Russia blacklists Yale university in latest crackdown
Being declared 'undesirable' effectively bans entities from operating in Russia and makes anyone who works with them liable to prosecution.
According to the prosecutor general, Yale's activities were aimed at 'violating territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, imposing an international blockade on the state and undermining its economic foundations.'
The prosecutors singled out Yale's School of Global Affairs, accusing it of preparing opposition activists to organize protests in the country.
President Vladimir Putin's top contender, late opposition activist Alexei Navalny who died in prison in unclear circumstances in February 2024, was among the school's fellows.
The US university joins international organizations and nonprofits such as Amnesty International, British Council, Greenpeace, Elton John's AIDS Foundation which Moscow has labelled as undesirable.
Russia has also put on the list independent media outlets such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Meduza.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Gaza diplomacy, Ukraine under fire, and Trump targets Putin
In this episode of Global News Today, presented by Tom Burges Watson, we bring you the latest on renewed ceasefire efforts in Gaza, as Israeli and US officials hold high-level talks in Washington amid growing international pressure to halt the conflict. We also turn our focus to Ukraine, following one of Russia's largest drone attacks since the start of the war. This comes as US President Donald Trump delivers scathing criticism of Vladimir Putin, raising fresh questions about the future of US policy in the region and what it will take to bring about a ceasefire in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Guests: Yossi Kuperwasser – Israeli army brigadier general (res.) and former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
How Russia established deterrence with its neighbors
During a recent vacation in Georgia, it was interesting to see how people perceived the war in Ukraine. It was also interesting to see the war's impact on their own understanding of how their country should deal with Russia in order to avoid suffering the same fate as Ukraine. Georgia is a small country next to a strong neighbor and every Georgian I met told me a wise policy would be to be on good terms with Russia and not to rely on the West. Russia controls almost 20 percent of Georgian territory. It rules Abkhazia on the Black Sea and South Ossetia in the north of the country. The border between Russia and Georgia is studded with mountains. Russia wants to keep an eye on its smaller neighbor, especially as it is a candidate country for both the EU and NATO. Moscow wants to make sure that, behind that mountainous area, the West will not push for a government that is antagonistic to the Kremlin. Last month, the Georgian parliament's speaker criticized NATO's response to Georgia's membership request, which was made in 2008, saying that the country needs more than words, it needs real protection. The impression is that the West uses countries like Ukraine as fodder to undermine Russia, while having no real interest in their well-being. More than three years on from Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine is destroyed. It has lost parts of its territory. It will probably become a rump state and there is no real support for stopping Russia. On the contrary, facing Russian determination, the US is pressuring the weaker party, which is Ukraine, to compromise. My tour guide told me that this goes back centuries. Whenever Georgians have had problems with their neighbors, they have asked for help from European countries but have never received any assistance. I am not sure if this is true or not, but it is certainly the prevailing perception. The lesson is very clear: it is better for the neighbors of Russia to toe the line with Moscow rather than to butt heads with the Russian president. The West is unreliable — it will offer empty words of support but will never confront Russia to save a democracy. If Russia's neighbors are now convinced of that, then Moscow has already won. It has established deterrence. It is important to understand the Russian psyche, which extends beyond the current president. It goes back to the Second World War. Russians believe that the West is arrogant and treacherous. They believe the US left Russia to bear the brunt of fighting the Nazis. They believe the Americans adopted a strategy of buck-passing. They let the Soviet army do the bulk of the fighting and the US intervention was deliberately delayed. The Normandy landings only happened once victory was a done deal. Countries like Georgia understand that. They will not settle for promises from the West. Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib Late former President Mikhail Gorbachev complained about the West's arrogance. The Soviet Union was a superpower, which the US did its best to fight economically during the Cold War. Gorbachev accepted the dismantling of the Soviet Union in return for promises from the West that it would help lift Russia economically. However, according to a well-known Russian professor colleague of mine, those promises were nothing but lies. Once the communist threat was gone, the West did not lift a finger to prevent the economic collapse of Russia and the independent states that were part of the Soviet Union. The Russians claim that one of the conditions for dismantling the Soviet Union was to stop the expansion of NATO. However, NATO has its open-door policy and it has kept on expanding to the east. NATO has deployed missile defense systems in Poland and Romania. When Russian President Vladimir Putin asked George W. Bush about this, the US president insisted that they were to prevent Iranian missiles from reaching Europe. Putin did not buy it. There is deep mistrust of the West. Hence, even though the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia still wants to be sure that all its neighbors are in its orbit. Even if this means it has to cross mountains and subdue a piece of land to make sure it can keep a close eye on a neighboring government, as it did with Georgia. Russia is also playing the minorities and ethnicities card. In Ukraine, it is using the ethnic Russian population in the Donbas to justify its invasion. However, regardless of whether the president really cares about these people, the Russians do not want NATO troops on their doorstep. NATO's raison d'etre is to counter Russia. During the Cold War, there was a kind of military balance. The Warsaw Pact was an Eastern alliance to counter NATO. The fall of the Soviet Union led to the demise of the Warsaw Pact. Nevertheless, Russia still feels it needs to keep the states in its vicinity in its orbit to fend off any threats emanating from the Western camp. This is why it sees the war in Ukraine as an existential matter. Western countries do not see the war in Ukraine as an existential matter. This is why Russia is ready to sacrifice far more than they are. Countries like Georgia understand that. They will not settle for promises from the West. They need a firm commitment, which the West is unable or unwilling to provide. Until it does so, Russia's neighbors know that their security is better guaranteed by being on good terms with Moscow. The fact that Russia was able to impose this attitude on its neighbors means it has won. Moscow has established deterrence. That is the purpose of war: to deter any current or future threats. No neighbor of Moscow wants to develop a relationship with the West that will fuel the ire of the Russian bear. • Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
European court finds Russian responsible for international law violations. Here's the key takeaways
Europe's top human rights court delivered damning judgments on Wednesday against Russia, finding Moscow responsible for widespread violations of international law in Ukraine and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued judgements in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands accusing Moscow of atrocities in Ukraine dating back more than a decade. They include the murder, torture, rape, and destruction of civilian infrastructure and kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Key decisions It's the first time an international court has concluded there have been widespread human rights abuses by Russian forces in Ukraine. The 501-page ruling by the Strasbourg court combined four complaints – three stemming from the separatist conflict that broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and one linked to alleged violations of international law following the invasion. In all four cases, the court's 17 judges unanimously found Russian forces breached international humanitarian law. One of the complaints was brought by the Netherlands in connection with the downing of MH17 over separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine. It is the first time an international court has held Russia responsible for the tragedy in which 298 people died. The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, using a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels loyal to Moscow. Among the victims were 196 Dutch citizens. The ECHR judges found that Russia's refusal to acknowledge its involvement in the disaster also violated international law. Russia's failure to properly investigate it significantly aggravated the suffering of the relatives and friends of the dead. In 2022, a criminal court in the Netherlands convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel in absentia of multiple murders for their roles in the downing of Flight MH17 in a separate case. The ECHR is an important part of the Council of Europe, which is the continent's foremost human rights institution. Founded in 1949 and headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the Council of Europe is an international organization dedicated to promoting human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. It has 46 member states. The organization expelled Moscow in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. However, the court can still deal with cases against Russia dating from before its expulsion and legally the country is still obliged to participate in the proceedings. The rulings won't be the last from the ECHR dealing with the war. Kyiv has other cases pending against Russia, and there are nearly 10000 cases brought by individuals against the Kremlin. The court will rule on financial compensation at a later date, but Russia's expulsion leaves little hope that damages will ever be collected. Typically, judges at the ECHR award damages to victims for financial loss or hardship suffered when their rights were violated. The court ordered Russia to pay millions of dollars in compensation to Georgia for a swath of violations after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. That money has never been handed over. In 2023, more than 40 nations and the Council of Europe agreed to set up a system to tally the destruction Russia has inflicted on Ukraine in the hope of getting reparations. The Hague-based Register of Damage for Ukraine also known as RD4U began accepting claims last year. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month formally approved plans to set up a new international court to prosecute senior Russian officials for the invasion of Ukraine. The special tribunal will be created through an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe. It aims to target senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression, which underpins the countless war crimes Ukraine accuses Russian forces of committing since the start of the war. Existing international courts including the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague lack the jurisdiction to prosecute Russian nationals for that specific offense. The ICC has multiple outstanding arrest warrants for Russian officials for war crimes. They include President Vladimir Putin who is accused of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
