Western nations and Russia engaged in a battle for influence in Eastern Europe in 2024, as elections were held in several states that had once been under Soviet rule. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Moscow has been widely accused of meddling in European democracy following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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LONDON — This year saw a battle for influence in eastern Europe between the West and Russia as elections were held in several states that were once under Soviet rule. Moscow is widely accused of meddling in European democracy amid tensions that have run high since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

Georgia 

In April, tens of thousands of Georgians staged demonstrations in Tbilisi against the government’s so-called “foreign agent” law, which requires all organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register and submit to detailed investigations.  

The legislation was dubbed the “Russian law” by its opponents, after similar laws long used by President Vladimir Putin’s government to silence political opposition and free media.  

The protests evolved into a battle for Georgia’s future: to be aligned with the West or with Russia. It is a fight that continues to this day on the streets of Tbilisi. 

Georgia’s opposition parties pinned their hopes on ousting the government in the October general election; however, the ruling Georgian Dream party won with more than 53% of the vote.  

Election monitors accused Georgian Dream of overseeing widespread vote rigging, including “ballot box stuffing, physical assault on observers attempting to report on violations, observer and media removal from polling stations, tearing up of observers’ complaints, intimidation of voters inside and outside polling stations,” according to the head of the European Parliament monitoring delegation, Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White. 

Georgian Dream insisted it won a fair election. The government suspended accession talks with the European Union. The United States in turn suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia.  

Many Georgians fear their hopes of a future tied to the West are being lost. Protesters returned to the streets in November, demanding another vote. 

“I just want us to look towards Europe and not back to the hole where we just got out,” said student Salome Bakhtadze. 

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze was unrepentant. “We are absolutely committed to fully neutralizing the radical opposition,” he said at a press conference on December 6. 

Moldova 

Moldova, another former Soviet republic, held a bitterly fought presidential election in October. 

Despite widespread evidence of meddling by Moscow, which it denied, pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu won the November second-round vote after Moldovans voted by a thin margin to embed the desire for EU membership in the nation’s constitution.  

“Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy,” she said after her victory. 

Romania 

In neighboring Romania, far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who opposes Western aid for Ukraine, scored a shock first-round win in November’s presidential election with 23% of the vote. Polls taken ahead of the vote suggested support for Georgescu was in the single digits.   

Romania’s top court annulled the result after security services uncovered an alleged disinformation campaign to promote Georgescu on social media, which was widely blamed on Russia. Moscow again denied meddling in the vote. 

“This candidate’s campaign was supported by a state foreign to Romania’s interests,” Romania’s incumbent president, Klaus Iohannis, said in a televised address on December 6. The country has yet to choose a new date for an election rerun. 

Election interference 

Russia is conducting a campaign of interference in European democracy — but the picture is complex, argues Costin Ciobanu, a political analyst at Aarhus University in Denmark. 

“There is evidence that Russia tried to use its tools to favor Georgescu, but we don’t know yet whether there was a direct coordination between the Georgescu campaign and Russia,” Ciobanu told VOA. 

“Russia is exploiting vulnerabilities within our democracies. They are leveraging the way in which social networks function in today’s democracies. But I would not say that all that is happening within our societies, that all the grievances and fury that we see is a result of Russia leveraging its hybrid warfare techniques.” 

“I would always emphasize the local vulnerabilities, the fact that sometimes you have this kind of gap between the elite and the population. And sometimes Russia is just trying to make those gaps wider,” Ciobanu said.
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VOA Russian speaks with Ksenia Kirillova, an analyst with Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and The Jamestown Foundation, on how Syria is being portrayed by Russian propaganda. Russian pro-government botnets have already started pushing the narrative that “Syria is of no benefit for Russia” following the fall of Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad. 

Click here for the full story in Russian. 
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Rufat Safarov, a prominent human rights defender from Azerbaijan, was one of the recipients of the U.S. secretary of state’s 2024 Human Rights Defender Award. He did not attend Tuesday’s ceremony in Washington, because he’d been arrested December 3, hours after visiting the U.S. Embassy in Baku to receive his visa to travel to the United States.

During the ceremony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pointing to the empty chair reserved for Safarov, called for his immediate release.

“Now, one chair, as you will have noted, is empty on this stage. … It belongs to Rufat Safarov, the Azerbaijani human rights defender that I spoke of just a few moments ago,” he said. “The government of Azerbaijan should release Rufat — and release him immediately — as well as all the other journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents and others that are unjustly detained.”

At the end of the ceremony, Blinken presented awards to human rights defenders from Bolivia, Colombia, Eswatini, Ghana, Kuwait, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, and he posed for a photo with them. Later, Blinken approached the empty seat reserved for Safarov and took a commemorative photo with his award.

Blinken issued another statement Wednesday calling on the Azerbaijani government to release Safarov, as well as others unjustly detained for their work in the field of human rights.

“The United States is deeply concerned not only by these detentions, but by the increasing crackdown on civil society and media in Azerbaijan,” the statement read.

Safarov, a former prosecutor who heads the Defense Line human rights organization, issued a statement expressing his gratitude for the award.

“Unfortunately, Baku arrested me in order to prevent me from personally receiving that award and to punish me for my human rights advocacy,” he said in the statement sent to VOA from prison.

Safarov said he was proud of his work defending universal values as a human rights activist “despite all the slander and pressure” from the government.

“In fact, I have accepted my arrest as a reward from the government for human rights advocacy. Human rights are not an internal affair of any country. İt is a universal concept.

“Without human rights, not only the state, but even the society cannot exist. I call on everyone to stand in solidarity in the defense of human rights,” the statement read.

Last week, Safarov was charged with fraud and hooliganism and put on four months of pretrial detention.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs told VOA that Safarov’s detention was related to a conflict between him and an individual over a land purchase, an allegation he denied.

Safarov was previously sentenced to jail for bribery in 2016 and served three years before being pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.

His arrest coincides with a new crackdown in Azerbaijan following a recent climate change conference held November 11-22 in Baku. The arrests prompted Western concerns about the state of human rights in the country.

In his statement Wednesday, Blinken called on Azerbaijani authorities to end the crackdown on civil society and the media.

“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to release those unjustly detained for their advocacy on behalf of human rights, cease its crackdown on civil society, respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, and fulfill the commitments it made when it joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” Blinken said.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
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TBILISI, Georgia — Seventy-five-year-old Marina Terishvili’s teenage son Mamuka was shot dead at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against perceived Russian influence in their homeland.

Seven police cars pulled up at her house in the capital Tbilisi on Friday and took Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver, into custody, she said.

He was placed in pre-trial detention for two months for “participating in group violence” according to a rights group and local media, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted, part of a broad crackdown on demonstrators who have clashed nightly with police for almost two weeks.

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association rights group said he had not yet entered a plea and Marina Terishvili said she did not know why he had been detained.

“I can’t deny that he went to the rallies, because he has a brother who died on Feb. 2, 1992, and he went there in honor of his soul,” Marina said, adding that Giorgi could not tolerate the idea that his younger brother had died in vain.

Mamuka was 17 when he was killed during the brief civil war that followed Georgia’s 1991 exit from the Soviet Union, which ended 200 years of rule by Russia.

Giorgi is among more than 400 people who authorities and rights groups say have been arrested during protests against government moves to delay the South Caucasus country’s longstanding bid to join the European Union.

Around 30 face criminal charges, mostly relating to allegations of “group violence” aimed at overthrowing the government. Among those jailed are two leaders of the country’s pro-EU opposition.

Rights groups say the crackdown is without recent precedent in Georgia, a country that had been seen as among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states.

Fireworks

Some protesters have thrown fireworks and other projectiles at police, arguing that they are defending themselves against tear-gas and baton attacks. The interior ministry said on Monday that more than 150 police officers have been injured.

The Georgian Dream party, which officials say won elections in October the opposition says were tainted by fraud, provoked widespread anger in the country of 3.7 million when it announced last month that it was suspending EU accession talks until 2028.

Georgian Dream says it favors a pragmatic policy with Russia, which backs two regions which split from Georgia after it left the Soviet Union. The party says its aim is to safeguard peace amid the war in Ukraine, which has been shattered by Russian invading forces since early 2022.

Western countries have condemned the crackdown, and the EU’s ambassador to Georgia said on Monday that it merits sanctions.

Georgia’s ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, an ex-opposition politician appointed by Georgian Dream, said on Tuesday that his office has visited 327 detainees, of whom 225 said they were mistreated and 157 had visible injuries.

Police reported finding fireworks and items for making petrol bombs at two opposition party headquarters. Both parties said the items had been planted.

At a briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the parties’ premises a “hotbed of violence” and said their attempt to seize power had failed.

Masked men in black

Gangs of masked men in black have begun attacking opposition politicians, activists and some journalists in recent days.

Opposition supporters refer to the gangs as “titushky,” a Ukrainian word for thugs who attacked opponents of a pro-Russian government before that country’s 2014 Maidan revolution which drove the president to flee to Moscow.

Two journalists from a pro-opposition television channel suffered visible head injuries in an attack on Dec. 7 captured in their live broadcast from a protest.

The same day, Koba Khabazi, a prominent member of the Coalition for Change opposition party, was left with extensive head injuries after being attacked inside the building that houses his party’s headquarters.

CCTV footage obtained by Reuters shows around 15 black-clad men entering the building and confronting Khabazi, who they push down a staircase, before punching and kicking him in the head as he lies on the ground, motionless.

Speaking to Reuters two days later, Khabazi, a 57-year-old former lawmaker, blamed the Georgian government for the attack.

“Of course, the government is behind this,” said Khabazi, his head still swathed in bandages. “This government is built on violence.”

Georgian authorities have said they are not involved in the attacks, and condemn them. Ruling party officials have suggested they are carried out by the opposition to frame Georgian Dream.
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VIENNA — Human trafficking has risen sharply due to conflicts, climate-induced disasters and global crises, according to a United Nations report published on Wednesday.

In 2022, the latest year for which data is widely available, the number of known victims worldwide rose to 25% above 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons said. A sharp fall in 2020 had largely disappeared by the following year.

“Criminals are increasingly trafficking people into forced labor, including to coerce them into running sophisticated online scams and cyberfraud, while women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence,” the report said, adding that organized crime was mainly responsible.

Children accounted for 38% of detected victims, compared to 35% for figures for 2020 which formed the basis of the previous report.

The latest report showed adult women remain the largest group of victims, representing 39% of cases, followed by men at 23%, girls at 22% and boys at 16%.

The most common reason by far for women and girls being trafficked was sexual exploitation at 60% or more, followed by forced labor. For men, it was forced labor and for boys, it was forced labor and “other purposes” in roughly equal measure.

Those other purposes include forced criminality and forced begging. The report said the growing number of boys identified as victims of trafficking could be linked to rising numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving in Europe and North America.

The region of origin that accounted for the largest number of victims was sub-Saharan Africa with 26%, though there are many different trafficking routes.

While improved detection could account for the growing numbers, the report said it was likely a combination of that and more trafficking in general.

The biggest increases in cases detected were in sub-Saharan Africa, North America and the ‘western and southern Europe’ region, according to the report, with migration influxes being a significant factor in the latter two.
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At a landmark hearing Tuesday on climate change law at the United Nation’s top court in The Hague, Britain argued that only existing climate treaties should have any bearing on a state’s obligations to address the crisis, echoing calls from other big economies.

Small island states have told the court that global warming poses an existential risk, arguing that international human rights laws must apply, in addition to any negotiated climate agreements. Such an outcome could pave the way for compensation claims against big polluting nations.

The hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is one of several legal cases that has the potential to reframe global climate change negotiations.

Some 99 countries are participating in the two-week hearing at the ICJ, making it the largest case in the court’s history. It has pitted small island nations against big polluters and fossil fuel producers.

At the heart of the case is whether international law obliges nation states to prevent climate change and pay for the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions.

Britain argued that the only legal obligations are derived from existing climate treaties such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The climate crisis can only be met by states working together,” British Attorney General Richard Hermer told the court on Tuesday. “The most constructive, the most concrete, and thus the most legally effective way is through the legally binding agreements setting out states’ obligations to tackle the challenges of climate change. … At the heart of the global response to climate change is the landmark Paris Agreement.”

‘Escape accountability’

Critics accused Britain of trying to avoid legal responsibilities.

“The United Kingdom laid out contemptuous arguments in front of the International Court of Justice with one key goal: escape accountability and responsibilities for decades of climate harms,” Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law, said in a statement sent to VOA.

“By claiming that the Paris Agreement contains the sum total of States’ legal obligations on climate change, the U.K. effectively asked the Court to ignore both science and history: decades of fossil-fueled emissions, and the ample evidence that they knew far too well that such conduct would push the world to the brink of a catastrophe,” Duyck added.

Island states

Small island and coastal states, led by Vanuatu, have argued that rising sea levels caused by global warming threaten their existence — and therefore international human rights laws must be relevant, in addition to the binding agreements made in negotiated climate treaties.

“The conduct responsible for this existential harm cannot, I repeat, cannot be lawful under international law,” Vanuatu Attorney General Arnold Kiel Loughman told the court last week.

The 15 judges will offer an advisory opinion that has the potential to reframe climate change negotiations, according to analyst Elena Kosolapova of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

“The expectation is for the court’s advisory opinion to provide a clear legal benchmark and remove any ambiguity around countries’ obligations under international law. And U.N. negotiations would certainly benefit from legal clarity,” Kosolapova told VOA.

Global hearings

Scientists say climate change is driving extreme weather events around the world. That has put the spotlight on the rights of the communities affected.

The ICJ hearing is one of three international courts asked to provide legal clarity on climate change.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held hearings in Brazil and Barbados earlier this year and is expected to give its opinion on nation states’ legal obligations in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, judges at the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled in May that greenhouse gas emissions are subject to international law, and that all states are obliged to limit global warming and protect marine environments.

“If a state fails to comply with this obligation, international [legal] responsibility would be engaged for that state,” Judge Albert Hoffmann explained at the time of the ruling.

Small island states praised that advisory opinion, claiming it gave teeth to climate change laws.

The hearing at the ICJ is due to finish on Friday. The judges are expected to take several more weeks to issue their opinion.
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Russian officials said Wednesday that Ukrainian aerial attacks caused damage in two regions along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram that a drone attack caused a fire at a factory that was later extinguished.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 14 Ukrainian aerial drones launched in overnight attacks.

In the Rostov region, acting governor Yuri Slyusar said Wednesday a missile attack damaged an industrial facility and more than a dozen cars at the port of Taganrog.

Slyusar said on Telegram that preliminary information indicated no one was hurt in the attack.

In Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said Wednesday the death toll from a Russian missile strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia a day earlier had risen to six people, with another 22 wounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the attack that his government was talking with allies about getting additional air defense aid.

“Right now, we do not have enough systems to protect our country from Russian missiles,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.  “However, our partners have these systems. Once again, we reiterate: air defense systems should save lives, not gather dust in storage facilities.”
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday said it transferred the $20 billion U.S. portion of a $50 billion G7 loan for Ukraine to a World Bank intermediary fund for economic and financial aid.

The Treasury Department said the disbursement makes good on its October commitment to match the European Union’s commitment to provide $20 billion in aid backed by frozen Russian sovereign assets alongside smaller loans from Britain, Canada and Japan to help the Eastern European nation fight Russia’s invasion.

The disbursement prior to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January is aimed at protecting the funds from being clawed back by his administration. Trump has complained that the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine and said he will end the war quickly, without specifying how.

The $50 billion in credit for 30 years will be serviced with the interest proceeds from some $300 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets that have been immobilized since Russia invaded in February 2022. The Group of Seven democracies have been discussing the plan for months and agreed on terms in October, prior to Trump’s election.

President Joe Biden’s administration initially sought to split the $20 billion loan in half, with $10 billion to be used for military aid and $10 billion for economic aid, but the military portion would have required approval by Congress, a task made more difficult by Republicans’ sweeping election victory. With Tuesday’s transfer, the full amount will be devoted to nonmilitary purposes.

The Treasury said the funds were transferred to a new World Bank fund called the Facilitation of Resources to Invest in Strengthening Ukraine Financial Intermediary Fund. The global lender’s board approved the creation of the fund in October with only one country, Russia, objecting.

The bank, whose charter prevents it from handling any military aid, has run a similar humanitarian and economic intermediary fund for Afghanistan.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen personally oversaw staff executing the wire transfer of the $20 billion to the World Bank fund, a department official said.

“These funds — paid for by the windfall proceeds earned from Russia’s own immobilized assets — will provide Ukraine a critical infusion of support as it defends its country against an unprovoked war of aggression,” Yellen said in a statement.

“The $50 billion collectively being provided by the G7 through this initiative will help ensure Ukraine has the resources it needs to sustain emergency services, hospitals and other foundations of its brave resistance,” she said.
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December 11th will mark 30 years since the beginning of the First Chechen war. The initial Russian assault on Chechnya signaled not just the start of a merciless conflict that killed tens of thousands of civilians in Chechnya, but also the end of Russia’s liberal dream. 

As Russia’s first war after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the First Chechen war served as a prologue to other conflicts unleashed by the Kremlin, including the war in Ukraine. The bloody campaign continued with varying success until the end of August 1996, followed by Second Chechen war, which cemented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power.  

Experts spoke to VOA Russian on the lessons of the Chechen wars and their tragic consequences for Russian democracy. 

See full story here. 
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On this year’s International Human Rights Day on Tuesday, human rights organizations representing Chinese dissidents in exile from Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet held a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in London. The organizations called for accountability for China’s human rights violations and demanded that the British government confront Beijing’s ongoing abuses.  

They urged Britain to end its economic activities with China to avoid complicity with an authoritarian regime and take stronger action to hold China accountable. Additionally, they called on the current Labour government to impose sanctions in response to the human rights situation in Hong Kong and to uphold its commitments under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.   

See full story here. 
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