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Piracy charges against 30 Greenpeace activists will be replaced with hooliganism charges, according to Russian officials.
The new charge has a maximum penalty of seven years rather than 15, Russian news website Lenta reports.
The Arctic Sunrise ship was seized more than four weeks ago by Russian security forces after activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform.
All 30 people on board – including two freelance journalists – were detained.
So far all bail applications in the case have been refused.
Vladimir Markin, the head of Russia’s main investigating agency the Investigative Committee, told Russian news agencies that the charges had been reclassified.
Piracy charges against 30 Greenpeace activists will be replaced with hooliganism charges
Last week, 11 Nobel prize-winners wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging him to drop the charges of piracy.
The presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said the president had no power to influence the courts.
Vladimir Putin said last month that the activists had violated international law but it was “absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates”.
Greenpeace Russian programme director, Ivan Blokov, told Russia’s Interfax news agency that there was no case for either piracy or hooliganism charges.
“There are no signs of hooliganism – no violence, no threat of using violence or any damage to property,” he said.
Ivan Blokov added that he was surprised the Russian government had earlier refused to attend international court hearings in Germany over the detentions.
The Netherlands took the case of the Dutch-flagged ship and its crew to the UN tribunal in Hamburg on Monday.
The Russian foreign ministry released a statement pointing out that Moscow had opted out of UN Law of the Sea dispute procedures, which infringe upon sovereignty, in 1997.
All 30 people on board the ship, including 28 activists, have been in custody in the northern port city of Murmansk and complain of being held in harsh conditions,
They were detained when Russian security sources stormed the ship following a protest against drilling for oil in the Arctic.
Greenpeace denies any wrongdoing and is calling for the release of the detainees, who come from 18 countries, and their ship, the Arctic Sunrise.
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President Vladimir Putin appeared on the Russian version of The Voice.
Vladimir Putin was singing on The Voice but the jury has no idea.
Vladimir Putin appeared on the Russian version of The Voice
The competition commenced with unchanged panel of judges including Alexander Gradsky, Dima Bilan, Leonid Agutin and Pelagea.
The video of the qualifying stage of the project was run by television host Ivan Urgant in his program, with the blind casting part of the footage featuring none other than President Vladimir Putin. The footage was later revealed to have been taken from a Saint Petersburg charity evening where Vladimir Putin performed Blueberry Hill.
The first season of the Russian The Voice concluded on December 29, 2012.
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Eleven Nobel prize-winners have written to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to drop charges against 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists.
They were held last month during a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic.
The signatories – including Archbishop Desmond Tutu – described the charges of piracy as “excessive”.
Eleven Nobel prize-winners have written to Vladimir Putin asking him to drop charges against 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists
But Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, responded that the president had no power to influence the courts.
The Greenpeace activists, who complain of being detained in harsh conditions, face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
In the letter, which was released by Greenpeace, the laureates urge Vladimir Putin “to do all you can to ensure that the excessive charges of piracy against the 28 Greenpeace activists, freelance photographer and freelance videographer are dropped, and that any charges brought are consistent with international and Russian law”.
It is also signed by former East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta and Northern Irish peace campaigner Betty Williams.
Vladimir Putin has taken part in a ceremony in Moscow to launch the torch relay for 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The torch will go on a 123-day journey covering some 40,000 miles before the Games start in the Black Sea resort on February 7.
The torch’s journey will include a trip into space.
The Russian president said the Games would show his country’s “respect for equality and diversity”.
The run-up to the Games has so far been marred by controversy over a new Russian law that restricts the spread of information about homosexuality, as well as allegations by rights groups that authorities have rounded up migrant workers who helped build the Games venues in Sochi.
Vladimir Putin has taken part in a ceremony in Moscow to launch the torch relay for 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi
The Olympic flame had been flown in from Greece after being lit last Sunday at the birthplace of the ancient Games.
Hoisting the flame in Moscow, Vladimir Putin declared in a ceremony shown live on television that “our shared dream is becoming reality”.
Vladimir Putin said the Games would show “respect for equality and diversity – ideals that are so intertwined with the ideals of the Olympic movement itself”.
He said the relay would show off Russia “the way that it is and the way we love it”.
“Today is a joyous and momentous day,” Vladimir Putin said.
“The Olympic flame – the symbol of the planet’s main sports event, the symbol of peace and friendship – has arrived in Russia, and in a few minutes it will be on its way around our huge country.”
On its journey the Olympic flame will:
- Travel to the North Pole on an atomic-powered icebreaker
- Ascend Europe’s highest peak, Mt Elbrus
- Be taken to the depths of Lake Baikal in Siberia
- Be taken on a spacewalk (unlit) at the International Space Station [youtube kOQibnX3_R4]
The Kremlin was forced to deny claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin has married former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
Rumors that the recently divorced Vladimir Putin was marrying in the town of Valdai swept the internet.
Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most charismatic political rival, tweeted: “I’m told that Putin and Kabaeva are marrying today at the Iver Monastery. All of Valdai sealed off.”
However, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later dismissed the claims as “an internet exercise to relieve boredom”.
Valdai is in the Novgorod region, where Vladimir Putin, 60, was based last week for an international conference involving politicians and journalists.
The president’s aides have repeatedly denied he is involved in a relationship with gold medal-winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 30.
The Kremlin was forced to deny claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin has married former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva
Claims that Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva have children together have also been dismissed.
This week Vladimir Putin indicated he may stand for office again in 2018.
Vladimir Putin was first elected in 2000 and served two four year terms until he handed control of the country to puppet president Dmitry Medvedev who served until 2012 when Putin was reelected, this time for a six-year term.
If reelected, Vladimir Putin will have been in power for nearly a quarter of a century which will make him the nation’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin.
Vladimir Putin, who served two consecutive four-year terms starting in 2000, stepped out of the presidential limelight and became prime minister in 2008 to observe a limit of two consecutive terms.
However, Vladimir Putin maintained his grip on power from the shadows with his longtime ally, Dmitry Medvedev, serving as a placeholder.
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At least 30 Greenpeace activists are being held at gunpoint by Russian security officers who stormed the group’s ship in the Arctic.
About 15 men in balaclavas seized the Arctic Sunrise ship in the Barents Sea, an activist said.
This comes a day after four Greenpeace members tried to board a Russian oil platform to prevent it from drilling.
The group says this threatens a unique and fragile environment – a claim denied by Moscow.
One activist on the ship said Greenpeace members were being held in the galley of the Arctic Sunrise, while the captain was being detained on the bridge.
The activist said he believed the armed men were members of Russia’s internal security service, the FSB.
About 15 men in balaclavas seized the Arctic Sunrise ship in the Barents Sea
Greenpeace also said its vessel was boarded in international waters and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the crew immediately.
The ship is now expected to be taken to the Russian port of Murmansk.
The Russian foreign ministry earlier accused the group of “aggressive and provocative” behavior.
It said the actions of the activists who had tried to board Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya drilling rig on Wednesday “threatened people’s lives and could lead to environmental catastrophe in the Arctic with unpredictable consequences”.
Moscow also said that its coastguard vessel had to fire warning shots across the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise.
The Dutch ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the foreign ministry over Greenpeace’s action.
A foreign ministry spokesman in The Hague later told Dutch media the issue had “our full attention” and that contacts with the Russian authorities would be pursued over what had happened.
The Gazprom project is Russia’s first effort to extract oil from the Barents Sea.
Prirazlomnaya is scheduled to begin production by the end of the year. Russia’s economy and its recent growth depend to a large extent on income from its huge oil and gas deposits.
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Vladimir Putin and a group of American politicians had an arm-wrestling match a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall.
In an interview on Southern California Public Radio this week, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California republican, talked about the time he met Vladimir Putin and was matched up against him in an impromptu arm-wrestling competition.
Vladimir Putin was part of a delegation of young Russian political leaders who traveled to California in the early 1990s.
At the time, Vladimir Putin was just the deputy mayor of St Petersburg but Dana Rohrabacher already knew he must be more important since he had his own bodyguard.
They met with Dana Rohrabacher, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, and other politicians including Scooter Libby.
Dana Rohrabacher, invited the delegation to play a game of American football over the weekend and Vladimir Putin and a few others agreed.
Vladimir Putin and a group of American politicians had an arm-wrestling match a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall
The teams were mixed with both Russians and Americans so no one country won.
Afterwards the men went to drink at an Irish pub and that’s when things got interesting.
“We were having a little but too much to drink I guess, but anyway we all started arguing about who won the Cold War,” Dana Rohrabacher said.
“And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had too much to drink in the pub.”
They started setting up arm-wrestling matches and Dana Rohrabacher was matched up against the future president of the Russian Federation.
“He’s a little guy, but boy I’ll tell ya, he put me down in a millisecond,” Dana Rohrabacher said of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer.
“He is tough. It’s just being you know, muscles are just unbelievable.”
But the Americans didn’t completely lose that day.
Dana Rohrabacher says his friend was matched up against Vladimir Putin’s large bodyguard, and the bodyguard surprisingly lost.
That match taught Dana Rohrabacher something about Vladimir Putin that he believes translates to the current Russian intervention in Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
“He’s a tough guy and he’s supposed to be a tough guy, and that’s what the Russian people want, but there’s no reason that we shouldn’t try to work with him,” Dana Rohrabacher said.
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Vladimir Putin has made a direct personal appeal to the American people over the Syrian crisis.
In an opinion article in the New York Times, Vladimir Putin warns that a US military strike against Syria could unleash a new wave of terrorism.
The Russian president says millions of people see the US not as a model of democracy but as relying on brute force.
The US and Russia are due to hold talks in Geneva later over Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
Moscow, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has proposed putting the weapons under international control before destroying them.
Damascus has agreed, at least partially, to the proposal, and President Barack Obama to put military action against Syria on hold.
The US blames the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack near Damascus last month that killed hundreds. Syria blames the attack on rebels.
As the diplomatic efforts continue, the Syrian army has been trying to retake the Christian town of Maaloula which was overrun by rebel forces – including members of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front – at the weekend.
Vladimir Putin has made a direct personal appeal to the American people over the Syrian crisis
In the New York Times article, Vladimir Putin says recent events “have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders”.
He warned that the UN could suffer the same fate as its precursor, the League of Nations, if “influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization”.
“The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the Pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders,” Vladimir Putin says.
“A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.”
Vladimir Putin said Russia was not protecting the Syrian government “but international law”.
He reiterated Russia’s opinion that the gas attack of August 21 was probably carried out by opposition forces “to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons”.
“Reports that militants are preparing another attack – this time against Israel – cannot be ignored,” he adds.
“It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force.”
The article comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva to discuss Moscow’s proposal.
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Vladimir Putin’s ally Sergei Sobyanin has won the election for mayor of Moscow, Russian election officials have announced.
Sergei Sobyanin secured 51.3% – just above the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second-round ballot.
His main rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, polled 27.2%.
Alexei Navalny called for a run-off and refused to recognize the results, saying they had been “deliberately falsified”.
He said he had won enough votes to force a second round and that the count had been marred by “many serious violations”.
However, Moscow’s electoral commission said there had been no serious violations and a run-off would not take place.
With all the votes counted, the commission said turnout in the Moscow vote was a low 32%. The Communist candidate, Ivan Melnikov, came third with 10.7%.
Sergei Sobyanin, once President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, told supporters earlier the election had been transparent.
Kremlin-backed candidate Sergei Sobyanin is declared the winner of the race for Moscow mayor, but rival Alexei Navalny disputes the results
“We have something to be proud of,” he said at a late-night rally in Bolotnaya Square.
“We have organized the most honest and open elections in the history of Moscow.”
Alexei Navalny warned late on Sunday that if he was denied a run-off, he would “appeal to the citizens and ask them to take to the streets of Moscow”.
City authorities have allowed him to hold a rally on Monday evening with up to 2,500 supporters.
In late 2011, Moscow was the scene of the biggest anti-government protests since Soviet times after a general election marred by allegations of ballot-rigging.
“Right now Sobyanin and his main supporter Vladimir Putin are deciding whether to have a relatively honest election and to have a second round, or not,” he said as partial results were still coming in.
Alexei Navalny is currently on bail after being found guilty of embezzlement in what he insists was a political trial.
In other mayoral votes on Sunday, anti-heroin campaigner Yevgeny Roizman won by a narrow majority in Yekaterinburg, the main city in Russia’s Urals industrial zone, election officials say.
Yevgeny Roizman, a former MP often critical of Kremlin policy, defeated ruling party candidate Yakov Silin by a margin of 30% to 26%, according to preliminary results. Unlike Moscow, the city’s mayor is elected by a simple majority in a single round.
Mayoral elections were abolished in Moscow in 2004 but re-instated as a concession to pro-democracy campaigners.
Alexei Navalny ran a Western-style campaign, holding informal meetings with voters outside metro stations and using glossy posters of himself with his family.
He is credited with bringing grassroots politics to the Russian capital, inspiring thousands of volunteers to support his campaign.
Sergei Sobyanin became mayor in 2010 after Yuri Luzhkov, who had governed the city for almost two decades, was forced out of office.
The Kremlin-backed candidate has kept a low profile during the race, shunning debates with the five other candidates.
In all, six candidates stood in the election.
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G20 leaders at Saint Petersburg summit remain divided over the Syrian conflict as they enter the final day of their meeting.
Italian PM Enrico Letta said the splits were confirmed during a working dinner in St Petersburg on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Russian presidency said a US strike on Syria would “drive another nail into the coffin of international law”.
At the UN, the US Ambassador Samantha Power accused Russia of holding the Security Council hostage by blocking resolutions.
Samantha Power said the Security Council was no longer a “viable path” for holding Syria accountable for war crimes.
The US government accuses President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-gas attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21.
The UK says scientists at the Porton Down research laboratories have found traces of sarin gas on cloth and soil samples.
But Bashar al-Assad has blamed rebels for the attack. China and Russia, which have refused to agree to a Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any action without the UN would be illegal.
The US and France are the only nations at the G20 summit to commit to using force in Syria.
Samantha Power told a news conference in New York: “Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities.
G20 leaders at Saint Petersburg summit remain divided over the Syrian conflict as they enter the final day of their meeting
“What we have learned, what the Syrian people have learned, is that the Security Council the world needs to deal with this crisis is not the Security Council we have.”
President Barack Obama is thought to be trying at the G20 summit to build an international coalition to back strikes against military targets in Syria.
But differences of opinion became obvious when world leaders – including Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin – discussed Syria over dinner on Thursday evening.
Enrico Letta said in a tweet that “the G20 has just now finished the dinner session, at which the divisions about Syria were confirmed”.
President Vladimir Putin’s press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said after the dinner that the G20 was split down the middle, with some countries seeking hasty action and others wanting the US to go through the UN Security Council.
British sources say the leaders of France, Turkey, Canada and the UK gave strong backing to President Barack Obama’s call for military action. The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the Turks put a “very strong argument about how the world must respond to the use of chemical weapons”.
But correspondents in St Petersburg say opponents of US military intervention appear to far outnumber supporters within the G20.
However, the views of the G20 leaders on any US action could be the least of Barack Obama’s worries, as his real difficulties might lie back in the US.
He was nearly an hour late for Thursday’s G20 dinner. His aides said he had been trying to find time during the summit to call US members of Congress, who are due to vote next week on whether to back Barack Obama’s call for a military strike.
President Barack Obama also cancelled a trip to California on Monday in order to lobby Congress, as a poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than one-third of Congress members were undecided whether or not to back military action.
A majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the president.
Syria’s parliamentary speaker has written to the speaker of the House of Representatives urging members not to rush into an “irresponsible, reckless action”.
The Assad regime has been accused of using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict.
Some 100,000 people have died in the conflict, and more than two million Syrians are classified as refugees, according to the UN.
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US diplomats are reportedly having secret talks with their Russian counterparts behind the scenes at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg in hopes of avoiding a stalemate over Syria.
Moscow publicly warned that a military strike on Syria could have catastrophic effects if a missile hit a small reactor near Damascus that contains radioactive uranium.
The talks started last week and are continuing both in Russia and New York, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about bilateral diplomatic talks.
Russia is insisting that Barack Obama call off a planned military strike against Syria if either house of Congress declines to authorize it.
Meanwhile, US diplomats are insisting that the Russians bend in the opposite direction. They want Vladimir Putin’s government to entertain seriously a proposal from Saudi Arabia, which would require them to refrain from opposing UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to Syria and wind down its arms sales to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Vladimir Putin is insisting that Barack Obama call off a planned military strike against Syria if either house of Congress declines to authorize it
Russia urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretariat to “react swiftly” and present IAEA members “an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on the MNSR and other facilities in Syria”.
Moscow has been the most powerful ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, shielding him from tougher UN resolutions and warning that a Western military attack on Syria would raise tensions and undermine efforts to end the country’s civil war.
“The IAEA is aware of the statement but has not received a formal request from the Russian Federation,” an IAEA spokesperson said.
“We will consider the questions raised if we receive such a request.”
The IAEA said in a report to member states last week that Syria had declared there was a “small amount of nuclear material” at the MNSR, a type of research reactor usually fuelled by highly enriched uranium.
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The seating plan at today’s G20 summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, has reportedly been adjusted to put physical distance between host President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama as tensions are running high over Syria.
Ahead of the meeting of the leading world economies in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin warned that action without UN approval would be “an aggression” as the relationship between the two countries reaches its lowest point since the Cold War.
But President Obama, who is leading the international drive for an armed response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s apparent breach of the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons, said the credibility of the international community was on the line.
The seating plan at G20 summit in Saint Petersburg has been adjusted to put physical distance between host Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama
Barack Obama last night cleared the first hurdle to obtaining Congressional approval for a strike, as the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee backed the use of force by a margin of 10-7, moving the measure to a full Senate vote next week.
The proposal allows the use of force for 60 days, with the possibility of a 30-day extension.
He president has said he is confident of receiving approval from Congress for “limited and proportionate’ military action, which he said would not involve US troops putting ‘boots on the ground” in Syria.
Bashar al-Assad had flouted a chemical weapons ban enshrined in treaties signed by governments representing 98% of the world’s population, he said, adding: “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.”
Speaking in Sweden as he travelled to St Petersburg, Barack Obama said the credibility of the international community was “on the line” if it allowed Bashar al-Assad to act with impunity.
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G20 leaders are meeting in Sankt Petersburg, Russia, amid sharp differences over the crisis in Syria.
US President Barack Obama has begun informal talks with other leaders as he pushes for military action over Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that military action without UN approval would be “an aggression”.
Syria is not officially on the G20 agenda in St Petersburg, but it is expected to dominate informal meetings.
The annual summit of the G20 group of the world’s leading economies is supposed to concentrate on the global economy.
Barack Obama, British PM David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping are among the leaders who have now arrived at the G20.
On Thursday the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said one of its surgeons, a Syrian working in Aleppo province, had been killed.
It gave no details of the circumstances but called for humanitarian workers to be protected.
Separately, Syrian rebels have launched an assault on the religiously mixed village of Maaloula, in western Syria, held by government forces.
A Christian nun in Maaloula told the Associated Press news agency that the rebels had seized a mountain-top hotel and were shelling the community below.
On the eve of the summit, a US Senate panel approved the use of military force in Syria, in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
G20 leaders are meeting in Sankt Petersburg amid sharp differences over the crisis in Syria
The proposal, which now goes to a full Senate vote next week, allows the use of force in Syria for 60 days with the possibility to extend it for 30 days.
The measure must also be approved by the US House of Representatives.
The Damascus government is accused of using chemical weapons against civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict – most recently on a large scale in an attack on 21 August on the outskirts of the capital.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied involvement and said the rebels were responsible.
The US has put the death toll from that incident at 1,429 – though other countries and groups have given lower figures – and says all the evidence implicates government forces.
Vladimir Putin dismissed as “ludicrous” claims the Syrian government used chemical weapons, but said Russia would be ready to act if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and by whom.
Barack Obama is trying to build support in the US for military action against the Syrian government.
After arriving in St Petersburg, he held talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in the first of a series of meetings on the sidelines.
Barack Obama said Japan and the US had a “joint recognition” that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a tragedy and a violation of international law.
Shinzo Abe has not stated publicly whether he supports military strikes.
A new study of images apparently from the chemical attack on August 21 concludes that the rockets carrying the gas held up to 50 times more nerve agent than previously estimated, the New York Times reported.
The study was carried out by an expert in warhead design, Richard Lloyd, and Theodore Postol, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The German intelligence service, the BND, told German MPs in a confidential briefing on Wednesday that Syrian forces might have misjudged the mix of gases in the attack, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
This might explain why the death toll was much higher than in previous suspected attacks, the head of the BND was quoted as saying.
France has strongly backed the US plan for military action. The French parliament debated the issue on Wednesday, although no vote was held.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
More than two million Syrians are now registered as refugees, the UN says, with an additional 4.25 million displaced within the country, making it the worst refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
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Vladimir Putin has warned America and its allies against taking one-sided action in Syria.
The Russian president said any military strikes without UN approval would be “an aggression”.
President Barack Obama has called for punitive action in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
Vladimir Putin said Russia did not rule out supporting a UN Security Council resolution authorizing force, if it was proved “beyond doubt” that the Syrian government used chemical weapons.
On Tuesday evening, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed on a draft resolution backing the use of US military force.
The measure, to be voted on next week, sets a time limit of 60 days on any operation.
According to the draft resolution, the operation would be restricted to a “limited and tailored use of the United States Armed Forces against Syria”, and ban the use of any ground forces.
The US has put the death toll from the alleged chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21 at 1,429, though other countries and organizations have given lower figures.
Vladimir Putin has warned America and its allies against taking one-sided action in Syria
Vladimir Putin was speaking ahead of the G20 summit in St Petersburg, which opens on Thursday and is supposed to concentrate on the global economy, but now looks likely to be dominated by the Syrian crisis.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press and Russia’s state Channel 1 television, Vladimir Putin said it was “ludicrous” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia, would use chemical weapons at a time when it was gaining ground against the rebels.
“If there is evidence that chemical weapons were used, and by the regular army… then this evidence must be presented to the UN Security Council. And it must be convincing,” Vladimir Putin said.
But in what correspondents say is an apparent change in stance, Vladimir Putin said Russia would “be ready to act in the most decisive and serious way” if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and who used them.
Vladimir Putin said it was “too early” to talk about what Russia would do if America took action without a UN resolution.
He confirmed that Russia had currently suspended delivering further components of S-300 missile systems to Syria.
“But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.”
The US Congress is expected to vote next week on whether to back President Barack Obama’s push for military strikes in Syria.
Ahead of next week’s vote in Congress on whether to back military strikes in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday to promote the Obama administration’s case.
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President Barack Obama says he will seek congressional authorization for taking military action against Syria.
The US says the Syrian government carried out chemical weapons attacks on August 21 in which 1,429 people died.
Barack Obama said the operation would be limited in duration and strong to deter future chemical attacks. Congress is due to re-open on September 9.
The Syrian government denies it was behind the attacks and blames rebels.
UN inspectors have now left Syria with samples from site visits, which will go to laboratories in Europe for testing.
President Barack Obama says the US should take military action against Syria
President Barack Obama said the military operation could happen tomorrow, next week or in the near future.
“We cannot and will not turn a blind eye to what happened in Damascus,” he said.
As commander-in-chief, Barack Obama has the constitutional authority to order military action without the backing of Congress.
However, he said it was important to have the debate.
Last week, British MPs defeated a government motion to take military action in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the US to present to the UN evidence that Syria attacked rebels with chemical weapons.
Vladimir Putin said it would be “utter nonsense” for Syria’s government to provoke opponents with such attacks.
Russia – a key ally of Syria – has previously warned that “any unilateral military action bypassing the UN Security Council” would be a “direct violation of international law”.
Moscow, along with China, has vetoed two previous draft resolutions on Syria.
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President Vladimir Putin has challenged the US to present to the UN evidence that Syria attacked rebels with chemical weapons near Damascus.
The Russian president said it would be “utter nonsense” for Syria’s government to provoke opponents with such attacks.
President Barack Obama says he is considering military action against Syria after intelligence reports that 1,429 people were killed on August 21.
UN weapons inspectors have left Syria after gathering evidence for four days.
They are taking their samples to the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, in The Hague.
The samples are thought to include soil, swabs from munitions, blood and hair from the victims and, experts say, possibly even flesh from dead bodies.
The US says hundreds of children were among those killed in the suspected chemical weapons attacks, which the US says was carried out by the Syrian government.
Syria said the US claim was “full of lies”, blaming rebels for the attacks.
President Barack Obama said on Friday the US was planning a “limited, narrow” military response that would not involve “boots on the ground”.
The inspectors’ departure from Syria removes both a practical and a political obstacle to the launch of US-led military action, correspondents say.
Syrian people are worried and are making preparations.
Vladimir Putin urged Barack Obama, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to think about future victims in Syria before using force
They do not know what Barack Obama means by a limited attack and what consequences it will have for them.
Speaking to journalists in the Russian far-eastern city of Vladivostok, Vladimir Putin urged Barack Obama – as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate – to think about future victims in Syria before using force.
The Russian president said it was ridiculous to suggest the Syrian government was to blame for the attack.
“Syrian government troops are on the offensive and have surrounded the opposition in several regions,” Vladimir Putin said.
“In these conditions, to give a trump card to those who are calling for a military intervention is utter nonsense.”
“So I’m convinced that is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict.”
Vladimir Putin said that the US failure to present evidence to the international community was “simply disrespectful”.
“If there is evidence it should be shown. If it is not shown, then there isn’t any,” he said.
Russia – a key ally of Syria – has previously warned that “any unilateral military action bypassing the UN Security Council” would be a “direct violation of international law”.
Moscow, along with China, has vetoed two previous draft resolutions on Syria.
Vladimir Putin also expressed surprise at a vote in the British parliament on Thursday ruling out participation in military action.
“I will be honest: this was completely unexpected for me,” he said.
“This shows that in Great Britain, even if it is the USA’s main geopolitical ally in the world… there are people who are guided by national interests and common sense, and value their sovereignty.”
Meanwhile in France – seen as the main US ally since the UK vote – an opinion poll suggested that 64% opposed the use of force.
Neither France nor the US needs parliamentary approval for military action.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his country will defend itself against any Western “aggression”.
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Russian police have seized a painting depicting President Vladimir Putin in women’s underwear from an art gallery in St Petersburg.
The portrait features President Vladimir Putin combing the hair of Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev.
Two other pictures were also seized which poked fun at conservative Russian politicians who led a campaign to introduce controversial anti-gay laws.
Police said the paintings broke unspecified legislation.
The portrait features President Vladimir Putin combing the hair of Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev
A fourth painting depicting the head of the Russian Orthodox Church adorned with tattoos was also confiscated from the Museum of the Authorities.
Gallery owner Aleksander Donskoy claimed he had been given no formal warrant or explanation for the removal of the paintings, which were included in an exhibition entitled Rulers, by Arkhangelsk artist Konstantin Altunin.
One of the pictures seized features Vladimir Putin in a nightgown, standing behind Dmitry Medvedev and stroking his hair, while the prime minister is depicted with a woman’s body and wearing lingerie.
Another painting shows St Petersburg legislative assembly member Vitaly Milonov – one of the architects of Russia’s anti-gay laws – against the background of a rainbow, the symbol of gay pride.
St Petersburg, which hosts the G20 summit next week, was one of the first Russian cities to introduce a law against what it terms “gay propaganda”.
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Barack Obama has canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden, the White House said.
But President Barack Obama will still attend the G20 economic talks in St Petersburg.
A White House aide said Edward Snowden’s asylum had deepened the pre-existing tension between the two countries.
The Kremlin said it was disappointed by the move and that the invitation to bilateral talks remained in force.
Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor, has admitted leaking information about US surveillance programmes to the media.
The decision to cancel the talks, announced during a trip by the president to Los Angeles, comes the morning after Barack Obama said he was “disappointed” with Russia’s decision to offer Edward Snowden asylum for a year.
“We have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit,” the White House said in a statement.
Barack Obama has canceled a meeting with Vladimir Putin after Russia’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snow
In addition to Russia’s “disappointing decision” to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum, the White House cited a lack of progress on issues ranging from missile defense to human rights.
“We believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda,” the White House said.
The decision to cancel the US-Russia summit comes the day after Barack Obama appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in which he condemned a newly enacted anti-gay law in Russia.
But the White House reaffirmed Barack Obama’s commitment to attending an upcoming round of G20 economic talks, which take place on 5-6 September in the Russian city of St Petersburg.
In the wake of the announcement, Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said it was clear the US had canceled the meeting over the Snowden affair.
In a conference call on Wednesday, Yuri Ushakov added the Kremlin was disappointed by the move and that the invitation for talks remained open.
“Russian representatives are ready to continue working together with American partners on all key issues on the bilateral and multilateral agenda,” he said.
Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin last met in June, on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.
Edward Snowden, an American former National Security Agency (NSA) technical contractor and CIA worker, in June leaked to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers documents and details relating to NSA programmes that gather data on telephone calls and emails.
Edward Snowden, 30, fled his home in Hawaii, where he worked at a small NSA installation, to Hong Kong, and subsequently to Russia. He faces espionage charges in the US.
He spent about a month in a transit area of the Moscow airport as the US pressured other countries to deny him asylum.
On August 1st, Edward Snowden left the airport after the Russian government said it would give him asylum there for a year.
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Barack Obama made his first comments about Edward Snowden since Russia granted him a temporary asylum last week during an interview with NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he was “disappointed” that Russia granted temporary asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, defying his administration’s demands that the former government contractor be sent back to the U.S. to face espionage charges.
“There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality,” Barack Obama said.
Edward Snowden, a 30-year-old ex-NSA systems analyst, is accused of leaking details about highly-secretive government surveillance programs.
He spent several weeks in the transit zone of a Moscow airport before being granted asylum for a year.
Russia’s decision has pushed the White House to reconsider Barack Obama’s plans to travel to Russia in September. He said he would attend an international summit in St. Petersburg, saying it was important for the U.S. to be represented at talks among global economic powers.
But the president did not say whether he planned to attend separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The White House has said it was evaluating the “utility” of the Putin meetings.
Barack Obama also criticized a new Russian law cracking down on gay rights activism.
Russia has said it will enforce the law when it hosts the 2014 Winter Olympics. Asked whether the law would impact the games, Barack Obama said he believes Vladimir Putin and Russia have “a big stake in making sure the Olympics work”.
President Barack Obama giving Jay Leno a replica of his limo The Beast on The Tonight Show
“I think they understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn’t tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently,” the president said.
In a wide-ranging interview, Barack Obama touched on the closure of 19 embassies in the wake of the al-Qaeda terror alert.
He said that the U.S. was not overreacting with its decision and that Americans can still take their vacation in a “prudent way” by checking on State Department websites for up-to-day information before making plans.
Barack Obama added: “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.”
The administration was earlier today accused of behaving “like a bunch of cowards” following the embassy closures.
Louis Gohmert, a Republican congressman from Texas, recalled the September 11, 2012, terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Barack Obama also lauded two of his former political rivals: former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain, R-Ariz.
Once bitter adversaries, Barack Obama and John McCain have deepened their ties in recent months. The Republican senator helped usher a White House-backed overhaul of U.S. immigration law through the Senate and most recently negotiated a plan to clear the way for votes on several stalled Obama nominees.
The president said that while he and John McCain still have significant policy differences, the Republican senator is “a person of integrity”.
But Barack Obama said jokingly that it’s probably not good for John McCain if the Democratic president compliments him on television.
The president also discussed his recent lunch with Hillary Clinton, his rival in the 2008 Democratic primaries.
Hillary Clinton, who left the State Department earlier this year, had a post-administration “glow”, Barack Obama said.
But he sidestepped questions about whether she was measuring the curtains in the White House for a possible 2016 presidential bid.
“Keep in mind, she’s been there before,” Barack Obama said.
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US officials say they will go ahead with high-level talks with Russia on Friday despite Moscow’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden.
Some members of Edward Snowden’s family are applying for visas to visit him in Russia, his lawyer says.
Edward Snowden was granted asylum by Russia despite repeated requests from the US that he be returned to America.
He leaked details about a secret data-gathering programme.
The US state department said Secretary of State John Kerry and US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would hold talks on pressing bilateral and global issues with their Russian counterparts in Washington, including Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme.
The two sides were also to discuss Edward Snowden, it added.
President Barack Obama has meanwhile said he is “disappointed” that Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden.
US will go ahead with high-level talks with Russia despite Moscow’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden
Speaking during an interview for Tuesday’s broadcast of The Tonight Show on NBC, Barack Obama accused Moscow of occasionally adopting a “Cold War mentality”.
Barack Obama said: “What I say to President [Vladimir] Putin is, that’s the past and… we’ve got to think about the future. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to cooperate more effectively than we do.”
Edward Snowden’s whereabouts in Russia are not publicly known after he slipped away from Moscow’s international airport last week.
But his lawyer says he has now registered an address within Russian territory and his father, Lon Snowden, is waiting for a visa to visit him.
He said Edward Snowden wanted his father’s advice on what to do with his new life.
“We do not have a set date yet, but we have been working closely with Anatoly Kucherena, Ed Snowden’s attorney, on setting a definitive date which will be some time in August,” Mattie Fein, a representative for Lon Snowden, told the Reuters news agency.
Russia’s decision to grant temporary asylum to the former intelligence analyst has strained relations between Moscow and the US.
Edward Snowden leaked details of the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance programme which gathers data about emails and phone calls made by American citizens.
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Edward Snowden has thanked Russia for granting him temporary asylum, allowing him to leave the Moscow airport where he has been holed up since June.
In a statement, Edward Snowden also accused the US government of showing “no respect” for international law.
The US has charged Edward Snowden with leaking details of its electronic surveillance programmes.
Washington has expressed its “extreme disappointment” at Russia’s decision.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said they were considering whether a meeting between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September should go ahead.
The latest developments came amid fresh revelations from the cache of documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Documents seen by the UK’s Guardian newspaper appear to show the US government paid at least $150 million to the UK’s GCHQ spy agency to secure access to and influence over Britain’s intelligence gathering programmes.
Edward Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said the former CIA contractor had left Sheremetyevo Airport at about 14:00 local time for an undisclosed destination.
Showing a photocopy of the document issued to his client, he described Edward Snowden as “the most pursued man on the planet”.
Anatoly Kucherena said Edward Snowden was being looked after by a legal expert from the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks.
Russia’s Federal Migration Service later officially confirmed that Edward Snowden had been granted temporary asylum for one year, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia granted Edward Snowden temporary asylum, allowing him to leave the Moscow airport
In a statement issued on the WikiLeaks website, Edward Snowden said: “Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning.
“I thank the Russian Federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations.”
President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin had been scheduled to meet on the sidelines of a G20 summit in early September in Saint Petersburg.
However, Jay Carney said: “We’re extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him.
“We’re evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this and other issues.”
Earlier, Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Thursday’s development as “a setback to US-Russia relations”.
“Edward Snowden is a fugitive who belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia,” he said.
Republican Senator John McCain also issued a stinging rebuke, saying Russia’s actions were “a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States”.
“It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia. We need to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for,” he said.
Vladimir Putin has said previously that Edward Snowden could receive asylum in Russia on condition he stopped leaking US secrets.
The Russian president’s foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, said the situation was “rather insignificant” and should not influence relations with the US.
Information leaked by Edward Snowden first surfaced in the Guardian newspaper in early June.
It showed that the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans.
The systems analyst also disclosed that the NSA had tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication in a surveillance programme known as PRISM.
PRISM was allegedly also used by Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency, GCHQ. The agency was further accused of sharing vast amounts of data with the NSA.
Allegations that the NSA had spied on its EU allies caused indignation in Europe.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped to his waist and landed a 21 kg pike during a trip to Siberia.
Vladimir Putin was joined on the trip by PM Dmitry Medvedev, in a clear bid to prove Russia’s top two remain unified despite reports of in-house tension.
Dressed in camouflage and sporting a slouch hat, Vladimir Putin manned the helm aboard a small fishing boat before taking a turn casting a line.
Vladimir Putin landed a 21 kg pike during a fishing trip to Siberia
State television showed Vladimir Putin laughing in amazement as he dragged the pike onto the jetty.
He then turned to the cameras and kissed his prize on the gills.
“It was very interesting relaxation. Putin and Medvedev socialized very warmly, talked and went swimming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.
While the cameras were still rolling, Vladimir Putin also took his top of, in his latest show of peck-flexing machismo.
Vladimir Putin has never shied away from self-publicity, particularly in bolstering his hardman reputation.
He was famously pictured in 2007 while on holiday in southern Siberia’s Tuva region swimming, hunting and fishing with no shirt on to show off his masculine physique.
Vladimir Putin is also a keen jodu player and has been photographed flying helicopters, driving formula 1 racing cars and shooting guns on a regular basis.
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The FBI and Russian FSB security services are “in talks” over fugitive Edward Snowden, according to President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.
However, Dmitry Peskov repeated Russia’s position that it would “not hand anyone over”.
Edward Snowden, 30, has been stuck in transit at a Moscow airport for the past month as he has no valid travel documents.
The US Attorney General, Eric Holder, has sought to assure Moscow he would not face the death penalty in America.
Washington wants him extradited for leaking details of surveillance programmes.
Dmitry Peskov did not specify what the nature of the talks between the agencies was.
He did, however, remind reporters that President Vladimir Putin had expressed a strong determination not to allow the case to interfere with US-Russian relations.
The FBI and Russian FSB security services are “in talks” over fugitive Edward Snowden
Vladimir Putin had not taken part in any discussions with the American authorities over Mr Snowden case, Dmitry Peskov said.
Edward Snowden “has not made any request that would require examination by the head of state”, Dmitry Peskov added.
The Russian president has refused to hand him to the American authorities, but said he could stay in Russia only if he stopped leaking US secrets.
Edward Snowden, whose passport has been cancelled by the US, has been in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.
On Thursday Edward Snowden’s lawyer Anatoly Kucherena denied earlier reports that Snowden had been given Russian travel documents.
Edward Snowden has requested temporary asylum in Russia, and said recently his favored final destination was Latin America.
In a letter to Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, Eric Holder said that the charges against Edward Snowden were not punishable by death.
If additional charges were brought which could incur capital punishment, the US would not seek to impose such a penalty, he added.
The Snowden affair has caused diplomatic ructions around the world, upsetting America’s close allies and traditional enemies.
Leaks by the former CIA worker have led to revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting Americans’ phone records.
On Wednesday evening, an attempt to block funding for the programme narrowly failed in a 205-217 vote in the House of Representatives.
The White House had lobbied Congress to support the surveillance.
Opponents of the US, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, have all offered Edward Snowden asylum.
President Vladimir Putin lashed out at critics of Russia’s crushing victory in the Universiade world student games, mischievously suggesting they would be better off enjoying life by taking Viagra.
The Russian team won six times more gold medals than any other nation at the biennial Universiade world student games that wrapped up Wednesday in Russia’s Volga city of Kazan.
Vladimir Putin lashed out at critics of Russia’s crushing victory in the Universiade world student games, mischievously suggesting they would be better off enjoying life by taking Viagra
Several editorials in Russia’s sports and opposition media have however ridiculed the achievement, saying the medal haul was made possible by fielding elite professional athletes in the amateur competition.
“When we have such great victories, people start lamenting that something is not right,” Vladimir Putin told the medal winners at a reception outside Moscow.
“I’d like to advise them to play sport – and if they have health problems then go to the doctor… Maybe taking Viagra would help. And life would work out. See its most beautiful side.”
Vladimir Putin’s reference to Pfizer’s iconic drug was characteristic of his frequent use of earthy language to mock critics.
Russia won an astonishing 155 gold medals at the 27th Universiade, with a team packed with Olympic champions and elite athletes.
It even won both the men’s and women’s competitions in rugby, not a sport where it is a known world beater.
No other nation could even touch Russia’s dominance, with China coming second in the gold medal tally with 26 golds and Japan third with 24.
Russia’s political leaders are keen to show the nation has retained its Soviet-era sporting dominance ahead of the Winter Olympics in the southern Russian resort of Sochi in 2014, despite a series of let-downs in recent years.
Russian activist Alexei Navalny has told supporters he will fight and win the Moscow mayoral vote, after he was freed from jail pending an appeal against a five-year jail term.
Alexei Navalny has returned to Moscow from Kirov, where a judge convicted him of embezzlement, in a case widely condemned as political.
The court ruled on Friday he could go back to Moscow until the appeal.
The jail term has been criticized by the US, EU and human rights groups.
Alexei Navalny has told supporters he will fight and win the Moscow mayoral vote, after he was freed from jail pending an appeal against a five-year jail term
Alexei Navalny told a crowd of supporters at Yaroslavsky station on Saturday that “we are going to stand in the elections and we will win”.
He was accepted as a candidate in the September 8 mayoral poll shortly before he was found guilty of embezzlement and there had been some doubt over whether he would run.
The anti-corruption activist said he would take part in campaigning for the election as long as it was possible.
A number of riot police were at the station and security forces were deployed in the surrounding area, Interfax news agency reports.
Hours after his conviction was announced in Kirov on Thursday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow in an unsanctioned demonstration.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has since warned activists not to hold any more protests without official approval.
Asked late on Friday whether there was any chance of Alexei Navalny being pardoned, Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “A convict first has to admit his guilt.”
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