Watchdog

The European Union says it has prolonged sanctions against Iran over its human rights record for another year.

The European Council of member states said in an April 11 statement that the sanctions were extended until April 2018 in response "to serious human rights violations in Iran."

The restrictive measures include a travel ban and an asset freeze against 82 people and one entity as well as a ban on exports to Iran of equipment for monitoring telecommunications and other gear that "might be used for internal repression."

The measures, which were first put in place in 2011, are unrelated to Iran's nuclear program.

A 2015 agreement between Iran and six world powers imposed curbs on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief.

With reporting by AFP

KRASNOYARSK, Russia -- Russian opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev has been released from a Siberian prison after serving a 4 1/2-year sentence.

Razvozzhayev says he was abducted by Russian security agents in Ukraine in 2012 and brought to Russia, where he was arrested and tried.

A court in Moscow found him guilty of helping to organize a protest on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in May 2012 and of attempts to organize similar rallies across Russia.

Police and protesters blamed each other for violence that erupted at the protest on the eve of Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency for a third term.

Razvozzhayev's wife, Yulia, met him at the prison gates in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

Razvozzhayev told RFE/RL that he does not yet know what he is going to do now but that he would like to contribute to the democratization of Russia and reforms in the country's corrections system.

For two years, Razvozzhayev will be monitored by police and barred from attending public gatherings and events.