Russian Authorities Say Probe Into Uprising Is Closed, Wagner Will Turn in Arms |
Russia’s main security service, the FSB, said it will close its investigation (FT) into this weekend’s attempted revolt by private military company Wagner Group, state media reported. Russia’s defense ministry said that Wagner was preparing to hand over its military equipment to the Russian army, which Wagner did not immediately confirm. A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Putin decided not to prosecute Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and that an agreement to respond to the weekend’s “extraordinary events” is being carried out.
In a speech yesterday, Putin said that Wagner fighters would be allowed to return home (WaPo), join the Russian military, or go to neighboring Belarus. Separately, Germany’s defense minister said yesterday that the country plans to permanently station (FT) around four thousand troops in Lithuania, which shares a border with Belarus.
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“For years, the Kremlin has devised ways to head off a liberal, urban revolution. But it turned out the greater threat was an illiberal revolution: a highly militarized populist uprising driven not by cosmopolitan reformers but by Russian nationalists,” CFR expert Liana Fix and the Catholic University of America’s Michael Kimmage write for Foreign Affairs.
“The fact that Wagner has not been immediately disbanded after an unprecedented weekend in which its fighters marched on Moscow, shooting at least six army helicopters in the process, appears to suggest that the Kremlin has not made up its mind about the group’s future,” the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer writes.
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Japan to Lift Final Trade Restriction on South Korea After Yearslong Dispute |
Japan will reinstate South Korea (Nikkei) on its list of preferred export destinations on July 21. The two countries have imposed a series of economic restrictions on each other since 2019, but have buried the dispute in recent months.
China: A prominent economic commentator and two unnamed writers were blocked on the social platform Weibo (FT) yesterday amid a crackdown on criticism of China's economy.
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World Bank: Junta's Economic Policy Will "Permanently" Scar Myanmar |
A World Bank report released today criticized the economic policies (Nikkei) of the military junta that took over in a coup in 2021, and noted that Myanmar’s gross domestic product (GDP) is still around 10 percent lower than before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pakistan: The country’s military fired three senior army commanders (NYT) for failing to secure military facilities during recent protests by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Analysts said the firings show that the military will not tolerate its members’ support for Khan.
On this episode of The President’s Inbox podcast, Sadanand Dhume discusses Pakistan’s political, economic, and climate crises.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Israeli Authorities Greenlight Plan For Over Five Thousand New Settlement Housing Units |
The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply troubled” by the Israeli plan to place the new housing units (Al-Monitor) in the Eli settlement and others across the West Bank. The government approved the advancement of the plan shortly after two Palestinian assailants attacked outside the Eli settlement.
Lebanon: Militant group Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone (AP) near the country’s southern border with Israel. The strike comes after weeks of tensions between the two countries in the disputed area known as Shebaa Farms.
In this Backgrounder, CFR’s Kali Robinson explains Hezbollah.
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German Foreign Minister Visits South Africa to Discuss Ukraine War, G20 |
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| European Union Environment Committee Rejects Nature Protection Law |
Conservative parties have campaigned against (EuroNews) the biodiversity law, which they say is a direct threat to the livelihoods of European farmers, fishers, and forest managers. It is the first time that the environment committee has rejected an element of the European Green Deal. |
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Former Mexican Anti-Kidnapping Official Arrested in Probe of Disappeared Students |
The former official for the attorney general’s office was arrested (EFE) in connection with the disappearance of forty-three students in 2014, Mexico’s undersecretary for human rights, population and migration said. Eight soldiers are also facing charges related to the case.
Guyana: The South American country is the world’s fastest-growing oil producer, but has so far turned down multiple invitations to join the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a bloc of oil-rich countries, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Human Rights Investigator Makes Rare Visit to Guantánamo, Denounces Treatment |
UN human rights investigator Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin said the U.S. government should immediately provide an apology and guarantees of non-repetition for the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, where she said that remaining men face “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law” (Axios). She is the first independent human rights investigator to visit the detention center since it opened in 2002. The U.S. government said it disagreed significantly with some of her report’s “factual and legal assertions.”
In this article, CFR’s Jonathan Masters looks at twenty years of Guantánamo Bay.
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