recent aggressive behavior. Merkel has said what is important is that the EU member nations respond in a coordinated way, whether through dialogue or additional restrictive measures such as sanctions.
 This report contains material from The Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP.
 
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The United States and Germany are partnering to counter Holocaust denial and antisemitism, an effort U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said will “ensure that current and future generations learn about the Holocaust and also learn from it.”Speaking Thursday at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Blinken said Holocaust denial and antisemitism go hand in hand with homophobia, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination, and have become “a rallying cry for those who seek to tear down our democracies.”“That’s why we have to find innovative ways to bring the history of the Holocaust to life, not only to understand the past, but also to guide our present and to shape our future,” Blinken said.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, speaks with Holocaust Survivor Margot Friedlander, at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, June 24, 2021.He and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas signed a document on the partnership. Blinken said the two governments would work to strengthen education and counter denial and distortion, helping public servants and young people understand the Holocaust and antisemitism in depth and to feel a responsibility to stop atrocities.“This dialogue will help us remember all that can be lost, but also help us to see all that we can save if we choose — if we choose — to stand up rather than stand by,” Blinken said.Libya conferenceEarlier Thursday, Blinken and Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba held talks in Berlin on the heels of an international conference focused on supporting Libya’s transition to a permanent, stable government. “I’m so pleased to have this opportunity to see you, to see the foreign minister, to see your delegation, especially after the very good, good day we had yesterday, which I think demonstrated again the very strong support on the part of the international community, the United Nations for Libya, for a strong, positive future as a unified, independent, stable country without any foreign interference,” Blinken said at the start of Thursday’s meeting. Wednesday’s conference, hosted by Germany and the United Nations, included officials from 17 countries and reinforced support for national elections in Libya scheduled for late December.   U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, speaks as he meets with Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, right, at the Berlin Marriott Hotel in Berlin, Germany, June 24, 2021.A senior U.S. State Department official told reporters Wednesday that the elections are important “not just to legitimize a long-term, credible Libyan government,” but also to help achieve the goal of carrying out an existing call for all foreign fighters to leave the country. “A fully empowered, legitimate Libyan government will be in a much stronger position to turn to some of these foreign actors and say, ‘Thank you very much, it’s our country now and we’d like to be the ones to define the security cooperation relationships that we’re going to have and not have them imposed on us,’” the official said.  An official statement from conference attendees said, “all foreign forces and mercenaries need to be withdrawn from Libya without delay,” but on that point Turkey noted its reservations. The senior State Department official said Turkey sees its personnel in Libya acting as trainers based on an agreement it had with a previous interim government, the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord. Libya has experienced political instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi from power.  Rival governments operated in separate parts of the country for years before a cease-fire deal in October that included a demand for all foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave Libya within 90 days.     ‘Real world’ solution
At a news conference following Wednesday’s conference, Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush said there was progress toward the exit of the foreign fighters and that “hopefully within the coming days mercenaries from both sides are going to be withdrawn.”  A senior U.S. State Department official told reporters that achieving that goal is an important step that now “has to be made operational.” “There’s a process here, and saying, ‘All means all and they all leave tonight – why haven’t they left tonight?  Will they leave tomorrow night?’ is not, frankly, a realistic approach in a real-world situation such as Libya,” the official said.   Next stop France, then Italy
Blinken is on a multi-nation tour that next brings him to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron, following up on U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent meetings with allies in the region to boost transatlantic relations.“This is really an opportunity for Secretary Blinken to reiterate the president’s message and speak with our oldest ally about areas of cooperation, including global security, again, recovery from the pandemic, and repairing and modernizing our alliances,” Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, told reporters Monday.     Defeating Islamic State will be the focus of a conference co-hosted by Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in Rome. The top U.S. diplomat will also participate in a ministerial meeting in Italy to discuss Syria and the humanitarian needs in that country.            Blinken is also scheduled to visit the Vatican, where Reeker said the agenda includes combating climate change and human trafficking.
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John McAfee, creator of the McAfee antivirus software, has been found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona, a government official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
 
Hours earlier, a Spanish court issued a preliminary ruling in favor of the 75-year-old tycoon’s extradition to the United States to face tax-related criminal charges.
 
Security personnel at the Brians 2 penitentiary near the northeastern Spanish city tried to revive him, but the jail’s medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.
 
The statement didn’t identify McAfee by name, but said he was a 75-year-old U.S. citizen awaiting extradition to his country. A Catalan government source familiar with the event who was not authorized to be named in media reports confirmed to the AP that the dead man was McAfee.
 
Spain’s National Court on Monday ruled in favor of extraditing McAfee, who had argued in a hearing earlier this month that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he was returned to the U.S.
 
The court’s ruling was made public on Wednesday and could be appealed. Any final extradition order would also need to get approval from the Spanish Cabinet.
 
Tennessee prosecutors charged McAfee with evading taxes after failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consultancy work, as well as income from speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
 
The entrepreneur was arrested last October at Barcelona’s international airport. A judge ordered at that time that McAfee should be held in jail while awaiting the outcome of a hearing on extradition. 
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Russian forces said they fired warning shots Wednesday at a British Royal Navy destroyer taking part in a U.S.-led naval exercise in the Black Sea near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.Russia’s Defense Ministry said the action was taken because the HMS Defender entered 3 kilometers into Russia’s territorial waters. Britain says no shots were fired toward the vessel.According to a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson, a Russian patrol boat fired the shots at the destroyer and a Su-24M warplane dropped four high-explosive fragmentation bombs near the ship. The action came just hours after Russian officials condemned the war games, code-named Sea Breeze, involving vessels from 32 countries, including the United States, other NATO members and Ukraine.Britain’s Ministry of Defense dismissed Moscow’s characterization of the incident and denied any warning shot had been fired at the HMS Defender.  British defense officials told reporters in London that as far as they are concerned the Russians were engaging in a gunnery exercise and that the Royal Navy warship was “conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.”In a statement posted before the incident on the Twitter account of the Russian embassy in Washington, officials said, “The scale and aggressive nature of the ‘Sea Breeze’ exercises in no way helps with the real challenges of ensuring security in the Black Sea region.” The tweet also warned the exercise would “increase the risk of unintentional incidents.”Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian army’s general staff, also had warned Britain and the United States against the “provocative” presence of NATO warships near Russia’s borders. During a conference on international security in Moscow Wednesday, he said British warship HMS Dragon, a guided missile destroyer, had flouted international maritime rules by sailing in what Russia claims as territorial waters near Crimea in October.Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, left, speaks with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before a news conference after the U.S.-Russia summit, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.British officials said it was “categorically untrue” that the HMS Dragon broke any maritime laws and denied Russian claims that it had been chased away by Russian forces. Gerasimov also accused the USS John S. McCain, an American destroyer, of trespassing in Russian waters in the Sea of Japan off Vladivostok in November.At the same conference, Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, warned of growing tensions between Moscow and Western countries. “The world is rapidly plunging into a new standoff,” he said at the conference being attended by officials from Armenia, Belarus, Serbia and some African states.In a statement about Wednesday’s incident, Russian defense officials claimed the HMS Defender, a guided missile destroyer, was instructed to turn back but that it failed to respond. Moscow said it had summoned the British defense attaché at the Britain embassy in the Russian capital over the incident.“The destroyer was warned in advance that weapons would be fired in case of a violation of the Russian state borders. It disregarded the warning,” the ministry said in the statement. “As a result of joint actions of the Black Sea Fleet and the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service, HMS Defender left the territorial sea of the Russian Federation at 12.23 p.m.” The incident occurred near Cape Fiolent off the Crimean coast.Warships from the U.S. Sixth Fleet, based in Naples, Italy, have been leading the annual Sea Breeze exercise in the Black Sea. This year’s drill, the 21st, is the biggest to date. More than 30 ships have been deployed, along with 40 aircraft and 5,000 troops. It concludes July 10.“The United States is proud to partner with Ukraine in co-hosting the multinational maritime exercise Sea Breeze, which will help enhance interoperability and capabilities among participating nations,” Kristina Kvien, chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, said Monday. “We are committed to maintaining the safety and security of the Black Sea,” she added.On Monday, Britain’s Defense Ministry announced it is transferring two minesweepers to the Ukrainian Naval Forces, as part of a $1.7 billion agreement with Kyiv to upgrade Ukraine’s navy. The memorandum for the deal was signed on board the HMS Defender. Under the deal, Britain is to help Ukraine build two naval bases, one in the Azov Sea and one in the Black Sea. 
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday slammed an anti-LGBT measure passed by Hungary’s Parliament as “a shame” that goes against the fundamental values of the European Union. FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks in Ankara, Turkey, April 6, 2021.The bill, approved last week by Hungary’s right-wing ruling coalition in Parliament, would ban any educational programs, advertisements, books, movies or television programs depicting homosexuality or other gender minorities in a positive light. All except one right-wing opposition party boycotted the vote. The ruling party defends the legislation, saying it is designed to prevent pedophilia. But human rights groups say it will be used to harass and stigmatize Hungarian citizens based on sexual orientation and gender identities. Speaking to reporters in Brussels, von der Leyen said the Hungarian bill clearly discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation. She has asked commissioners of the EU’s executive branch to write a letter to Hungarian officials expressing the commission’s concerns before the bill enters into force. Von der Leyen said this is a matter of fundamental human rights, and she “will use all the powers of the commission to ensure that the rights of all EU citizens are guaranteed, whoever you are and wherever you live.” 
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Berlin for talks Tuesday with German leaders and to take part in a conference on Libya’s political future. Germany and the United Nations are hosting Wednesday’s Berlin conference, seeking to build on earlier efforts to bring about a lasting halt in fighting in Libya and support a stable government.  Wheels up for my visit as Secretary to Germany, France, and Italy. First stop, Berlin, where I’ll be engaging with our partners to further peace and stability through the Berlin II dialogue. Looking forward to a productive trip! U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Schonefeld, Germany, June 23, 2021, to travel to Berlin. Blinken begins a week long trip to Europe traveling to Germany, France and Italy.  
Norland said those attending the Berlin conference would also discuss “destabilizing actions by armed groups and terrorism,” citing recent attacks in Libya claims by Islamic State militants.    U.S. State Department officials also highlighted the need to counter those who are denying or distorting the Holocaust, which will be the subject of talks between Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas this week.    “As knowledge of the Holocaust wanes, nefarious individuals, organizations, and occasionally governments engage in Holocaust denial and distortion for all manner of ends,” U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Cherrie Daniels told reporters.  Daniels said promoting greater education about the Holocaust, its consequences and its origins will help government officials and the public “recognize modern manifestations of anti-Semitism and even other forms of hatred” and push back against them.  Defeating Islamic State will be the focus of another conference co-hosted by Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio as Blinken visits Rome on a later stop during his European trip. Blinken is also due to take part in a ministerial meeting in Italy concerning Syria and the humanitarian needs in that country.  The European trip also takes Blinken to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron, following up on U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent meetings with allies in the region to boost trans-Atlantic relations.  “This is really an opportunity for Secretary Blinken to reiterate the President’s message and speak with our oldest ally about areas of cooperation, including global security, again, the pandemic’s — recovery from the pandemic, and repairing and modernizing our alliances,” Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker told reporters Monday.    Blinken is also scheduled to visit the Vatican, where Reeker said the agenda for meetings includes combatting climate change and human trafficking. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Berlin for talks Wednesday with German leaders and to take part in a conference on Libya’s political future. Germany and the United Nations are hosting the Berlin conference, seeking to build on earlier efforts to bring about a lasting halt in fighting in Libya and support a stable government.  ”We have an opportunity that we have not had in recent years to really help Libya move forward as a safe, secure, sovereign country,” Blinken said after a morning meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.Speaking to reporters alongside Maas, Blinken said there was consensus on what steps to take to best help Libya, mainly ensuring the implementation of a cease-fire and the departure of foreign forces from the country.U.S. Special Envoy for Libya Richard Norland told reporters Monday that the conference would provide momentum for steps that need to be taken soon for elections to be held in December, including establishing a constitutional and legal basis for the vote.  WATCH: State Dept. correspondent Cindy Saine’s report Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 16 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 42 MBOriginal | 729 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPolitical instability
Libya has experienced political instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi from power. Rival governments operated in separate parts of the country for years before a cease-fire deal in October that included a demand for all foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave Libya within 90 days, or about 3 months.      “On the foreign forces, you’re quite right that forces have not departed yet, and our basic position is we should not wait until after the elections to try to make some progress on this goal,” Norland said. “One of the reasons elections are so important is so that a fully empowered, credible, legitimate Libyan government can turn to foreign actors and say, ‘It’s time to take your troops out.’”      Norland said those attending the Berlin conference would also discuss “destabilizing actions by armed groups and terrorism,” citing recent attacks in Libya claims by Islamic State militants.  Holocaust awareness
Blinken and Maas are due to reconvene Wednesday to focus on the need to counter those who are denying or distorting the Holocaust.Blinken said Tuesday they would discuss “how we can ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten.”U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Cherrie Daniels told reporters Monday that promoting greater education about the Holocaust, its consequences and its origins will help government officials and the public “recognize modern manifestations of anti-Semitism and even other forms of hatred” and push back against them.     “As knowledge of the Holocaust wanes, nefarious individuals, organizations, and occasionally governments engage in Holocaust denial and distortion for all manner of ends,” Daniels said.    Islamic State
Defeating Islamic State will be the focus of another conference co-hosted by Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio as Blinken visits Rome on a later stop during his European trip. Blinken is also due to take part in a ministerial meeting in Italy concerning Syria and the humanitarian needs in that country.   
The European trip also takes Blinken to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron, following up on U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent meetings with allies in the region to boost trans-Atlantic relations.   “This is really an opportunity for Secretary Blinken to reiterate the president’s message and speak with our oldest ally about areas of cooperation, including global security, again, the pandemic’s — recovery from the pandemic, and repairing and modernizing our alliances,” Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker told reporters Monday.     Blinken is also scheduled to visit the Vatican, where Reeker said the agenda for meetings includes combatting climate change and human trafficking.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to Europe, this time to Germany, France and Italy, to discuss a range of bilateral issues and attend meetings on Libya and combating the Islamic State terrorist group. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington. Produced by: Marcus Harton 
 
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Belarus perceives planned Western sanctions against the eastern European country as a near declaration of economic war, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
 
The ministry issued the statement one day after the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada said they would place sanctions on several top Belarusian officials in response to Belarus’s forced landing of a passenger plane last month to arrest a dissident journalist.
 
The EU also said it was planning to impose economic sanctions targeting key Belarusian export commodities, such as potash and petroleum products.
 
“[The EU] continues purposeful destructive actions against the population in order, allegedly, to “dry up the regime financially. In fact, this borders on a declaration of economic war,” the ministry said.
 
Belarusian flight controllers on May 23 ordered a Ryanair jet en route to Lithuania from Greece to land in Minsk, where journalist Raman Pratasevich, a passenger, was arrested.
 
Pratasevich co-founded a channel on a messaging app that helped organize protests against the government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.  
 
Since his arrest, the 26-year-old journalist has been seen on state television tearfully atoning for his actions and praising Lukashenko, prompting Lukashenko’s critics to say Pratasevich was forced to make the remarks.
  
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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is calling for reconciliation after winning a snap election held in a bid to unite a nation deeply polarized in the wake of its defeat in a recent conflict with Azerbaijan.  Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Pablo Gonzalez in Yerevan and Ricardo Marquina in Moscow.Camera: Pablo Gonzalez 
Produced by: Ricardo Marquina  
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The European Union announced Tuesday it is once again investigating Google for what could be anti-competitive activities in digital advertising.The investigation will try to determine if Google is harming competitors by restricting third party access to user data that could better target advertising.”We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.Google said it would cooperate in the investigation.”Thousands of European businesses use our advertising products to reach new customers and fund their websites every single day. They choose them because they’re competitive and effective,” a Google spokesperson said.The EU has fined Google more than $9.5 billion over the past decade for restricting third parties from online shopping, Android phones and online advertising.In the past year, online ads generated $147 billion in revenue for the U.S.-based company.Google’s ad business also is facing scrutiny in the U.S., where several states and the U.S. Justice Department are suing the company for alleged anti-competitive behavior.  
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“On Saturday, the day before the war, we met with friends in the park,” Red Army engineer Col. Il’ya Grigoryevich Starinov noted years later. “Orchestras and brass bands played, people danced, and we were happy. It was lovely and pleasant,” he wrote in his memoir Over the Abyss. It was 21 June 1941 and Starinov was in the town of Brest — a strategic town earmarked to be captured on the first day of Operation Barbarossa, the code name for the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Within hours, Brest would be rocked by infantry gunfire and artillery bombardments. Eighty years ago Tuesday more than three million German soldiers advanced on an 1,800-mile front from Estonia to Ukraine and invaded communist Russia, taking autocrat Joseph Stalin by surprise, despite warnings from Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill and from some Soviet military commanders and spies. Stalin reckoned Adolf Hitler wouldn’t invade for another year and he had only started a few weeks earlier to redeploy Red Army divisions to the western front. Operation Barbarossa was the biggest military operation in history and Hitler and his generals started the meticulous planning for it nine months earlier. As far as Hitler was concerned, it was to be a “war of annihilation” — against Jews and Slavs, both considered subhuman by the German Führer.  Eight decades on, Germany has been marking the 80th anniversary of an invasion some military historians say lost Hitler the Second World War. Buoyed by the ease of their Blitzkrieg victories over France and Poland, Hitler and his senior generals underestimated the caliber of the Red Army, the superiority of Russian tanks and the resolve of ordinary Russians, says British broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby in a new book on the invasion, Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War. But Hitler’s strategic miscalculation was far from the mind of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Friday when opening a Barbarossa exhibition in Berlin. He said the anniversary offered an opportunity to rethink events in 1941 when German soldiers unleashed “hatred and violence” and the war moved “towards the madness of total annihilation.”German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addresses the media at his residence Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, Friday, May 28, 2021. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announces he will seeks for a second term.“From the very first day, the German campaign was driven by hatred: by antisemitism and anti-Bolshevism, by racial mania against the Slavic and Asian peoples of the Soviet Union. As difficult as it may be for us, we must remember this,” he said. An estimated 27 million people, including 14 million civilians, were “murdered, beaten to death, allowed to starve to death or worked to death” by the Wehrmacht and SS Death Squads, or Einsatzgruppen, Steinmeier said. Germany, he added, had for too long suppressed the “unprecedented brutality and gruesomeness” of its soldiers during the war with the Soviet Union. “It weighs on us that our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers were involved in these crimes,” he said.  Muted remembrance While Germany has had high-profile events to mark the anniversary, Russian commemorations Tuesday will be more low-key and muted — in contrast to the pomp and circumstance afforded other notable wartime events, especially of Red Army triumphs.  In 2018, the 75th anniversary of the Russian victory at Stalingrad was marked with somber memorials and patriotic military parades with President Vladimir Putin highly visible throughout the ceremonies as well as during the lead up to them. On Friday, a Kremlin spokesman said the media would be informed of any special events in due course, but supplied no details of any major commemoration plans for Putin.  Even so, as in other years, the anniversary of Barbarossa, known as the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, will be marked with candlelit parades and the laying of wreaths in most Russian towns and cities. Some commentators suggest Operation Barbarossa doesn’t fit so well with the Kremlin’s efforts the past few years to rehabilitate Stalin. Nine days before the invasion, the Kremlin ordered Moscow radio to assure listeners there was no prospect of a German invasion. An official TASS report dismissed “rumors” of a coming German attack as “clumsy propaganda” spread by countries hostile to Soviet Russia. Even as the offensive unfolded, Stalin still thought it was a provocation by German generals. “I’m sure Hitler isn’t aware of this,” Stalin told military aides. In the months preceding the invasion, which was originally codenamed ‘Otto,’ Hitler and his generals massed seven armies, consisting of 120 divisions, along a line stretching from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea. The invasion force included 600,000 vehicles, 750,000 artillery pieces and nearly two thousand aircraft. More than a hundred landing strips were prepared in Nazi-occupied Poland for an invasion that would trigger three and half years of bloodshed and barbarity.  German officers and men were told little of where eventually they would be heading, but many guessed. Secrecy was the order of the day. To try to disguise what was happening from the Soviets, German troops in some populated areas were ordered to wear civilian clothes; tanks and troop movements were made under the cover of darkness. “We ourselves became aware around 20 June that war against the Russians was a possibility,” infantrymen Gerhard Gortz noted in a journal quoted by historian Robert Kershaw in his book War Without Garlands. That was just two days before the invasion got underway. “There was a feeling in the air. No fires were allowed, and one could not walk about with torches or cause any noise,” he added.  As he scribbled in his diary, Russian trains were still transporting raw materials and agricultural produce to Germany, exports agreed in the nonaggression pact Hitler and Stalin struck in 1939. German infantryman, Theo Scharf, observed on the eve of battle: “Oil tank trains rolled continuously westward, past us, from the oil fields on the Soviet side.” Russian military commanders bordering the frontier were aware of the German military buildup, according to Kershaw, but no orders were issued by Moscow for them to raise their state of readiness and “where measures were taken on the initiative of individual staffs, they were ordered to be reversed,” he says.  Russian historian Dimitrij Wolkognov, who was a Red Army officer during the war, later wrote: “Stalin was like God on earth. He alone said, ‘the war will not happen now.’ It was his isolated belief, and he wanted to believe it.”  As bombs rained down on Soviet positions and Wehrmacht infantrymen and German tanks launched their assault, Russian units on the front were ordered to observe and not to act as the attack was still viewed in Moscow as a provocation. Nazi forces advanced quickly into Russia rapidly. But within six months the hubristic offensive sputtered after the Wehrmacht suffered at least 800,000 casualties and the Soviets six times that number. The winter took its toll of German soldiers who had not been supplied with cold-weather clothing.  As the invasion got underway, a German platoon commander noted in his journal that almost 129 years before, Emperor Napoleon had launched his Russian campaign. “We all know what happened. Will we do better?”  They didn’t and Hitler’s gamble failed, sealing Germany’s fate in the Second World War. 
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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his government on Tuesday would pardon nine jailed leaders of the Catalonia region’s 2017 move for independence.
 
Sanchez told a group of civil society leaders in Barcelona that his Cabinet would approve the pardons.
 
Opposition parties have said they would challenge the pardons in court. Opinion polls showed a slim majority of the public opposed the pardons.
 
Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan leaders to jail in 2019 for sedition and other offenses, with the sentences ranging from nine to 13 years.
 
The government in Madrid had banned Catalonia from holding its independence referendum, but the leaders went ahead with the vote anyway. The pro-independence side scored an overwhelming victory. The poll was boycotted by most unionists.
 
Sanchez said in his address Monday that for the two sides to move forward, “someone must make the first step.”
 
The current regional leader in Catalonia, Pere Aragones, welcomed the pardons as an initial move, but said he would push for amnesty and a new, authorized independence referendum.
 
The pardons do not affect the status of former regional leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium shortly after the 2017 referendum and was not among those convicted.
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The United States will seek to extradite a Turkish businessman from Austria so he can appear before a U.S. judge in Utah, where he is facing charges of conspiring to commit money laundering and wire fraud, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.   Sezgin Baran Korkmaz laundered more than $133 million in fraud proceeds through bank accounts that he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg, the Justice Department said in a statement. Korkmaz, it said, was arrested in Austria on Saturday at the department’s request, following the unsealing of a superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of an official proceeding. Reuters was not immediately able to identify Korkmaz’s lawyers for comment. The businessman is also being investigated by Turkey, where prosecutors in December detained 10 executives working at Korkmaz’s companies, after Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) said the companies were used for money laundering, Turkish state-news agency Anadolu reported. The Turkish ambassador to Austria told Dogan News agency on Sunday that Korkmaz was detained on Saturday in a town about 260 kilometers (160 miles) from Vienna and that Turkey had initiated an extradition process with Austrian authorities.   The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not return a call for comment.   It was not immediately clear where Korkmaz would be extradited. He is believed to have left Turkey in December before the police raids. U.S. prosecutors say the fraud proceeds stemmed from a scheme involving the filing of false claims for more than $1 billion in renewable fuel tax credits for the production and sale of biodiesel by Utah-based Washakie Renewable Energy LLC. Washakie could not immediately be reached for comment. Korkmaz and co-conspirators allegedly used the proceeds from the scheme to buy the Turkish airline Borajet, hotels in Turkey and Switzerland, a yacht named the Queen Anne and a villa and an apartment on the Bosphorus in Istanbul, the Justice Department said. 
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Europe’s surging far-right has suffered setbacks recently — in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony, where Chancellor Angela Merckel’s ruling conservatives prevailed, and in France, where the National Rally party did not do as well as expected in the first round of regional elections Sunday.Far-right leader Marine Le Pen hoped to be celebrating this week. Polls gave her National Rally a shot at controlling at least one of France’s 13 regions for the first time — with budgets running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and oversight of schools, transport and local economic development. Some considered this election a preview of next year’s presidential vote — which may again pit Le Pen against current incumbent Emmanuel Macron.A campaign poster of far-right regional candidate Julien Odoul with party leader Marine Le Pen outside Montbeliard, in eastern France. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)But Sunday’s results disappointed both politicians. Macron’s centrist party fared poorly. And only in the southern Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region is the far-right’s candidate, Thierry Mariani, ahead.Avignon University political scientist Christele Lagier said Mariani’s challenge will be the second round — when he faces traditional right rival Renaud Muselier.Leftist incumbent Marie-Guite Dufay of the Bourgogne-Franche-Compte region is ahead in the first round of French regional elections. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)In eastern Bourgogne-Franche-Compte region, the National Rally’s regional party head Julien Odoul trails a few points behind Socialist front-runner and incumbent Marie-Guite Dufay. With a record two-thirds abstention countrywide, Odoul is urging supporters to vote in next Sunday’s runoff. Staying home, he says, amounts to a vote for Macron.Odoul is running in a region that’s a key industrial hub — but also largely rural, known for its wine, cows and cheese.In an interview with VOA, he said French voters today realize that Marine Le Pen and the National Rally were right on every subject before the others. We were right about immigration, insecurity, Islamism, he said, and on local issues like lack of medical services. Today, the candidate said, everything his party members predicted has come to fruition.Leftist politician Eric Lancon believes the far-right is running on issues like crime that don’t relate to regional powers. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Odoul’s rivals said the National Rally is misleading voters. Crime and immigration, they said, are the responsibility of the national, not regional, government.Leftist lawmaker Eric Lancon, running on Dufay’s ticket, claims Odoul is running on these issues because Montbeliard and other local towns are facing hard economic times. A key area employer, Peugeot automaker, has shed thousands of jobs over the decades.A Peugeot building in downtown Montbeliard in eastern France, once a key jobs supplier. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Odoul is controversial for other reasons. In 2019, he ordered a Muslim woman to remove her veil at a regional council meeting. More recent reports, which he denies, suggest he mocked farmers’ suicides.Those allegations do not sit well with some Montbeliard residents.Watchmaker Emilien Debrosse, 21, said he doesn’t agree with the National Rally’s platform. He won’t be voting for the party next Sunday.How the National Rally fares in the June 27 runoff will be closely watched. But it may not necessarily offer lessons for higher-stakes national elections, next year.
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The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada joined forces Monday to impose sanctions on several senior officials in Belarus over the forced diversion to Minsk of a passenger plane traveling between two EU countries last month. Asset freezes and travel bans were also imposed on a number of officials linked to the security crackdown that continues to rock the country some 10 months after President Alexander Lukashenko was returned to power in elections branded by the EU and others as “fraudulent.” “We are united in our deep concern regarding the Lukashenko regime’s continuing attacks on human rights, fundamental freedoms, and international law,” the four said in a joint statement. FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting with top officials in Minsk, Jan. 26, 2021.”We are committed to support the long-suppressed democratic aspirations of the people of Belarus and we stand together to impose costs on the regime for its blatant disregard of international commitments,” they said. The EU hit seven people and one entity over the “forced and unlawful” landing of the Ryanair plane, which was traveling from Greece to Lithuania when it was ordered to stop in Minsk, where authorities arrested Raman Pratasevich, a dissident journalist who was one of the passengers.  The four called on Minsk to cooperate with an international probe into the incident, immediately release all political prisoners, and “enter into a comprehensive and genuine political dialogue” with the democratic opposition and civil society. FILE – Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich gestures while speaking at a news conference at the National Press Center of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk, Belarus, June 14, 2021.Among those targeted by the United States were close Lukashenko associates, those accused of helping to violently suppress peaceful protests since last year and others alleged to have orchestrated fraud during the elections. At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers also prepared a series of economic measures that are aimed at hitting Lukashenko and his allies. EU leaders are expected to endorse them at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. The EU has gradually ratcheted up sanctions since Lukashenko — dubbed the last dictator in Europe — won a sixth term last August.  But the 27-nation bloc has taken a harder approach since the Ryanair incident, and over the country’s alleged use of migrants to pressure neighboring Lithuania, which has provided a safe-haven to Belarusian opposition figures and is one of Lukashenko’s most vocal critics. Among their actions Monday, the ministers imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 78 Belarus officials and froze the assets of 8 “entities,” which are usually companies, banks or associations. It means that a total of 166 people and 15 entities are now under EU restrictive measures. “This decision was made in view of the escalation of serious human rights violations in Belarus and the violent repression of civil society, democratic opposition and journalists,” a statement said. FILE – European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference at the European Council building, in Brussels, May 10, 2021.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who chaired the meeting, said the economic sanctions “are going to hurt … the economy of Belarus heavily.” The measures are likely to include action against the export of potash — a common fertilizer ingredient — tobacco industry exports and petroleum products, among others. “We will no longer just sanction individuals. We will now also impose sectoral sanctions — meaning that we will now get to work on the economic areas that are of particular significance for Belarus and for the regime’s income,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “We want to make very, very clear to Lukashenko that there is no going back,” Maas said. Maas said the 27 EU countries stand united on sanctions. “We are really very, very determined not to budge, not just today — nothing about this will change in the coming weeks and months,” he said. FILE – Gabrielius Landsbergis speaks to the media in Vilnius, Lithuania, Oct. 11, 2020.Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said EU countries had thought only a month ago that it still might be possible to reason with Lukashenko but that “the mood is different now.” Landsbergis accused Minsk of “weaponizing” migration flows. He said about 500 people are sheltering in Lithuania, most from Iraq, and that Belarus border guards brought 30 refugees to the border in recent days. He said Lithuania has limited capacity for them and is building a tent camp. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger who fled Belarus after the vote, welcomed the new measures, saying that “the EU and the entire civilized world have set a goal to stop Lukashenko and the escalation of violence.” “The EU sanctions would raise not only external, but also internal pressure on Lukashenko … and will make it more costly for his main sponsor, the Kremlin, to maintain the Belarusian regime,” she said. Tsikhanouskaya said the Ryanair incident shows that “Lukashenko’s regime has become a threat not only to citizens of Belarus but also to international security.” 
 
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday he will pardon nine imprisoned Catalan separatists charged with sedition over their roles in a 2017 referendum on Catalan independence.The announcement came during a speech in Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, about the future of the region.Sánchez said his Cabinet would approve the pardons Tuesday.  Twelve separatists were convicted and given long prison sentences for their roles in holding the banned secession referendum in 2017. They then declared independence a few days after the results. Unionists boycotted the referendum, which was held amid a large police presence intent on stopping it.One of the separatists, Oriol Junqueras, said pardons were being given because the government feared involvement in the cases by the European Union, which he said would likely have overturned the convictions.”With this action, we materially get nine people out of prison, but we symbolically add millions and millions of people to coexistence,” Sánchez said during his speech.The pardons have been a divisive issue in the rest of Spain, with national polling indicating 60% of Spaniards oppose them.Earlier this month, thousands opposed to the pardons took to the streets in Madrid to protest the idea and call for Sánchez’s resignation.
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U.N. human rights chief Michele Bachelet has issued a stark warning that rising poverty, inequality, injustice and the erosion of democratic values were gravely setting back the cause of human rights around the world. Bachelet addressed delegates at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s three-week session.In her opening remarks, Bachelet called for action to stop what she called the most wide-reaching and severe cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetime.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights backed up her assertion by zipping through the human rights records of dozens of countries around the world.No region escaped her withering gaze. She noted the Council would hold special interactive dialogues on several places of specific concern, including Iran, Myanmar, Venezuela and the occupied Palestinian territories. She expressed alarm at the sharp increase in violence and civilian harm in Afghanistan and warned the imminent withdrawal of international forces was creating fear for the future. She deplored the deterioration of freedoms of expression in Belarus and said reports of continued arbitrary arrests and torture of human rights activists was of great concern.“In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, I am deeply disturbed by continued reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights violations and abuses against civilians by all parties to the conflict, including extrajudicial executions; arbitrary arrests and detentions; sexual violence against children as well as adults; and forced displacement,” said Bachelet.In many other parts of Ethiopia, Bachelet warned alarming incidents of deadly ethnic and inter-communal violence and displacement were increasing polarization to a more dangerous level. She urged dialogue throughout the country to address these grievances. Even powerful, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council did not escape condemnation. The high commissioner criticized the application of China’s National Security Law in Hong Kong. She noted this was having a chilling impact on the territory’s civic and democratic space.  She reiterated her request for access to China’s Xinjiang region where an estimated one million Uyghur Muslims allegedly are being held in abusive internment camps.“In the Russian Federation, I am dismayed by recent measures that further undermine people’s right to express critical views, and their ability to take part in the parliamentary elections scheduled in September. Earlier this month, following closed hearings, a court in Moscow ruled that the Anti-Corruption Foundation led by the imprisoned opposition figure Aleksei Navalny was an “extremist organization.” she said.She urged Russia to uphold civil and political rights and to refrain from branding ordinary individuals, journalists, and non-governmental organizations as extremist or foreign agents. Bachelet called for concerted action to recover from these grave human rights setbacks. She said societies must restore systems of justice, reduce inequalities and lift people out of poverty through human rights-based development to create better, more resilient societies for future generations. 
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German police arrested a Russian scientist working at an unidentified university, accusing him of spying for Moscow, prosecutors said on Monday, in a case that risks further inflaming bilateral tensions.Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the suspect, identified only as Ilnur N., had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of “working for a Russian secret service since early October 2020 at the latest”.Ilnur N. was employed until the time of his arrest as a research assistant for a natural sciences and technology department at the unnamed German university.  German investigators believe he met at least three times with a member of Russian intelligence between October 2020 and this month. On two occasions he allegedly “passed on information from the university’s domain”.He is suspected of accepting cash in exchange for his services.German authorities searched his home and workplace in the course of the arrest.The suspect appeared before a judge on Saturday who remanded him in custody.’Completely unacceptable’Neither the German nor the Russian government made any immediate comment on the case.However, Moscow is at loggerheads with several Western capitals after a Russian troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders and a series of espionage scandals that have resulted in diplomatic expulsions.Italy this month said it had created a national cybersecurity agency following warnings by Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Europe needed to protect itself from Russian “interference”.  The move came after an Italian navy captain was caught red-handed by police while selling confidential military documents leaked from his computer to a Russian embassy official.The leaders of nine eastern European nations last month condemned what they termed Russian “aggressive acts” citing operations in Ukraine and “sabotage” allegedly targeted at the Czech Republic.Several central and eastern European countries have expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity with Prague but Russia has branded accusations of its involvement as “absurd” and responded with tit-for-tat expulsions.The latest espionage case also comes at a time of highly strained relations between Russia and Germany on a number of fronts including the ongoing detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who received treatment in Berlin after a near-fatal poisoning.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has moreover worked to maintain a sanctions regime over Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the scene of ongoing fighting between pro-Russia separatists and local forces.And Germany has repeatedly accused Russia of cyberattacks on its soil.The most high-profile incident blamed on Russian hackers to date was a cyberattack in 2015 that completely paralyzed the computer network of the Bundestag lower house of parliament, forcing the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.German prosecutors in February filed espionage charges against a German man suspected of having passed the floor plans of parliament to Russian secret services in 2017.Foreign Minister Heiko Maas last week said Germany was expecting to be the target of Russian disinformation in the run-up to its general election in September, calling it “completely unacceptable”.Russia denies being behind such activities.Despite international criticism, Berlin has forged ahead with plans to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, set to double natural gas supplies from Russia to Germany.
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European Union foreign ministers announced Monday a fresh raft of sanctions against the Belarusian government, this time targeting 86 officials and state-owned entities. The United States and Britain are likely to follow with further sanctions of their own in the next few days, according to EU officials.  The new sanctions earmark officials suspected of involvement in the forced landing of a Ryanair plane last month as well as participation in the crackdown on opposition protests in Belarus mounted since last year August, when Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in an election widely seen as rigged. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.  FILE – In this May 23, 2021, photo, a Ryanair jet that carried opposition figure Raman Pratasevich was diverted to Minsk, Belarus, after a bomb threat.The ministers are also likely to signal that sanctions will soon be broadened to include restrictions on Belarus exports of potash and petroleum products and also a ban on any new lending by European banks to Belarus. Those penalties will be coordinated with other Western allies, including the United States later this month, say EU officials. The sanctions announced Monday are a mixture of travel bans and asset freeze. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council tweeted: “Today the EU sends another strong signal of support to the people of Belarus by imposing further restrictive measures. Our message to the regime cannot be misunderstood: Release all political prisoners. Stop further repression.”Among officials blacklisted are transport, defense and air traffic officials. Subsequent broader economic sanctions recommended by the foreign ministers will be discussed by EU national leaders this week. Belarus is dependent on loans from European commercial banks and bans on new lending and a prohibition on EU investors from trading securities or buying short-term bonds would likely have a major economic impact on the country, say EU diplomats. “We have to tighten the thumbscrews,” Austria’s foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg told reporters. Belarus is a major exporter of potash, used in fertilizers, and other chemicals. EU countries imported $1.5 billion worth of chemicals from Belarus last year. It also imported $1.2 billion worth of crude oil and lubricants.Lithuanian officials also redoubled Monday their accusations that Lukashenko has been “weaponizing” migrants and is behind a surge in Iraqi and Syrian asylum-seekers crossing the border illegally into their country.    Migrant trafficking They say Belarus’s state-owned tourism agency has been organizing flights to Minsk from Baghdad and Istanbul for migrants, charging them from $1,800 to $12,000, and then handing them over to Belarusian border guards who assist them to cross the mainly forested 680-kilometer border Lithuania shares with Belarus.  In the last few weeks Lithuanian border guards have detained nearly 400 migrants and at least another thousand are believed to be waiting to cross. During the whole of last year only 74 migrants were detained crossing the border into Lithuania from Belarus. Lithuanian authorities say they are stepping up border security and have asked for help from the EU’s border guard service, Frontex. FILE – A general view of the newly installed tents in Lithuania’s migrant processing center in Pabrade, Lithuania, June 15, 2021.Andrius Kubilius, an EU lawmaker and former Lithuanian prime minister, on Sunday said Belarus is “literally organizing package deals” for migrants, making money while also goading Lithuania.  FILE – Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich gestures while speaking at a news conference at the National Press Center of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk, Belarus, June 14, 2021.Lukashenko in May warned he would retaliate against the EU for imposing sanctions after Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk, where they then arrested Belarusian political activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich and his companion, Sofia Sapega, a Russian national. “We stopped drugs and migrants. Now you will eat them and catch them yourselves,” the Belarusian autocrat warned. Last week, Ingrida Simonyte, Lithuania’s prime minister, toured the border and accused Lukashenko of trying to retaliate against her country for Tsikhanouskaya, who opposition activists say was the genuine winner of last August’s presidential election.  “Lukashenko was threatening the European Union that it will be flooded with drugs and migrants, and here we go — in a couple of weeks we see a rapid increase in people who are crossing the border illegally,” Simonyte told local media.  Lithuania has asked the Iraqi and Turkish governments to intervene and to check people boarding flights for Minsk. Later this month, at a conference in Rome, Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is scheduled to have meetings with his Turkish and Iraqi counterparts. Effects So far Western sanctions imposed on Belarus have had little effect in persuading Lukashenko to pull back from his crackdown on dissent and protest. Belarusian authorities have detained and tortured thousands of protesters, according to rights group. Around 30,000 are believed still to be held in detention.  Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya poses for a photo with European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi (not seen) during a European Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting in Luxemburg, June 21, 2021. (Johanna Geron/Pool Photo via AP)Speaking to British lawmakers recently, opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya a said around a thousand activists are being detained every month. She added. “People are scared of staying in their homes or being on the streets. But they are not giving up — just being more creative with small neighborhood rallies.” U.S. President Joe Biden raised the issue of Belarus during his summit meeting last week with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a Lukashenko ally.FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meet at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.With the West tightening sanctions on Belarus, Minsk is looking to Russia and China for help. Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko has said his country is planning to replace U.S. and European technologies with those from Russia and China. “Of course, we will have to walk away from Western goods, Western technology. We are ready to switch to, among others, Asian technologies, which have been making great strides in the last few decades. According to preliminary calculations, China alone can provide a replacement for 90 percent of European and US technologies,” Golovchenko told a Belarusian broadcaster recently.  
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