Tag Archives: Russia

U.N. vows to press on with securing Aleppo evacuation operation

Rebel fighters ride a military vehicle near rising smoke from al-Bab city, northern Aleppo province, Syria

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations vowed on Thursday to press ahead in securing medical evacuations of hundreds of sick and wounded from the Syrian city of Aleppo and demanded that the warring sides drop their conditions.

The United Nations aborted plans at the weekend to evacuate patients from rebel-held east Aleppo, which it had hoped to accomplish during a three-day lull in fighting last week, accusing all parties to the conflict of obstructing its efforts.

“We are not giving up,” Jan Egeland, a U.N. humanitarian adviser, told reporters after the weekly meeting of the humanitarian task force, composed of major and regional powers.

“We had unanimous support from Russia, the United States and from all of the other countries in the room to try again. On all fronts,” he said.

Egeland also said the Syrian government had rejected a U.N. request to deliver food and other aid supplies to rebel-held eastern Aleppo and an area in east Ghouta near Damascus as part of its plan for November.

“Which means that we need to overturn that decision,” he added.

“It was very clear today that the Russians want to help us with the November plan implementation, would like to help us get access to east Aleppo,” he said.

In all, the Assad government approved access to 23 of 25 areas sought by the U.N. next month, including 17 besieged areas, he said. But it will allow relief for only 70 percent of the more than 1 million people deemed in need, Egeland said. Surgical items are still not allowed in, “a notable exception”.

“The war is getting worse, it’s getting more ruthless and it’s affecting more and more the children and the civilians,” Egeland said.

In another sign that relations between Russia and the United  States have frayed, Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, announced that the two powers would no longer serve as co-chairs of a separate task force on the cessation of hostilities.

“…the cessation of hostilities is not really a major issue at the moment, but it needs to be kept alive,” de Mistura said.

Volker Perthes, one of his senior advisers, would serve as acting co-chair of that task force, he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King)

Britain, U.S. sending planes, troops to deter Russia in the east

NATO defence ministers attend a meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium,

By Robin Emmott and Phil Stewart

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in NATO’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.

Germany, Canada and other NATO allies also pledged forces at a defense ministers meeting in Brussels on the same day two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles entered the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark, underscoring East-West tensions.

In Madrid, the foreign ministry said Russia had withdrawn a request to refuel three warships in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after NATO allies said they could be used to target civilians in Syria.

The ships were part of an eight-ship carrier battle group – including Russia’s sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov – that is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the troop contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia’s western flank near Moscow.

“This month alone, Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States,” Stoltenberg said, also accusing Russia of continued support for rebels in Ukraine.

Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.

NATO’s aim is to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to deter Russia in Europe’s ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.

NATO’s plan is to set up four battle groups with a total of some 4,000 troops from early next year, backed by a 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force, and if need be, follow-on forces.

As part of that, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a “battle-ready battalion task force” of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland, as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe.

“It’s a major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here,” Carter said.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops, starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June.

London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in support of Turkey.

“Although we are leaving the European Union, we will be doing more to help secure the eastern and southern flanks of NATO,” Fallon said.

SYRIAN SHADOW

Others NATO allies joined the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Canada said it was sending 450 troops to Latvia, joined by 140 military personnel from Italy.

Germany said it was sending between 400 and 600 troops to Lithuania, with additional forces from the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Croatia and Luxembourg.

Stoltenberg said allies’ commitments would be “a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.” Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance.

For the Kremlin, the U.S.-led alliance’s plans are already too much given Russia’s grievances at NATO’s expansion eastwards, although Stoltenberg denied going too far.

But NATO’s troop announcements in the Baltic states and Poland were partly overshadowed by the dispute about whether Spain should refuel the Russian warships, which was later resolved by Moscow’s decision to withdraw its request.

NATO’s tensions with Russia have been building since Crimea and the West’s decision to impose retaliatory sanctions.

But the breakdown of a U.S-Russia brokered ceasefire in Syria on Oct. 3, followed by U.S. accusations that Russia has used cyber attacks to disrupt the presidential election, have signaled a worsening of ties.

Even before the break down of the Syrian ceasefire, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium, signaling he was willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States over Ukraine and Syria.

(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Russia beefs up Baltic Fleet amid NATO tensions

(L-R) Russian navy corvette Steregushchy, destroyer Nastoichivy and frigate Admiral Gorshkov are anchored in a bay of the Russian fleet base in Baltiysk in Kaliningrad region, Russia

By Andrew Osborn and Simon Johnson

MOSCOW/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Russia is sharply upgrading the firepower of its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad by adding warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter NATO’s build-up in the region, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

There was no official confirmation from Moscow, but the reports will raise tensions in the Baltic, already heightened since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and are likely to cause alarm in Poland and Lithuania which border Kaliningrad.

The reported deployment comes as NATO is planning its biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War to deter possible Russian aggression and will be seen as a riposte to that.

Russia’s daily Izvestia newspaper cited a military source as saying that the first two of five ships, the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol, had already entered the Baltic Sea and would soon become part of a newly formed division in Kaliningrad, Russia’s European exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

Another source familiar with the situation told the Interfax news agency that the two warships would be joining the Baltic Fleet in the coming days.

“With the appearance of two small missile ships armed with the Kalibr cruise missiles the Fleet’s potential targeting range will be significantly expanded in the northern European military theater,” the source told Interfax.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, which said earlier this month the two ships were en route to the Mediterranean, did not respond to a request for comment, but NATO and the Swedish military confirmed the two warships had entered the Baltic.

“NATO navies are monitoring this activity near our borders,” said Dylan White, the alliance’s acting spokesman.

The Buyan-M class corvettes are armed with nuclear-capable Kalibr cruise missiles, known by the NATO code name Sizzler, which the Russian military says have a range of at least 1,500 km (930 miles).

Though variants of the missile are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the ships are believed to be carrying conventional warheads.

“The addition of Kalibr missiles would increase the strike range not just of the Baltic Fleet, but of Russian forces in the Baltic region, fivefold,” said Ben Nimmo, a defense analyst at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who has been tracking the ships’ progress.

“The two small corvettes, with their modern, nuclear-capable missiles, may yet have an impact out of proportion to their size in the Baltic.”

SWEDEN WORRIED

Izvestia said Russia’s Baltic Fleet would probably receive a further three such small warships armed with the same missiles by the end of 2020.

It said the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defenses would also be beefed up with the Bastion and Bal land-based missile systems. The Bastion is a mobile defense system armed with two anti-ship missiles with a range of up to 300 km (188 miles). The Bal anti-ship missile has a similar range.

Sweden’s Defence Minister said his country was worried by the presence of the warships in the Baltic Sea, complaining the move was likely to keep tension in the region high.

“This is … worrying and is not something that helps to reduce tensions in our region,” Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told Sweden’s national TT news agency. “This affects all the countries round the Baltic.”

Swedish media said the Kalibr missiles had the range to hit targets across the Nordic region. The Russian Defence Ministry said in August that the two corvettes had been used to fire cruise missiles at militants in Syria.

When asked about the deployment, a Polish government spokesman said Warsaw was not commenting on the situation in the Baltic sea “for the moment.”

Earlier this month, Russia moved nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into Kaliningrad leading to protests from Lithuania and Poland.

(Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow, Justyna Pawlak in Warsaw and Robin Emmott in Brussels; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Andrew Heavens)

Russia says to extend moratorium on Aleppo air strikes

Smoke rises after strikes on Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) controlled Tell Rifaat town, northern Aleppo province, Syria

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it would extend a moratorium on air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo, but did not specify for how long.

Russia said earlier on Tuesday that Russian and Syrian military planes had not launched air strikes on Aleppo since Oct. 18, contradicting reports that air strikes in some areas of the city had resumed on Saturday.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported earlier that a “humanitarian pause” in Aleppo would be extended by three hours, but a defense ministry statement later clarified that extension related to a ceasefire on Oct. 20 and not to air strikes.

“The moratorium on air strikes by the Russian and Syrian air forces around (Aleppo) will be extended,” the ministry said in the statement, saying it meant Russian and Syrian planes would continue to stay out of a 10 kilometer zone around Aleppo.

It said it was also ready to organize more ceasefires on the ground in Aleppo to allow wounded civilians to be evacuated.

“We are ready to establish (further) humanitarian pauses … but only if we have reliable information about the readiness to evacuate the sick, injured and civilian population,” the defense ministry said.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt/Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Syria says east Aleppo ceasefire has begun, promises ‘safe exit’

Sky view of Aleppo

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian military said on Thursday a unilateral ceasefire backed by Russia had come into force to allow people to leave besieged eastern Aleppo, a move rejected by rebels who say they are preparing a counter-offensive to break the blockade.

State media earlier said the army had opened exit corridors in two designated areas in the Bustan al Qasr quarter and near the Castello road in northern Aleppo city. Waiting buses were shown on state television.

Intensified Russian and Syrian bombing of besieged rebel-held parts of Aleppo in the past weeks has hit hospitals, bakeries and water pumping stations, and killed hundreds of civilians.

The United Nations has criticized unilateral ceasefires after long sieges, saying they can be helpful only if combined with humanitarian access for those who do not want to leave.

The 250,000 civilians trapped inside the besieged rebel held parts of the city have so far stayed away from the corridors. The army blames rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad for preventing them leaving and says they use civilians as human shields.

Rebels say the goal of Moscow and Assad is to empty rebel-held areas of civilians so they can take over the whole city.

“They talk about humanitarian corridors, but why are they not allowing food into besieged eastern Aleppo to alleviate our suffering? We only need the Russian bombers to stop killing our children. We don’t want to leave,” said Ammar al Qaran, a resident in Sakhour district.

State-owned Ikhbariyah television said rebels had fired a mortar barrage near to where ambulances had been heading to take patients from the besieged parts of the city for treatment in government-held areas.

MEDICAL TREATMENT

The Syrian military said on Wednesday it would observe the temporary ceasefire over three days from morning to sunset to allow trapped civilians to escape and said it had pulled back to enable rebel fighters to leave the city via two designated corridors.

“We guarantee a safe exit. Seize the opportunity and save your families,” an army loudspeaker blared near an exit corridor, on live footage shown on the pro-Syrian government Lebanese news channel Mayadeen.

“An appeal to our people … we will extend every help from shelters to hot dishes and facilities that offer you medical treatment,” said the army loudspeaker.

To the rebels, the army broadcaster said: “Drop your weapons, this is your last chance.”

Residents reported no raids on residential areas on Thursday morning though rebel sources said planes believed to be Russian jets flying at high altitude continued to pound targets in towns and villages in Aleppo’s western countryside and in rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria.

People ventured onto the streets in some neighborhoods to buy essentials before an expected resumption of nightly raids after sunset.

Near the Turkish border, at least one civilian and scores were wounded when a car bomb blew up in an industrial area in the town of Azaz, a stronghold for Turkish-backed rebels who are waging a campaign to drive out Islamic State militants from their remaining foothold in the northern Aleppo countryside.

Since Russia intervened in the war a year ago, the government’s side has gained the upper hand on numerous fronts, including Aleppo, where the opposition-held sector has been completely encircled for weeks.

The Syrian army has pressed ahead with a major campaign, supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power, to take full control of Syria’s largest city, divided between rebel and government zones since 2012.

The rebels, however, say they are preparing a large-scale offensive to break the siege of Aleppo and that the Russian air force has failed.

“The coming battle is not going to be like others. We are waiting for the signal of the start of a decisive battle which will surprise the regime and its militias,” Abu Obeida al Ansari, a commander from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the rebranded former al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front, said in a statement on social media.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Dominic Evans)

U.S. vote authorities warned to be alert to Russian hacks faking fraud: officials

Sample ballot

By David Rohde and Mark Hosenball

(Reuters) – U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are warning that hackers with ties to Russia’s intelligence services could try to undermine the credibility of the presidential election by posting documents online purporting to show evidence of voter fraud.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said however, that the U.S. election system is so large, diffuse and antiquated that hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.

But hackers could post documents, some of which might be falsified, that are designed to create public perceptions of widespread voter fraud, the officials said.

They said that they did not have specific evidence of such a plan, but state and local election authorities had been warned to be vigilant for hacking attempts.

On Oct. 7, the U.S. government formally accused Russia for the first time of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations to interfere with the election process.

U.S. officials familiar with hacking directed against American voting systems said evidence indicates that suspected Russian government-backed hackers have so far tried to attack voter registration databases operated by more than 20 states. Tracing the attacks can be difficult but breaches of only two such databases have been confirmed, they said.

The officials said there is no evidence that any hackers have succeeded in accessing equipment or databases used to record votes. Many states use systems that would be difficult to hack or defraud, including paper ballots which initially are tallied by machines.

U.S. elections are run by state and local officials, not the federal government. On Nov. 8, votes will be cast in hundreds of thousands of polling stations in 9,000 different jurisdictions, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State.

The U.S. officials declined to comment on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s contention that the election is being “rigged.” Trump said in the third and final presidential debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night that he would not say until the election results were known whether or not he would accept the outcome.

Trump and his campaign officials have repeatedly said that the potential for voter fraud remains high but they have not provided any evidence.

On Thursday, Trump said he would accept the results of the election “if I win.” He said he reserved the “right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.”

Clinton supporters said Trump is unwittingly aiding an effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to undercut the credibility of the vote. Washington and Moscow are at odds over several issues, from Russian involvement in the Ukraine conflict, the war in Syria and cyber attacks.

“Trump does not even know he is being manipulated,” said Michael Morell, a former deputy CIA director who has endorsed Clinton. “Trump is an unwitting agent of Putin.”

(Reporting By David Rohde in New York and Mark Hosenball; in Washington; editing by Grant McCool)

Exclusive: Russia builds up forces in Syria, Reuters data analysis shows

The Russian Navy's missile corvette Mirazh sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey

By Jack Stubbs and Maria Tsvetkova

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has built up its forces in Syria since a ceasefire collapsed in late September, sending in troops, planes and advanced missile systems, a Reuters analysis of publicly available tracking data shows.

The data points to a doubling of supply runs by air and sea compared to the nearly two-week period preceding the truce. It appears to be Russia’s biggest military deployment to Syria since President Vladimir Putin said in March he would pull out some of his country’s forces.

The increased manpower probably includes specialists to put into operation a newly delivered S-300 surface-to-air missile system, military analysts said.

The S-300 system will improve Russia’s ability to control air space in Syria, where Moscow’s forces support the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and could be aimed at deterring tougher U.S. action, they said.

“The S-300 basically gives Russia the ability to declare a no-fly zone over Syria,” said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.

“It also makes any U.S. attempt to do so impossible. Russia can just say: ‘We’re going to continue to fly and anything that tries to threaten our aircraft will be seen as hostile and destroyed’.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to written questions. A senior air force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed talk of an increase in supply shipments.

But data collated by Turkish bloggers for their online Bosphorus Naval News project, and reviewed by Reuters, shows reinforcements sent via Russia’s “Syrian Express” shipping route from the Black Sea increased throughout September and have peaked in the last week.

The data shows 10 Russian navy ships have gone through the Bosphorus en route to Syria since late September, compared with five in the 13-day period before the truce — from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

That number includes The Mirazh, a small missile ship which a Reuters correspondent saw heading through the Bosphorus toward the Mediterranean on Friday.

Two other Russian missile ships were deployed to the Mediterranean on Wednesday.

Some of the ships that have been sent to Syria were so heavily laden the load line was barely visible above the water, and have docked at Russia’s Tartus naval base in the Western Syrian province of Latakia. Reuters has not been able to establish what cargo they were carrying.

Troops and equipment are also returning to Syria by air, according to tracking data on website FlightRadar24.com.

Russian military cargo planes flew to Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria six times in the first six days of October — compared to 12 a month in September and August, a Reuters analysis of the data shows.

INCREASED ACRIMONY

Russia sent its air force to support the Syrian Army a year ago when Moscow feared Assad was on the point of succumbing to rebel offensives. U.S.-led forces also carry out air strikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State positions.

Aerial bombardments in the past two weeks, mainly against rebel-held areas in the Syrian city of Aleppo, have been among the heaviest of the civil war, which has killed more then 300,000 people in 5-1/2 years.

Since the collapse of the ceasefire in September, acrimony between the United States and Russia has grown and Washington has suspended talks with Moscow on implementing the truce.

U.S. officials told Reuters on Sept. 28 that Washington had started considering tougher responses to the assault on Aleppo, including the possibility of air strikes on an Assad air base.

“They (Russia) probably correctly surmise that eventually American policy will change,” Bronk said, commenting on the analysis of the tracking data.

“They are thinking: ‘We’re going to have to do something about this, so better to bring in more supplies now … before it potentially becomes too touchy’.”

The FlightRadar24.com data shows Ilyushin Il-76 and Antonov An-124 cargo planes operated by the Russian military have been flying to Syria multiple times each month. It offers no indication of what the aircraft are carrying.

But the Il-76 and An-124 transporters can carry up to 50 and 150 tonnes of equipment respectively and have previously been used to airlift heavy vehicles and helicopters to Syria.

State-operated passenger planes have also made between six and eight flights from Moscow to Latakia each month. Western officials say they have been used to fly in troops, support workers and engineers.

Twice in early October, a Russian military Ilyushin plane flew to Syria from Armenia. Officials in Yerevan said the planes carried humanitarian aid from Armenia, a Russian ally.

Russia’s Izvestia newspaper reported last week that a group of Su-24 and Su-34 warplanes had arrived at the Hmeymim base in Syria, returning Russia’s fixed-wing numbers in the country to near the level before the drawdown was announced in March.

(Additional reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan and Murad Sezer in Istanbul, Writing by Jack Stubbs, Editing by Christian Lowe and Timothy Heritage)

Duterte aligns Philippines with China, says U.S. ‘has lost’

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands after a signing ceremony held in Beijing, China

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his “separation” from the United States on Thursday, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks.

Duterte made his comments in Beijing, where he is visiting with at least 200 business people to pave the way for what he calls a new commercial alliance as relations with longtime ally Washington deteriorate.

“In this venue, your honours, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte told Chinese and Philippine business people, to applause, at a forum in the Great Hall of the People attended by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

“Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also. America has lost.”

Duterte’s efforts to engage China, months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila, marks a reversal in foreign policy since the 71-year-old former mayor took office on June 30.

His trade secretary, Ramon Lopez, said $13.5 billion in deals would be signed during the China trip.

“I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world – China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way,” Duterte told his Beijing audience.

A few hours after Duterte’s speech, his top economic policymakers released a statement saying that, while Asian economic integration was “long overdue”, that did not mean the Philippines was turning its back on the West.

“We will maintain relations with the West but we desire stronger integration with our neighbours,” said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia in a joint statement.

“We share the culture and a better understanding with our region. The Philippines is integrating with ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea.”

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) review the guard of honor as they attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) review the guard of honor as they attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

RED CARPET WELCOME

China has pulled out all the stops to welcome Duterte, including a marching band complete with baton-twirling band master at his official greeting ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People, which is not extended to most leaders.

President Xi Jinping, meeting Duterte earlier in the day, called the visit a “milestone” in ties.

Xi told Duterte that China and the Philippines were brothers and they could “appropriately handle disputes”, though he did not mention the South China Sea in remarks made in front of reporters.

“I hope we can follow the wishes of the people and use this visit as an opportunity to push China-Philippines relations back on a friendly footing and fully improve things,” Xi said.

Following their meeting, during which Duterte said relations with China had entered a new “springtime”, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the South China Sea issue was not the sum total of relations.

“The two sides agreed that they will do what they agreed five years ago, that is to pursue bilateral dialogue and consultation in seeking a proper settlement of the South China Sea issue,” Liu said.

China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

In 2012, China seized the disputed Scarborough Shoal and denied Philippine fishermen access to its fishing grounds.

Liu said the shoal was not mentioned and he did not answer a question about whether Philippine fishermen would be allowed there. He said both countries had agreed on coastguard and fisheries cooperation, but did not give details.

SEA ROW TAKES “BACK SEAT”

Duterte’s tone towards Beijing is in stark contrast to the language he has used against the United States, after being infuriated by U.S. criticism of his bloody war on drugs. [nL3N1C80LK]

He has called U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and told his to “go to hell”, while alluding to severing ties with the old colonial power.

On Wednesday, to the cheers of hundreds of Filipinos in Beijing, Duterte said Philippine foreign policy was veering towards China.

“I will not go to America anymore. We will just be insulted there,” Duterte said. “So time to say goodbye my friend.”

The same day, about 1,000 anti-U.S. protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Manila calling for the removal of U.S. troops from the southern island of Mindanao. [nL4N1CP2MH] [nL3N1C52TM]

Duterte’s abrupt pivot from Washington to Beijing is unlikely to be universally popular at home, however. On Tuesday an opinion poll showed Filipinos still trust the United States far more than China. [nL4N1CO1UL]

Duterte on Wednesday said the South China Sea arbitration case would “take the back seat” during talks, and that he would wait for the Chinese to bring up the issue rather than doing so himself. [nL4N1CP3ES]

Xi said issues that could not be immediately be resolved should be set aside, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

China has welcomed the Philippines approaches, even as Duterte has vowed not to surrender any sovereignty to Beijing, which views the South China Sea Hague ruling as null and void.

China has also expressed support for his drug war, which has raised concern in Western capitals about extrajudicial killing.

(Writing by Michael Martina and Ryan Woo; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

Finland sees propaganda attack from former master Russia

A Russian SU-27 fighter violating Finland's airspace near Porvoo, Finland, early October 7, 2016. Finnish Air Force/

By Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland is becoming increasingly worried about what it sees as Russian propaganda against it, including Russian questioning about the legality of its 1917 independence.

The country shares a 1,340 km (833 mile) border and a difficult and bloody history with Russia, of which it was once a part. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and saber-rattling in the Baltic Sea have raised security concerns in the militarily neutral European Union country.

Earlier this month, Finland and Estonia both accused Russian fighter jets of violating their airspace. Russia has also started moving nuclear-capable missiles into its Kaliningrad enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania.

Sitting in his office in the government palace – built for Russia’s Grand Duchy of Finland – Markku Mantila leads a network of officials who monitor attempts to influence the country.

He says Finland is facing intensifying media attacks led by Kremlin.

“We believe this aggressive influencing from Russia aims at creating distrust between leaders and citizens, and to have us make decisions harmful to ourselves,” he said. “It also aims to make citizens suspicious about the European Union, and to warn Finland over not joining NATO.”

Finland won independence during Russia’s revolution of 1917 but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two. It kept close to the West economically and politically during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.

Mantila, who is also the head of government communications, says Russian media last month reported on “cold-blooded” Finnish authorities taking custody of children from a Russian family living in Finland “due to their nationality”.

The Finnish government denied the reports, while declining to comment on an individual case due to the legal procedure. However, the story has been replicated hundreds of times in Russia over the past few weeks.

A report by Kremlin-led NTV said “even the locals call Finland a land of ruthless and irrational child terror.”

PLAQUE HIT WITH AX

Mantila, showing on his laptop what he said were false news pictures, skewed authority statements and pro-Kremlin online discussions, said his network has verified around 20 cases of clear information operations against Finland from the past few years, and around 30 “very likely” such operations.

“There is a systematic lying campaign going on… It is not a question of bad journalism, I believe it is controlled from the center,” he said.

Kremlin and Russian foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for a comment.

Foreign Minister Timo Soini has also acknowledged the alleged propaganda, saying the government was countering false information with facts.

“All states engage in propaganda, authoritarian states even more so,” he told Reuters.

Some of the incidents have taken aim at Finland’s independence and at its historical figures.

In June, a university in St Petersburg put up a plaque commemorating Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, Finland’s most famous military officer and former president, who had served in the Tsar’s army but later led Finnish armed forces in World War Two.

The plaque quickly became a target for protesters who have called Mannerheim – regarded in Finland as a symbol of the country’s struggle against the Soviet Union – a murderer and ruthless Nazi collaborator.

“The plaque’s been shot at, hit with an ax and doused in red paint several times,” Mantila said, noting that Finland had nothing to do with the plaque project in the first place.

Mantila said he believed the whole episode was a follow-up to earlier reports that suggested that Lenin’s Bolshevik administration had no right to accept Finland’s independence.

Finland celebrates its hundred years of independence next year, also the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.

(Additional reporting by Tatiana Ustinova and Alexander Winning in Moscow; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

U.S. and Russia meet in Geneva on Aleppo

A rebel fighter stands near a Turkish tank as it fires towards Guzhe village, northern Aleppo countryside, Syria

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Senior U.S. and Russian officials held talks on Wednesday aimed at agreeing on how to separate al Qaeda-linked militants from rebel fighters in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo so as to pave the way for a ceasefire.

U.S. special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney led Washington’s delegation, while Moscow sent military experts whose names were not released.

They were joined by officials from regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but not Syria’s ally Iran which was not invited, a Western diplomat said. The Syrian warring sides themselves were not at the table.

“The idea is to engage the Russians in a discussion on the issue,” the Western diplomat said before the meeting held at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva.

The talks follow a meeting between the United States and its allies on Tuesday that aimed to coordinate efforts toward a new ceasefire, after Russia unexpectedly announced it had halted air strikes on Aleppo.

Russia favors a U.N. proposal to evacuate jihadist fighters belonging to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group from the besieged zone of eastern Aleppo in return for a ceasefire.

Russia has said a planned eight-hour ceasefire on Thursday will be extended if other rebels clearly distance themselves from the group, but it will not prolong the pause unilaterally.

The last ceasefire fell apart in September, since when Russia and Syria have undertaken a massive bombing campaign on eastern Aleppo, in which hospitals have been destroyed and hundreds of civilians killed.

Britain has triggered a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council to be held on Friday. A draft resolution seen by Reuters calls for an independent special inquiry which would name those responsible for breaking international law, including possible crimes against humanity.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad argues that his forces have a constitutional duty to protect the civilian population and rid the city of “terrorists”.

The task of separating “moderate” rebels from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which was formerly known as the Nusra Front and is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.N., is complicated because they have long fought side-by-side and there is little agreement on the number of Fateh al-Sham fighters in the city.

The U.N. says there are up to 900 Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters out of 8,000 rebels in eastern Aleppo in total, but diplomatic sources have told Reuters there are far fewer, probably a maximum of 200.

“They are calling the shots in Aleppo,” one aid official told Reuters.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Tom Miles and Dominic Evans)