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Belgrade’s permission for Russia Today channel to broadcast on the territory of Serbia and the visit of Serbian far-right politician Damjan Knežević, the leader of the ultra-right organization ‘Narodna Patrola’, to the St.Petersburg Wagner Center are interconnected events that clearly show the Kremlin’s plans to destabilize the Balkan region and fuel one more conflict in Europe that supposedly should shift attention away from Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Kremlin believes that the Balkans are the region vulnerable enough to provoke a large-scale conflict.

Read also: Russian GRU involved in fueling religious tensions in Balkans

NATO membership of some countries in the region gives Russia an opportunity to cause confrontation between some members of the Alliance in case of a conflict.

In fact, Russia Today introduction in Serbia is the preparation stage for formation bipolar public opinion. This Russian military intelligence-affiliated propaganda channel has already conduct such information and psychological operations in Ukraine in late 2013 – early 2014 before the annexation of Crimea, as well as in early 2022 on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine. It is absolutely clear that the activity of Russia Today in Serbia will be aimed at discrediting the West and escalating ethnic conflicts in the region. The fact that the Serbs are quite loyal to Russia and they do not need any psychological operations prove this opinion. However, the Serbian government and elites are pretty cautious and try to avoid violence. That is why, Moscow has to make the public opinion formation scenario in Serbia that will push the government and elites to provoke a conflict. Knežević’s visit was covered by Yevgeny Prigozhin‘s Patriot Media Group (PMC Wagner) and Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russian military intelligence-affiliated newspaper. 

Moscow is crucially interested in preventing Serbia from the EU integration. Such a scenario would isolate Serbia from Europe but push it closer to Russia.

Knežević’s visit to the Wagner Center shows that in the nearest future Russia is likely to start training Serbian nationalists at the Wagner PMC bases in Russia, as it has previously practiced with members of other far-right groups in Europe.

We still believe that the Wagner Group serves as the Expeditionary Forces and Special Operations Forces in Russia. Thus, perhaps, the Wagner PMC units may be deployed to Serbia to coordinate and assist Serbian paramilitary groups in the local operations.

Read also: Specifics of Russian private military companies’ activity

For the Russians, Knezevic’s visit alongside the founder of the Russian-Serbian Center Orlovi, a locally based civic group, appeared aimed at countering perceptions of Russian isolation nine months into an unpopular invasion of Ukraine supported in part by Vagner mercenaries and, more rarely, Serbian and other foreign fighters.

Read also: Russia on a hunt to destabilize Kosovo through Serbia

Read also: Vucic threatens to escalate what he already does in Northern Kosovo

Read also: Moscow fuels the Serbia-Kosovo border tensions

(NewsNation) — Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is calling on the military to investigate the death of U.S. Army Pfc. Denisha Montgomery after NewsNation’s coverage disclosed new details about the events leading up to her death.

Grassley has asked for answers by Dec. 20.

Montgomery’s family believes she was murdered while on deployment. A military report on her death said Montgomery committed suicide, but reports obtained later contradicted that claim.

Tune in to NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” at 6 p.m. ET for Rich McHugh’s full report on Grassley’s call for an investigation into Montgomery’s death.

Before her death, 27-year-old Montgomery told her family she had been assaulted by fellow soldiers while serving in Germany. On a video call, which she asked her family to record, she reportedly had bruises and open wounds.

Montgomery said she went off base with a group of military police to visit a water park. On the way back, she said they assaulted and choked her. Montgomery told her family she intended to report the incident.

Twenty-one days later, Montgomery was found dead in her barracks. The Army told her family she had committed suicide. Later, a report was uncovered that showed the Army still had her category of death listed as “pending” and the cause still under determination.

In his letter to Army leadership Tuesday, Grassley asked for the full file of the investigation and called out specific incidents that he said needed clarification, including allegations that Montgomery was told she would be disciplined for fighting back against her assailants if she reported the assault.

Grassley also asked the Army to clarify whether Montgomery successfully reported the assault prior to her death and if an investigation was conducted.

In a statement to NewsNation, the Army wrote: “The Army has endeavored to provide all possible information to both Spc. Denisha Montgomery’s family and Congress throughout the ongoing law enforcement investigation into her death and will provide thorough overviews to both once complete.”

Grassley is a co-sponsor of the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which he is co-sponsoring with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. First introduced in 2013, the act would move the decision to prosecute serious crimes, including sexual assault, from the chain of command to a group of independent military prosecutors.

Montgomery’s case highlighted the violence faced by female service members. In the 2020 fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Defense reported 6,290 allegations of sexual assault lodged by service members reporting incidents that occurred during military service.

In January 2022, President Joe Biden signed legislation making sexual harassment a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The order also allows soldiers who are assaulted to report it to a third party instead of their command.

(NewsNation) — Moscow, Idaho police began removing personal items from the house where four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death in November.

The four University of Idaho students killed were Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20 and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. The three women were roommates, and Kernodle was dating Chapin.

All four were found dead in an off-campus rental home on Nov. 13. Preliminary findings by a county coroner show they died from stab wounds, and were likely asleep at the time of the attack.

A suspect has not been named yet, stoking fear for many on the campus and in the city of Moscow.

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Tuesday police would begin collecting some of the victims’ personal items that are no longer needed for the investigation so they can be returned to the families.

These arrangements were made in coordination with the families, Moscow Police said. The house remains an active crime scene.

Outside of the house, Fry told reporters that some of the items taken were things the family specifically wanted.

“We owe this to the family, we owe this to the victims, we owe this to the community,” he said to reporters Wednesday.

Joseph Scott Morgan, a forensics expert and professor at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, said on “NewsNation Live” that police probably should not have removed the items, though.

“You cannot go back and recreate this to the point. It’s as pristine as you can possibly get it at this moment in time,” Morgan said. “What’s it going to hurt, just to lock it down and have it there for a bit longer, until everything has been exhausted at this point?”

The scene is “just absolutely rife” with DNA evidence, he added.

“I just hope that they’ve collected all the data,” Morgan said. “Because once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

However, Fry previously said it was important for the police to go in and get the items for the families so they can have those “fond memories” back.

“I’m a dad, I understand the meaning behind some of those things,” Fry said. “We’re just trying to bring some of that healing.”

In the meantime, he said, law enforcement is still investigating.

“We’re still gathering information. We’re still gathering tips. We’re still gathering evidence. We’re still doing everything we need to do,” Fry said.

Peru’s Congress swore in a new president on Wednesday in a day of sweeping political drama that saw the former leader, Pedro Castillo, ousted in an impeachment trial hours after he attempted a last-ditch bid to stay in power by trying to dissolve Congress.

Ignoring Castillo’s attempt to shut down the legislature by decree, lawmakers moved ahead with the previously planned impeachment trial, with 101 votes in favor of removing him, six against and 10 abstentions.

The result was announced with loud cheers, and the legislature called Vice President Dina Boluarte to take office.

Boluarte was sworn in as president through 2026, making her the first woman to lead Peru. She called for a political truce to overcome the crisis and said a new cabinet inclusive of all political stripes would be formed.

She lambasted Castillo’s move to dissolve Congress as an “attempted coup.”

Peru’s national police shared an image on Twitter of Castillo sitting unrestrained at a police station after the vote to remove him and said that it had “intervened” to fulfill its duties. It referred to Castillo as “ex-president”. It was unclear if he had been detained.

Castillo earlier had said he would temporarily shut down Congress, launch a “government of exception” and called for new legislative elections.

That sparked resignations by key ministers from Castillo’s government and allegations of a “coup” by opposition members and allies. The police and Armed Forces warned him that the route he had taken to try to dissolve Congress was unconstitutional.

Peru has gone through years of political turmoil, with multiple leaders accused of corruption, frequent impeachment attempts, and presidential terms cut short.

The latest legal battle began in October, when the prosecutor’s office filed a constitutional complaint against Castillo for allegedly leading “a criminal organization” to profit from state contracts and for obstructing investigations.

Congress summoned Castillo last week to respond to accusations of “moral incapacity” to govern.

Castillo has called the allegations “slander” by groups seeking “to take advantage and seize the power that the people took from them at the polls.”

The leftist teacher-turned-president had survived two previous attempts to impeach him since he began his term in July 2021.

But after Wednesday’s attempt to dissolve Congress his allies abandoned him, his ministers resigned, and regional powers underlined the need for democratic stability.

“The United States categorically rejects any extra-constitutional act by President Castillo to prevent Congress from fulfilling its mandate,” the U.S. ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna, wrote on Twitter.

The turmoil rattled markets in the world’s No. 2 copper producer, though analysts said that the removal of Castillo, who has battled a hostile Congress since taking power, could be a positive for investors.

Peru’s sol currency fell over 2% against the dollar at its session low before recovering slightly to trade down 1.4%.

“Peru’s financial markets will suffer, but won’t collapse, thanks mainly to solid domestic fundamentals,” said Andres Abadia at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

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The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed down on Wednesday after a choppy session on Wall Street, as investors struggled to grasp a clear direction as they weighed how the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening might feed through into corporate America.

For the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), it was the fifth straight session that it has declined, while the Nasdaq (.IXIC) finished down for the fourth time in a row. The Dow snapped a two-session losing streak, as it ended unchanged from the previous day.

The Nasdaq was dragged down by a 1.4% drop in Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Morgan Stanley’s iPhone shipment target cut and a 3.2% fall in Tesla Inc (.IXIC) over production loss worries.

Markets have also been rattled by downbeat comments from top executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) on Tuesday that a mild to more pronounced recession was likely ahead.

Fears that the U.S. central bank might stick to a longer rate-hike cycle have intensified recently in the wake of strong jobs and service-sector reports.

More economic data, including weekly jobless claims, producer price index and the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey this week, will be on the watch list for clues on what to expect from the Fed on Dec. 14.

“It feels like we’re in this very uncertain period where investors are trying to ascertain what’s more important, as policymakers are slowing down on rates but the data is not playing ball,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

“The market is trying to balance the headwinds and the tailwinds and this is causing some confusion.”

The CBOE volatility index (.VIX), also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, closed at 22.68, its highest finish since Nov. 18.

Money market participants see a 91% chance that the Fed will increase its key benchmark rate by 50 basis points in December to 4.25%-4.50%, with rates peaking in May 2023 at 4.93%.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 7.34 points, or 0.19%, to close at 3,933.92 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 56.34 points, or 0.51%, to finish at 10,958.55. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was flat, ending on 33,597.92.

Concerns about a steep rise in borrowing costs have boosted the dollar, but dented demand for risk assets such as equities this year. The S&P 500 is on track to snap a three-year winning streak.

Three of the 11 major S&P sector indexes were higher, with healthcare (.SPXHC) one of them. Technology (.SPLRCT) and communication services (.SPLRCL), down 0.5 and 0.9% respectively, were the worst performers.

Energy (.SPNY) fell for its fifth straight session. The sector’s performance was weighed by U.S. crude prices falling again, settling at the lowest level in 2022, as concerns over the outlook for global growth wiped out all of the gains since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the worst global energy supply crisis in decades.

Carvana Co (CVNA.N) had its worst day as a public company, losing nearly half its stock value, after Wedbush downgraded the used-car retailer’s stock to “underperform” from “neutral” and slashed its price target to $1.

Meanwhile, United Airlines (UAL.O) traded 4.1% lower. Unions representing various workers at the airline said they would join forces on contract negotiations.

Travel-related stocks were generally down. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and American Airlines Group (AAL.O) were 4.4% and 5.4% lower respectively, with cruise line operators Carnival Corp (CCL.N) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH.N) and accommodation-linked Airbnb Inc (ABNB.O) and Booking Holdings (BKNG.O) all falling between 1.7% and 4.4%.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.29 billion shares, compared with the 10.98 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and seven new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 61 new highs and 307 new lows.

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