From Russian news agencies, via our newsroom:
Russian authorities say a deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis has been detained on suspicion of organizing "mass disorder" in the regional capital, Simferopol, last year.
The federal Investigative Committee said on January 29 that Ahtem Ciygoz was detained in connection with clashes outside the Crimean parliament in February 2014.
Crimean Tatars and other pro-Ukrainian activists clashed with pro-Russian activists near the parliament on February 26. The next day, armed men in unmarked uniforms seized the parliament building and the parliament voted to join Russia several days later.
"On February 26, 2014, unknown individuals called on Crimean Tatars to disobey local officials' lawful demands, which caused mass disorder accompanied with violence," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
Russia annexed Crimea in March after a referendum condemned by Kyiv and the West as illegitimate.
Since then, activists, community leaders, and rights groups have said that Crimean Tatars have faced discrimination, pressure, and abuse for their opposition to the annexation.
Based on reporting by RIA and Interfax
NEWS FLASH:
Belarusian Foreign Ministry says "contact group" on Ukraine conflict will meet in Minsk on January 30.
NEWS FLASH:
The Russian Investigative Committee says a deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Ahtem Ciygoz has been detained on suspicion of organizing "mass disorder" in Simferopol in February last year.
A tweet from Ukraine's ambassador to Austria:
By RFE/RL's Belarus Service
MINSK -- Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says that Moscow is deeply involved in the "crisis" in Ukraine and expressed fear that the war there could spill over into Belarus and Russia.
Speaking at an annual news conference on January 29, Lukashenka suggested Russia had a special responsibility to stop the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine.
"My only wish is that Europe...the United States, Russia, which is involved in this crisis to an extreme degree, and Belarus -- and there is a possibility that these phenomena may spread into the territories of Russia and Belarus -- do their best to stop that war," Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka also said Belarus will "never fight with the West to please Russia."
Belarus and Russia have close military ties and are partners in several groupings including a bilateral Union State.
Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its support for the separatists, which Kyiv and NATO says extends to sending troops and weapons, has alarmed Russia's neighbors.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
A Russian woman has been jailed on suspicion of treason after she called the Ukrainian Embassy with information about possible Russian troop movements.
Svetlana Davydova's husband and a defense lawyer said she was detained last week in the town of Vyazma, some 240 kilometers west of Moscow, and placed in pretrial detention at Lefortovo prison in the capital.
Lawyer Andrei Stebenev said the 36-year-old mother of seven "called where she was not supposed to call and said what she was not supposed to say."
Her husband, Anatoly Gorlov, said Davydova phoned the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow last April and said that a military base near their home had emptied out, suggesting the soldiers may have been deployed to Ukraine.
Russia denies involvement in the conflict, which has killed more than 5,100 people in eastern Ukraine since April, despite what Kyiv and NATO say is incontrovertible evidence Moscow has sent troops and weapons to help separatists fighting government forces.
Gorlov said his wife had opposed the conflict since it began.