The USS Theodore Roosevelt. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A nuclear-powered United States aircraft carrier arrived on June 22 in South Korea for a three-way exercise stepping up their military training to cope with North Korean threats that escalated with its alignment with Russia.

The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian Ambassador to protest a pact reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week that pledges mutual defence assistance in the event of war.

South Korea says the deal poses a threat to its security and warned that it could consider sending arms to Ukraine to help fight off the Russian invasion as a response — a move that would surely ruin its relations with Moscow.

Following a meeting between their defence chiefs in Singapore earlier in June, the United States, South Korea and Japan announced Freedom Edge. The new multidomain exercise is aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined response in various areas of operation, including air, sea and cyberspace.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group will participate in the exercise that is expected to start within June. South Korea’s military didn’t immediately confirm specific details of the training.

South Korea’s navy said in a statement that the arrival of Theodore Roosevelt demonstrates the strong defence posture of the allies and “stern willingness to respond to advancing North Korean threats.” The carrier’s visit comes seven months after another U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, came to South Korea in a show of strength against the North.

The Theodore Roosevelt strike group also participated in a three-way exercise with South Korean and Japanese naval forces in April in the disputed East China Sea, where worries about China’s territorial claims are rising.

In the face of growing North Korean threats, the United States, South Korea and Japan have expanded their combined training and boosted the visibility of strategic U.S. military assets in the region, seeking to intimidate the North. The United States and South Korea have also been updating their nuclear deterrence strategies, with Seoul seeking stronger assurances that Washington would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to defend its ally from a North Korean nuclear attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Vietnam on June 19 and 20, after repeated invitations from Vietnamese leaders.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United States criticised Vietnam for having invited Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Hanoi, the U.S. embassy in Hanoi said ahead of an expected state visit this week.

Mr. Putin is expected to visit Vietnam on June 19 and 20, after repeated invitations from Vietnamese leaders.

The U.S. has led Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. In March last year, the Hague-based International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Hanoi said when asked about the impact of the expected visit on ties with the United States.

“If he is able to travel freely, it could normalise Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion that Russia describes as a “special operation”. The U.S. upgraded relations with Hanoi last year and is Vietnam’s top trading partner.

Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to a request for comment. Mr. Putin’s visit has not yet been formally announced, but multiple officials have confirmed the trip, which would be his first to Vietnam since 2017. The two countries have historically close ties.

“We cannot return to business as usual or turn a blind eye to the clear violations of international law Russia has committed in Ukraine. There needs to be accountability for those responsible for war crimes,” the U.S. embassy spokesperson added. Neither Vietnam, Russia or the U.S. are members of the ICC.

Vladimir Putin began his fifth term on May 7 as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands.

Already in office for nearly a quarter-century and the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, Putin’s new term doesn’t expire until 2030, when he will be constitutionally eligible to run again.

At the ceremony inside the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin placed his hand on the Russian Constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on.

Since succeeding President Boris Yeltsin in the waning hours of 1999, Putin has transformed Russia from a country emerging from economic collapse to a pariah state that threatens global security. Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has become Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Russia has been heavily sanctioned by the West and is turning to other regimes like China, Iran and North Korea for support.

The question now is what the 71-year-old Putin will do over the course of another six years, both at home and abroad.

Significant dates in Vladimir Putin’s 24 years in power in Russia

Dec 31, 1999 – In a surprise address to the nation, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces his resignation and makes Mr. Putin, the Prime Minister he appointed four months earlier, the acting President.

May 7, 2000 – After winning election with about 53% of the vote, Mr. Putin is inaugurated for his first four-year term.

May 11, 2000 – Tax police raid the offices of NTV, a popular independent broadcaster noted for critical coverage of the Kremlin. It is the first salvo in moves against prominent independent media that have characterized the Putin era.

Aug 12, 2000 – The submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea with 118 people aboard, setting off the first widespread criticism of Putin, who stayed on vacation early in the crisis and waited five days before accepting Western offers of help.

Oct 23, 2002 – Militants from Russia’s region of Chechnya take about 850 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Three days later, Russian special forces pump an unidentified gas into the theater to end the crisis, killing at least 130 hostages along with the militants. Putin defends the operation as having saved hundreds of lives.

Oct 25, 2003 – Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is Russia’s richest man and seen as a potential challenger to Putin, is arrested and later sentenced to 10 years in prison for tax evasion and fraud. His oil company is dismantled, most of it acquired by state oil company Rosneft. He has since become an opposition figure in exile.

March 14, 2004 – Mr. Putin is elected to a second term as president.

Sept 1, 2004 – Islamic militants seize a school in the southern city of Beslan, and more than 300 people die in the chaotic explosions and shootout ending the siege two days later. Putin blames regional leaders’ incompetence and announces that governors will be appointed figures rather than elected.

April 25, 2005 – Putin alarms international observers by describing the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

Feb 10, 2007 – In a speech at a conference in Munich, Putin turns away radically from earlier attempts to develop closer ties with the United States.

May 8, 2008 – Barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term, Putin is appointed prime minister by new President Dmitry Medvedev but effectively remains Russia’s political leader.

Aug 8-12, 2008 – Russia fights a short war with Georgia, gaining full control of the separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.

March 4, 2012 – Putin is elected to a new presidential term, which is now six years long under constitutional changes he engineered. Protests by tens of thousands before the vote and on the eve of his inauguration lead to laws toughening penalties for unauthorised political protests.

June 6, 2013 – Putin announces on state television that he and his wife, Lyudmila, are divorcing.

Feb 7, 2014 – Putin opens the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a costly prestige project that he was instrumental in winning for Russia.

March 18, 2014 – Following the ouster of Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president amid protests in Kyiv, Moscow annexes Crimea after the Kremlin sends in troops wearing uniforms without insignia. A quick referendum is staged on the peninsula, splitting it from Ukraine. Putin admits a year later that he planned the annexation weeks ahead of time.

April 2014 – Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatist rebels begins in eastern Ukraine.

Feb 27, 2015 – Boris Nemtsov, a top figure of Russia’s beleaguered political opposition, is gunned down on a bridge next to the Kremlin. Nemtsov was working on a report about Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

Sept 30, 2015 – Russia begins airstrikes in Syria that Putin calls necessary to destroy terrorist groups. The action helps Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime ally, remain in power.

May 15, 2018 – Putin opens the 18-km (12-mile) bridge from Russia to Crimea, solidifying Moscow’s annexation. The bridge later becomes a target of attacks during the war with Ukraine.

July 16, 2018 – Putin and US President Donald Trump meet at a summit in Helsinki, where Trump is asked about allegations that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election that brought him to power. He dismissed the claims and said Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denial”.

July 1, 2020 – A referendum approves constitutional changes proposed by Putin, allowing him to run for two more terms starting in 2024.

Aug. 20, 2020 – Opposition leader Alexei Navalny falls severely ill while organizing political opposition to Putin in Siberia and is later flown to Germany, where he is diagnosed with nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny blames the Kremlin, which denies it.

Dec 22, 2020 – Putin signs a bill granting lifetime immunity to former presidents.

Jan 17, 2021 – Navalny is arrested at a Moscow airport upon returning from Germany. He is later convicted on several charges and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

July 2021 – Putin publishes an article declaring the “historical unity” of Russia and Ukraine, an ideological precursor to Moscow’s invasion.

Feb 24, 2022 – The invasion of Ukraine begins, and Putin characterises it as a “special military operation” needed for Russia’s security.

March 4, 2022 – Putin signs a law that calls for up to 15 years in prison for spreading false or defamatory information about the military.

Sept 30, 2023 – The International Criminal Court issues a war-crimes indictment for Putin, accusing him of the unlawful deportation and transportation of children from Ukraine’s war zone into Russia.

June 23, 2023 – Mercenary force leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who accused officials of denying ammunition and support to his fighters in Ukraine, mounts a rebellion in which his troops take control of Russia’s southern military headquarters and head for Moscow. The uprising ends the next day, but undermines Putin’s image of power. Prigozhin is killed exactly two months after the uprising in a mysterious plane crash.

Feb 16, 2024 – Navalny dies at an Arctic prison colony of unspecified causes. “There is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did,” said US President Joe Biden. More than 350 people were arrested paying tribute to Navalny at ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repression.

March 17, 2024 – Putin wins a fifth term in an election that reportedly gave him 87% of the vote. His victory had never been in doubt; the other three candidates on the ballot were low-profile politicians from token opposition parties that support the Kremlin’s line.

March 22, 2024 – Gunmen storm a concert hall on Moscow’s outskirts, killing people coming to hear a rock group and setting the building on fire. The attack, which killed 144 people, was claimed by an offshoot of the Islamic State group and Russia arrested 11 citizens of Tajikistan as suspects, but Putin and other officials claimed without presenting evidence that the attack was carried out under Ukraine’s direction.

May 7, 2024 – Putin begins a fifth term in office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, second left in front, and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, second right in front, examine a rocket assembly hangar during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, in Russia, on September 13, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea has likely supplied several types of missiles to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, along with its widely reported shipments of ammunition and shells, South Korea’s military said on November 2.

The assessment was released a day after South Korea’s spy service told law-makers that North Korea recently provided more than a million artillery shells to Russia amid deepening military cooperation between the two countries, both key U.S. adversaries.

In a background briefing for local journalists, South Korea’s military said that North Korea is suspected of sending an unspecified number of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles and portable anti-air missiles to Russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells. The contents of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

Last week, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Any weapons trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Russia, a permanent U.N. Security Council member, previously endorsed.

Both Russia and North Korea dismissed the weapons shipment accusations as baseless. Outside speculation about North Korean arms shipments flared after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un travelled to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military facilities. The U.S. and its allies accuse North Korea of seeking high-tech Russian technologies to modernise its arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles in return for its shipments of conventional arms.

In a private briefing with lawmakers on Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) — South Korea’s main spy agency — said that more than a million North Korean artillery shells have been sent to Russia since August via ships and transport planes. “The NIS said the shells roughly amounted to two months’ worth of supplies for the Russians,” according to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the NIS briefing.

The NIS assessed that North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to meet Russian munition demands and has also been mobilising residents to increase production.

The NIS said North Korea, for its part, is likely receiving Russian technological assistance over its plan to launch its first military spy satellite into space. North Korea’s two recent attempts to launch a spy satellite ended in failure due to technical issues. The North failed to follow through with its vow to make a third launch attempt in October, without giving any reasons.

South Korea’s military said North Korea also seeks to receive nuclear-related technologies, fighter jets or related aircraft equipment and assistance on the establishment of anti-air defense networks from Russia.

Abortions were banned under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin but a commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Now, after less than a century, official attitudes about abortion in Russia are changing once again.

Although abortion is still legal and widely available, new restrictions are being considered as President Vladimir Putin takes an increasingly socially conservative turn and seeks to reverse Russia’s declining population.

Having embraced the Russian Orthodox Church, he is stressing “traditional family values” — often used as code words to differentiate his country from Western social attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights and other policies.

Abortion restrictions in Russia spark outrage as the country takes a conservative turn

Some see it as a throwback to the Stalinist era, when abortion was outlawed in 1936, and women ending unwanted pregnancies often turned to illegal and unsafe procedures.

“My grandmother worked as a teacher in a vocational school. She was telling me stories about abortions being performed with wardrobe hangers in the dormitories,” said Lina Zharin, a psychotherapist and feminist activist in Kaliningrad, where lawmakers are considering banning abortion in private clinics.

“Seemingly, everyone knows about it, about how scary it was, and I think that a lot of people are surprised and outraged that we’re going back to it,” she said.

Two years after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, authorities reversed the ban to curtail dangerous illegal abortions. But they didn’t endorse contraceptives, says Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the government remaining “pro-natalist” and wanting women to have children while staying in the workforce.

Abortion became a common way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy amid the harsh Soviet economy, even though Mr. Rivkin-Fish said conditions at clinics often were “terrible.”

“Anesthesia was in short supply. … There was no privacy — you would have your abortion with other people in the ward,” she said. Painkillers were of low quality or scarce, she added, “so women were often in excruciating pain.”

Under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, a movement for family planning and adequate birth control was launched in the late 1980s by physicians who were mostly women, according to Mr. Rivkin-Fish.

After the USSR’s 1991 demise, President Boris Yeltsin funded family planning and birth control programmes, and doctors were trained to prescribe and administer contraceptives.

Also read: Explained | What do Indian laws say about Abortion?

“They all went through a federal family planning course that I taught and led,” said Dr. Lyubov Yerofeyeva, a gynaecologist and a reproductive health specialist at the core of the effort.

By the late 1990s, federal funding fizzled because of conservative opposition. Abortion regulations remained less restrictive, however. Women could terminate a pregnancy until 12 weeks without any conditions, and until 22 weeks for many “social reasons,” such as divorce, unemployment or low income.

In 2003, the authorities cut that list to just four: if a woman was raped, if she was in prison, if her parental rights were restricted, or if her husband died or became severely disabled during her pregnancy.

“This was the first sign that I saw that the government is concerned about lowering abortion rates, and they’re going to do so through access, restricting access,” Mr. Rivkin-Fish said.

Conservative law-makers proposed more restrictions in 2011, including that women need permission from their husbands or from their parents if underage; that doctors could refuse abortion if they opposed it; and that a woman must wait two to seven days, depending on the stage of pregnancy, to give her a chance to change her mind.

Ms. Yerofeyeva and a reproductive health group she ran, Russian Association of Population and Development, pushed back against these proposals, and only two were adopted nationally: allowing doctors to refuse if against their beliefs, and the mandatory waiting period of 48 hours to a week.

In 2012, the number of “social reasons” for allowing abortion between weeks 12 and 22 was cut to just in the case of rape.

Under Health Ministry regulations adopted in 2015-16, doctors had to offer women the chance to listen to the “fetal heartbeat” and show them ultrasound images. They also changed an abortion consent form to emphasize its risks, “the possibility of not resorting to it, and the preference of carrying a pregnancy to term.”

Ms. Yerofeyeva’s Russian Association for Population and Development was declared a “foreign agent” — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong negative connotations — and soon ceased activities.

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova ordered the Health Ministry to look into banning abortions for those under 18 without parental consent.

In a speech to Parliament this year, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko criticised women who prioritise education and careers over childbearing and supported an abortion ban in private clinics — where up to 20% occurred in recent years. He also moved to restrict abortion pills, which are approved to be taken to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Vietnam’s second-highest ranking official on October 20 that both countries must not forget the “original intention” of their traditional friendship.

China and the United States have been jostling for influence among Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam, which in September elevated its ties with Washington to a comprehensive strategic partnership, putting its one-time enemy on a par with Beijing and Moscow.

China has traditionally strong ties with Vietnam since diplomatic relations were established in 1950, despite a brief war in 1979. Beijing has backed Hanoi’s fight against former colonial ruler France, and later, against Saigon and the United States during the Vietnam War.

“Faced with the ever-changing international situation and arduous domestic development tasks, the two countries must not forget the original intention of their traditional friendship,” Xi told visiting Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong.

Mr. Thuong, Vietnam’s No.2 after its Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, held talks with Xi after attending Beijing’s Belt and Road Forum.

In early October, Reuters reported that Vietnamese and Chinese officials were preparing for a possible trip by Xi to Hanoi either at the end of October or in early November, citing people familiar with the plans.

“The two sides should adhere to the principle of joint consultation,” Xi told Mr. Thuong, adding that China and Vietnam should capitalise on their geographical proximity and industrial complementarity. There was no mention of any Xi visit in the Chinese state media readout of their meeting.

On Wednesday, Vietnamese state media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had accepted an invitation from Mr. Thuong to “soon” visit Vietnam, when the two men met on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum. In September, U.S. President Joe Biden visited Hanoi.

A view of the members of Russia’s State Duma Lower House of Parliament attending a plenary session in Moscow, on October 17, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Lower House of Russia’s Parliament on October 18 gave its final approval to a Bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty, a move Moscow described as putting it on a par with the United States.

The State Duma lawmakers voted unanimously to revoke the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the third and final reading on October 18. The Bill will now go to the upper house, the Federation Council, which will consider it next week. Federation Council lawmakers have already said they will support the Bill.

The legislation was introduced to Parliament following a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warned earlier this month that Moscow could revoke its 2000 decision to ratify the treaty to “mirror” the stand taken by the United States, which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban.

The treaty, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, although it has never fully entered into force. In addition to the U.S., it is yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.

There are widespread concerns that Russia could resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the West from offering military support to Ukraine. Many Russian hawks have spoken in favour of a resumption. Mr. Putin has said that while some experts have talked about the need to conduct nuclear tests, he hasn’t yet formed an opinion on the issue.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last week that Moscow will continue to respect the ban and will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does so first.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands after speaking to the media during a signing ceremony following their talks at The Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Russia, March 21, 2023. Russian President Putin is expected to meet this week with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet this week with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine.

The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that’s now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel with its economic relations with Iran and Syria, which are strongly backed by Russia.

Mr. Putin’s visit is also a show of support for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road drive to build infrastructure and expand China’s overseas influence.

The Russian leader will be among the highest profile guests at a gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Xi’s announcement of the policy, which has laden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka with heavy debt after they signed contracts with Chinese companies to build roads, airports and other public works they could not otherwise afford.

Mr. Putin’s visit has not been confirmed, but Chinese officials have suggested he will be arriving on late October 16.

Asked by reporters on October 13 about a visit to China, Mr. Putin said it would encompass talks on Belt and Road-related projects, which he said Moscow wants to link with efforts taken by an economic alliance of ex-Soviet Union nations mostly located in Central Asia to “achieve common development goals.” He also downplayed the impact of China’s economic influence in a region that Russia has long considered its backyard and where it has worked to maintain political and military clout.

“We don’t have any contradictions here, on the contrary, there is a certain synergy,” Mr. Putin said.

Mr. Putin noted that he and Mr. Xi will also discuss growing economic and financial ties between Moscow and Beijing.

“One of the main areas is financial relations and creating further incentives for payments in national currencies,” Mr. Putin said. “The volume is growing rapidly, there are good prospects in high-tech areas, in the energy sector.”

Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that from China’s view “Russia is a safe neighbour that is friendly, that is a source of cheap raw materials, that’s a support for Chinese initiatives on the global stage and that’s also a source of military technologies, some of those that China doesn’t have.”

“For Russia, China is its lifeline, an economic lifeline in its brutal repression against Ukraine,” Mr. Gabuev told The Associated Press.

“It’s the major market for Russian commodities, it’s a country that provides its currency and payment system to settle Russia’s trade with the outside world — with China itself, but also with many other countries, and is also the major source of sophisticated technological imports, including dual use goods that go into the Russian military machine.”

Mr. Gabuev said that while Moscow and Beijing will be unlikely to forge a full-fledged military alliance, their defense cooperation will grow.

“I don’t expect that Russia and China will create a military alliance,” Mr. Gabuev said. “Both countries are self-sufficient in terms of security and they benefit from partnering, but neither really requires a security guarantee from the other. And they preach strategic autonomy.”

“There will be no military alliance, but there will be closer military cooperation, more interoperability, more cooperation on projecting force together, including in places like the Arctic and more joint effort to develop a missile defense that makes the U.S. nuclear planning and planning of the U.S. and its allies in Asia and in Europe more complicated,” he added.

China and the former Soviet Union were Cold War rivals for influence among left-leaning states, but have since partnered in the economic, military and diplomatic spheres. Just weeks before Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine last February, Mr. Putin met with Mr. Xi in Beijing and the sides signed an agreement pledging a “no-limits” relationship, and Beijing’s attempts to pose itself as a neutral peace broker in Russia’s war on Ukraine have been widely dismissed by the international community.

Mr. Xi visited Moscow in March as part of a flurry of exchanges between the sides. China has condemned international sanctions imposed on Russia but hasn’t directly addressed the arrest warrant issued for Mr. Putin by the International Criminal Court on charges of alleged involvement in the abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.

A man lights a candle at a makeshift memorial for Wagner private mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in central Moscow on October 1, 2023, to mark 40 days since his death as per Orthodox tradition. Yevgeny Prigozhin died with nine other people when a plane flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed on August 23.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 5 that hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of people who died in the Aug. 23 crash of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane.

Experts investigating the crash found no indication the private jet had suffered an “external impact,” he said. Prigozhin and two of his top lieutenants of the Wagner private military contractor were among the 10 people killed when the jet came down as it flew from Moscow to St. Petersburgh.

There was no way to independently verify Mr. Putin’s statement.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Mr. Putin’s foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin called allegations he was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”

A Russian investigation was launched but no findings have been released. Moscow rejected an offer from Brazil, where the Embraer business jet was built, to join the inquiry.

While Mr. Putin noted the probe was still ongoing and stopped short of saying what caused the crash, his statement appeared to hint the plane was brought down by a grenade explosion.

Prigozhin’s aborted rebellion in June marked the most serious challenge to Mr. Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades. The crash came two months to the day after the rebellion’s start.

Mr. Putin also noted that while investigators haven’t tested the remains for alcohol and drugs, 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine was found during searches at Prigozhin’s office in St. Petersburg following the mutiny — an apparent attempt to denigrate the mercenary chief.

After his death, Mr. Putin described Prigozhin, 62, as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life.”

Prigozhin owed his fortune to his ties with the Russian leader dating to the early 1990s and was dubbed “Putin’s chef” for the lucrative Kremlin catering contracts.

The Wagner Group military contractor that he created has been active in Ukraine, Syria and several African countries and counted tens of thousands of troops at its peak. It played a key role in the fighting in Ukraine, where it spearheaded capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in May after months of bloody combat.

In the June 23-24 rebellion, Prigozhin said it was intended to oust the Defense Ministry’s leadership that he blamed for mistakes in pressing the fighting in Ukraine. His mercenaries took over Russia’s southern military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and then rolled toward Moscow before abruptly halting the mutiny under a deal that offered them amnesty from prosecution. The mercenaries were given a choice to retire from the service, move to Belarus or sign new contracts with the Defense Ministry.

Last week, Mr. Putin met with one of Wagner’s top commanders to take charge of “volunteer units” fighting in Ukraine in a sign that the Kremlin intends to keep using the mercenaries after Prigozhin’s death.

Mr. Putin said on October 6 that several thousand Wagner troops have signed contracts with the Defense Ministry.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, bottom centre, attends a meeting of the country’s Parliament in Pyongyang, North Korea.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a “new Cold War,” state media said on September 28.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim made the comments during a two-day session of the country’s Parliament which amended the constitution to include his policy of expanding the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The Supreme People’s Assembly’s session on Tuesday and Wednesday came after Kim travelled to Russia’s Far East this month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and visit military and technology sites.

The trip sparked Western concerns about a possible arms alliance in which North Korea would supply Mr. Putin with badly needed munitions to fuel his war on Ukraine in exchange for economic aid and advanced Russian technologies to enhance North Korea’s nuclear and missile systems.

As North Korea slowly ends its pandemic lockdown, Kim has been actively boosting his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against Washington. He has described the world as entering a “new Cold War” and that North Korea should advance its nuclear capabilities in response.

KCNA’s reports on Kim’s comments came a day after North Korea confirmed the release of U.S. Army Private Travis King, who is now being flown back to America, two months after he sprinted across the heavily fortified border into the North.

King’s relatively swift expulsion defied speculation that North Korea might drag out his detention to squeeze concessions from the United States, and possibly reflected the North’s disinterest in diplomacy with Washington.

KCNA said members of the assembly gave unanimous approval to a new clause in the constitution to “ensure the country’s right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level.”

North Korea’s “nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything,” Kim said in a speech at the assembly. He stressed the need to “push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means,” KCNA said.

Kim pointed to what he described as a growing threat posed by a hostile United States and its expanding military cooperation with South Korea and Japan, accusing them of creating the “Asian version of NATO, the root cause of war and aggression.” “This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity,” he said.

Kim urged his diplomats to “further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the U.S. and the West’s strategy for hegemony.”

U.S. made 2023 more dangerous, says North Korea, accuses it of fomenting an Asian NATO

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said the North Korean constitutional amendment confirms Kim’s unwillingness to relinquish his nuclear weapons programme and his unwavering commitment to advancing that arsenal. It said in a statement that South Korea will continue to expand its military cooperation with the U.S. and Japan and work closer with other international partners to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as North Korea has test-fired more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022 and the U.S. has expanded its military exercises with its Asian allies, in tit-for-tat responses.

Last year, the assembly passed a new nuclear doctrine into law which authorises pre-emptive nuclear strikes if North Korea’s leadership is perceived as under threat.