Sri Lankan president to resign – media

Gotabaya Rajapaksa will leave office amid mass protests and economic turmoil

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign, effective next week, local media reported on Saturday. Rajapaksa earlier left his residence in Colombo as thousands of protesters laid siege to the compound.

Rajapaksa’s resignation was announced by Sri Lankan news outlet Newsfirst, which cited Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. His resignation came hours after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that he would also be willing to step down, paving the way for an interim government followed by elections.

Sri Lanka has been rocked by protests for several months, with the unrest driven by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. The country defaulted on its foreign debt in May, and fuel rationing was introduced earlier this month, with armed troops deployed to filling stations.

The economic crisis has been blamed partly on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting fall in tourism revenue for the island nation. However, Rajapaksa’s government has been fiercely condemned for its policies of lavish spending and careless tax cuts, while printing money to pay off foreign bonds.

Changes in the country’s government did little to allay public anger, and protests continued through May and June after Rajapaksa’s brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, stepped down as Prime Minister, handing the job to Wickremesinghe.

A crowd believed to number around 100,000 descended on Rajapaksa’s presidential palace earlier on Saturday, as officials told reporters that the president had been “escorted to safety.” With his whereabouts unknown, the demonstrators forced their way into the building, where they raided its kitchen and swam in Rajapaksa’s private pool.

According to Newsfirst, Rajapaksa will leave office on Wednesday. Parliament will likely choose a caretaker president, and Speaker Abeywardena will likely take over as Prime Minister, local media reported.

https://www.rt.com/news/558708-sri-lanka-president-resigns/

Ukraine dismisses ambassador to Germany

Kiev has sacked envoy Andrey Melnik, who been entangled in multiple scandals over the past few months

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky relieved Ambassador Andrey Melnik from his post in a decree signed on Saturday. In recent months, the diplomat has sparked multiple high-profile scandals and even branded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liverwurst.”

No reasoning for the move has officially been provided. Melnik was dismissed from his post alongside several other top diplomats, including the country’s envoys to India, Norway, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

The impending dismissal of Melnik was reported earlier this week by German tabloid Bild, which suggested the diplomat could be set to take up a new post in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, possibly even becoming a deputy foreign minister.

“Andrey Melnik is very much appreciated in Kiev for his work,” an unnamed Ukrainian government official told the paper.

In recent months, Melnik became entangled in several high-profile scandals. Most recently, the ambassador repeatedly defended Stepan Bandera – a controversial Ukrainian national hero who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII – in an interview with German podcaster Tilo Jung.

Kiev’s envoy claimed that Bandera had not been implicated in the mass murder of Jews and Poles, prompting criticism from both Poland and Israel. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry had to step in, explaining that Melnik’s words had reflected his own view but not Kiev’s official position.

Back in May, Melnik insulted Chancellor Scholz –calling him an “offended liverwurst” – over his refusal to pay a visit to Kiev. Scholz’s move was prompted by Kiev’s refusal to receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in mid-April, over his allegedly too close ties with Russia.

While Melnik had repeatedly stood by his remark, insisting it was “not a matter of apologizing,” he admitted in late June he ultimately “regretted” the offensive statement.

“That’s a statement that I regretted later, of course. I’ll apologize to [Scholz] personally,” Melnik told Berlin magazine Der Spiegel back then. It remains unknown whether the diplomat has actually had an opportunity to offer his apology to the Chancellor.

https://www.rt.com/news/558705-ukraine-germnay-melnik-dismissed/