Closing summary
Damage to a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia earlier in October was caused by “external force or tampering”, the Swedish government said.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has submitted a bill for Sweden’s Nato membership bid to parliament for ratification, the Turkish presidency said. Turkey and Hungary are the only Nato members yet to ratify Sweden’s membership request.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian government spending is becoming increasingly focused on the costs of its war on Ukraine.
Three residents of Kherson oblast were arrested for allegedly helping Russian forces target locations for strikes in the city of Kherson, the regional prosecutor’s office announced on Monday, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Vladimir Putin’s Russia “is the most heinous evil the world has witnessed since WWII” and that the Russian president and other “Russian perpetrators must face justice for their crimes”.
Updated
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday refused to leave his cell and skipped a court hearing, protesting after prison officials took away all of his writing supplies, his allies said.
The Associated Press reports:
Navalny, who is serving a 19-year prison term, was due to participate in a court hearing via video link on Monday on one of many lawsuits he had filed against his prison.
His ally Ivan Zhdanov said the politician refused to leave his cell after prison officials took away all of his writing supplies.
After that “security operatives in helmets entered the cell and, using force, dragged him to the investigator,” Zhdanov said, as the politician was also expected to attend unspecified “investigative procedures”.
He didn’t clarify why Navalny’s supplies were taken away and didn’t say whether he was then returned to his cell.
Russia’s independent news site Mediazona reported that after Navalny’s refusal to appear, the court hearing was adjourned until 2 November.
Navalny has been president Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, campaigning against official corruption and organising major anti-Kremlin protests. His 2021 arrest came after his return to Moscow from Germany where he recuperated from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He has since been handed three prison terms, most recently on the charges of extremism, and spent months in isolation facilities in the prison over various minor infractions prison officials accused him of.
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and a vast network of regional offices were outlawed that same year as extremist groups, a step that exposed anyone involved with them to prosecution.
Navalny has previously rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life.
