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Russia’s Medvedev Floats Idea of Pushing Back Poland’s Borders

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, right, participates a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden during the national celebrations of the "Defender of the Fatherland Day" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, right, participates a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden during the national celebrations of the "Defender of the Fatherland Day" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP)
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Russia’s Medvedev Floats Idea of Pushing Back Poland’s Borders

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, right, participates a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden during the national celebrations of the "Defender of the Fatherland Day" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, right, participates a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden during the national celebrations of the "Defender of the Fatherland Day" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP)

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that the only way for Moscow to ensure a lasting peace with Ukraine was to push back the borders of hostile states as far as possible, even if that meant the frontiers of NATO member Poland.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the comments in a message on his Telegram account exactly a year after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a "special military operation" to protect Russian speakers and ensure its own security.

Ukraine says it is defending itself from an unprovoked colonial-style war of aggression and has vowed to retake all of its own territory by force, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, forecast on Friday that Russia would be victorious and that some kind of loose agreement would eventually end the fighting.

"Victory will be achieved. We all want it to happen as soon as possible. And that day will come," said Medvedev. He predicted that tough negotiations with Ukraine and the West would follow that would culminate in "some kind of agreement."

But he said that deal would lack what he called "fundamental agreements on real borders" and not amount to an over-arching European security pact, making it vital for Russia to extend its own borders now.

"That is why it is so important to achieve all the goals of the special military operation. To push back the borders that threaten our country as far as possible, even if they are the borders of Poland," said Medvedev.

Poland shares long eastern borders with Ukraine and with Russia's ally Belarus, and a frontier of some 200 km (125 miles) in its northeastern corner with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Any encroachment on Poland's borders would bring Russia for the first time into direct conflict with NATO. US President Joe Biden pledged in a speech in Warsaw this week to defend "every inch" of NATO territory if it was attacked.

Medvedev, 57, has adopted an increasingly hawkish tone and made a series of outspoken interventions since the war began with some political analysts suggesting he is one of the people that Putin might one day consider as a successor.

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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)

An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered that the seven Iranians and three Lebanese citizens accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires face trial in absentia for the first time in the long-running case plagued by setbacks and controversy.

For years Argentine courts have ordered that the suspects — Iranian former officials and Lebanese nationals — be apprehended and brought before a judge because Argentina never allowed trials in absentia.

Past efforts to encourage foreign governments to arrest the suspects, including an influential advisor to Iran's supreme leader, on the basis of Interpol red alerts never gained traction.

But right-wing President Javier Milei, a loyal ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fierce critic of Iran who studies the Torah with a rabbi despite being born Catholic, pushed a bill through Congress earlier this year that authorizes trials in absentia for fugitives that have long sought to evade justice, allowing Argentina to put the defendants on trial for the first time.

On Thursday, Judge Daniel Rafecas approved the trial in absentia following a request from the special prosecutor’s office responsible for investigating the 1994 attack, the deadliest in the South American country’s history, which killed 85 people two years after a separate bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires killed 22 people.

Rafecas described the trial as the only way to avoid impunity now more than 30 years after the bombing.

“Trial in absentia, however limited, remains a tool that allows us, at the very least, to attempt to uncover the truth, reconstruct what happened, and, above all, give those representing the victims a place to express themselves publicly in this process,” he wrote in his ruling.

Last year, a high court in Argentina ruled that the Iranian government had masterminded the 1994 attack on the center, known by its acronym AMIA, and that members of Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah had carried it out.

Iran has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Among the seven Iranians who are subject to Argentine arrest warrants are former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, former commander of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Rezaei and former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who now advises Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The three Lebanese citizens include Salman Raouf Salman, who allegedly coordinated the attack, and fellow Hezbollah members Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar. All have been declared in contempt of court, in some cases decades ago.

Advancing the AMIA case has been a key goal of Milei, who concluded a trip to Jerusalem on June 12, the night before Israel launched its unprecedented air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear sites and military leadership.

Milei escalated his rhetoric against Iran and in support of Israel during the 12-day war between the regional foes, calling Iran “an enemy of Argentina” and praising Israel as “saving Western civilization.”