Watchdog

Russian human rights activist Vitaly Ponomaryov was prevented from entering Kyrgyzstan on April 23, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Kyrgyz officials forced Ponomaryov to get off the Moscow-Bishkek train near the Chaldovar train station along the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border at 2 a.m. local time.

In February, Ponomaryov was stopped by Kyrgyz border guards at Bishkek's Manas Airport upon arriving from Moscow. He was forced to fly back to Moscow.

Kyrgyz border guards told RFE/RL that Ponomaryov has been officially barred from entering Kyrgyzstan until 2014.

Ponomaryov is a well-known human rights activist on Central Asian issues.

Anastasia Akopyan, a young journalist in the Russian city of Sochi, was attacked and struck in the face by unknown assailants late on April 22.

An interview that Akopyan did with Russia's former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, who is an opposition candidate in the city's April 26 mayoral election, was featured in a paid advertisement that the candidate aired on local television.

According to the Nemtsov campaign, Akopyan was approached outside her home by two men at approximately 11 p.m. The men asked if she was the one who had appeared in the Nemtsov campaign clip. She spoke with them briefly and tried to leave, at which point she was restrained by the men, who told her that "working with Nemtsov is dangerous to one's health."

"You are a smart girl," they reportedly said. "You know who is going to win."

When Akopyan began to loudly protest being restrained, one of the men struck Akopyan in the face with his fist while the other said: "That's so you understand that we are not kidding. You have been warned."

(by Robert Coalson)