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A8 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 3 augusT 2017

Russia vents frustration over Trump signing sanctions bill

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV counting primarily on our-
Associated Press selves,” he said. “We have
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian learned how to do it over
officials and lawmakers on the past few years.”
Wednesday vented their Without waiting for Trump
frustration with U.S. Presi- to sign the bill, which was
dent Donald Trump’s deci- passed by Congress with
sion to sign a bill imposing overwhelming, veto-proof
new sanctions on Russia, numbers, Russia fired back
warning that it will erode Friday.
global stability and fuel It ordered deep cuts in the
conflicts. number of personnel work-
In an emotional Facebook ing at the U.S. embassy
post, Russian Prime Minis- and consulates in Russia
ter Dmitry Medvedev de- and the closure of a U.S.
scribed the move as a hu- recreational retreat and
miliating defeat for Trump. warehouse facilities.
The Russian Foreign Ministry It was the long-expected
warned of possible new re- tit-for-tat response to for-
taliatory measures. mer U.S. President Barack
“The hope for improv- Obama’s move to expel
ing our relations with the 35 Russian diplomats and
new U.S. administration is shut down two Russian
now over,” said Medve- Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, chairs a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside recreational retreats in the
dev, who served as Rus- Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 28, 2017. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is on the left. Rus- U.S. following allegations
sian officials and lawmakers on Wednesday vented their frustration with U.S. President Donald
sian president in 2008-2012 Trump’s decision to sign a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia. of Russian meddling in the
before stepping down to (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) 2016 presidential election.
allow Vladimir Putin to re- Asked Wednesday wheth-
claim the job. er Moscow planned addi-
The Kremlin had been hoped-for relationship reset “The American establish- amount to the declaration tional steps in response to
encouraged by Trump’s has not materialized. ment has won an over- of an “all-out trade war Trump signing the bill, Putin
campaign promises to im- “Trump’s administration has whelming victory over against Russia,” but added spokesman Dmitry Peskov
prove the Russia-U.S. ties demonstrated total impo- Trump,” he added. that it will cope with the answered that “retaliatory
that had grown increas- tence by surrendering its The president wasn’t hap- challenge and only get measures already have
ingly strained under Presi- executive authority to Con- py with the new sanctions, stronger. been taken.”
dent Barack Obama. With gress in the most humiliat- but he had to sign the bill. “We will continue to But shortly after, the For-
the White House preoc- ing way,” said Medvedev, The topic of new sanctions work calmly to develop eign Ministry warned
cupied by congressional who presided during a was yet another way to put our economy and social that “we naturally re-
and FBI investigations into brief period of improved Trump in place.” sphere, deal with import serve the right for other
links between the Trump relations early in Obama’s Medvedev emphasized substitution and solve im- countermeasures.”q
campaign and Russia, the presidency. that the stiff new sanctions portant government tasks

Italy seizes German group’s rescue boat in immigration probe

By FRANCES D’EMILIO the motive is humanitarian, Iuventa, the prosecutor
Associated Press exclusively humanitarian.” said.
ROME (AP) — Italian au- The preventive seizure of Later the migrants were
thorities ordered a German the Dutch-flagged Iuventa transferred to Italian mili-
group’s migrant rescue was based on evidence tary vessels or other non-
vessel seized Wednesday, that emerged from three profit vessels to be taken to
alleging that its crew took episodes in which crew Italian ports, Cartosio said.
on migrants directly from members had contact with Police in Trapani said the
smugglers’ boats near Lib- human smugglers operat- Iuventa “is regularly de-
ya’s coast. ing boats crowded with mi- voted to the rescue of
The vessel operated by Ju- grants, Cartosio said. One migrants near the Libyan
gend Rettet was seized in happened in September coast” and that an investi-
the port of Lampedusa, a 2016, two in June. gation opened in October
tiny fishing island off Sicily, “There were contacts, has uncovered informa-
where many of the hun- meetings, understandings,” tion to suggest the vessel
dreds of thousands of mi- between the group’s boat was used “to aid and abet
grants rescued at sea in the and the smugglers, the clandestine immigration.”
last few years are taken. prosecutor, who is based in The Iuventa Ship of the German NGO Jugend Rettet is docked at Jugend Rettet, a group
Lampedusa’ harbor, Italy, early Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The
While investigators suspect the Sicilian port city of Tra- German NGO migrant rescue boat has been put under preven- based in Berlin, is mainly
“the crime of clandestine pani, said. tive seizure in a Sicilian island port as Italian authorities inves- made up of young volun-
immigration” was commit- The passengers on the tigate what they suspected could be aiding “clandestine im- teers. Its web site says its
ted by some of the Jugend human traffickers’ boats migration.” volunteers’ “motivation
Rettet boat’s crew, pros- “weren’t saved” by the (Elio Desiderio/ANSA via AP) derives from the will to res-
ecutor Ambrogio Cartosio Iuventa, he alleged. In- cue lives and to improve
told reporters that “my per- stead, migrants “were man group’s 33-meter by smugglers who escorted the humanitarian situation
sonal conviction was that handed over” to the Ger- (about 110-foot) -long boat the migrants toward the on the Mediterranean.”q