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Russia has denied entry to the disputed islands it holds off Hokkaido to a Japanese mayor in retaliation for sanctions Japan imposed on it for annexing Ukraine, diplomatic sources say.

Nemuro Mayor Shunsuke Hasegawa was unable to join a five-day study tour through July 1 to assess the potential for joint economic development of the islands, which are claimed by Tokyo, the sources said Saturday.

Russias denial was based on its territorial claim, which is theoretically unacceptable to Tokyo, which claims Russia illegally occupied the four isles after Japans surrender in World War II. Japan has called for the return of the islands for decades.

Still, Tokyo apparently responded to Russias demand by removing Hasegawa from the study group. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida vaguely spoke about the mayors absence, telling a news conference on June 27 that it was a result of arrangements with the parties involved. The delegation began the feasibility study tour the same day.

Because the joint feasibility study was a visa-free arrangement, Tokyo claimed that Hasegawa should be allowed to join the tour but Russia did not agree, the sources said.

Russias action underlines the difficulties involved in settling the decades-old territorial dispute. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to engrave his name in history by settling the issue and concluding a peace treaty to formally end World War II.

Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at their hot spring summit in December to launch bilateral consultations on the joint economic activities as a part of settling the territorial issue and signing a peace treaty.

As for the mayor, the Russian government introduced the retaliatory measure in August 2014, but the number of Japanese subject to it, and their names, were not released at that time.

A senior Japanese official admitted, Mayor Hasegawa has been subject to the (retaliatory) sanction measure.

Hasegawa originally planned to take part in the delegation but was notified by the Foreign Ministry the day before departure that he would not be able to participate. The ministry has not disclosed the reason why Hasegawa was excluded, according to Hasegawa.

The government maintains the Russian-held islands are part of Japan and has asked Japanese people to refrain from visiting them by adhering to Russias passport control demands.

The members of the Japanese delegation visited Kunashiri, Etorofu and Shikotan islands without bringing their passports or getting visas for the tour, which ended on July 1.

Nemuro, on the eastern tip of Hokkaido, is close to the disputed islands and acts as a base for campaigns aimed to getting them returned.

Meanwhile, companies and groups from the fisheries and tourism industries in Nemuro are expected to be involved in the envisioned joint economic activities if Japan and Russia formally launch the project.

In April 2014, Tokyo announced it would deny visas to 23 Russian nationals as part of sanctions over Moscows annexation of the Crimea region in Ukraine.

Hasegawa is believed to have been put on the blacklist as he plays a key role in Japans movement to get the islands back.

The three islands and the Habomai islet group were seized by Soviet troops after Japan surrendered in August 1945, bringing World War II to an end.

Japan hopes joint economic activities, once started, will pave the way for addressing the decades-long territorial dispute with Russia.

The city assembly of Nemuro protested to the ministry late June over the decision to exclude the mayor from the tour, after unanimously adopting a resolution to that effect.

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Hokkaido mayor axed from tour of disputed isles as payback for Ukraine sanctions - The Japan Times

Mr. Yanukovych was driven from office in the Maidan Revolution of 2014, after having stolen, according to the current Ukrainian government, at least $1 billion. In the years before his fall, Mr. Manafort took lavish payments to burnish the image of Mr. Yanukovych and the Party of Regions in Washington, even as the party acknowledged only very modest spending.

In 2012, for example, the party reported annual expenses of about $11.1 million, based on the exchange rate at the time, excluding overhead. For the same year, Mr. Manafort reported income of $12.1 million from the party, the Justice Department filing shows.

In 2013, the Party of Regions reported expenses of $3.7 million, while Mr. Manafort reported receiving payments of $4.5 million.

Handwritten ledgers that surfaced last year indicated that the party had actually spent about $2 billion over the past decade or so, much or most of it illegally. Some outlays like payments to an election official possibly amounted to criminal bribery.

Mr. Manafort has not been charged with breaking any laws regarding the reporting of income derived from his efforts on behalf of the party. The disclosures cap lengthy negotiations between Mr. Manafort and officials at the Justice Department, which monitors the activities of Americans who work on behalf of foreign political parties and governments.

In a statement, Mr. Manaforts spokesman, Jason Maloni, suggested that the Party of Regions was accountable for the contradiction between the two disclosures.

Any questions about the reporting obligations of the Party of Regions should be directed to those within the party responsible for such reporting, he said in a statement. Mr. Manaforts work in Ukraine was widely known and the firm was paid only for the work it performed. In fact, just last month Ukraine officials indicated that there is no proof of illicit payments.

Though documents discovered after the 2014 revolution show the partys coffers were padded with donations from Ukraines ultrawealthy steel and natural gas tycoons, it tried to keep up a populist image and declared only a modest, even minuscule, annual budget.

It means either Manafort is lying, or the Party of Regions was lying, Serhiy Leshchenko, an investigative journalist and a member of Parliament who has been critical of Mr. Manaforts work in Ukraine, said in an interview.

A Ukrainian investigation of this discrepancy is not likely. The Party of Regions is now disbanded, and prosecutors are looking into far more serious crimes than campaign finance filing errors.

Moreover, at the time the party made its declarations, filing a false campaign finance report was considered an administrative offense akin to a parking ticket and punishable by no more than a fine of a few hundred dollars, said Ostap Kuchma, a party finance analyst at the anticorruption group Chesno.

Mr. Manaforts reports to the Justice Department do not cover the entire period he worked in Ukraine. Last summer, The New York Times reported that the partys handwritten ledgers showed $12.7 million in undisclosed payments designated for Mr. Manaforts firm from 2007 to 2012.

Anticorruption officials in Ukraine assert that the payments were part of an illegal off-the-books system. Mr. Manafort, who resigned from his campaign post shortly after the article appeared, has denied receiving any cash, and state prosecutors in Ukraine have not accused him of wrongdoing.

Ukraines chief anticorruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky, reiterated that assessment last month, telling Ukrainian television that ledger entries provided no proof of Mr. Manaforts having receiving illegal payments.

But the investigation into the accounting book, including the entries mentioning Mr. Manafort, is still open, and recently shifted from one branch of the prosecutors office to another, Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said in an interview.

The Party of Regions was spending a lot of cash, to bribe voters and for illegal advertising, Daria M. Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said in an interview. Manafort took the money to whitewash its reputation in the West.

Iuliia Mendel contributed reporting.

Excerpt from:
Huge Manafort Payment Reflects Murky Ukraine Politics - New York Times

As the dust settles from the momentous merger news that will eventually see Uber and Yandex form a new ride-sharing company covering six Eastern European markets, its worth taking a moment to dig down into the finer nuances of the deal.

Weve already looked at how the partnership willhelp expand Yandexs global footprint, but specific to the handful of countries where the new joint venture will operate, there was one conspicuous absentee:Ukraine, which claims a population of more than 45 million people.

The new Yandex / Uber combined unit which is tentatively called NewCo but will eventually get a proper name is going to operate in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, where both Uber and Yandex.taxi both operate already, as well as in Armenia and Georgia, which will represent entirely new markets for the Uber platform.

So why not Ukraine, which on the surface fits into the duos broader plans for the region? Well, it all comes down to politics.

Uber kicked off its Ukrainian operations in Kiev last June, while Yandex.taxi threw its hat into the ring there in November. However, with political tensions mounting between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in Mayimposed sanctions on a number of Russian technology companies including Yandex. A couple of weeks later, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) raided Yandexs offices in Kiev and Odessa, alleging thatthe company had been illegally collecting Ukrainian users data on behalf of Russian security agencies. Shortly after Yandexs Ukrainian adventure was cut short, Uber reportedly raised its pricesthere.

At any rate, NewCo will be 59.3 percent owned by Yandex,which is why Uber will continue to go it alone in Ukraine under its own brand its just too risky trying to launch a Yandex-backed venture in the country.

As an aside here, Ubers decision to jump into bed with a major Russian tech company could isolate Uber from customers in Ukraine if the opinions contained in some tweets are a template for sentiment across the country.

This could ultimately be good news for other local players, such as Estonias Taxify, an Uber clone that launched in Ukraine last year.

Continued here:
Why the Uber-Yandex merger in Eastern Europe won't cover Ukraine - VentureBeat

GETTY

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Ukraine crisis had been provoked by the "short-sighted policy of the US and the EU.

He claimed Moscow desires a democratic and stable Ukraine" in which no "artificial Russophobia is produced".

Continuing to defend Russia, Mr Lavrov said Moscow was blameless when it came to the the annexation of Crimea.

He insisted the regional parliament had been the only legitimate one at the time and that Fascists took power in Kiev and the decision of the Parliament to join Russia was met.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 sparking violent clashes and military intervention.

GETTY

It is flattering that we are regarded as a country that controls the fate of the world

Sergei Lavrov

Mr Lavrov was giving a talk on "Russia and the EU in a changing world" at Berlin-based think-tank the Krber Foundation.

He also rejected claims Moscow interfered with foreign elections following allegations Russia meddled in the US November 2016 election.

Mr Lavrov said if Russia really did have the power to influence poll results relations with its neighbours would be very different.

And he brushed off allegations that Kremlin-sponsored hackers attempted to influence last year's US presidential election which saw Donald Trump win the race to the White House.

He said: In eight months of investigations, there's no single fact that's been put on the table.

"It's just pure speculation about somebody from the team of the president meeting a journalist, sometimes a lawyer or whatever.

GETTY

Washington has been rocked by claims that Mr Trump's son met a Russian-linked agent during the election campaign who was promising to provide compromising information about his opponent Hillary Clinton.

Mr Lavrov said Moscow did not have the ability to influence the US elections or Germany's election this autumn.

He claimed Russia's neighbour Ukraine would not have a government so hostile to Moscow if it really held that power.

Mr Lavrov said: It is flattering that we are regarded as a country that controls the fate of the world.

If we really could decide on the fate of Germany and the US, then all the former Soviet Republics around us would not have the same attitude, so maybe there wouldn't be a Ukraine crisis in the first place.

"If we were able to influence America we could influence all the other countries as well.

GETTY

US Army/Cover Images

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A round is fired from an M1A2 Main Battle Tank belonging to 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division during the first Live Fire Accuracy Screening Tests at Presidential Range in Swietozow, Poland

In a major swipe at Brussels said he felt the European Union deserved pity and said peace in the region is threatened by Europeans wading into US-Russia relations.

He suggested many of the issues facing Europe - security, climate change, global poverty, the threat of terrorism and the migrant crisis - were the the result of growing tensions with the US.

He said: It is not our nature to be resentful or to sulk.

The potential for a peaceful situation between the EU and Russia will continue to be great if Europeans do not let themselves get stirred up by the Americans against Moscow.

The rest is here:
EU and US caused Ukraine crisis - Russia lashes out over Crimea ... - Express.co.uk

BBC News

Oldham man jailed for Ukraine terror offence - BBC News BBC News Benjamin Stimson, from Greater Manchester, travelled out in 2015 to join pro-Russian rebels. UK man who joined militia in Ukraine jailed for terrorismWashington Post British Man Imprisoned For Fighting With Separatists In UkraineRadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Briton who joined rebels in Ukraine jailed for five yearsGulf Times ITV News -News & Star all 11 news articles »

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Oldham man jailed for Ukraine terror offence - BBC News - BBC News