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Russia could designate German murders as 'genocide'
Prosecutors point to the brutal occupation and war crimes
committed by the Third Reich
liberated by the Red Army in 1944. © Art Media / Print Collector / Getty Images
Prosecutors in Russia's Rostov region have moved to officially designate the 1941-1943 Nazi occupation of the territory as a "genocide," citing the murders of more than 126,000 civilians and prisoners of war.
Officials have prepared a petition to the court at the direction of Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, whose office posted the announcement on its website on Monday. The article lays out the suffering that Rostov, in southwestern Russia, endured during the years of occupation, when Nazi enforcers took control following the Wehrmacht's conquest of the region during Operation Barbarossa.
The statement reads: "the Prosecutor of Rostov Oblast has prepared and signed a petition to the Rostov court to recognize the crimes that have been identified, and once more uncovered, as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide of the Soviet people, inflicted by the German Fascist occupiers in the years of the Great Patriotic War [World War II] on the territory of Rostov Oblast."
The Nuremberg trials, which took place following the Allied defeat of Germany, determined that Nazi leaders had, according to international law, committed war crimes, and Soviet authorities prosecuted occupiers and collaborators for decades after Berlin's unconditional surrender.. The trials led to important developments in the categorization of crimes, and it was the first time in international law that the word "genocide" was used.
Prosecutors at Nuremberg cited "the extermination of racial and national groups, against the civilian populations of certain occupied territories to destroy particular races and classes of people and national, racial, or religious groups, particularly Jews, Poles, and Gypsies and others."
Last year, Moscow requested that Canada deport Helmut Oberlander, a 97-year-old accused of working as an interpreter for a Nazi death squad in the Rostov region during the Holocaust. According to investigators, Oberlander, who moved to Canada in 1954, interpreted for an Einsatzgruppen unit that killed 27,000 people over the course of a year and a half.
Oberlander died Sept 20, 2021.
‘Major non-NATO ally’ loses US military aid
The cancelation of American military assistance to Egypt comes just days after
a $2.5 billion arms deal was agreed between the two nations
The US has announced that it is canceling $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, with the move coming just days after the Biden administration approved a $2.5 billion arms sale to the North African country.
Cairo has failed to meet all the human rights conditions set out by Washington to be eligible for the paycheck, the US State Department announced on Friday.
“After January 30, the secretary intends to reprogram the $130 million to other national security priorities,” it pointed out, without elaborating on what those priorities might be.
Let me take a wild guess - the money will have to be spent in the USA!
In September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken greenlighted $300 million in foreign military aid to Egypt, but withheld another $130 million on condition that the country fulfilled “specific human-rights related conditions” by the end of January.
The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is accused of having enacted a large-scale crackdown in recent years on Islamist and secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.
The arrest and prosecution of dissidents are believed to have been facilitated by the state of emergency that was imposed in Egypt in April 2017, after church bombings and deadly attacks on Coptic Christians. It had been prolonged several times over the years, with Sisi lifting the state of emergency only last October.
During his phone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday, Blinken “reaffirmed the importance of human rights in the bilateral relationship,” according to the State Department.
However, disagreements over human rights didn’t prevent the Biden administration from approving a $2.5 billion sale of 12 Super Hercules C-130J transport aircraft and air defense radar systems to Egypt on Tuesday.
The deal would “support the foreign policy and national security of the US by helping to improve the security of a major non-NATO ally country that continues to be an important strategic partner in the Middle East,” the State Department explained.
It didn’t mention the arms sale when announcing on Friday that military aid to Cairo would be cut.
“Egyptians are not thrilled” to be deprived of $130 million, an unnamed senior State Department official told CNN.
He insisted the decision on military aid and the arms sale were unrelated. There was no inconsistency in Washington’s actions because “we’re letting them [Egypt] buy things that are in our interest,” according to the official.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price later said the statements by the unnamed official didn’t reflect Washington’s official position, describing Egypt as “a valuable partner across many fronts.”
US delivers choppers to Croatia, as Russia and China arm Serbia
Washington’s gift, announced two years ago, was followed by a multimillion-dollar
purchase of two additional aircraft
The US delivered two Sikorski UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Zagreb’s Franjo Tudman Airport. The aircraft were donated to Croatia as part of a military assistance program and arrived amid what some have described as an escalating arms race between Serbia and its neighbors.
Announcing the delivery on Thursday, US Chargé d’Affaires Mark Fleming said the Balkan country “has earned a reputation as a committed and capable NATO Ally,” and that the shipment “will further boost the capacities of the Croatian Armed Forces.”
The US Embassy in Zagreb estimated the value of the hardware at around $54.8 million, saying it was part of $685 million worth of military assistance received by Croatia from Washington. Defense cooperation is the cornerstone of relations between the two nations, the diplomatic mission said in a statement on Thursday’s delivery.
The donation of the Sikorsky helicopters was announced in 2019 and was followed by Zagreb’s purchase of two additional rotorcraft at an estimated cost of $115 million. Senior Croatian defense officials visited the production facilities of the Lockheed Martin-owned company last year during an official visit to the US. Croatian pilots and ground crew received training in Minnesota to learn how to operate the US-made helicopters.
Croatia has been working for decades to replace the stockpiles of Soviet-made weapons it kept after splitting from Yugoslavia, with those made by the US and other NATO members. Last year, it purchased 12 Rafale fighter jets from France, and in January it announced an agreement to buy 89 Bradley Fighting Vehicles from the US. Croatia joined NATO in 2009.
And has been a good member for buying all those NATO-made weapons.
Some media contrasted Zagreb’s alignment with Washington and Brussels to the position of Serbia, its opponent during the 1990s Croatian War of Independence. Belgrade, which says it wants to become a member of the EU, relies on its traditional partner, Russia, and more recently on China, for weapons procurement.
Last month, Serbia welcomed a shipment of Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles, which the president called an “important defensive tool to deter anyone from potential aggression against our country.”
Last year, the country purchased advanced Pantsir S1M air defense systems from Russia, on top of the six older versions it acquired in 2019. It also received a donation of 30 T-72MS tanks and 30 BRDM-2MS armored reconnaissance vehicles.
In 2020, Serbia purchased CH-92A armed drones from China, spending an estimated $19.3 million.
Some observers say the weapons procurements amount to a mini arms race in the Balkans, taking place amid growing tensions between Russia and NATO.
Last month, Croatia became tangled up in the slow-burning conflict after the president promised not to involve his nation’s troops in any potential Russia-NATO conflict over Ukraine. His statements were contradicted by the prime minister, which led to a public feud between senior officials over what benefits Croatia’s national interests most.
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