Login
Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s power is “crumbling” following the failed mutiny in Moscow in late June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“We see Putin’s reaction. It’s weak,” Zelsnkyy told CNN in an interview taped over the weekend and previewed Monday morning. “All that vertical of power he used to have is just crumbling down.”
Zelenskyy referenced the Kremlin’s response to the rebellion spearheaded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former catering magnate and powerful warlord who attempted to oust Russia’s top military officials. He had publicly criticized Moscow’s military leadership throughout the war, blaming the officials for the mounting death toll of his paramilitary Wagner Group fighters.
Although Prigozhin’s plan was foiled shortly after it began — Russia’s intelligence agency found out about the plan days before it happened — the fact that Wagner fighters were able to move through Russia largely unchallenged shows weakness in the Kremlin, Zelensnkyy said.
“Firstly, we see [Putin] doesn’t control everything,” he said in the interview, which will fully air Wednesday. “Wagner’s moving deep into Russia and taking certain regions shows how easy it is to do. Putin doesn’t control the situation in the regions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses lawmakers during a session of the Ukrainian parliament dedicated the Constitution Day, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 28, 2023.
Justin Jones, one of the Democratic Tennessee lawmakers expelled from the legislature on Thursday, vowed to attempt to return to his post.
"This extreme tactic to expel us and try to humiliate us has only put a spotlight of the world on Tennessee, and so I will go back because ... it's worth whatever sacrifice that we have to give, whether it's being expelled, whether it's being in a hostile environment," Jones told CNN Friday morning.
Tennessee's Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to expel Jones and fellow lawmaker Justin Pearson, who are both Black, for speaking out of turn during a gun control protest in the House chamber the week prior. Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white lawmaker who also participated in the demonstration, faced an expulsion vote that ultimately failed.
The expulsion vote came less than two weeks after three 9-year-old children and three adults were fatally shot at an elementary school in Nashville.
Jones said he and Pearson don’t see their role as convincing opposing lawmakers of their views, but instead as being a “voice of moral dissent” and a “speed bump to try and stop them from driving this train off the cliff.”
More than a dozen members of Nashville’s Metro Council said they plan to vote to reappoint Jones and send him back to the Tennessee House of Representatives, The Tennessean reported.
That “hostile environment,” Jones added, has been driven by Republicans, including House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who don’t view young Black men such as Jones and Pearson as equal or deserving of being in the Legislature: “We know what we’re facing.”
In a separate interview on Fox News Friday morning, Sexton defended the expulsion vote and pushed back on accusations that racism was the reason why Jones and Pearson were expelled while Johnson was not — an allegation Johnson herself made to reporters after Thursday's vote. The speaker said Johnson’s lawyers argued that she acted differently than the pair during the protest — she didn’t shout or use a bullhorn — and other members thought she didn’t play as central a role in the demonstration as Jones and Pearson.
“She is trying to cloak racism in this, which there was nothing on this. They were all given due process,” Sexton told Fox News. “What they did was not right, and it deserved expulsion.”
Sexton also defended the Legislature’s actions against President Joe Biden’s condemnation that the expulsions were “shocking” and “undemocratic,” saying he doesn’t believe the president would tolerate such protests on the congressional floor.
Johnson said she doesn’t believe there was due process for her and the two others: “There were no rules,” she told MSNBC Friday morning, adding that she was questioned by lawmakers in a different way than the two men. “It is scary this is what’s happening to our democratic process.”
"It's worth whatever sacrifice that we have to give, whether it's being expelled, whether it's being in a hostile environment," state Rep. Justin Jones said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, where he promised to continue to battle the Islamic State until the group is defeated.
Austin’s trip comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, led by the United States, that ousted former leader Saddam Hussein.
“Wheels down in Baghdad. I’m here to reaffirm the U.S.-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable, and sovereign Iraq,” Austin tweeted, accompanying a video of him stepping off the plane and greeting Maj. Gen. Matthew McFarlane, the U.S. commander in Iraq.
During the visit, Austin met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Defense Minister Thabet Muhammad Al-Abbasi.
Iraq has served as a point of friction between the U.S. and Iran, with Tehran’s influence in the region growing over the past two decades. Despite U.S. successes in ousting the group from territory it controlled six years ago, Islamic State fighters and sleeper cells have continued to launch attacks in Syria and Iraq, killing or wounding dozens of Iraqi troops in recent months.
“We’ll continue working to accomplish this mission together. Through the global coalition to defeat Daesh, we liberated more than 50,000 square kilometers from Daesh and freed more than 4.5 million Iraqis from their cruel grip,” Austin told reporters, using an Arabic name for the Islamic State.
In his address, Austin also underscored the United States' long-term commitment to Iraq, vowing to defend the nation and outlast the extremist group.
"We continue to believe that Iraq's greater integration with its Arab partners in the region will deliver increased stability, security, and prosperity, and it will pay dividends not only for Iraqi citizens, but for all people of the region," he said, according to a readout.
Austin’s trip comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, led by the United States, that ousted former leader Saddam Hussein.
U.S. officials believe that Russia may provide Iran with fighter jets, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday, in the latest sign of the growing defense cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
Iran has been supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine for months, Kirby emphasized to reporters. In November, Iran shipped artillery and tank rounds to Russia for use in Ukraine. Now, Russia is planning to cooperate with Iran to obtain more military equipment in return.
“Russia has been offering a lot of unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics and air defense,” Kirby said.
Iran is also seeking to purchase attack helicopters, radars and combat trainer aircraft, he said. In total, Iran is hoping to obtain “billions of dollars” worth of military equipment from Russia.
When asked for details on the type of fighter jets or when they may be delivered, Kirby refused to elaborate.
“That's really as far as I'm going to be allowed to go here,” Kirby said. “We're going to be watching this very closely to see what, if anything, actually transpires.”
A closer military alliance between the two countries could make Western efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere more complicated, he said.
“It's not only certainly going to make things in the Ukraine more difficult, but it could certainly make the security situation in the Middle East more difficult for our partners and friends there," he added.
Last year, the U.S. sanctioned Iran for allegedly planning to sell or already selling Russia weapons, including drones and surface-to-surface missiles.
In December, senior Biden administration officials said Moscow was providing “unprecedented” military and technical support to Tehran in exchange for weapons, NBC News reported. Last spring, officials said Iranian pilots trained in Russia to fly a Russian fighter jet, indicating that Iran “may begin receiving the aircraft within the next year.”
Alexander Ward contributed to this report.
“It's not only certainly going to make things in the Ukraine more difficult, but it could certainly make the security situation in the Middle East more difficult for our partners and friends there," John Kirby said.
The Biden administration on Tuesday condemned Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend a nuclear pact with the United States — castigating the Russian leader while also stressing that the U.S. won’t abandon efforts to cooperate on nuclear precautions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken bashed Putin’s move, calling it "deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.”
The U.S. will "be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does,” Blinken told reporters in Athens. "We’ll of course make sure that, in any event, we are postured appropriately for the security of our country and our allies.”
The suspension symbolizes further deterioration of relations between the two world powers. But American officials have already voiced concerns that Moscow wasn’t complying with the treaty, and it remains unclear how much the move will impact nuclear efforts going forward.
“This latest development should come as no surprise,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who called the move “nuclear saber-rattling” from Putin.
“It’s critical that the Biden administration work with our allies to determine how the breakdown of New START should fundamentally alter our force posture,” she said.
The New Nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, signed by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads both countries can deploy. In 2021, President Joe Biden and Putin extended it for another five years, aiming to avoid an arms race between the world’s largest nuclear powers.
The treaty is the last remaining nonproliferation agreement between the pair after another key nuclear accord, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, expired in 2019.
While Putin said Tuesday that he’s suspending Moscow’s participation, he stopped short of a complete withdrawal. In his speech, he argued that he was forced into the decision due to U.S. aggression, and accused the U.S. of being involved in attempting to strike bases in Russia.
Putin made the remarks the same day Biden was in Poland to give a speech marking the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and one day after he made a surprise visit to Kyiv.
The U.S. in January accused Russia of not complying with the treaty by not allowing the United States and NATO to inspect its nuclear facilities. The pact includes limits on systems such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and deployed nuclear warheads.
“When the administration started, we extended New START because it was clearly in the security interest in our country and actually in the security interests of Russia," Blinken said. "And that only underscores what an irresponsible action this is."
“Of course, we remain ready to talk about strategic arms limitations at any time with Russia,” Blinken added, “irrespective of anything else going on in the world.”
Recent interactions between U.S. and Russian officials — some of them face-to-face — on New START compliance have been "not good,” according to Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
After the U.S. alleged earlier this year that Russia was not complying with its treaty obligations, senior Russian officials essentially delivered demarches to the United States complaining about these findings, Kimball said.
Still, Kimball called Putin's announcement as basically "nuclear chest-thumping."
Jeff Edmonds, the former director for Russia on the National Security Council, shared a similar view of the situation.
“I do not think this is an escalation — just more rhetorical nuclear coercion,” he said. “It was going to be hard to replace New START even without the war.”
Blinken’s openness to continuing talks with Russia no matter the circumstances reflects the rhetoric Biden and Putin espoused when they agreed to extend the treaty. “Even in periods of tension” the adversaries could work alongside each other, reads a joint statement released at the time.
The war over the past year has tested and strained that partnership. Fighting around a Ukrainian nuclear power plant captured by Russian forces injected uncertainty into the agreement, paired with a decaying relationship due to sanctions imposed on Moscow by Washington. That’s not to mention the strategic stability talks the pair vowed to engage in were suspended following the invasion of Ukraine.
Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
Blinken: Russia stepping back from nuclear deal is 'irresponsible'
FreshRSS