TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #45
Prigozhin resurgent, Putin on the rocks, Russia in turmoil…China on edge…Elections in Greece…Mosquitos head north…and cartoonist Osama Hajjaj imagines one response to migrants
This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, explores how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world. Reporting this week and through August from our base in Paris.
An end or a beginning?
It may be the biggest, certainly the most overt … only time will tell to see if it is the most effective … challenge to the absolute reign of Vladimir Putin since he first came to power at the turn of the century. His onetime chef and confidante, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the paramilitary Wagner Group, has demanded the ouster of the top two leaders of the nation’s military and it, would appear, seized control of the headquarters of Russia’s war on Ukraine in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. This came in the wake of incendiary charges that a Wagner encampment in southern Russia had been attacked and destroyed by Russian missiles.
Meduza, a leading website run in Riga, Latvia by Russian journalists forced into exile, was the most blunt about Prigozhin’s response:
Meduza led its coverage with this explanation of the early hours of Friday into Saturday: “Late on Friday, June 23, 2023, Wagner Group mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin released a video on Telegram purportedly showing the aftermath of a Russian Defense Ministry missile attack against his fighters at a “rear base.” In a series of audio clips, Prigozhin subsequently announced that he would lead an armed campaign to ‘punish’ the Defense Ministry officials supposedly responsible for the attack. Prigozhin insists that he is waging a “march of justice,” not a coup, but the FSB soon announced a criminal case to investigate his “incitement to armed insurrection.”
Indeed, at first blush, Prigozhin seemed to be making good on his threats to seize control of the military headquarters used in the war against Ukraine. Here are some scenes taken by local residents in downtown Rostov and published on the local website 161.ru:
Meanwhile, rationing was quickly inaugurated in Rostov for staples including sugar, salt, sunflower oil, and flower:
It was quite clear that Prigozhin has some substantial support, at least in the south of Russia. As two local readers observed on 161.ru as dawn was breaking over Rostov:
“The majority of the population understands that Prigozhin is right and tells the truth. But without the support of citizens, he will simply be eliminated physically. And all further arbitrariness and crimes against our own people will continue. If we continue to remain silent, it will only get worse. Do you understand?”
“Wagner, these are people from the people, from all the words of society. Prigozhin is the only one who voices everything we think.”
At the same time, it would appear, another column of Wagner troops was pressing north, preparing to take over the provincial capital of Voronezh, more than 300 miles north of Rostov and halfway to Moscow then pressing on another 80 miles north to Lipetsk.
As the French daily Le Monde reported: “In addition to Rostov-on-Don, posts on Telegram and Twitter announce that another convoy of Wagner Group vehicles is in Voronezh. Igor Strelkov (real name Igor Girkin) writes on Telegram that ‘the 'musicians' [Wagner's forces] entered Voronezh without resistance.’ He adds that if that’s the case, ‘the next stop is Moscow’ …. Much of the M-4 Don highway that connects Moscow to Rostov-on-Don is closed, Governor Alexander Gusev announced.”
Without question, Putin was doing his best to see that Prigozhin could not make good on his threats. In an extraordinary measure, the Russian leader went on nationwide television early Saturday with a curt, five-minute statement, in which he admitted that his forces had lost control over Rostov.
Le Monde reported him as saying: “’Anything that weakens Russia must be put aside,’ describing the situation of the armed insurrection as ‘a blow against Russia,’ ‘a stab in the back of the country and the people, apostasy.’ The president spoke of those ‘who have been trapped or threatened and who have embarked on the adventure of armed insurrection.’ According to him, Russia is ‘driven towards defeat and capitulation by the insurrection. The action against the insurgents will be severe.’ Mr Putin announced that he had spoken with army commanders overnight: ‘Russia will protect itself from internal betrayals.’”
World leaders, meanwhile, have refrained from any comment on the events playing out in Russia. Officials at the White House, France’s Élysée Palace, the German chancellery, all said simply they were monitoring the situation.
For my latest thinking, check out my CNN column!
How others see America
Closer to home, one hand giveth….
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was just arriving in Beijing when we went to press last week. His goal, culminating in a 35-minute meeting with Xi Jinping, was a major course correction in US-Chinese relations, which did not go unremarked among China’s neighbors and America’s allies.
“To stabilise their relations, China and the United States must first arrest a downward spiral,” observed a lead editorial in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. “That may turn out to be the achievement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing. It was unrealistic to expect any more just now. The negative fundamentals of the relationship remain the same…But they paved the way for a meeting between Blinken and President Xi Jinping, which did no harm to hopes for a Xi-Joe Biden summit. Along with [Foreign Minister Qin] Gang’s acceptance of an invitation to Washington, that suggests the two sides found some common ground—particularly the need for more stable ties and to reduce the risk of military conflict. In that context Xi’s remarks to Blinken may be seen as firm but conciliatory.” Still, the paper could not resist one parting shot, “There remains a sense that the US wanted this visit more than China.”
“A minimum of communication between China and the USA is regarded as indispensable because the major lines of conflict are likely to become more pronounced in the coming years and decades,” observed veteran China-hand Kai Strittmatter, writing in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Above all, the dispute over the democratic Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. Another point of contention is that China is acting more repressively internally than it has in a long time. At the same time, this China is becoming increasingly offensive in the world, sometimes self-confident, sometimes aggressive. Relations are increasingly defined by a great power rivalry.”
All this apparently bonhomie, however, appeared to have somewhat soured barely hours after Blinken’s return to Washington when his boss, President Joe Biden, referred to Xi Jinping as a dictator—a remark that quickly found its way around the world. As France’s Le Figaro reported, “US President Joe Biden said that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping belonged to the category of ‘dictators’ during a reception in California with donors from the Democratic Party, in the presence of journalists.” It didn’t take long for Beijing to react.
Two hours later, Le Figaro was back with an update: “China blasted US President Joe Biden's ‘absurd’ remark that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping belonged to the category of ‘dictators…’ and calling the comment ‘a provocation.’”
How others see the World
Our next election: Greece
On Sunday, Greek voters go back to the polls and Andelman Unleashed will be monitoring as it has done for every national election over the past 18 months. Indeed the turnout is likely to be pretty strong since it is, at least in theory, mandatory for Greeks to cast their ballots. It’s all going down again for the second time in two months as the incumbent right-wing prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakisis is most anxious to win himself an absolute majority in Parliament. The last time he fell five votes short.
And since then, the whole system has been altered in this nation, the bedrock of western democracy back to the time of Pericles. Now, the leading party on the ballot will be rewarded with 50 bonus seats. So, it’s quite likely that Mitsotakisis, who lacked just five seats for an absolute majority the first time around, will succeed this time. One possible and most fortuitous result? The Greek nation may finally, after 12 years in purgatory, find itself returned to investment grade status for its borrowing.
Snooping on journos
Not surprisingly, The Times of London is particularly outraged by an initiative against journalists taken about to be taken across the Channel. “The European Union has agreed to the ‘intrusive surveillance’ of journalists to identify their sources under new draft legislation exemptions demanded by France,” the paper’s Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield wrote. “Brussels ambassadors agreed spyware could be installed on the computer or phone of a journalist working in the EU as part of any criminal investigation ranging from terrorism to music piracy or bicycle theft. Last month France criticised an immunity, proposed by the European Commission, that would [have exempted] journalists from measures to ‘intercept, subject to surveillance or search and seizure’ unless ‘justified by an overriding requirement in the public interest.’”
The Times quotes “a confidential French diplomatic document” saying “the particularly exorbitant nature of this immunity [for journalists] raises questions.” The report notes the carveout was “backed by Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, and others…. A letter from European publishers, broadcasters and journalist trade unions warned that, in terms of prohibiting surveillance and protecting sources and communications, the proposals ‘are in fact a step backwards.’”
Mosquitos heading north….lookout!
The morning after I awoke in Paris with two enormous mosquito bites on my face, Britain’s Sky News was out with this somewhat unsettling warning:
“Warmer weather in Europe is creating more favourable conditions for virus-spreading mosquitoes.”
“Mosquito-borne infections such as chikungunya and dengue are becoming more prominent,” Sky News continued, “in what were traditionally cooler parts of the world, according to a report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Weather conditions, from heatwaves to flooding, encourage invasive mosquito species such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti. The ECDC added the Aedes albopictus mosquito has now been found in 13 countries and 337 regions.”
Finally, there’s … Osama
Osama Hajjaj, a Jordanian cartoonist who draws regularly for the Palestinian daily Alquds, and other Jordanian-based publications, had his own distinctive interpretation of the horror visited on a boat laden with Syrian and Pakistani refugees when it sank off the coast of Greece. According to the UNHCR, some 400 to 750 migrants were on board the overcrowded fishing boat headed for Italy from eastern Libya when it developed engine trouble and began drifting eastward. Most were believed dead after the boat foundered while efforts of the Greek coast guard appeared calculated only to accelerate its sinking. “I don't know if they wanted to push us back to Italy or take us to Greece, but given their attitude, I didn't have the impression that they wanted to save us,” one survivor told the Greek newspaper I Kathimerini. An EU unit will begin a probe. But Osama Hajjaj imagines all too well what happened.
Osama Hajjaj is well known in his country and throughout the Arab world having worked for a variety of newspapers in Jordan and Abu Dhabi and is a member of the inestimable Cartooning for Peace collective. Here’s how he imagines himself:
A subscription to the Metropolitan Opera perhaps?!
Merci beaucoup! Excellent work here.