Watchdog

Russian police have detained several gay rights activists for attempting to stage an unauthorized pride rally in central Moscow.

Police officers seized the activists -- one of whom tried to unfurl a rainbow flag -- and loaded them into waiting vans as around 30 nationalist counterdemonstrators in camouflage hurled eggs at the activists.

Several Orthodox counterdemonstrators were also detained by police as a large crowd of Russian and international journalists looked on.

Police was quoted as saying at least 16 people were detained at the event.

Gay rights activists insisted on holding the event on May 30 despite a court in Moscow banning it.

Gays in Russia face regular harassment and requests to hold pride parades have been consistently rejected by authorities in the capital.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax

DUSHANBE -- RFE/RL's Tajik- and Russian-language websites, YouTube, and a number of Russian social networks were inaccessible in Tajikistan on May 28.

Customers of the Internet providers Vavilon, Indigo, TajikTeleCom, and Megafon across the country complained that they were not able to connect to the websites.

Asomuddin Atoev, the chairman of Tajikistan's Association of Internet Service Providers, told RFE/RL that access to the sites was being blocked by some Internet service providers based on an oral order from the State Communications Service.

Atoev said reports about a top Tajik police commander who joined the Islamic State (IS) extremist group were behind the order.

"That is not the way to solve the problem, that is violating the Internet users' right to receive information," he added.

Officials at the state Communications Service said they have nothing to do with the Internet blockage.

In a video posted on YouTube on May 27, Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, the commander of the Tajik Interior Ministry's special forces, said he had joined the IS group in protest at official restrictions on religious observance in Tajikistan.