Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin: “I am a little worried about the future of Russia,” a Russian invasion official told the Telegram

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin appeared to be taking pains to offer reassurances. “At present, no measures are being introduced to limit the normal rhythm of the city’s life,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

Despite the new power granted them by Mr. Putin, no restriction on exit or entry will be imposed.

But many Russians are sure to see a warning message in the martial law imposed in Ukraine, the first time that Moscow has declared martial law since World War II, analysts say.

Ms. Stanovaya said people were worried about a possible border closing and would do what they wanted.

On Tuesday, the newly appointed commander of the Russian invasion, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, acknowledged that his army’s position in Kherson was “already quite difficult” and appeared to suggest that a tactical retreat might be necessary. General Surovikin said he was ready to make “difficult decisions” about military deployments, but did not say more about what those might be.

“First, Russia has greatly diluted its forces in Syria as they were needed in Ukraine. The threat to Israel from them is now negligible,” the officer said.

The Rise and Fall of the Middle East: CNN World Affairs Observations of Vladimir Putin’s Russia-Inspired Invasion of Ukraine

A former CNN PRODUCER and correspondent named Fridaghitis is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

Ukraine has become the epicenter of a global conflict; a hub whose spokes connect to every country, every life. Russia’s aggression has already taken a toll on the world, lowering living standards and raising international tensions.

In recent months, as Russia began using Iranian drones to attack Ukrainian targets, Israel has agreed to supply Kyiv, through NATO, with intelligence and technical information on how to counter the Iranian drone threat.

The strengthening relationship between Moscow and Tehran has drawn the attention of Iran’s rivals and foes in the Middle East, of NATO members and of nations that are still – at least in theory – interested in restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which aimed to delay Iran’s ability to build an atomic bomb.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was never a run-of-the-mill border dispute. The importance of preventing Russia’s regime from gaining control of its neighbor, with its incipient democracy, was obvious when Putin started his march to war.

If Putin is allowed to win, the world would see a new era of instability with less freedom, less peace and less prosperity.

The United States led the support from the West. The war in Ukraine revived NATO and brought in new applications from countries that were committed to neutrality. It also helped reaffirm the interest of many in eastern European states – former Soviet satellites – of orienting their future toward Europe and the West.

The consequences of what happened far from the battlefields still apply today. When oil-producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, decided last month to slash production, the US accused the Saudis of helping Russia fund the war by boosting its oil revenues. (An accusation the Saudis deny).

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently reiterated that “Israel supports and stands with Ukraine, NATO and the West,” but will not move those systems to Ukraine, because, “We have to share our airspace in the North with Russia.”

After the war started, Russia stopped Ukrainian exports of grain, causing food prices to go up. The head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, warned in May that the world was “marching toward starvation.”

Families and individual lives are affected by higher prices. They pack a political punch when they come with power. Decreased inflation caused by the war has put incumbent political leaders in many countries on the defensive.

The End of Greatness: A Memoir from a Former Pentagon Official, or Why Israel is Going Through a Groundhog Day, Not a Cold War

And it’s not all on the fringes. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who could become speaker of the House after next week’s US elections, suggested the GOP might choose to reduce aid to Ukraine. Progressive Democrats released and withdrew a letter calling for negotiations. Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, said they’re all bringing “a big smile to Putin’s face.”

Editor’s Note: Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of “The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.” Miller was a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations. His own opinions are expressed in this commentary. You can read more opinions on CNN.

Bill Murray may have been hired as a technical adviser to the Central Elections Committee, even if he hadn’t been on Saturday Night Live. Based on pre-election polling it seemed that Israel was headed for yet another Groundhog Day-style hung election for the fifth time in just short of four years.

This alliance is going to be stunning for Netanyahu, who was able to organize it in order to maximize his chances of forming a government. It’s hardly a coincidence that one of the parties in this bloc led by Bezalel Smotrich has authored a plan to reform (read emasculate) the judicial system and ensure that Netanyahu is immune from prosecution.

Despite being indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu is still the most consequential politician in the Israeli scene and he is on the verge of returning to the prime ministry with a majority.

The left and center-left in Israel once dominated by the iconic Labor Party, the driving political force for the first three decades of independence, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self with just a handful of seats in the Knesset.

The fracturing of the left and the Arab vote gave the Netanyahu bloc a significant advantage, as the center- left and right bloc of Yair Lapid made a respectable showing.

Religious Zionism doubled its numbers from the 2021 election and Gvir, the clear star of the bloc, attracted new voters – and according to exit polls, raised national turnout by about 6%.

The Israeli Jewish public has become less willing to tolerate loss over the past five years than it was in the early 2000’s. In the wake of the 21-day war last year, Mr. Ben-Gvir brought up the desire for a quick response from Israelis. His party’s platform promises “the establishment of sovereignty over all parts of Eretz Israel liberated in the Six-Day War and settlement of the enemies of Israel in the Arab countries that surround our small land.”

Israel has been drifting rightward for years. According to the analyst, a full 60 percent of the Israeli electorate is right-wing, while another 14 percent is left-wing and the rest are in the center.

The new prime minister is now beholden to the extremists as well as the two ultra-Orthodox parties. As a result of Likud winning 31 seats, the right-wing groups and ultras make him a minority within his own government.

One might think that this type of government might not last. There may be more to the coalition than just it being divided. Two Orthodox parties are eager to get support for their religious schools and institutions after they lost power.

How will this government actually behave? It’s safe to say as Israel’s 75th anniversary approaches next year, it won’t bring the country any closer to tackling the domestic and foreign policy challenges it faces and will almost certainly make them worse. At home, Israel will be increasingly polarized, with an independent judiciary and rule of law under serious threat.

Netanyahu would be more comfortable with a return of Donald Trump or his Republican persona, like that of the Saudi Crown Prince. In short, with his dance card already full with matters foreign and domestic, the return of Netanyahu, let alone tied to an extremist right wing coalition partner likely to roil the already tense situation with Palestinians – is something Biden surely didn’t want or need.

But there will be more settlements and support for settlers; more effort to consolidate control over Jerusalem; relations with Israel’s Arab citizens will likely deteriorate with fewer resources for their community and if there’s a serious confrontation with Palestinians in the West Bank or in Jerusalem the odds of it morphing into a conflict between Israeli Jews and Arabs will likely grow.

But even without being tethered to the extremist Gvir, Netanyahu’s relations with Biden would have been difficult as their views on settlements, treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and building in Jerusalem would have clashed.

Conventional explanations for the actual reasons for the shift are not true. Yes, the violence of the second intifada in the early 2000s disillusioned many Jewish Israelis about the possibility of peace with the Palestinians. During most of Netanyahu’s time as prime minister, Israelis were largely spared the consequences of their government’s continued occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza. Support for a two-state solution practically evaporated, and the issue nearly disappeared from Israeli discourse.

The Case for Zelensky: Inside and Out: A Personal Story of a Pomeron, a Bully, and a Champion: From Ukraine to Russia

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst currently based in Odesa. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a contributor to CNN. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

It is difficult to calculate how much the carefully managed stagecraft of the president’s inner circle has contributed to Zelensky’s popular image both inside and outside Ukraine – but it certainly can’t hurt.

In Paris I witnessed how Zelensky pulled up to the lysée Palace with a modest car, while Putin traveled in an armored limo. The host, the French President, embraced Putin but didn’t shake his hand.

Fast forward to 2022 and Zelensky is the instantly recognizable wartime president in trademark olive green; as adept at rallying his citizens and stirring the imaginations of folks worldwide, as naming and shaming allies dragging their feet in arming his military.

Failure to demonstrate the continued progress of the battlefield could be seen as a sign of weakness by Western backers. But capitulation to Russia would be a political death sentence.

Zelensky grew up in rough and tumble neighborhoods in central Ukraine and learned how to respond to bully.

Yevhen Hlibovytsky is a former political journalist and founder of the Kyiv-based think.

This, after all, is the leader who when offered evacuation by the US as Russia launched its full-scale invasion, quipped: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/opinions/volodomyr-zelensky-profile-ukraine-russia-bociurkiw/index.html

On the legacy of Petro Zelensky: a comedian in the midst of war or a pivotal moment in geopolitics

Amid the fog of war, it all seems a long, long way since the heady campaign celebration in a repurposed Kyiv nightclub where a fresh-faced Zelensky thanked his supporters for a landslide victory. Standing on stage among the fluttering confetti, he looked in a state of disbelief at having defeated incumbent veteran politician Petro Poroshenko.

As Russian troops began to amass on Ukraine’s borders in the weeks preceding the February assault, around 55% of Ukrainians said they didn’t trust Zelensky to lead them into war. It was a rating likely influenced by him not keeping some of his campaign promises, especially failing to launch an effective fight against corruption in the judiciary.

He had a professional career as a TV comedian in the group Kvartal 95. Even in the midst of the war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured perfect lighting and curated camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Zelensky wears hoodies and T-shirts as a symbol of his competence and confidence in a younger audience that sees it as such, said Chrisman-Campbell.

Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective speaker in international fora, projecting empathy, style and smarts on her journey to where her husband can’t. She met with King Charles during a visit to the refugee assistance center at the Holy Family Cathedral in London. (Curiously, TIME magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover montage and gave only a passing reference in the supporting text).

Despite the strong tailwinds at Zelensky’s back, there are subtle signs that his international influence could be dwindling. For example, last week, in what analysts called a pivotal moment in geopolitics, the G7 imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian crude – despite pleas from Zelensky that it should have been set at $30 in order to inflict more pain on the Kremlin.

It is likely that the Zelensky administration will have a complex path ahead of it if it liberates the peninsula from Russia. For now, the tough guy from Kryvyi Rih shows no sign that he is going to back down.

“Paradoxically, Zelensky achieved the thing that Putin most wanted to achieve but failed … to rally support domestically with a patriotic war in order to deflect and distract from his abject failures at home. According to Michael Popow, a business and strategic analyst from New York, Putin was annoyed by the fact he would be shown up by a comedian.

As Zelensky said in a recent nightly video address: “No matter what the aggressor intends to do, when the world is truly united, it is then the world, not the aggressor, determines how events develop.”

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He was a reporter for CBS News in Europe and Asia. His views are not reflected in this commentary. There are more opinions at CNN.

It was a trajectory – Washington to Cairo, and then Jerusalem – similar to the one made nearly a half century earlier by a predecessor of Antony Blinken.

Starting in 1974, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy” would bring an accord of sorts and a degree of stability to the region following the catastrophic and bloody Yom Kippur War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

49 years later, there is no Palestinian state, relations between the Israelis and Palestinians are still fraught, and the most right-wing government in Israeli history has just taken power in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, Blinken wound up three days of meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Netanyahu told CNN on Tuesday that the Palestinians want a peace with Israel for 25 years because they don’t want a state next to Israel. Netanyahu insisted that he wants negotiations with the Palestinians, which the Palestinians don’t want.

The prime minister told CNN he believed his priority of cementing friendly arrangements with all Arab nations would eventually drive the Palestinians to the peace table.

There was a deep concern about the current trajectory that he heard in all three of the cities he had visited. He made it clear that America supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a concept that Palestinians don’t believe is shared by the Netanyahu government.

Indeed, it would seem that the government Netanyahu leads is determined to press forward on initiatives only calculated to inflame passions on both sides. The minister of public security has been convicted of inciting racism. The leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas, Aryeh Deri, was forced to resign as interior minister by the nation’s high court but is expected to return after the ruling coalition pledged its support.

At the same time, the right-wing dominated Knesset awarded to Bezalel Smotrich – a religious-Zionist leader of the settler movement – supervision of the Jewish territories that Palestinians have long claimed for themselves.

Passions continued to rise, as an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp last week left 10 Palestinians dead and was followed by an attack by a Palestinian gunman on a Jerusalem synagogue that left seven dead.

The Davos War: Why Israel and the West Bank should be in the Context of Resolving the Problem of the Middle East, as suggested by Saudi Arabia at the World Economic Forum

Amid such a tense atmosphere it seems unlikely that some key Middle East nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, will have any incentive to establish a working relationship with Israel that could lead to a lasting peace.

At Davos, before the latest deadly confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told the World Economic Forum, “Palestine remains an important evocative issue in our region… the focus really needs to be on a pathway to resolving this conflict.”

Why it matters: Fears had been growing that the situation in Israel and the West Bank could spiral out of control and Blinken’s visit was expected to calm tensions. State Department officials should remain in the Middle East to assist with steps that both Israel and the Palestinians have suggested to Blinken.

Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, even though Netanyahu is flawed as Tapper pointed out.

The US’s only recourse is to support it and attempt to hold up a mirror to its flaws, praying that it will do the right thing for everyone who resides in it.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s CNN looks at the region’s biggest stories three times a week. You can sign up here.

The visit comes in the wake of the bloodshed that happened last week. Thursday was the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in two years, following by a shooting at a Jerusalem synagogue on Friday that Israel has deemed one of the worst terror attacks in recent years.

Netanyahu told Tapper in Jerusalem that he was willing to allow them all the power they needed to govern themselves but not any of the power that could threaten us.

I said you can’t divide who controls the airspace. There is a connection between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. You need to cross it. An airplane will cross it in two minutes. One minute Israel controls it and the next the Palestinians. It is not workable.

I said, you’re right. It gives them the ability to control their lives, to hire their officials, to run their economy, to run their institutions, to have their flag and to have their parliament, but we have to get rid of security control.

There are accusations that Israel is punishing the Palestinians in the wake of the shooting attacks around Jerusalem that killed seven and wounded five. Measures announced by the Israeli cabinet in response included issuing more gun permits for civilians, increasing security for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and pushing draft legislation that would possibly revoke the Israeli residency of families of those accused of engaging in or supporting terrorism.

Human rights organizations do call for actions against the families of attackers, and Netanyahu claims to be against collective punishment.

The legislation to revoke residency of families of attackers will likely face legal challenges, something Israeli human rights organization HaMoked has already vowed to do.

But with rising and concerning levels of violence from all sides, a far-right Israeli government in place under Netanyahu, and a Palestinian Authority led by an increasingly unpopular President Mahmoud Abbas, that may be an overly optimistic game plan.

After a meeting with Abbas, Blinken called for calm in the West Bank. He cautioned against Israeli moves including “things like settlement expansion, the legalization of [Israeli settler] outposts, demolitions and evictions [of Palestinians from their homes], disruptions to the historic status of the holy sites and of course incitement and acquiescence to violence.”

The return of the Airbus A380 superjumbo in Tunisia after a record-high-reoutturn-out runoff

This is the first investment of the year and second investment by IHC after investing 7.3 billion dirhams in Adani Group last year. A research firm accused India’s Adani and it’s owner of pulling off “the largest con in corporate history,” a situation that caught the conglomerate and its owner by surprise. The report and selloff of Adani Group companies wiped out $70 billion in market value. The company made the necessary regulatory disclosures and was in full compliance with local laws.

The Islamic Republic has not been connected to the financial messaging service since the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran. Similar limitations have been imposed on Russian banks since Russia invaded Ukranian.

The turnout in Tunisia’s parliamentary runoff elections on Sunday, Reuters cited the country’s electoral commission as saying. President Kais Saied on Monday blamed the low turnout on hatred among voters of the parliament, calling it “an institution of absurdity and a state within the state.” His critics said the turnout was proof of public dislike for his agenda, and opposition parties called for his resignation.

The Airbus A380 superjumbo turned back upon reaching west of Indonesia, more than a third of the way to Auckland, a map from flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed.

New Zealand’s biggest city has a record amount of rain. It was the most rain-shattered day in the history of the city on Friday.

There was travel disruption due to the rain. More than 2,000 people stayed overnight Friday in the airport’s terminals due to the flooding, the airport said. Domestic flights resumed Saturday but the international terminal was not operational until Sunday.

The longest route of the airline was resumed after a three-year hiatus in December due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The flight takes between 16 and 17 hours and is among the world’s longest nonstop commercial routes.

Israel’s war with Russia: Netanyahu’s response to Assad’s invasion of Ukraine and his embassy in the Kremlin

Anshel is a writer for Ha’aretz and the Israel correspondent of The Economist. He is the author of “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu.” The views he has expressed are of his own. CNN has more opinion.

Despite pressure, Israel did not join the western governments in condemning Russia. Strict neutrality was to be maintained throughout.

In September of 2015, Russia sent its military to Syria to help the regime of President Assad. Netanyahu traveled to Moscow to have a meeting with Putin.

The two leaders reached an agreement whereby Israel would continue to operate in Syrian airspace but would only attack targets linked to its enemy Iran, while leaving Assad’s forces untouched. A “deconfliction mechanism,” including a hotline between the Russian command center in Syria and Israel’s air force headquarters, was swiftly established.

Senior Israeli officials have emphasized that it was crucial to keep coordination with the Russians while the United States remained Israel’s main strategic ally.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine last year was Netanyahu’s last day in office. Naftali Bennett was the prime minister and he kept the neutrality policy.

Not everyone in the Israeli leadership agreed with Bennett’s neutral policy. His political partner and then-foreign minister Yair Lapid was more forthright in publicly condemning Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

In the early weeks of the war, Bennett embarked on a peace mission in which he both visited Putin in the Kremlin and had multiple conversations with Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky. He insists that “there was a 50% chance of reaching a ceasefire, sadly it failed.” He also claims that his involvement helped broker short-term local truces, which allowed saving civilians from the war zone.

According to a former Israeli intelligence officer who was deeply involved in Israel’s military relationship with Russia, Netanyahu has two immediate reasons for changing policy.