TBILISI, GEORGIA — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.

Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an October 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.

Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

 

Who is the outgoing president?

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.

Zourabichvili called Saturday’s vote a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.

Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that Kavelashvili’s election “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”

“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairperson of Georgian Dream.

Who is Kavelashvili?

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education. He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket, and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

 

How did opposition protests unfold?

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on November 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.

Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police, and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending antigovernment rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.

The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

“[Kavelashvili] is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said.

Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”

Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If [the government] wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.
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PARIS — Credit ratings agency Moody’s unexpectedly downgraded France’s rating on Friday, adding pressure on the country’s new prime minister to corral divided lawmakers into backing his efforts to rein in the strained public finances.

The downgrade, which came outside of Moody’s regular review schedule for France, brings its rating to “Aa3” from “Aa2” with a stable outlook for future moves and puts it in line with those from rival agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

It comes hours after President Emmanuel Macron named on Friday veteran centrist politician and early ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister this year.

His predecessor, Michel Barnier, failed to pass a 2025 budget and was toppled earlier this month by left-wing and far-right lawmakers opposed to his $63 billion (60 billion euro) belt-tightening push that he had hoped would rein in France’s spiraling fiscal deficit.

The political crisis forced the outgoing government to propose emergency legislation this week to temporarily roll over 2024 spending limits and tax thresholds into next year until a more permanent 2025 budget can be passed.

“Looking ahead, there is now very low probability that the next government will sustainably reduce the size of fiscal deficits beyond next year,” Moody’s said in a statement.

“As a result, we forecast that France’s public finances will be materially weaker over the next three years compared to our October 2024 baseline scenario,” it added.

Barnier had intended to cut the budget deficit next year to 5% of economic output from 6.1% this year with a $63 billion (60 billion euro) package of spending cuts and tax hikes.

But left-wing and far-right lawmakers were opposed to much of the belt-tightening drive and voted a no confidence measure against Barnier’s government, bringing it down.

Bayrou, who has long warned about France’s weak public finances, said on Friday shortly after taking office that he faced a “Himalaya” of a challenge reining in the deficit.

Outgoing Finance Minister Antoine Armand said he took note of Moody’s decision, adding there was a will to reduce the deficit as indicated by the nomination of Bayrou.

The political crisis put French stocks and debt under pressure, pushing the risk premium on French government bonds at one point to their highest level over 12 years.
…

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named centrist ally François Bayrou as prime minister in an effort to address the country’s deep political crisis, after a historic parliamentary vote ousted the previous government last week.

Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly.

Macron’s office said in a statement that Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government.”

Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027.

Bayrou vows to seek ‘needed reconciliation’

During the handover ceremony, Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does.

“I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said.

France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year.

“I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation.”

“I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said.

Bayrou is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers.

Difficult political challenge

The task before him is challenging as Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from both the left and right to be able to stay in power.

Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government.

Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Le Pen helped oust Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week.

Le Pen said on Friday that her party will adopt a wait-and-see approach for now and called on Bayrou to “hear” her voters’ demands, including preserving their purchasing power.

Bayrou’s appointment comes also in line with Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they wouldn’t support any future move to topple the new government.

The Socialists said Friday they would not take part in the new Cabinet but did not rule out possible “compromises” regarding policies. They asked Bayrou for a commitment not to use a special constitutional power to pass a law without a vote at parliament.

“We expect you to provide the guarantees needed to avoid another no-confidence vote,” the party wrote in a letter to Bayrou.

Weighty partner

Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007.

In 2017, he supported Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance.

At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds.

He this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine.

Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993-97 in a conservative government.

Three-time presidential candidate

Bayrou was three times a candidate for president, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, which made him a familiar face in French politics.

His name had repeatedly surfaced as a potential prime minister in the past, but he was repeatedly passed over.

He is widely considered having helped lay the groundwork for Macron’s rise to power in 2017. Long before the French president upended the country’s politics by crushing the traditional right and left, Bayrou tapped into voter frustration with entrenched conservative and Socialist camps.

A father of six and a practicing Catholic, Bayrou has played up his rural farming roots in the Pyrenees mountains, showing off his knowledge of tractors and cattle-raising — even while spending most of his time in the corridors of political power in Paris. 
…

The arrests in Azerbaijan of several journalists, including staff at the independent Meydan TV, have been condemned by the international community, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Azerbaijani authorities have detained Meydan TV’s editor-in-chief, Aynur Elgunash, and four of her reporters. Also being held are freelancer Ramin Jabrailzada, who is known as Deko, and Ulvi Tahirov, deputy director of the Baku School of Journalism.

All are charged with smuggling foreign currency and have been ordered to be held for four months in pre-trial detention. The journalists denied the charges and said the criminal case is a result of their journalism work.

During the arrests, others were briefly detained and later released, according to local reports. Journalist Ahmad Mukhtar was placed in administrative detention on charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police.

Blinken in a statement called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release the journalists who he said were “arrested for their work on human rights.”

The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, described the arrests as part of a strategy to silence critics of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration.

VOA reached out to authorities, but the calls went unanswered.

Jeanne Cavelier, who heads RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, said the government has resumed its crackdown against journalists in the aftermath of COP29, the annual U.N. climate change conference that Azerbaijan hosted. 

The Meydan TV arrests again prove the regime’s “willingness to shamelessly target the individuals who dare to keep Azerbaijani citizens informed,” Cavelier said in a statement. She added that Azerbaijan has detained 13 other journalists in the past year.

RSF “calls on the international community not to turn a blind eye to these grave, systematic violations of fundamental rights,” said Cavelier.

Meydan TV in a statement described the arrests and questioning of its team as illegal.

“Since the day we began our activities, our journalists have been arrested, they and their families have been subjected to harassment, and they have been subjected to various pressures and threats. Journalists who cooperate with us have been illegally banned from leaving the country,” the statement said.

Bahruz Maharramov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, questioned the criticism of the arrests.

“If there are real suspicions based on valid, irrefutable evidence, why should any person’s profession prevent those suspicions from being investigated?” he said. 

“Why should we remain silent about the illegal actions of a mercenary network like Meydan TV, just because they are journalists? Where is the legality, where is the equality?” he told VOA.

Regular pressure

Meydan TV was founded in 2013 as an impartial and objective media organization. It has regularly faced pressure from the authorities, and in 2017 access to its website was blocked in the country. The network’s social media accounts have been hacked multiple times and their contents deleted.

Orkhan Mammad, an editor at Meydan TV, said that some of those detained were subjected to violence and that the authorities tried to forcefully extract statements from them.

“Ramin Deko had bruises under his eyes. He was left without a lawyer for a long time. When Aynur Elgunash’s house was searched, she was pinned against the wall, hit in the kidney region, and her computer was seized,” he said.

The lawyer for Tahirov, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that the assistant director of the Baku School of Journalism has no connection with Meydan TV.

“They were just family friends with Aynur Elgunash. A large amount of money was seized during a search at Tahirov’s house. However, Tahirov stated that the money belonged to his wife,” Bayramov said.

The money found was from her salary, the lawyer said.

Zibeyda Sadigova, who is representing another of the journalists, Natig Javadli, said that there was no basis for the arrest.

“We were not provided with the decision and protocols regarding the search of his home, so we were unable to review them. Natig said that his computers and phones were confiscated, but no money was found in the house,”  Sadigova said.

The lawyer said that Javadli has been in journalism for 30 years and that the arrest is related to that work. “They seized his passwords without a court order. He was subjected to psychological pressure,” the lawyer told VOA.

Lawyers representing the journalists have filed an appeal against the pre-trial detention.

Media crackdown

More than 20 journalists and media workers have been arrested in Azerbaijan since late 2023 on allegations of smuggling and other crimes.

Among those affected are journalists from Abzas Media, known for its corruption investigations, and the independent media outlet Toplum TV.

The editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, Sevinj Vagifgizi, was among the Anti-Corruption Champions honored by Blinken on Monday. 

“Vagifgizi has devoted more than a decade in exposing government abuses. She’s also the one awardee who is not with us this afternoon,” Blinken said during a ceremony.

He noted that Vagifgizi had returned to Azerbaijan in November 2023, “knowing that she might be arrested on arrival.” More than a year later, said Blinken, “she remains in detention.”

Azerbaijan’s government has rejected international criticism of the arrests, calling it an “interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs and the independence of the judiciary.”

Officials say that fundamental rights, as well as media freedom, are guaranteed. 

Local human rights organizations estimate that there are more than 300 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

The country ranks 164th out of 180 on the RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, where 1 reflects the best environment for media.

Ulviyya Guliyeva contributed to this report.   
…

ROME — Italy’s government has granted citizenship to Argentinian President Javier Milei on account of his Italian family roots, a source with knowledge of the matter said Friday, confirming earlier media reports.

Milei is in Rome to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and to take part in her Brothers of Italy party’s annual festival Saturday.

The source declined to provide further details.

The news on Italian media triggered an angry reaction from some politicians and on social media from people protesting at citizenship being given to Milei when it is hard to obtain for the children of migrants born in Italy.

Italy’s citizenship laws are based on blood ties, meaning that even distant descendants of an Italian national can obtain an Italian passport.

Requirements for foreigners born in Italy or who migrate there, on the other hand, are much tougher. Pro-migrant groups have proposed a referendum to ease them, but Meloni’s right-wing coalition is against any relaxation.

Riccardo Magi, a lawmaker from the small opposition More Europa party, said granting citizenship to Milei was an act of “intolerable discrimination against so many young people who will only get it after many years.”

During a previous trip to Italy in February, Milei told a TV interview that he felt “75% Italian” since three of his grandparents had Italian origins, and that he has “an incredible passion for Italian Opera.”

Libertarian Milei and conservative Meloni have established a close relationship. When they met in Buenos Aires last month, the Argentine leader gave his Italian guest a statuette of himself wielding his trademark chainsaw.
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LONDON — A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against climate change — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases.

The 15 judges at the International Court of Justice have heard evidence from 99 countries and dozens of organizations over the course of the two-week hearing.

They are trying to determine the legal obligations of states to tackle climate change and to repair the harm caused.

The judges’ advisory opinion is expected to be published next year.

Emotional testimony

The testimony has at times been technical – but also impassioned and emotional. Small island states have argued their existence is at stake and so international human rights laws must apply to climate change.

“For young people, the demand for reparations is crucial for justice. We have inherited a planet in decline and face the grim prospect of passing on an even more degraded world to future generations,” said Vishal Prasad, campaign director for Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, which lobbied for the case to be heard.

“Equally clear is the demand for immediate cessation. If greenhouse gas emissions are not stopped, we are not just risking our future, we are welcoming its demise,” he said.

Polluters

Countering that argument were several big polluting nations, including China, India, Britain and the United States. They argued that only climate treaties, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, confer any legal obligations on nation-states regarding climate change.

“An advisory proceeding is not the means to litigate whether individual states or groups of states have violated obligations pertaining to climate change in the past or bear responsibility for reparations, as some participants have suggested,” legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, Margaret L. Taylor, told the court on December 4.

“It’s a suggestion … that some, but not all, states are entitled, as a matter of international law, to reparations simply upon a showing that the climate system has been harmed. We do not see a basis for such a conclusion,” Taylor added.

Island states

The U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory ruling after years of lobbying from small island and vulnerable coastal states, which argue that rising sea levels due to global warming pose an existential threat. The judges’ opinion will not be legally binding, but analysts say it will carry legal weight and could influence future climate negotiations.

Youth climate groups have led the campaign at the U.N., and several attended the hearings in The Hague. Many campaigners were optimistic as the two-week hearing closed Friday.

“We came here hoping that at the end of it all, we shall get a favorable advisory opinion,” ,” said Kenyan lawyer Brenda Reson Sapuro, who represented the group World’s Youth for Climate Justice at the hearing. “And we still stand hopeful because we have told our stories. We have told our stories from our heart. We’ve spoken of our experiences, and we believe that the law is also on our side.”

What happens next?

The ICJ’s advisory opinion may simply reiterate existing climate deals such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to Renatus Otto Franz Derler, a climate law expert and editor-in-chief of the Cambridge International Law Journal.

“[Or] a second intermediate outcome would be that states have an obligation to fight climate change. The conduct that they’re doing, for example the petrostates, is in breach of general international law, so therefore state responsibility would apply,” Derler told VOA.

Petrostates are countries that are heavily dependent on the export of oil and natural gas.

The judges may instead issue a much more ambitious advisory, “in terms of saying that, yes, states cause climate change, it is a breach of international law, and therefore states are obligated to pay financial compensation and cessation of all these harmful activities,” Derler said.

He added that such an outcome would likely lead to further legal uncertainties over how and where such compensation claims would be heard.
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A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against global warming — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases. Henry Ridgwell has more.
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CHISINAU — Moldova’s parliament on Friday voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter. 

A majority in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature voted to pass the state of emergency, which will start on Dec. 16 and last 60 days. A special commission will urgently adopt measures to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region. 

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country faces an “exceptional situation” in which Moscow could deliberately weaponize energy flows to destabilize the country, and potentially leave people “in the middle of winter without heat and electricity.” 

Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova doesn’t recognize the privatization. 

In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant. 

“This must be the last winter in the country’s history in which we can still be threatened with energy,” Recean said. “It is clear that these crises are deliberately provoked, and their goal is to create panic and chaos.” 

He added that a cessation of natural gas could trigger economic and humanitarian crises, but vowed that nobody in Moldova would be left “in the cold and dark.” 

Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency this week in case the region does not receive gas supplies. 

When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources. 

Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, said late Thursday that Romania has the resources to support Moldova “if the situation demands it,” saying it would be “a duty … in the face of the aggressions coming from the east.” 

In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path toward the EU, in two votes overshadowed by ongoing claims of Russian interference to derail the country’s westward shift in recent years. Russia denies it is meddling in Moldova. 
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Tbilisi — Georgia’s political crisis deepened Friday after new pro-Europe protests were announced ahead of the controversial nomination of a far-right government loyalist as president.

The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October parliamentary elections, with its decision last month to delay EU accession talks igniting a fresh wave of mass rallies.

More unrest is expected on Saturday when Georgian Dream will appoint far-right former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as president in a controversial election process.

The pro-Western incumbent, President Salome Zurabishvili, has refused to step down and is demanding new parliamentary elections, paving the way for a constitutional showdown.

Opposition groups accuse Georgian Dream of rigging the parliamentary vote, democratic backsliding in office and moving Tbilisi closer to Russia — all at the expensive of the Caucasus nation’s bid for EU membership.

A forceful police crackdown on the protestors has also triggered outrage at home and condemnation abroad.

Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Georgian officials overnight, barring visas for around 20 people accused of “undermining democracy in Georgia,” including sitting ministers and parliamentarians, the U.S. State Department said.

Police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rallies, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, and the country’s rights ombudsman has accused security forces of “torturing” those detained.

‘Unprecedented constitutional crisis’

Pro-EU demonstrators have staged daily rallies across Georgia for the last two weeks, with more to take place across Tbilisi on Friday.

On Saturday, an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream is expected to elect Kavelashvili as the country’s new figurehead president, in an indirect vote boycotted by the opposition.

Kavelashvili, 53, is known for his vehement anti-West diatribes and opposition to LGBTQ rights.

Georgian Dream scrapped direct presidential elections in 2017.

With Zurabishvili refusing to leave office, opposition lawmakers boycotting Parliament and protests showing no signs of abating, critics are questioning Kavelashvili’s legitimacy before he even takes up the role.

One author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, has argued that all decisions by the new Parliament are void because the body started work before awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit brought by Zurabishvili.

“Georgia is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Khmaladze told AFP.

It remains unclear how the government will react to Zurabishvili’s refusal to step down after her successor is inaugurated on December 29.

A former French diplomat, Zurabishvili is a hugely popular figure among protesters who view her as a beacon of Georgia’s European aspirations.

“Let them try to kick Salome out of the presidential palace — we will all stand up to defend her,” Otar Turnava, a 23-year-old protester, told AFP at a rally outside Parliament on Thursday.

“She is the only legitimate leader we have had since Georgian Dream stole the election, and she will lead us into the EU.”

‘Brutal violence’

In power for more than a decade, Georgian Dream has pushed increasingly conservative policies in recent years, including measures targeting civil society, independent media, opposition parties and the LGBTQ community.

Critics say the moves mirror repressive Russian-style legislation and Brussels has called them “incompatible” with EU membership.

Amid the latest crisis, police have raided the offices of opposition parties and the prime minister has repeatedly pledged to “eradicate liberal fascism.”

Announcing the latest visa bans on top Georgian figures, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “The United States strongly condemns the Georgian Dream party’s ongoing, brutal, and unjustified violence against Georgian citizens, including protesters, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures.”

Georgia’s Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili called the move “incomprehensible and meaningless,” accusing the outgoing U.S. administration of “deliberately worsening relations with Georgia.”

He struck back at critics of Kavelashvili, saying “it is vital to have a president who does not fall under the influence of a foreign power, as is the case with Ms. Salome Zurabishvili.”

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the ongoing repressions in a phone call to Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman and founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The secretive billionaire, widely assumed to be Georgia’s real power broker, raged against the West on the campaign trail earlier this year.

 
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced another package of weapons aid for Ukraine on Thursday, valued at $500 million, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said earlier the U.S. would continue to provide additional packages for Ukraine “right up to the end of this administration.”

Washington said 10 days ago it would send Ukraine $725 million worth of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons.

Biden’s outgoing administration is seeking to bolster Ukraine in tackling Russia’s invasion, before Biden’s term ends in January when Republican President-elect Donald Trump would take office.

Thursday’s package worth about $500 million included ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs), among other assistance, according to Blinken.

After Thursday, about $5.6 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) to rush weapons from U.S. stocks to the front lines remains available to Biden without requiring congressional approval.

Moscow’s troops have been capturing village after village in Ukraine’s east, part of a drive to seize the industrial Donbas region, while Russian air strikes target a hobbled Ukrainian energy grid as winter sets in.
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LOS ANGELES — The United States and its NATO allies are paying increased attention to military cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic, where the two countries have conducted joint naval exercises, coast guard patrols and strategic bomber air training.

That cooperation includes more closely coordinated military drills, said Iris Ferguson,  U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience. She spoke during an online December 5 discussion hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause,” said Ferguson.

In October, the coast guards of China and Russia conducted their first joint Arctic maritime patrol.

In July, four Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew over the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, marking the first time their military aircraft launched from the same airbase in northern Russia and the first time Chinese bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

China and Russia also held joint naval exercises in the Bering Strait in 2022 and 2023.

China has no Arctic territory of its own but is interested in growing opportunities for mineral exploration and a shipping route to Europe as climate change causes the Arctic ice cap to recede.

“It is an interesting development showing that a level of cooperation that a few years ago we didn’t think will get to that level,” said Stephanie Pezard, associate research department director at the RAND Corporation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

As recently as a few years ago, she told VOA Mandarin earlier this week, “Russia was really trying to beat China in industrial development in the Arctic.”

The U.S. Department of Defense published a “2024 Arctic Strategy” in July that identifies Chinese and Russian collaboration as a major geopolitical challenge driving the need for a new strategic approach to the Arctic.

Chang Ching, a senior researcher from the Society for Strategic Studies based in Taipei, said China’s presence in the Arctic creates pressure on the U.S. and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“In the past, Russia was the only traditional adversary in the Arctic, but now there is an additional challenge,” Chang told VOA Mandarin this week.

No immediate threat

Other NATO members are responding to the increased military activities of Russia and China in the Arctic.

Canada released a new Arctic Foreign Policy report December 6 to address its growing military cooperation with other like-minded nations in the region.

The report recommends that Canada strengthen diplomatic and technological cooperation with NATO countries in the Arctic and like-minded nations such as Japan and South Korea. It also emphasizes enhancing Canada’s military presence in the Arctic.  Canada’s Arctic territory makes up about 40% of the country and more than 70% of its coastline.

Canada, Finland, and the U.S. in November agreed to jointly build icebreakers, ships to cut through frozen waters, a decision driven at least in part by a desire to counter Russia’s influence in the region. 

Despite their stepped-up joint military activities in the Arctic, analysts say China and Russia do not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. and its partners in the region.

“I think it’s really important to not overstate what the PRC is getting from Russia as well,” Ferguson said. “We know what it takes to operate with allies. We know the years of investment and trust building and interoperability required to make an alliance, and you know their flying in [a] circle together is not the same.”

Why is China in the Arctic?

China is a new player in the Arctic.

Beijing’s “Arctic Policy White Paper,” published in 2018, stated that China’s polar strategy focuses on issues such as climate change, environmental protection, scientific research, navigation routes, resource exploration and development, security and international governance.

“China will not and has no intention of using Arctic issues to promote its geopolitical interests,” said the Chinese Embassy to VOA Mandarin in an emailed response Wednesday to the comments made at the online CSIS discussion.

“As a non-Arctic country, China is an active participant, builder and contributor to Arctic affairs, contributing its wisdom and strength to the change and development of the Arctic,” the embassy statement said.

However, Yang Zhen and Ren Yanyan, researchers at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, suggest that China-Russia naval cooperation in the Arctic is a way to counterbalance what they call the U.S.’s “maritime hegemony.”

Meanwhile, Beijing and Moscow have been developing Arctic shipping routes, especially for Russian oil and gas, as Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have largely halted the trade with Europe.   
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LONDON — Support for far-right parties in Europe continued to grow in 2024 amid voter concerns over immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine.

Far-right parties gained nearly a quarter of votes from across the bloc in June’s European Union parliamentary elections, although centrist parties continue to hold the balance of power at the EU institutions in Brussels.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party won the highest share of French votes in the EU parliament election, with 31%.

French President Emmanuel Macron — whose Renaissance Party won 15% of the vote — made the shock decision to dissolve parliament and call a general election.

National Rally saw a path to government for the first time.

“We are ready to be in power if the French people give us their support in the forthcoming legislative elections,” Le Pen told supporters. “We are ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French people, ready to put an end to mass immigration.”

Left and centrist parties, however, formed an alliance to block National Rally from power.

Macron appointed a new government under Prime Minister Michel Barnier, but France was plunged into turmoil again in early December after National Rally withdrew its support for government, forcing a no-confidence vote and prompting Barnier’s resignation.

Macron is struggling to appoint a new prime minister amid calls for his resignation.

Meanwhile, Le Pen faces troubles of her own, as an ongoing corruption trial could derail her political ambitions. A verdict is due in March.

German elections

In Germany, Europe’s biggest economic power, the far-right Alternative for Germany Party finished second in the EU parliament elections, putting the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in third place.

Scholz appealed to voters to reject the right-wing party.

“We have to worry about the vote for right-wing populist parties here and in other European countries. We must never get used to this, and it must always be our mission to push them back,” Scholz said in the wake of the results.

His call went unheeded. In September, Alternative for Germany won a state election for the first time in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.

Immigration

Concerns over immigration were central to the far right’s success, said Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at the Bruegel economic think tank in Brussels.

“How do you respond to that dissatisfaction that relates to migration? I mean, perhaps also the topic of inflation and increases in prices in the last years play a role. But I think the migration topic really is sort of at the center of the dissatisfaction,” Wolff said.

Germany’s three-party ruling coalition under Scholz collapsed in November. The country is due to hold a general election in February.

Aid to Ukraine

Alternative for Germany, which is currently polling in second place behind the center-right Christian Democrats, is campaigning on a platform of slashing immigration and ending military support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Germany is Kyiv’s second-biggest donor, after the United States.

“We want peace in Ukraine. We don’t want any weapons deliveries. We don’t want any tanks. We don’t want any missiles,” AfD leader Alice Weidel said at a press conference on December 7.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party topped the vote in September’s election with more than 28%. However, all other parties ruled out forming a coalition with it, so the party has been excluded from power.

In 2025, analysts say, all eyes will be on the political turbulence in France and Germany as Europe prepares for the return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in January.
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Support for far-right parties in Europe continued to grow in 2024. Analysts say the trend was driven by concerns over immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell has more.
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