内容摘要：“The government has co-opted some opposition (parties) and there’s other opposition that are just tired of this strategy that’s never worked,” said David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for 30 years. “So, what you are going to have is a partial boycott, which means the government is going to cruise to victory and can say, ‘We had elections, the opposition didn’t participate.’ It’s going to backfire on the opposition.”

“The government has co-opted some opposition (parties) and there’s other opposition that are just tired of this strategy that’s never worked,” said David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for 30 years. “So, what you are going to have is a partial boycott, which means the government is going to cruise to victory and can say, ‘We had elections, the opposition didn’t participate.’ It’s going to backfire on the opposition.”

“Despite the liberation of our territory, the border region is still subject to enemy attacks,” Khinshtein warned residents on Telegram. “It is still dangerous to be there.”Putin has said Russian forces have orders to create a “security buffer zone” along the border.

That would help prevent Ukraine from striking areas inside Russia with artillery, Putin told a government meeting, but he gave no details of where the proposed buffer zone would be or how far it would stretch.Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the timein Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russia’s Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine atWASHINGTON (AP) — It may start as a casual aside, a wee-hours social post or a much-hyped announcement.

Whatever the delivery mechanism, President

loves to toss out startling ideas aimed at dropping jaws, commandeering headlines and bolstering his political brand. Never in modern times has a president offered so many off-the-cuff statements with such a potential for wide, even global, impact.In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a man waits to hear about his missing wife as rescuers clear the rubble of a multi-storey residential building destroyed a day before by a Russian airstrike, in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a man waits to hear about his missing wife as rescuers clear the rubble of a multi-storey residential building destroyed a day before by a Russian airstrike, in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)Meanwhile at the Kremlin, Putin held talks with

, whom the Russian leader earlier described as Moscow’s “main guest” at Friday’s Victory Day festivities. In the evening, Putin hosted Xi andfor a gala dinner in an apparent effort to showcase Russia’s global clout.