Serbia, Ukraine set aside differences over Russia, vow cooperation:
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with his Serbian counterpart in a bid to repair ties with the Balkan country, a key Russian ally in Europe, as both states seek to join the European Union.
The two countries' delegations signed bilateral deals and predicted better ties in the future after a day of meetings in Belgrade on July 3.
The rapprochement was unusual because of a history of differences between the two countries, particularly with regard to Russia.
Serbia, a close Moscow ally, has not joined Western sanctions imposed against Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. But the Serbian delegation pointed out that Belgrade had refrained from recognizing that land grab as legal.
A serious dispute also broke out in recent years over Serbian "volunteers" who joined Russia-backed separatists battling against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv last year accused Belgrade of not moving aggressively enough to prosecute such "volunteers."
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,300 people since 2014.
In light of these differences, both Poroshenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic made a point of saying at their meeting that they respected each other's territorial integrity. And they said they wanted to help each other's efforts at gaining EU membership.
Vucic said that "Ukraine supports the territorial integrity of Serbia, the same way Serbia supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
"Serbia and Ukraine have no open bilateral issues and consider each other as exceptionally friendly nations," Vucic said.
Poroshenko said that "we in Kyiv are making all the efforts to restore Ukrainian sovereignty at all occupied territories."
Referring to Serbia's territorial dispute with Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 despite Serbian opposition, Poroshenko urged a solution that is acceptable to both sides.
"We have not recognized Kosovo and our position is that the Kosovo problem should be solved in a compromise that would respect the interests of Serbia," he said.
While Serbia has not recognized Kosovo's independence, 116 other countries have.
Serbia and Kosovo must resolve their territorial dispute to advance toward EU membership. Serbia has relied on Russia's backing in international forums such as the United Nations in its bid to maintain a claim on the territory.
While Poroshenko and Vucic touted the countries' friendly relations, some commentators saw a subtle sign of tensions when Vucic did not meet Poroshenko at the Belgrade airport for his arrival on July 2.
Poroshenko and Vucic recently attended in Turkey the inauguration of a key pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan's gas fields to Turkish markets and eventually to Europe, part of a wider Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to diversify gas supplies and reduce European countries' dependence on Russia. (w/RFE/RL's Balkan Service and AP)
Russian teens detained after protest supporting Sentsov:
By RFE/RL
A Russian teenage activist was among four people detained after she staged a protest outside the World Cup stadium in St. Petersburg wearing a bloodied shirt that she said was intended to draw attention to the country's problems, Reuters reported.
"We wanted to draw attention to the fact that no matter what you show foreigners, things on the inside aren't that good and pretty," 16-year-old Lika Petrovskaya told Reuters on July 3.
Russia has strived to put on its best face to host the world's most prestigious soccer tournament, with some participants expressing surprise at the leniency shown by the authorities during many of the festivities.
"No matter the pretty things that are shown, people in Russia are still suffering," Petrovskaya said.
OVD-Info, a human rights organization that monitors detentions, said that three other activists, including two minors, had been detained along with Petrovskaya outside the stadium on July 3.
The local branch of the Interior Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Petrovskaya lay for a few minutes at the foot of a statue of Zabivaka, the wolf that serves as the tournament's mascot, outside the St. Petersburg venue where Sweden beat Switzerland 1-0 in their second-round match on July 3.
She said she was not detained the first time she lay down by the statue, despite the presence of security officers, and voluntarily stepped away when tourists asked her to move so they could take a picture. But she said she was detained by police when she returned for a second attempt.
Petrovskaya said one the issues she was protesting was the imprisonment of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is being held in a Siberian jail where he has been on a hunger strike for 40 days.
Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security prison in 2015 after being found guilty of setting fire to two offices in Crimea after Moscow annexed the territory from Ukraine.
A native of Crimea, Sentsov and human rights groups say the charges were politically motivated.
The protest in St. Petersburg wasn't the first during the games. Russian activists last week held a covert protest on a central Moscow street popular with World Cup fans to call on the Kremlin to release Sentsov.
And opposition parties during the games staged protests around the country against the Kremlin's plan to raise the retirement age.
Meanwhile, Moscow police said on July 3 that they had detained a person who vandalized a statue of a renowned Soviet soccer player outside the Spartak stadium where England was playing Colombia in a match.
The word "England" was painted in red on the chest of a statue of Fyodor Cherenkov, a former Soviet national team player and Spartak Moscow midfielder who died in 2014, according to pictures posted on social media during the match.
Police said in a statement they "had identified and detained" the person who vandalized the statue, which is located near the stadium's main entrance. The police statement did not disclose the vandal's identity, or say whether he or she was a British national.
England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalty kicks and will face Sweden in the quarterfinals in Samara on July 7. (w/AP and Reuters)