Watchdog

NUR-SULTAN – Former Kazakh Health Minister Elzhan Birtanov, who was removed from the post in 2020 amid a surge in coronavirus cases, has gone on trial on embezzlement charges.

The trial started on May 26 in the Saryarqa district court of Nur-Sultan. Birtanov and his co-defendant, former Deputy Health Minister Olzhas Abishev, pleaded not guilty.

The two are suspected of embezzling about 500 million tenges ($1.2 million) that had been allocated by the government for the digitization of the Health Ministry.

After he fired Birtanov in June 2020, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev criticized him for what he called his failure to tackle the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

Toqaev also ordered the establishment of a special commission to investigate his activities as health minister, a post Birtanov had held since 2017.

A Moscow journalist who protested Russia's invasion of Ukraine by interrupting a live news broadcast on Russian state television in March has been awarded the Vaclav Havel International Prize For Creative Dissent.

In a ceremony in Norwegian capital on May 25, Marina Ovsyannikova received the award, given annually at the Oslo Freedom Forum to honor "those who, with bravery and ingenuity, unmask the lies of dictatorship, and who put forth work that exemplifies tremendous courage and creativity."

Ovsyannikova, 43, burst onto the set of the Vremya news program on Russia's Channel One on March 14 while holding a poster reading in part "Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you" in Russian. She also shouted in Russian: "Stop the war. No to war."

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While it triggered a wave of support worldwide, the Kremlin condemned her action. She has been charged with "discrediting" the armed forces.

Since her protest, Ovsyannikova left Russia for Germany and was hired in April as a freelance correspondent for Die Welt.

NOTE: This article has been amended to correct the name of the prize and the institution that awarded it.