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Montenegrin Police Arrest 25 People In Drug Bust
Both countries have stepped up border security and the joint activities of law enforcement agencies in the last few months.
Media reports on February 27 said a police officer and a low-ranking government official were among those arrested in the biggest single drug bust in the Balkan country since December.
The suspects, belonging to seven crime clans, smuggled 2.5 tons of "extra-strong marijuana also known as skunk" from Albania via Montenegro to neighboring Serbia and Bosnia, police spokeswoman Tamara Popovic said.
Popovic said in a joint action, Albanian police recently arrested another six people in connection with the case. She did not elaborate further.
In December, Montenegrin law enforcement agencies arrested 19 people and seized some 550 kilograms of narcotics.
The mountainous border between Montenegro and Albania is frequently used for trafficking drugs, weapons, and people.
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Pakistan's Newly Elected Lower House Lawmakers Sworn In After Election Marred By Rigging Claims
Pakistan's newly elected lower chamber of parliament, the National Assembly, convened its first session on February 29 where newly elected lawmakers were sworn in, three weeks after an election marred by widespread allegations of rigging.
The oath to the newly elected parliamentarians was administered by outgoing Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the assembly hall in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
The house will elect its new speaker and deputy speaker on March 1 while the prime minister will be elected on March 4.
In the February 8 vote, candidates backed by jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was barred from running, won most seats but fell short of a simple majority needed to form a government.
Khan, 71, a retired cricket superstar who was prime minister in 2018-22, still enjoys huge popularity, but he is in prison after convictions on numerous corruption charges and has been barred from holding office for a decade.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote that he says was orchestrated by the powerful military, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.
The government suspended mobile phone and Internet services during the election day in many parts of the country. The Interior Ministry said that it was done to ensure security.
Lawmakers from Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party shouted "Vote thief!" as Shehbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan in 2022 and is expected to again form the government, entered the parliament building on February 29.
The National Assembly of Pakistan comprises 336 members out of which 266 are elected whereas 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 seats for religious minorities.
These reserved seats are allotted to the parties as per their representation in the lower house.
Khan's political rivals made a power-sharing deal after the election, naming Sharif as their candidate for prime minister.
With reporting by AP and AFP
Ukrainian Military Says Soldiers Killed In Special Operation In Occupied Kherson
An unspecified number of Ukrainian special forces soldiers were killed during an operation in the occupied part of Ukraine's southern region of Kherson, the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian military said in a statement on February 29. Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne reported that a group of Ukrainian troops died during an attempt to gain a foothold on the Tendriv spit in the northern part of the Black Sea, near the coast of occupied Kherson. Occupation officials quoted by Russian news agencies said Russian forces "destroyed a group of Ukrainian saboteurs while trying to land on the Tendriv spit." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.
Russian Strikes Cause Injuries Among Civilians In Eastern Donetsk
Russian troops shelled the Pokrovsky and Bakhmut districts of the Donetsk region causing multiple injuries among the civilian population, the Prosecutor-General's Office reported on the evening of February 28.
The shelling struck a village in the Pokrovsky district and the cities of Kurakhove and Chasiv Yar, the Prosecutor-General's Office said.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
A 62-year-old woman who was walking on a street in the village was hospitalized with a head injury and a fracture, the office said. In Kurakhove, the victim was a 22-year-old saleswoman who was hit by rocket fire in a trade pavilion. She was hospitalized with brain injuries.
The attack on Chasiv Yar involved a drone that hit around 3 p.m., injuring a 40-year-old man. An hour later, Russian forces also struck the city of Siversk, inflicting life-threatening injuries on a 69-year-old woman who was near her home at the time of the attack.
Unconfirmed reports circulated on February 28 saying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a strike with a high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) at a concentration of Russian military personnel in the village of Yelenovka in the Donetsk region.
Several Telegram channels -- both Ukrainian and Russian -- reported the incident. Various sources mentioned dozens of dead and injured Russian military personnel.
The shelling was also reported by former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev, who has supported separatists in the Donbas region since 2014.
He declined to provide details "so as not to please the enemy," he said.
If the reports are confirmed, it would be the third time within a week that a Ukrainian military strike reportedly hit a concentration of Russian troops.
Neither the Ukrainian command nor the Russian Defense Ministry commented on any of the strikes.
- By Reuters
Imran Khan's Party Urges IMF To Ensure Pakistan Election Audit Before More Bailout Talks
The party of Pakistan's jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure that an audit of the disputed February 8 elections is carried out before any more bailout talks take place. Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party said on February 28 that it had sent a letter on the matter to the IMF's Pakistan representative. Pakistan is struggling to stabilize its economy after securing a $3 billion standby arrangement from the IMF last year, and it is expected to need more funding after a new government is formed.
Kyrgyz Lawmaker Proposes Stripping Jeenbekov Of Ex-President Status
BISHKEK – A Kyrgyz lawmaker proposed on February 28 stripping former leader Sooronbai Jeenbekov of his status of ex-president over his alleged links to the fugitive former deputy chief of the Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov.
The lawmaker, Akylbek Tumonbaev, emphasized that several lawmakers have resigned and some ministers have lost their posts over their connections to Matraimov, whose whereabouts are unknown.
Tumonbaev said it was Jeenbekov who brought Matraimov "to the political scene, but his name has not been made public." Jeenbekov, meanwhile, "is living on the state budget's expenses," Tumonbaev told a session of parliament.
To strip him of his ex-president status, representatives of his party, the Social Democratic party, in the parliament must first agree on the move and then a special parliamentary commission must be created to implement the decision, according to lawmaker Nurlanbek Azygaliev.
Two of the five former Kyrgyz presidents -- Jeenbekov and Roza Otunbaeva -- have the official status of ex-president, which guarantees them, among other privileges, immunity to legal prosecution.
Other former Kyrgyz leaders -- Askar Akaev, Kurmanbek Bakiev, and Almazbek Atambaev -- were deprived of the ex-president status due to criminal cases launched against them.
Jeenbekov was elected president in 2017. In October 2020, he announced his resignation amid protests against official results of parliamentary elections that demonstrators called rigged. The results of the parliamentary elections were later canceled.
Tumonbaev's proposal comes as police and security officers are targeting relatives and close associates of Matraimov, who in 2020-21 was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal.
Last month, the State Committee for National Security added Matraimov to its wanted list on charges of abduction and the illegal incarceration of unspecified individuals.
Matraimov, who escaped imprisonment in 2021 by paying 2 billion soms ($22.4 million) to Kyrgyzstan's state treasury, faced the new charges after Kyrgyz police shot dead criminal kingpin Kamchybek Kolbaev in October.
Last week, the Kyrgyz Central Election Commission annulled the mandates of two lawmakers with close ties to Matraimov -- his brother Iskender Matraimov and associate Nurlan Rajabaliev -- at their own requests.
Raimbek Matraimov faced the new charges after Kyrgyz police shot and killed Kolbaev, who had been added by Washington to a list of major global drug-trafficking suspects in 2011.
- By AFP
Former Coach Of Belarusian Athlete Banned For Five Years
The former coach of Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has been banned for five years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which investigated allegations that Tsimanouskaya's coaches attempted to force her to return home during the Tokyo Olympics after she criticized them. Yury Maisevich took actions that were "a clear affront to the athlete's dignity" and an abuse of power, the AIU said in announcing its findings on February 28. Tsimanouskaya, who now competes for Poland, claimed she was forcibly taken to an airport after refusing to follow the team's orders during the Olympics in 2021.
- By Todd Prince
U.S. Semiconductor Firms, Having Outsourced Production Overseas, Struggle To Trace Evasion
WASHINGTON -- U.S. semiconductor firms must strengthen oversight of their foreign partners and work more closely with the government and investigative groups, a group of experts told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, saying the outsourcing of production overseas has made tracking chip sales more difficult, enabling sanctions evasion by Russia and other adversaries.
U.S. semiconductor firms largely produce their chips in China and other Asian countries from where they are further distributed around the world, making it difficult to ascertain who exactly is buying their products, the experts told the committee at a hearing in Washington on February 27.
The United States and the European Union imposed sweeping technology sanctions on Russia to weaken its ability to wage war following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia's military industrial complex is heavily reliant on Western technology, including semiconductors, for the production of sophisticated weapons.
"Western companies design chips made by specialized plants in other countries, and they sell them by the millions, with little visibility over the supply chain of their products beyond one or two layers of distribution," Damien Spleeters, deputy director of operations at Conflict Armament Research, told senators.
He added that, if manufacturers required point-of-sale data from distributors, it would vastly improve their ability to trace the path of semiconductors recovered from Russian weapons and thereby identify sanctions-busting supply networks.
The banned Western chips are said to be flowing to Russia via networks in China, Turkey, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
Spleeters said he discovered a Chinese company diverting millions of dollars of components to sanctioned Russian companies by working with U.S. companies whose chips were found in Russian weapons.
That company was sanctioned earlier this month by the United States.
'It's Going To Be Whack-A-Mole'
The committee is scrutinizing several U.S. chip firms whose products have turned up in Russian weapons, Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) said, adding "these companies know or should know where their components are going."
Spleeters threw cold water on the idea that Russia is acquiring chips from household appliances such as washing machines or from major online retail websites.
"We have seen no evidence of chips being ripped off and then repurposed for this," he said.
"It makes little sense that Russia would buy a $500 washing machine for a $1 part that they could obtain more easily," Spleeters added.
In his opening statement, Senator Ron Johnson (Republican-Wisconsin) said he doubted whether any of the solutions proposed by the experts would work, noting that Russia was ramping up weapons production despite sweeping sanctions.
"You plug one hole, another hole is gonna be opening up, it's gonna be whack-a-mole. So it's a reality we have to face," said Johnson.
Russia last year imported $1.7 billion worth of foreign-made microchips despite international sanctions, Bloomberg reported last month, citing classified Russian customs service data.
Johnson also expressed concern that sanctions would hurt Western nations and companies.
"My guess is they're just going to get more and more sophisticated evading the sanctions and finding components, or potentially finding other suppliers...like Huawei," Johnson said.
Huawei is a leading Chinese technology company that produces chips among other products.
James Byrne, the founder and director of the open-source intelligence and analysis group at the Royal United Services Institute, said that officials and companies should not give up trying to track the chips just because it is difficult.
'Shocking' Dependency On Western Technology
He said that the West has leverage because Russia is so dependent on Western technology for its arms industry.
"Modern weapons platforms cannot work without these things. They are the brains of almost all modern weapons platforms," Byrne said.
"These semiconductors vary in sophistication and importance, but it is fair to say that without them Russia … would not have been able to sustain their war effort," he said.
Byrne said the depth of the dependency on Western technology -- which goes beyond semiconductors to include carbon fiber, polymers, lenses, and cameras -- was "really quite shocking" considering the Kremlin's rhetoric about import substitution and independence.
Elina Ribakova, a Russia expert and economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said an analysis of 2,800 components taken from Russian weapons collected in Ukraine showed that 95 percent came from countries allied with Ukraine, with the vast majority coming from the United States. The sample, however, may not be representative of the actual distribution of component origin.
Ribakova warned that Russia has been accelerating imports of semiconductor machine components in case the United States imposes such export controls on China.
China can legally buy advanced Western components for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and use them to manufacture and sell advanced semiconductors to Russia, Senator Margaret Hassan (Democrat-New Hampshire) said.
Ribakova said the manufacturing components would potentially allow Russia to "insulate themselves for somewhat longer."
Ribakova said technology companies are hesitant to beef up their compliance divisions because it can be costly. She recommended that the United States toughen punishment for noncompliance as the effects would be felt beyond helping Ukraine.
"It is also about the credibility of our whole system of economic statecraft. Malign actors worldwide are watching whether they will be credible or it's just words that were put on paper," she said.
Azerbaijani Soldier Detained After Crossing Into Armenia
An Azerbaijani soldier was detained early on February 28 after crossing into Armenia for unknown reasons, Armenian officials said, adding that another Azerbaijani soldier managed to escape the site near the border village of Tegh. Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry identified the soldier as Ruslan Panahov, saying that he entered the Armenian side of the border by accident after he lost his way due to bad weather. In April last year, two other Azerbaijani soldiers were detained after they crossed into Armenia. One of them was then convicted of murdering an Armenian civilian. The two were released in a prisoner swap in December. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, click here.
- By RFE/RL
Nobel Committee Calls Imprisonment Of Veteran Russian Rights Defender 'Politically Motivated'
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has called the imprisonment of Oleg Orlov, the co-chairman of the Russian rights group Memorial, which shared the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, "politically motivated."
A court in Moscow on February 27 sentenced the 70-year veteran rights defender to 2 1/2 years in prison of charge of "repeatedly discrediting" the Russian military involved in Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
"The sentence against Mr. Orlov is politically motivated and provides another proof of the increasing disrespect for human rights and freedom of speech in today's Russia," Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in a statement on February 28.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin's "regime has for many years tried to silence the leadership of Memorial and other important civil society organizations in Russia, and they are now using the war on Ukraine as a pretext to finish the job. It is important that they won't succeed."
Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its outstanding efforts in documenting war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power in the former Soviet Union as well as in post-Soviet Russia.
Orlov reiterated his innocence on February 27 in his final statement shortly before the verdict and sentence were announced, stressing that Russian authorities have banned "any independent opinion."
The children and grandchildren of Russian officials "will be ashamed to talk about where their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers served and what they did. And the same will happen to those who, by carrying out orders, are committing crimes in Ukraine. In my view, this is the worst punishment, and it is inevitable," Orlov said.
Orlov was fined 150,000 rubles ($1,630) in October on a charge that stemmed from several single-person pickets he held condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine and an article he wrote criticizing the Russian government for sending troops to Ukraine that was published in the French magazine Mediapart.
In mid-December, the Moscow City Court canceled that ruling and sent Orlov's case back to prosecutors, who appealed the sentence, saying it was too mild.
Earlier this month, investigators updated the charge against the rights defender, saying that his alleged misdeeds were motivated by "ideological enmity against traditional Russian spiritual, moral, and patriotic values."
Memorial has noted the case was reinvestigated hastily, while Orlov said he thought investigators received an order to move quickly with the case to allow for the retrial.
Orlov gained prominence as one of Russia's leading human rights activists after he co-founded the Memorial human rights center following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2004-06, Orlov was a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Institutions.
For his contribution to human rights in Russia, Orlov was awarded in 2009 with the Sakharov Prize, an international award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.
Navalny's Widow Urges EU To Investigate Money Flows Tied To 'Bloody Mobster' Putin
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian anti-corruption crusader and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, has called on European lawmakers to investigate Russia's leadership, which she characterized as an "organized criminal gang" led by President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
Speaking to the European Parliament on February 28, almost two weeks after her husband was pronounced dead at an Arctic prison where he was serving time on what his supporters and the West call trumped-up charges, Navalnaya said an investigation of financial flows in the West would lead European lawmakers straight to Putin.
"You aren't dealing with a politician but with a bloody mobster. Putin is the leader of an organized criminal gang. This includes poisoners and assassins but they're just puppets. The most important thing is the people close to Putin -- his friends, associates, and keepers of mafia money," she said in a speech delivered in English.
"You, and all of us, must fight the criminal gang. And the political innovation here is to apply the methods of fighting organized crime, not political competition. Not statements of concern but the search for mafia associates in your countries, for discreet lawyers and financiers who are helping Putin and his friends to hide money," she added.
Navalny's death was reported on February 16, prompting an outpouring of grief and mounting outrage in Russia and around the world as the authorities refused to release his body to his mother amid suspicions about the cause of his death, which was officially attributed to "sudden death syndrome."
Navalnaya has accused Putin directly of having her husband, one of the president's most vocal critics, killed.
The Kremlin has rejected all accusations that it played a part in Navalny's death, while Navalnaya has pledged to carry on her late husband's work in exposing corruption in Russia and pushing for democratic freedoms and rights that Putin has rolled back during the more than two decades that he has ruled the country.
With Russians heading to the polls in a presidential election scripted to hand Putin another term, Navalnaya has called upon the West to refuse to recognize the March 17 balloting.
"Putin must answer for what he has done to my country. Putin must answer for what he has done to a neighboring, peaceful country. And Putin must answer for everything he has done to Aleksei," she said in her speech to lawmakers in Strasbourg.
In a brief interview with RFE/RL, Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, paid tribute to Navalny, whose death she said was "horrific."
"The reaction we have seen since his death, the outrage and the clampdown by Russian authorities on anyone expressing that outrage is a symbol to us of the situation that Russia is in at the moment, which is absolutely the case of how we would never recognize the results of the upcoming Russian elections," Metsola said.
Putin -- who has an official annual salary of around $140,000 -- has been accused of amassing a fortune estimated by some at as much as $200 billion, while also doling out billions to his closest allies, through a tangled web of financial entities.
Navalny's team in 2022 published details it uncovered of a $700 million superyacht they said showed the vessel was Putin's.
In early 2021, Navalny's team issued an investigation shining a spotlight on a $1.35 billion estate on the Black Sea's exclusive Gelendzhik Bay that was allegedly built for Putin.
Putin has consistently denied any allegations that he has amassed a fortune. In his income and asset declaration from 2020, he listed a modest apartment, three Soviet-era cars, and a small camping trailer handed down by his late father.
"You cannot hurt Putin with another resolution or another set of sanctions that is no different from the previous ones. You can't defeat him by thinking he's a man of principle who has morals and rules," Navalnaya said, calling for more effective action against the money flows of the ruling elite.
"If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator. And you have to stop being boring," she said.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Zoriana Stepanenko in Strasbourg
Activists In Several Countries Demand Whereabouts Of Woman Forced Back To Chechnya
Activists in several countries around the world rallied on February 27 to demand Russian authorities find Seda Suleimanova, who has not been heard from for more than 150 days since she was detained in St. Petersburg and sent to her native Chechnya, which she had fled because of domestic violence.
The activists picketed Russian diplomatic missions in Buenos Aires, Berlin, Bonn, Warsaw, Mexico, and Tbilisi, holding posters saying "Show Us Seda," "No to Honor Killings," and "Where is Seda?"
Similar actions were held in five Italian cities -- Turin, Milan, Borgoricco, Rovato, and Savona.
In August 2023, police in St. Petersburg detained Suleimanova and her partner, Stanislav Kudryavtsev, at their apartment and took them to a police station, where Suleimanova was informed that she was suspected of stealing jewelry in Chechnya, a charge she rejected.
Suleimanova was then transferred back to Chechnya, and attempts by Kudryavtsev, who converted to Islam to be able to visit Chechnya and marry Suleimanova, to locate her failed.
Chechen authorities issued a video showing Suleimanova, who did not say a word, in Chechnya, after which no information about her whereabouts was made public.
Suleimanova had turned to the SK SOS group in October 2022 for help leaving Chechnya, saying that her relatives might kill her for being "insufficiently religious."
Human right defenders say families in the North Caucasus often file complaints accusing fugitive women of crimes, usually theft, to legalize their detention and return to their relatives. Once back, the women face violent abuse.
Domestic violence has been a problem in Russia's North Caucasus region for decades. Victims who manage to flee often say that they may face "punishment," including "honor killings," if they are forced to return.
Usually, local authorities take the side of the accused abusers.
With reporting by SOTA
Former Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov Dies At 94
Former Soviet premier Nikolai Ryzhkov has died at the age of 94. The news was announced on February 28 by the chairwoman of the Russian parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council. No cause of death was given. Ryzhkov was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet government from 1985 to 1991. In 1991, Ryzhkov ran for president, placing second behind Boris Yeltsin. After the Soviet Union's collapse, Ryzhkov served as a lawmaker. He was under Western sanctions for supporting Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
Sixth Bulgarian Charged In Britain With Spying For Russia
A sixth Bulgarian citizen has been charged in Britain with allegedly being a member of a Russian spy network operating in the United Kingdom, British prosecutors said.
The man, identified in the statement as 38-year-old Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, was arrested on February 7 as part of an ongoing counterterrorism investigation, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Ivanchev, a resident of west London, will be charged with "conspiracy to obtain, collect, record, publish, or transmit documents or information" that could be useful for purposes detrimental to the security and interests of the British state.
Five other Bulgarians who lived in London and Norfolk -- Orlin Rusev, 46, Bizer Dzhambazov, 42, Katrin Ivanova and Ivan Stoyanov, both 32, and Vanya Gaberova, 29 -- were arrested in September last year on similar charges of "conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy," namely Russia.
All six are accused of being part of an alleged Russian spy network that operated in Britain from August 2020 to February 2023 and are due in court in October. The trial is estimated to last four months.
British authorities said Ivanchev and the other five conspired with Austrian citizen Jan Marsalek and other unknown persons.
Marsalek is a fugitive businessman who was chief operating officer of German payment processing company Wirecard, which became insolvent and collapsed in 2020 in a fraud scandal.
Marsalek, who has not been charged in the case, has been on the run and is believed to be in Russia.
Three members of the group -- Rusev, Dzhambazov, and Ivanova -- have also been accused of possessing false documents which, according to the BBC, are passports and identity cards from Britain, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic.
With reporting by AP
Navalny's Funeral Service Set For March 1 In Moscow After Days Of Uncertainty
A funeral service for the late Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny will be held on March 1 at a church in the Maryino area of Moscow, where the Kremlin critic once lived, after several days of uncertainty marked by claims by his mother that she was being blackmailed by officials into holding a secret commemoration.
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on February 28 that, after the service at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, Navalny will be buried at the nearby Borisovskoye cemetery, a short walk from the banks of the Moskva River.
The distance between the church, which has a square out front, and the cemetery is about 2 kilometers. It was not clear whether there would be a procession from one venue to the other, or if supporters would gather at the church or the cemetery.
Navalny's widow, Yulia, said in a speech to the European Parliament on February 28 that she feared security forces will intervene during the event.
"I'm not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband," she said.
The announcement of the services comes a day after Navalny's associates said they were having trouble finding a location for the service, which will take place two weeks after the anti-corruption crusader was pronounced dead by officials at the Arctic prison where he was incarcerated.
Navalny's body was released to his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, on February 24, more than a week after his suspicious death in prison. The official death certificate said the 47-year-old died of "natural causes." Officials have not commented further.
Before the body was released, Navalnaya said the authorities were setting conditions on where, when, and how her son should be buried.
"They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony," she said, adding that investigators threatened to bury her son at the prison where he died unless she agreed to bury him quietly.
Russian media reports on February 27 said that police briefly detained on unspecified charges Navalny's former lawyer, Vasily Dubkov, who represented his family after his death and accompanied Lyudmila Navalnaya on her trip to the so-called "Polar Wolf" prison to get Navalny's body.
Hundreds of Russians have been arrested as people continued to honor Navalny's memory at sites across the country.
Ivan Zhdanov, the former head of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said February 29 was initially chosen as the day for the ceremonies, but that it "quickly became clear" that officials were forcing a different date, likely because President Vladimir Putin is to give a state of the union address that day.
He said Navalny's team was told that people were available to dig the grave on February 28 and March 1, but "not a single person was available" on the day in between.
"The real reason is clear: The Kremlin understands that nobody will listen to Putin and his message on the day of the farewell to Aleksei. We don't care about the message. Aleksei needs to be buried," Zhdanov said.
Zhdanov also said Moscow city authorities were still trying to force Navalny's relatives to move the ceremony to a different location and have a "quiet family funeral." But Zhdanov, in an interview with the Meduza news outlet, said the location would not change, giving everyone who wants to say goodbye to Navalny a chance to do so.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a self-exiled leading Russian opposition figure, said in an interview with RFE/RL last week that a public funeral could trigger "large-scale confrontations" between Navalny supporters and law enforcement.
Navalny died while serving a 19-year prison term on charges including extremism that he, his supporters, Western officials, and rights watchdogs called politically motivated.
Navalny's relatives, associates, and Western officials have blamed Putin for Navalny's death. Russian officials have said no foul play was involved and called the international outrage over Navalny's death while in prison "hysterical."
Investigative journalist Christo Grozev told RFE/RL on February 27 that there was a plan in the works that included talks among three countries -- the United States, Germany, and Russia -- to exchange Navalny, along with the Americans currently held in Russia, for the convicted murderer and former colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Vadim Krasikov.
Grozev, who said he also took part in the negotiations, said Russia had given its consent, however, he did not know whether Putin personally approved the exchange.
"But that was the last ingredient everybody was waiting for," he told RFE/RL.
"By the time Navalny died -- or as I believe he was killed -- it seemed like a very optimistic scenario that could work in the coming months," Grozev said.
According to Grozev, the fact that Germany agreed to exchange Krasikov was a signal to the Kremlin that it would swap for not-so-high-ranking prisoners being held in Russia, which is why the Russians withdrew.
The calculation on Moscow's part was that it might be possible to get Krasikov released without having to free the Americans -- who were never named but are presumed to be Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan -- along with Navalny.
Maria Pevchikh, the chairwoman of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, has said she received confirmation that negotiations were in the final stage on the evening of February 15. The next day, Navalny was pronounced dead.
Navalnaya has vowed to continue her late husband's fight for a "free Russia."
Transdniester Separatists Ask Russia For 'Protection' At End Of Meeting Chisinau Rejects As 'Scam'
The leadership of Transdniester has called on Russia to take measures to "protect" the breakaway region from what it said was increasing pressure from Moldova's pro-Western government that amounted to an "economic war."
The call was launched during a rare gathering on February 28 in Tiraspol of the separatist region's leadership summoned by separatist leader Vadim Krasnoselski and dubbed the Congress of the Transdniestrian People's Deputies.
It followed speculation that Transdniester, whose declaration of independence more than 30 years ago was not recognized by any legitimate state, might officially ask for "unification" with Russia a day ahead of President Vladimir Putin's February 29 annual address to Russian lawmakers.
The gathering, however, stopped short of asking that Transdniester become part of the Russian Federation and listed a long litany of complaints addressed first of all to Moscow but also to international organizations about Moldova's alleged pressure and violations of the separatists' rights.
"The Congress is asking the Russian Duma and the Federation Council (the upper chamber of Russia's parliament) to implement measures to protect Transdniester in the face of the increasing pressure that applied by the Republic of Moldova," the gathering said in its final statement, also claiming that more than 220,000 Russian citizens live in the separatist region.
Moldova's government rejected what it said where "propaganda statements" coming from the meeting. Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrian said on Telegram that the Transdniester region benefits from "the policies of peace, security, and economic integration with the European Union, which are beneficial for all citizens."
Chisinau declared before the start of the event that "all the discussions in Tiraspol are a scam."
Moldovan government spokesman Daniel Voda said the meeting itself and its demands were "obviously organized by those from the Kremlin to create hysteria, including in the mass media."
President Maia Sandu said earlier that Moldova is determined to resolve the "frozen" Transdniester conflict peacefully and that "small steps" are being taken for the economic reintegration of the region.
A day before the separatists' meeting, U.S. envoy Christopher Smith visited Tiraspol and spoke with Krasnoselski, who told Smith that Chisinau would put economic pressure on the region. Smith, who is deputy secretary in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, met with Moldovan government officials before going to Tiraspol.
The latest tensions between Chisinau and Tiraspol broke out after Moldova, which under Sandu was invited in 2022 to open membership negotiations with the European Union, slapped new import and export duties on Transdniester in January, prompting protests by the separatist leadership.
The trade duties were introduced as part of Chisinau's move to align itself with EU legislation as it prepares for accession talks with the 27-member bloc.
Mainly Russian-speaking Transdniester, a sliver of land on the eastern bank of the Dniester River between Moldova proper and Ukraine, declared independence in 1990 amid fears that Chisinau would seek reunification with Romania, with which it shares a common language and history.
The two sides fought a short but bloody war in the spring of 1992 that claimed more than 1,000 lives and was quashed by Russian troops stationed in Transdniester since Soviet times, who intervened on the side of the separatists.
Half-hearted attempts at negotiations under various mediation formats, including ones led by the Organization or Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union, yielded no result, turning the dispute into a decades-long frozen conflict.
The February 28 statement issued after the meeting in Tiraspol called on the EU, the OSCE, and the United Nations to "prevent Moldovan pressures" and relaunch negotiations, although neither Tiraspol nor Moscow has been interested in fresh talks for years.
Russia still keeps more than 1,000 troops in Transdniester who ostensibly keep the peace between the two sides and guard a huge Soviet-era weapons depot in the village of Cobasna.
"The problem of Moldova and [Transdniester] is not a new one and the threat of Russian intervention or at least some provocation there is something permanent. I am not surprised. But it shows how dangerous the situation is not only for Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
Moscow has been the sole economic backer of Transdniester, largely seen as a smugglers' haven. Many residents of Transdniester have also obtained Moldovan citizenship, which allows them to travel unhindered in the EU.
With reporting by AFP
- By AFP
U.S. Says Iranian Operatives In Yemen Aiding Huthi Attacks
Operatives from Iran and its Lebanese ally Hizballah are working inside Yemen to support Huthi insurgents' attacks on international shipping, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen told a Senate subcommittee on February 27. Iran is "equipping and facilitating" the Huthi attacks, said Tim Lenderking. "Credible public reports suggest a significant number of Iranian and Lebanese Hizballah operatives are supporting Huthi attacks from inside Yemen," Lenderking said. "I can't imagine the Yemeni people want these Iranians in their country. This must stop," he added. The attacks on shipping have triggered retaliatory U.S. and British strikes on Yemen.
Western Balkan Countries Reaffirm Support For Ukraine At Summit In Tirana
TIRANA -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on February 28 urged unity among the Western Balkan countries as he sought the continuation of military and financial aid to Kyiv at a summit of Western Balkans countries at which he also warned of the dangers they face if Russia is not stopped.
Zelenskiy sought to build solidarity between the countries of the region and Ukraine, saying all of them deserve to be members of the European Union and NATO. He also expressed interest in increasing cooperation with weapons suppliers in the Balkan countries as Ukrainian troops face a shortage of ammunition on the battlefield.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
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"We are interested in co-production with you and all our partners," Zelenskiy said, speaking in his opening remarks to the summit in Tirana attended by delegations from Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Moldova, and Romania.
"There are about 500 defense companies operating in Ukraine; each of them adds strength but it is not enough to win," he said, proposing the establishment of a Ukrainian-Balkans defense forum in Kyiv or in a Balkan capital to nurture arms cooperation.
There are significant arms industries in parts of the Balkans, especially Serbia and Croatia, a legacy of former federal Yugoslavia.
Ukraine made similar arrangements last year with British and U.S. weapons companies, which are the main suppliers of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. But in recent weeks its troops have been forced to withdraw from some of their defensive positions in the east as a critical bill containing $61 billion in U.S. military aid remains blocked in the House of Representatives.
Zelenskiy said at a joint news conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama that unity among the Western Balkan nations is important because Russia will do everything to destabilize the situation.
"Russia will not stop. Russia draws conclusions from the mistakes it has made on the territory of Ukraine and will destabilize even further if it's provided with opportunities to survive in this aggression against us -- to politically survive -- and then it will use other tactics," he added.
"It will try to exert influence on the countries where it can immediately get success -- the Baltics, Moldova, and the Balkan states -- everywhere where [the] Soviet Union was present."
Zelenskiy also demanded quicker delivery of weapons, saying that the more Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Ukraine's shortcomings, "the more he can think he can challenge Europe and the West."
Rama admitted that there is a clear danger for the Balkans, adding that what is happening in Ukraine "can be repeated in different ways." Rama called on the Western Balkan states to continue aid to Ukraine, and warned against it being delayed by internal politics.
"Ukraine deserves to be supported and helped with all the necessary means to resist and ensure that any peace that comes out of this war will be a just peace based, first of all, on Zelenskiy's 10-point plan, which we support and want all states to discuss," said Rama.
Rama also said that Zelenskiy's presence in Tirana was an indication that Putin, despite the military power of his country, has failed to "suppress the will of Ukrainians to live in a free, independent, and democratic state [and] has failed to keep the truth quiet."
The summit participants later on February 28 adopted a 12-point statement in which they said that Russian military aggression against Ukraine remains the biggest threat to European security, is in flagrant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter, and is a crime against the Ukrainian people.
Participating states pledged to continue supporting Ukraine and condemned Russia's efforts to hold Russian presidential elections in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.
The leaders also reaffirmed efforts to further advance the integration of the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia into the European Union, and they said they "fully support Ukraine's right to choose its own security arrangements" and backed its desire to join NATO.
But the statement did not mention sanctions against Russia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said this was at the request of Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia that has not joined the EU's sanctions regime against Moscow.
"There is no talk of sanctions. There is no mention of malicious Russian influence," Vucic told reporters.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters
Ukrainian Forces Withdraw From Two More Villages In East
Ukraine's military said its forces have withdrawn from two more villages near the eastern city of Avdiyivka, which was captured earlier this month by Russian forces, marking further losses for Ukraine as its troops continue to struggle with shortages of equipment, especially ammunition.
Ukrainian troops withdrew from Stepove and Syeverne, which lie west of Avdiyivka, Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said on February 27.
"Our forces withdrew from the small villages of Syeverne and Stepove.... Heavy battles for Syeverne went on yesterday in the evening and night," Lykhoviy said, adding that Russia had taken significant losses in the fight.
Ukrainian forces have consolidated new defensive positions west of Avdiyivka, he said.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it had captured Syeverne, and that its troops had "occupied more advantageous lines and positions" and struck Ukrainian troops and equipment near Syeverne and Stepove, and another settlement, Lastochkyne, which Kyiv announced on February 26 it had abandoned.
Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the commander of Ukraine's southeastern sector, said on Telegram that in the Avdiyivka "sector," the line of defense has been "stabilized" in the areas of Tonenke, Orlivka, and Berdychi.
Russian forces had failed in their attempts to advance in two areas further south, including to the Ukrainian-held village of Robotyne, Tarnavskiy added.
It was not possible to verify the claims.
The U.S. State Department said on February 27 that the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine was "extremely serious" because the Ukrainian military does not have enough ammunition to repel Russian aggression.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Ukrainian troops "continue to fight bravely" with the weapons and ammunition that they have, but "they have to [conserve] it because the U.S. Congress has failed to act."
Miller again called on Congress to pass a bill that would provide $61 billion in military aid to the Ukrainian Army.
"Fundamentally, we think that the path to victory for Ukraine right now is in the United States House of Representatives," Miller said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana), an ally of former President Donald Trump and head of a razor-thin Republican majority in the House, has refused to allow a vote on the bill.
U.S. President Joe Biden and top Democrats met with Johnson and other senior Republican members of Congress on February 27 at the White House to press again for its passage.
A White House statement issued after a meeting said Biden "discussed how Ukraine has lost ground on the battlefield in recent weeks and is being forced to ration ammunition and supplies due to congressional inaction."
Biden again warned of the terrible cost of delaying the aid, which was approved overwhelmingly by the Senate nearly two weeks ago. Johnson said after the meeting the Senate's package "does nothing" to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, which is what Republicans have demanded in return for passing aid to Ukraine.
"The first priority of the country is our border, and making it secure," Johnson said.
The House has adjourned until February 28 and will work on reaching an agreement on government funding as agreements to continue spending at previous levels begin to expire.
The House is not expected to return to the national security package until after the first week of March.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
Investigative Journalist Says Deal On Swap Involving Navalny Was Close Just Before Kremlin Critic's Death
Investigative journalist Christo Grozev told RFE/RL that there was a plan in the works to exchange Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny for convicted murderer and former colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Vadim Krasikov.
At least three countries participated in the discussions -- the United States, Germany, and Russia -- Grozev said in an interview on February 27 with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.
Grozev's statements could not be independently verified, but they aligned with the comments of Maria Pevchikh, chairwoman of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, who on February 26 said Navalny's associates had worked for two years to convince Western officials to negotiate a deal that would include the Kremlin critic and two U.S. citizens held in Russian prisons for Krasikov.
Pevchikh said Putin in early February was offered Krasikov in a swap for two American citizens and Navalny under a plan that Grozev said he and Pevchikh had developed.
"I received confirmation that negotiations were at the final stage in the evening of February 15. On February 16, Aleksei was killed," Pevchikh said in her video.
Both Pevchikh and Grozev said Russian billionaire Roman Abramavich was the link with Russia. Grozev, who said he also took part in the negotiations, said Russia had given its consent; however, he did not know whether Putin personally approved the exchange.
"But that was the last ingredient everybody was waiting for," he told RFE/RL.
"By the time Navalny died -- or as I believe he was killed -- it seemed like a very optimistic scenario that could work in the coming months," Grozev said.
Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the Munich Security Conference to secure the final steps needed to swap Navalny, he said. Instead of news about a swap, the news came that he had died suspiciously after taking a walk at the prison colony in the Arctic where he had been held since December.
According to Grozev, the fact that Germany agreed to exchange Krasikov was a signal to the Kremlin that it would swap for not-so-high-ranking prisoners being held in Russia, which is why the Russians withdrew. The calculation on Moscow's part was that it might be possible to get Krasikov released without having to free the Americans and Navalny.
This same thesis had been put forth by Pevchikh, however, she said Putin had been "clearly told" that the only way to get Krasikov back was to exchange him for Navalny.
In her video, Pevchikh alleged Putin "wouldn't tolerate" Navalny being set free and instead of swapping him, the Russian leader decided to "get rid of the bargaining chip." She provided no evidence to back up her claim.
Krasikov is serving life in prison for the assassination in 2019 of a Georgian national and former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park. German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann on February 26 acknowledged that Germany had been asked about the prisoner swap involving Krasikov and Navalny but said she couldn't comment.
Neither Pevchikh nor Grozev named the two U.S. citizens to be included in the exchange for Krasikov. Several Americans are currently being held in Russian prisons, including former Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on February 26 reiterated that the United States in December had proposed a swap to free Whelan and Gershkovich. Miller said the United States would not say more about the negotiations.
The Bulgarian-born Grozev, who lives in the United States, is the executive director and lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat, an investigative journalism group. He also is known for having close ties with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Grozev's investigations into the identity of the suspects involved in the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Britain earned him and his team the European Press Prize for Investigative Journalism.
Bellingcat's investigations also implicated the FSB in the near-fatal poisoning of Navalny in 2020.
A court in Moscow in April 2023 issued an arrest warrant for him on a charge of allegedly crossing Russia's border illegally In December. Russia's Interior Ministry also added him to its wanted list on unspecified accusations.
Human rights monitor OVD-Info said the ministry in November 2022 opened a criminal case against him, accusing him of disseminating "fake news" about the Russian military.
Protesters Boo 'Putin Envoy' Dodik As Montenegro Pro-Russian Party Welcomes Him
Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia president of the Serbian entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on February 27 visited Montenegro, where he was greeted by hundreds of protesters who booed him as he entered the parliament building.
Dodik, who last week traveled to the Russian republic of Tatarstan for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrived in Podgorica for a meeting with Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandic.
The cabinet of Montenegro's president, Jakov Milatovic, and the government of Milojko Spajic told RFE/RL they had no official information about Dodik's visit or announcements of meetings with officials.
The protesters who gathered at the parliament building criticized Mandic's meeting with Dodik, holding signs reading, "We must say no to Mandic and Dodik!" and waving a banner that included the words, "Putin's envoys are not welcome."
Entering the parliament building, Dodik greeted the crowd with a three-finger salute used by pro-democracy movements and as a symbol of dissent and opposition to authoritarianism. The protesters responded by booing and shouting "fascist."
Dodik, who is under sanctions imposed by the United States and Britain for his alleged obstruction of the Dayton agreement and for violating the legitimacy of Bosnia, on February 21 held his fourth meeting with Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Dodik told Putin that Republika Srpska refuses to join sanctions against Russia despite pressure from Western governments and said he does not want to see Bosnia join NATO.
Two days before his meeting with Putin, Dodik met with Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has been sanctioned by the European Union for electoral irregularities.
Mandic, as one of the leaders of the pro-Russian Democratic Front coalition with two other parties, said it was a great honor to host Dodik, saying his New Serbian Democracy and Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats are sister parties.
"These are primarily Serb parties -- the Serb people of [Republika Srpska] support them, and the Montenegrin people support us," Mandic said.
Mandic said he would discuss a proposed cooperation agreement in the areas of business, sports, education, and culture in accordance with the Dayton agreement with Dodik. Mandic told a news conference the former government had rejected the agreement.
Opposition parties reacted strongly to Dodik's visit.
The pro-European Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) said he came with "the task of conveying Putin's messages to his allies in Montenegro."
Abaz Dizdarevic, a DPS member of parliament, said Dodik's visit to Montenegro after his trips to Russia, Belarus, and Serbia confirm that Montenegro's officials are deceiving international partners with their European agenda.
Montenegro's parliament in October appointed the new government led by Milatovic and Spajic and composed of pro-Europe and pro-Serbia/Russia-friendly parties that is expected to lead the country in its bid to join the European Union.
The Social Democrats said Dodik's visit was a clear indicator to the domestic and the international public what the EU agenda looks like in practice and not "in the artificial and now very distasteful EU narrative" of numerous officials in Montenegro.
The Bosniak Party said Dodik's visit was a clear sign that Montenegro "is becoming a haven for politicians and policies who are proxies of Russian politics in the Balkans and who have undisguised aspirations to dismantle a unified [Bosnia]."
- By Reuters
Polish Prime Minister Considers Wider Ban On Ukrainian Food Imports As Farmers Protest In Warsaw
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on February 27 he could not rule out widening a national ban on imports of Ukrainian grains to include other products if the European Union does not act to protect the bloc's markets. Tusk made the remarks during a visit to Prague as thousands of Polish farmers took to the streets of Warsaw carrying the national flag and blowing horns, escalating a protest against food imports from Ukraine and EU green rules. Farmers across Europe have been protesting new regulations in the EU's "Green Deal" and unfair competition from outside the EU, particularly Ukraine.
Navalny's Former Lawyer Detained In Moscow After Helping Mother Press For Release Of Son's Body
Russian media reports on February 27 said police detained late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's former lawyer, Vasily Dubkov, on unspecified charges. Dubkov accompanied Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, to the Arctic city of Salekhard last week while she was demanding to release her son's body. The body was released to Navalnaya on February 24. Navalny's three former lawyers -- Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Lipster -- were arrested in November on extremism charges. In mid-November, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for another former lawyer for Navalny, Olga Mikhailova, on extremism charges. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
- By Reuters
Internet Outages In Russia Hit Some Social Media, But Instagram, Facebook Come Back
Telegram, the most popular messaging app used in Russia, suffered a temporary outage on February 27 for unexplained reasons while some previously blocked social media apps including Instagram and Facebook suddenly became available in Russia. The monitoring center for Russia's public communications network said its specialists had recorded a "massive failure" of Telegram, though it was not immediately clear why. Russia's Digital Ministry said in a statement that work had begun to restore Telegram and a number of other services in Russia, adding that there had also been failures of the app outside Russia.
Russia Adds Self-Exiled Former Lawmaker To Terrorists Registry
Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service on February 27 added self-exiled former lawmaker Gennady Gudkov to its list of terrorists and extremists on unspecified grounds. Earlier in the day, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Gudkov's son Dmitry Gudkov, who is also a self-exiled opposition politician, on a charge of distributing "false" information about Russian military involved in Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Both Gudkovs have publicly condemned the invasion and have criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government for years. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
Two Ethnic Serbs Sentenced For Attack That Injured NATO Peacekeepers In Kosovo
A court in Kosovo reached an agreement with two ethnic Serbs on February 27 after they plead guilty to attacking NATO-led peacekeepers. Radosh Petrovic and Dusan Obrenovic admitted to being part of a crowd that attacked KFOR troops in Zvecan, in Kosovo's north, which is dominated by ethnic Serbs. Petrovic was sentenced to six months in jail but with time served will not have to return to jail. Obrenovic will avoid jail time if he pays a 6,000 euro ($6,500) fine. In May 2023, ethnic Serbs clashed with security forces, including NATO-led peacekeepers, over the validity of local elections. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, click here.
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text:
Like short skirts, innovation has traditionally swung into and out of fashion: popular in good times and tossed back into the closet in downturns. But as globalization tears down the geographic boundaries and market barriers that once kept businesses from achieving their potential, a company's ability to innovate—to tap the fresh value-creating ideas of its employees and those of its partners, customers, suppliers, and other parties beyond its own boundaries—is anything but faddish. In fact, innovation has become a core driver of growth, performance, and valuation.
Our research bears out this point. More than 70 percent of the senior executives in a survey we recently conducted say that innovation will be at least one of the top three drivers of growth for their companies in the next three to five years. Other executives see innovation as the most important way for companies to accelerate the pace of changein today's global business environment. Leading strategic thinkers are moving beyond a focus on traditional product and service categories to pioneer innovations in business processes, distribution, value chains, business models, and even the functions of management.
Our research also shows that most executives are generally disappointed in their ability to stimulate innovation: some 65 percent of the senior executives we surveyed were only "somewhat," "a little," or "not at all" confident about the decisions they make in this area. What explains the gap between the leaders' aspirations and execution? Even starting to build an organization in which innovation plays a central role is often far more frustrating than most executives ever imagine it to be. Many of those who mimic the approaches of the most successful practitioners have found that path to be ineffective. Sustaining innovation to create real value at scale—the only kind of innovation that has a significant financial impact—is even harder.
There are no best-practice solutions to seed and cultivate innovation. The structures and processes that many leaders reflexively use to encourage it are important, we find, but not sufficient. On the contrary, senior executives almost unanimously—94 percent—say that people and corporate culture are the most important drivers of innovation.
Our experience convinces us that a disciplined focus on three people-management fundamentals may produce the building blocks of an innovative organization. A first step is to formally integrate innovation into the strategic-management agenda of senior leaders to an extent that few companies have done so far. In this way, innovation can be not only encouraged but also managed, tracked, and measured as a core element in a company's growth aspirations. Second, executives can make better use of existing (and often untapped) talent for innovation, without implementing disruptive change programs, by creating the conditions that allow dynamic innovation networks to emerge and flourish. Finally, they can take explicit steps to foster an innovation culture based on trust among employees. In such a culture, people understand that their ideas are valued, trust that it is safe to express those ideas, and oversee risk collectively, together with their managers. Such an environment can be more effective than monetary incentives in sustaining innovation.
This list of steps is not exhaustive. Still, given the limited time and means—as well as the short-term performance pressures that executives constantly face—pursuing innovation with anything other than existing talent and resources often isn't an option. These three fundamentals are a practical starting point to improve an organization's chances of stimulating and sustaining innovation where it matters most—among a company's people.
Leading innovation
While senior executives cite innovation as an important driver of growth, few of them explicitly lead and manage it. About one-third say that they manage innovation on an ad hoc basis when necessary. Another third manage innovation as part of the senior-leadership team's agenda. How can something be a top priority if it isn't an integrated part of a company's core processes and of the leadership's strategic agenda and—above all—behavior?
According to 19 percent of the senior executives, neither growth nor innovation is part of the strategic-planning process, which focuses solely on budgeting and forecasting. Just under half indicated that innovation is integrated into the process informally. Only 27 percent said that innovation is fully integrated into it. But these executives feel more confident about their decisions on innovation and say that they have implemented ways to protect it and to ensure that it gets the right talent.
In a separate survey of 600 global business executives, managers, and professionals, the respondents pointed to leadership as the best predictor of innovation performance.1Those who described their own organization as more innovative than other companies in its industry rated its leadership capabilities as "strong" or "very strong."2 Conversely, those who believed that the ability of their own organization to innovate was below average rated its leadership capabilities as significantly lower and, in some cases, as poor.
As with any top-down initiative, the way leaders behave sends strong signals to employees. Innovation is inherently associated with change and takes attention and resources away from efforts to achieve short-term performance goals. More than initiatives for any other purpose, innovation may therefore require leaders to encourage employees in order to win over their hearts and minds. Our sample of 600 managers and professionals indicated that the top two motivators of behavior to promote innovation are strong leaders who encourage and protect it and top executives who spend their time actively managing and driving it. Indeed, senior executives believe that paying lip service to innovation but doing nothing about it is the most common way they inhibit it. The failure of executives to model innovation—encouraging behavior, such as risk taking and openness to new ideas, places second. Rewarding nothing but short-term performance and maintaining a fear of failure also make it to the top of the respondents' list of inhibitors.
Holding leaders accountable for encouraging innovation makes a big difference. Thirty percent of the senior executives in the survey were accountable for it, through formal targets or metrics, in their performance reviews. They were more likely than the broader group of respondents to view innovation as one of the primary growth drivers, to manage it formally as part of the leadership team or through an innovation council, and to learn from their failures to achieve it.
Our research implies that most senior executives do not actively encourage and model innovative behavior. If they did, they could give employees the support needed to innovate. They can also take a number of other practical steps to advance innovation.
Define the kind of innovation that drives growth and helps meet strategic objectives. When senior executives ask for substantial innovation in the gathering of consumer insights, the delivery of services, or the customer experience, for example, they communicate to employees the type of innovation they expect. In the absence of such direction, employees will come back with incremental and often familiar ideas.Add innovation to the formal agenda at regular leadership meetings. We observe this approach among leading innovators. It sends an important signal to employees about the value management attaches to innovation.Set performance metrics and targets for innovation. Leaders should think about two types of metrics: the financial (such as the percentage of total revenue from new products) and the behavioral. What metrics, for example, would have the greatest effect on how people work? One company required that 20 percent of its revenue come from products launched within the past three years. Another established targets for potential revenues from new ideas in order to ensure that they would be substantial enough to affect its performance. Leaders can also set metrics to change ingrained behavior, such as the "not invented here" syndrome, by requiring 25 percent of all ideas to come from external sources.
Senior executives say that the top three ways they spend time making decisions about innovation involve determining what types or strategies to focus on, who gets to work on the resulting projects, and how to commercialize the fruits. Few spend time on targets, metrics, and budgets for innovation. That is telling, since executives whose companies do have such targets and metrics feel the greatest confidence in their decisions.
Designing innovation networks
Chances are your organization has some people who are passionate about innovation and others who feel uncomfortable about any topic related to change. Recent academic research finds that differences in individual creativity and intelligence matter far less for innovation than connections and networks—for example, networked employees can realize their innovations and make them catch on more quickly.3
Since new ideas seem to spur more new ideas, networks generate a cycle of innovation. Furthermore, effective networks allow people with different kinds of knowledge and ways of tackling problems to cross-fertilize ideas. By focusing on getting the most from innovation networks, leaders can therefore capture more value from existing resources, without launching a large-scale change-management program.
Social-network analysis can help executives to diagnose existing networks in order to ascertain their characteristics, such as the frequency of collaboration and the degree of cross-functional interactions among members, and to identify people who broker information and knowledge. This kind of information can also serve an essential role in the creation of effective innovation networks by clarifying the mind-sets of individuals and groups.
In one company, for example, we found three groups with distinct perspectives on innovation. One believed that the company was innovative, but the other two, with 57 percent of its employees, thought that it wasn't—indeed, that it was actually bureaucratic, slow moving, inefficient, and stressful. A separately developed network map highlighted the company's hierarchical structure but also showed that cross-functional departments were well connected.
When we combined the analysis of personal perspectives on innovation with the network map, we found opportunities for improvement. Paradoxically, the analysis revealed that those employees, largely middle managers, with the most negative attitude toward innovation were also the most highly sought after for advice about it. In effect, they served as bottlenecks to the flow of new ideas and the open sharing of knowledge. A further analysis of the people in this group highlighted their inability to balance new ideas with current priorities and to behave as leaders rather than supervisors. We have observed that middle managers pose similar challenges in many organizations.
Senior management used this analysis to create a network of middle managers who were encouraged to generate newer and bigger ideas. Members of the network regularly discussed new ideas with senior executives, and these ideas were evaluated collectively by mutually agreed-upon criteria.
Shaping innovation networks is both an art and a science. Any network is unpredictable and, in the end, impossible to control. Focusing on the replacement of one or two ineffective members has less impact than establishing the conditions for vibrant networks and taking advantage of the connections through which they flourish.
Making networks more decentralized is another way to improve collaboration and performance (Exhibit 1). Consider the case of two geographically separate units that undertake the same activities. A larger leadership group with an open and positive mind-set is a distinguishing feature of the higher-performing unit. Its information network is also more decentralized, with a larger number of connections. Hierarchy is still evident in the higher-performing unit, but its information and knowledge network is more distributed, and more of the members participate actively. The lower-performing unit has just one leader, who controls most of the interactions and has a negative mind-set about openness and collaboration, and there are far fewer connections. The network design is more centralized.
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The four critical steps in designing, implementing, and managing an innovation network are presented in Exhibit 2. In addition, executives can fine-tune the network's goals by identifying the appropriate mix and balance of employees. Innovation networks, like cross-functional teams, require different skills and attitudes. In our experience, they include combinations of several archetypes:
Idea generators prefer to come up with ideas, believe that asking the right questions is more important than having the right answers, and are willing to take risks on high-profile experiments.Researchers mine data to find patterns, which they use as a source of new ideas. They are the most likely members of the network to seek consumer insights and to regard such insights as a primary input.Experts value proficiency in a single domain and relish opportunities to get things done.Producers orchestrate the activities of the network. Others come to them for new ideas or to get things done. Producers are also the most likely members of the network to be making connections across teams and groups.
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This kind of staffing is clearly an inexact science. A team or network in need of more ideas might get additional idea generators to fill the gap. If the challenge is commercializing the right ideas, management might opt to add producers and experts. In our survey of professionals, respondents who regarded their companies as more innovative than competitors in the same industry were also more likely to work for companies that had larger numbers of producers.
Cultures of trust
Senior executives say that making top talent available for projects to meet innovation goals is their single biggest challenge in this area. Some 40 percent of them also believe that they do not have enough of the right kinds of talent for the innovation projects they pursue. A different view emerges from below, however. Employees are more likely to believe that their organizations have the right talent but that the corporate culture inhibits them from innovating (Exhibit 3). We, for our part, believe that defining and creating the right kind of culture, however elusive, greatly increases the prospects for successful and sustained innovation (see sidebar, "Many paths to success").
Managers and employees broadly agree about the attitudes, values, and behavior that promote innovation. Topping the list, in our research, were openness to new ideas and a willingness to experiment and take risks. In an innovative culture, employees know that their ideas are valued and believe that it is safe to express and act on those ideas and to learn from failure. Leaders reinforce this state of mind by involving employees in decisions that matter to them. Respondents to our survey of 600 executives and managers indicated that trust and engagement were the mind-sets most closely correlated with a strong performance on innovation. In the same survey, 46 percent of the professionals surveyed said that they were far more likely to seek out a trusted colleague than an expert or manager to get new ideas and feedback on their own ideas.
Many paths to success: Excerpts from a McKinsey online discussion on innovationContinue to next section
To learn more about how innovation is managed at companies where it is a priority, we identified senior executives who, in our fall survey, had described their company that way and invited them to join an online discussion. One major topic was how leadership groups manage innovation. Discussion participants describe a wide variety of approaches to innovation ownership, the degree to which it is part of their leadership agenda, how to motivate innovators, and how innovation-related performance metrics are applied to leaders and to innovators.
One company has a structured approach to managing innovation that includes the whole leadership team: "We take very good care that the innovation topics are on our watch list and recur as important topics in our regular meetings...Our leadership team starts the day with the discussion of innovation. Some topics are discussed over months again and again to check if our first decision on it is still OK or if we need to make a change." An executive at another company says, "There is a split [on our leadership team] between abstract thinkers and pragmatic operators. The pragmatists understand the value of reaching for new/creative solutions, but want measurable improvements. In our company, that balance seems to be effective in guiding the conversation." And a third says there is "very little sustained discussion" among leaders at his organization, adding, "Innovation [is] generally handled by one or two leaders while the rest focus on operations."
There isn't even agreement on whether innovation should be discussed formally. One executive says, "Innovation can be seen as another thing on the corporate agenda or as streamlined into business as usual, as one of many avenues for agenda-setting initiatives. The latter approach tends to work better for us, by keeping innovation active and real as opposed to [being] a separate thing." Another says, "There are quarterly meetings internally to see how the businesses are performing versus their innovation targets and there are meetings every six months to dissect the innovation pipeline." In contrast, another participant says that, at his company, leaders generally have "lengthy, informal discussions" about innovation, while another says, "We do not plan specific times to spend on innovation as an executive team."
Several participants actually caution against too much discussion. One explains, "Ten percent of our time is well spent driving innovation and 10 percent of our time is lost in the debate about whether new ideas are innovations or product enhancements." Another says, "Our discussions are quite lively!...That said, we recognize the potential to dive into rat holes or digress into too much detail. We try to be careful to keep our discussion on track and meaningful...All talk and no action is not a recipe for success!"
Beyond the leadership team, discussion participants stress the importance of ensuring that innovation is clearly understood and employees are engaged, to varying degrees, throughout the organization. A senior executive explains, "We are trying to get the communication [about innovation's importance] to originate from the employees themselves. We can speak about it a lot but we want the conversation to continue after the meeting, without us around." Another participant sums up the risk companies face when the whole organization isn't engaged with innovation: "When colleagues complain or resist innovation the spark will be snuffed out."
But executives are dubious about how much they can really do. Many agree that getting everyone to innovate isn't realistic. One executive says that, at his company, "Mentoring people into becoming more open-minded is a long process. We sometimes find it's a necessary investment not so much to make them innovators but to get them to accept innovation and prevent them from becoming innovation anti-champions." Another observes, "Some [business unit leaders] realize the importance of being innovative and spend considerable time to generate new ideas. Others find it quite difficult and frustrating, especially those who have worked in the company for many years. One of our greatest challenges is to make the process constantly evolving."
In managing innovators, one of the biggest challenges for many companies is measuring the contributions of these people. Companies' practices vary particularly widely here. One executive says, "We do not have specific innovation targets. We do have continuous improvement targets [for business units] that clearly generate innovation. We are good and getting better at moving thoughts to plans to projects to production." Another says, "Innovation is part of our key factors for success. So you cannot be successful if you do not manage innovation right. Ultimately this translates in sales and EBIT1 or targets to develop new markets. But it is true that I can hardly remember any specific innovation target in our target portfolio." A third has an even stronger view: "I see innovation to be evaluated in long-term business success. Hard criteria—for example, time spent on innovation thinking—is not feasible in my eyes."
At another participant's company, the approach is quite different: "The leadership team has a target to achieve around innovation, the results are measured, and actions are taken to achieve the results on a quarterly basis."
And at yet another company, innovation targets are used throughout the organization. This company's executive explains that, in the short term, her company uses an "internal point system, which might be weak and in some way subjective." But, she adds, "On a long-term view, we try to replace people who don't take part in our permanent innovation process and tell people to look for another company to work for."
There is also widespread agreement about the cultural attributes that inhibit innovation: a bureaucratic, hierarchical, and fearful environment. Such cultures often starve innovation of resources and use incentives intended to promote short-term performance and an intolerance of failure. Only 28 percent of the senior executives in the survey said that they are more likely to focus on the risks of innovation than on the opportunities, but only 38 percent said that they actively learn from innovation failures and encourage the organization to do so as well. Even more alarmingly, only 23 percent of the employees believe that their organizations encourage them to learn from failure. To make a corporate culture friendlier to innovation, managers must acquire new skills to engage and lead the staff. Many fall under the heading of leadership skills, such as coaching (as opposed to ordering) subordinates and facilitating collaboration across silos.
Corporate-wide change programs not only are daunting and time consuming but also often have only a limited impact. Our experience helping companies to change and become more innovative suggests that they can make progress without such programs. We have described a number of leadership role-modeling and formal organizational mechanisms to promote innovation. When top management reinforces them with commitment and energy to build capabilities for specific tasks, the combination can yield impressive results. Top teams can help build a more innovative culture in several ways:
Embrace innovation as a top team. It's not enough for the CEO to make innovation a personal goal and to attend meetings on innovation regularly. Members of the top team must agree that promoting it is a core part of the company's strategy, reflect on the way their own behavior reinforces or inhibits it, and decide how they should role-model the change and engage middle management.Turn selected managers into innovation leaders. Identify managers who already act, to some degree, as network brokers and improve their coaching and facilitation skills so that they can build the capabilities of other people involved in innovation efforts more effectively. The goal: making networks more productive.Create opportunities for managed experimentation and quick success. Not surprisingly, this approach is typically the best way to start any change effort in large organizations. Quick success matters even more with innovation: people need to see results and to participate in the change. To get going quickly and learn along the way, select an innovation theme or topic area and then create small project teams. While you try out topics and ideas, test the most effective leadership and organizational approaches for your organization. The goal isn't to get it right the first time but to move quickly to give as many influential employees as possible a positive experience of innovation, even if a project doesn't generate profits immediately. A positive experience will make all the difference in building the organization's capabilities and confidence.
Innovation is a big idea with a big potential. But it is wise to approach it in small steps, implementing just one or a few of the ideas we propose and building from there. For many companies, the initial steps on this value-creating journey are the most critical of all.
About the author(s)
Joanna Barsh is a director in McKinsey's New York office, Marla Capozzi is an associate principal in the Boston office, and Jonathan Davidson is a director in the London office.

subset: commoncrawl


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St. Martin's August 2003, 24.95, 336 pp. ISBN 0312 266782 In Elliot Bay, twelve-year old Tim Diamond and his two friends and next door neighbors, Henry and Pearl are playing pirates on the family yacht, the Caprice. The next thing anyone knows is nine-year-old Pearl is missing and presumed drowned. Henry swears that he saw Tim tie her up, push her in, jump into the water and hold her head under until she was dead. On the basis of Henry's testi...
The Good Diamond
St. Martin's, August 2004, 24.95, 320 pp. ISBN 0312324154 In the Barrens of Canada's Northwest Territories, diamond prospector Big Jim Hardy strikes it rich at the Lac de Lune Mine when he finds a three hundred and eighty-four caret blue green diamond. He increases security but commandos steal the big gem and millions of dollars in small diamonds, killing the security guards and Jim. Before dying, he wrote the name Venus Diamond in blood; RCMP ...


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Helping Hand Family and Divorce Attorneys
Family Law Attorneys Las Vegas, NV
Do you feel overwhelmed by a difficult divorce or family law case? At Helping Hand Family and Divorce Attorneys, we understand that these situations can be emotionally and financially draining, which is why we offer compassionate and skilled legal representation to guide you through the process. Our team of attorneys have years of experience in handling a variety of family law and divorce cases. They have the knowledge and resources necessary to effectively advocate for you and your best interests. Whether you are facing a contentious divorce, custody dispute, or any other family law matter, we are here to provide the support and guidance you need.
Las Vegas (US: ; from Spanish las vegas 'the meadows'), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and 2nd-largest in the Southwestern United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as the Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels.
Amber Hills, Arts District, Beverly Green, Breamoor Heights, Brighton at Providence, Centennial Heights, Centennial Hills, Centennial Point, Charleston Heights, College Park, Cottonwood Terrace, Crestwood, Desert Creek, Desert Park, Desert Shores


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If used in strict accordance with KRK instructions and only for products operated in the United States, KRK Systems warrants parts and labor on all monitors and grill accessories for a period of three (3) years from the original date of purchase for all products purchased from a US Authorized Dealer. For goods purchased outside of the United States, please contact your local dealer or distributor for specific information on warranty terms and conditions. For Expose Series recording monitors, refer to the dedicated Exposé Series warranty card and policy. KRK Systems warrants parts and labor on all headphones, computer audio devices, including room correction devices, for a period of one (1) year from the original date of purchase. Defective parts will be repaired under this warranty when a defect occurs under normal installation and use.
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By Giles Hardie
"I'm getting teary," said INXS drummer Jon Farriss on stage on Sunday night as the Australian rock group announced that their appearance as a support act for touring artists Matchbox Twenty at Perth Arena was to be their last ever performance as a group.
The band formed in Sydney 35 years ago and recently celebrated the 25th anniversay of their most successful album Kick.
Farriss took over the microphone from lead singer Ciaran Gribbin two-thirds of the way through their set to make the announcement to thousands of fans in the venue.
He said they didn't want to reveal anything ahead of the concert, but it was "the last time" they would perform together. Farriss thanked the audience for their support throughout the years.
The milestone anniversary of Kick makes it a poignant time for the band to split up. When INXS supported Matchbox Twenty in Sydney they were in a nostalgic mood but evidently enjoying themselves. Some might argue that they even stole the evening from the headliners with a blistering greatest-hits set that culminated with seven consecutive songs from Kick, before the band closed with finale favourite Don't Change.
The news of the band's end comes as a surprise as 35-year-old Irishman Ciaran Gribbin - the latest singer to take the role of front man for the band since the death of Michael Hutchence in 1997 - said in an interview with Fairfax recently that the band had big plans for the future.
"They're still creative, they're still hungry to prove they have something to say," said Gribbin. "They're also still hungry to perform those songs, the songs that were a part of so many peoples' lives growing up."
There has been no official confirmation of the split despite Fairfax contacting the band's tour promoters; longtime INXS manager Chris Murphy's label Petrol Electric; and the Universal Music Group, which this year reissued a 25th-anniversary edition of INXS's most successful album, Kick.
--with George Palathingal


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Commencing for the 2010–11 income year, the trustee of a resident trust may choose (if permitted by the trust deed), to be assessed on a capital gain of the trust. This is allowed provided no beneficiary has received any amount referable to the gain during the income year or within two months of the end of the income year. The choice must be made in respect of the whole capital gain.
This is similar to (and replaces) the choice available to the trustee of a testamentary trust under the law prior to the 2010–11 amendments, but is not limited to those trustees. For example, the trustee will be able to make the choice if under the terms of the trust the income beneficiary cannot benefit from the capital gains. It is only the trustee that can make this choice.
If the trustee makes a choice in respect of a capital gain then:
- the trustee will be assessed on the capital gain under section 99 or 99A, as appropriate
- the capital gain is not taken into account in working out any beneficiary's net capital gain for an income year.
You should include the amount of the capital gain for which the trustee is making this choice at Y. Where the trustee is making the choice in respect of more than one capital gain, you should show the total of all capital gains at Y.
Capital gains under which this choice has been made should only be shown at Y and should not be shown at F Capital gains in item 54 for the relevant beneficiary.
You will need to insert an assessment calculation code from appendix 13 at X as appropriate for your trust. The relevant codes are:
For inter vivos trusts:
36 – Where the trustee is assessed under section 99A ITAA 1936
37 – Where the trustee is assessed under section 99 ITAA 1936.
For deceased estates:
15 – Where the trustee is assessed under section 99 ITAA 1936
16 – Where the trustee is assessed under section 99 ITAA 1936 without the tax-free threshold.


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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Paolo Bettini: New C.T. for Italy
Paolo Bettini has been selected as the new C.T.(Commissario Tecnico dei Professionisti) for the Italian national squad. Bettini is a two time World Champion in road racing and winner of the gold medal in the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. He also won the Italian national championship two times. His installment will take place on June 23rd in Rome.
Bettini replaces his friend Franco Ballerini who was killed in a rally car accident in February of this year.
Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.
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Hello all happy Sunday, just popping in to share a few of the highlights from this past week's Spring Craft Link Party, enjoy the creativity!
Alphabet stamps transform a plain pitcher into a personal memento with this quote pitcher project by Crafty Scrappy Happy.
Wood stain plus painter's tape led to this original art on plywood over at Welcome to the Mouse House.
Yarn and rope combine with these clever colored coil containers by Craftberry Bush, a great Anthropologie knock off.
Elyse from Shabby Sweet Tea crafted these pastel eggs with embroidery thread, check out her step by step!
Floral foam and jelly beans are the foundation of this charming Easter Egg tree centerpiece at Remodelando la Casa.
Scrapbook paper cut to fit these wood letters announce the season, project by Hoosier Homemade.
Paper napkins and Mod Podge give these bright colored Easter eggs their personality over at Brown Paper Packages.
A spray painted twig becomes a focal point with Olga at Stardust Décor with some decorative birds, vases, and candleholder.
Jenny at Days of Chalk and Chocolate proves that paint and wallpaper can transform old wood hutch into a beautiful accent piece.
Also, good news, Pinterest is listening to its users and has modified their terms of service. I've received a ton of emails on Pinterest and copyright lately and although I'm not going to offer any legal opinions, I am pleased to see that Pinterest is taking some steps in the right direction including the fact that they will not sell content and will implement tools to report alleged copyright violations. Read the new policies here.
Have a great Sunday everyone!