MOSCOW: Voters across Russia cast ballots Saturday on the second day of an election set to formalize six more years of power for President Vladimir Putin, who faces no serious challengers after crushing political dissent over his nearly quarter-century of rule.
The election comes against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has stifled independent media and prominent rights groups. Putin’s fiercest foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in February, and other critics are either in jail or in exile.
The 71-year-old Putin faces three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly parties who have refrained from any criticism of him or his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin has cast his war in Ukraine, now in its third year, as an existential battle against the US and other Western powers bent on destroying Russia.
Officials said voting was proceeding in an orderly fashion. But despite tight controls, at least a half-dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported Friday and Saturday, including a firebombing and several people pouring green liquid into ballot boxes. The latter was an apparent homage to Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by an assailant who splashed green disinfectant in his face.
A 50-year-old university professor was arrested Saturday after she unsuccessfully tried to throw green liquid into a ballot box in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg. She was imprisoned for 15 days for “petty hooliganism”, but could face further charges, according to local news outlet Ura.ru. A pensioner in the Altai region in southern Siberia was also detained after attempting to damage ballots, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported.
In Podolsk, a town close to Moscow, a woman was detained by police Saturday after she spoiled her ballot by writing an unspecified message, said OVD-Info, a police monitoring group that provides legal aid. She was charged with “discrediting the Russian army” and fined 30,000 rubles ($342).
Russian lawmakers have suggested introducing a new law to punish election saboteurs with sentences of up to eight years in prison.
Meanwhile, a video released on social media by Russian election monitoring group Golos appeared to show staff at a polling station in the southern city of Krasnodar stuffing multiple voting slips into ballot boxes.
Also Saturday, Ukrainian drone and missile attacks once again hit deep inside the country. Tass said an armed group also tried to penetrate Russia’s border region from Ukraine.
Two people were killed in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, ordering shopping centers and schools to shut down because of the security situation. Meanwhile, local officials denied reports of explosions at polling stations in the border city, Tass said.
Dozens of people have been killed in Belgorod since the war began.
Elsewhere, a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil refinery belonging to Russian oil company Rosneft in the Samara region, 1,065 kilometers (660 miles) southeast of Moscow, the regional governor said.
One person was killed and four other people were wounded in the city of Kakhovka in the illegally annexed Kherson region of Ukraine, the Russia-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said, blaming a Ukrainian drone attack that he said was aimed at disrupting the election.
Earlier, Tass reported that a Ukrainian drone also dropped an explosive on a polling station in the illegally annexed Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
In the period leading up to the vote, Putin boasted about battlefield successes in Ukraine, where Russian troops have recently made incremental gains relying on their edge in firepower.
On Friday, Putin described the week’s cross-border shelling and incursions by Ukrainian forces as an attempt by Ukraine to frighten Russians and derail the vote. He vowed that the attacks “won’t be left unpunished.”
Despite the attacks, analysts say the Kremlin needs a high turnout in the election to signal that Russians approve of the war and to legitimize Putin for another term.
The Russian defense ministry has served as a key growth engine, working around the clock to churn out missiles, tanks and ammunition and cushioning Russians from the economic impact of the war — driving down unemployment and driving up wages. Russia’s wartime economy has also proven to be resilient, expanding despite bruising Western sanctions.
Russia’s opposition movement has urged those unhappy with Putin or the war to show up at the polls at noon Sunday, the final day of voting, as a form of protest. The strategy was endorsed by Navalny not long before his death.
Voting is taking place at polling stations across Russia’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, and online.
Western leaders have derided the vote as a travesty of democracy.
European Council President Charles Michel mockingly congratulated Putin on Friday on “his landslide victory” in an election that was technically still underway. “No opposition. No freedom. No choice,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Beyond the lack of options for voters, the possibilities for independent monitoring are very limited. No significant international observers were present. Only registered, Kremlin-approved candidates — or state-backed advisory bodies — can assign observers to polling stations, decreasing the likelihood of independent watchdogs.
Russians cast ballots in an election preordained to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule
https://arab.news/yduj7
Russians cast ballots in an election preordained to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule
- The election comes against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has stifled independent media and prominent rights groups
- Officials said voting was proceeding in an orderly fashion
ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests, his lawyer says
- One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a State Department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa
- Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the US as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer
NEW YORK: A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who claimed they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.
Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment blocks from Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.
One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a State Department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil, who graduated in December, was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.
The arrest comes as President Donald Trump vows to deport foreign students and imprison “agitators” involved in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The administration has placed particular scrutiny on Columbia, announcing Friday that it would be cutting $400 million in grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The authorities declined to tell Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, why he was being detained, Greer said. Khalil has since been transferred to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” Greer told The AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”
A spokesperson for Columbia said law enforcement agents must produce a warrant before entering university property. The spokesperson declined to say if the school had received a warrant for Khalil’s arrest.
Messages seeking comment were left with the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
Khalil had become one of the most visible faces of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia. As Columbia students erected tents on campus last spring, Khalil was picked to serve as a negotiator on behalf of students and met frequently with university administrators.
When classes resumed in September, he told The Associated Press that the protests would continue: “As long as Columbia continues to invest and to benefit from Israeli apartheid, the students will continue to resist.”
Saudi Ambassador to Japan highlights the country’s attractions ahead of Osaka Expo
- The tour — held in various parts of Japan — aims to show how Saudi Arabia is not just a distant place, but a relevant and engaging destination for all
TOKYO: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Japan Dr. Ghazi Faisal Binzagr attended the Tokyo stop of the “Meet Saudi Arabia Tour” to promote the Kingdom’s pavilion at the Osaka Kansai Expo, which opens on April 13.
The tour — held in various parts of Japan — aims to show how Saudi Arabia is not just a distant place, but a relevant and engaging destination for all.
Ambassador Binzagr, emphasizing the unique aspects of Saudi Arabia’s “rich culture and a fascinating history,” believes these elements have a special appeal to the people of Japan.
“We have beautiful, exciting things to showcase, but this is just a small glimpse of what we have to show about the past, the present and the future of Saudi Arabia,” Ambassador Binzagr told Arab News Japan.
“There are lots of things that you can touch and feel about our culture, from our heritage, from the emotion of our cities today and our life in the midst of a very exciting transformation that we are undergoing in Saudi Arabia.”
The Tour offers visitors a chance to experience various aspects of Saudi culture, including Saudi Arabian coffee and date pairing, a cooking demonstration of traditional sweets, and traditional Saudi music and costumes.
“We’re counting down to the last days before our opening in Osaka,” Ambassador Binzagr said about the Expo. “We’re almost completed and ready. I had the privilege of touring the site two days ago, and the final touches are being made now. With glimpses of the future we’re heading towards, I am very excited to welcome everyone to Osaka.”
One of the main themes of the Saudi Arabian pavilion is the building itself. The pavilion has been described as a “masterpiece” and is said to embody the flow of Saudi Vision 2030 and the transformation from past to future, sensitivity to the environment, and design elements that blend heritage with technology and vision.
“Looking at it, I see the transformation of Saudi Arabia and what’s happening in our vibrant country,” Dr. Binzagr said. “But our focus is not just on the present, but also on the promising future of Saudi Arabia. We want to inspire people with the potential and relevance of our future. We want people to see a sample of it so that they think not just about joining us in Osaka, but beyond that to visiting our country.”
Thematically, it projects an invitation to the world to step inside Saudi Arabia and to experience it. The building itself aims to reflect harmony – melding the desert environment with architectural aspects that both shield people from nature’s elements and celebrates those elements at the same time.
US Secret Service shoots armed man near White House: spokesman
- Man had been hospitalized and his condition was “unknown”
- Statement did not specify whether the White House or Trump may have been his intended target
WASHINGTON: US Secret Service agents shot an armed man near the White House during the night, an agency spokesman said early Sunday, while President Donald Trump was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The man had been hospitalized and his condition was “unknown,” the spokesman said in a statement that did not specify whether the White House or Trump may have been the intended target.
No injuries to Secret Service agents were reported, according to the statement posted by spokesman Anthony Guglielmi on social media platform X.
The agents had been warned by local police of a “suicidal” man traveling to Washington from Indiana and around midnight found his parked vehicle near 17th and F Streets, the statement said — very near the White House.
They then spotted an individual nearby who matched the description they had been given, the statement said.
“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement said.
“The suspect was transported to an area hospital and his condition is unknown,” it said, adding that Washington police were investigating.
Bangladeshi businesses seek closer ties with UAE on skills development, trade
- Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently signed MoUs with Dubai, Sharjah chambers
- Bangladeshi private sectors see UAE as ‘major gateway’ to Middle East, North Africa
Dhaka: Bangladeshi businesses are seeking closer ties with the UAE on skills development, trade and investments, the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Sunday after it signed agreements with its Emirati counterparts to strengthen economic cooperation.
The UAE is Bangladesh’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, with their bilateral trade volume valued at around $2 billion in 2024.
The Gulf state — home to about 1.2 million Bangladeshi expats — is also Bangladesh’s fifth-largest foreign investor.
DCCI President Taskeen Ahmed led a 29-member business delegation to the UAE last month, where he signed preliminary agreements with the Dubai Chambers and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry to boost trade and investments between their two countries.
Bangladeshi businesses are eyeing cooperation in a number of key areas, including trade and market access, energy and financial sectors, tourism and hospitality, infrastructure and logistics, Ahmed said.
“Closer trade relations between Bangladesh and the UAE present a significant opportunity to strengthen our economic landscape across multiple sectors. I firmly believe that enhanced trade ties with the UAE can be a game-changer for Bangladesh,” he told Arab News.
“The UAE serves as a major gateway to the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond. Expanding our trade partnership will create greater market access for Bangladeshi products.”
The Dhaka Chamber is also seeking stronger collaboration in technology and skills development.
“The UAE is highly advanced in digital infrastructure, logistics, and financial services. Stronger collaboration can facilitate knowledge transfer and capacity-building, helping Bangladeshi industries adopt global best practices, enhance productivity, and become more competitive,” Ahmed added.
Under the newly signed memoranda of understanding, DCCI is set to collaborate with its Emirati counterparts “to promote bilateral trade, investment matchmaking and joint economic discussions,” with activities focused on exchanging trade delegations and strengthening business networking platforms.
“To further boost collaboration, Bangladesh aims to activate the Bangladesh-UAE Business Council, focusing on trade finance, private equity, and expanding Islamic finance,” Ahmed said.
Business leaders from the two countries are also involved in discussions to set up training centers “to improve the skill set of Bangladeshi workers” who are seeking employment in the UAE, while a direct shipping route between Chattogram and Dubai is being discussed to enhance trade efficiency.
“I believe that this mutual cooperation will enhance the value of our national bilateral relations … These initiatives will further deepen the economic and trade relationship between Bangladesh and the UAE following the MoU signing.”
Russia says captures another east Ukraine village
MOSCOW: Russia announced Sunday the capture of another eastern Ukrainian village, in the Donetsk region, as its forces advanced toward the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The defence ministry said in a briefing that its troops had captured the village of Kostyantynopil, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the Russia-controlled city of Donetsk.
Russian troops have been advancing steadily in the Donetsk region and are now close to Dnipropetrovsk, which so far has been free of fighting. Kostyantynopil is around 13 kilometres (eight miles) from the regional border line.
The village was founded in the 18th century by Greek settlers from Crimea, who named it after the ancient city of Constantinople.
