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WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week highlighted China’s aspirations for a greater role on the world stage. But they also revealed the perils of global diplomacy: Hours after Friday’s announcement of the trip, an international arrest warrant was issued for Putin on war crimes charges, taking at least some wind out of the sails of China’s big reveal.

The flurry of developments — which followed China’s brokering of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations and its release of what it calls a “peace plan” for Ukraine — came as the Biden administration watches warily Beijing’s moves to assert itself more forcefully in international affairs.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he believes the decision by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Putin was “justified.” Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home, he said Putin “clearly committed war crimes.”

While the U.S. does not recognize the court, Biden said it “makes a very strong point” to call out the Russian leader for his actions in ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Other U.S. officials privately expressed satisfaction that an international body had agreed with Washington’s assessment that Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Asked about the Xi-Putin meeting, Biden said, “Well, we’ll see when that meeting takes place.”

The Biden administration believes China’s desire to be seen as a broker for peace between Russia and Ukraine may be viewed more critically now that Putin is officially a war crime suspect, according to two U.S. officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the matter publicly, said the administration hopes the warrants will help mobilize heretofore neutral countries to weigh in on the conflict.

A look at the Xi-Putin meeting and how it may be affected by the warrant.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF XI MEETING WITH PUTIN?

The visit to Russia will be Xi’s first foreign trip since being elected to an unprecedented third term as China’s president. It comes as Beijing and Moscow have intensified ties in steps that began shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a meeting between the two leaders in Beijing during last year’s Winter Olympics at which they declared a “no limits” partnership.

Since then, China has repeatedly sided with Russia in blocking international action against Moscow for the Ukraine conflict and, U.S. officials say, is considering supplying Russia with weapons to support the war. But it has also tried to cast itself in a more neutral role, offering a peace plan that was essentially ignored.

The meeting in Moscow is likely to see the two sides recommit to their partnership, which both see as critical to countering what they consider undue and undeserved influence exerted by the U.S. and its Western allies.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ICC ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR PUTIN?

In the immediate term, the ICC’s warrant for Putin and one of his aides is unlikely to have a major impact on the meeting or China’s position toward Russia. Neither China nor Russia — nor the United States or Ukraine — has ratified the ICC’s founding treaty. The U.S., beginning with the Clinton administration, has refused to join the court, fearing that its broad mandate could result in the prosecution of American troops or officials.

That means that none of the four countries formally recognizes the court’s jurisdiction or is bound by its orders, although Ukraine has consented to allowing some ICC probes of crimes on its territory and the U.S. has cooperated with ICC investigations.

In addition, it is highly unlikely that Putin would travel to a country that would be bound by obligations to the ICC. If he did, it is questionable whether that country would actually arrest him. There is precedent for those previously indicted, notably former Sudanese President Omar Bashir, to have visited ICC members without being detained.

However, the stain of the arrest warrant could well work against China and Russia in the court of public opinion and Putin’s international status may take a hit unless the charges are withdrawn or he is acquitted.

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM WASHINGTON?

U.S. officials have not minced words when it comes to Xi’s planned visit to Moscow. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called Beijing’s push for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine a “ratification of Russian conquest” and warned that Russians could use a cease-fire to regroup their positions “so that they can restart attacks on Ukraine at a time of their choosing.”

“We do not believe that this is a step towards a just, durable peace,” he said. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan this week called on Xi to also speak with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian leader has also expressed interest in talks with Xi.

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM KYIV?

Speaking before the ICC warrant was unveiled, Ukrainian analysts cautioned against falling into a potential trap ahead of the Xi-Putin meeting. “We need to be aware that such peace talks are a trap for Ukraine and its diplomatic corps,” said Yurii Poita, who heads the Asia section at the Kyiv-based New Geopolitics Research Network.

“Under such conditions, these peace talks won’t be directed toward peace,” said Nataliia Butyrska, a Ukrainian analyst on politics related to Eastern Asia. She said the visit reflects not so much China’s desire for peace but its desire to play a major role in whatever post-conflict settlement may be reached.

“China does not clearly distinguish between who is the aggressor and who is the victim. And when a country begins its peacekeeping activities or at least seeks to help the parties, not distinguishing this will affect objectivity,” Butyrska said. “From my perspective, China seeks to freeze the conflict.”

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW?

Even if China stops short of providing military assistance to Russia as the U.S. and its allies fear, Moscow sees Xi’s visit as a powerful signal of Chinese backing that challenges Western efforts to isolate Russia and deal crippling blows to its economy.

Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov noted that Putin and Xi have “very special friendly and trusting personal ties” and hailed Beijing’s peace plan. “We highly appreciate the restrained, well-balanced position of the Chinese leadership on this issue,” Ushakov said.

Observers say that despite China’s posturing as a mediator, its refusal to condemn the Russian action leaves no doubt about where Beijing’s sympathy lies.

“The Chinese peace plan is a fig leaf to push back against some Western criticism on support for Russia,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The optics that it creates is that China has a peace plan, both parties of war endorsed it and were ready to explore the opportunities and then it was killed by the hostile West.”

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM BEIJING?

Chinese officials have been boasting about their new-found clout in the international arena as their country’s foreign policy has become increasingly assertive under Xi.

In announcing the Xi visit, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing’s ties with Moscow are a significant world force. “As the world enters a new period of turbulence and change, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an important power, the significance and influence of China-Russia relations go far beyond the bilateral scope,” it said.

It called the visit “a journey of friendship, further deepening mutual trust and understanding between China and Russia, and consolidating the political foundation and public opinion foundation of friendship between the two peoples for generations.”

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week highlighted China’s aspirations for a greater role on the world stage. But they also revealed the perils of global diplomacy: Hours after Friday’s announcement of the trip, an international arrest warrant was issued for Putin on war crimes charges, taking at least some wind out of the sails of China’s big reveal.

The flurry of developments — which followed China’s brokering of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations and its release of what it calls a “peace plan” for Ukraine — came as the Biden administration watches warily Beijing’s moves to assert itself more forcefully in international affairs.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he believes the decision by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Putin was “justified.” Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home, he said Putin “clearly committed war crimes.”

While the U.S. does not recognize the court, Biden said it “makes a very strong point” to call out the Russian leader for his actions in ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Other U.S. officials privately expressed satisfaction that an international body had agreed with Washington’s assessment that Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Asked about the Xi-Putin meeting, Biden said, “Well, we’ll see when that meeting takes place.”

The Biden administration believes China’s desire to be seen as a broker for peace between Russia and Ukraine may be viewed more critically now that Putin is officially a war crime suspect, according to two U.S. officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the matter publicly, said the administration hopes the warrants will help mobilize heretofore neutral countries to weigh in on the conflict.

A look at the Xi-Putin meeting and how it may be affected by the warrant.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF XI MEETING WITH PUTIN?

The visit to Russia will be Xi’s first foreign trip since being elected to an unprecedented third term as China’s president. It comes as Beijing and Moscow have intensified ties in steps that began shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a meeting between the two leaders in Beijing during last year’s Winter Olympics at which they declared a “no limits” partnership.

Since then, China has repeatedly sided with Russia in blocking international action against Moscow for the Ukraine conflict and, U.S. officials say, is considering supplying Russia with weapons to support the war. But it has also tried to cast itself in a more neutral role, offering a peace plan that was essentially ignored.

The meeting in Moscow is likely to see the two sides recommit to their partnership, which both see as critical to countering what they consider undue and undeserved influence exerted by the U.S. and its Western allies.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ICC ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR PUTIN?

In the immediate term, the ICC’s warrant for Putin and one of his aides is unlikely to have a major impact on the meeting or China’s position toward Russia. Neither China nor Russia — nor the United States or Ukraine — has ratified the ICC’s founding treaty. The U.S., beginning with the Clinton administration, has refused to join the court, fearing that its broad mandate could result in the prosecution of American troops or officials.

That means that none of the four countries formally recognizes the court’s jurisdiction or is bound by its orders, although Ukraine has consented to allowing some ICC probes of crimes on its territory and the U.S. has cooperated with ICC investigations.

In addition, it is highly unlikely that Putin would travel to a country that would be bound by obligations to the ICC. If he did, it is questionable whether that country would actually arrest him. There is precedent for those previously indicted, notably former Sudanese President Omar Bashir, to have visited ICC members without being detained.

However, the stain of the arrest warrant could well work against China and Russia in the court of public opinion and Putin’s international status may take a hit unless the charges are withdrawn or he is acquitted.

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM WASHINGTON?

U.S. officials have not minced words when it comes to Xi’s planned visit to Moscow. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called Beijing’s push for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine a “ratification of Russian conquest” and warned that Russians could use a cease-fire to regroup their positions “so that they can restart attacks on Ukraine at a time of their choosing.”

“We do not believe that this is a step towards a just, durable peace,” he said. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan this week called on Xi to also speak with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian leader has also expressed interest in talks with Xi.

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM KYIV?

Speaking before the ICC warrant was unveiled, Ukrainian analysts cautioned against falling into a potential trap ahead of the Xi-Putin meeting. “We need to be aware that such peace talks are a trap for Ukraine and its diplomatic corps,” said Yurii Poita, who heads the Asia section at the Kyiv-based New Geopolitics Research Network.

“Under such conditions, these peace talks won’t be directed toward peace,” said Nataliia Butyrska, a Ukrainian analyst on politics related to Eastern Asia. She said the visit reflects not so much China’s desire for peace but its desire to play a major role in whatever post-conflict settlement may be reached.

“China does not clearly distinguish between who is the aggressor and who is the victim. And when a country begins its peacekeeping activities or at least seeks to help the parties, not distinguishing this will affect objectivity,” Butyrska said. “From my perspective, China seeks to freeze the conflict.”

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW?

Even if China stops short of providing military assistance to Russia as the U.S. and its allies fear, Moscow sees Xi’s visit as a powerful signal of Chinese backing that challenges Western efforts to isolate Russia and deal crippling blows to its economy.

Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov noted that Putin and Xi have “very special friendly and trusting personal ties” and hailed Beijing’s peace plan. “We highly appreciate the restrained, well-balanced position of the Chinese leadership on this issue,” Ushakov said.

Observers say that despite China’s posturing as a mediator, its refusal to condemn the Russian action leaves no doubt about where Beijing’s sympathy lies.

“The Chinese peace plan is a fig leaf to push back against some Western criticism on support for Russia,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The optics that it creates is that China has a peace plan, both parties of war endorsed it and were ready to explore the opportunities and then it was killed by the hostile West.”

WHAT IS THE VIEW FROM BEIJING?

Chinese officials have been boasting about their new-found clout in the international arena as their country’s foreign policy has become increasingly assertive under Xi.

In announcing the Xi visit, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing’s ties with Moscow are a significant world force. “As the world enters a new period of turbulence and change, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an important power, the significance and influence of China-Russia relations go far beyond the bilateral scope,” it said.

It called the visit “a journey of friendship, further deepening mutual trust and understanding between China and Russia, and consolidating the political foundation and public opinion foundation of friendship between the two peoples for generations.”

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed to this report.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week, offering a major diplomatic boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day the International Criminal Court announced it wants to put the Russian leader on trial for alleged war crimes.

Xi’s visit was the latest sign of Beijing’s emboldened diplomatic ambitions, and came amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine, now in its 13th month.

The U.S. on Friday said it would oppose any effort by China at the meeting to propose a ceasefire in Ukraine as the “ratification of Russian conquest.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby encouraged Xi to reach out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to get his country’s perspective on the war and avoid any “one-sided” proposals.

China has sought to project itself as neutral in the conflict, even while it has refused to condemn Moscow’s aggression and declared last year that it had a “no-limits” friendship with Russia. Beijing has denounced Western sanctions against Moscow, and accused NATO and the United States of provoking Putin’s military action.

Throughout the conflict, China has said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. It remains unclear, however, whether it sympathizes with Moscow’s claims to seized Ukrainian territory.

Russian troops remain bogged down in a battle of attrition, focused now on those areas in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Xi’s visit would mark his first meeting with Putin since September, when they met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan. Before that, Putin attended the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and met with Xi shortly before sending troops into Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Putin and Xi would have a one-on-one meeting over an informal dinner Monday. Broader talks involving officials from both countries on a range of subjects are scheduled for Tuesday.

Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, suggested the talks could yield new approaches to the fighting in Ukraine. “I’m sure that our leader and the Chinese leader will exchange their assessments of the situation” there, he said. “We shall see what ideas will emerge after that.”

Kyiv doesn’t just want Russia to pull back from areas taken since its February 2022 full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia also withdraw from the peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 in a move denounced by most of the world as illegal.

But Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea.

“Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he said, referring to Crimea’s largest city. “We will do everything needed to fend off any threats.”

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reached out to his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, saying Beijing was concerned about the war spinning out of control and urging talks on a political solution with Moscow.

China has “always upheld an objective and fair stance on the Ukraine issue, has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations, and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks,” Qin said.

Kuleba later tweeted that he and Qin “discussed the significance of the principle of territorial integrity.” Ukraine has listed Russia’s withdrawal from the occupied areas as the main condition for peace.

“I underscored the importance of (Zelenskyy’s) peace formula for ending the aggression and restoring just peace in Ukraine,” wrote Kuleba, who spoke the same day with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

China last month called for a cease-fire and peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow. Zelenskyy cautiously welcomed Beijing’s involvement but the overture appeared to go no further.

Yurii Poita, head of the Asia section at the Kyiv-based New Geopolitics Research Network, believes the Ukrainian government is going along with China’s involvement because it is reluctant to make another powerful enemy.

“Do not antagonize the dragon when you are fighting against a bear,” Poita told The Associated Press.

Beijing’s apparent deeper dive into Ukraine issues follows its success last week in brokering talks between Iran and its chief Middle Eastern rival, Saudi Arabia. Those two countries agreed to restore their diplomatic ties after years of tensions.

The agreement cast China in a leading role in Middle Eastern politics, a part previously reserved for longtime global heavyweights like the U.S.

On the back of that, Xi called for China to play a bigger role in managing global affairs.

Washington has marshaled Western military and diplomatic efforts against Putin.

On Friday, Kirby told reporters, “A ceasefire now is, again, effectively the ratification of Russian conquest.” It would ”in effect recognize Russia’s gains and its attempt to conquer its neighbor’s territory by force, allowing Russian troops to continue to occupy sovereign Ukrainian territory.”

Russia could use a ceasefire to regroup “so that they can restart attacks on Ukraine at a time of their choosing,” he warned.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain would welcome any genuine effort by China aimed at “restoring sovereignty to Ukraine.”

“Any peace deal which is not predicated on Ukraine’s sovereignty and self-determination is not a peace deal at all,” Sunak’s spokesman Jamie Davies said.

Nataliia Butyrska, a Ukrainian political analyst, said Beijing’s potential peacemaking role could be clouded by its stance on territorial integrity.

“China does not clearly distinguish between who is the aggressor and who is the victim” in Ukraine, she told The AP.

China has its own territorial issues, with Taiwan, which it claims as its own, to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

U.S.-Russia tensions were further escalated this week with the destruction of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday after an encounter with Russian fighter jets, although that also prompted the first conversations since October between the countries’ defense and military chiefs.

Putin invited Xi to visit Russia during a video conference call the two held in late December. The visit, Putin said, could “demonstrate to the whole world the strength of the Russian-Chinese ties” and “become the main political event of the year in bilateral relations.”

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday that Xi and Putin will discuss “bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern….”

“Currently, the world is entering a new period of turbulence and reform with the accelerated evolution of changes of the century,” he added.“ As permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and important major countries, the significance and impact of the China-Russia relations go far beyond the bilateral sphere.”

The arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court at The Hague accused Putin of involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine to Russia. It also issued a warrant for his commissioner for children’s right, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.

The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants, and the Kremlin has said it doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

—

Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this story.

Russia said on Friday that all fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by Western nations would be destroyed after NATO members Poland and Slovakia pledged to send MiG-29 jets to Kyiv.

Since Russia’s invasion last year NATO countries have sent billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, as Kyiv asks for weapons it says are vital to fend off Russian advances.

Moscow has accused the West of directly participating in the conflict through supplying weapons to Ukraine, and has warned before that NATO weapons were legitimate targets for its forces.

“It feels like all of these countries are thus engaged in the disposal of old unnecessary equipment.”

Dmitry Peskov

“In the course of the special military operation all this equipment will be subject to destruction,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“It feels like all of these countries are thus engaged in the disposal of old unnecessary equipment,” he said.

Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets fly near the Malacky Air Base, near Malacky, Slovakia, August 27, 2022. (credit: DAVID W CERNY/REUTERS)

Slovakia ordered F-16 fighter jets from the United States in 2018 to replace its aging MiG-29 planes. Its fleet of 11 MiG-29s was retired last summer.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and one of his commissioners over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

“Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova,” the ICC said in a statement on Friday.

The court accused the duo of being responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The crimes, the court said, were allegedly committed in Ukrainian-occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022.

It noted that it has reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin is responsible for having committed the acts directly or jointly with others and/or through others.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others,” the court said about Mr Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

The allegations were considered by Pre-Trial Chamber II based on the prosecution’s applications of 22 February 2023 and the arrest warrant issued.

“The Chamber considered that the warrants are secret in order to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation,” the statement said.

However, noting that the allegations are ongoing and that public awareness of the warrants may contribute to the prevention of further commission of crimes, the Chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the Chamber.

Russia is expected to ignore the ICC directive as the country was never a full member of the international court.

READ ALSO: Cricket: Sports Minister commends ICC, NCF for excellent organisation of World Cup qualifier

Although Russia signed the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, in 2000, it never ratified the agreement to become a member. In 2016, Mr Putin withdrew Russia from the process of joining the ICC.

Russia on 24 February 2022 launched a “military operation” against Ukraine with claims of de-nazifying the latter.

Since the war broke out, not less than 8,000 people, mostly Ukrainians, have been killed and millions displaced.

Janes – News page

The U.S. military on Thursday morning released dramatic video that it said showed a Russian fighter jet intercepting and then colliding with the American MQ-9 “Reaper” drone that crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday. The U.S. has accused Russia of operating its warplane in an “unsafe and unprofessional” manner during the encounter near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

On Wednesday, a senior Russian official said Moscow would try to recover the wreckage of the drone. U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the unmanned aerial vehicle had likely broken during the crash and whatever debris was left likely sank to a depth of thousands of feet in the Black Sea.

“That’s U.S. property,” Milley said Wednesday at a Pentagon news conference. “There’s probably not a lot to recover, frankly.”

An official told CBS News that the Russians had reached the site of the crash and would probably manage to collect some pieces of the debris, like metal chunks, but Milley said the U.S. had taken mitigating measures to prevent the loss of any sensitive intelligence.

“We are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” he told reporters.

The video released Thursday by the Pentagon (above), captured by a camera on the MQ-9, first shows a fighter jet pass by at close range before making another pass during which it allegedly hit the drone’s propeller. The camera view is lost briefly after the apparent collision but it comes back to show what the Air Force said was damage to the propeller from the strike.

The Russian jet “dumped fuel upon and struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters,” the Air Force said in a statement accompanying the video.

The video released by the U.S. military’s European Command was “edited for length, however, the events are depicted in sequential order,” the statement said.

An image taken from video released on March 16, 2023 by the U.S. military shows what the Pentagon said is a Russian fighter jet approaching a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea just before colliding with the drone, forcing it to be brought down, on March 14, 2023. The image was captured by a camera on board the MQ-9, the Pentagon said. U.S. Military handout

Speaking to reporters this week, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder wouldn’t say whether the drone was armed, and he referred to the unmanned aircraft as a MQ-9, but not by its other name, the Reaper. The U.S. uses Reapers for surveillance and strikes and has operated the aircraft from Europe to the Middle East and Africa.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, speaking alongside Milley, that he had spoken with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu after the incident over the Black Sea, but the American defense chief didn’t provide details of the conversation.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Austin told reporters.

A MQ-9 Reaper drone flies by during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base on November 17, 2015, in Indian Springs, Nevada. Isaac Brekken/Getty

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Shoigu had told Austin that the collision was the result of “increased [U.S.] intelligence activities against the interests of the Russian Federation” and “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone” declared by Moscow amid its ongoing war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s southern coast is on the Black Sea, and Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014 and claimed as its sovereign territory, sticks out into the body of water.

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The Russian ministry said it would react “proportionately” to any more U.S. “provocations” in the region, warning that “flights of American strategic unmanned aerial vehicles off the coast of Crimea are provocative in nature, which creates pre-conditions for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea zone.”  

“Russia is not interested in such a development of events, but it will continue to respond proportionately to all provocations,” the defense ministry said.

CBS News’ Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.

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On November 21, 2021, FBI agents acting on a court-ordered search warrant seized the personal electronic devices — cell phones, computers, tablets, and similar items — of a former Russian diplomat and a retired FBI agent.

The seizure went unnoticed publicly. No details were announced, either by the U.S. Justice Department or by the two men themselves: where, when, who, why.

Eight days later, a new filing appeared in the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent database, where people and companies who represent foreign principals are legally required to disclose their clients and activities. The filing was by Sergei Shestakov, a former Russian diplomat who later worked a translator for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.

The filing indicated that a top official from the company belonging to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska had sought “professional assistance” from Shestakov. The official, identified as Yevgeny Fokin, communicated periodically with Shestakov, and Shestakov said he sought the help of Charles McGonigal — “a security professional.”

Less than a month later, Shestakov submitted an updated filing, saying he was ending his registration for work on behalf of Fokin.

Fast-forward exactly 14 months: McGonigal and Shestakov were arrested by FBI agents on January 21 and charged with money laundering, making false statements, and helping Deripaska evade U.S. financial sanctions imposed on him in 2018.

The case has stunned people in U.S. intelligence and law enforcement for multiple reasons. The main reason: Until 2018, McGonigal — a 22-year veteran of the FBI — was the bureau’s top agent in charge of counterintelligence, supervising and participating in investigations of Russian spies and moles in the United States — not to mention oligarchs.

That includes Deripaska.

“It definitely shocked me, and here I thought I was unflappable,” said Miriam Baer, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, the powerful Manhattan federal prosecutors’ office that brought the charges against McGonigal — and that McGonigal likely worked with in the past.

Oleg Deripaska attends an event in Moscow in September 2020.

The troubling questions now, Baer says, are not only why McGonigal allegedly committed criminal acts, but whether he acted alone, whether others were aware, and why no one in a premier FBI office picked up on what was going on.

“If this was a true ‘rogue’ agent, then perhaps there is no worry of overlap with” cases overseen by the Southern District, said Baer, now a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School. “If his behavior implicates a broader conspiracy that involves other FBI personnel, then I would think overlap more likely and therefore a greater concern.”

The case also turns the spotlight back on Deripaska, a billionaire businessman with close ties to the Kremlin who has been on the radar of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, not to mention political circles, for at least two decades.

“The ability of [Deripaska] to penetrate powerful legal circles and now law enforcement circles is quite amazing,” said Louise Shelley, an academic who studies corruption and transnational crime at George Mason University and who appeared on a panel discussion with McGonigal in 2020.

“It is a case of enablers on steroids,” she told RFE/RL.

McGonigal, who was arrested as he arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 21, was released on bail after entering a not-guilty plea during his first court appearance. His next appearance is scheduled for March.

“As you all know, Charlie’s had a long, distinguished career with the FBI,” his defense lawyer, Seth DuCharme, told reporters outside the courthouse. “He served the United States for decades. This is obviously a distressing day for Mr. McGonigal and his family.”

‘A Broad, Multimillion-Dollar Political Influence Campaign’

The charges McGonigal faces stem from two indictments: one was filed by Washington, D.C., federal prosecutors and addresses work that they say McGonigal did on behalf of Albanian interests, including not disclosing an “ongoing relationship with the prime minister of Albania.”

The second, filed in New York, concerns Deripaska, who has been dogged for years by reports of connections to suspected organized-crime groups, including to Semyon Mogilevich, a Russian-Ukrainian businessman formerly on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List.

Deripaska did not respond to an e-mail sent via his holding company EN+. A spokeswoman, meanwhile, told The New York Times that Deripaska did not hire McGonigal for any purpose and also that Deripaska had never been close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Many Russia experts, and U.S. officials, have long concluded that oligarchs like Deripaska are able to retain their fortunes so long as they stay on the good side of Putin and the Kremlin. U.S. State Department officials say Deripaska has particularly close personal relations with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Beginning in 2006, the State Department denied Deripaska a visa, citing concerns about ties to organized crime. The difficulties led him to enlist the lobbying influence of former Republican Senate leader Bob Dole and, later, the work of an influential Washington lobbying firm run by a former chairman of the Republican Party.

Deripaska also developed a business relationship with another Republican political operative who had worked for Dole: Paul Manafort. Manafort tried to resolve Deripaska’s visa problems in the 2000s, but the two had a falling out after a failed business venture.

Later, Manafort served as campaign manager for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, until revelations about his work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine led to his firing. He also allegedly passed secret campaign information to a Russian-Ukrainian man named Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Deripaska and who was described by the Senate Intelligence Committee as “a Russian intelligence officer.”

Deripaska managed to travel the United States more than a half-dozen times between 2011 and 2014 using a Russian diplomatic passport, a U.S. State Department official told RFE/RL. That was later backed up by court documents filed in another U.S. lawsuit involving Deripaska.

In 2009, Deripaska reportedly traveled to the United States under a secret arrangement with the FBI.

Manafort was later prosecuted and convicted by a federal jury on money-laundering and bank-fraud charges in 2018. He was pardoned by Trump in December 2020, just weeks before the end of Trump’s presidency.

A 2020 report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee highlighted Manafort’s dealings saying between 2004 and 2009, “Manafort implemented these influence operations on behalf of Deripaska, including a broad, multimillion-dollar political influence campaign directed at numerous countries of interest to Deripaska and the Russian government.”

Between 2014 and 2016, Deripaska was targeted by U.S. law enforcement for another reason. According to The New York Times, Justice Department officials tried unsuccessfully to enlist him as an informant, to glean insight into Russian organized crime and Kremlin thinking.

In April 2018, Deripaska and his aluminum company were hit with sanctions.

In October 2021, the FBI raided two homes owned by Deripaska or related legal entities, in New York and Washington, D.C. Deripaska vented about the raids and what he called “the transcendental stupidity…of the American establishment.”

FBI officers are seen outside the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Washington in October 2021.

The next month, FBI agents seized the cell phones and other equipment from McGonigal and Shestakov.

‘Supervised…In Investigations Of Russian Oligarchs, Including Deripaska’

McGonigal got his start with the FBI in 1996, when he was first assigned to the bureau’s New York office, where he worked on “Russian foreign counterintelligence and organized crime matters,” according to his official biography.

He worked for years in Washington on counterespionage cases.

In 2016, he was named special agent in charge of the New York office’s counterintelligence division, where he “supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska,” according to the indictment.

According to Senate testimony in 2020 from a top Justice Department official, McGonigal was also instrumental in launching Operation Crossfire Hurricane — the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign and possible links to Russian influence.

In 2018, prosecutors said, McGonigal was introduced by Shestakov to a man who they said “worked for and reported to Deripaska and served as an officer of a corporation that was primarily owned by Deripaska.”

Charles McGonigal

It’s unclear how and when McGonigal and Shestakov first met. However, Shestakov, who had a home in Connecticut, worked as an authorized translator for federal courts and also for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, where he likely encountered McGonigal.

Shestakov retired from the Russian foreign service in 1993, and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Like Shestakov, a man identified as “Agent-1” in the indictment worked for the Soviet and Russian foreign ministries. He was also “rumored in public media reports to be a Russian intelligence officer.”

The man is not identified, but Shestakov’s FARA filing, along with other Russian and Western media reports, point to Yevgeny Fokin, currently the director of international cooperation for EN+, the aluminum and power-generation holding company controlled by Deripaska.

Fokin did not respond to messages sent via LinkedIn. An e-mail sent to the EN+ press service was not immediately responded to.

In the spring of 2018, according to the indictment, Shestakov introduced McGonigal to “Agent-1,” who then asked McGonigal for help in arranging an internship for “Agent-1’s” daughter with the New York Police Department. McGonigal agreed to help and informed a supervisor that he wanted to recruit “Agent 1.” It’s unclear if McGonigal was successful.

In September 2018, he retired from the FBI and joined the private sector.

The following year, McGonigal was hired by a Washington law firm to work as a consultant on efforts to get Deripaska removed from the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list. According to the indictment, he arranged for $25,000 to be sent monthly to a bank account controlled by Shestakov.

While employed by the FBI, McGonigal’s job allowed him to access classified information, including, the indictment said, a then-secret list of Russians who the Treasury Department were considering for sanctions, a list that included Deripaska.

The indictment also alleges that through “Agent-1,” Deripaska hired McGonigal to investigate a rival Russian oligarch.

That tycoon is not named, though the filing indicates he and Deripaska were fighting for control over a “large Russian corporation” and the oligarch might have offshore assets or a foreign citizenship. McGonigal and Shestakov allegedly used pseudonyms in electronic communications to obscure Deripaska’s name, calling him: “you know whom,” and “the big guy,” “our friend from Vienna,” and “the client.”

According to the indictment, McGonigal was negotiating with Agent-1, and Deripaska, in October 2021 for payment for a large number of files found on the “dark web” — part of the Internet that is largely hidden from easy viewing — that reportedly related to the rival oligarch.

The next month, the FBI seized McGonigal’s and Shestakov’s cell phones and computers.

Money Laundering, Not Espionage

Prosecutors’ specific criminal allegations do not address directly McGonigal’s alleged accessing of the classified database, nor do they address the question of his helping the daughter of “Agent 1” gain an internship.

For some legal observers, that’s raised questions about why the Justice Department didn’t file more serious charges. “It may be that prosecutors had reasons for wanting to move now and not later,” Baer told RFE/RL. “If so, they would logically select those charges for which they had the most evidence,” she said. “A prosecutor can always add charges by returning to the grand jury for a superseding indictment.”

Deripaska, for his part, faces his own sanctions-evasion-related criminal charges, unconnected to his alleged payments to McGonigal.

In September 2022, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of conspiring to have his girlfriend give birth to their child in the United States, and to hide payments for the effort. A Russian-American woman has been arrested in connection with the case.

In 2020, in an event first described by Business Insider, McGonigal joined a panel discussion at the Washington think tank Atlantic Council, where he discussed corruption at Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB).

“I think the rule of law under the FSB…has eroded significantly in Russia,” he told the panel. “You are seeing an erosion, I think, in any rule of law as it relates to the FSB and their carrying out their responsibilities as a domestic security agency.”

“It would be akin to having in the United States the FBI as a rogue element, operating at the behest of the highest bidder, engaged in criminal activities,” he said.