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Tag: Finland

  • Russian oil finds ‘wide open’ back door to Europe, critics say

    Russian oil finds ‘wide open’ back door to Europe, critics say

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    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has declared Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas “history.”

    But others, from senior Ukrainian officials to MEPs and industry insiders, say that chapter of history is still being written.

    Significant quantities of Russian hydrocarbons, particularly oil, are still flowing around sanctions and into the European market, they say, earning payments that fund Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

    “I had a friend in New York in the 1990s who complained cockroaches would get into his apartment through any available hole — that’s what Russia is doing with its energy,” Oleg Ustenko, economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told POLITICO. “We have to fix these holes to stop Russia receiving this blood money they are using to finance the military machine that is destroying our country and killing our people.”

    Crude oil is notoriously difficult to track on global markets. It can easily be mixed or blended with other shipments in transit countries, effectively creating a larger batch of oil whose origins can’t be determined. The refining process, necessary for any practical application, also removes all traces of the feedstock’s origin.

    A complex network of shipping companies, carrying the flags of inscrutable offshore jurisdictions, adds a further layer of mystery; some have been accused of helping Russia to hide the origin of its crude exports using a variety of different means.

    “Unlike pipeline gas, the oil market is global. Swap and netting systems, and mixing varieties are common practice,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent exiled critic of Putin and the former CEO of oil and gas giant Yukos.

    “The result of the embargo is a significant increase in Russian transportation costs, a significant redistribution of income in favor of intermediaries, and some additional discount due to the narrowing of the buyers’ market.”

    Crude workarounds?

    The EU has largely banned Russian fossil fuels since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with exceptions for limited quantities of pipeline crude oil, pipeline gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and oil products.

    But large volumes of Russian crude oil — a bigger source of revenue than gas — are still being shipped onto global markets, leading some experts to suspect they are finding their way to Europe’s market through the back door.

    “Since the introduction of sanctions, the volumes of crude oil Russia is exporting have remained more or less steady,” said Saad Rahim, chief economist at global commodities trading firm Trafigura. “It’s possible that Russian oil is still being sold on to the EU and Western nations via middlemen.”

    Crude oil is notoriously difficult to track on global markets | Image via iStock

    One potential route into Europe is through Azerbaijan, which borders Russia and is the starting point of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, operated by BP. The port of Ceyhan, in Turkey, is a major supply hub from which crude oil is shipped to Europe; it also receives large quantities from Iraq through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline.

    François Bellamy, a French MEP and member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, aired suspicions about this route in a recent question to the Commission. Data show that Azerbaijan exported 242,000 barrels a day more than it produced between April and July last year, he said — a large margin over domestic production, which stood at 648,000 barrels a day last month and is in long-term decline, according to ministry figures.

    “How can a country diminish its production and increase its exports at the same time? There is something completely inconsistent in the figures and this inconsistency creates suspicions that sanctions are being circumvented,” Bellamy said.

    A spokesperson for the Commission said it is working to crack down on loopholes in sanctions regimes and has appointed the EU’s former ambassador to the U.S., David O’Sullivan, as a special envoy tasked with tackling circumvention. The official also pointed out that data cited by Bellamy on Azerbaijani oil transactions, the most recent publicly available, “happened before the sanctions entered into force so there is no question of evasion of sanctions there.”

    “Azerbaijan does not export Russian oil to the EU via the BTC pipeline,” said Aykhan Hajizada, spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry, adding that while “Azerbaijan continues to use all non-sanctioned oil regardless of source,” it “remains committed to conducting its supply and trading operations with the utmost care and diligence, in line with relevant laws and regulations.”

    BP has previously been forced to deny that the BTC pipeline carries Russian oil, and data seen by POLITICO for crude shipments from Ceyhan shows a recent dip in the volume of exports to the EU, from around 3 million tons per month (about 700,000 barrels per day) in early 2022 to around 2 million tons a month this year.

    Slick operations

    At the same time, though, Turkey doubled its direct imports of Russian oil last year and has refused to impose sanctions on Russian crude despite simultaneously offering military and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

    Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) warned late last year that “a new route for Russian oil to the EU is emerging through Turkey, a growing destination for Russian crude oil,” where it is refined into oil products that are not subject to sanctions and sold on.

    “We have enough evidence that some international companies are buying refinery products made from Russian oil and selling them on to Europe,” said Ustenko, the Zelenskyy adviser. “It’s completely legal, but completely immoral. Just because it’s allowed doesn’t mean we don’t need to do anything about it.”

    On Monday, British NGO Global Witness released a report that found Russian oil has consistently been sold at prices far exceeding the $60 cap imposed by G7 countries in December last year.

    “The fact Russian oil continues to flow round the world is a feature, not a bug, of Western sanctions,” said Mai Rosner, a campaigner who worked on the report. “Governments offered the fossil fuel industry a wide-open back door, and commodity traders and big oil companies are exploiting these loopholes to continue business as usual.”

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    Gabriel Gavin

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  • Digital literacy: Can the republic ‘survive an algorithm’?

    Digital literacy: Can the republic ‘survive an algorithm’?

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    SEATTLE (AP) — Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st century driver’s education, an essential for modern life.

    Lee has tried to bring that kind of education into his classroom, with lessons about the need to double-check online sources, to diversify newsfeeds and to bring critical thinking to the web. He’s also created an organization for other teachers to share resources.

    “This technology is so new that no one taught us how to use it,” Lee said. “People are like, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ and they throw their hands in the air. I disagree with that. I would like to think the republic can survive an algorithm.”

    Lee’s efforts are part of a growing movement of educators and misinformation researchers working to offset an explosion of online misinformation about everything from presidential politics to pandemics. So far, the U.S. lags many other democracies in waging this battle, and the consequences of inaction are clear.

    But for teachers already facing myriad demands in the classroom, incorporating internet literacy can be a challenge — especially given how politicized misinformation about vaccines, public health, voting, climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine has become. The title of a talk for a recent gathering of Lee’s group: “How to talk about conspiracy theories without getting fired.”

    “It’s not teaching what to think, but how to think,” said Julie Smith, an expert on media literacy who teaches at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri. “It’s engaging about engaging your brain. It’s asking, ‘Who created this? Why? Why am I seeing it now? How does it make me feel and why?’”

    New laws and algorithm changes are often offered as the most promising ways of combating online misinformation, even as tech companies study their own solutions.

    Teaching internet literacy, however, may be the most effective method. New Jersey, Illinois and Texas are among states that have recently implemented new standards for teaching internet literacy, a broad category that can include lessons about how the internet and social media work, along with a focus on how to spot misinformation by cross-checking multiple sources and staying wary of claims with missing context or highly emotional headlines.

    Media literacy lessons are often included in history, government or other social studies classes, and typically offered at the high school level, though experts say it’s never too early — or late — to help people become better users of the internet.

    Finnish children begin to learn about the internet in preschool, part of a robust anti-misinformation program that aims to make the country’s residents more resistant to false online claims. Finland has a long history of combating propaganda and misinformation spread by one of its neighbors, Russia, and expanded its current efforts after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea set off another wave of disinformation.

    “Media literacy was one of our priorities before the time of the internet,” Petri Honkonen, Finland’s minister of science and culture, said in a recent interview. “The point is critical thinking, and that is a skill that everybody needs more and more. We have to somehow protect people. We also must protect democracy.”

    Honkonen spoke with The Associated Press earlier this year during a trip to Washington that included meetings to discuss Finland’s work to fight online misinformation. One recent report on media literacy efforts in western democracies placed Finland at the top. Canada ranked seventh, while the U.S. came in at No. 18.

    In Finland the lessons don’t end with primary school. Public service announcements offer tips on avoiding false online claims and checking multiple sources. Additional programs are geared toward older adults, who can be especially vulnerable to misinformation compared to younger users more at home on the internet.

    In the U.S., attempts to teach internet literacy have run into political opposition from people who equate it to thought control. Lee, the Seattle teacher, said that concern prevents some teachers from even trying.

    Several years ago, the University of Washington launched MisinfoDay, which brought high schoolers and their teachers together for a one-day event featuring speakers, exercises and activities focused on media literacy. Seven hundred students from across the state attended one of three MisinfoDays this year.

    Jevin West, the University of Washington professor who created the event, said he’s heard from educators in other states and as far away as Australia who are interested in creating something similar.

    “Maybe eventually, someday, nationally here in the United States, we have a day devoted to the idea of media literacy,” West said. “There are all sorts of things we can do in terms of regulations, technology, in terms of research, but nothing is going to be more important than this idea of making us more resilient” to misinformation.

    For teachers already struggling with other classroom demands, adding media literacy can seem like just one more obligation. But it’s a skill that is just as important as computer engineering or software coding for the future economy, according to Erin McNeill, a Massachusetts mother who started Media Literacy Now, a national nonprofit that advocates for digital literacy education.

    “This is an innovation issue,” McNeill said. “Basic communication is part of our information economy, and there will be huge implications for our economy if we don’t get this right.”

    The driver’s education analogy comes up a lot when talking to media literacy experts. Automobiles first went into production in the early 20th century and soon became popular. But it was nearly three decades before the first driver’s education courses were offered.

    What changed? Governments passed laws regulating vehicle safety and driver behavior. Auto companies added features like collapsible steering columns, seat belts and air bags. And in the mid-1930s, safety advocates began to push for mandated driver’s education.

    That combination of government, industry and educators is seen as a model by many misinformation and media literacy researchers. Any effective solution to the challenges posed by online misinformation, they say, must by necessity include an educational component.

    Media literacy in Canadian schools began decades ago and initially focused on television before being expanded throughout the digital era. Now it’s accepted as an essential part of preparing students, according to Matthew Johnson, director of education at MediaSmarts, an organization that leads media literacy programs in Canada.

    “We need speed limits, we need well-designed roads and good regulations to ensure cars are safe. But we also teach people how to drive safely,” he said. “Whatever regulators do, whatever online platforms do, content always winds up in front of an audience, and they need to have the tools to engage critically with it.”

    ___

    Klepper reported from Washington.

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  • Shock, anger, betrayal: Inside the Qatargate-hit Socialist group

    Shock, anger, betrayal: Inside the Qatargate-hit Socialist group

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    BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s Socialists are warily eyeing their colleagues and assistants, wondering which putative ally might turn out to be a liar as new details emerge in a growing cash-for-favors scandal.

    Long-simmering geographic divisions within the group, Parliament’s second largest, are fueling mistrust and discord. Members are at odds over how forcefully to defend their implicated colleagues. Others are nursing grievances over how the group’s leadership handled months of concerns about their lawmaker, Eva Kaili, who’s now detained pending trial.

    Publicly, the group has shown remarkable solidarity during the so-called Qatargate scandal, which involves allegations that foreign countries bribed EU lawmakers. Socialists and Democrats (S&D) chief Iratxe García has mustered a unified response, producing an ambitious ethics reform proposal and launching an internal investigation without drawing an open challenge to her leadership. Yet as the Parliament’s center left ponders how to win back the public’s trust ahead of next year’s EU election, the trust among the members themselves is fraying.

    “I feel betrayed by these people that are colleagues of our political group,” said Mohammed Chahim, a Dutch S&D MEP. “As far as I am concerned, we are all political victims, and I hope we can get the truth out in the open.”

    S&D MEPs are grappling not only with a sense of personal betrayal but also a fear that the links to corruption could squash otherwise promising electoral prospects. 

    Social democrats were looking forward to running in 2024 on the bread-and-butter issues at the top of minds around the bloc amid persistent inflation, buoyed by Olaf Scholz’s rise in Germany and the Continent-wide popularity of Finland’s Sanna Marin. Now, the group’s appeal to voters’ pocketbooks could be overshadowed by suitcases filled with cash.

    “We were completely unaware of what was going on,” said García, vowing that the group’s internal inquiry will figure out what went wrong. “We have to let the people responsible [for the investigation] work.”

    The ‘darkest plenary’

    Shock, anger and betrayal reverberated through the 145-strong caucus in early December last year when Belgian police began arresting senior S&D figures, chief among them a former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and Eva Kaili, a rising star from Greece who had barely completed a year as one of Parliament’s 14 vice presidents.

    “The Qatargate revelations came as a terrible shock to S&D staff and MEPs,” an S&D spokesperson said. “Many felt betrayed, their trust abused and broken. Anyone who has ever become a victim of criminals will understand it takes time to heal from such an experience.”

    When the S&D gathered for a Parliament session in Strasbourg days after the first arrests, few members took it harder than the group’s president, García, who at one point broke down in tears, according to three people present.

    “We are all not just political machines, but also human beings,” said German MEP Gabriele Bischoff, an S&D vice chair in her first term. “To adapt to such a crisis, and to deal with it, it’s not easy.”

    “I mean, also, you trusted some of these people,” she said.

    An Italian court ruled that the daughter of former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri can be extradited to Belgium | European Union

    In Strasbourg the group showed zero appetite to watch the judicial process play out, backing a move to remove Kaili from her vice presidency role. (She has, through a lawyer, consistently maintained her innocence.) 

    The group’s leadership also pressured MEPs who in any way were connected to the issues or people in the scandal to step back from legislative work, even if they faced no charges.

    “It was of course the darkest plenary we’ve had,” said Andreas Schieder, an Austrian S&D MEP who holds a top role on the committee charged with battling foreign interference post Qatargate. “But we took the right decisions quickly.”

    The S&D hierarchy swiftly suspended Kaili from the group in December and meted out the same treatment to two other MEPs who would later be drawn into the probe.

    But now many S&D MEPs are asking themselves how it was possible that a cluster of people exerted such influence across the Socialist group, how Kaili rose so quickly to the vice presidency and how so much allegedly corrupt behavior went apparently unnoticed for years.

    Like family

    The deep interpersonal connections between those accused and the rest of the group were part of what made it all so searing for the S&D tribe. 

    Belgian authorities’ initial sweep nabbed not only Panzeri and Kaili but also Kaili’s partner, a longtime parliamentary assistant named Francesco Giorgi, who had spent years working for Panzeri. Suddenly every former Panzeri assistant still in Parliament was under suspicion. Panzeri later struck a plea deal, offering to dish on whom he claims to have bribed in exchange for a reduced sentence.

    Maria Arena, who succeeded Panzeri as head of the Parliament’s human rights panel in 2019, also found herself under heavy scrutiny: Her friendship with her predecessor was so close that she’d been spotted as his plus-one at his assistant’s wedding. Alessandra Moretti, another S&D MEP, has also been linked to the probe, according to legal documents seen by POLITICO.

    The appearance of Laura Ballarin, García’s Cabinet chief, raising a glass with Giorgi and vacationing on a Mediterranean sailboat with Kaili, offered a tabloid-friendly illustration of just how enmeshed the accused were with the group’s top brass.

    “I was the first one to feel shocked, hurt and deeply betrayed when the news came out,” Ballarin told POLITICO. “Yet, evidently, my personal relations did never interfere with my professional role.”

    Making matters worse, some three months later, the scandal has largely remained limited to the S&D. Two more of its members have been swallowed up since the initial round of arrests: Italy’s Andrea Cozzolino and Belgium’s Marc Tarabella — a well-liked figure known for handing out Christmas gifts to Parliament staff as part of a St. Nicholas act. Both were excluded, like Kaili, from the S&D group. They maintain their innocence.

    Whiter than white

    That’s putting pressure on García, who is seen in Brussels as an extension of the power of her close ally, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. 

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is one of S&D chief Iratxe García most important allies | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

    However, she has not always been able to leverage that alliance in Brussels. A prime example is the backroom deal the political groups made to appoint the Parliament’s new secretary-general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, who hails from the center-right European People’s Party. García emerged mostly empty-handed from the negotiations, with the EPP maneuvering around her and The Left group securing an entirely new directorate general.

    Kaili, from a tiny two-person Greek Socialist delegation, would also have never gotten the nod to become vice president in 2022 without García and the Spanish Socialists’ backing.

    Yet when it comes to trying to clean house and reclaim the moral high ground, the Socialist chief has brought people together. “She deserves to be trusted to do this correctly,” said René Repasi, a German S&D lawmaker.

    In the new year, the S&D successfully pushed through the affable, progressive Luxembourgish Marc Angel to replace Kaili, fending off efforts by other left-leaning and far-right groups to take one of the S&D’s seats in the Parliament’s rule-making bureau. In another move designed to steady the ship, the Socialists in February drafted Udo Bullmann, an experienced German MEP who previously led the S&D group, as a safe pair of hands to replace Arena on the human rights subcommittee.

    And in a bid to go on the offensive, the Socialists published a 15-point ethics plan (one-upping the center-right Parliament president’s secret 14-point plan). It requires all S&D MEPs — and their assistants — to disclose their meetings online and pushes for whistleblower protections in the Parliament. Where legally possible, the group pledges to hold its own members to these standards — for example by banning MEPs from paid-for foreign trips — even if the rest of the body doesn’t go as far.

    Those results were hard won, group officials recounted. With members from 26 EU countries, the group had to navigate cultural and geographic divisions on how to handle corruption, exposing north-south fault lines.

    “To do an internal inquiry was not supported in the beginning by all, but we debated it,” said Bischoff, describing daily meetings that stretched all the way to Christmas Eve. 

    The idea of recruiting outside players to conduct an internal investigation was also controversial, she added. Yet in the end, the group announced in mid-January that former MEP Richard Corbett and Silvina Bacigalupo, a law professor and board member of Transparency International Spain, would lead a group-backed inquiry, which has now begun.

    The moves appear to have staved off a challenge to García’s leadership, and so far, attacks from the Socialists’ main rival, the EPP, have been limited. But S&D MEPs say there’s still an air of unease, with some concerned the cleanup hasn’t gone deep enough — while others itch to defend the accused.

    Some party activists quietly question if the response was too fast and furious.

    Arena’s political future is in doubt, for example, even though she’s faced no criminal charges. Following mounting pressure about her ties to Panzeri, culminating with a POLITICO report on her undeclared travel to Qatar, Arena formally resigned from the human rights subcommittee. The group is not defending her, even as some activists mourn the downfall of someone they see as a sincere champion for human rights causes.

    Vocal advocacy for Kaili has also fueled controversy: Italian S&D MEPs drew groans from colleagues when they hawked around a letter about the treatment of Kaili and her daughter, which only garnered 10 signatures.

    “I do not believe it was necessary,” García said of the letter. “[If] I worry about the situation in jails, it has to be for everyone, not for a specific MEP.”

    The letter also did nothing to warm relations between the S&D’s Spanish and Italian delegations, which have been frosty since before the scandal. The S&D spokesperson in a statement rejected the notion that there are tensions along geographical lines: “There’s no divide between North and South, nor East and West, and there’s no tension between the Italian and Spanish delegations.”

    In another camp are MEPs who are looking somewhat suspiciously at their colleagues.

    Repasi, the German S&D member, said he is weary of “colleagues that are seemingly lying into your face” — a specific reference to Tarabella, who vocally denied wrongdoing for weeks, only to have allegations surface that he took around €140,000 in bribes from Panzeri, the detained ex-lawmaker.

    Repasi added: “It makes you more and more wonder if there is anyone else betting on the fact that he or she might not be caught.”

    Jakob Hanke Vela, Karl Mathiesen and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed reporting.

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    Eddy Wax and Sarah Wheaton

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  • Russians hunting property in Finland hit a new wall of suspicion

    Russians hunting property in Finland hit a new wall of suspicion

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    KANKAANPÄÄ, Finland — In October, three Russian citizens arrived in the border town of Imatra and filed the paperwork to buy a rambling former old people’s home outside the small town of Kankaanpää, a five-hour drive away in Finland’s southwestern reaches. 

    The applicants ticked a box saying the property would be used for “leisure or recreational purposes” and all gave the same contact email and street address: a nondescript suburban apartment block in Russia’s second city, St. Petersburg.

    The story didn’t fly. 

    Two months later, the Finnish defense ministry announced it had blocked the purchase, citing national security concerns to justify the move — the first time such reasoning had been used during the war on Ukraine.

    The authorities’ problem with the transaction was a simple one: the building was a stone’s throw from the Niinisalo Garrison, an army training center for troops assigned to national defense and overseas operations. In May last year, the joint Finnish and NATO training exercise Arrow 22 — testing the readiness of armored brigades — was run out of the garrison. 

    On a recent weekday, green military transport vehicles could be seen entering and exiting the Niinisalo base. The old people’s home had a clear view of some of the roads in and out.

    In the nearby town of Kankaanpää, locals were bemused by the Russians’ attempt to buy the old people’s home. Juhani Tuori, an estate agent, said he had heard about the planned deal and thought it odd. Tuori said he had been involved in trying to sell the old people’s home before, but had no role this time. 

    “I wondered why such a trade was made,” he said. “Especially given the state of the world.”

    In a statement, the Finnish government said the transaction had been rejected because of the “special role” the city of Kankaanpää plays in securing Finland’s national defense. 

    “According to the Ministry of Defence, it is possible that the large property in the vicinity of the Niinisalo Garrison could be used in a manner that could hinder the organization of national defense and safeguarding of territorial integrity,” the statement said.

    The Russian buyers did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent to the address they provided on their application to the defense ministry. They had 30 days from the date of the decision to appeal. As of February 9, they had not done so. 

    New suspicion 

    The Kankaanpää case shows how suspicions about Russian activity — official and civilian — have spiked in neighboring states as the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine looms. 

    For more than two decades after the end of the Cold War, Russians enjoyed increased freedom to buy assets across much of Europe, and Finland was no exception, despite a bloody recent history that saw Finland fight two wars with the Soviet Union in the middle of the last century. 

    Three Russian billionaires bought a leading Finnish ice hockey team and entered it in the Russian league. A Finnish energy company announced a joint plan with Russian state-run firm Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant in Finland. 

    Across the Nordic state, Russians also snapped up holiday homes in forests, on picturesque lake shores, and on remote Baltic Sea archipelagos in what were widely seen at the time as innocent investments in an economically stable neighboring state. 

    But now, with the Russian army’s aggression in Ukraine intensifying and the activities of its intelligence wing the GRU increasingly visible across Europe, Russian property purchases are being viewed with much greater skepticism.

    Finland, which has a 1,340 km border with Russia, sees itself as especially vulnerable to covert Russian operations and has begun to take a much greater interest in which Russians are buying what assets: a Finn recently bought back the ice hockey team and the nuclear power plant plan was scrapped last year.

    The defense ministry was granted powers in 2020 to block property sales to Russians and other citizens from outside the EU and the European Economic Area, but had never used them before the Kankaanpää case on national security grounds, a spokesman for the ministry said. The only other application rejection was because of an unpaid processing fee.

    Experts say the officials are likely concerned the old people’s home could have been used as a base for special forces on covert missions, or more routinely as a place to run monitoring of comings and goings around the army base. 

    “This kind of place would not necessarily be part of some Russian masterplan, but could theoretically be there in case it was needed,” said Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a researcher at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, a think tank. 

    In its ruling, the Finnish defense ministry said the Russian would-be buyers of the old people’s home had changed their story several times about what they intended to use the building for. Their explanations were “not credible,” the ministry said. 

    Visited on a recent weekday, the empty old people’s home, standing unheated in sub-zero temperatures, was clearly in need of some attention. The front door was yellow with rust. The driveway was covered in thick ice. 

    The old people’s home appeared to have around 100 bedrooms as well as extensive parking and other surrounding land. It could be accessed by vehicle from two sides with the edge of the Niinisalo Garrison area accessible from the property via wooded back roads as well as the main approach. 

    The tightening of Finnish property policy comes at a sensitive time for the Nordic country as it proceeds with applications to join NATO alongside nearby Sweden. 

    Vladimir Putin has threatened what he called a “military-technical response” to those bids, which has led to calls for heightened vigilance in both states. 

    Officials in Sweden, where there has been a flurry of arrests recently of suspected Russian spies, are likely watching closely to see what lessons can be learned from the Finnish rule change, experts say.

    The state-run Swedish Defense Research Agency recently produced a report taking stock of Russian investments in Sweden.

    In Finland, security experts have welcomed the country’s new property rules as part of a reckoning with Russian investment in the country, which some suggest was overdue. 

    “This is a problem which has long been recognized and now there are tools to at least fix some of it,” said researcher Salonius-Pasternak.

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    Charles Duxbury

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  • NATO on the precipice

    NATO on the precipice

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    WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS — The images tell the story.

    In the packed meeting rooms and hallways of Munich’s Hotel Bayerischer Hof last weekend, back-slapping allies pushed an agenda with the kind of forward-looking determination NATO had long sought to portray but just as often struggled to achieve. They pledged more aid for Ukraine. They revamped plans for their own collective defense.  

    Two days later in Moscow, Vladimir Putin stood alone, rigidly ticking through another speech full of resentment and lonely nationalism, pausing only to allow his audience of grim-faced government functionaries to struggle to their feet in a series of mandatory ovations in a cold, cavernous hall.

    With the war in Ukraine now one year old, and no clear path to peace at hand, a newly unified NATO is on the verge of making a series of seismic decisions beginning this summer to revolutionize how it defends itself while forcing slower members of the alliance into action. 

    The decisions in front of NATO will place the alliance — which protects 1 billion people — on a path to one the most sweeping transformations in its 74-year history. Plans set to be solidified at a summit in Lithuania this summer promise to revamp everything from allies’ annual budgets to new troop deployments to integrating defense industries across Europe.

    The goal: Build an alliance that Putin wouldn’t dare directly challenge.

    Yet the biggest obstacle could be the alliance itself, a lumbering collection of squabbling nations with parochial interests and a bureaucracy that has often promised way more than it has delivered. Now it has to seize the momentum of the past year to cut through red tape and crank up peacetime procurement strategies to meet an unpredictable, and likely increasingly belligerent Russia. 

    It’s “a massive undertaking,” said Benedetta Berti, head of policy planning at the NATO secretary-general’s office. The group has spent “decades of focusing our attention elsewhere,” she said. Terrorism, immigration — all took priority over Russia.

    “It’s really a quite significant historic shift for the alliance,” she said.

    For now, individual nations are making the right noises. But the proof will come later this year when they’re asked to open up their wallets, and defense firms are approached with plans to partner with rivals. 

    To hear alliance leaders and heads of state tell it, they’re ready to do it. 

    “Ukraine has to win this,” Adm. Rob Bauer, the head of NATO’s military committee, said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “We cannot allow Russia to win, and for a good reason — because the ambitions of Russia are much larger than Ukraine.”

    All eyes on Vilnius

    The big change will come In July, when NATO allies gather in Vilnius, Lithuania, for their big annual summit. 

    Gen. Chris Cavoli will reveal how personnel across the alliance will be called to help on short notice | Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

    NATO’s top military leader will lay out a new plan for how the alliance will put more troops and equipment along the eastern front. And Gen. Chris Cavoli, supreme allied commander for Europe, will also reveal how personnel across the alliance will be called to help on short notice.

    The changes will amount to a “reengineering” of how Europe is defended, one senior NATO official said. 

    The plans will be based on geographic regions, with NATO asking countries to take responsibility for different security areas, from space to ground and maritime forces. 

    “Allies will know even more clearly what their jobs will be in the defense of Europe,” the official said. 

    NATO leaders have also pledged to reinforce the alliance’s eastern defenses and make 300,000 troops ready to rush to help allies on short notice, should the need arise. Under the current NATO Response Force, the alliance can make available 40,000 troops in less than 15 days. Under the new force model, 100,000 troops could be activated in up to 10 days, with a further 200,000 ready to go in up to 30 days. 

    But a good plan can only get allies so far. 

    NATO’s aspirations represent a departure from the alliance’s previous focus on short-term crisis management. Essentially, the alliance is “going in the other direction and focusing more on collective security and deterrence and defense,” said a second NATO official, who like the first, requested anonymity to discuss ongoing planning.

    Chief among NATO’s challenges: Getting everyone’s armed forces to cooperate. Countries such as Germany, which has underfunded its military modernization programs for years, will likely struggle to get up to speed. And Sweden and Finland — on the cusp of joining NATO — are working to integrate their forces into the alliance.

    Others simply have to expand their ranks for NATO to meet its stated quotas.

    “NATO needs the ability to add speed, put large formations in the field — much larger than they used to,” said Bastian Giegerich, director of defense and military analysis and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.  

    East vs. West

    An east-west ideological fissure is also simmering within NATO. 

    Countries on the alliance’s eastern front have long been frustrated, at times publicly, with the slower pace of change many in Western Europe and the United States are advocating — even after Russia’s invasion. 

    Joe Biden traveled to Warsaw for a major speech last week that helped alleviate some of the tensions and perceived slights | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    “We started to change and for western partners, it’s been kind of a delay,” Polish Armed Forces Gen. Rajmund Andrzejczak said during a visit to Washington this month. 

    Those concerns on the eastern front are being heard, tentatively. 

    Last summer, NATO branded Russia as its most direct threat — a significant shift from post-Cold War efforts to build a partnership with Moscow. U.S. President Joe Biden has also conducted his own charm offensive, traveling to Warsaw for a major speech last week that helped alleviate some of the tensions and perceived slights. 

    Still, NATO’s eastern front, which is within striking distance of Russia, is imploring its western neighbors to move faster to help fill in the gaps along the alliance’s edges and to buttress reinforcement plans.

    It is important to “fix the slots — which countries are going to deliver which units,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, adding that he hopes the U.S. “will take a significant part.” 

    Officials and experts agree that these changes are needed for the long haul. 

    “If Ukraine manages to win, then Ukraine and Europe and NATO are going to have a very disgruntled Russia on its doorstep, rearming, mobilizing, ready to go again,” said Sean Monaghan, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

    “If Ukraine loses and Russia wins,” he noted, the West would have “an emboldened Russia on our doorstep — so either way, NATO has a big Russia problem.” 

    Wakeup call from Russia

    The rush across the Continent to rearm as weapons and equipment flows from long-dormant stockpiles into Ukraine has been as sudden as the invasion itself. 

    After years of flat defense budgets and Soviet-era equipment lingering in the motor pools across the eastern front, calls for more money and more Western equipment threaten to overwhelm defense firms without the capacity to fill those orders in the near term. That could create a readiness crisis in ammunition, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and anti-armor weapons. 

    A damaged Russian tank near Kyiv on February 14, 2023 | Sergei Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE

    NATO actually recognized this problem a decade ago but lacked the ability to do much about it. The first attempt to nudge member states into shaking off the post-Cold War doldrums started slowly in the years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. 

    After Moscow took Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014, the alliance signed the “Wales pledge” to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense by 2024.

    The vast majority of countries politely ignored the vow, giving then-President Donald Trump a major talking point as he demanded Europe step up and stop relying on Washington to provide a security umbrella.

    But nothing focuses attention like danger, and the sight of Russian tanks rumbling toward Kyiv as Putin ranted about Western depravity and Russian destiny jolted Europe into action. One year on, the bills from those early promises to do more are coming due.

    “We are in this for the long haul” in Ukraine, said Bauer, the head of NATO’s Military Committee, a body comprising allies’ uniformed defense chiefs. But sustaining the pipeline funneling weapons and ammunition to Ukraine will take not only the will of individual governments but also a deep collaboration between the defense industries in Europe and North America. Those commitments are still a work in progress.

    Part of that effort, Bauer said, is working to get countries to collaborate on building equipment that partners can use. It’s a job he thinks the European Union countries are well-suited to lead. 

    That’s a touchy subject for the EU, a self-proclaimed peace project that by definition can’t use its budget to buy weapons. But it can serve as a convener. And it agreed to do just that last week, pledging with NATO and Ukraine to jointly establish a more effective arms procurement system for Kyiv.

    Talk, of course, is one thing. Traditionally NATO and the EU have been great at promising change, and forming committees and working groups to make that change, only to watch it get bogged down in domestic politics and big alliance in-fighting. And many countries have long fretted about the EU encroaching on NATO’s military turf.

    But this time, there is a sense that things have to move, that western countries can’t let Putin win his big bet — that history would repeat itself, and that Europe and the U.S. would be frozen by an inability to agree.

    “People need to be aware that this is a long fight. They also need to be brutally aware that this is a war,” the second NATO official said. “This is not a crisis. This is not some small incident somewhere that can be managed. This is an all-out war. And it’s treated that way now by politicians all across Europe and across the alliance, and that’s absolutely appropriate.”

    Paul McLeary and Lili Bayer also contributed reporting from Munich.

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  • Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden

    Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden

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    Hungary’s reputation as the troublemaker of Europe will be burnished on Wednesday as its parliament begins debating a contentious issue: whether to give Finland and Sweden the green light to join NATO.

    Along with Turkey, Hungary has yet to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the transatlantic defense alliance more than eight months after NATO leaders signed off on their membership bid at a summit in Madrid.

    While NATO members are more concerned about the potential of Turkey to stonewall accession for the Nordic countries — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been blocking Sweden’s application, alleging that Stockholm is harboring Kurdish militants — the government of Viktor Orbán has also been dragging its heels on parliamentary approval for the process.

    Hungary’s ratification process will finally begin on Wednesday, with a debate due to kick off in the parliament in Budapest ahead of a vote — expected in the second half of March.

    But already, there are signs of trouble ahead.

    Máté Kocsis, head of Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party caucus in parliament, said last week that a “serious debate” had now emerged over the accession of the two countries. Hungary now plans to send a delegation to Sweden and Finland to examine “political disputes” that have arisen.

    Orbán himself echoed such views. The Hungarian leader, who has an iron grip on his Fidesz party, said in an interview on Friday that “while we support Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO in principle, we first need to have some serious discussions.”

    He pointed to Finland and Sweden’s previous criticism of Hungary’s record on rule-of-law issues, asserting that some in his party are questioning the wisdom of admitting countries that are “spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here.”

    “How, this argument runs, can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they’re shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary?”

    Orbán’s comments have confirmed fears in Brussels that the Hungarian leader could try to use his leverage over NATO enlargement to extract concessions on rule-of-law issues. 

    Finland and Sweden have been among the most critical voices around the EU table over rule-of-law concerns in Hungary, with Budapest still locked in a dispute with the European Union over the disbursal of funds due to Brussels’ protests over its democratic standards. 

    European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová said earlier this month that Hungary must sort out the independence of its judiciary “very soon” if it wants to receive €5.8 billion in grants due from the EU’s COVID-19 recovery fund. 

    Helsinki and Stockholm have kept largely silent on the looming vote in Budapest, reflecting in part a reluctance to stir up controversy ahead of time.

    Sweden, in particular, has been treading a fine line with Turkey, seeking not to alienate Erdoğan even as allies now acknowledge the possibility of the two countries joining at different times — an apparent acceptance that Erdoğan could further hold up Sweden’s bid. 

    NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg visited Helsinki Monday, where Finland’s push to join the alliance topped the agenda. He urged both Turkey and Hungary to confirm the membership bids — and soon. 

    “I hope that they will ratify soon,” Stoltenberg said of the Hungarian parliament’s discussions. Asked if he was in contact with Hungary on the issue, he replied that it was a decision for sovereign national parliaments, adding: “The time has come. Finland meets all the criteria, as does Sweden. So we are working hard, and the aim is to have this in place as soon as possible.”

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  • Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin: The 60 Minutes Interview

    Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin: The 60 Minutes Interview

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    Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin: The 60 Minutes Interview – CBS News


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    One of the youngest heads of government in the world, Sanna Marin, talks about her tough stance on Putin, Finland’s application for NATO, and her critics.

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  • Sanna Marin: Finland’s 37-year-old prime minister

    Sanna Marin: Finland’s 37-year-old prime minister

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    When Sanna Marin was elected prime minister of Finland in 2019, she made history. At 34-years-old, Marin became the youngest head of government in the world. But it wasn’t the prime minister’s political moves that caught the world’s attention last summer. It was her dancing. You may recall the uproar after a video of the millennial prime minister partying with friends was leaked to the press.

    Prime Minister Marin was already in the spotlight after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.  Finland and Russia share a long border and a complicated history. In May, Prime Minister Marin announced Finland would apply for NATO membership for her country of five and a half million. A bold move that ended seven decades of Finnish neutrality and angered Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Sanna Marin: I don’t think that Vladimir Putin is someone that you can reason with. I think his actions are very emotional and it’s based on some kind of– feeling of history and– and greatness– of Russia. They see Ukraine part of Russia, and they think that they have the right to attack another independent country.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Do you think that as we sit here right now that Russia poses a threat to Finland?

    Sanna Marin: I think Russia poses a threat to all of Europe. They are attacking another country. They are killing civilians. They are demolishing infrastructure. Russia poses a threat to all of us, and that’s why we have to make sure that Ukraine will win.

    We met Sanna Marin at the prime minister’s official residence in Helsinki. A quiet spot overlooking the frozen Baltic Sea.

    finlandvideo.jpg
      Sanna Marin

    Sanna Marin: We live upstairs there. But, of course, we also have our own home.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh, that you can–

    Sanna Marin: Yeah.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: be private?

    Sanna Marin: On a few kilometers here.

    Sharyn Alfonsi:  OK

    Moments of quiet have been few and far between, for Prime Minister Marin.

    Who, over the last three years, has moved from one “once in a lifetime” crisis to another.     

    The most defining one, unfolding last year. Finland’s 800-mile border with Russia is the longest of any European Union country.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: How quickly after the invasion did you decide that Finland should join NATO?

    Sanna Marin: I knew it right away. I was leaning– in favor– of NATO even before– but the country wasn’t ready.  If you would have asked Finnish people or politicians in the parliament, “Should Finland join NATO?” before the war, majority would have said no.  But after the war started, I knew immediately that this is the only way also for Finland to join the alliance– 

    Sharyn Alfonsi: When you say, “This is the only way,” what do you mean by that?

    Sanna Marin: Well, we are a next-door neighbor to Russia. And now, we have seen that Russia is attacking today– their neighboring country.  And we don’t ever again want to see war– in Finland. So we are asking ourselves, “What is the line that Russia wouldn’t cross?” And that’s the NATO line. 

    The invasion of Ukraine opened old scars for many finns. In 1939, Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union. which took about 10% of its territory. Since World War II, Finland has been militarily neutral. Its leaders, characterized as “bear whisperers” for their ability to stand up to Vladimir Putin but not provoke him.”  The president of Finland, who oversees foreign policy, reportedly last spoke to Putin in May. The same month Finland submitted its application to join NATO.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Putin has said if Finland joins NATO that Russia may be forced to take retaliatory steps.  Do you view those words as a threat?

    Sanna Marin: I think we should make our decisions not based– by fear– but what we really feel and think. And that’s why we are joining NATO and hopefully we will be members of NATO very soon.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: It’s one thing to say, “We support Ukraine.” It’s a very different thing to go to Ukraine, to stand next to President Zelenskyy, which you did, which was a bold move. Why did you choose to do that?

    Sanna Marin: Well, I think it’s very important that we are showing solidarity in many ways– by sending humanitarian aid, financial aid, military– aid– equipments, for example.  And I think it sends very important message: that we are in it together. They are not alone; we are right beside them.

    finlandscreengrabs7.jpg

    Taking sides is not what the Finns are known for, but Sanna Marin seems to enjoy breaking traditions. Marin, who was raised by her mother and her female partner in a working-class neighborhood, was the first in her family to graduate high school, and later, college. She was elected to city council at age 27. Soon, her contentious speeches were shared around Finland on YouTube.  

    In 2015, she was elected to parliament as a member of the left-leaning social democratic party.   Four years later, at age 34, she was named the prime minister of Finland. The most powerful political position in the country. 

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Was that your intention?

    Sanna Marin: I never really have focused about my own career. I– I know that sounds (LAUGH) interesting, because I am in this position. But it’s also coin– coincidence that I became a prime minister.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Really? You can become prime minister by coincidence?

    Sanna Marin: Well, I was the first vice-chair of our party when the last– previous– prime minister, Antti Rinne, had to resign, and then I had to step up. 

    The former prime minister submitted his resignation after he was accused of mishandling a postal strike. Marin was chosen by her party to fill his shoes. 

    Sanna Marin: But it wasn’t something that I pursued. I wasn’t sure (LAUGH) is it something that I personally want, or– or am I capable of doing– all of those things? But– but I thought that, “If somebody else can do it, why not me?”

    Marin, who was the mother of a newborn, with her now-husband, Markus Raikkonen, took office in December 2019, leading a historic coalition government in which all party leaders were women. A month later, the prime minister and her new cabinet were tested with a global pandemic.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: That had to be just– a crash course in leadership for you. What were those days like as you were figuring that out?

    Sanna Marin: Everybody was like frozen in the beginning. “What should we do?” And then it really took– political leadership– from me but– but al– also– many ministers that were– in the center, in the middle– of the crisis.  So– so it was also lonely. It– it took cour– courage– a lot to do those very difficult choices that we weren’t prepared before. 

    finlandscreengrabs6.jpg

    She’s talking about when she ordered her country’s borders and schools to be shut down in March of 2020 and promptly imposed a lockdown. Finland fared better than most of Europe, with lower infection rates and a quicker economic recovery. Prime Minister Marin was praised for her steady leadership and earned an 85% approval rating for her handling of the crisis. But as the pandemic came to an end, the public spotlight turned to the prime minister’s private life.

    In August, a series of private videos, including one of the prime minister dancing with friends, was leaked to the press and made international headlines. Critics accused her of embarrassing Finland, a country that prides itself on being stoic and reserved, and called for her to resign.  Opponents demanded the prime minister take a drug test, which was negative. Marin held back tears as she defended her actions, saying: “I am a human, during these dark times, I too need some joy… light and fun.” She added she’d never missed a day of work.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: In your apology you said, “I’m a human.” Do you think politicians are allowed to be human right now?

    Sanna Marin: I think we need more politicians that are human– that are normal human, also showing emotions, and also being themselves. Because they are representing ordinary people. Why cannot they be ordinary?


    Finland’s PM on the benefits of young leaders | 60 Minutes

    03:23

    On social media, women around the world rushed to Marin’s defense, posting videos of themselves dancing in solidarity.

    Sanna Marin: Those videos weren’t something that I wanted to be, like, leaked. Those– those were private. It was private apartment and private videos. But, of course that didn’t stop the media of– of– publishing them.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: But the backlash. You know, Boris Johnson, there’s videos of him dancing.

    Sanna Marin: And there’s videos a lot of people dancing.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: And it wasn’t an international incident. 

    Sanna Marin: Yeah.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Do you think it’s because you were a woman and a young woman that you were criticized the way that you were criticized?

    Sanna Marin: I think– one of the reasons why it caused that kind of frenzy was the way I looked in the videos, the way I danced. And some people thought that’s not appropriate, because there are– these non-written rules still, unfortunately, the women– especially women in– in these kind of positions, that– that you shouldn’t be a human being, and that you shouldn’t have every scope– in your life, that you should only– be put in certain kind of position, and that you should stay in that position.  I don’t care about those rules. I really don’t.  (CLAP) I’m living my life, and still dancing, and drinking occasionally, meeting my friends and– and doing all kind of– things (LAUGH) that are normal for my age people.  I don’t think that we should give that room– for sexism or– or– misogyny. I think we should all just be ourselves and people can vote we live in democracy thats the good thing they can vote they can vote me out if they want.

    Prime Minister Marin is up for re-election in April. We went with her to a party kick-off event earlier this month, that looked more like a eurovision competition.  The prime minister was introduced with a laser show befitting of a rock star. 

    Sharyn Alfonsi: How did you feel about today?  

    Sanna Marin: It’s very good atmosphere people are so happy they are willing to make the campaign happen and really win the elections.


    Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin: Ukraine must win the war | 60 Minutes

    02:56

    Polls show Marin is the most popular prime minister in Finland in 30 years, she manages her own instagram account of more than a million followers, posing for photos at rock festivals and showing up on reality shows. But the prime minister is facing a tight race against the conservative “True Finns” party.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Voters in Europe have veered to the right with this anti-immigration sentiment. Does that concern you here in Finland?

    Sanna Marin: I don’t think that’s answer to anything. I– I really see the problems that we are facing also because our population is aging.  We need more people to Finland. So I think the far right, when they are saying, “Don’t come,” they are really wrong, and it’s very– very dangerous policies also, because we cannot cope ourselves.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Why do you say it’s dangerous?

    Sanna Marin: Because if we would close our doors– say no to people, then– then we wouldn’t have that economic growth, we wouldn’t have new jobs– we wouldn’t have those prospects. And they have also said that their aim and goal is– to get rid of European Union, to leave European Union.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: What would that mean to Finland?

    Sanna Marin:  It would be a catastrophe to Finland if we would leave. It would be so stupid, I say bluntly.  We have seen the problems with Brexit, and Great Britain is a bigger country than Finland.  We are a small country. We have aggressive neighbor. There’s no other choice and possibilities for us but to stay in European Union.

    It is a defining moment for Finland and for Prime Minister Marin. Just after our visit, she appeared with other heads of state at the council of Europe and snapped a selfie with President Zelenskyy.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics, said you were too young, you were inexperienced. You have since negotiated a global pandemic, an economic crisis. You’ve gone toe-to-toe with Vladimir Putin. What do you say to your critics now?

    Sanna Marin: I don’t focus on my critics. They will shout (LAUGH) whatever I do, You should focus on the issues that are on the table. And I think the most important thing is not to be afraid. I think too many people– are living their lives– to– being too– afraid. And I think also too many politicians are not doing the important decisions, because they are afraid.

    Produced by Michael Rey. Associate producer, Tadd J. Lascari. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Peter M. Berman.

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  • Cambodia placed on watchlist of ‘repressive’ states: CIVICUS

    Cambodia placed on watchlist of ‘repressive’ states: CIVICUS

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    Cambodia’s longtime ruler Hun Sen has ‘overseen a systematic assault on fundamental freedoms’, report states.

    Cambodia has experienced a worrying decline in basic freedoms as authorities use the legal system to restrict and criminalise human rights work, youth activism, trade unions, independent journalism, opposition politicians and other voices critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government, a leading rights group has warned.

    To further strengthen his almost 40-year iron grip on power, Hun Sen recently used the COVID-19 pandemic to implement a state of emergency law that further restricted the fundamental freedoms of Cambodian citizens, said CIVICUS – a global alliance of civil society organisations tracking fundamental freedoms worldwide.

    “The misuse of the criminal justice system to harass and prosecute human rights defenders, unionists and journalists and the shutting down of media outlets highlights the democratic regression in Cambodia,” CIVICUS said in a Cambodia country report released on Thursday.

    Hun Sen, the organisation said, had “overseen a systematic assault on fundamental freedoms in Cambodia over the past decade” and the country was now on a watch list of “repressive” countries joining, among others, Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Peru.

    “Cambodian human rights defenders and activists continue to face repression,” said CIVICUS, which tracks civic freedoms across 197 countries and territories, and “press freedom continues to be at risk in Cambodia with radio stations and newspapers silenced, newsrooms purged and journalists prosecuted, leaving the independent media sector devastated”.

    Protesters chant slogans against Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen during the EU-Asia leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium in 2018 [File: Francois Lenoir/Reuters]

    On Monday, Hun Sen ordered the closure of one of the country’s last remaining independent news outlets, Voice of Democracy (VOD), after it reported on a story involving his son and heir apparent Hun Manet. Hun Sen said the story on the provision of aid to earthquake-hit Turkey was misreported and had demanded an apology. Despite receiving an apology, he ordered VOD shut down anyway.

    European Union embassies in Cambodia expressed their concern at Hun Sen’s closure of VOD, as did Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States.

    The decision to close the news organisation was “particularly troubling due to the chilling impact it will have on freedom of expression and on access to information ahead of the national elections in July”, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday.

    Responding to international criticism of his closure of VOD, Hun Sen on Tuesday warned foreigners to not interfere in Cambodia’s internal affairs.

    Cambodia’s foreign ministry weighed in, saying the closure of a “rule-breaking” news organisation did “not merit any worry at all” and accused foreign diplomats who had expressed concern as “politically-driven, prejudiced and biased”.

    Josef Benedict, Asia-Pacific researcher for CIVICUS, said the misuse of the criminal justice system and the “systematic attack on civic space in the country” contravened Cambodia’s international human rights obligations.

    With more than 50 political prisoners in jail, and more than 150 opposition party leaders and supporters the target of politically-motivated prosecutions, CIVICUS said there are “serious concerns around the escalating climate of repression against the opposition” ahead of Cambodia’s national elections in July.

    In a list of recommendations accompanying the report, the organisation called on the Cambodian government to drop all charges against those exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression, and to end the mass trials, arbitrary arrest, violence, harassment and intimidation directed at the country’s political opposition.

    Journalists also needed to be protected from intimidation and be allowed to “work freely without fear of retaliation for expressing critical opinions or exposing government abuses”, CIVICUS said.

    CIVICUS also called on the international community – through diplomatic missions and representatives in Cambodia – to press the Cambodian government to protect the fundamental freedoms of its citizens and to make public international concerns regarding the deteriorating situation in Cambodia – including raising concerns at the United Nations Human Rights Council and “initiate stronger Council action as required”.

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  • Putin is staring at defeat in his gas war with Europe

    Putin is staring at defeat in his gas war with Europe

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    There’s more bad news for Vladimir Putin. Europe is on course to get through winter with its vital gas storage facilities more than half full, according to a new European Commission assessment seen by POLITICO.

    That means despite the Russian leader’s efforts to make Europe freeze by cutting its gas supply, EU economies will survive the coldest months without serious harm — and they look set to start next winter in a strong position to do the same.

    A few months ago, there were fears of energy shortages this winter caused by disruptions to Russian pipeline supplies.

    But a combination of mild weather, increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and a big drop in gas consumption mean that more than 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas is projected to remain in storage by the end of March, according to the Commission analysis.

    A senior European Commission official attributed Europe’s success in securing its gas supply to a combination of planning and luck.

    “A good part of the success is due to unusually mild weather conditions and to China being out of the market [due to COVID restrictions],” the official said. “But demand reduction, storage policy and infrastructure work helped significantly.”

    Ending the winter heating season with such healthy reserves — above 50 percent of the EU’s roughly 100bcm total storage capacity — removes any lingering fears of a gas shortage in the short term. It also eases concerns about Europe’s energy security going into next winter.

    The positive figures underlie the more optimistic outlook presented by EU leaders in recent days, with Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson saying on Tuesday that Europe had “won the first battle” of the “energy war” with Russia.

    EU storage facilities — also vital for winter gas supply in the U.K., where storage options are limited — ended last winter only around 20 percent full. Brussels mandated that they be replenished to 80 percent ahead of this winter, requiring a hugely expensive flurry of LNG purchases by European buyers, to replace volumes of gas lost from Russian pipelines.

    The wholesale price of gas rose to record levels during storage filling season — peaking at more than €335 per megawatt hour in August — with dire knock-on effects for household bills, businesses’ energy costs and Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

    Gas prices have since fallen to just above €50/Mwh amid easing concerns over supplies. The EU has a new target to fill 90 percent of gas storage again by November 2023 — an effort that will now require less buying of LNG on the international market than it might have done had reserves been more seriously depleted.

    “The expected high level of storages at above 50 percent [at] the end of this winter season will be a strong starting point for 2023/24 with less than 40 percent to be filled (against the difficult starting point of around 20 percent in storage at the end of winter season in 2022,” the Commission assessment says.

    Analysts at the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services think tank said this week that refilling storages this year could still be “as tough a challenge as last year” but predicted that the EU now had “more than enough import capacity to meet the challenge.”  

    Across the EU, five new floating LNG terminals have been set up — in the Netherlands, Greece, Finland and two in Germany — providing an extra 30bcm of gas import capacity, with more due to come online this year and next.  

    However, the EU’s ability to refill storages to the new 90 percent target ahead of next winter will likely depend on continued reduction in gas consumption.

    Brussels set member states a voluntary target of cutting gas demand by 15 percent from August last year. Gas demand actually fell by more than 20 percent between August and December, according to the latest Commission data, partly thanks to efficiency measures but also the consequence of consumers responding to much higher prices by using less energy.

    The 15 percent target may need to be extended beyond its expiry date of March 31 to avoid gas demand rebounding as prices fall. EU energy ministers are set to discuss the issue at two forthcoming meetings in February and March.

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  • The delayed impact of the EU’s wartime sanctions on Russia

    The delayed impact of the EU’s wartime sanctions on Russia

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    The EU was quick to hit Russia with sanctions after Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine — but it took time and an escalation of measures before Moscow started to feel any real damage.

    Since the war started in late February last year, November was the first month when the value of EU imports from Russia was lower than in the same month of 2021. Until then, the bloc had been sending more cash than before the conflict — every month, for nine months. More recent data is not yet available.

    The main reason behind this? Energy dependency on Russia and skyrocketing energy prices. But that’s not the whole story: Some EU countries were much quicker than others to reduce trade flows with Moscow — and some were still increasing them at the end of last year.

    Here is a full breakdown of how the war has changed EU trade with Russia, in figures and charts:

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  • Ransomware hacking campaign targets Europe and North America, Italy warns 

    Ransomware hacking campaign targets Europe and North America, Italy warns 

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    Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) warned on Sunday of a large-scale campaign to spread ransomware on thousands of computer servers across Europe and North America. 

    France, Finland and Italy are the most affected countries in Europe at the moment, while the U.S. and Canada also have a high number of targets, the ACN warned, according to Italian news agency ANSA. 

    The attack targets vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi technology that were previously discovered but that still leave many organizations vulnerable to intrusion by hackers.

    “These types of servers had been targeted by hackers in the past due to their vulnerability,” according to ACN. “However, this vulnerability of the server was not completely fixed, leaving an open door to hackers for new attacks.”

    France was the first country to detect the attack, according ANSA. 

    The French cybersecurity agency ANSSI on Friday released an alert to warn organizations to patch the vulnerability.

    It is estimated that thousands of computer servers have been compromised around the world, and according to analysts the number is likely to increase. Experts are warning organizations to take action to avoid being locked out of their systems.  

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    Elena Giordano

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  • Finland may need to join NATO without Sweden, foreign minister says

    Finland may need to join NATO without Sweden, foreign minister says

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    Finland could reconsider its joint NATO bid with Sweden if Stockholm’s application is delayed further, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Tuesday, a day after Turkey said it would not support the Swedish candidacy.

    “You have to assess the situation,” Haavisto told Finnish public broadcaster Yle. “Has something happened that the longer term would prevent the Swedish project from going ahead? It [is] too early to take a position on that.”

    Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO together last October, as a consequence of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Turkey and Hungary are the last two members of the military alliance who still need to ratify the joint bid.

    While Budapest has pledged it would sign off the bid, Ankara is yet to follow suit.

    But relations between Sweden and Turkey have taken a turn for the worse in recent days, after a far-right Danish-Swedish politician burned a copy of the Quran during a protest in Stockholm last Saturday.

    On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the burning was an insult, and that Sweden would not receive “any support from [Turkey] on the NATO issue.”

    Haavisto seemed more restrained in an interview to Reuters, also on Tuesday morning. When asked if Finland could join NATO on its own, the Foreign Minister said: “I do not see the need for a discussion about that.”

    Haavisto also told Reuters the three-way talks between Finland, Sweden and Turkey on NATO accession would be paused “for a couple of weeks” until “the dust has settled after the current situation.”

    “No conclusions should be drawn yet,” Haavisto added.

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    Nicolas Camut

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  • European allies will send about 80 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Germany says

    European allies will send about 80 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Germany says

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    BERLIN — Germany and its European partners plan to “quickly” send two Leopard 2 tank battalions to Ukraine — suggesting about 80 vehicles — the government in Berlin announced Wednesday, adding that Germany would provide one company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks “as a first step.”

    Other countries likely to send Leopards to the war against Russia include Poland, Spain, Norway and Finland.

    The decision by Chancellor Olaf Scholz — which emerged on Tuesday evening — marks a decisive moment in Western support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, which entered its 12th month this week and could soon heat up further as Moscow is expected to launch a new offensive.

    German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters that the training of Ukrainian crews on the tanks will begin “very soon,” and that the Leopards will be arriving in Ukraine in about two months.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “very happy” with the promise of tanks from the U.S., Germany and Britain. “But speaking frankly, the number of tanks and the delivery time to Ukraine is critical,” he said, in an interview with Sky News.

    Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, welcomed the German announcement as a “first step.”

    “Leopards are very much needed,” he said on Telegram.

    Zelenskyy himself also welcomed the move on Twitter. “Sincerely grateful to the Chancellor and all our friends in” Germany, he said.

    Russia’s Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev said in a statement the decision was “extremely dangerous,” and took the conflict “to a new level of confrontation.”

    Kyiv had long urged Germany and other partners to supply its army with the powerful German-built Leopard 2 tank, but Scholz hesitated to take the decision, partly out of concern that it could drag Germany or NATO into the conflict. He remained adamant that such a move had to be closely coordinated and replicated by Western allies, most notably the United States.

    During a speech in Germany’s parliament on Wednesday, Scholz sought to defend his long hesitations on tank deliveries, saying that it “was right and it is right that we did not allow ourselves to be rushed” into taking a decision but insisted “on this close cooperation” with allies, notably the United States. 

    Scholz also stressed that Germany would not actively engage in the war but would continue to seek to “prevent an escalation between Russia and NATO.” He also launched a direct appeal to German citizens who might be skeptical: “Trust me, trust the German government: We will continue to ensure … that this support is provided without the risks for our country rising in the wrong direction.”

    The news of an imminent announcement by U.S. President Joe Biden to send “a significant number” of American M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine facilitated the chancellor’s decision. Scholz had come under huge pressure from European partners like Poland, as well as his own coalition partners in government, to no longer block the delivery of the German tank. Since they are German-made, their re-export needed the approval of the German government.

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted that he “strongly welcomes” Berlin’s decision | Dirk Waem /Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)

    “The goal is to quickly form two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine,” a German government spokesperson said.

    “As a first step, Germany will provide a company of 14 Leopard-2 A6 tanks from Bundeswehr stocks. Other European partners will also hand over Leopard-2 tanks,” the spokesperson added.

    The spokesperson also said the training of Ukrainian crews on the tanks “is to begin rapidly in Germany.” Berlin would also provide “logistics, ammunition and maintenance of the systems.”

    In addition to the 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks, Germany will also send two tank recovery vehicles, Deputy Defense Minister Siemtje Möller said in a letter to defense policy lawmakers, seen by POLITICO.

    Möller wrote that Ukrainian tank crews will undergo a six-week-training on the Leopards, in Germany which is supposed to start in early February. “This procedure should enable the Leopard 2 A6 to be taken over by Ukraine by the end of the first quarter of 2023.”

    Germany will provide partner countries like Spain, Poland, Finland and Norway, which “want to quickly deliver Leopard-2 tanks from their stocks,” the necessary re-export permission, the spokesperson said.

    The decision by Chancellor Olaf Scholz marks a decisive moment of Western support for Ukraine | David Hecker/Getty Images

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted that he “strongly welcomes” Berlin’s decision. “At a critical moment in Russia’s war, these can help Ukraine to defend itself, win & prevail as an independent nation.”

    Spain, which owns one of the largest fleets of Leopards in the EU, with 347 tanks, has previously said it would send tanks to Kyiv as part of a European coalition, according to El País.

    The Norwegian government is considering sending eight of its 36 Leopard tanks to Ukraine, but no decision has been made yet, Norwegian daily DN reported late Tuesday after a meeting of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defense, quoting sources close to the deliberation.

    Portugal, which has 37 Leopards, could provide four tanks to the assembling European coalition, a source close to the government told Correio da Manhã late on Tuesday.

    The Netherlands, which is leasing 18 Leopards from Germany, is also weighing supplying some of their armored vehicles, Dutch newswire ANP reported, quoting a government spokesperson. On Tuesday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was “willing to consider” buying the tanks from Germany and shipping them to Ukraine, but that no decision had been made.

    On Wednesday, the Swedish defense minister said that Sweden did not exclude sending some of its own tanks at a later stage, according to Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.

    Wilhelmine Preussen and Zoya Sheftalovich contributed reporting.

    This article was updated.

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    Hans von der Burchard and Nicolas Camut

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  • Germany ready to let Poland send Leopard tanks to Ukraine: foreign minister

    Germany ready to let Poland send Leopard tanks to Ukraine: foreign minister

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    PARIS — Germany “would not stand in the way” if Poland or other allies asked for permission to send their German-built Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Sunday.

    The remarks by the Green politician, who was interviewed by French TV LCI on the sidelines of a Franco-German summit in Paris, came in response to comments by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who has raised pressure on Berlin in recent days by saying that Poland is willing to supply Kyiv with Leopard tanks, which would require German approval.

    Morawiecki even suggested that Warsaw was ready to send those tanks without Berlin’s consent.

    Baerbock, however, stressed that “we have not been asked so far” by Poland for such permission. “If we were asked, we would not stand in the way,” she added.

    German officials have gotten increasingly frustrated in recent days by what they perceive as a “media blame-game” by Poland, as Warsaw has repeatedly suggested that Germany was hampering plans to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, although it appears that the necessary request for export permission has not been made yet.

    Germany is, however, still dragging its feet when it comes to the bigger question of whether it would be willing to send its own Leopard tanks to Ukraine, for example as part of a broader coalition with Poland and other countries like Finland and Denmark.

    Pressed on that point during a press conference in Paris on Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz avoided giving a clear answer, stressing instead that Berlin had never ceased supporting Ukraine with weapons deliveries and took its decisions in cooperation with its allies.

    Poland’s Morawiecki said on Sunday that his country was ready to build a “smaller coalition” for sending tanks to Ukraine without Germany.

    Baerbock’s comments are therefore also raising the pressure on Scholz to take a clearer position on the tank issue — at least when it comes to granting export permissions to other countries.

    After Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, also from the Greens, said earlier that Germany “should not stand in the way” of permitting such deliveries, the foreign minister’s even more definitive statement makes it even harder for Scholz to take a different position.

    Ukraine has been appealing to Germany and other Western nations to supply modern Western-made battle tanks in order to fend off an expected Russian spring offensive.

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    Hans von der Burchard

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  • Germany’s Scholz changes defense ministers — but not his reluctance on tanks (yet)

    Germany’s Scholz changes defense ministers — but not his reluctance on tanks (yet)

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    BERLIN — Olaf Scholz has once again rebooted his security policy, nominating a new defense minister to take the reins. But when it comes to his reluctance to send battle tanks to Ukraine, the German chancellor is still waiting for the U.S. to take the lead.

    Tuesday’s nomination of Boris Pistorius puts an end to a growing government crisis that had left Europe’s biggest economy for several days effectively without clear military leadership. But Pistorius — whom Scholz hailed as having “the strength and calmness that is needed in view of the Zeitenwende,” Germany’s historic military revamp — will have little time to get adjusted to the new role.

    Pressure is mounting on Germany to participate in a broader alliance of countries that would supply Ukraine’s army with modern Leopard 2 battle tanks. And moments after being sworn in on Thursday, the new defense minister is scheduled to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is coming to Berlin before a key meeting Friday in Germany where allies will discuss tank deliveries for Ukraine.

    Pistorius is replacing Christine Lambrecht, a loyal defender of Scholz’s cautious tank stance who resigned on Monday after a series of gaffes and missteps that weighed on Berlin’s reputation.

    That means expectations are high for the 62-year-old Pistorius, who is from Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Yet Social Democratic lawmakers say the appointment by itself won’t tilt the scales on supplying Ukraine with tanks.

    “I don’t think one has anything to do with the other,” Wolfgang Hellmich, the SPD’s defense policy spokesperson, told POLITICO.

    Kristian Klinck, an SPD member of the Bundestag’s defense committee and an army reserve officer, also said he didn’t see “any significant change in this regard because of the personnel change in the defense ministry.”

    While stressing that Pistorius will play a role in deciding on further military aid for Ukraine, Klinck said “this very important question of the delivery of battle tanks” would be decided “primarily in the chancellor’s office” and in coordination with other allies.

    Scholz himself reiterated his reluctant position during an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, saying that any decisions on further weapon supplies could only be taken in close coordination with allies.

    That argument for holding back tank deliveries has started to sound less convincing, however, given the calls from allies like Poland to jointly send Leopards, and after the U.K. announced it would supply Ukraine with its own Challenger 2 battle tanks.

    German officials have indicated, though, that Scholz would likely move if he received backing from the U.S., especially if Washington also agreed to send battle tanks.

    During a call between Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, both leaders discussed “effective, sustainable and closely coordinated” military support for Ukraine, according to a German spokesperson. This has raised expectations that a breakthrough on tanks could still be feasible.

    Pressure on Scholz

    Green MP Anton Hofreiter, chair of the Bundestag’s European affairs committee and a long-standing critic of Scholz’s cautious position, said it was time for the chancellor to act.

    “The decision to supply tanks ultimately rests with the chancellor. Behind him is his Social Democratic Party, which unfortunately is still often under the illusion that relations with Russia can be normalized again and that Moscow should therefore not be provoked too much,” Hofreiter told POLITICO.

    Anton Hofreiter, co-head of the German Green Party Bundestag faction | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    Hofreiter, whose Green party is part of Germany’s government coalition alongside Scholz’s SPD and the pro-business Free Democratic Party, argued Germany was presenting “an unclear, wavering and hesitant picture” of its military support for Ukraine.

    “Allies are now watching Berlin very closely: If we continue to close our minds on the Leopard issue, Germany would be increasingly isolated in Europe,” he said.

    Scholz’s vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, also from the Greens, upped the pressure on the chancellor last week, saying Berlin should not stand in the way if allies like Poland, Finland or Spain want to send their own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine — an important demand because Berlin must authorize any re-export of the German-made battle tanks.

    The government’s deputy spokesperson later clarified that there were “no differences” on the issue between Habeck and Scholz, suggesting the chancellor would support his deputy’s line.

    The remarks raised expectations that Berlin may use Friday’s meeting to at least give its allies the green light on sending Leopard tanks. But it remains uncertain whether Scholz will join the coalition and offer Germany’s own tanks, either from the German army or defense industry stocks.

    Scholz said Tuesday that he would not debate these questions in public.

    There are also questions in Germany about whether the recent political crisis within the defense ministry has left Scholz weakened. Scholz personally chose Lambrecht and defended her until the end, despite concerns she had failed to properly spend a reject influx of defense funds and let Germany’s ammunition stockpiles run low (in addition to her gaffes and waning standing among the military).

    The SPD’s Hellmich, however, expressed optimism that these shortcomings would now improve with the newly appointed minister.

    “Boris Pistorius has been in the political business for a long time and is knowledgeable on the subject. He sits on the defense committee of the Bundesrat [Germany’s upper house of parliament] and is a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,” Hellmich said.

    “That’s why the troops are in good hands with him.”

    This article was updated to include details of a call between Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden.

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    Hans von der Burchard and Gabriel Rinaldi

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  • Biden admin preparing to ask Congress to approve sale of F-16 jets to Turkey | CNN Politics

    Biden admin preparing to ask Congress to approve sale of F-16 jets to Turkey | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve the sale of 40 F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, after weighing a Turkish request for the planes for more than a year, congressional sources familiar with the deliberations told CNN.

    If approved, the sale would be among the largest arms sales in years. The administration is also discussing a separate sale of 40 F-35 warplanes to Greece. There are longstanding tensions between Turkey and Greece.

    Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 in response to Ankara’s decision to purchase the Russian-made S-400 missile system.

    The sale to Turkey could put pressure on Ankara to approve the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, a process that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been blocking since last year.

    Finland and Sweden were officially invited to join the alliance at the NATO summit in June last year, but as a NATO member Turkey could block them from joining.

    A Finnish official told CNN that Finland has “not been part of any discussions” when it comes to the American F-16s.

    “Finland has implemented everything that was agreed in Madrid in June. Now we hope all NATO members help us get our accession process over the finishing line. What comes to American F-16s, we obviously have not been part of any discussions. It is an internal US matter,” the Finnish official said.

    It is not clear when the administration plans to make a formal request to Congress, as required by law for foreign military sales. But on Thursday night, the administration sent informal notifications about the prospective sale to the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, kicking off the committee review process, the sources said.

    The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

    Most administrations typically give Congress informal notification of proposed sales weeks before taking formal action. The informal notification process is a common practice in which the relevant committees get a heads up on planned sales, allowing committee leadership to raise concerns, give their input, or place holds.

    Once the administration formally notifies the full Congress of the intended sale, lawmakers then have 30 days to block the deal, which they can do by passing a joint resolution of disapproval.

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said on Friday that he would not approve any proposed sale of F-16 aircraft to Turkey, continuing his longstanding opposition to providing the weaponry to Ankara.

    “As I have repeatedly made clear, I strongly oppose the Biden administration’s proposed sale of new F-16 aircraft to Turkey,” the New Jersey Democrat said. “President Erdogan continues to undermine international law, disregard human rights and democratic norms, and engage in alarming and destabilizing behavior in Turkey and against neighboring NATO allies.”

    Menendez has been highly critical of Turkey’s targeting of the Kurds and threatened incursions into northern Syria. He has slammed Ankara’s closeness with Moscow and warned the Turks against purchasing any more S-400 missile systems from Russia. Additionally, Menendez has accused Turkey of repeatedly violating Greek airspace with provocative overflights in the Aegean Sea, calling it “unacceptable behavior from a NATO country” in remarks in Athens last year.

    “Until Erdogan ceases his threats, improves his human rights record at home – including by releasing journalists and political opposition – and begins to act like a trusted ally should, I will not approve this sale,” Menendez said.

    At the same time, the New Jersey Democrat said he welcomed “the news of the sale of new F-35 fighter aircraft to Greece.”

    “This defense capability is not only critical for a trusted NATO ally and enduring partner’s efforts to advance security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also strengthens our two nations’ abilities to defend shared principles including our collective defense, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law,” he said Friday.

    A National Security Council spokesperson referred CNN to the State Department for comment.

    “As a matter of policy, the Department is not going to comment on proposed defense sales or transfers until they’ve been formally notified to Congress,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a briefing Friday.

    “But what I would say is that Turkey and Greece both are vital, vital, NATO Allies,” he added, noting that the US has “a history of supporting their security apparatuses.”

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  • I’m a psychology expert in Finland, the No. 1 happiest country in the world—here are 3 things we never do

    I’m a psychology expert in Finland, the No. 1 happiest country in the world—here are 3 things we never do

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    For five years in a row, Finland has ranked No. 1 as the happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report. 

    In 2022’s report, people in 156 countries were asked to “value their lives today on a 0 to 10 scale, with the worst possible life as a 0.” It also looks at factors that contribute to social support, life expectancy, generosity and absence of corruption.

    As a Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher who studies the fundamentals of happiness, I’m often asked: What exactly makes people in Finland so exceptionally satisfied with their lives?

    To maintain a high quality of life, here are three things we never do:

    1. We don’t compare ourselves to our neighbors.

    There’s a famous line by a Finnish poet: “Kell’ onni on, se onnen kätkeköön.” Roughly translated, it means: Don’t compare or brag about your happiness.

    Finns really take this to heart, especially when it comes to material things and overt displays of wealth.

    I once ran into one of the wealthiest men in Finland. He was pushing his toddler in a stroller towards the tram station. He could have bought himself an expensive car or hire a driver, but he opted for public transportation.

    That’s what success looks like in Finland: just like everyone else. 

    Happiness tip: Focus more on what makes you happy and less on looking successful. The first step to true happiness is to set your own standards, instead of comparing yourself to others.

    2. We don’t overlook the benefits of nature.

    According to a 2021 survey, 87% of Finns feel that nature is important to them because it provides them with peace of mind, energy and relaxation.

    In Finland, employees are entitled to four weeks of summer holiday. Many of us use that time to hit the countryside and immerse ourselves in nature. The fewer amenities, even to the point of no electricity or running water in the house, the better. 

    A lot of Finnish cities are also densely built, which means that many people have access to nature at their doorsteps. I live next to Helsinki Central Park, where I go on regular walks.

    Happiness tip: Spending time in nature increases our vitality, well-being and a gives us a sense of personal growth. Find ways to add some greenery to your life, even if it’s just buying a few plants for your home.

    3. We don’t break the community circle of trust.

    Research shows that the higher the levels of trust within a country, the happier its citizens are.

    A “lost wallet” experiment in 2022 tested the honesty of citizens by dropping 192 wallets in 16 cities around the world. In Helsinki, 11 out of 12 wallets were returned to the owner.

    Finnish people tend to trust each other and value honesty. If you forget your laptop in a library or lost your phone on the train, you can be quite confident you’ll get it back.

    Kids also often take a public bus home from school and play outside without supervision.

    Happiness tip: Think about how you can show up for your community. How can you create more trust? How can you support policies that build upon that trust? Small acts like opening doors for strangers or giving up a seat on the train makes a difference, too.

    Frank Martela, PhD, is a philosopher and psychology researcher who studies the fundamentals of happiness. He is also a lecturer at Aalto University in Finland and the author of “A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence.” Follow him on Twitter.

    Don’t miss:

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  • The world’s in a ‘polycrisis’ — and these countries want to quash it by looking beyond GDP

    The world’s in a ‘polycrisis’ — and these countries want to quash it by looking beyond GDP

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    “The need for a new economic model has never been clearer,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told CNBC. “Which I think is why we’re seeing such growing interest in the well-being economy approach, both here in Scotland and around the world.”

    Jane Barlow – Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images

    LONDON — For a small but growing network of countries, the world’s go-to metric of economic health is no longer fit for purpose.

    Mostly led by women, Finland, Iceland, Scotland, Wales and New Zealand are all members of the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership. The coalition, which is expected to expand in the coming months, aims to transform economies around the world to deliver shared well-being for people and the planet by 2040.

    That means abandoning the idea that the percentage change in gross domestic product is a good indicator of progress, and instead reframing economic policy to deliver quality of life for all people in harmony with the environment.

    “The need for a new economic model has never been clearer,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told CNBC. “Which I think is why we’re seeing such growing interest in the well-being economy approach, both here in Scotland and around the world.”

    Encouraging other policymakers to consider an economic approach centered on well-being, Sturgeon said multiple global crises, such as the climate emergency, biodiversity loss and the cost-of-living crisis, “raise fundamental questions about what we value — and what our economies are actually for.”

    “Building a wellbeing economy is a huge challenge for any country, at any time, and the current crises we are facing make it harder — but they also underline why we need to make this transformation as a matter of urgency,” Sturgeon said. “We’ve made progress over the past five years, but we still have much more to do.”

    I often say that we need to shift from power, profit and patriarchy to people, planet and prosperity.

    Sandrine Dixson-Declève

    Co-president of the Club of Rome

    In just the last few months, New Zealand published its first national Wellbeing Report; the European Union recognized the need to shift to a well-being economy; and the World Health Organization launched an initiative that calls for well-being to be at the heart of economic recovery.

    Australia, Canada and Costa Rica are among some of the countries to have worked closely with the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership in recent months, and “post-growth” advocates believe it is just a matter of time before more countries embrace the well-being movement. A post-growth society is one that resists the demand for constant economic growth.

    ‘Building the plane as we fly it’

    Dominick Stephens, chief economic advisor at the Treasury in New Zealand, hailed the country’s first well-being report as a “landmark moment,” saying it aims to provide lawmakers with a big-picture view of what life is like in the South Pacific nation.

    “We want to look beyond GDP to understand progress, but we don’t have a singular measure of wellbeing — so we need to look across a range of indicators and evidence to understand progress in this broader sense,” Stephens told CNBC.

    “This helps us all to understand where New Zealand is doing well, where we are lagging and how wellbeing is experienced differently for different people in our country.”

    Among the findings published on Nov. 24, the report highlighted the wide and growing gap between the well-being of older citizens and that of younger citizens, with older citizens faring better on a range of metrics.

    Mostly led by women, Finland, Iceland, Scotland, Wales and New Zealand are all members of the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership.

    Fiona Goodall | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    The Treasury identified three priority areas in need of improvement: mental health; educational achievement; and housing affordability and quality.

    Stephens said that while the report would not be the final word, it’s now up to New Zealanders to decide on the extent to which they are concerned about those issues and the actions needed to address them.

    “We do not have a silver bullet in New Zealand on how to do Wellbeing Reporting well,” Stephens said. “Different countries have taken different approaches. We are, in some ways, building the plane as we fly it.”

    “More countries trying different approaches to integrating wellbeing analysis into policy means more opportunities for New Zealand, and other countries, to learn from the experiences of others,” he added.

    The ‘Limits to Growth’ — 50 years on

    The gathering momentum for a transformation of the current economic system comes half a century after the Club of Rome think tank published its groundbreaking “Limits to Growth” report.

    The 1972 book warned that the planet’s resources would not be able to support the exponential rates of economic and population growth and would therefore collapse before the end of this century. Broadly speaking — and following a sharp backlash to its dire predictions at the time — the world has gone down the path that the book’s authors predicted it would.

    Academics and economists told CNBC that an ultimatum from the world’s top climate scientists about the dangers of exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius of global heating — a critically important temperature threshold beyond which dangerous tipping points become more likely — underscores the need to end an obsession with growth at all costs.

    “If they hadn’t realized it 50 years ago that we already needed to shift, I think now is the time because we are confronted with a polycrisis,” Sandrine Dixson-Declève, co-president of the Club of Rome think tank, told CNBC via telephone.

    The term “polycrisis” refers to crises that occur in multiple global systems and become entangled in such a way that they produce harms greater than those crises would in aggregate.

    “Not only is our planet sick from continued growth scenarios, because we have gone way beyond a healthy use of natural resources, but our people are getting increasingly sick, and our young people are making less and less money,” Dixson-Declève said.

    When asked whether that means she believes there is no alternative to a well-being strategy, Dixson-Declève replied, “Yes, absolutely. I often say that we need to shift from power, profit and patriarchy to people, planet and prosperity.”

    Just how important is GDP?

    U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy once said a country’s GDP measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”

    Critics of GDP, which represents the total value of goods and services over a specific time period, argue that the indicator is misleading because it measures “the good, the bad and the ugly” of economic activity and calls it all good.

    GDP does not, for instance, take into account unpaid work, nor does it distinguish between economic activity which contributes positively or negatively to the health and well-being of people and the natural environment.

    I think it just shows our lack of imagination. We can’t even imagine an economy that is better than growth.

    Katherine Trebeck

    Co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance

    In the U.K., Rishi Sunak said in his first speech as prime minister that his predecessor Liz Truss was not wrong to want to improve economic growth in the country. “It is a noble aim,” Sunak said outside Downing Street on Oct. 25.

    Three months earlier, opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Britain needed three things to fix its broken social contract. “Growth. Growth. And growth.”

    “I think it just shows our lack of imagination. We can’t even imagine an economy that is better than growth,” said Katherine Trebeck, co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a network of academics, businesses and social movements.

    “The best we can do is put some nice adjectives in front of growth — sustainable growth, green growth, inclusive growth, shared growth — but we are almost not allowed to entertain the prospect that a growing economy is a 20th-century recipe,” she added.

    “High-income nations have got enough in overall terms but there are huge profound inequalities within the richest countries. So, what they need to do is think about how to share and cherish those resources,” Trebeck said.

    Why poorer countries want rich countries to foot their climate change bill

    “I use the phrase that they need to recognize that they’ve arrived. The job of growth has been done and they need to now move to a second project which is about making themselves at home.”

    Trebeck described well-being economics as a “picnic blanket term,” which encompasses movements such as “degrowth,” “doughnut” economics or circular and regenerative models rather than an alternative policy.

    “I think there is a profound moral obligation [on high-income countries] because they are taking up more than their ecological fair share which is implicitly saying that countries around the world that don’t have enough to meet the basic material needs of their citizens are effectively going to stay there,” Trebeck said.

    “It is about really saying how do we live fairly on this one finite planet?”

    ‘GDP is not a way to measure richness’

    The push to look beyond economic growth comes at a time of growing calls to end fossil fuel production worldwide.

    “Basically, with a growth commitment, you have a commitment to more energy and material use which then consequently results in environmental impacts — and it makes decarbonization harder,” Julia Steinberger, ecological economist at the University of Lausanne, told CNBC via telephone.

    “What you need to do for decarbonization is you need to stop using all fossil fuels and replace energy demand with renewable or low or zero-carbon energy sources and that is harder to do [and] it is going to take longer to do if we have constantly growing energy demand,” Steinberger said. “That’s the climate case for it.”

    The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu last month became the first country to use the U.N.’s annual climate summit to push for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. The European Parliament, the Vatican and WHO have all backed the proposal.

    But only a handful of small countries have endorsed the initiative to date, and the fossil fuel industry has typically sought to underline the importance of energy security in the planned transition to renewables.

    The burning of fossil fuels — such as coal, oil and gas — is the chief driver of the climate emergency.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently called out what he described as the “massive public relations machine raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny.”

    Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also recently joined a chorus of voices calling for GDP to be dropped as the world’s go-to indicator of economic growth, pushing instead for policymakers to shift to a circular economy.

    This refers to an economic system that is based on the reuse and repair of materials to extend the life cycle of products for as long as possible and moves away from the world’s current “take, make, throw away” model.

    “We need to change course — now — and end our senseless and suicidal war against nature,” Guterres said at a major international environmental meeting in early June.

    “We must place true value on the environment and go beyond Gross Domestic Product as a measure of human progress and wellbeing,” Guterres said. “Let us not forget that when we destroy a forest, we are creating GDP. When we overfish, we are creating GDP. GDP is not a way to measure richness in the present situation in the world.”

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  • Nature: Reindeer in Finland

    Nature: Reindeer in Finland

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    Nature: Reindeer in Finland – CBS News


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    We leave you this Sunday morning with reindeer in northern Finland, prepping for their big night! Videographer: David Cohen.

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