This week, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office sent a request to Israel for the extradition of Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman, investigative journalists published recordings of conversations between Russian and Hungarian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Peter Szijjarto, and NASA sent the first manned mission to the Moon since 1972.
Babel has compiled the main events of the week so that you can stay up to date with the news.
Extradition request for Mindich and Zukerman
On Tuesday, March 31, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office informed Babel that they had sent a request to the Israeli Ministry of Justice for the extradition of the Midas case defendants Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman.
Earlier, the lead detective in the case Oleksandr Abakumov said in an interview that two weeks ago, NABU submitted all the necessary documents for extradition to the Prosecutor General for signature. Abakumov said that as far as he knows, the document is still signed by the Prosecutor General.
The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office stated that procedural and technical shortcomings were discovered during the processing of the documents submitted by NABU.
Then, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, together with NABU, processed and supplemented 24 volumes of materials, and also prepared and translated the text of the request. When the errors were finally eliminated, the extradition request was sent to the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
collive.com
Law enforcement officials consider Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman to be co-organizers of a large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector. Mindich was the mastermind, and Zukerman ran the back office for money laundering.
Back in December, Mindich was found in Israel by journalists from Ukrainska Pravda. At the time, he called the case against him a “steep media attack”. And in February, Mindich said he was ready to return to Ukraine and go to pre-trial detention, “if there is a fair bail”.
Journalists published a recording of a conversation between Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó
On Tuesday, March 31, a group of Hungarian investigative journalists published audio recordings of conversations between Russian and Hungarian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Péter Szijjártó, which suggest that Hungary acted in Russiaʼs interests in the European Union.
In particular, in August 2024, just an hour after Szijjártó arrived in Budapest from St. Petersburg, Lavrov called him at the request of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is said to be one of Putin’s favorite businessmen.
Usmanov himself is under sanctions by the EU, the US, Canada and the UK over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The oligarch wanted his sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, removed from the EU sanctions list, and Szijjártó promised to help.
Szijjártó told Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin that he was doing everything possible to "cancel" the decisive EU sanctions package aimed at the Russian shadow fleet, promised to help remove Russian banks and oil companies from the sanctions list, and said that he was fighting against the entire 18th package of sanctions and trying to save as many Russian organizations as possible.
In addition, the recordings of the conversations show that Szijjártó regularly informed Lavrov about the details of confidential negotiations between European diplomats.
During the same call to Lavrov on August 30, 2024, the Hungarian Foreign Minister revealed details of the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, in which he participated the day before.
NASA launches four astronauts to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years
On Thursday night, April 2, the American space agency NASA launched a manned mission to the Moon, Artemis II. This is the first manned mission to the Moon since 1972.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in the agencyʼs history. The missionʼs goal is to test the rocket and spacecraft systems in preparation for another lunar landing.
The Artemis II mission will last eight days. On Saturday, April 4, the astronauts reached the halfway point to the moon.
Moldova finally left the CIS
On Thursday, April 2, Moldova finally withdrew from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Moldovan Parliament declared the Agreement, Protocol and Statute of the organization invalid. The decision was initiated by the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Foreign Ministry initiated the annulment of the agreements because Russia violated the main principle of the CIS — respect for the borders of other states. The Kremlin is waging war against Ukraine, committing acts of aggression against Georgia, and illegally maintaining troops in Moldova.
The Moldovan parliament said that the decision to leave the CIS is a step towards joining the EU. As a result of the cancellation of the agreement, the state budget will save about $170 thousand.
Moldova will remain a party to only a few CIS agreements, particularly in the trade, economic and social spheres. Chisinau has so far denounced about 70 agreements with the organization.
The Cabinet of Ministers officially recognized the “Mejlis” as the representative body of the Crimean Tatars
On Friday, April 3, the Cabinet of Ministers granted the “Mejlis” of the Crimean Tatar people the official legal status of a representative body. From now on, the “Mejlis” officially represents the Crimean Tatar people at the state level. Previously, it actually performed this role, but did not have a fixed legal status.
Authorities must now consult with the “Mejlis” before making decisions affecting the Crimean Tatar people, including on issues of language, education, culture, media, and integration.
In March, the Russians suffered their greatest losses since the beginning of the war.
On Friday, April 3, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian losses in March were the highest of the entire war. Ukrainian drones killed and seriously wounded 33,988 Russians in March, and another 1 363 Russian soldiers were eliminated by artillery and other weapons.
The Ukrainian military has also been much more active in destroying Russian air defense systems last month (274 in March). There are also tangible results from attacks on Russian warehouses and military logistics.
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