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(Yonas Negassi: @Yonas06526101)

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Tegaru civilians!








16 April 2021



Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Washington’s charges that Russia is complicit in the death of US soldiers in Afghanistan

https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/ne ... id/4688977

We noted the charges brought yet again against Russia during a briefing by the White House Press Secretary alleging that Russia had paid remuneration to the Taliban for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. These charges are based on information that they say has a low to moderate degree of credibility.

We demand that Washington provide the concrete facts that it used to make such groundless statements. Once again, we declare that the charges brought against us are nothing more than the guesswork or the phobias of members of the American intelligence service.

Meanwhile, there are persistent reports that the US is itself giving support to terrorist groups, including ISIS, in Afghanistan, and that Washington plans to build up the presence of its intelligence service in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as it withdraws its troops from that country. We are convinced that these circumstances are giving rise to serious concern not only in Russia but in other countries of the region as well. We are looking forward to receiving explanations from the American side.

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Russia sanctions eight US officials and expels diplomats in retaliation for Biden's actions

By Nicole Gaouette, Zahra Ullah, Anna Chernova and Jennifer Hansler

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/16/poli ... index.html

April 16, 2021


Russia to expel 10 US diplomats in '[deleted]-for-tat response' to Biden sanctions

(CNN) Russia sanctioned eight senior US administration officials Friday, including FBI director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, one of several measures it took just a day after President Joe Biden announced sweeping sanctions https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/15/poli ... index.html against Russia and warned against a "cycle of escalation."

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Russia will also expel 10 US diplomats, curb the activity of US nonprofit groups in the country, impose new limits on American diplomats and diplomatic outposts, and consider "painful" measures against US businesses in retaliation for Thursday's punitive actions by the Biden administration.

Lavrov also said the Kremlin has told the US Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, that he should return to Washington to hold "detailed" and "serious" consultations. Russia's ambassador to the US returned to Moscow in March after Biden said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin to be a "killer" in a TV interview.

The moves are

just a part of the possibilities at our disposal,

the Russian foreign ministry warned in a statement on its website, and follow Thursday's announcement that Moscow will block foreign naval ships and state vessels in the Kerch Strait, the sea of Azov and parts of the Black Sea -- a move NATO and the Pentagon criticized.

The foreign ministry statement added that the US should

show prudence by abandoning the confrontational course

and that

not a single wave of sanctions will go unpunished.

Friday's wave of Russian penalties comes in a week when Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking for the US and its NATO allies, expressed deep concerns about Moscow's military build-up along the border with Ukraine, and the US intelligence community said in an annual report that Russia

presents one of the most serious intelligence threats to the United States.

A US State Department spokesperson called the Russian steps

escalatory and regrettable.

Our recent actions were proportionate and appropriate to Russia's harmful activities,

they said.

Today's announcement by the Russian government was escalatory and regrettable. It is not in our interest to get into an escalatory cycle, but we reserve the right to respond to any Russian retaliation against the United States.

The Russian foreign ministry released a statement on its website Friday naming Wray and Haines, along with US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Biden's domestic policy advisor Susan Rice, Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the director of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal.

The statement also names John Bolton, former national security adviser to former President Donald Trump and former CIA Director Robert James Woolsey, Jr.

Taking into account the unprecedented nature of the complications provoked by Washington in Russian- American relations, it was decided to deviate from the usual practice not to 'highlight' countermeasures publicly undertaken by the Russian side,

the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The State Department has not responded to CNN's requests for comment.

Lavrov told reporters Friday that Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov recommended to Sullivan on Friday that he return to DC.

The situation is quite multi-layered, it needs to be studied in detail,

Lavrov said.

Moreover, sometimes incomprehensible things happen in Washington. Or at least things that are not completely clear. Therefore, today Ushakov recommended Ambassador John Sullivan to go to his capital and hold detailed, serious consultations there.

In a statement to CNN, Sullivan said the US embassy had not received

any official diplomatic correspondence

on Russian actions against the US.

We have seen a message that appears on the website belonging to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and are reviewing the information therein, in consultation with Washington,

the statement said.

We have not received any official diplomatic correspondence providing details of the Russian government actions against the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in Russia.

'[deleted] for tat'

Lavrov, speaking at a press conference in Moscow with his Serbian counterpart, described the measures as a "[deleted]-for-tat response" to the Biden administration's Thursday announcement of sanctions to punish Moscow for its interference in the 2020 US election, its SolarWinds cyberattack and its ongoing occupation and "severe human rights abuses" in Crimea.

Those US penalties included the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in Washington, including

representatives of Russian intelligence services,

for the cyber hack and the election meddling.

Ten diplomats were on a list the US side handed over to us asking to ensure their leaving the United States. We will give a [deleted]-for-tat response to that. We will also ask 10 US diplomats to leave our country,

Lavrov said.

Some time ago, before the package [of sanctions] recently announced by Biden, the Americans added eight representatives of Russian structures, the Russian leadership, including the presidential administration and the Prosecutor General's Office, to the sanctions list,

Lavrov said.

Today we will publish a list of eight officials who represent the governing structures of the Washington administration. They will also be included in our sanctions list.

The foreign ministry announced a slew of other measures that could make it hard for US diplomats to function inside Russia.

The State Department will be limited to sending only 10 employees a year to Russia for short-term assignments; the US embassy will be banned from employing Russian citizens or those from third countries; and Moscow is terminating a bilateral agreement that allowed US diplomats to travel around Russia without notifying the foreign ministry.

Lavrov also said the Kremlin

will restrict and terminate the activities on our territory of American foundations and non-governmental organizations, which in fact, directly interfere in our domestic political life.

The foreign ministry said it would target

American foundations and NGOs controlled by the State Department and other American government agencies.

Tanya Lokshina, the Moscow-based Europe and Central Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch, said,

For years now, the Russian government has been taking different steps to stifle the work of independent critical organizations, be they Russian NGOS or foreign NGOs,

using laws, hostile media campaigns, harassment and painting them as foreign-funded or foreign-controlled.

Russia is also considering more "painful" measures against US businesses, Lavrov said, framing them as a response to sanctions the US placed on Russian sovereign debt and adding that for now, the Kremlin is keeping those steps "in reserve."

The Biden administration is barring US financial institutions from participating in the primary market for bonds issued by Russia's central bank and other leading financial institutions. US financial institutions weren't big buyers of Russian bonds, but their withdrawal from the market as potential buyers will still have an impact, said Gary Hufbauer, a former Treasury official and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

For obvious reasons, we do not have comparable levers of influence on the United States of this scale,

Lavrov said Friday, adding that "our experts" believe the Russian economy can handle it.

In any case, we have found and will find a way out of any situation. But we also have the opportunity to take painful measures against American business. We will keep them in reserve,

Lavrov warned.

Biden said Thursday that the sanctions against Russia were a proportionate response to cyber-attacks against the US and interference in two presidential elections, but also emphasized that

now is the time to de-escalate

tensions with the country.

Trying to avoid escalation

As part of Thursday's announcement, the US formally named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service as the force behind the SolarWinds hack that affected the federal government and wide swaths of the private sector.

During remarks at the White House, Biden said that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Tuesday phone call https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/15/opin ... index.html that he could have gone further. Biden said that while he wants to avoid escalating tensions, he made clear to Putin that he would not hesitate to take further action in the future.

We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere in our democratic process with impunity,

Biden said.

He added,

I told (Putin) that we would shortly be responding in a measured and proportionate way because we had concluded that they had interfered in the election and SolarWinds was ... totally inappropriate.

The 10 Russian diplomats who are being expelled are based in Washington, DC, and New York, and will have 30 days to leave the country, a US official familiar with the plans explained. Asked how the US chose the 10 diplomats who will be expelled, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday that those individuals

were acting with a manner inconsistent with their status in the US,

and declined to provide further details.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN's Matthew Chance contributed to this story from Moscow.

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April 18, 2021 Race Reports
PRESIDENTIAL CYCLING TOUR OF TURKEY. MERHAWI KUDUS TAKES FIFTH IN THE GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

https://www.astanapremiertech.com/presi ... ification/

The 56th edition of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey ended today with the final eighth stage to Kusadasi. The Astana – Premier Tech rider Merhawi Kudus showed a fighting spirit on the last stage of the race until the very last meters trying to change the situation in the General Classification. However, at the end of the day Kudus remained fifth in the overall standings of the Turkish stage race.

It was our goal to fight for the podium in the General Classification, but it did not work out and I missed it despite I gave my best on the queen stage. Maybe I did some small mistakes on that day, but in general I can say I can be happy and proud with my performance here. I feel like I am coming to my best form after quite a long and difficult for me period of time and it makes me really happy. Now I am sure I can achieve some more this season. I want to thank my team for a huge support during this amazing week in Turkey. The guys did an excellent job for me and we rode here like a united and well-organized team. Well, in these last two days we tried to win a stage and to improve my position in the General Classification, we tried different scenario yesterday and also today and I think we showed our colours in a good way,

– said Merhawi Kudus.

The small gaps and unstable situation in the General Classification caused a lot of action at the final day of the Tour of Turkey with many riders trying to attack, to gain the seconds and to try to improve their place in the overall standings. But no one of the riders neither the group of riders were able to open a gap enough to create something really dangerous for the current race leader Jose Manuel Diaz. However, a new attack of Astana – Premier Tech’s Javier Romo with two more riders with some 20 km to go put the race leader under the pressure.

Romo showed the good legs and a huge will in his fight for the stage, while his teammates Nikita Stalnov, Rodrigo Contreras and Merhawi Kudus worked well in the bunch trying to disorganize the chasing. But with just two kilometres to go this late attempt has been neutralized by a reduced peloton and then the stage win has been decided in another bunch sprint for the fourth time in this race won by the Britton Mark Cavendish.

Merhawi Kudus was team’s best performer, finishing on 20th place and securing his fifth position in the General Classification.

Race profile.

Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Stage 8. Bodrum – Kusadasi, 160.3 km.

Stage Top-3: 1. Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck – Quick Step); 2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpesin-Fenix); 3. Kristoffer Halvorsen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team).

Astana – Premier Tech stage Top-3: 16. Merhawi Kudus; 37. Javier Romo; 46. Gleb Brussenskiy.

GC Top-3: 1. Jose Manuel Diaz (DELKO); 2. Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix); 3. Eduardo Sepulveda (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec).

Astana – Premier Tech GC Top-3: 5. Merhawi Kudus; 11. Javier Romo; 14. Rodrigo Contreras.

Photo credit: @Getty Images