| Pro-Russian | Neutral | Pro-Ukraine |
|---|---|---|
|
CSTO (Belarus), Costa Rica, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela CSTO (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), |
Brazil, South Africa
EU (Bulgaria, Hungary), CSTO (Armenia, Kazakhstan) |
EEA (EU (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, U.K., U.S. |
:
IOC should consider banning Russia from Paris 2024 Olympics, 34 countries urge
With no ‘clarity and and concrete detail’ on neutral athletes model, Russians and Belarusians shouldn’t be allowed in, countries say.
by Ali Walker
POLITICO
FEBRUARY 20, 2023
https://www.politico.eu/article/boot-russia-from-paris-2024-olympics-more-than-30-countries-urge-ioc-neutral-flags-vladimir-putin-zelenskyy/
The governments of 34 countries, including host nation France, called on the International Olympic Committee to exclude Russia and Belarus from the Paris 2024 Olympics — unless Games chiefs unveil a clear “workable” plan for athletes to compete as neutrals.
The IOC has said it would explore a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris under neutral flags, a move that triggered outrage in Kyiv — and has now been met with a concrete response among Ukraine’s allies.
In a statement published Monday, the 34 countries noted the links between sports and the military in Russia and Belarus, and said: “As long as these fundamental issues and the substantial lack of clarity and concrete detail on a workable ‘neutrality’ model are not addressed, we do not agree that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed back into competition.”
In addition, “in Russia and Belarus sport and politics are closely intertwined,” the countries said.
Representatives of the German, British and American governments are signatories to the letter, but it is France’s inclusion that will cause the IOC its biggest headache, with Paris set to host the Olympics for the first time since 1924.
Other signatories include: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing brutality in Ukraine, “there is no practical reason to move away from the exclusion regime for Russian and Belarusian athletes set by the IOC in their statement of 28 February 2022,” the statement said.
“We have strong concerns on how feasible it is for Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes to compete as ‘neutrals’ — under the IOC’s conditions of no identification with their country — when they are directly funded and supported by their states (unlike, for example, professional tennis players),” the statement added.
“The strong links and affiliations between Russian athletes and the Russian military are also of clear concern,” the countries said. “Our collective approach throughout has therefore never been one of discrimination simply on the basis of nationality, but these strong concerns need to be dealt with by the IOC.”
“Noting the IOC’s stated position that no final decisions have been made, we strongly urge the IOC to address the questions identified by all countries and reconsider its proposal accordingly,” they added. “We also note that Russia and Belarus have it in their own hands to pave the way for their athletes’ full return to the international sports community, namely by ending the war they started.”
Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Games if the IOC green-lights Russia’s return — and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly criticized the IOC, which is the ultimate decision-maker on participation.
Zelenskyy joined a meeting on February 10 with representatives of governments who went on to sign the letter, where he outlined the “devastation” inflicted by Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, including its sports infrastructure and athletes.
The IOC did not immediately comment — though earlier this month it said that banning athletes on the basis of their passports would be discrimination, citing advice from U.N. human rights experts.
“Lithuania will do everything to prevent participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the Paris Olympics,” said Lithuanian Sports Minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė.
Armenia cancels military drills of Russian-led alliance
Pashinyan is increasingly frustrated by Russia’s failure to secure free transit along a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Aljazeera
10 Jan 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/10/armenia-cancels-russian-led-military-drills-amid-conflict
Armenia has refused to host military drills by the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russian-led alliance of post-Soviet countries, in an announcement that reflects Yerevan’s growing tensions with Moscow.
Russia had announced earlier this year that Armenia would host the annual exercises of the group which comprises six states – Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“The Armenian defence minister has informed the CSTO Joint Staff that in the current situation, we consider it unreasonable to hold CSTO exercises on the territory of Armenia. At least, such exercises will not take place in Armenia this year,” Interfax news agency reported Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the cancelled military drill, said Moscow would ask Yerevan to clarify its position.
“In any case, Armenia is our close ally, and we will continue our dialogue, including the most complex issues,” he told reporters.
Pashinyan’s move followed his refusal in 2022 to sign a concluding document from a meeting of the leaders of CSTO member nations in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital.
Nagorno-Karabakh
The tensions are rooted in Armenia’s conflicts with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two ex-Soviet states maintain good relations with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine; Armenia hosts a Russian military base and the Kremlin wants to maintain ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That conflict left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but large chunks of surrounding lands in Armenian hands.
In 44 days of heavy fighting that began in September 2020, the Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces, forcing Yerevan to accept a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw the return of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
The agreement also required Armenia to hand over swaths of land it held outside the separatist region.
Pashinyan has repeatedly criticised Russian peacekeepers for failure to secure free transit along a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Lachin province, which lies between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, was the last of three areas on the region’s rim that Armenian forces surrendered in December 2020.
Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to ensure safe transit across the region and monitor the peace deal.
But travel across the Lachin province has been blocked since December 12 by Azerbaijanis identifying themselves as environmental activists who say that Armenia has unlawful mining sites in the region.
Armenia has called on Russian peacekeepers unblock the road, but Moscow has adopted a backseat approach to the dispute, which has angered the Armenian government.
“Russia’s military presence in Armenia not only fails to guarantee its security, but it raises security threats for Armenia,” Pashinyan said on Tuesday.
He added that the blockade of the Lachin corridor is intended to “break the will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh”, and that Armenia will also seek support from the US and the European Union to help ease the tensions with Azerbaijan.
EXPLAINED: Who are Russia’s Allies? A List of Countries Supporting the Kremlin’s Invasion of Ukraine
It’s pretty obvious who Russia’s antagonists on the global stage are, but understanding which nations consider themselves allies of the Kremlin involves a more nuanced view.
by Kyiv Post
February 18, 2023
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/13208
The question of who Russia’s enemies are may seem obvious. Clearly Ukraine is locked in a conflict approaching the one-year mark and is wholeheartedly backed by most NATO allies (though some have doubts about Hungary).
But Russia does still have allies – some who offer their full-throated backing and others, such as India and China, who refrain from endorsing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though they refuse to condemn it.
A good place to start looking for who is fully behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is to examine who voted against a UN resolution on March 2 calling for Russia to “immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine” and “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces.”
Only Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea voted against the resolution.
Belarus
Militarily, Belarus is Russia’s biggest supporter having allowed both its land and airspace to be used by the Kremlin’s forces.
Despite resisting pressure thus far from Putin to send troops into Ukraine, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has had no qualms about the thousands of missiles launched from his territory toward Ukraine’s cities.
Lukashenko has little choice in the matter given he’s only still in power because Russia helped him quash a popular uprising after a contested election in 2020.
Iran
Iran has emerged as one of Russia’s few remaining allies, with Moscow increasingly isolated because of the invasion.
The Iranian government shares the Kremlin’s deep distrust of anything Western, and during a phone call at the outset of the full-scale invasion, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Putin: “NATO expansion is a serious threat to the stability and security of independent countries in different regions.”
In December, the U.S. outlined what it said was an extensive and developing relationship between Iran and Russia involving equipment such as helicopters, fighter jets and kamikaze drones.
These drones have attacked Ukrainian cities on an almost weekly basis for months, and it was recently reported that they are being smuggled into Russia using boats and Iran’s state airline.
There are also fears Iran could supply Russia with ballistic missiles, which Ukraine’s current air defenses cannot shoot down.
North Korea
Perhaps unsurprisingly, North Korea is a staunch supporter of Russia and has heavily criticized the U.S. and blamed it for the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.
In recent public comments, Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the U.S. was “crossing the red line” with its decision send Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
She added: “I express serious concern over the U.S. escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive, and strongly denounce it.
“The U.S. is the arch-criminal which poses serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushed the regional situation to the present grave phase.”
The U.S. has accused North Korea of supplying Russia with weapons, artillery shells in particular, funneling them through the Middle East and Africa.
Syria
Moscow continues to attract the most unsavory of allies, as Syria has become one of its biggest fans.
President Bashar al-Assad praised the full-scale invasion as a “correction of history” and accused Western nations of using “dirty methods to support terrorists in Syria and Nazis in Ukraine.”
Assad has been entirely dependent on Russian military support to suppress a popular uprising in Syria which escalated into a now nearly 12-year civil war.
China
The closest thing Russia has to global superpower support is China, though it is far from definitive or unconditional. China has never condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nor has it endorsed it.
China has walked a delicate and slightly ambiguous line that has at times echoed the Kremlin’s line, referring to the invasion as a “special military operation”, for instance and abstaining from United Nations votes condemning it.
Last year China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his country would help Russia “overcome difficulties, eliminate disturbances, realize the strategic goals of development, and further establish Russia on the international stage.”
Yet this contrasted sharply with comments just two weeks previously from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, who called for de-escalation, adding, “all countries deserve respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and that “support should be given to all efforts that are conducive to peacefully resolving the crisis.”
Russia has repeatedly requested arms from China, but as far as is known, Beijing has balked. China has, however, provided non-lethal equipment such as flak jackets and helmets, according to U.S. intelligence sources.
One way in which China is undoubtedly supporting Moscow is by increasing imports of Russian oil and gas.
But China remains wary of doing more in case it incurs the wrath of debilitating Western sanctions.
India
India is another country that has walked an ambiguous line and the closest it has come to criticizing Russia was during an awkward televised meeting in September, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Putin, “I know that today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this.”
And yet, just like China, India has increased imports of Russian gas and oil since February of 2022, indirectly helping finance the Kremlin’s military.
India has also abstained from voting on nearly every resolution condemning Russian aggression at the UN.
The general public in India appears to have strong support for Russia, which may be a result of both India’s current reliance on Russian military hardware and recollections of the Soviet Union assisting India in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization
The Moscow-led CSTO is a military alliance in Eurasia made up of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, but not all of them have played ball over the last year.
Analysts say Russia – distracted by its protracted war in Ukraine – is losing influence in the Southern Caucasus after decades of playing the role of power broker.
Despite being a member of CSTO, Kazakhstan reportedly denied a Russian request to take part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
And while the country’s government has avoided directly criticizing Russia, it has also not officially recognized the Russian-backed Luhansk and Donetsk Republics in eastern Ukraine.
Armenia similarly refused to host CSTO military drills last month. And Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan have been wary of supporting Russia “in ways Moscow may find irritating,” according to the Carnegie Endowment for International peace.
Myanmar
Elsewhere in the world, Myanmar’s military junta, which overthrew a democratically elected government two years ago, supports Russia, which it has said was “acting to protect its sovereignty,” and praised Russia’s role in “balancing global power.”
Russia is a major supplier of arms to Myanmar.
Who are Russia’s supporters?
The West has presented a united front against the invasion of Ukraine. But many people live in countries sympathetic to Russia
Economist
Apr 4th 2022
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/04/04/who-are-russias-supporters
By invading ukraine, Vladimir Putin has divided the world. The West and its allies have presented a rare unified front against the Russian president’s attack. NATO is enjoying a surge of support within its member countries (and wannabe joiners). The EU has projected the role of a first-rate power. And co-ordinated efforts, including sanctions and banking restrictions, have punished Russia’s economy, at least in the short term. But from other countries Russia still enjoys some support. The Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company, has measured government actions globally since the war broke out, and countries’ historical ties with Russia, to divide the world into three broad categories: governments that are West-leaning, Russia-leaning and neutral amid the conflict.