Russian court bans Instagram, Facebook as 'extremist'

A Moscow court on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram as "extremist" organizations, after authorities accused US tech giant Meta of tolerating "Russophobia" during the conflict in Ukraine.

The Tverskoi district court said it had agreed to a request from prosecutors for the two social media platforms to be banned for "carrying out extremist activities", but that Meta's WhatsApp messenger service would not be prohibited because it is not a public platform.

The move is part of sweeping efforts by Moscow to crack down on social media amid its military action in pro-Western Ukraine.

During Monday's hearing, Russia's FSB security service accused Meta of working against Moscow's interests during the conflict.

"The activities of the Meta organization are directed against Russia and its armed forces," FSB representative Igor Kovalevsky told the court, Russian news agencies reported.

"We ask (the court) to ban Meta's activities and oblige it to implement this ruling immediately," he said.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, authorities blocked access in Russia to Facebook and Instagram, as well as to Twitter.

Meta had announced on March 10 that the platforms would allow statements like "death to Russian invaders" but not credible threats against civilians. 

But in what appeared to be damage control, Meta's global affairs president, Nick Clegg, later said the laxer rules would only apply to people posting from inside Ukraine. 

Agence France-Presse

Biden authorizes ‘unprecedented’ new weapons aid to Ukraine

US President Joe Biden announced $1 billion in new security help and the deployment of longer-range weapons and drones to Ukraine on Wednesday -- assuring the ally of America's "unprecedented" support in its war with Russia.

The cash, approved as Russian forces close in on Ukraine's besieged capital Kyiv, includes $200 million allocated over the weekend and $800 million in new funds from an aid package approved last week by Congress.

"These are direct transfers of equipment from our Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them as they fight against this invasion," said Biden, who also announced US help for Ukraine to acquire "additional longer-range anti-aircraft systems."

As expected, Biden gave no ground on the notion of a Western-imposed no-fly zone over the ex-Soviet state, which NATO has consistently rejected for fear of an escalation that could bring the alliance into direct conflict with Russian forces.

Ramping up its military assistance instead, the White House said Ukraine will receive an additional 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 9,000 anti-tank weapons, 7,000 light weapons and 20 million rounds of ammunition.

And the United States will be providing Ukraine with 100 drones -- or Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems -- which Biden said "demonstrates our commitment to sending our most cutting-edge systems to Ukraine for its defense."

Concerning the deployment of longer-range systems, Gregory Meeks, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, indicated the weapons involved would be Soviet-made S-300 surface-to-air missile systems.

"These S-300s and longer-range artillery forces is what will help close the sky" over Ukraine, Meeks said on CNN following Biden's address.

"President Zelensky is not asking for American troops or American equipment or anything of that nature to close the skies," Meeks said. "What he's asking for is the artillery that will do that. The S-300 may be the one that does that."

Agence France-Presse

Facebook owner Meta will block access to Russia's RT, Sputnik in EU

Meta Platforms Inc, parent company of Facebook, will restrict access to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union, the company's head of global affairs said on Monday.

Nick Clegg said in a Twitter post that the social media company received requests from a number of governments and the EU to take steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media on its platforms. Clegg said Meta would continue to work closely with governments on the issue.

The European Union said on Sunday it would ban Russian state-owned television network RT and news agency Sputnik. Canadian telecoms operators have also stopped offering the RT channel.

Russian state-run media's activity on social media platforms has emerged as a contentious issue for big tech companies during the country's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation."

Meta, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc's Google and YouTube have taken measures in recent days to restrict Russian state media from making money from ads on their platforms. Twitter Inc banned RT and Sputnik from advertising on its site in 2017.

Twitter said on Monday it would label and restrict the visibility of tweets containing content from Russian state-affiliated media outlets, in an expansion of its policy to label the state media accounts. Read full story

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York, Editing by Will Dunham and Matthew Lewis)

-reuters-

Biden says Russian ‘invasion’ of Ukraine is ‘beginning’

‘First tranche’ of sanctions on Russia announced, including on debt

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Russia has begun to invade Ukraine but that there was still time for diplomacy to avoid the "worst case scenario" of a full-blown assault on the country.

"This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine," the US leader said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's declared plans to send troops deep into the Donbas region in southeast Ukraine. 

"He's setting up a rationale to take more territory by force," Biden said in a nationwide address from the White House.

"And if we listened to his speech last night... he's setting up a rationale to go much further," Biden said.

Biden announced more sanctions targeting Russian finances and political elite, in hopes that the pressure will deter a wholesale invasion.

He said that the United States would continue to supply "defensive" weapons to Ukraine and deploy more US troops to reinforce NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

But he suggested that diplomatic talks could stem a worsening of the crisis, one of the deepest in Europe since World War II.

"There's no question that Russia is the aggressor, so we're clear-eyed about the challenges we're facing," Biden said.

"Nonetheless, there is still time to avert the worst case scenario that will bring untold suffering to millions of people if they move as suggested," he said.

‘FIRST TRANCHE’ OF SANCTIONS

Biden, meanwhile, announced the "first tranche" of sanctions against Russia, including steps to starve the country of financing, saying Moscow had started an invasion of Ukraine.

And Biden threatened tougher steps if Russia "continues its aggression."

"We're implementing sanctions on Russia's sovereign debt. That means we've cut off Russia's government from Western financing," Biden said.

"It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either."

The measures also target VEB, Russia's state development bank, and members of the country's "elites," the US leader said.

"They share the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies, and should share in the pain as well."

The announcement came after the European Union unveiled its own sanctions in a coordinated Western effort to pressure Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Biden said the responses "have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners" and added, "We'll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates."

However Washington's response did not seem to go as far as the European Union, nor as far as some expected.

Biden announced "full blocking sanctions" on both VEB and Russia's "military bank," which likely means the institutions will have their foreign assets frozen and will be prohibited from using the US financial system.

However, the penalties cover fewer financial institutions, and do not appear to have severed the country from the SWIFT system used to move money around the globe.

Nor did Biden resort to export controls, which would have cut Russian firms off from key high-tech equipment and software, which some analysts said was a possibility.

Agence France-Presse

Russia hit by USD 50-B Yukos ruling

LONDON - Russia has been ordered to pay Yukos shareholders a record USD 50 billion in compensation over its seizure of the defunct oil giant, lawyers said on Monday, in a new blow on top of sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

An arbitration court in The Hague ruled that Russia forced Yukos -- formerly owned by ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- into bankruptcy with excessive tax claims and sold its assets to state-owned businesses led by energy giant Rosneft for political purposes.

Russia was defiant in the face of the judgement with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowing that the state would "use all of its legal options to defend its position", with the claimants who now face a further battle to claw back their cash.

Rosneft also stood by its purchases as fully lawful.

Yukos was once Russia's biggest oil company but was broken up after Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003, shortly after President Vladimir Putin warned Russia's growing class of oligarchs against meddling in politics.

Tim Osborne, executive director of GML Ltd, the main shareholder and claimant in the case, told a news conference in London that the tribunal "unanimously confirmed that the attacks by the Russian Federation on the Yukos oil company ... were politically motivated."

The award was the "largest in arbitration history", GML said in a statement.

Osborne said the ruling would hurt investment in Russia, which is already in the spotlight over the escalating crisis in Ukraine, while companies close to Vladimir Putin's regime are braced for tougher sanctions.

"I suspect at the moment Russia is a place where not many people are going to be investing," Osborne told the press conference.

Khodorkovsky -- who is no longer a shareholder and is not a party to the legal proceedings -- praised the verdict and slammed Russian leaders.

'Historic award'

"It is fantastic that the company shareholders are being given a chance to recover their damages," said the businessman, who was released last year after more than a decade in prison.

"The Yukos case has been an instance of unabashed plundering of a successful company by a mafia with links to the state," he said in a statement on his website.

Yukos was sold off in opaque auctions to state companies led by Rosneft. The government firm was then a small player but today stands as the world's biggest stock market listed oil company by production volumes.

That process clouded the reputation of Russia as a place to do business, and investment sentiment has plunged since the annexation of Crimea, fighting in eastern Ukraine, and the uncertainty this has created.

The claimants will now try to prove in international courts that Rosneft is the "alter ego of the state", meaning that if Moscow does not pay up, then they can recoup some of the money by seizing the energy giant's international assets, their main lawyer Emmanuel Gaillard said.

"This is an historic award," Gaillard said.

"It is now judicially established that the Russian Federation's actions were not a legitimate exercise in tax collection but, rather, were aimed at destroying Yukos and illegally expropriating its assets for the benefit of State instrumentalities Rosneft and Gazprom."

Rosneft -- which is targeted by US sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine -- said all its dealings in respect of Yukos were "fully lawful."

It said that it "does not consider that the company could be issued any demands due to the published ruling or that the ruling could have a negative effect on the commercial activities or assets of the company."

BP link

Osborne, when asked if claimants would consider pursuing BP -- a 20-percent shareholder in Rosneft -- warned: "I think it is safe to say that nobody is safe".

The claims against Moscow were brought in 2005 by Hulley Enterprises Limited and Veteran Petroleum Limited, two subsidiaries of former majority shareholder GML Limited, both based in Cyprus.

A claim was also brought by Veteran Petroleum Ltd., the pension fund set up by GML for the benefit of former Yukos employees.

The claimants had demanded a total compensation package of $100 billion (74 billion euros), four times their total investments in the now-defunct firm, to take into account what it would be worth today, plus interest.

The arbitral tribunals at the Permanent Court of Arbitration unanimously held that the Russian Federation had effectively expropriated the claimants' assets, according to the ruling on the PCA website.

But it explained on its website that it had not awarded them the whole $50 billion because there was "some contributory fault on behalf of claimants, leading them to reduce the amount of damages awarded."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com