124

Moscow pressured Nicaragua to file genocide case against Germany, intel sources say (www.politico.eu)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Kremlin may have been trying to undermine the ICJ’s authority by making it a venue for specious legal arguments, say authorities.

Nicaragua’s case against Germany at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in which the Central American country accuses Berlin of facilitating a “genocide” in Gaza, likely came at the behest of Russia, Western intelligence officials and diplomats told POLITICO.

A detailed western intelligence assessment presented to POLITICO determined that Russia, which has close relations with Nicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, likely pushed their allies in Managua to use the so-called Genocide Convention of 1948 to pursue Germany at the ICJ.

The Nicaraguans “have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East,” one of the western intelligence officers said.

…

For Putin, who seems to take a particular delight in trolling the Germans, humiliation may well have been part of the calculus.

Nicaragua shuttered its embassy in Berlin earlier this month as a result of the case. Neither the Nicaraguan mission to the United Nations in New York, nor its embassy in Vienna, which now covers Germany, responded to a request for comment.

top 27 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] bhmnscmm@lemmy.world 31 points 4 months ago

The Nicaraguans “have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East,” one of the western intelligence officers said.

Well that's definitely the most ironic thing I'm going to read for a while.

[-] DdCno1@kbin.social 19 points 4 months ago

It really isn't. Nicaragua is a tiny nation that does barely any trade and is of no significant importance to the Middle East diplomatically nor militarily. This does not apply to the West.

[+] bhmnscmm@lemmy.world -12 points 4 months ago

So because Western nations are larger they've been entitled to interfere in the Middle East for the last century?

And how much trade needs to occur between two countries to entitle one to interfere with the other?

[-] DdCno1@kbin.social 22 points 4 months ago

The point is that Nicaragua would have never done anything like this on their own, because they have barely anything to do with the ME. The West on the other hand does. That's not entitlement, that's just a fact. We have a vested interest in what is going on there. Nicaragua is used as a pawn and it's incredibly transparent that this is happening. Same with South Africa.

[-] livus@mander.xyz 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's a point that only makes sense if you don't pay attention to international geopolitics.

Small countries have a vested interest in the upholding of international law because they are vulnerable, so they quite often stick their heads up above the parapet for it. E.g. when the Rohingya Genocide occurred in South East Asia a small country in West Africa, The Gambia, are the ones who took them to the ICC.

As for South Africa, it has a very long history of criticizing Israel for its apartheid. Bishop Desmond Tutu made international headlines by calling it an apartheid after his visit to Israel and Palestine. Moreover, during Apartheid South Africa era, Israel was one of the big weapons suppliers to the Apartheid regime (which was at war with its neighbour) when many countries were boycotting it.

The entire African Union are quite sensitive about what Israel does.

If you know anything about history, it makes perfect sense that South Africans would be leading the charge here (which they have done consistently).

[-] stoly@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago

Complain all you like, here we are. Now you think that equity means that new countries should be able to get involved.

[-] bhmnscmm@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

I've simply pointed out the irony and hipocrisy. I'm making no statement on whether or not Nicaragua should be involved.

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

Russia is such a fucking pest.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

As a european I sure better understand the urge to just roll over a country trying to force it into a democracy nowadays. I mean since a couple of years & yeah fuck putin and his kremlin dictator buddies.

[-] timewarp@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

So let me get this correctly, the best evidence they could come up with is that they "have no reason to inject themselves into a conflict over the Middle East" and something that happened in 1979? Wow, propaganda much?

[-] popcap200@lemmy.ml 19 points 4 months ago

They also cited Nicaragua's recent push towards authoritarianism modeled after Putin's regime, and how Russia can use this case as a propaganda talking point point to defend their genocide in Ukraine.

Not mentioned in the article was Nicaragua's support of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia's military and intelligence support of Nicaragua, which is also relevant information imo.

To me, it's pretty clear that it would be to Ortega's political advantage to continue to do as Putin asks. Even if Russia didn't ask Ortega to file, it's pretty obvious a dictator like him doesn't care about Palestinians and is filing in bad faith to please Putin.

[-] zephyreks@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Meanwhile, Canada's support for Israel has no relation to the close economic, cultural, and political relations Canada has with the US and Europe.

[-] LordPassionFruit@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

I hate how it seems to be a priority of our government to support Israel and that there isn't a single party that we could elect who would actually put an end to that support.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In recent years, Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega has increasingly modelled his authoritarian regime on Russia’s, drawing inspiration in particular from Putin’s law on “foreign agents.”

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said some 13,000 Palestinian militants had been killed and estimated the civilian death rate to be 1-1.5 for every combatant since Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 massacres.

If Russia is behind the move, there was likely a more pressing motivation for putting Germany in the ICJ dock, according to the intelligence assessment: To try to undermine the court’s credibility in Western countries by making it a venue for specious legal arguments.

Russia ignored the order — the ICJ has no ability to enforce its decisions — but the ruling continues to irk Moscow because it robs Putin’s regime of any pretense of international legitimacy for its war of aggression.

In the meantime, Moscow will use Nicaragua’s case against Germany and the separate genocide proceeding brought by South Africa against Israel to undermine the court’s legitimacy and argue through its propaganda channels that Russia is the victim of a double standard, the western officials said.

The original article contains 844 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Update: Yeah this is probably the white house lmao. Nancy Pelosi is still peddling her "Pro Palestinian demonstrators are Russian plants:

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1783458170716737613

[+] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -7 points 4 months ago

Western intelligence officials and diplomats told POLITICO.

Is it "Mr Putins message"again?

Seriously Politico might as well be posting CCP or KGB propaganda at this point this article is an embarrassment.

[-] popcap200@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Pelosi caveated this statement saying that most of them are probably organic and sincere, but the pro Palestine movement aligns with the goals of Russia 🤷‍♂️, which doesn't make the pro Palestine movement wrong.

It's pretty well documented that Russia attempted to spur conflict within the US by trying to instigate the BLM movement. The BLM movement may overall be a good thing, but that doesn't mean we should be happy that antagonistic foreign governments are trying to add to them.

Further, look at all the tankie influencers online who suddenly are super pro Palestine, such as Jackson Hinckle, even though they have no issue with governments putting down protest in their preferred countries like China.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Pelosi very clearly tried to shove off Palestine demonstrations on China and Russia pretending it was all not organic. Let's not forget her saying on video"go back to China" to protestors calling for a ceasefire.

Claiming that other regimes are responsible for a massive public protest against a governments war crimes is what Tankies do.

CCP Tankies always point to the American government influencing the Tienanmen square massacre saying t it was totally not an organic movement.

Is there some foreign influence? Let's not pretend that we never try to propagate dissident in foreign countries such as the Iranian protests. But that does not make it all foreign influence.

I would qualify this very article on top and Nancy Pelosi as Tankie propaganda

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 4 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

"go back to China"

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] popcap200@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago

Weren't they literally from Codepink? Like 25% of their funding comes from the Shanghai based billionaire husband of a cofounder. Since they got married, Codepink changed their opinions SHARPLY on China. It seems like a good excuse for shouting "go back to China".

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago

Not seeing those people wear Codepink outfits.

The problem is that Nancy is designating anyone that rightfully proclaims israel was (and still is) comitting Genocide as a Chinese or Russian troll. This is literal Tankie stuff.

Iran also designate any protestors for womens rights as "American psy-ops" because America most certainly supports that narrative and influences people to protest for it. Does that somehow make it right for the Ayatollah to ignore the issue and claim it's all American?

Of course not. So Nancy can't pull the same trick with Genocide either.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 4 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Is it "Mr Putins message"again?

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024

124 points (89.7% liked)

World News

38554 readers

2721 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.