Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hasn’t yet met with exiled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad — even though he personally made the decision to grant the dictator and his family asylum when Syria’s longtime dictator fled the country after his regime crumbled.
He made the comment during an annual press conference and question-and-answer session, where he fielded questions from both journalists in the audience and Russian citizens who submitted their queries ahead of time.
The topics ranged from Syria, Ukraine, Russia’s economy and Putin’s relationship with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, all part of a carefully choreographed spectacle that has lasted for more than four hours.
Putin, who said he hasn’t spoken to Trump in four years, said he is open to meeting with the incoming U.S. president, who has repeatedly vowed to end the war in Ukraine soon after taking office on Jan. 20.
While many questions from the audience came from journalists affiliated with Russian state media, NBC correspondent Keir Simmons asked Putin if he was prepared to compromise when it comes to Ukraine — a question the Russian president didn’t fully answer.
“We are ready,” Putin said without offering any specifics. “We just need the other side to be ready, too. For negotiations and for compromise.”
The Kremlin has said repeatedly it will not negotiate with Ukraine unless it renounces its ambition to join NATO and withdraws soldiers from territories now controlled by Russian troops.
Kursk
Putin was also asked about Russia’s fight to recapture several hundred square kilometres of the Kursk region, which Ukraine still controls after a lightning offensive in western Russia in August.
He said Russian troops are fighting to take Kursk back, but there is no firm date when they will “liberate” it.
“The situation [at the front] is changing dramatically. There is movement along the entire front line every day,” he said.
He noted the campaign into Ukraine should have begun before February 2022, saying Russia should have “systematically prepared for it.”
Though he went on to praise the heroic efforts of Russian soldiers, there was no mention of the thousands of North Korean troops that Ukraine and the U.S. say are fighting alongside the Russians.
At least 100 of them have been killed according to a South Korean lawmaker who cited information from the country’s spy agency on Thursday.
Russian state media reported that two million Russian citizens submitted questions ahead of Putin’s press conference on topics that ranged from the cost of living, mortgage rates and what Russia still calls its “special military operation.”
Economy
The first question was about Russia’s economy, given the surging inflation rate driven by the country funnelling money into the war effort. Throughout the country, there have been concerns about the rising price of food and groceries.
Putin admitted that the inflation rate, which sits above nine per cent, is an “alarming” figure but said government measures to cool the economy are working. He said economic growth is expected to be about four per cent this year and will slow in 2025.
“I think the [growth rate] next year should be somewhere around two to 2.5 per cent, a sort of soft landing in order to maintain macroeconomic indicators,” he said.
Syria
Putin was asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, where it has two major military bases, the Hmeimim airbase and a naval base at the port of Tartous.
Satellite images indicate that Russia is in the process of moving some of the military equipment, but Putin said that Russia has proposed that its “partners” use the airbase for humanitarian purposes.
The future of the airbase, which was used to launch strikes across Syria in support of Assad, is now in question, given that rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has taken control of Damascus, pushing out the Assad government that Russia spent years backing.
“On the whole, we have achieved our goal,” Putin claimed when speaking about the bases. “We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there,
He also condemned Israel’s seizure of territories in the country, and he said he believed Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria.
U.S. journalist Austin Tice
During the press conference, Simmons asked Putin if he would speak to Assad about missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012.
Putin replied that Tice was someone who disappeared 12 years ago during a civil war but then said he would ask Assad about the American when the two speak.
Tice, a former U.S. marine, was one of the first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the start of the war.
U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier this month the government believes Tice is still alive. There had been hope Tice would be found among the thousands of people released from prisons in Damascus.
Published at Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:36:34 +0000
Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband found guilty of rapes, sentenced to 20 years in prison in France
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A court in France on Thursday sentenced the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot to a maximum 20 years of imprisonment for drugging and raping her and inviting other men to rape her while she was knocked out, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.
The sentence against Dominique Pelicot was declared after he was found guilty of all charges against him. At age 72, it could mean that he spends the rest of his life in prison.
The verdict was read by the lead judge of the court in Avignon, Roger Arata.
Arata read out verdicts one after the other against Pelicot and 50 other men, declaring “you are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot” as he worked his way through the first names on the list.
Gisèle Pelicot said the ordeal was “very difficult” and expressed support for other survivors of sexual violence.
“We share the same fight,” she said.
Pelicot said she had her grandchildren in mind as she endured the more than three months of hearings, saying: “It’s also for them that I led this fight.”
The mass rape trial has shocked France and its implications will be felt far beyond the Avignon courthouse where judges have heard and seen more than three months of evidence.
Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero both at home and abroad for waiving her right to anonymity and standing up to her abusers in court.
The media doesn’t typically identify survivors of sexual abuse. Usually, publication bans prevent the media from doing so in order to protect the privacy of survivors and encourage them to report the crimes in the first place. But Pelicot waived her legal right to anonymity.
Everything about the trial in the southern French city of Avignon has been exceptional, most of all Pelicot herself.
She has been the epitome of steely dignity and resilience through the more than three months of appalling testimony, including extracts from her now ex-husband’s sordid library of homemade abuse videos.
Dominique Pelicot carefully catalogued how he habitually tranquilized his wife of 50 years during their last decade together so he and dozens of strangers he met online could rape her while she was unconscious.
Staggeringly, he found it easy to recruit his alleged accomplices. Many had jobs. Most are fathers. They came from all walks of life, with the youngest in his 20s and the oldest in their 70s.
Dominique Pelicot, by his own admission in court, invited dozens of men he recruited online over to his home to rape his wife, Gisèle Pelicot — whom he had drugged. In all, 51 men stand accused and verdicts are expected later this week. CBC’s Sarah Leavitt spoke to residents in Mazan about the trial’s impact in France.
In all, 50 men, including Dominique Pelicot, stood trial for aggravated rape and attempted rape. Another man was tried for aggravated sexual assault.
“They regarded me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag,” Gisèle Pelicot testified in court.
Sifting through the charges, the evidence, the backgrounds of the accused and their defences took so long that Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot had birthdays during the trial, with both turning 72.
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said that she would weigh a possible appeal, but she also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the court’s rulings.
“I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs. Pelicot,” she said.
How did the case come about?
Dominique Pelicot’s meticulous recording and cataloguing of the encounters — police found more than 20,000 photos and videos on his computer drives, in folders titled “abuse,” “her rapists” or “night alone” — provided investigators with an abundance of evidence and helped lead them to the defendants.
That also set the case apart from many others in which sexual violence is unreported or isn’t prosecuted because the evidence isn’t as strong.
Gisèle Pelicot and her lawyers fought successfully for shocking video and other evidence to be heard and watched in open court, to show that she bore no shame and was clearly unconscious during the alleged rapes, undermining some defendants’ claims that she might have been feigning sleep or even have been a willing participant.
Her courage — one woman, alone, against dozens of men — proved inspirational.
Supporters, mostly women, lined up early each day for a place in the courthouse or to cheer and thank her as she walked in and out — stoic, humble and gracious, but also cognizant that her ordeal resonated beyond Avignon and France.
She said she was fighting for “all those people around the world, women and men, who are victims of sexual violence.”
“Look around you: You are not alone,” she said.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
Published at Thu, 19 Dec 2024 09:52:11 +0000