WORLD BRIEFING: May 24, 2024

Mikhail Fridman, one of Russia’s richest men, is seeking sanctions-related damages from Luxembourg on assets worth $15.8bn and plans to take the country to court if it cannot agree a payout, said people familiar with the matter. The challenge, filed in February, makes Fridman the first oligarch to demand compensation for sanctions against him over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after he successfully challenged some of the grounds for the EU restrictions last month. If successful, Fridman would potentially be entitled to a sizeable payout under an obscure 1989 treaty between Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Soviet Union protecting investors’ assets from expropriation and nationalisation, as well as “any other measures having similar effects”. Fridman’s threat is the latest salvo in a legal battle with western authorities over the sanctions against him. The Ukraine-born oligarch, who moved to London a decade ago, initially offered guarded criticism of Vladimir Putin’s invasion before souring on the west and returning to Moscow last October. He is attempting to dismantle the one remaining justification for the EU sanctions against him by selling his stake in Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest privately held lender - FT

The investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) confirmed on May 23 that a Ukrainian missile attack four days earlier on the port of Sevastopol hit a Cyclone missile carrier ship belonging to Russia's Black Sea Fleet. CIT said that, after reviewing photographs of a sunken ship showing a mast sticking out of the water, it concluded that the vessel was the Cyclone missile carrier. The Karakurt-class corvette joined the fleet six months earlier. Russia has not confirmed the loss of the vessel and no information has been made public about possible casualties among the ship's crew. British intelligence said that the Russian ship was "almost certainly" sunk by a Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea on May 19. The attack likely involved a combination of drones and ATACMS missiles, British intelligence said. The Cyclone missile carrier was one of four Russian vessels of the Karakurt class. It was armed with Kalibr cruise missiles, which have been used against Ukraine. - RFE/RL

Norway is set to ban all Russian tourists starting next week. Starting May 29, any Russian citizens arriving on tourist visas and for “non-essential travel” will be denied entry to the country, the government announced Thursday. “The decision to tighten the entry rules are in line with the Norwegian approach of standing by allies and partners in the reactions against Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” Justice and Public Security Minister Emilie Mehl said in a press release. Exceptions will be made for Russian citizens who are working, studying, or visiting close family in the country, the government said. The ban applies both to those who received visas from Norway and those who got visas from other Schengen countries. “The Norwegian authorities keep a close eye on the border and border traffic at Storskog, and will take action if necessary,” the government warned. Last September, Norway banned vehicles registered to Russian citizens from entering the country. - Daily Beast

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday dismissed calls by the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three top Hamas officials in Gaza, for alleged war crimes in connection with the ongoing seven-month conflict. Biden, at a White House news conference, was asked whether the U.S. had any evidence that Israel was using starvation of Palestinians as a tool of war to fight Hamas militants, as the court alleged this week. Biden did not answer directly but said, “We don’t recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC the way it’s being exercised, and it’s that simple.” Referring to the conduct of the war, Biden, a long-time supporter of Israel, said, “We don’t think there's an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did.” - VOA

President Biden and former President Donald Trump are locked in a statistical tie as they gear up for the first of two scheduled debates next month, but nearly one-fifth of voters say they could still change their mind about who they pull the lever for on Election Day. In a one-on-one matchup, Biden garnered 48% support to Trump’s 47%, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters released Wednesday. Last month, the survey found Trump and Biden in a flat-footed tie, with each receiving 46% support. Despite the incumbent’s lead, history suggests the margin would be tight enough for Trump to secure victory in the Electoral College. In 2016, the Republican lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.1%, but racked up 304 electoral votes to become the 45th president. - NY Post

Jimmy Carter's grandson said Tuesday that the former president is "coming to the end" in a brief update about the 39th president's health. “(My grandfather) is doing OK," Jason Carter said at a mental health forum named in honor of his grandmother, the late former first lady Rosalynn Carter, at the Carter Center. "He has been in hospice, as you know, for almost a year and a half now, and he really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I've said before, there's a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there's a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space." Jimmy Carter, now 99, became the oldest living president in history after George H.W. Bush died in 2018 at the age of 94. He has survived metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer and a number of health scares, including brain surgery after a fall in 2019. He entered hospice care in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays and made a rare public appearance to attend his wife's memorial service back in November, CNN reported. - ABC