Trump says chemical attack in Syria crossed many lines
M.N.: The usual, old, tried so many times, successful or not, Putin's game: "forcing into peace", "forcing into cooperation", forcing into love". Now it is Mr. Trump's turn.
The Russian Lessons: "Не мытьём, так катаньем"...
The Russian Lessons: "Не мытьём, так катаньем"...
"The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing last week on alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, but the committee has yet to uncover any evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump. If there's one thing on which Trump and Putin can be accused of colluding, it's recognizing the establishment's insistence on using the threat of fear for self-justification and profit at the average citizen's expense."
CNN |
Russia bans images of Putin linked to 'gay clown' meme
CNN Images of Putin, often with rouged cheeks and eye shadow, have been online since 2011 -- and have had much wider circulation since 2013 in protest over what became known as Russia's gay propaganda law. They are widely known online as the "gay ... Russia bans image of Putin with red lips, heavy makeup It's now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown Russia bans picture of Vladimir Putin in drag |
 The Guardian |
Russia bans picture of Vladimir Putin in drag
The Guardian A picture depicting Vladimir Putin in full makeup has been banned inRussia. The picture is cited on the Russian justice ministry's list of banned extremist materials a list that is 4,074 entries long. No 4,071 states that the poster, depicting ... It's now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown Russia bans 'extremist' picture of Vladimir Putin as a gay clown Russian Court Bans Image Suggesting Putin Is Gay - The Moscow Times |
 CNN |
Russia bans images depicting Putin as a gay clown
CNN It has been fiercely opposed by gay rights groups in Russia and beyond as well as by other human rights groups and the political opposition inRussia. The circulation of the images first came before the courts last year in Tver, a city northwest of Moscow. It's now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown Russia bans picture of Vladimir Putin in drag Russia bans 'extremist' picture of Vladimir Putin as a gay clown |
A protester holds up a sign showing Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing lipstick during a protest against Russian anti-gay laws in 2013. A similar image has been declared “Internet extremism.” (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Russia has banned a picture depicting President Vladimir Putin as a potentially gay clown.
Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the Internet's many Putin-gay-clown memes is now illegal to share. Because, you know, it's been banned.
But the picture was described last week on the Russian government's list of things that constitute “extremism.”
Item 4071: a picture of a Putin-like person “with eyes and lips made up,” captioned with an implicit anti-gay slur, implying “the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation.”
The Moscow Times thinks it probably looks like this:
That poster became popular in 2013, after Russia passed a law banning propagandizing to children about “nontraditional sexual relations,” and gay rights protesters were beaten and arrested.
But gay Putin memes have proliferated as Russia has cracked down on both sexual liberties and online speech in recent years.
Thus, another news site thinks the banned image is this one:
(The other man in that picture is Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, by the way. He's more commonly associated with sleeping memes than sexuality issues, though in 2015, he signed an order banning transgender people from driving.)
A Kremlin spokesman told Russia's state-run news service, Tass, that he hadn't seen the Putin-clown picture, though he was sure it didn't bother the president.
“Kremlin says Putin skilled at brushing off ‘vulgarities’ hurled against him,” reads the state-sanctioned headline on that interview.
The Kremlin has also become fairly adept at controlling what people say about each other on the Internet.
Russia passed its first “Internet extremism” laws in 2013, according to the Moscow Times — a year after Putin returned to the presidency and began restricting civil rights.
A year later, the paper reported, Putin signed a law imposing prison sentences for people who give so much as thumbs-up to a forbidden online post. Those include an article about a theoretical coup, which landed a philosophy professor in detention.
In 2015, Russian authorities began shutting down websites of Putin critics, and restricting nearly all anonymous blogs, The Washington Post reported. And Russia's Internet censor has long allowed public figures to file court complaints if they run across a meme that misrepresents their “personality.” Like this one, maybe.
Last year, United Press International and other outlets reported on a single mother sentenced to community service for reposting a cartoon of Putin looking at a map with a knife in his hand. And a former naval captain from Rostov who reposted an antiwar report about Ukraine got a two-year suspended sentence and one year of probation for inciting hatred and animosity.
The Post reported on evidence of a government plan to block online announcement of an antigovernment rally in Moscow last weekend, after arresting hundreds at the last protest.
The Post's Moscow bureau chief, David Filipov, recorded cellphone videos of the atmosphere in Russia's capital on March 26 as tens of thousands of protesters rally against corruption. (David Filipov, The Washington Post)
The Post's Moscow bureau chief, David Filipov, recorded cellphone videos of the atmosphere in Russia's capital on March 26 as tens of thousands of protesters rally against corruption. The Post's Moscow bureau chief, David Filipov, recorded cellphone videos of the atmosphere in Russia's capital on March 26 as tens of thousands of protesters rally against corruption. (David Filipov, The Washington Post)
The saga of the banned Putin clown actually began years ago, when a man posted a slew of offensive images to a Russian Facebook clone.
They included openly racist and anti-immigrant posts, according to Radio Free Europe. The man was convicted last year, his social media account was shut down, and he was placed in psychiatric care.
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A year later, many of the images he shared were added to the government's thousands-strong blacklist of “extremist materials” — with the potentially gay clown listed right above a picture of Putin and Medvedev as Nazi soldiers.
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Foreign Policy (blog) |
If Germany Goes Nuclear, Blame Trump Before Putin
Foreign Policy (blog) The withdrawal of this security guarantee, as repeatedly suggested by Trump (to the delight, or perhaps at the prompting, of Vladimir Putin), would expose Germany and its neighbors to an increasingly revisionist and aggressive Russia, intent to redress ... and more » |
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Raw Story |
A historian explains what Putin, Le Pen and Trump are selling — and why it is so dangerous
Raw Story And it links the “nostalgic nationalism” of Donald Trump's “Make America Great Again” with Brexit's “Take Back Control” and “Vladimir Putin's reassertion of Russian power”—see here onPutin's nationalistic use of the past. The FT article also mentions ... and more » |
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The dossier, which contains wild and unproven claims about Trump and sordid sexual acts, including the mocked claim that Trump hired prostitutes and had them urinate on a hotel room bed, was compiled by former intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was reportedly paid by Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans to investigate Trump.
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Mike Morell, who served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and twice as acting director, has questioned the dossier’s credibility as have news media reports worldwide.
“The roadmap for the investigation, publicly acknowledged now for the first time, comes from Christopher Steele, once of Britain’s secret intelligence service MI6,” the BBC’s Paul Wood reported.
Wood acknowledged that until now “no single piece of evidence has been made public proving that the Trump campaign joined with Russia to steal the US presidency – nothing.”
But he wrote that “the FBI Director, James Comey, told a hushed committee room in Congress last week that this is precisely what his agents are investigating.”
Wood related that Steele’s dossier “contains a number of highly contested claims.”
But one of the claims in the controversial document was purportedly verified by Wood – that Mikhail Kalugin, a Russian diplomat pulled out of Washington by Moscow, was a Russian agent.
Wood relates that “sources I know and trust have told me the US government identified Kalugin as a spy while he was still at the embassy.”
Of course, in the diplomatic world it is widely known that many top foreign diplomats report back to their home countries about information gleaned in the host country.
Spelling Kalugin’s name wrong, Steele at one point claimed: “A leading Russian diplomat, Mikhail KULAGIN, had been withdrawn from Washington at short notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the US presidential election operation… would be exposed in the media there.”
The FBI is not alone in relying on Steele. Earlier this month, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on a House intelligence committee, cited Steele as a source repeatedly when he delivered his opening statements at a hearing where he laid out the case for alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Washington Post reported that after being paid to compile opposition research on Trump by the billionaire’s opponents during the election, Steele “reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement.”
Ultimately, the FBI did not pay, Steele, the Post reported.
The Post report continued:
Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
In light of the Post report, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley earlier this month sent a letter requesting information on whether the FBI utilized Steele.
In the letter, Grassley questioned the FBI’s intentions over the Steele report:
The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends.
Citing current and former government officials, the New Yorker reported the dossier prompted skepticism among intelligence community member, with the publication quoting one member as saying it was a “nutty” piece of evidence to submit to a U.S. president.
Steele’s work has been questioned by former acting CIA director Morell, who currently works at the Hillary Clinton-tied Beacon Global Strategies LLC. Beacon was founded by Phillippe Reines, who served as Communications Adviser to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state. From 2009-2013, Reines also served in Clinton’s State Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications. Reines is the managing director of Beacon.
NBC News reported on Morell’s questions about Steele’s credibility:
Morell, who was in line to become CIA director if Clinton won, said he had seen no evidence that Trump associates cooperated with Russians. He also raised questions about the dossier written by a former British intelligence officer, which alleged a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. …Morell pointed out that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Meet the Press on March 5 that he had seen no evidence of a conspiracy when he left office January 20.“That’s a pretty strong statement by General Clapper,” Morell said.
Regarding Steele’s dossier, Morell stated, “Unless you know the sources, and unless you know how a particular source acquired a particular piece of information, you can’t judge the information — you just can’t.”
Morell charged the dossier “doesn’t take you anywhere, I don’t think.”
“I had two questions when I first read it. One was, How did Chris talk to these sources? I have subsequently learned that he used intermediaries.”
Morell continued:
And then I asked myself, why did these guys provide this information, what was their motivation? And I subsequently learned that he paid them. That the intermediaries paid the sources and the intermediaries got the money from Chris. And that kind of worries me a little bit because if you’re paying somebody, particularly former FSB officers, they are going to tell you truth and innuendo and rumor, and they’re going to call you up and say, “Hey, let’s have another meeting, I have more information for you,” because they want to get paid some more.I think you’ve got to take all that into consideration when you consider the dossier.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
With research by Joshua Klein.
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Breitbart News |
Report: FBI Using 'Peeing Russian Prostitutes' Dossier as 'Roadmap' for 2016 Investigation
Breitbart News He also raised questions about the dossier written by a former British intelligence officer, which alleged a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. … Morell pointed out that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on ... Russian diplomat under U.S. scrutiny in election meddling speaksMcClatchy Washington Bureau Trump Russia dossier key claim 'verified'BBC News all 23 news articles » |
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Людмила Путина // Фото: Вячеслав Прокофьев/ТАСС
О том, что президент и первая леди больше не вместе, страна узнала 6 июня 2013-го.Тогда в интервью государственному телеканалу Владимир Владимирович и Людмила Александровна признались, что пережили «цивилизованный развод».
В январе прошлого года «Собеседник» опубликовал громкое расследование: по сведениям журналистов, Людмила Путина сменила фамилию и стала Людмилой Очеретной. Все тут же принялись обсуждать, что она, возможно, теперь жена молодого бизнесмена Артура Очеретного. Официальных подтверждений и каких-либо комментариев героев этой истории не последовало.
В распоряжении «СтарХита» оказались уникальные снимки, сделанные 28 марта этого года в лондонском аэропорту «Хитроу». Россиянин по имени Анатолий рассказал, что ему удалось сфотографировать Людмилу и Артура, которые прилетели вместе рейсом «Аэрофлота» Москва – Лондон в 07:00.
Артур и Людмила прилетели в Лондон из Москвы в 7 утра 28 марта // Фото: Архив «СтарХита»
«Я увидел, что народ на кого-то оборачивается, конечно, стало любопытно, – делится Анатолий. – Сначала из зоны контроля вышел стильно одетый мужчина, кативший тележку с несколькими чемоданами. Он параллельно разговаривал по телефону. Рядом с ним шла ухоженная, строго одетая женщина тоже с огромной каталкой. Я узнал в ней бывшую жену нашего президента и услышал, как люди неподалеку обсуждают ее. С рейса в город направлялась еще одна пара. Когда все четверо поравнялись, они обменялись несколькими фразами, обнялись, поцеловались и разошлись. Людмила и ее спутник направились к выходу из аэропорта, где их, видимо, ждал автомобиль».
// Фото: Архив «СтарХита»
На следующий день, 29 марта, председателю правления «Центра развития межличностных коммуникаций» Артуру Очеретному исполнялось 39 лет, вполне вероятно, что гости из России прилетели в Лондон, чтобы отметить праздник.
// Фото: Архив «СтарХита»
// Фото: Архив «СтарХита»
// Фото: Архив «СтарХита», «Фейсбук»
39-летний мужчина – председатель правления Центра развития межличностных коммуникаций»// Фото: «Фейсбук»
«Мы с Людмилой Александровной иногда видимся. У нас очень добрые отношения, может, даже лучше, чем раньше», – сказал Путин на «Прямой линии» в апреле 2016-го // Фото: Bernd Settnik/ТАСС
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Vladimir Putin and then-wife Lyudmila attend a service in Moscow to mark the start of his current term as president on May 7, 2012. (Pool photo by Aleksey Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti via Reuters)
Lyudmila Putin was the wife of Vladimir Putin for three decades. They met in Leningrad, married in 1983 and moved to East Germany, where her husband was a KGB spy. When the Iron Curtain crumbled, they returned to Russia, where Vladimir Putin began his remarkable journey to becoming the most powerful person in the country, if not the planet.
But as Vladimir reigned in Moscow, Lyudmila was seen less and less in public. Wild rumors in the Russian press suggested that he had packed her off to a monastery. In June 2013, the couple attended a Kremlin production of the ballet “La Esmeralda.” In the intermission, they announced to reporters that they would be divorcing.
Since then, Russians have heard little about Lyudmila. Putin’s press secretary refused to answer questions about her life, while the Kremlin biography of Russia’s president deleted all mention of her. But many ordinary citizens remained fascinated by her, eager to know what had happened to the woman who may have gotten closer to Putin than anyone else.
Now, almost four years later, details about Lyudmila’s new life are emerging. And rather than turning up at a remote monastery, she appears to be planning a lavish life at a European villa, with a new husband 20 years her junior.
These new details offer not only a glimpse into the notoriously private world of Putin’s family, barely acknowledged in official accounts and the subject of tabloid gossip, but also a hint of the wealth that critics say the Russian president and those in his inner circle have acquired over recent years.
The Russian news website Sobesednik revealed Lyudmila’s new relationship last year, when it reported on documents that appeared to show that the 58-year-old divorcée had remarried and changed her last name to that of her new husband, businessman Artur Ocheretny, then 37. Photographs appearing to show the couple at London’s Heathrow Airport were published this weekend by the website Starhit.
The couple’s link to the European villa was revealed Wednesday when the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published an article that suggested Ocheretny was the owner of a “mini-palace” in a village called Anglet, near Biarritz in the southwest of France, that is worth up to $7.46 million and is undergoing an extensive renovation. The villa was bought six months after the Putins announced their divorce, the OCCRP reported.
The “Souzanna” villa, near Biarritz, which was reported to have been purchased by Artur Ocheretny, husband of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife. (Wikimedia Commons)
One local resident told a reporter from the OCCRP that the art deco villa was a landmark. “The buyer is Putin’s ex-wife, we all know this here,” the local was reported to have said, apparently unaware that Artur Ocheretny was the legal owner.
It seems like a happy ending for Lyudmila. Accounts of the Putins’ long marriage weren’t always pretty, and the sensitive Lyudmila is said to have struggled with her harsher husband. As Nataliya Gevorkyan, a biographer of Putin, told The Washington Post shortly before the divorce was announced, “She was a woman who loved and was not loved.”
But the OCCRP’s discovery of the luxury villa in France also raised questions about how Lyudmila or her new husband could afford such a lavish property. Artur Ocheretny is the director of a nonprofit organization, the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications, which is best known for being closely linked to Lyudmila. Before that, he worked at an event agency that often worked with government clients. The OCCRP notes that Russian NGO directors do not generally receive high salaries, and none of Ocheretny’s business ventures appear to be a success.
Lyudmila is not officially wealthy, either. Until her divorce, she was required by law to declare her assets and income, and she never declared much. In fact, Vladimir Putin’s own wealth declarations are similarly sparse, with a $147,000 salary and limited assets, including a Moscow apartment, a plot of land and three cars, listed on his 2015 statement.
There has long been speculation, however, that Putin and those close to him are significantly wealthier than they let on. Some estimates for the Russian president’s personal wealth go as high as $200 billion, though they are backed by sparse evidence. A 2016 leak of records from a law firm based in Panama did suggest that associates known to be close to Putin held as much as $2 billion through offshore accounts.
The Russian president may well have reason to keep such details quiet. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny recently released a video that accused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of accepting more than $1 billion in bribes. The allegations sparked major protests in Russian cities.
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Reuters reported in 2015 that Katerina Tikhonova, widely said to be the younger of Putin’s two daughters, owned a seaside villa in Biarritz that was worth about $3.7 million at the time. She and her husband, Kirill Shamalov, the son of a friend of the Russian president, together were worth around $2 billion, the news agency reported.
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By Jeff Mason and Tom Perry| WASHINGTON/BEIRUT
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT U.S. President Donald Trump accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government of going "beyond a red line" with a poison gas attack on civilians and said his attitude toward Syria and Assad had changed, but gave no indication of how he would respond.
Trump said the attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, "crosses many, many lines", an allusion to his predecessor Barack Obama's threat to topple Assad with air strikes if he used such weapons. His accusations against Assad put him directly at odds with Moscow, the Syrian's president principal backer.
"I will tell you, what happened yesterday is unacceptable to me," Trump told reporters at a news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday.
"And I will tell you, it’s already happened that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much," though when asked at an earlier meeting whether he was formulating a new policy on Syria, Trump said: "You'll see."
Vice President Mike Pence, when asked whether it was time to renew the call for Assad to be ousted and safe zones be established, told Fox News: "But let me be clear, all options are on the table," without elaborating.
U.S. officials rejected Russia's assertion that Syrian rebels were to blame for the attack.
Trump's comments, which came just a few days after Washington said it was no longer focused on making Assad leave power, suggested a clash between the Kremlin and Trump's White House after initial signals of warmer ties. Trump did not mention Russia in his comments on Wednesday but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was time for Russia to think carefully about its support for Assad.
Pence said the time had come for Moscow to "keep the word that they made to see to the elimination of chemical weapons so that they no longer threaten the people in that country."
Western countries, including the United States, blamed Assad's armed forces for the worst chemical attack in Syria for more than four years.
U.S. intelligence officials, based on a preliminary assessment, said the deaths were most likely caused by sarin nerve gas dropped by Syrian aircraft on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday. A senior State Department official said Washington had not yet ascertained it was sarin.
Moscow offered an alternative explanation that would shield Assad: that the poison gas belonged to rebels and had leaked from an insurgent weapons depot hit by Syrian bombs.
A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Russian explanation was not credible. "We don't believe it," the official said.
COUNTER-RESOLUTION
REUTERS
The United States, Britain and France have proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn the attack; the Russian Foreign Ministry called it "unacceptable" and said it was based on "fake information".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would press its case blaming the rebels and Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia would veto the draft if Western nations went to a vote without further consultations, Interfax news agency reported.
Moscow has proposed its own draft, TASS news agency quoted a spokesman of Russia's U.N. mission, Fyodor Strzhizhovsky, as saying on Wednesday.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, issued what appeared to be a threat of unilateral action if Security Council members could not agree.
"When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action," she told the council, without elaborating.
Trump described the attack as "horrible" and "unspeakable." He faulted Obama for failing to carry through on his "red line" threat and when asked if he had responsibility to respond to the attack, said: "I now have responsibility".
The new incident means Trump is faced with same dilemma that faced his predecessor: whether to openly challenge Moscow and risk deep involvement in a Middle East war by seeking to punish Assad for using banned weapons, or compromise and accept the Syrian leader remaining in power at the risk of looking weak.
While some rebels hailed Trump's statement as an apparent shift in the U.S. position, others said it was too early to say whether the comments would result in a real change in policy.
Fares al-Bayoush, a Free Syrian Army commander, told Reuters: "Today's statement contains a serious difference from the previous statements, and we expect positivity ... from the American role.
Others who declined to be identified said they would wait and see.
Video uploaded to social media showed civilians sprawled on the ground, some in convulsions, others lifeless. Rescue workers hose down the limp bodies of small children, trying to wash away chemicals. People wail and pound on the chests of victims.
The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said one of its hospitals in Syria had treated patients "with symptoms - dilated pupils, muscle spasms, involuntary defecation - consistent with exposure to neuro-toxic agents such as sarin". The World Health Organization also said the symptoms were consistent with exposure to a nerve agent.
"We're talking about war crimes," French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters in New York.
Labib Nahhas, chief of foreign relations at Ahrar al-Sham, one of the biggest rebel groups in western Syria, called the Russian statement factually wrong and one which contradicted witness accounts.
"This statement provides Assad with the required coverage and protection to continue his despicable slaughter of the Syrian people," Nahhas told Reuters.
The incident is the first time U.S. intelligence officials have accused Assad of using sarin since 2013, when hundreds of people died in an attack on a Damascus suburb. At that time, Washington said Assad had crossed a "red line" set by then-President Obama.
Obama threatened an air campaign to topple Assad but called it off at the last minute when the Syrian leader agreed to give up his chemical arsenal under a deal brokered by Moscow, a decision which Trump has long said proved Obama's weakness.
SAME DILEMMA
The Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution condemns the attack and presses Syria to cooperate with international investigators. Russia has blocked seven resolutions to protect Assad's government, most recently in February.
Trump's response to a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow will be closely watched at home because of accusations by his political opponents that he is too supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election last year through computer hacking to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The FBI and two congressional committees are investigating whether figures from the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow, which the White House denies.
Trump's relationship with Russia has deteriorated since the presidential election campaign, when Trump praised Putin as a strong leader and vowed to improve relations between the two countries, including a more coordinated effort to defeat Islamic State in Syria.
But as Russia has grown more assertive, including interfering in European politics and deploying missiles in its western Kaliningrad region and a new ground-launched cruise missile near Volgograd in southern Russia - an apparent violation of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty - relations have cooled, U.S. officials have said.
The chemical attack in Idlib province, one of the last major strongholds of rebels, who have fought since 2011 to topple Assad, complicates diplomatic efforts to end a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven half of Syrians from their homes.
Over the past several months, Western countries, including the United States, had been quietly dropping their demands that Assad leave power in any deal to end the war, accepting that the rebels no longer had the capability to topple him by force.
The use of banned chemical weapons would make it harder for the international community to sign off on any peace deal that does not remove him. Britain and France on Wednesday renewed their call for Assad to leave power.
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Polina Devitt in Moscow; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Lesley Wroughton and Steve Holland in Washington; writing by Peter Graff, Philippa Fletcher and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Louise Ireland and Lisa Shumaker)
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