WORLD BRIEFING: June 19, 2024

Vladimir Putin has arrived in North Korea, the Kremlin has confirmed. The Russian president touched down in the country's capital, Pyongyang, where he will begin his two-day visit. The Russian president was greeted by North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, with the men seen laughing and hugging as they had a conversation near Putin's plane. A formal meeting between the two leaders is expected to take place tomorrow. One of the first events to take place will be one-on-one discussions between the two leaders. There will also be a gala concert, state reception, honour guards, document signings, and a statement to the media, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Mr Putin's aide as saying. A number of Russian officials have travelled to Pyongyang as well as part of Mr Putin's delegation, including defence minister Andrei Belousov, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and deputy prime minister Alexander Novak. - Sky News

In a presidential order issued yesterday, Putin said Moscow was looking to sign a "comprehensive strategic partnership treaty" with North Korea. The international community has raised alarm bells regarding his trip, with NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg saying the military alliance was concerned about the support Russia could provide for North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes. - Sky News

Russia is scouring China for second-hand machine tools using shadowy networks of buyers, as the Kremlin races to secure vital equipment to increase arms production. Moscow’s covert strategy for obtaining precision machinery, uncovered by researchers, attempts to sidestep increasingly restrictive western sanctions and export controls that aim to stunt manufacturing for the military. The operations, run through networks of opaque companies, tap a stock of older high-end machine tools made by western companies that remain in China after decades of sales to local factories. The Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington-based think-tank that identified the shadow trade, said the complex sourcing arrangements suggest Moscow’s claims about high-precision tools being produced in Russia were probably “exaggerated”. Allen Maggard, the C4ADS analyst who led the report on the machine tools, said Russia’s arms manufacturers were “scrambling to expand their production capabilities using whatever they can get”. - FT

Russian commanders have ordered not to take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner but to behead them instead, said Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin on social media. According to him, another case of beheading of a Ukrainian defender was recorded in the Donetsk region.“New horrific evidence of Russia’s criminal policy aimed at destroying Ukrainians. We have received information that Russian commanders ordered not to take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner but to kill them with inhuman cruelty by beheading,” he wrote. Kostin emphasized that the killing of prisoners of war is a horrific barbarism that has no right to occur in the 21st century. The beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner of war is yet another proof that the war crimes committed by the aggressor are not isolated incidents but a planned strategy of the Russian regime. Specifically, criminal orders were given at the battalion and company command levels of the occupying forces, the official noted. In this regard, Kostin called on the international community not to leave these crimes unpunished and to isolate and punish Russia

A court in Russia has sentenced to 12 years a Ukrainian woman, Kristina Lyubashenko, who launched blue-and-white balloons into the sky and played an anti-war recording in her speakers. The young woman was accused of spreading military "fakes" and participating in a "terrorist organization." The trial was completed in a record 2 days. Lyubashenko spoke in court in Ukrainian and never pleaded guilty. "I think it is clear to all of you how this case was done," she said in court. - Nexta

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced an executive action allowing certain undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without leaving the country – a sweeping election-year move that could offer deportation protections to hundreds of thousands of people. The action will provide legal status and protections for about 500,000 American families and roughly 50,000 noncitizen children of immigrants under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a US citizen, a senior administration official said. It amounts to one of the federal government’s biggest relief programs for undocumented immigrants since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was announced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012. The action is aimed at appealing to key Latino constituencies in battleground states, including Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, that will be crucial for Biden’s chances to claim a second term. The move is an olive branch to immigration advocates and progressives, many of whom have sharply criticized Biden for previous restrictive actions, including taking steps this month to limit asylum processing at the US southern border. - CNN

Tens of thousands of Muslim minority Rohingya are feared to be caught in fighting in western Myanmar, as a powerful armed ethnic group bears down on junta positions in a coastal town on the country's border with Bangladesh. The Arakan Army, which is fighting for autonomy for Myanmar's Rakhine region, said late on Sunday that residents of Maungdaw town, inhabited primarily by the Rohingya, should leave by 9 p.m. ahead of a planned offensive on the settlement. The Arakan Army's attack on Maungdaw is the latest in a months-long rebel onslaught against the Myanmar junta, which took power in a February 2021 coup, and now finds itself in an increasingly weakened position across large parts of the country. "We are going to attack the remaining posts" of the junta, the Arakan Army said in a statement, asking residents to stay clear of military positions in Maungdaw for their own safety. A junta spokesman did not respond to a call seeking comment. Around 70,000 Rohingya who are in Maungdaw are trapped as the fighting draws closer, said Aung Kyaw Moe, the deputy human rights minister in Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government. “They have nowhere to run to," he told Reuters

Beleaguered British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's "soaring" personal wealth has come under fresh attack ahead of crucial inflation figures coming out tomorrow. In what will be a key moment in the election campaign, the rate of inflation is expected to ease back to the Bank of England's target of 2% for the first time since spring 2021. The figures could provide a much needed boost for the embattled prime minister, whose key offering to voters is that the economy has "turned a corner" under his leadership and they should not risk change with Labour. But the Labour Party says this claim is "rubbished" by data showing more than half of Brits think the cost of living crisis has become worse in the last month. The party says that Mr Sunak's wealth increased by £122m in the last year, while data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows millions of people continue to struggle. Darren Jones, shadow chief secretary to the treasury, told Sky News: "No wonder Rishi Sunak doesn't have a clue what working people are going through. He is entirely insulated from the cost of living crisis and totally out of touch….We need a change, we need a government that understands working people, we need a Labour government." - Sky News

After Vladimir Putin’s troops surged over the Ukrainian border in February 2022, the Coca-Cola Co. was among the first multinationals to pledge it would quit Russia in protest. Aiming to avoid the inevitable headaches of complying with expected Western sanctions on the Kremlin, Coke asked its partners there to pull its cans and bottles from stores, cease deliveries of syrup to soda fountains and stop producing its drinks. Two years later, Coke’s distinctive red logo is still easy to find in supermarkets and restaurants across the country. And taking into account a newcomer called Dobry Cola—sold in cans with a remarkably familiar red tint and a taste few would be able to distinguish from the original—Coke by some meas­ures remains Russia’s leading fizzy drink maker. That’s because Multon Partners, the Coke bottler in the country, is owned by a separate, London-listed company called Coca-Cola HBCin which the US mother ship owns a 21% stake. When HBC stopped making Coke after the invasion, Multon introduced Dobry Cola. It’s become the country’s most popular soda, with 13% of the market, according to researcher Prodazhi.rf. “The profits from selling Coca-Cola in Russia have merely shifted to Coca-Cola HBC, which has taken market share through the success of Dobry,” says Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA Research. And Coca-Cola itself is still widely available, imported from neighbors such as Georgia and Kazakhstan. Following the invasion, Russia passed a law allowing branded goods to be sold without the trademark owner’s consent. With trucks hauling countless cases across the border, Russians with a hankering for “the real thing” can still get it. Those imports alone have made Coke Russia’s No. 3 soda, with 6% of the market, according to Prodazhi. - Bloomberg