Call for sanctions to hit closer to Putin

     Geneva, Apr 6 (AP) The top ally and chief strategist of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is welcoming reports that the US might impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughters - and says his “most important confidante” should be sanctioned too.
     Leonid Volkov said Wednesday it isn't clear what if any properties that Putin's daughters might own could be seized, but including them on the next sanctions list would send an important message as part of the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
     The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday that the Russian leader's closest family members could be targeted by the next round of sanctions against Russia.
     “It's a very important symbolic move that means that we are going after Putin personally, we realise how huge is his very personal guilt in the inception of this bloody war,” Volkov said at the independent Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
     He said Navalny's anti-corruption movement also wants Western countries to sanction Alina Kabayeva, a woman reported to be Putin's romantic interest and who won Olympic gold at Athens 2004 in rhythmic gymnastics.
     “She is also the chairman of the board of the National Media Group, which is the largest media in Russia, and the largest source of propaganda,” Volkov said. “It also shows how important propaganda is for Putin's regime...that he actually entrusted the propaganda machine to be run by his most important confidante.”
    
     Berlin: A German spokesman says the government has information which indicates that bodies found after Ukraine retook Bucha last week had been lying there since at least March 10, when Russian troops were in control of the town.
     Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the information was based on non-commercial satellite images taken March 10-18 of Yablonska Street in Bucha.
     “Credible information shows that from March 7 to March 30 Russian soldiers and security forces were deployed in this area,” he said. “They were also tasked with the interrogation of prisoners who were subsequently executed.”
     Hebestreit said that “targeted killings by units of the Russian military and security forces are therefore proof that the Russian President and supreme commander has at least approvingly accepted human rights abuses and war crimes to achieve his goals”.
     “The assertions made by the Russian side that these are staged scenes or they aren't responsible for the murders are therefore not tenable,” he added.
     Asked about the source of this information, Hebestreit said that images reviewed by Germany “were not commercial satellite images.” He declined to elaborate.
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     Helsinki: The Finnish Customs agency says three consignments seized on the border with Russia contain artworks and artifacts on loan to Finland from several Russian art museums with a total insurance value of around 42 million euros ($46 million).
     The seizure at the Vaalimaa border point in southeastern Finland on April 2 and April 3 came as the cargo fell under the European Union sanctions imposed on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, Finland Customs said on Wednesday.
     Finland's Foreign Ministry says the Russian artworks, including valuable paintings and statues, are classified as luxury items subject to EU sanctions on Russia, and that Finnish Customs had no other option than to temporarily confiscate them.
     Foreign Ministry spokesman Teemu Sepponen told public broadcaster YLE that Russian museums will maintain legal ownership or the artworks that “have been temporarily taken over” and are stored in a secure place in Finland.
     According to Russian media, the artworks were en route to Russia after having been loan in exhibitions in several museums in Italy, including the Palazzo Reale museum in Milan and the Gallerie d'Italia museum.
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     Ankara: Turkey's defence ministry says authorities have detected a third naval mine drifting in the Black Sea and military teams have been dispatched to deactivate it.
     The explosive device was detected on Wednesday off the coast of northwestern Kocaeli province and the area has been “secured”, the ministry said.
     It was the third mine spotted in Turkish waters since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including one that forced authorities to close Istanbul's Bosporus Strait to traffic.
     Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations about the naval mines that have been threatening shipping in the Black Sea.
     The Russian military has alleged that the Ukrainian military has used old naval mines to protect the coast against a Russian landing and some of them have been ripped off their anchors by a storm and left adrift. Ukraine has accused Russia of using Ukrainian mines it seized after the 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and setting them adrift to discredit Ukraine. (AP) SCY
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)