#EU 🇪🇺 encourages AM🇦🇲AZ🇦🇿 to take further decisive steps to tackle other outstanding bilateral issues and remains committed to supporting the efforts aimed at bringing sustainable and lasting #peace to the #SouthCaucasus region. https://t.co/59gp5VyElw
— Finland in South Caucasus (@FinlandinSC) May 18, 2024
Day: May 18, 2024
Days after his removal from the defense minister post he held for over a decade, Sergei Shoigu faced a delayed entry into a Chinese government building because its security staff were not happy with his pass, it has been reported.
Shoigu had helped spearhead Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the role he had since 2012 before his boss surprised many by replacing him on Sunday May 12 with Andrei Belousov, an economist with little military experience.
Shoigu in turn has been appointed secretary of Russia’s Security Council and while still a big job, it is seen by many as a demotion from the high-profile role he held as one of the faces of the war that Putin started.
But being in a delegation of officials accompanying Putin on a state visit to China where the Russian leader held talks with his ally Xi Jinping on Thursday was not enough for Shoigu to get automatic access to the seat of Chinese political power, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 15, 2024. The former defense minister was denied entry into the Chinese parliament, according to a Russian media report.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 15, 2024. The former defense minister was denied entry into the Chinese parliament, according to a Russian media report.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Getty Images
The newspaper’s special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov said that the trip’s organizers were not satisfied with Shoigu’s pass granting entry to the building.
“They did not want to let Mr Shoigu into the House of the People’s Assembly at all,” Kolsenikov wrote. “The organizers were not satisfied with something.
“The Secretary of the Security Council had to wait more than one or two minutes before the issue was finally resolved in his favor,” the journalist wrote, adding that as he stood “at least 10 colleagues” were allowed in.
When Shoigu was eventually admitted, he participated in the talks sitting to the left of Putin, while foreign minister Sergei Lavrov sat on the president’s right, Kolesnikov said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told Russian state media that this was the most important meeting of the trip, but Kolesnikov noted in his piece Shoigu “was not at the enlarged meeting at all. Does this mean something significant?”
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Following his inauguration for a fifth term as president, Putin’s move to appoint a new defense minister sparked speculation that he wanted to align the country’s economy more closely with the war effort.
Independent Russian news outlet The Bell said that Putin’s decision to replace Shoigu for Belousov was “highly symbolic” and showed that defense-related spending is the top priority. “The Kremlin is gambling on a war of attrition, and this sort of war is won just as much by economic managers as soldiers,” The Bell said.
Shoigu has taken over the role of former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Patrushev whom Putin has appointed as a Kremlin aide.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Georgian president vetoes ‘foreign agents’ bill, TASS reports SaltWire Halifax powered by The Chronicle Herald
Benny Gantz votes during Israel’s last elections in November 2022. Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
Minister Benny Gantz, a notable member of Israel’s war cabinet, gave an ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday and said his party will leave the government if the cabinet doesn’t approve a strategy for the war in Gaza by June 8.
Why it matters: Gantz’s speech further destabilized the emergency government that was formed after the Hamas October 7 attack and widened the divides within the war cabinet.
- The speech came a few days after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant presented his public indictment against Netanyahu and his unwillingness to draft a post-war strategy.
What they’re saying: Gantz said in his speech that an extremist minority took over the decision-making “and is taking Israel into a wall.”
- He was referring to Netanyahu’s political allies and ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotruch.
- Gantz accused Netanyahu of being driven by personal and political considerations and not by the country’s national security interests.
- He said the cabinet needs to draft a strategy that will prioritize releasing hostages held by Hamas and only afterwards focus on toppling Hamas rule in Gaza.
Zoom in: He said the strategy must include forming a U.S.-European-Arab-Palestinian directorate in charge of civilian administration in Gaza that won’t include Hamas and won’t be under the authority of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
- Gantz said another element in the strategy must be the normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that the Biden administration has been working on.
The other side: “Instead of presenting an ultimatum to Hamas, Gantz presented an ultimatum to the Prime Minister,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
- Netanyahu’s office said Gantz’s ultimatum means a defeat for Israel, the abandonment of the majority of the hostages, the survival of Hamas in Gaza and the formation of a Palestinian state.
- Netanyahu’s statement made clear for the first time that he rejects the Saudi demand to get an irreversible and time-bound Israeli commitment for a path toward a Palestinian state in return for a normalization deal.
State of play: The political crisis exploded a day before White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to arrive in Israel from Saudi Arabia and hold separate meetings with Netanyahu and Gantz.
- Sullivan’s talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday focused on the “Mega Deal” the Biden administration wants to reach with Saudi Arabia and includes a historic peace deal between the kingdom and Israel.
Go deeper: Israeli defense chief unloads on Bibi over lack of post-war plan
#Azerbaijan‘s military Chief of Staff visits major artillery base near Goran village, accompanies units to a training ground for live-fire exercises for a follow up, states the need to increase training intensity to maintain combat capability.
Source: https://t.co/ID08doY8TO pic.twitter.com/ok6TDu7V7D
— Nagorno Karabakh Observer (@NKobserver) May 18, 2024