Month: March 2024

LONDON — England’s new men’s soccer team shirt is causing a bit of a stir. It’s not just the price that’s vexing some.

The decision by Nike to change the color of the St. George’s Cross on the shirt from the traditional red and white has even prompted the prime minister and the man who is favored to succeed him to make their displeasure known.

A petition on Change.org calling for a design change attracted more than 22,000 signatures by early afternoon Friday.

The new Nike-designed shirt, which has been modeled by England captain Harry Kane, is being rolled out in the run-up to the European Championship in Germany. The altered cross on the back of the shirt collar has purple and blue horizontal stripes.

Nike says it’s a “playful update” to the shirt and harks to the training kit England wore at the 1966 World Cup, the only major tournament won by the men’s team. England will be starting Euro 2024 this summer as one of the favorites.

Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party and a fan of English Premier League leader Arsenal, said he believed the flag, which is marked by an image of the St. George’s Cross, was a “unifier” and Nike needed to “reconsider” its decision to modify it.

“It doesn’t need to be changed,” he told the Sun newspaper. “We just need to be proud of it.”

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on a visit to the north of England, was also asked about the altered cross.

“I prefer the original and my general view is that when it comes to our national flags, we shouldn’t mess with them because they are a source of pride, identity, who we are and they’re perfect as they are,” said Sunak, who supports Southampton, which is vying for promotion back to the Premier League.

Nike and the English Football Association have indicated they are not going to change tack.

Despite the criticism, the FA defended the design, saying it was “not the first time” different colored St. George’s Cross-inspired designs have appeared on England shirts and it was “very proud” of the traditional cross.

“The new England 2024 home kit has a number of design elements which were meant as a tribute to the 1966 World Cup-winning team,” a spokesperson said. “The colored trim on the cuffs is inspired by the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, and the same colors also feature on the design on the back of the collar.”

England coach Gareth Southgate said the furor has “not been high on my list of priorities” this week as he prepares to lead the team into friendly matches against Brazil on Saturday and Belgium on Tuesday.

“It’s a hard question to answer really because it is presumably some artistic take which I am not creative enough to understand,” Southgate said when asked about his thoughts on the new design.

“What you are really asking,” he said, “is should we be tampering with the cross of St. George? In my head, if it is not a red cross and a white background, then it isn’t a cross of St. George anyway.”

Southgate added that, for him, it was more important that the symbol of the three lions stayed on the shirt than the St. George’s Cross.

“It’s our iconic symbol — it is what distinguishes us not only from football teams around the world but from England rugby and England cricket,” he said of the three lions.

John Barnes, one of England’s best players, said he could not understand what all the fuss was about.

“It’s a much ado about nothing,” the 60-year-old former winger said.

For most people, the problem will be less the color of the flag and more its price tag. An “authentic” version for adults will cost 125 pounds ($155) and 120 pounds for children. That’s quite an outlay at a time when household budgets have been stretched as a result of one of the most acute cost-of-living crises in decades.

The Football Supporters’ Association has long bemoaned the high cost of replica shirts and suggested that a “sell-by” date should be put on kits so buyers know how long it will be in use before a newer version is released.

“An unwitting parent could easily buy a kit for Christmas or a birthday to find it’s ‘old’ within a matter of months,” a spokesperson for the group said.
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MOSCOW — Several gunmen burst into a big concert hall in Moscow on Friday and fired automatic weapons at the crowd, injuring an unspecified number of people and starting a massive blaze in an apparent terror attack days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on the country in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. 

Russian news reports said that the assailants threw explosives, triggering a massive fire at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow. Video posted on social media showed huge plumes of black smoke rising over the building. 

The attack took place as crowds gathered for a concert by Picnic, a famed Russian rock band, at the hall that can accommodate more than 6,000 people. Russian news reports said that concertgoers were being evacuated, but some said that an unspecified number of people could have been trapped by the fire. 

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency reported that at least three people in combat fatigues fired weapons. The state Tass news agency also reported the shooting. 

Extended rounds of gunfire could be heard on multiple videos posted by Russian media and Telegram channels. One showed two men with rifles moving through the mall. Another one showed a man inside the auditorium, saying the assailants set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background. 

More videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing caps, who were shooting screaming people at point-blank range. 

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said he was heading to the area and would set up a task force to deal with the damage. He didn’t immediately offer any further details. 

Russian media reports said that riot police units were being sent to the area as people were being evacuated. 

The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of an imminent attack, a warning that was repeated by several other Western embassies. 

Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in the March 15-17 presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, earlier this week denounced the Western warnings as an attempt to intimidate Russians.

It is not yet clear who might be behind the attack.
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In early March, the annual U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps Trials for injured veterans took place near Las Vegas. This year, for the first time, the United States welcomed a Ukrainian team. Omelyan Oshchudlyak  spoke with one of the Ukrainian participants. VOA footage by Yuriy Dankevych.
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia launched a massive wave of deadly overnight attacks on Ukraine using more than 90 missiles and 60 Iranian-made drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday, in one of the largest offensives recently.

“There were more than 60 ‘Shaheds’ and almost 90 missiles of various types overnight,” he said.

“The world sees the targets of Russian terrorists as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential buildings, even a trolleybus.”

Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry said the strikes killed at least two people and injured 14, while three were missing.

“All of our services are now involved in eliminating the consequences of the attack. We use robotic equipment in dangerous areas to minimize injuries to rescuers,” it said.

Zelenskyy once again appealed for more Western arms.

“Russian missiles do not have delays, as do aid packages to our country. The ‘Shahed’ have no indecision, like some politicians. It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions,” he said.

“We need air defense to protect people, infrastructure, homes and dams. Our partners know exactly what is needed. They can definitely support us… Life must be protected from these non-humans from Moscow.”

One of the strikes Friday severed one of two power lines supplying Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine.

“The enemy is now carrying out the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy industry in recent times,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook, adding that shelling had knocked out “one of the power transmission lines feeding” the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

The facility, Europe’s largest nuclear energy site, was seized by Russian troops in the first days of the war but is powered by Ukrainian lines.

‘Extremely dangerous situation’

“This situation is extremely dangerous and risks sparking an emergency situation,” said Ukraine’s atomic energy operator, Energoatom.

In the event that the final power line is cut, it said the plant will be “on the verge of another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions of safe operation of the plant.”

Since the beginning of the war, the Zaporizhzhia power plant has suffered multiple blackouts, falling back on emergency diesel generators and safety systems.

“In case of their failure, a threat of a nuclear and radiation accident will emerge,” said Energoatom.

According to Zaporizhzhia’s governor, 12 Russian missiles hit the region early Friday, destroying several houses and injuring an unknown number of people.

“According to initial reports, seven houses were destroyed, 35 were damaged,” Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram, adding that people had been injured.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city of Mariupol, under Russian control since 2022, said on Telegram that a Russian missile had hit a trolleybus at the Dnipro hydroelectric station, also in Zaporizhzhia, killing civilians traveling on it.

Oleksandr Symchyshyn, mayor of the western city of Khmelnytskyi, described “a horrible morning” with damage to infrastructure and residential buildings.

“There are victims and casualties among civilians,” he wrote on Telegram.

The interior ministry said two were killed and eight injured in the region.

Energy facilities were targeted by Russian missile, drone, and artillery strikes in multiple cities across Ukraine on Friday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and Kryvyi Rig.

“The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system,” said energy minister Galushchenko.
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CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — Moldova’s Parliament on Thursday endorsed an appeal to press on with a drive to join the European Union, but the opposition walked out of the vote and separatists in the Transnistria region urged authorities to drop their claim to the enclave.

President Maia Sandu, who says Russia is the biggest threat to Moldova’s security, has made EU membership the cornerstone of her administration in the ex-Soviet state, which lies between Ukraine and Romania.

A vocal opponent of Russia’s war in Ukraine, she has called for a referendum on EU membership to be held this year.

After a debate coinciding with an EU summit in Brussels, Parliament adopted by a vote of 54-0 a declaration saying, “Only joining Europe can ensure the future of the country as a sovereign, neutral and full-fledged democratic state.”

It identified EU integration as “Moldova’s top priority national project.” Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest countries.

The opposition Bloc of Communists and Socialists, sympathetic to Moscow, walked out of the chamber.

In Transnistria, a sliver of land that broke away from Moldova as the Soviet Union was collapsing, self-styled President Vadim Krasnoselsky called on Moldovan authorities to recognize his territory and renounce all claims to it.

“There is no other way out,” he said on the enclave’s television. “There can be no more talk of autonomy. You must walk away from these territories.”

His region, he said, was “not separatist,” but “a normal neighbor” seeking peace and stability.

Transnistria, heavily dependent on Russia for financial support, has no international recognition, not even from Moscow.

It has remained on Moldova’s eastern border for 30 years with little turmoil, but tension has risen since Moldovan authorities imposed customs duties in January on all goods entering and leaving the region.

Elected officials last month appealed to Moscow for diplomatic measures to protect the region.

An EU summit last year gave the green light for membership talks with both Ukraine and Moldova, but no date for the start of talks has been made public, and there was no announcement on the matter at Thursday’s meeting in Brussels.

Moldova has been engaged in an escalating feud with Russia, with the Ukraine war and Transnistria as the focal points.

Moldova faces disputes with a second region in the south, Gagauzia, whose leader met Russian President Vladimir Putin this month and is linked to a fugitive pro-Russian businessman sentenced to 15 years in absentia for mass fraud.
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washington — Two years ago, as Russia invaded Ukraine’s heartland, Central Asian countries feared they would be next to feel the impact of President Vladimir Putin’s revanchist obsession.  

But as Russia has struggled on the battlefield and suffered massive losses against a determined Ukrainian foe, experts and current and former policymakers in Washington see a more confident and assertive Central Asia that is striving for unity and enjoying greater bargaining power, including with Russia, China and the United States.

Some longtime observers warn that the region may yet fall prey to the Kremlin’s ambitions. They argue that the West must understand its challenges and help expand its opportunities.

In their view, the best outcome for Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan would be to emerge from the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a more independent and consolidated region.

Russian threat in decline

Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, advocates for greater political and economic integration in the region. He observes that the region’s governments have been using “China to balance Russia … and America, to balance them.”

In an interview with VOA, Starr noted that Russian chauvinists have even called for the annexation of Central Asia. “It’s as if they’re announcing to the world that whatever happens in Ukraine, we aren’t done.”

He urges the region to recognize that Putin’s savage attack on Ukraine “has demonstrated, above all, Russia’s weakness.”

“This stripped bare the mask that all those fancy parades in Red Square created, and now we realize that Russia’s military is a farce,” he said. “All it has is numbers and brutal leaders who are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Russian lives for an objective that is unattainable.”

Starr argued that countries in Central Asia should demonstrate to Russia that they live in a big world, “have friends east, west, north and south. Russia can no longer be treated as a single player on a chessboard.”

This sentiment is echoed by many in the region, who note that the things that make Central Asia dependent on Russia, such as energy, trade and labor migration, make Russia dependent on it as well.

Starr also believes younger Central Asians have a broader worldview and don’t care about Russia as much as the older elite, for whom Russia is “a kind of hangover from Soviet times.”

Better Western ties

The Atlantic Council’s John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan and Ukraine, says Central Asians are interested in a closer relationship with the West “because they are pretty good at geopolitics. Their neighborhood demands nothing less.”

“Given [the region’s] adjacency to China and Russia, the West needs to be far more active in Central Asia than it is,” he said in an address to foreign diplomats, U.S. officials and scholars at George Washington University in Washington. “Russia’s revisionist agenda extends to Central Asia.”

According to Herbst, the most important development in the region is that Central Asia has maintained its independence and stability since the breakup of the Soviet Union, despite internal tensions and the threat of terrorism.

“You need to find ways to make our role in Central Asia more inviting,” Herbst said, appealing to the region. “You will have friends here, who will be making the case publicly along with you and privately.”

Sanctions vs. geopolitical interests

Russian scholar Vladislav Inozemtsev, speaking at the same conference, argued that transport corridors bypassing Russia will increase the strategic importance of Central Asia at a time when the West is seeking ways to minimize Moscow’s economic options.

But Inozemtsev warned that Western sanctions on Russia can have a negative spillover effect on its Central Asia neighbors. “Russians will still find ways to evade them,” he said. “This issue disturbs Central Asian governments and prevents much more fruitful cooperation with the Europeans and Americans.”

His suggestion: “Maybe it’s better not to focus on sanctions and, sorry to say, even on the human rights issues, but fostering just geopolitical goals in the region when we are in times of war.”

Diminished Russian threat?

Allan Mustard, Washington’s former ambassador to Turkmenistan, emphasizes the “discreditation” of Russia as a military threat to its neighbors.

“A few years ago, I talked to some friends in Kazakhstan and asked them what the position was of Kazakh people writ large towards Russia as a security guarantor for Central Asia,” he said at the GWU forum.

“And they said, ‘We’ve never viewed Russia as a security guarantor. We have always viewed Russia as a security threat to Central Asia.’ But that threat is diminishing because we can see what even the Ukrainians can do in terms of destroying the Russian military machine,” he said.

The region has a collective capacity to expand trade, Mustard said. He foresees a bolder Central Asia in the near term, especially with the expansion of a Middle Corridor trade route via the Caspian Sea, which would reduce Russia’s leverage over the region.

Jamestown Foundation’s Margarita Assenova agrees, saying “the primary challenge” for Central Asia and its Western partners is to improve connectivity through the region. But she is optimistic about the prospects for greater collaboration among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has strengthened Central Asia, Assenova said, “accelerating the original integration and seeking greater Western engagement.” 
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