Ales Bialiatski, in Minsk, November 24, 2011. SERGEI GRITS / AP

On October 7, 2006, Vladimir Putin’s birthday, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in the stairwell of her building. While the Russian judiciary’s investigations have never bothered to trace back the sponsors, observers have always taken into account that the date chosen for this murder was by no means accidental.

Sixteen years later, whoever was chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on October 7, 2022 is certainly more of a coincidence. Still, the winners are also a message to Mr. Putin, who celebrated his 70th birthday that day.

Giving the prize to human rights defenders from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sounds like a challenge to the Russian president, or at least to the imperialist ideas he holds dear. The Russian NGO Memorial, the Belarusian opponent Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties each fight in their own way both the authoritarianism and the fantasized vision of a necessary political unity of the three Slavic neighbors.

Read the decryption: Article reserved for our subscribers In Russia, the dissolution of the NGO Memorial marks the extent of the democratic decline of the Putin era

In the minds of Russians and foreigners, few organizations are more directly connected to Russian civil society – humble and dying – than Memorial. Also for this reason, the power of Vladimir Putin never stopped pursuing them until the dissolution of the organization was decided by the judiciary in December 2021. The press conference took place on October 6th in the corridors of the Tverskoï court, where the NGO is located Trying to save part of its premises and archives was all an involuntary snub.

A legacy of the Maidan revolution

Another symbolic defeat on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council established for the first time a special rapporteur mandate to monitor the human rights situation in Russia. 17 countries voted in favor of such a resolution, tabled by European states, while 24 abstained and 6 voted against, including China.

As for the other two laureates, it would be an insult to reduce them to the Russian context. In Ukraine, too, many voices were raised on Friday, complaining that their country was being reassigned to a post-Soviet fate. “The Nobel Committee has an interesting understanding of ‘peace’ when representatives of two countries that jointly attacked a third receive the Nobel Prize,” Mikhailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Twitter.

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He was only 28 and wanted to be the rising star of Spanish cinema. But his dream ended tragically after an accident in Pontevedra.

an aspiring actress, Beatriz Alvarez GuerraThe only 28-year-old died in a car accident while vacationing in the Spanish province of Pontevedra with her boyfriend. The latter, 24, was arrested: but he was driving the car he didn’t have a driver’s license. 20minutos.es reports about it.

According to reconstructions, the young woman died after the car in which she was sitting in the passenger seat skidded and ended up in the Almofrei de Cotobade river.

The 24-year-old, whose identity is not yet known, was able to save himself by getting out of the vehicle before it sank into the water. However, he could not take his girlfriend with him. I asked other drivers for help, but the vehicle slowly began to sink into the river.

Accident in Enna, he ends up on a cliff with his colleagues in the car: Graziella dies at the age of 30

Rescuers arrived at the scene immediately, but they couldn’t help but recover the girl’s lifeless body. When officers arrived, the Galician police arrested the young man.

In fact, the Guardia Civil found out that the 24-year-old did not have a driver’s license. During interrogation, he exercised his right to remain silent and was reported at large for manslaughter and traffic violations.

After so many years of apprenticeship between theatre, TV series, films and short films, Beatrice wanted to be the rising star of Spanish cinema. He had played roles in several Spanish television series such as Anclados and in several short films. Among these we mention: 10 pelis, El tiempo, Los Inocentes, Te fueste antes de tiempo or Todo al Rojo. He was preparing for his first leading role.

That U.S. government issued more than 20,000 visas to Cuban immigrants during the recently concluded fiscal year 2022, a goal that the Joe Biden administration as a priority of his policy towards Cuba.

Records from the Office of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that by the end of August 19,743 visas for Cuban applicants, However, according to official sources, this number was later surpassed with cases being processed by September 30.

“Preliminary data for September shows that we have issued more than 250 immigrant visas to Cuban nationals at the embassies in Havana and Georgetown,” he said CyberCuba a senior official at the State Department.

The confirmation marks a move the Biden administration sees as strategic to stop this Exodus from Cubaand paves the way for a bilateral exchange on the topic of migration.

This is the first time since 2017 United States meets commitment of 20,000 annual visas with Cuba, stipulated in the migration agreements after the 1994 Rafter crisis.

That The Cuban government has repeatedly criticized violations of the annual visa quota Americans who portray it as a factor in the illegal emigration of their nationals. But in reality, the figure of 20,000 visas is too small a time window Cuban stampede that exceeded 200,000 arrivals via land border pointsand more than 7,000 were involved in maritime operations off the Florida coast in fiscal 2022.

That Accelerating the processing of cases in the last half of FY2022 has made it possible to reach the visa target and reduce the backlog accumulated due to the almost five-year closure of the consular services in Havana.

Of the immigrant visas registered in the statistical reports up to August The largest amount was awarded to spouses and children of permanent residents (FX category), with 7.211. Progress in these cases has made a significant leap since last July.

The rest are divided into 5,937 by category IR-5which prefers parents claimed by US citizens who are at least 21 years of age and in 4,834 for spouses and children of US citizens (IR-1 and IR-2).

557 petitions from the diversity program or the Visa Lottery (DV) were processed of the 975 Cubans who won the DV-2022 draw. As of October 1st, the cycle was opened up for the 1,358 favored in the DV-2023.

Although the majority of visas have been processed in Guyana, the gradual reopening of consular services in Havana shows signs of relative stability, albeit modest numbers. Since May 3, they have been issued at this diplomatic headquarters 870 immigrant visas, all for relatives of US citizens (IR-5, IR-1 and IR-2).

The US Embassy plans to increase the staff and scope of its consular services in the coming months and eventually resume Processing of all immigrant visas by 2023.

The measure will expedite the processing of family reunification cases and eliminate the need to travel to Guyana to interview Cuban applicants. This Friday the US Embassy will hold a question and answer session on Facebook Live about the full resumption of his consular services next year.

This was announced by the US authorities First, outstanding claims are processed. from Family Reunification Program (CFK)whose reopening was announced last June.

The National Visa Center needs to send out invitations for new CFK applications, but so far the process has not been reactivated.

According to official statistics There are more than 100,000 family visa applications from Cuban nationals waiting to be processed, some of them 22,000 correspond to CFRP.

Visas for family visits

Although Cubans have been required to apply for business visas and family visits at third-country consulates since 2018, with few exceptions, there was also a notable 32 percent increase in nonimmigrant categories compared to the previous tax period.

Even excluding the month of September, a total of 3,798 visas were issued for business and family visits: 159 in the category B-1 (professional travel, cultural exchange and business), 297 as B-2 (family visits) and 1,097 with the dual category (B- 1/B-2).

Despite the limitations 533 were stamped in Havana, mostly for humanitarian reasons.

During the In fiscal year 2021, Cubans received only 2,618 visitor visas.

The State Department has not offered appointments to restore mass attention to nonimmigrant visa applications at diplomatic headquarters in Havana.

Biden administration maintains B-2 visas for five years and multiple entries for Cuban travelers, a Benefit suspended by Donald Trump since March 2019.

There is also no date for the restart Refugee Admission Program (USRAP) for Cuban citizens wishing to immigrate to the United States for reasons of political persecution.

Immigrant Visas for Cubans in Fiscal Year 2022

October – 323

November – 465

December – 928

January – 961

February – 1,094

march – 2.251

April – 1,883

Can – 2,730

June – 3.021

July – 2,290

August – 3,797

In total: 19,743

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs/CiberCuba

Shortly after the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for the Memorial organization, Moscow ordered the confiscation.

Just hours after the announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, a Russian court ordered the seizure of the human rights organization’s Moscow offices. The offices have been converted into “public property”, Russian news agency Interfax quoted the court ruling issued on Friday. Memorial has been banned in Russia since late 2021.

Memorial dissolved last year

Memorial has been banned in Russia since late 2021. Founded in 1989, Memorial is the oldest and most important human rights organization in Russia. In late 2021, the Russian Supreme Court first ordered a ban on the Memorial, and later a Moscow court ordered the organization to be dissolved.

The human rights organization will receive the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with Belarusian politician and human rights activist Ales Byalyatski and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties (CCL). The award winners have made an “extraordinary contribution” to documenting war crimes, human rights violations and abuse of power, committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said in her statement.

Nobel Prize important signal for Russians

Memorial co-founder Irina Scherbakova sees this year’s Nobel Peace Prize as an important signal to people in Russia who criticize Putin’s regime and the war in Ukraine. The Nobel Committee’s decision is a happy event for many of them, Scherbakowa said Friday night in Jena. Because many people in Russia are afraid of massive repression and police violence.

But there will be a time after President Putin, Scherbakova stressed. “I very much hope that Russia will eventually find a way out of this moral and political catastrophe and for democracy and freedom.”

The historian and Germanist Scherbakowa is a visiting professor at the University of Jena and lives in Weimar. “They showed how the courage of a few can impact the entire world,” said university president Walter Rosenthal. “Thank you for your courage and perseverance.”

expropriation of premises

Sherbakova pointed out that authorities in Russia continued to take action against her organization. Specifically, it is about the expropriation of facilities that served as a memorial center. She praised the great solidarity she and her fellow activists experienced after Germany’s ban. In Russia itself, too, the work has received widespread support from the population in recent years – especially among young people.

In his estimation, many people in Russia have become more realistic about the war in Ukraine in recent months. She campaigned to help conscientious objectors and give them refuge. “Every person who flees this war is one less soldier in Ukraine.”