Or just a wedding guest

Liesl Tommy, born in South Africa, directed. The trailer was shown at this year’s BET Awards on Sunday (local time), which annually honor not only musicians, but also actors and athletes who belong to an ethnic minority.

More than ten Russian fighter planes are to be relocated to the Crimea. In doing so, the country apparently wants to arm itself for a possible conflict with Ukraine. 

According to a media report, Russia is strengthening its military on the annexed Crimean peninsula. More than ten fighter jets would be moved there, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. They were to be stationed permanently at the converted Belbek air force base. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Ukraine was preparing «  » a provocation «  » before the turn of the year, it said. The aircraft are said to be Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets.

Telephone conversation with Putin: Merkel demands the release of Ukrainian seafarers Analysis of the Ukraine conflict: The moment for an escalation is favorableConflict between Ukraine and Russia: The fear of war is growing

At the end of November, Russian media reported that the government in Moscow was planning to move an S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to Crimea. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Tensions in the region have recently increased after an incident in the Kerch Strait at the entrance to the Black Sea. Martial law currently applies in the border regions of Ukraine with Russia and Belarus.

Sources used: rtr news agency

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visits Russia and Ukraine. He offers to mediate in the conflict in the Sea of ​​Azov. But both sides see it critically.

With a new proposal, Germany wants to defuse the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over free navigation through the Kerch Strait. Berlin and Paris are ready to send observers to the Sea of ​​Azov near the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia, said Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Friday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

The observers could document whether the free passage is guaranteed, said Maas. «  » I think that may well be an issue for the coming weeks. «  » Maas currently believes that the passage is free.

Conflict intensifies

The background to this is that the conflict between the two neighboring states has intensified since the end of November. The Russian coast guard had arrested three ships of the Ukrainian navy in the strait and arrested the crew. Since the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia has treated the Kerch Strait as a separate sea area.

Lavrov was critical of Maas’ new proposal «  » because he packs this simple journey together with a political process to be coordinated with Ukraine «  ». This increases the risk that the mission will not materialize.conclusion for to kill a mockingbird essay In principle, Moscow is prepared to allow observers from Germany and France.

The proposal, which Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had already discussed at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, also met with skepticism in Ukraine. German-French surveillance is inadequate, commented Foreign Minister Pawel Klimkin in Kiev. A «  » real international control «  » is necessary.

Maas is flying to the USA next week

Maas arrived in Kiev for another meeting on Friday. In the coming week he will also travel to the USA and probably meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it was said from the minister’s environment.

Another sensitive topic of conversation in Moscow was the dispute between the United States and Russia over the ban on medium-range nuclear weapons. Maas appealed to Russia to give way in the conflict over the so-called INF Treaty. Lavrov stressed, however, that Washington had long wanted to permanently and irreversibly withdraw from the INF treaty. US President Donald Trump made this clear in October. Talks with Moscow were not intended as an invitation to dialogue. Maas also wanted to talk about this in Washington, it said. 

Termination of the agreement: Putin warns the USA of a new arms race Fight for the INF treaty: USA demands the destruction of new Russian missiles

 NATO had accused Russia of violating the more than 30-year-old INF treaty with new cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 kilometers. The US then gave Russia a 60-day ultimatum to revert to the INF treaty and demanded the destruction of the 9M729 weapons. The claim will expire in a few days.

Sources used: dpa news agency

An American is arrested in Moscow for alleged espionage. The case appears nebulous. Is that how the Kremlin wants to put pressure on Washington?

The already strained relations between Russia and the USA were put to the test again shortly before the turn of the year. Russian authorities arrested an alleged US agent in Moscow and declared that he had been caught in the act «  » in an act of espionage.

The Russian domestic secret service FSB did not provide any specific information about what exactly the 48-year-old US citizen is being accused of. The agency only added that an American named Paul Whelan had been arrested. Investigations and criminal proceedings have been initiated against him.

Whelan is known to have served as an active reservist in several stages for the US armed forces in Iraq. According to the US magazine «  » Time «  », he was most recently active as a security expert for companies. His youngest client was the company BorgWarner, an American automotive supplier with branches in 18 countries, but not a single one in Russia.

Whelan is said to have traveled to Russia several times. The reason for his most recent visit was therefore the wedding of a former army comrade who wanted to marry a Russian woman. There is no doubt about his innocence, wrote his brother David Whelan on Twitter. Paul is a simple American, generous and loyal. «  » We are very concerned about his safety and well-being. «  »

Whelan – a bargaining chip for Putin?

While Whelan’s whereabouts in Moscow remained unknown, experts speculated about the reason for the Russian action. Moscow could have simply deported Whelan, as is customary in such suspected cases, wrote the US entrepreneur and sharp critic of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Bill Browder, on Twitter. But it looks like the Kremlin chief wants to use the American as a bargaining chip.

In fact, several espionage scandals had recently further strained the already severely cooled relations between Russia and the USA. In December, Washington imposed new sanctions on Moscow, among other things because of the involvement of Russian intelligence officers in the poison attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in Great Britain.

In addition, shortly before Christmas, the trial of the Russian Maria Butina, who lives in the USA, caused a stir. The 30-year-old had admitted to a federal court in Washington to have worked as a Russian agent. She admitted that she operated under the guidance of a Moscow government official in the United States between 2015 and her arrest in July 2017.

Butina, who was active as a gun rights activist, is said to have tried, among other things, to infiltrate the US gun lobby National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA is close to the Republicans of US President Donald Trump. The sentence was still pending. Butina faces up to five years in prison. It is expected that after serving part of the sentence, she would be deported.

Putin: Allegations against the Kremlin are a sign of Russian power

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had campaigned for Butina to be released and described the allegations against her as fabricated. He was in the same vein as President Putin, who recently accused the West of attempting to undermine the rise of his country on the international stage through allegations of espionage. Putin regarded it as a «  » sign of Russian power «  » that the West repeatedly raised such accusations. 

Moscow: Secret service arrests alleged US spy NRA and Republicans infiltrated: Russian admits  » conspiracy  » against the USPolitics, weapons and sex: the Russian who fooled America’s leaders

 The US government has meanwhile called on Moscow to investigate the Whelan case immediately. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday on the sidelines of a visit to Brazil that it is hoped to get consular access to the US citizen within the next few hours. His government wanted to know what was accused of the man. If the detention is illegal, immediate release will be requested.

Sources used: AFP news agencies, dpaBloomberg: Russia accuses US citizens of sionage (English) Radio Free Europe: International spy? Or just a wedding guest? (engl.) Radio Free Europe: Whelan’s family contradicts espionage allegations (engl.) Time Magazine: Who is Paul Whelan? show more sources less sources

Lavrov meets Maas, Russia meets Germany: the two governments want to get closer again. But on some issues there is still heated argument.

In view of the threat of escalation between the US and Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on the EU to show more commitment to bailing out the nuclear deal with Tehran. « The Europeans could do more, » Lavrov said at a press conference with his German colleague Heiko Maas in Bonn. Lavrov criticized the fact that, after withdrawing from the nuclear agreement, the US wanted to forbid other states from adhering to the provisions of the nuclear agreement.

Foreign Minister Maas rejected Lavrov’s criticism of the attitude of the three EU states France, Great Britain and Germany and at the same time called on all sides to de-escalate in the Gulf region. He calls on Iran to abide by the nuclear deal.

The signals from Tehran over the past few weeks are «  » unacceptable, « said Maas. «  » There will be no so-called ‘less for less’ for us, «  » he emphasized, referring to the Iranian position not to comply with certain parts of the agreement if the international partners suffer the economic damage from the US exit from the agreement and American sanctions policy does not compensate.

Ukraine peace process should get underway again

Despite profound differences, Germany and Russia want to come closer to solving international conflicts. Among other things, Maas and Lavrov expressed their fundamental willingness to restart the peace process in the embattled Eastern Ukraine. « Only through open discussion and dialogue can we achieve results that really bring our two countries further, » said Maas. There is «  » hardly any of the pressing issues in world politics «  » that could be resolved without Russia.

Lavrov again held out the prospect of a new summit meeting between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France on the deadlocked Ukraine conflict. But he has not yet given a specific date. However, he called a first exploratory meeting of the foreign policy advisors to the four heads of state and government constructive. The most recent meeting of the contact group of the conflicting parties in eastern Ukraine was the most fruitful that had ever taken place. The two ministers did not yet consider resuming the German-Russian government consultations that had been suspended due to the Ukraine crisis.

Maas and Lavrov took part in the St. Petersburg Dialogue on St. Peter’s Hill in Königswinter. 300 representatives from politics, business, culture and other social areas came to the German-Russian discussion forum. For the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, the foreign ministers are high-ranking government representatives from both countries. This is interpreted as a sign of relaxation in German-Russian relations.

Sources used: news agencies Reuters, dpa

Königswinter (dpa) – Despite profound differences, Germany and Russia want to come closer to solving international conflicts.

T-Online.de/TV

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At a meeting on the Petersberg near Bonn, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Russian colleague Sergej Lavrov expressed their willingness, among other things, to get the peace process going again in the embattled Eastern Ukraine. « Only through open discussion and dialogue can we achieve results that really bring our two countries further, » said Maas.