WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday the world still had heard his call for peace despite soccer governing body FIFA's decision to decline to allow a video message to be broadcast ahead of the soccer World Cup final in Qatar.
Zelenskiy had asked for the video to be broadcast, including his call to hold a global peace conference to help resolve the war triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian soccer players and other officials had publicised the message, he said.
"Even though FIFA blocked this message from being aired at the stadium before the final game in Qatar, the world still heard our appeal," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address to Ukrainians.
The World Cup, he said, was the essence of striving to win.
"But the competition is on the playing field and not on the battlefield. The worst that can happen is a red card - and not the red button," he said, alluding to the possibility of a nuclear strike.
CNN reported on Friday that Zelenskiy had asked FIFA to let him share a message of peace before the final.
"We offered (a) peace formula to the world. Absolutely fair. We offered it because there are no champions in war, there can be no draw," Zelenskiy said in a video issued by his office.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February, in what it calls a "special military operation". The conflict has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions from their homes.
"I announce the initiative to hold a Global Peace Formula Summit this winter. The summit to unite all nations of the world around the cause of global peace. Stadiums' stands get empty after the match, and after the war cities remain empty," the Ukrainian president said.
Russian news agencies reported that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had "warmly congratulated" Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Argentina's victory over France in the World Cup final at Doha's Lusail stadium on Sunday.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter that FIFA "shows a lack of understanding of the disaster that the Russian federation is dragging the world into by starting a war in Ukraine".
FIFA rejects any political messages in organising World Cup matches.
The global television audience for Sunday's final was expected to have been in the hundreds of millions.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Crowds of protesters took to the streets of the French capital on Saturday to protest France’s policies towards Russia and the nation’s NATO membership. The large-scale rally was organized by the right-wing Les Patriotes (The Patriots) party, led by Florian Philippot, the former deputy head of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
Philippot has been organizing protests dubbed "the resistance" since autumn, demanding that France leave NATO and the EU, as well as criticizing President Emmanuel Macron’s economic and foreign policies. On Saturday, demonstrators were seen carrying banners and placards that read: "France must leave NATO," "Macron’s impeachment," and "Resistance!" They were also seen waving France’s national flag and chanting "Ursula, shut up!" – a reference to the EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.
The protests, in which Philippot himself took part, were triggered in particular by the high energy prices that have forced small businesses across France into closure, he explained to Ruptly video news agency. "We must stop the anti-Russia sanctions, because that does not serve peace there but brings misery here," he said.
Photos and videos published by the politician on social media showed a large crowd marching through the streets of central Paris. French officials have not commented on the rally and provided no official figures as to the number of demonstrators. The French media mostly ignored the event as well. According to the website of Les Patriotes, similar rallies were held in September and October.
The protest also occurs as neighboring Belgium saw a massive demonstration joined by over 16,000 people in Brussels earlier this week. Thousands took to the streets in the Belgian capital on Friday to demand a freeze on spiking energy prices, and better pay, amid high inflation in Belgium and the EU.
Gas and electricity prices have skyrocketed in Europe as the economic strain caused by Covid-19 was further aggravated by the fallout of EU sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. Russian energy supplies to the bloc were then further reduced amid the EU’s attempts to rid itself of Moscow’s energy imports altogether.
Reuters/RT
