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A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 9 OcTOber 2018
Russia dismisses suspected spy actions as routine Dutch trip

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Putin's spokesman, Dmi-
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's try Peskov, challenged the
foreign minister on Mon- Netherlands to provide
day dismissed accusations specific information via of-
made in the Netherlands ficial channels.
against suspected Russian Asked if the Kremlin was
spies, saying they were in- considering reshuffling the
tended to distract public leadership of the Defense
attention from stark divi- Ministry and the GRU fol-
sions between Western na- lowing the Dutch accusa-
tions. tions, Peskov said "that kind
Sergey Lavrov's comments of information naturally
were a defiant statement can't be the basis for it."
that comes amid soaring Lavrov criticized Dutch of-
Russia-West tensions. ficials for using what he
Last week, Dutch officials called "loudspeaker di-
alleged that four agents plomacy" instead of using
of Russian GRU military in- legal mechanisms to look
telligence tried and failed into the issue. He said Mos-
to hack into the world's cow summoned the Dutch
chemical weapons watch- ambassador Monday to
dog, the Organization for deliver the message.
the Prohibition of Chemical Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi shake Speaking to the media out-
Weapons. hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. side the Russian Foreign
British authorities also ac- Associated Press Ministry building, Dutch Am-
cused the GRU of a series bassador Renee Jones-Bos
of global cybercrimes, and Lavrov said at a briefing and a timeline of the GRU ment. said, "We can't tolerate cy-
the U.S. Justice Department after talks with Italian coun- agents' botched attempt Photographs released berattacks on international
on Thursday charged seven terpart Enzo Moavero Mila- to break into the chemical by the Dutch Ministry of organizations," noting that
GRU officers with hacking nesi. "They weren't hiding weapons watchdog using Defense showed a trunk Dutch officials made that
anti-doping agencies and from anyone when they ar- Wi-Fi hacking equipment loaded with a comput- clear last week.
other organizations. rived at the airport, settled hidden in a car parked out- er, battery, a bulky white "We made a very clear
Commenting on the Dutch in a hotel and visited our side a nearby Marriott Ho- transformer and a hidden signal that this has to stop"
allegations, Lavrov insisted embassy. They were de- tel. antenna. Officials said the Jones-Bos added. The For-
that the four Russians were tained without any expla- The OPCW was investigat- equipment was operation- eign Ministry said the Dutch
on a "routine" trip to The nations, denied a chance ing a nerve agent attack al when Dutch counterin- ambassador was told Rus-
Hague in April when they to contact our embassy in on a former GRU spy, Sergei telligence interrupted the sia views the assertions in
were arrested and deport- the Netherlands and then Skripal, and his daughter in operation. the Netherlands a "provo-
ed by Dutch authorities. asked to leave. It all looked Salisbury, England; Britain Lavrov in his remarks didn't cation" and part of a "pro-
"There was nothing secret like a misunderstanding." has blamed on the Russian talk about the evidence paganda campaign" that
in the Russian specialists' Dutch defense officials on government. Moscow ve- provided by Dutch authori- has caused "irreparable
trip to the Hague in April," Thursday released photos hemently denies involve- ties, but President Vladimir damage" to bilateral ties.q

Migrants seeking winter shelter overwhelm northern Greece

By COSTAS KANTOURIS for the trip to Greece. other European Union na-
Associated Press Authorities later Monday tions' resistance to settling
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) moved the migrants in refugees and ongoing mi-
— Several hundred asylum- police buses to a nearby grant arrivals from neigh-
seekers camped outside refugee camp, but it was boring Turkey.
a police station Monday unclear whether there Police said 35 smuggling
in northern Greece, lining was sufficient space at the suspects were arrested last
up to be arrested and for- overcrowded site to give month in Thessaloniki, ac-
mally processed as a surge them shelter. The migrants cused of transporting 1,821
in illegal migration over- organized a cleanup of the migrants to the city — a 60
whelmed authorities in the square before boarding percent increase from the
region. the buses. previous month.
After sleeping on benches "The number of arrivals is Last week, Amnesty Inter-
and patches of grass in a high in Thessaloniki and national Secretary-Gen-
central square in Thessalon- Kurdish migrants wait outside a police station in Aristotelous that's created a bottle- eral Kumi Naidoo visited
iki, Greece's second-largest Square at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, Monday, Oct. neck," Nikos Ragos, the Mi- an overcrowded migrant
city, the migrants formed 8, 2018. gration Ministry's regional camp on the Greek island
a line outside the police Associated Press coordinator for northern of Lesbos that has been
station, seeking a place Greece, told the AP. "So heavily criticized by rights
at a migrant camp before last two nights. He says he's our papers, so that we can we are supporting the po- groups. He described con-
the winter. Karzan Hassan, hoping to reach Britain with stay somewhere to clean lice until (migrants) can be ditions there as "appalling
a 22-year-old Iraqi Kurd, his two brothers after aban- up and rest," he told the As- documented." " and called for an emer-
crossed into Greece last doning a plan to travel to sociated Press. Greece is struggling to gency winter evacuation
week and has slept outside Italy."We don't want to stay Hassan said he paid a cope with a high number of migrants to the Greek
the police station for the in Greece. We want to get smuggler in Istanbul $2,500 of asylum-seekers due to mainland.q