Ukraine criticizes statements by CDU politician Michael Kretschmer. The USA is probably sending the last aid this year. All information in the news blog.
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Dutch army commander warns of war with Russia
7:45 p.m.: Dutch society and its military must prepare for a war with Russia, Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen, commander of the Dutch army, told the Telegraaf newspaper. The Netherlands should follow the example of countries like Sweden and Finland, which are significantly better prepared than his country. “Russia understands only one language, and that is a strong military.” The army must address its personnel shortage. A volunteer program like in Sweden could be suitable for this.
Two Russians sentenced to several years in prison for reading about the war in Ukraine
3:38 p.m.: Two Russian poets have been sentenced to several years in prison for taking part in a public reading criticizing the offensive in Ukraine. According to the verdict announced in Moscow, Artyom Kamardin has to go to prison for seven years, Igor Shtovba for five and a half years. The two men were charged with “incitement to hatred” and “public calls for activities against state security.”
The 33-year-old Kamardin and Shtovba, who is ten years younger, took part in a public reading in Moscow in September 2022. The following day, Kamardin was arrested at his apartment. According to his own statements, he was beaten by the police and raped with a dumbbell. The officers also tried to intimidate his then girlfriend and now wife, Alexandra Popova. In an interview with the AFP news agency in late 2022, Popova said police threatened her with “gang rape”, beat her and sprayed glue on her cheeks and mouth.
Popova called the verdict a “very harsh punishment.” “Seven years for poems, for a non-violent crime. If we had normal courts, something like this wouldn’t happen,” criticized Popova. She was taken away by police after her statement to journalists. Before the verdict was announced, Kamardin himself said in a statement released by his supporters that he was not a hero. He asked the judge to release him because he wanted to stay away from “sensitive topics” in the future. The 23-year-old Shtowba also emphasized that he had not broken the law. In his final statement in court, published by independent website Mediazona, he asked the judge: “What have I done that is illegal? Read poetry?”
Federal Government: Russia sanctions are effective despite high oil sales
2:04 p.m.: Despite high Russian oil sales, the federal government defends the Western sanctions policy against Russia as successful. “The sanctions are very diverse. They also work,” says a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Berlin. Looking only at the oil markets is not enough, especially since one also wanted to ensure security of supply on the world markets.
Many sanctions have an indirect effect, the spokesman emphasizes, pointing out that the EU has just decided on a twelfth package of punitive measures. In this way, she wants to prevent individual states or companies from circumventing the sanctions. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Finance said that Germany has so far confiscated 4.1 billion euros in Russian assets. This sum includes frozen Russian assets, assets of people on sanctions lists and blocked assets of the Russian Central Bank.
The EU and other Western countries had imposed economic sanctions against Russia because of the attack on Ukraine. However, Russia announced on Wednesday that it was now selling almost all of its oil to India and China. There has been discussion for a long time about how successful Western sanctions are.
USA and Russia extend cooperation in space
1:57 p.m.: According to information from Moscow, Russia and the USA have extended the agreement on cross-flights to the ISS space station. It has been agreed with the US space agency Nasa that mixed space teams should fly to the orbital station up to and including 2025, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency. Most recently, US astronaut Loral O’Hara launched to the ISS with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Niolai Chub on board a Russian Soyuz capsule in September.
The ISS is one of the few projects on which Americans and Russians are still working together after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine broke out at the end of February 2022. Cosmonauts and astronauts also fly to the space station together.
