Matthew Miller
Washington D.C./23.05.23/Turan: The United States is closely watching efforts by Russia's Wagner group to source weapons through Mali for use against Ukraine, the State Department said on Monday, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
While Washingron hasn't seen any indication that Wagner was successful in receiving military material, it's “monitoring the situation closely," as Matthew Miller, State Department's new spokesperson, put it.
“We have sanctioned a number of entities and individuals across a number of continents that support Wagner’s military operations and we will have more to share on this question soon,” Miller told a daily press briefing.
The Biden administration designated Wagner as a Transnational Criminal Organization early this year as part of efforts to identify and cut off parts of its global support network. The U.S. Congress, however, has been calling on the administration to designate Wager as a foreign terrorist organization.
Asked by TURAN whether Washington was still considering designating Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, Miller said, "we don’t believe that that’s the most effective mechanism for holding Russia accountable, and that, in fact, doing so could have counterproductive side effects in our ability to deliver humanitarian aid to the region."
In the meantime, he added, Washington has continued to hold Russia accountable "through a number of other steps."
"Those started even before Russia invaded Ukraine with our delivery of weapons to Ukraine. It’s continued with the sanctions and export controls that we have imposed and that our allies and partners have imposed on Russia," he explained.
"And I think most significantly, it’s continued with the weapon systems that we have delivered to Ukraine; and as I said in my opening remarks, further weapon systems that we announced even in the last few days," the spokesperson added.
Alex Raufoglu
Politics
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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On August 30, at approximately 22:55, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor was disconnected from the country's power grid, as reported by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. The shutdown was caused by a lightning strike, which triggered the plant's safety systems to switch the station to a safe shutdown mode. Currently, the plant's staff is working on restarting the facility.
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