World
How EU sanctions won't stop Putin getting six more years in power
President Vladimir Putin is all but guaranteed to win six more years of power in Russia’s upcoming elections. Opponents – many of them behind bars, exiled abroad, or dead – say EU officials must intensify their efforts to hit Moscow where it hurts.
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin say the EU must do more to help them crack the elite’s grip on power ahead of a presidential election so tightly controlled by the current Kremlin resident that it leaves no room for any opposition to his 25-year rule.
Despite EU efforts to sanction Russian authorities for their full-scale invasion of Ukraine and ongoing crackdown on dissent, the ballot will be held weeks after Moscow gained significant territory in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the ruling elite is getting richer, Russia has been selling oil for more than the price cap established by the G7, Moscow’s army is securing sanctioned military technology via allied countries, and the voice of Putin’s fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, was forever silenced last month when he died in the penal colony he was held in.
Russia may be the most sanctioned country in the world, but “there were a lot of mistakes” in the restrictive measures implemented by Western allies, Russian politician and opposition leader Dmitry Gudkov told Euronews. Sanctions, he also said, have enefited Putin but are hurting ordinary Russians.
European officials are just now realising that “something went wrong,” he added.
Last month, a Moscow court barred Putin’s main challenger, Boris Nadezhdin, an opponent of the war in Ukraine, from running in the election.
Gudkov, the leader of the opposition Party of Changes, was exiled to Ukraine in 2021 after being detained— and released shortly after— for what he claims was a “fake” criminal case against him. A Moscow court issued in February an arrest warrant against him under charges of distributing “fake” information about Russia’s military. The former politician faces up to 10 years in prison.
For Russian dissidents, Putin’s illegitimacy should not be questioned: the Russian leader has been the subject since March 2023 of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine; the 2020 referendum that allowed him to run for two more six-year presidential terms was considered a sham by international observers; and these elections will be conducted in the illegally annexed territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia
How has the West failed to implement sanctions efficiently?
According to Rasa Juknevičienė, a Member of the European Parliament from Lithuania, the EU does not have an “effective structure” to implement sanctions against Russia due to the bloc’s lack of experience.
The 27-country Union rolled out its 13th package of sanctions against Russia last month to further restrict Moscow’s access to military technologies and prevent sanction circumvention.
But Western leaders, Juknevičienė added, are “afraid to punish Putin, to crush Putin’s regime, and provide all necessary support to Ukraine.”
Forbes announced last year that the overall wealth of Russia’s super-rich had increased by $152 billion (€139 billion) since 2022. It also counted 110 billionaires in Russia — 22 more than the previous year.
Speaking to EU foreign affairs ministers in February, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said that sanctions have not targeted Russia’s elite enough. She claims they have transferred their belongings to family and friends to avoid the seizure of their assets. “Putin’s friends are simply laughing at you,” Navalnaya said.
Since Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, Russia has been able to sell oil above the $60 per barrel price cap established by the G7 countries in December 2022, according to the Atlantic Council. The Kremlin is moving over 70 percent of its oil “through a shadow fleet,” it said.
A report by researchers from King’s College London found that Russia has been able to evade sanctions by importing banned products via friendly countries such as Georgia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
“We see how sanctions do not work, and this is obvious for the West,” Russian dissident Anastasia Shevchenko told Euronews. While she believes the concept of sanctions in general can be effective, Shevchenko argued allies have “a lot of work to do” for them to affect Putin.
How can the European Union help the Russian opposition?
Shevchenko was the first person in Russia to be criminally prosecuted under the Kremlin’s “undesirable organisations” law. While arrested, her eldest daughter, Alina, fell ill. Russian authorities allowed Anastasia to see her daughter only hours before she died.
For Shevchenko, one of the most important things European officials can do in the upcoming elections is to recognise Putin’s regime as illegitimate. “This is a crucial point for us,” Shevchenko told Euronews.
In the 2018 elections, countries such as the United States, Hungary, and Israel congratulated Putin for his reelection. France and Germany acknowledged his victory but refrained from using the word “congratulate.”
ADVERTISEMENTDissidents also emphasise the need for Western support for Russians that have escaped the regime.
Dimitri Androssow, a Putin critic who currently lives in Berlin, told Euronews that some programmes and opportunities worldwide have been closed for Russians. One of them was an internship in the German Bundestag that changed his career 10 years ago but that was restricted to Russian nationals in the wake of the country’s assault on Ukraine two years ago.
“The West should concentrate on those who dare to show somehow that they are against this regime,” Androssow said. “This is our future. This is that democratic chance for our Russia. Those people who are against this regime and who are not afraid to speak about this.”
Androssow is a board member of Russia’s People’s Freedom Party. He left the country in 2022 due to political persecution.
For the now exiled Gudkov, EU officials should also include Russian dissidents in the policy-making of the sanctions. He claims he has presented some proposals to European colleagues, but they were not taken into consideration.
ADVERTISEMENT“Nobody knows Putin better than us. Nobody knows our country better than us. Nobody knows the elites and the civil society in Russia better than us,” Gudkov said. “But unfortunately, our expertise is not considered while some of the sanction policy is being carried out.”
Pushing for change from exile
In the meantime, opposition leaders are calling Russians to show up to the polls on 17 March at noon and write ‘Navalny’ or tear up their ballot as a form of protest. While this might not have a direct effect on the regime, the goal is to “affect the perception of these so-called elections,” Gudkov said. Domestically, it will undermine Putin’s legitimacy, he added.
“We want to demonstrate that a lot of people taking to the street and coming to the polling stations are against Putin and the war,” Gudkov said. “It’s the only safe format for people to demonstrate and express their position without being detained.”
Shevchenko said she already sees a change in Russian society. Images and videos from Navalny’s funeral this month showed hundreds queuing to pay their respects to the opposition leader despite threats of arrests from Russian police.
“When people see how many people like them are around, it helps get rid of fear,” Shevchenko said. “ I think it means that step by step, they stop being afraid.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Mark Schiefelbein has been based in Washington, D.C., with AP for about three years, and before that spent a decade in Beijing at AP’s China bureau.
Here’s what he had to say about this extraordinary photo.
Why this photo?
This was an event that had never happened before in the 250-year history of the United States and may never happen again: a night of mixed martial-arts cage match brawls on the South Lawn of the White House, with bloodied competitors battling it out in front of the president, vice president, and other leaders of the country. AP had other photographers ringside at the event focusing more on the fights themselves. So I felt my role was to capture the context of the evening — the location, the people in attendance, the environment.
How I made this photo
A small group of other photographers and I, the White House press pool, had been allowed to photograph part of the evening from a position in the stands directly opposite the White House. I was carrying four cameras with a variety of lenses from 12 mm to 300 mm. This let me capture everything from ultra-wide views of the “claw” structure built for the fights, to close-ups of leaders and celebrities in attendance. I had been following Diego Lopes with my longest lens as he moved around the ring celebrating his win over Steve Garcia. When I saw him start to climb onto the cage, I immediately realized there might be a possibility of a picture like this and zoomed out to capture more of the scene.
An octagon on the White House lawn for Trump’s 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th, in photos
Why this photo works
The White House is surely one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. The columns of the South Portico, the fighter standing with arms and legs spread wide in celebration, and the octagon padding of the UFC ring tell an entire story as your eyes move from top to bottom of the frame. With Lopes standing with his back to the camera, facing the White House, it becomes less a photo of him and more about the evening, the event, and the spectacle. It was fortunate that it was after nightfall, so things that might have been distracting, like the Marine Band and spectators seated behind the ring, are mostly in the dark. Only the key elements – the White House, Lopes, and the ring are lit up.
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For more extraordinary AP photography, click here.
World
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces potential leadership challenge from newly-elected Andy Burnham
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Andy Burnham has officially won his special election and regained a seat in Parliament, setting him up to challenge the deeply unpopular Keir Starmer as the leader of the Labour party and as prime minister.
Burnham, currently the mayor of Greater Manchester in northwest England, won a seat in Makerfield and came away with 55% of the vote in a field of more than a dozen candidates, according to The Associated Press. The runner-up was Rob Kenyon of Reform UK, a right-wing populist party, who received more than 9,000 fewer votes than Burnham.
Burnham last served as a member of Parliament in 2017 but strongly implied in his victory speech that he is returning with the intention to lead the United Kingdom.
“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working. Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point,” he said, according to the AP. “This result will bring about a country that works fairly for everywhere and for everybody.”
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Britain’s Labour party candidate Andy Burnham speaks to supporters after the Makerfield by-election in Ashton in Makerfield, England, on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Jon Super/AP)
This special election, called by-elections in Britain, was unusually significant because the area’s Labour MP, Josh Simons, intentionally resigned to allow Burnham to win the seat and pursue leadership.
The potentially outsized impact of this election was juxtaposed with the strange scene that unfolded when all the candidates gathered on Friday morning to hear the results. Burnham stood in between an independent candidate dressed in a fox costume and another candidate known as “Count Binface”.
As his name suggests, “Count Binface,” whose real name is Jonathan David Harvey, was wearing a trash can on his head and regularly runs in U.K. elections to advocate for increased voter turnout.
Starmer congratulated Burnham in a social media post on X, saying voters “chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”
When asked about Burnham’s intentions to oust him as leader, Starmer said he will fight to remain prime minister, a position he has held for nearly two years.
“I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to walk away from that,” Starmer told reporters.
Labour party candidate Andy Burnham, center, stands with other candidates on the podium at the Edge Wigan, awaiting the Makerfield by-election result announcement in Wigan, England, on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Jon Super/AP)
AS EPSTEIN-LINKED APPOINTMENT SPARKS BACKLASH, UK PM STARMER FACES PARTY REVOLT AMID RESIGNATION CALLS
Starmer led the Labour party to a landslide victory in July 2024 and ever since, his popularity has been eroding thanks to a persistently high cost of living, an anemic economy and a scandal over his willingness to accept gifts from wealthy donors.
Last September, Starmer was slammed for appointing Peter Mandelson as the British ambassador to the United States, when it was known as early as 2019 that Mandelson had a friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Following an enormous public backlash, Mandelson was quickly dismissed from his post.
With Starmer as leader, Labour is increasingly losing liberal-minded voters to the Green Party, while also facing stronger challenges by Reform UK, a Nigel Farage-led party that advocates against mass migration and in favor of tighter border controls. Farage, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said he was disappointed by Burnham’s victory.
Burnham is expected to head to London to be sworn in as soon as Monday. Under the British parliamentary system, the governing party can hold leadership elections in the middle of the term. The winner of such a contest can become prime minister without there having to be a national election.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer awaits Switzerland’s Federal President Guy Parmelin on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 (Isabel Infantes/Pool Reuters via AP)
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Under Labour rules, a lawmaker can challenge the leader if they win the backing of a fifth of their party’s members in the House of Commons. Burnham has enough lawmakers on board to trigger a leadership contest, according to a report from The New Statesman.
According to the AP, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Burnham and Starmer will “have a conversation about what comes next” in the next few days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have issued a blistering rebuke against deportation camps outside the European Union, setting their countries on a collision course with a growing political majority.
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During a summit on Friday, 19 leaders across the bloc signed a joint declaration calling to make “full use” of a new European law that enables the construction of so-called return hubs to host migrants whose asylum applications have been denied.
The coalition, led by Denmark and Italy, two fierce advocates of outsourcing, wants to “move forward with solutions based in third countries as soon as possible”.
But for Macron and Sánchez, this path runs counter to European values and risks squandering financial resources and undercutting relations with neighbouring Africa.
“I am not sure that this is our Europe. I don’t know if these are the fundamental principles on which our Europe was built,” Macron said at the end of the summit on Friday.
“And I don’t think it’s effective, either. The proof is that I have not seen anyone make it work so far,” he went on, underscoring his strong dissatisfaction. (Italy has set up migration centres on Albanian soil but has fallen short of expected targets.)
“I have a lot of respect for anyone who wants to do it. I disagree, both pragmatically and in principle. I think it has nothing to do with European politics.”
Macron said his country was in favour of tougher laws to curb irregular arrivals but drew a red line on the physical transfer of migrants to faraway countries where they have never set foot. That possibility, long considered taboo, is allowed under a revamped Return Regulation described as the “strictest-ever” migration law.
“There is a question, in fact, around these famous return hubs in third countries. France does not support this policy. We are in favour of a more effective return policy. But first of all, I have never seen a return hub in a third country operate,” Macron went on.
“I invite you to consider what it is (in practice): this means that people who do not want to return to their country of origin or who cannot get back to their country of origin will be pushed into a third country, which will accept them in return for money.”
Macron mocked the jargonistic term “innovative solutions” that proponents of migration offshoring often use in their public communication and challenged the notion that host countries would respect human rights in exchange for financial incentives.
“I am a big supporter of innovation in my country,” he said, saying he would later attend the Vivatech festival in Paris. “But I am always very careful when talking about innovation in values and human rights. Allow me to have that reservation.”
Meanwhile, Sánchez, a vocal critic of the measures, said the deportation camps would be an “absolutely inefficient” and “worthless” response to irregular migration.
“It’s a mirage, if you will, that it will simply waste economic resources, and Europe doesn’t have many,” the Spaniard said after the summit in Brussels.
“Secondly, it sends a wrong message to those countries of origin and transit with which we should be collaborating, cooperating and showing empathy towards.”
Macron echoed Sánchez’s reputational concerns and insisted he would not allow EU funds to be used in any capacity to build the deportation camps, which are “neither effective nor do they correspond with our principles”.
“Sometimes, we hear one or the other (country) advocate policies with the African continent, so good luck defending our credibility on these continents by explaining that we will use the money for investments to build return hubs on their continents,” he said.
“What world do we live in?”
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