Europe

Lithuania’s incoming Social Democratic government will target defence spending of at least 3.5% of its gross domestic product, the party’s leader said on Monday.

The Baltic country of 2.9 million people which neighbours Russia will spend about 3% of GDP on its armed forces this year, according to NATO estimates, making it the military alliance’s sixth-biggest spender as a share of its economy.

Three-quarters of Lithuanians think Russia could attack their country in the near future, a Baltijos Tyrimai/ELTA opinion poll found in May, following its attack on Ukraine in 2022.

“Our election manifesto says that it should be not less than 3.5%, and this is unavoidable … security and defence will receive as much money as needed,” Social Democrat leader Vilija Blinkeviciute told reporters after her party’s landslide election victory on Sunday.

[Edit typo.}

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/32100351

Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullinawarned comments, made to a group of State Duma lawmakers, come a week after the Central Bank hiked its key rate to a record-high 21%, taking it even further than the emergency rate of 20% initially introduced after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“With high inflation, economic growth cannot be sustainable,” the Central Bank head told Russian lawmakers. “It’s a dangerous illusion to think that increased inflation can be reliably kept within a certain zone.”

“That’s why we’re not planning to take any shortcuts as we move toward our 4% target,” she added, defending the regulator’s tight monetary policy as an “inevitable reaction to what’s happening in the economy.”

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Seasonally adjusted price growth in September rose to 9.8% year-on-year from 7.5% in August. Core inflation, meanwhile, increased to 9.1% from 7.7% over the same period.

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Russia has faced volatile prices since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a barrage of Western sanctions and strict countermeasures in a bid to stabilize the economy. So, too, has defense spending soared as Moscow ramps up arms production for the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s draft budget for 2025, passed by lawmakers in its first reading last week, allocates around one-third of total state spending — or 6.3% of GDP — to the military, a figure unprecedented since the days of the Cold War.

Given that so much of the current spending is driven by the state, which is less responsive to higher borrowing costs, analysts fear that raising interest rates may not be an effective measure against inflation.

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Analysts have cautioned that Russia may be entering a period of “inflation without growth,” while also warning the economy is inching closer toward stagflation — when the economy grows slowly and prices shoot up.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46295901

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21494404

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the EU have shown one of the steepest drops in decades. Brussels said the data showed that tackling climate change does not need to put the brakes on economic growth. 

The European Environment Agency (EEA) on Thursday reported an 8% fall in EU-wide emissions linked to global warming in 2023, citing a significant decline in fossil fuels and a rise in the use of renewables.

The 27-country bloc is the world's fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after India, China and the United States.

Criticism of the tax’s removal includes concerns from Sweden’s own environmental protection agency, which argued that the levy remains essential for cementing new habits.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is considering allowing Euroclear to tap frozen Russian assets to help shield the G7’s €45 billion loan to Ukraine against potential retaliation by Moscow.

EU officials are weighing the move as a last-resort solution to compensate Euroclear, the Belgium-based bank holding these assets, for losses incurred in Russia due to its compliance with Western sanctions, according to three officials familiar with the matter who spoke to POLITICO.

Proponents argue the measure would fortify* *a multilateral scheme, finalized last week, that allocates windfall profits generated from around €200 billion in frozen Russian assets to repay the G7’s long-negotiated loan to Ukraine.

Euroclear is currently embroiled in litigation with multiple sanctioned parties who are using Russia’s highly politicized courts to contest their assets being withheld, and seeking compensation.

While Russian courts have little power to force the handover of euro or dollar assets held in Belgium to those with successful claims, they do have the power to take retaliatory action against Euroclear balances held in Russian financial institutions. These belong mainly to Western financial institutions and businesses, who would then be eligible to raise their own compensatory claims against Euroclear.

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China is trying to silence Dutch journalists in China as well as Chinese dissidents in the Netherlands, researchers at the Leiden University have discovered.

The methods employed vary from “spreading propaganda and misinformation, to far-reaching intimidation of journalists and their sources, personally targeted smear campaigns, cyber infiltration, and identity fraud: in the Netherlands, Europe and worldwide." The researchers said this is a worrying development.

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This inquiry was prompted by a story written by journalist Marije Vlaskamp of the Volkskrant, who reported that unknown individuals were filing bomb threats under her name. She had received a message on Telegram in which someone demanded she take an article criticizing China offline.

According to researchers from Leiden University, China is focused on “a war of attrition on critical voices on China, so that they become less active, get phased out, or give up completely.” This has affected Dutch correspondents in China but also Chinese people in the Netherlands who support the opposition in Hong Kong, LGBTI people, Tibetans, and supporters of the Uyghurs.

They have to deal with “intimidation tactics that are common in China” and therefore apply "self-censorship and self-surveillance as standard.” The researchers note that China primarily employs subtle pressure tactics pinpricks that only those with extensive background knowledge can fully understand

One example noted that intermediaries are sometimes used to approach critics. They are able to make it clear to those targeted that they are being watched and that private information about them has been obtained.

Eyewitness testimony and credible evidence suggest that Russia is using drones against civilians in the frontline city of Kherson.

"They can see who they are killing," says one Ukrainian residents. "Is this how they want to fight, by just bombing people walking in the streets?"

If Russia is found to be intentionally targeting civilians, it would be a war crime.

Evidence of apparent drone attacks on civilians can be seen in numerous videos shared on Ukrainian and Russian social media [for example, here.]

In each video, you see through the remote operator’s camera as they track the movements of a pedestrian or motorist in civilian clothing, often dropping grenades which sometimes appear to seriously injure or kill their target.

The European Commission is set to launch an investigation into Chinese online retail platform Temu over whether it is in breach of rules meant to prevent the sale of illegal products online.

The move follows the Commission's request on 11 October for information from Temu under the Digital Services Act, asking what steps it is taking to stop illegal products being sold on its platform.

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Under the European Union's Digital Services Act, companies with more than 45 million users are designated "very large online platforms" (VLOPs) and are required to do more to fight illegal content as well as counterfeit products on their platforms.

According to estimates, more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia.

Putin's top security aide Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea last week and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui is visiting Moscow this week.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46215106

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46215089

A Finnish court has ordered the seizure of Russian assets in Finland worth tens of billions of euros after ruling in favour of Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company, Naftogaz.

The court's decision followed a 2023 ruling by the Permanent Arbitration Court based in The Hague which ordered Russia to pay roughly €4.6bn in compensation to the company after seizing its assets illegally during the 2014 occupation of Crimea.

“Since Russia refuses to voluntarily pay Naftogaz the funds stipulated by The Hague ruling, we continue to use all available mechanisms to recover them. Today, we are one step closer to restoring justice. At the same time, we are taking active steps to enforce the arbitration award in other target jurisdictions involving Russian assets,” a statement from Naftogaz Group Board Chairman and CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said.

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A body fighting for Uyghur people's rights in China and abroad had to meet in virtual secrecy with police protection in the Bosnian capital after threats and pressure to cancel, it said.

The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) held a four-day conference until Sunday with several hundred delegates from 25 nations in a Sarajevo hotel - but few outside would have known.

There were no signs or placards, reception staff hesitated to give information, and plainclothes policemen were in the lobby while special units parked outside.

Organisers and participants said that social media and email messages were received in advance pressuring them to cancel the event and threatening to disrupt it.

"We have seen Chinese individuals here at the hotel taking photos of our delegates during the event which was a way to intimidate them," said Zumrety Arkin, who was elected as a WUC vice-president at the meeting.

She and other attendees largely stayed inside the hotel for safety reasons, Arkin said.

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A combination of good high-speed internet coverage, high digital literacy rates, large rural populations and fast-growing fintech industries had put the Nordic neighbours on a fast track to a future without cash.

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But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and a subsequent rise in cross-border hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks blamed on pro-Russia groups have prompted a rethink.

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The Swedish government has since completely overhauled its defence and preparedness strategy, joining Nato, starting a new form of national service and reactivating its psychological defence agency to combat disinformation from Russia and other adversaries. Norway has tightened controls on its previously porous border with Russia.

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[Norway's] justice and public security ministry said it “recommends everyone keep some cash on hand due to the vulnerabilities of digital payment solutions to cyber-attacks”. It said the government took preparedness seriously “given the increasing global instability with war, digital threats, and climate change. As a result, they’ve ensured that the right to pay with cash is strengthened”.

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