Tag Archives: Kremlin

Germany’s Gabriel, in Moscow, warns of risk of new arms race

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel attends a news conference after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

By Sabine Siebold

MOSCOW (Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday warned about the danger of a new arms race spiral with Russia and called on all sides to work to end the violence in eastern Ukraine as a first step towards broader disarmament efforts.

Gabriel used his first visit to Moscow as foreign minister to underscore his concerns about both Russia’s military buildup in the Baltic region and its western borders, as well as debate in Washington about “exorbitant military spending increases.”

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Gabriel said they both agreed to continue four-way efforts by Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine to implement the Minsk peace process for Ukraine.

He said both sides in the conflict needed to implement measures already agreed, such as the withdrawal of heavy equipment from the line of conflict.

The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has already killed 10,000 people, has heated up in recent weeks.

Gabriel is a member of the Social Democrats, junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition and historic advocates of dialogue with Russia. But he said Moscow’s violation of sovereign borders in the middle of Europe was unacceptable, a reference to its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Gabriel did not address Russia’s stationing of ballistic nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad during the joint news conference with Lavrov. But he told Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday that any move by Moscow to make that deployment permanent would be “a blow to European security.”

Some modifications of the Iskander-M missiles can hit targets 700 km (450 miles) away, putting Berlin within range of Kaliningrad.

“We urgently need new initiatives for peace and security,” Gabriel said on Thursday, adding that strategic and conventional disarmament remained a central tenet of German foreign policy.

“My concern is, given some debate on both sides, the large number of armed troops … in the Baltic states and Poland, and the debate in the United State about exorbitant increases in defense spending, that we are once again facing the danger of a new arms race spiral,” Gabriel said.

He said a military buildup like the one seen in the 1970s and 1980s was not in the interest of the people, noting that Russia, above all, should understand that lesson.

The German foreign minister said Germany had no knowledge about reported CIA hacking attacks carried out from the U.S. consulate in Germany. He added that Germany took any kind of influence operations aimed at affecting public opinion very seriously, regardless of their origin.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Madeline Chambers)

Wary of divided loyalties, a Baltic state reaches out to its Russians

An Estonian army conscript soldiers attend a tactical training in the military training field near Tapa, Estonia February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

By Alistair Scrutton and David Mardiste

NARVA, Estonia (Reuters) – It is a sign of the times in Estonia, a Baltic state always suspicious of the Kremlin’s ambitions in the region, that Prime Minister Juri Ratas is learning Russian.

Worried that divided loyalties in its largely Russian-speaking border areas could lay Estonia open to conflicts like those in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Estonia wants to better integrate its Russian speaking minority.

Estonia and the other Baltic nations look at Russia’s actions in Ukraine and fear they could easily be overrun by their huge neighbor. By reaching out to his country’s Russian-speakers, Ratas is hoping to bolster national unity and remove a possible pretext for Russian intervention.

So while Ratas is taking language lessons, his new government is trying to make it easier for Russian speakers to obtain Estonian citizenship and to improve the border region’s economy, where unemployment is high.

Out of a population of 1.3 million in the euro zone and NATO member, about quarter are Russian speakers. Most of those have Russian passports or do not have any citizenship.

For a graphic on Russians in Estonia, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2meQVUw

Some security analysts say any grievance amongst Russian speakers that they feel they are “second-class citizens” could give the Kremlin a pretext to intervene.

Worried since Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea that Moscow could invade Poland or the Baltic states, NATO is bolstering its eastern flank with troops and equipment.

But a perception that U.S. President Donald Trump may prove soft on the Kremlin, combined with fears about “fake news” stirring tensions as NATO troops arrive, has caused concern among the Baltic nations of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Latvia and Estonia have large Russian-speaking populations, the result of migration when they were under Soviet rule. But only in Estonia has a party with a Russian-speaking electoral base come to power in a ruling coalition.

Minister of Health and Labour Jevgeni Ossinovski, a native Russian-speaker and the leader of the Social Democrats, a coalition government member, said reaching out to Russian-speakers was necessary given the tense geopolitical situation.

“We have always understood that big mistakes have big consequences,” Ossinovski told Reuters. “Probably for the next years, so for the foreseeable future, this will be more visible.”

It will not be an easy task. Many Russian speakers rely on Moscow-backed television stations, which Estonia says broadcast Kremlin propaganda.

Some in Estonia fear the arrival of around 1,000 NATO troops will inflame tensions. President Vladimir Putin said in 2014 that the presence of Russians in Estonia gives Moscow the right to intervene with force.

Earlier this month, NATO accused Russia of being behind a false report of a rape by German soldiers in Lithuania intended to undermine support for the troops, and said the alliance expected more of this kind of propaganda.

Estonia remembers 2007, when a decision to move a statue of a World War Two Soviet soldier sparked violent protests by Russian speakers and a wave of cyber attacks widely believed among Estonians to have come from Moscow.

Fear of occupation runs deep in the Baltics, annexed by the Soviet Union under Stalin’s secret 1939 pact with Hitler, overrun by the Nazis during World War Two and then recaptured by the Red Army and held until the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Russian troops left Estonia only in 1994.

After Estonia won independence in 1991, citizenship was granted to those who were citizens before the Soviet occupation regardless of ethnicity. But many Russian speakers who had migrated to Estonia after the war had to take language and history tests. Many people instead opted to have no citizenship or get a Russian passport.

ON THE BORDER

Narva is separated from Russia by a river. Nine out of ten people in the town speak Russian. On the Russian side, locals sit on foldable chairs ice fishing.

At a new border control building, people had passports with different colors – red Russian passports and gray passports for people without citizenship.

At a college on the Estonian side a short walk away, 23-year-old Denis Larchenko talks about arguments with his father.

“One day he is feeling himself Estonian, like after I am talking with him about the Estonians,” Larchenko said. “The next day he will start to watch some TV shows from Russia and he is like, every time feeling that Putin is great.”

In Narva, there are hopes of greater political integration. Until the election of Ratas as leader of the Centre Party, most other Estonian parties were unwilling to work with it because of its alleged links to Moscow.

“We are at least starting to see a change,” said Narva’s deputy mayor, Vyacheslav Konovalov. “Before, it was all just talk and no action.”

Konovalov said the government planned to open a college in Narva and build an exhibition center at a former military base. But the city can be touchy. Attempts to force taxi drivers to improve their Estonian met stiff opposition from the cabbies.

A younger generation of Russian speakers may already be more closely integrated with the Estonian majority, more concerned about access to European jobs than nostalgia for Mother Russia.

“They think that they are Russians and they think Putin is the king, but at the same time they would not like to join with him,” Larchenko said.

Larchenko has studied in Canada. Many of his friends are heading West, to the Estonian capital Tallinn and beyond.

“We still lose about 1,000 people every year from Narva,” said Konovalov. “Usually they don’t come back.”

Conscription has also helped integration. When Capt. Vladimir Kuznetsov, a 34-year-old Russian speaker, first joined the military, he did not know the Estonian word for “Attention!” to warn his barrack mates that an NCO had entered the room. Now he is a volunteer officer speaking fluent Estonian.

Aet Kiisla, a lecturer in public administration in Narva, says most Russian speakers are loyal to Estonia, but suspicious of governments. It may be enough for the Kremlin to act.

“Right now it isn’t a problem, but we have to be realistic. If Russia would turn on all the propaganda methods and tools then it is possible,” Kiisla said.

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Kremlin says Turkey provided intel for ‘friendly fire’ strikes

Syrian fighters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian air strikes that accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in Syria were launched based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

The Turkish military has said the “friendly fire” incident occurred during an operation against Islamic State, highlighting the risk of unintended clashes between the numerous outside powers in a complex war.

“Unfortunately, our military, while carrying out strikes on terrorists, was guided by coordinates given to them by our Turkish partners, and Turkish servicemen should not have been present on those coordinates,” Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told a conference call with reporters.

“It was a lack of coordination in providing coordinates, that is how I would formulate it,” said Peskov.

Speaking with reporters in the city of Afyon, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said it was important that President Vladimir Putin had expressed his condolences to his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.

“From our side the issue is being investigated. Initial information shows this was an accident … and an undesired incident as a result of incorrect information, coordinates,” Kurtulmus said in televised comments.

“It has been understood that closer coordination is required, both with the coalition and with Russia.”

(Reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

U.S. makes limited exceptions to sanctions on Russian spy agency

cars drive past headquarters

By Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday adjusted sanctions on Russian intelligence agency FSB, making limited exceptions to the measures put in place by former President Barack Obama over accusations Moscow tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election with cyber attacks on political organizations.

The department said in a statement it would allow U.S. companies to make limited transactions with FSB that are needed to gain approval to import information technology products into Russia.

At the White House, President Donald Trump responded to a reporter’s question about whether he was easing sanctions on Russia, saying, “I’m not easing anything.”

Sanctions experts and former Obama administration officials stressed the exceptions to the sanctions imposed in December do not signal a broader shift in Russia policy.

In a conference call with reporters, a senior Treasury Department official said the exceptions were “a very technical fix” made in response to “direct complaints” from companies that were unable to import many consumer technology products without a permit from the FSB. The action had been in the making for weeks before Trump took office on Jan. 20, the official said.

Beyond its intelligence function, the FSB also regulates the importation of software and hardware that contains cryptography. Companies need FSB approval even to import broadly available commercial products such as cell phones and printers if they contain encryption.

Peter Harrell, a sanctions expert and former senior U.S. State Department official, said Treasury officials likely had not considered the issue in December.

“I don’t think when they sanctioned FSB they were intending to complicate the sale of cell phones and tablets,” Harrell said.

David Mortlock, a former National Security Council advisor for Obama said that before granting such exceptions, the administration would ask who a sanction was hurting and who it was benefiting.

Mortlock, now an attorney, said “here it’s a pretty easy calculus” because it was clear tech companies were the ones harmed by not being able to import software into Russia, not the spy agencies.

U.S. intelligence agencies accused the FSB of involvement in hacking of Democratic Party organizations during the election to discredit Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Republican Trump.

The agencies and private cyber security experts concluded the FSB first broke into the Democratic National Committee’s computer system in the summer of 2015 and began monitoring email and chat conversations.

They said FSB was one of two Russian spy agencies involved in a broad operation approved by top-ranking people in the Russian government. In December, Obama expelled 35 suspected Russian spies and sanctioned two spy agencies. He also sanctioned four Russian intelligence officers and three companies that he said provided support to the cyber operations.

(Reporting by Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz; additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Jason Lange; Editing by Alistair Bell and Grant McCool)

Putin-Trump phone call to take place on Saturday: Kremlin

Putin

By Christian Lowe and Noah Barkin

MOSCOW/BERLIN (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will speak by telephone on Saturday, the Kremlin said, a first step towards what Trump has billed as a normalization of relations after three years of tensions sparked by the conflict in Ukraine.

Trump will also have a telephone conversation the same day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and that call is expected to focus on Russia, a source in Berlin familiar with the matter said. Merkel’s spokeswoman declined to comment.

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met in Berlin on Friday, underscoring a need for European unity in the face of growing internal and external threats, including concerns about a move toward protectionism by the United States.

“Let’s say it honestly, there is the challenge posed by the new U.S. administration, regarding trade rules and what our position will be on managing conflicts in the world,” Hollande, who will leave office after an April-May election, told reporters.

Trump has said in the past that, as part of the rapprochement he is seeking with Russia, he is prepared to review sanctions Washington imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula.

That move is likely to face resistance from both influential figures in Washington and foreign leaders — Merkel among them — who argue sanctions should only be eased if Moscow complies with the West’s conditions on Ukraine.

Trump and Putin have never met and it was unclear how their very different personalities would gel. Trump is a flamboyant real estate deal-maker who often acts on gut instinct, while Putin is a former Soviet spy who calculates each step methodically.

PATIENCE

Both have spoken about ending the enmity that has dragged U.S.-Russia relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with people? Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I am all for it,” Trump told a news conference in July last year.

Trump is already under intense scrutiny at home from critics who say he was elected with help from Russian intelligence — an allegation he denies — and that he is too ready to cut deals with a country that many of his own officials say is a threat to U.S. security.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian leader would use the call to congratulate Trump on taking office and to exchange views on U.S.-Russian ties.

Asked by reporters if Ukraine would come up, Peskov said: “This is the first telephone contact since President Trump took office, so one should hardly expect that (it)…will involve substantive discussions across the whole range of issues.

“We’ll see, let’s be patient.”

If Putin and Trump can establish a rapport, it could pave the way for deals on Ukraine and Syria, two sources of friction during the administration of Barack Obama.

For the Russian leader, there is much to gain. Putin is expected to run for re-election next year, but is hampered by a sluggish economy. A softening or removal of sanctions would allow Western investment and credit to flow in, lifting growth and strengthening Putin’s election prospects.

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt and Denis Pinchuk in Moscow and Joseph Nasr and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Lithuania said found Russian spyware on its government computers

A man types on a computer keyboard in this illustration picture

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) – The Baltic state of Lithuania, on the frontline of growing tensions between the West and Russia, says the Kremlin is responsible for cyber attacks that have hit government computers over the last two years.

The head of cyber security told Reuters three cases of Russian spyware on its government computers had been discovered since 2015, and there had been 20 attempts to infect them this year

“The spyware we found was operating for at least half a year before it was detected – similar to how it was in the USA,” Rimtautas Cerniauskas, head of Lithuanian Cyber Security Centre said.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a Reuters written request for comments over the Lithuanian claims. But Russia has in the past denied accusations of hacking Western institutions.

Fears of cyber attacks have come to the fore since the U.S. election campaign when hacking of Democratic Party emails led to allegations from U.S. intelligence that Russia was involved.

Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, all ruled by Moscow in communist times, have been alarmed by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In what Baltic officials say was a wake-up call, Estonia was hit by cyber attacks on extensive private and government Internet sites in 2007. State websites were brought to a crawl and an online banking site was closed.

Lithuanian intelligence services, in their annual report, say cyber attacks have moved from being mainly targeted at financial crimes to more political spying on state institutions.

Russian spyware was transferring all documents it could find, as well as all passwords entered on websites such as GMail or Facebook, to an internet address commonly used by Russian spy agencies, Cerniaukas said.

“This only confirms that attempts are made to infiltrate our political sphere,” said Cerniaukas.

PREPARATIONS

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency reported earlier this month a striking increase in Russian targeted cyber attacks against political parties and propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing German society.

The domestic intelligence chief said Russia may seek to interfere in its national elections next year.

Although no Russian cyber meddling was detected in the run up and during the Lithuanian general election in October, Cerniauskas said his country needs to understand it is vulnerable to such meddling.

“Russians are really quite good in this area. They have been using information warfare since the old times. Cyberspace is part of that, only more frowned upon by law than simple propaganda”, he said.

“They have capacity, they have the attitude, they are interested, and they will get to it – so we need to prepare for it and we need to apply countermeasures.”

Lithuanian officials targeted by the Russian spyware held mid-to-low ranking positions at the government, but their computers contained a stream of drafts for government decisions of its positions on various matters, said Cerniauskas.

The head of the Lithuanian counter-intelligence agency Darius Jauniskis said Russia tried to sow chaos in Lithuania by orchestrating a cyber attack in 2012 against the Lithuanian central bank and its top online news website.

“It is all part of psychological warfare,” he told Reuters earlier this month.

(Reporting By Andrius Sytas; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)

Kremlin says almost all dialogue with U.S. frozen: RIA

Kremlin spokesman

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday almost all communications channels between Russia and the United States have been frozen but the U.S. State Department disputed that statement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not expect the incoming U.S. administration to quickly reject enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that almost all communication with the United States had ceased, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioned during his election campaign whether the U.S. should protect allies seen as spending too little on defense, raising fears he could withdraw funding for NATO at a time of heightened tensions with Moscow. Russia has said it would take countermeasures in response to any expansion of the 28-member military alliance.

“Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen,” RIA quoted Peskov as saying. “We don’t communicate with one another, or (if we do) we do so minimally.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby quickly rejected Peskov’s statement.

‎”It’s difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues,” Kirby said in an emailed statement to Reuters. “That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn’t been a break in dialogue.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Tuesday regarding the situation in Syria, Kirby said.

Separately, the Pentagon said it had held a video conference with counterparts at the Russian defense ministry to ensure the two sides’ air operations do not come into conflict with each other in Syria. Such discussions with Russia are held regularly as U.S. warplanes conduct daily air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.

RIA, citing an interview it said Peskov gave to Russia’s Mir TV station, quoted him as saying he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin would seek re-election in 2018.

“Everyone’s heads are aching because of work and with projects and nobody is thinking or talking about elections,” Peskov said.

Most Kremlin-watchers expect Putin to run for the presidency again.

(Reporting by Peter Hobson in Moscow and Yeganeh Torbati and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Richard Chang)

Met a friendly stranger? Call us, say Lithuania’s spyhunters

Lithuania's State Security Department director Darius Jauniskis poses for a picture in Vilnius, Lithuania,

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) – A single mother takes a kindly man into her confidence. A student is plied with beer by a smiling stranger. Beguiling scenes. But the people of Lithuania are being urged in TV adverts to be wary of the kindness of strangers and call a new ‘spyline’ to check if they aren’t, perhaps, being lured into espionage by foreign agents.

By foreign agents, Lithuania means the Kremlin. Ties have always been tense with former imperial master Moscow. But since the annexation of Crimea, Russia is seen in Vilnius as a threat to Lithuania and the other Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia.

“People don’t even think that information is being squeezed out of them until it’s too late,” Darius Jauniskis, the 48-year-old head of Lithuania’s State Security Department, told Reuters.

“So to prevent this, we are going public and we are explaining all this.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the FSB security service did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

Each advert, Jauniskis said, is based on a true recruitment story.

As the relationship flourishes, the kindly man dupes the lonely mother into installing an information-sucking virus at her workplace. The student wonders if the stranger’s largesse might just be motivated by the diplomatic career he plans.

NATO and EU member Lithuania is perhaps the most vocal of the Baltics in criticizing Russia and increased Russian military activity in the Nordic region. The government has even published a manual on resisting a Russian invasion.

Russia characterizes such fears as fantasy concocted by a NATO alliance that seeks to intimidate Moscow. NATO also has carried out extensive maneuvers near Russian borders.

SOVIET RULE

But Lithuania was under Soviet rule only 25 years ago. It was the first country to declare independence from Moscow in 1990, and saw off a Soviet army attempt to topple its government in 1991. Twelve civilians were killed.

Jauniskis, then 22, stood guard inside the Lithuanian parliament. Later, he led a Lithuanian commando squad fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan alongside the Americans.

He said a third of Russian embassy staff were intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover. Equipment installed on the embassy roof allowed them to listen in to phone calls.

“You will not recognize a spy,” he said. “Because a professional spy will not stand out in any way. He will not have a good car or great clothes. He will just be same as any of us.”

Moscow is recruiting Lithuanians on shopping trips to Russia, accusing them of smuggling, then offering to drop charges – and facilitate future shopping – if they agree to provide intelligence, Jauniskis’s agency said in its annual report.

Russia was also targeting Lithuanian businessmen and diplomats working in Moscow, often using blackmail.

All these things may appear standard fare for many intelligence agencies, but Lithuania sees a particular threat, living as it does in the shadow of so powerful a neighbor.

“Russia is abusing every weakness of democracy that it is able to,” said Jauniskis. “As a former soldier, I can say that defense alone will not win a war. You need to counterattack.”

An actor reading a "testimonial" about a suspiciously friendly stranger is seen in this screen grab from a TV advert by Lithuanian State Security Department

An actor reading a “testimonial” about a suspiciously friendly stranger is seen in this screen grab from a TV advert by Lithuanian State Security Department taken November 30, 2016. Lithuanian State Security Department via REUTERS

But critics say the spy hotline will only breed paranoia – while perhaps overestimating Russian intelligence capabilities.

Few Russian spies have actually gone to prison. Two Lithuanians were sentenced in 2015 and 2016 and a Russian who Lithuanian prosecutors say is a Russian intelligence officer was detained in 2015. His trial is in progress.

Jauniskis said Russia was trying to undermine citizens’ trust in their own country by repeating falsehoods about it in the media and elsewhere. He proposes legislation to criminalize the “spreading of lies” to destabilize the country.

“I will not get popular by saying this, but times have changed, and we must understand that civil liberties are being curtailed in times of war,” he said.

Jauniskis is not impressed by critics’ accusation that all this constituted a step back to Soviet-style “thought police”.

“I don’t think Russia is even concealing that their main target is not Baltics, but destroying the European Union and NATO,” Jauniskis said.

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; editing by Alistair Scrutton; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Putin unveils monument to Russia’s ‘spiritual founder’ calls for unity

The newly unveiled monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988AD, is seen in central Moscow, Russia,

By Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday unveiled a monument to the medieval prince who brought Christianity to the precursor of the Russian state, a figure being embraced by the Kremlin as a symbol of national identity.

Unveiling the statue to Grand Prince Vladimir near the Kremlin walls, Putin said the prince had been the spiritual founder of the Russian state.

“Today, our duty is to jointly stand up to modern challenges and threats, relying on the priceless traditions of unity and accord, moving forward and safeguarding the continuation of our 1,000-year history,” he said.

The 17.5 meter (56 foot) -tall bronze monument features prince Vladimir in flowing robes with a sword in his left hand and a cross in his right.

Grand Prince Vladimir was a ruler of Kievan Rus, the territory in modern-day Ukraine from which the Russian state would later emerge. In 988, he adopted Orthodox Christianity as the faith of his people, who were until then largely pagan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, attend a ceremony to unveil a monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988AD, on National Unity Day in central Moscow, Russia,

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, attend a ceremony to unveil a monument of grand prince Vladimir I, who initiated the christianization of Kievan Rus’ in 988AD, on National Unity Day in central Moscow, Russia, November 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Putin, in the 16 years since he became president, has sought to build a spirit of national unity and pride, with a new emphasis on traditional Russian values.

His critics say he uses those values as a pretext to justify his stand-off with the West, which he accuses of trying to encroach on Russia’s sphere of influence and impose liberal social attitudes on its people.

The site of the new statue is between the red-brick walls of the Kremlin and the Lenin Library.

The unveiling coincided with National Unity Day, a public holiday created by Putin’s administration in 2004 to replace the Communist October Revolution Day, when tanks, missiles and troops used to parade through Red Square.

(Editing by Christian Lowe and Andrew Roche)

Moscow office of Amnesty International sealed off

The office door of rights group Amnesty International is sealed off in Moscow, Russia,

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Moscow office of rights group Amnesty International has been sealed off by municipal officials without warning and staff cannot get inside, the group said on Wednesday.

Alexander Artemyev, a staff member, told Reuters that official seals had been placed on the entrances to the office, the locks had been changed, and that power to the office had been cut off.

An official notice left behind said the building was city property and that nobody was allowed to enter without being accompanied by a municipal official.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe Director, said he did not know what had prompted Moscow authorities to seal off the office, calling it “an unwelcome surprise.”

“Given the current climate for civil society work in Russia, there are clearly any number of plausible explanations, but it’s too early to draw any conclusions,” Dalhuisen said in a statement.

“We are working to resolve the situation as swiftly as possible and very much hope there is a simple administrative explanation for this setback to our work.”

Amnesty, which was founded in London, frequently criticizes the Russian authorities over what it says are human rights violations. It said it was confident it had fulfilled all its obligations as a tenant.

A representative of the Moscow state property department, from which Amnesty rents the office, said they had no immediate comment.

Rights groups that receive foreign funding and are critical of the Kremlin have come under pressure from the authorities in the past few years. Some have been designated as “foreign agents” which makes them subject to intense scrutiny from officials.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of Amnesty’s office problems.

(Reporting by Svetlana Reiter; Writing by Christian Lowe/Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)