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Summit For Biden, Putin: No Punches Or Hugs

Published

4 years ago

June 17, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin exchanged cordial words and plotted modest steps on arms control and diplomacy but emerged from their much-anticipated Swiss summit Wednesday largely where they started — with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more.

The two leaders reached an important, but hardly relationship-changing agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after they were called home as the relationship deteriorated in recent months. And Biden and Putin agreed to start working on a plan to solidify their countries’ last remaining treaty limiting nuclear weapons.

But their three hours of talks on the shores of Lake Geneva left both men standing firmly in the same positions they had started in.

“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior,” Biden said at a post-summit news conference, when he was asked about what evidence he saw that former KGB agent Putin would adjust his ways and actions. “What will change his behavior is the rest of the world reacts to them, and they diminish their standing in the world. I’m not confident in anything.”

Both the White House and Kremlin had set low expectations going into the summit. They issued a joint statement after the conclusion that said their meeting showed the “practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world.”

But over and over, Biden defaulted to “we’ll find out” when assessing whether their discussions about nuclear power, cybersecurity and other thorny issues will pay off.

Back-to-back news conferences by Biden and Putin after the summit also put in stark relief that getting at the root of tensions between the U.S. and Russia will remain an enormously difficult task — including when the two sides, at least in public comments, sketched dramatically different realities on cyber matters.

Biden came into the summit pushing Putin to clamp down on the surge of Russian-originated cybersecurity and ransomware attacks that have targeted businesses and government agencies in the U.S. and around the globe. But when the summit ended, it wasn’t evident that more than superficial progress had been made.

Biden said he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines — including going after major American infrastructure — his administration would respond and “the consequences of that would be devastating,”

Putin, in turn, continued to insist Russia had nothing to do with cyber intrusions despite U.S. intelligence evidence that indicates otherwise.

“Most of the cyberattacks in the world are carried out from the cyber realm of the United States,” said Putin, also adding Canada, two Latin American countries he didn’t name and Britain to the list.

While the U.S., Canada and Britain all engage in cyberespionage, the most damaging cyberattacks on record have come either from state-backed Russian hackers or Russian-speaking ransomware criminals who operate with impunity in Russia and allied nations.

In fact, the worst have been attributed by the United States and the European Union to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, including the NotPetya virus that did more than $10 billion in economic damage in 2017, hitting companies including shipping giant Maersk, the pharmaceutical company Merck and food company Mondolez.

Putin agreed at the summit that Russia will begin consultations with the U.S. on the matter and acknowledged that ransomware and cyberattacks are big problems. Still, he maintained that the two countries “just need to abandon various insinuations.”

Despite the clear differences, Biden insisted that progress had been made, scolding reporters for being too pessimistic during a chat on the tarmac just before he boarded Air Force One to return home.

“There is a value to being realistic and putting on … an optimistic face, ” the president said.

Biden said the two leaders spent a “great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the U.S. position.

“I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability,” Biden said. “In fact, (if) they violate basic norms, we will respond.”

A disconnect between the two leaders was apparent on other matters, large and small.

Biden raised human rights issues with Putin, including the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny’s prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting U.S. domestic turmoil, including the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Biden was having none of it.

“My response is kind of what I communicated” to Putin, Biden said. “That’s a ridiculous comparison.”

Putin held forth for nearly an hour before international reporters after the summit. While showing defiance at questions about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for the U.S. president as an experienced political leader.

The Russian noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and that American president also spoke about his family — messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden’s “moral values.”

Overall, the tone was more businesslike than Putin’s 2018 summit with then-President Donald Trump, who embraced some of Putin’s unlikely statements about election interference but was considered somewhat amateurish and unpredictable by the Russians.

At this faceoff, though Putin raised doubt that the U.S.-Russia relationship could soon return to a measure of equilibrium of years past, he suggested that Biden was someone he could work with.

“The meeting was actually very efficient,” Putin said. “It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust.”

The summit had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.

It ended sooner than expected. Biden said that was because they had covered all the key areas and then “looked at each other like, OK, what next?”

Then Biden answered his own question.

“What is going to happen next is we are going to be able to look back, look ahead in three to six months and say ‘Did the things we agreed to sit down and try to work out, did it work?’”

(AP)

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Tension As Unknown Gunmen Kill Police Informant In Imo Community

Published

2 months ago

April 25, 2025

Editor

By Qosim Sulaiman

Palpable tension engulfed the residents of Nkwogwu community, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State following the killing of an elderly man, Pa Albert Nwanchukwu, believed to be a police informant.

The assailants, numbering about eight, who reportedly stormed the home of the late Nwanchukwu at about 10pm on Tuesday, 22 April, 2025, were said to have met him where he was relaxing in his compound and immediately opened fire on him.

According to our source who pleaded anonymity, before his assassination, the late Nwanchukwu, had reportedly went to a police station in the locality to inform them of the activities of the gunmen, just as he pleaded to the police to get them arrested.

Our source disclosed that the late Nwanchukwu never knew that some policemen are accomplished in the act, adding that the policemen no doubt informed the gunmen who in anger came and killed him.

Our source narrated: “They were about eight in number. They came with different weapons – guns, machetes. They were all masked except their leader.

“It was late but the floodlight from the streetlight was bright. They drove dangerously and went straight to Mr Albert Uwandu Nwachukwu house. The man was relaxing in the front of his house. Immediately they saw him, they opened fire,” he died on the spot”, an eyewitness who saw the entire scene from the balcony of his house recounts.

Our source added: “Further investigations proved that the spy had informed this notorious gang of late Pa Nwachukwu’s visit to the police, thereby leading to the attack on his household.”

After killing the man, the gang reportedly went inside the house searching for other family members.

While it was evident that the gang intended to eviscerate the entire members of the family, three of his children – Victor Onyedikachi Nwachukwu, Promise Rita Nwachukwu Yakubu and Blessing Nzebechi Nwachukwu escaped.

“I saw the three of them. They ran through the back door. Since that time, we have not seen them again”, the same eye-witness disclosed to our correspondent.

This particular incident has thrown the entire community and Aboh Mbaise Local Government in general, into mourning.

While some questioned the safety of police informants, other believed the incident shows the rot in the police force of the country.

Expressing his disappointment in the police, the chairman of Aboh Mabise LGA; Honourable Barrister Iheukwumere Henry Alaribe vowed a major crackdown on the unknown gunmen.

The Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma promised a total clampdown and return of sanity to the community.

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Protect Oil Palm Host Communities; Address Spate Of Kidnapping, Violence, Govt Told

Published

4 months ago

February 26, 2025

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

A non-profit organization – African Law Foundation (AFRILAW), has appealed to the government at levels to ensure the protection of oil palm host communities and address the spate of kidnapping and violence in such areas.

AFRILAW further urged the governments to ensure that communities’ rights and privileges are respected in land deals with oil palm companies to avoid human rights violations.

Okereke Chinwike Esq,
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, AFRILAW, made the appeal in Benin on Tuesday at the Public Presentation and launching of ‘The Community-based Report on Human Rights Violations in the Palm Oil Supply Chain in Edo State.’

INFO DAILY reports that the event is part of AFRILAW activities under the “Promoting Human Rights in Palm Oil Supply Chain in Nigeria Project,” being implemented by AFRILAW in partnership with Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with funding support from True Cost Initiative (TCI) USA.

According to the AFRILAW founder, addressing companies’ human rights violations from their operations in host communities require evidence-based research, hence the research and report presentation.

“The Report we are presenting today documents evidence of community rights violations by major oil palm companies operating in the state. The research is informed by the increasing spate of violence and community protests against the operations of oil palm companies operating in Edo state, and provides greater understanding of the prevailing cases of community and human rights violations and nature of conflicts,” he noted.

He, therefore, urged the government to
“put in place a mandatory binding CSR laws and guidelines for companies to ensure that community rights and privileges are protected.”

He further appealed to the government to “ensure effective implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and set forth clear expectations for business enterprises regarding the importance of respecting the rights of human rights defenders, indigenous people and communities in Nigeria.”

On his part, Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Anthony Ojukwu (SAN), described the report as essential, stressing that beyond normal advocacy, research-based advocacy is more efficient and effective.

Represented by Mrs Mary Okoh, Deputy Director, Legal/Focal Point Business and Human Rights, NHRC, Ojukwu said beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organization should take seriously major issues of mainstreaming human rights into their operations.

“That means anyone who wants to set up a business must put into consideration the needs of the people and not what the organization or company needs. We have found out that this is where human rights violations start.

“Let them be part of the discussion and planning in the setting up of the business. Let them know what is at stake for them,” he said.

Goodwill messages were delivered by government agencies and ministries, while the presentation and launching also attracted security agencies including the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Customs Service, and the Nigeria Immigration Service among others.

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#EndBadGovernance: Police Manhunt Activists, Others, As Artist Cries Out For Help In Benin

Published

11 months ago

August 15, 2024

Editor

The suspect, Osarenkhoe Destiny Oghosa,

The Nigeria Police Force has launched a manhunt for suspected sponsors of the #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria protest that swept round the country last week.

Though police had arrested scores of such protesters across the country, many, especially vocal personalities and civil rights activists who have been criticising policies of the Tinubu administration in Nigeria have been penned down for arrest.

Also of interest to the police are those alleged to have massively produced and supplied Russian flags that were displayed during the protests, as they have vowed that none of the suspects would be spared.

It was gathered that undercover policemen are closing in on the social critics including one Osarenkhoe Destiny Oghosa, a vocal music artiste in Benin City.

This has raised fears and trepidation in that circle with many going underground for fear of being arrested by the police.

Oghosa is accused of masterminding an attempted jail break in the Benin metropolis similar to the End SARS protest in 2020, experience that resulted in the prison break and escape of prisoners and detainees alike.

Oghosa, in an interview with our correspondent, lamented that his music which focuses social justice, equality, societal ills among others in Nigeria, is now being as a crime.

He further lamented that despite several tactics to beat the security tab on him by agents of the government, he had faced persecution from invincible nocturnal groups.

Further lamenting how the government is hell bent in silencing voices speaking for the masses, Oghosa recalled how he was called at midnight to stop production of his song titled “OBI”, adding that he was seriously warned .

In a related development, Ahmed Bello, one of the suspect producers of the Russian flag hoist in some cities in Nigeria has been attested.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at the Strategic Communications Interagency Policy Committee joint press briefing.

He added that the police were on the trail of other suspects, especially the sponsors of the protest which led to the destruction of government properties in Kaduna and Kano States.

Adejobi said the suspects committed a treasonable felony, offence by waving a foreign country’s flag in Nigeria.

He said: “So, we need to set the record straight. It is important for us to know, so far so good we have been able to arrest some individuals who were engaging themselves in what I call a treasonable felony, while we are still going after their sponsors.

“To carry the flags of a foreign country in another country is a criminal offence. We have them arrested. Just this morning, we arrested one Ahmed Bello from Kano State fuor producing a large quantity of Russian flags given to young Nigerians to hoist for reasons best known to him.”

The police added that protesters in Benin City had made attempts to invade the DSS office in the state with the intention to free persons who in their opinion were being unjustly detained there-in forcing the law enforcement agencies to disperse them.