Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on June 4 that the country will stop using all Russian oil by the end of the first half of next year by increasing capacity at the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL). Fiala told a news conference work on an upgrade to increase capacity through the pipeline will be completed this year, allowing for a boost in capacity by up to 4 million tons of oil. The increased flow will replace Russian supplies that for some six decades have flowed into the country via the Druzhba pipeline. The move away from Russian supplies began after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A Moscow court on June 4 issued an arrest warrant for well-known Belarusian athlete Paval Shurmey, who is currently a member of the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment made up of Belarusians fighting alongside Ukrainian troops against Russia. The arrest warrant is part of a probe launched against Shurmey on a charge of participating in a military conflict abroad. In his native Belarus, Shurmey is wanted on charges of extremism and taking part in a military conflict in a foreign country. Shurmey competed at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games with the Belarusian team in rowing events. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

Supporters and relatives of Aleksei Navalny are marking what would have been the late Russian opposition leader's 48th birthday on June 4 at events organized abroad, while in Russia people pay their respects at his grave in Moscow and at memorials in other cities despite warnings about unauthorized gatherings.

Navalny's death was announced on February 16 at the Polar Wolf prison in Russia's Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year term on extremism and other charges that he and his supporters had rejected as politically motivated.

A memorial service for Navalny was held in Berlin, in the presence of his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on June 4, while later in the day, his associates announced a concert under the title "Hello, this is Navalny," with performances by artists who oppose the war and President Vladimir Putin's regime, including AIGEL, Casta, and Noize MC.

In Moscow, people left flowers at his grave at the Borisov Cemetery, where he is buried.

Navalny had been subjected to months of extremely harsh treatment in prison, but officials claimed his death was prompted by "natural causes" and then refused to release his body to his family for about a week.

He was incarcerated in January 2021 immediately upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had undergone months of treatment for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning that he believed was carried out by Russian security operatives at the behest of Putin.

His death was called a murder by Navalnaya, while U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have accused Moscow of being responsible for the death of its most feared domestic critic.

His March 1 funeral in Moscow, attended by thousands of people, became the largest manifestation of dissent with Putin's regime since the start of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The Berlin service was officiated by Bishop Christian Staeblein, the leader of the Berlin-Brandenburg Evangelical Church.

"Many of [his] 47 years were spent fighting, searching for freedom and justice, repeatedly facing imprisonment and jail, harassment, mental torture, and physical humiliation, destruction, poisoning, making him sick and wounded. Despite all this -- and in spite of his own diversions -- he stood for freedom," Staebelin said in his address.

"No one can take this dignity away. Not in the trials, not in death," he added.

Despite warnings by the authorities against unlawful gatherings and other commemorations that could be considered as breaking the law, spontaneous events are expected in a number of Russian cities in the corruption crusader's memory.

In Novosibirsk, the monument to victims of political repression, where a spontaneous memorial arose in the days after Navalny's death, was fenced off by police with warning lines.

In Syktyvkar, Perm, and Berezniki, according to Telegram channel 7x7, police paid visits to the homes of activists on June 3.

In Vladivostok, Yoshkar-Ola, and Samara, people on June 4 laid flowers in places where spontaneous memorials arose in February.

Russian authorities have included the organizations and structures created by Navalny on their "extremist" list, and his former associates continue to suffer persecution.

A former Russian inmate, who was convicted of murder but freed from serving the remainder of his term after joining the Wagner mercenary group to fight in Ukraine, has been convicted and sentenced for a new murder after returning home from the front line. A court in Russia's Tatarstan region on June 4 sentenced 41-year-old Aleksandr Kuzmin to eight years in prison for killing his girlfriend. The number of crimes in Russia committed by former Wagner recruits and other former ex-military personnel has been on rise since early 2023 as soldiers returned from duty. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

The Kyrgyz mufti's office, known as the Kyrgyz Muslims' Religious Directorate, issued a statement on June 4 condemning the recent desecration of the Central Asian national flags in the southern Jalal-Abad region. Last week, unknown people removed Kyrgyz national flags from two schools in the Suzak district and burned them. The perpetrators replaced the flags with white flags carrying religious statements in Arabic. The Kyrgyz mufti's office called on the former Soviet republic's citizens to "respect religious values and our country's national symbols, including the national flag" to "preserve the integrity of our people, peace in our homeland, and the strength of our state." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

An Iranian officer described as a military adviser has been killed in suspected Israeli air strikes near the Syrian city of Aleppo, nearly two months after the Islamic republic warned it would retaliate against attacks on its interests.

Saeed Abyar, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was one of 17 people killed in the attack during the early hours of June 3, the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency reported.

Neither the IRGC nor the Iranian government has officially commented on the Aleppo strike. However, Iran’s caretaker foreign minister, Ali Baqeri Kani, arrived in Syria on June 4 on the second leg of a regional tour that started in Lebanon a day earlier.

Abyar is the first IRGC officer killed in an Israeli strike since the April 1 bombing of the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus. That attack killed seven members of the IRGC, including two generals.

Iran responded by launching an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel and warned that a "new equation" had been established whereby Tehran would retaliate against any Israeli attacks on its interests in the region.

SEE ALSO:

Iran Versus Israel: Who Has The Military Edge?

Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher at the Israeli-based Institute for National Security Studies, told RFE/RL that Israel's intended target was likely an ammunition depot and Abyar was one of over a dozen people who were near the impact site.

Regardless, he said, Israel has shown it is not deterred by Iran’s threats of retaliation as shown by its continued strikes in Syria, where the IRGC has for years maintained a contingent of so-called military advisers.

"I'm not convinced Iran -- and thus Israel -- understands what the 'new equation' is," Zimmt argued. "It is improbable that Iran meant to retaliate to every attack on an Iranian target in Syria with a direct attack on Israel, let alone the accidental killing of an Iranian officer."

Tehran has maintained a heavy military presence in Syria, while Israel has periodically carried out attacks against Iranian-linked sites in the country, often targeting IRGC commanders.

Instead of being released on June 3 after serving a 15-day stint in solitary confinement, Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin received another 12 days in the punitive cell, his Telegram channel said on June 4. Yashin, who is serving an 8 1/2-year prison term for his criticism of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, was initially places in solitary confinement for leaving his barracks three minutes later than he was supposed to. He said earlier the punishment was aimed at disrupting a scheduled three-day stay with his parents on the penitentiary's premises. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Czech police at Prague airport have detained four Russian-speaking people suspected of attacking Ukrainian activists in the Czech capital on June 1. Footage of the incident posted on social media by a Ukrainian activist purportedly shows a Russian-speaking pair attacking activists from the Prague Maidan NGO who were collecting donations for war-torn Ukraine. A second video posted by a female activist shows her bloodied hands reportedly following the incident. "Forensic experts have opened criminal cases," police said in a message on X on June 3, without revealing the names or citizenship of the suspects. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine's southeastern city of Dnipro early on June 4, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram, adding that several civilians were injured. Ukraine's air defenses shot down two missiles, but falling debris ignited a fire, Lysak said. "As a result, residents were injured, among them are children. A 1-month-old baby boy is in satisfactory condition.... A 17-year-old boy is in hospital in moderate condition. A 68-year-old man and three women -- 32, 36, and 56 years old -- were also injured," Lysak said. To read the original story by RFE/RL's' Ukrainian Service, click here.

The United States and the EU have imposed sanctions on four Iranian entities and one individual connected to the development, manufacture, and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which Tehran has provided to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, the U.S. State Department said on June 3. "The Iranian regime provides to Russia and militant proxies and partners [UAVs] to prolong conflict and destabilize the region," the statement said. The action targets four entities associated with U.S.-designated Rayan Roshd Afzar Company; an Iranian executive of Iran Aviation Industries Organization; a subsidiary of the U.S.-designated Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, which oversees UAV manufacturers, including Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company; and Qods Aviation Industries.

A former U.S. Army soldier who fought for a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group and who has been linked to a bomb plot in the United States has been extradited by Ukraine and is set to appear in a Florida court on June 3. Craig Lang, 29, is one of two U.S. Army veterans implicated in the 2018 murder of a couple, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Florida, where the killing occurred. A U.S. Justice Department statement alleges that Lang “went on an international crime spree that included a double murder in Florida, attempts to travel internationally to engage in other acts of violence outside the United States, and a plot to evade law enforcement detection by trading guns, a grenade, and cash to use another person’s identifying information to apply for a U.S. passport under an assumed name.”

About 20 wives and mothers of mobilized Russian troops engaged in a rare protest in front of the Defense Ministry building in Moscow on June 3, demanding the return of their family members from the battlefield in Ukraine. They also called for time limits for the service of mobilized men and sought a meeting with Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. The Russian Justice Ministry on May 31 declared the Put Domoy (The Way Home) movement, which has organized such women-led protests in Moscow, a "foreign agent," an action often taken by the Kremlin to silence independent voices. President Vladimir Putin in September 2022 ordered what he called a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists after setbacks in the Ukraine invasion. To view a video report by Current Time, click here.

Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, on June 3 said his government was engaged in negotiations with arch-foe the United States that are being hosted by the Gulf sultanate of Oman. Asked about the issue at a news conference during a visit to Beirut, Bagheri said that "we have always continued our negotiations...and they have never stopped." Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The British daily Financial Times reported in March that Bagheri was involved in indirect talks with the United States in Oman in early 2024, against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions over Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamabad high court on June 3 overturned a treason conviction against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, although the Pakistani opposition leader remains imprisoned on other charges. Khan had rejected the conviction, saying it was handed down to prevent him from running in the February elections. Khan, who was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, has more than 170 legal cases hanging over him, including graft charges while he was premier between 2018-22. The court also overturned the conviction against Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a deputy in Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party. The two men were convicted of making public a classified document transmitted to Islamabad by Pakistan's U.S. ambassador. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, click here.

Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf -- a former military commander -- has registered for Iran’s June 28 presidential election, joining a list of some three dozen mostly hard-line candidates seeking to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in mid-May.

Qalibaf's registration came on June 3, the final day for potential candidates to apply to participate in the election.

The conservative Guardians Council – featuring 12 hard-liners approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – will vet candidates and announce on June 11 which ones will be allowed to compete.

The Guardians Council generally allows only candidates acceptable to Khamenei and other hard-liners to run, and Qalibaf had been pegged by observers as a front-runner in the presidential race.

Qalibaf, 62, has sought the presidency three times in the past -- running in 2005, 2013, and 2017. He withdrew in 2017 in favor of Raisi, who finished second to the moderate incumbent Hassan Rohani.

Qalibaf served as a commander of Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from 1997 to 2000, as Iran's chief of police from 2000-05, and as mayor of Tehran from 2005-17.

He was blamed by many critics for a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2003.

Iranian news agencies reported on June 3 that Eshagh Jahangiri, seen by many as a reformist and who had been banned from running in previous elections, also had registered. Jahangiri served as vice president to Rohani from 2013-21.

SEE ALSO:

Will Raisi's Death Bring Major Changes To Iran's Policies? The Short Answer Is 'No.'

On June 1, former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, 67, a longtime enemy of reformists, registered to join the list of overwhelmingly hard-line candidates seeking to replace Raisi.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement follows similar moves by a former IRGC commander who is under U.S. sanctions, Vahid Haghanian; Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani; and the longtime former speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani.

Iranian media reported that at least 37 people had registered heading into the final day before the deadline.

Iran's presidential votes and other elections are plagued by low turnout that has worsened in recent years, spurred by disqualifications and crackdowns on dissent.

Rights groups have complained of an intensified clampdown on public expressions of discontent since Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others died in the helicopter crash in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran while returning from an official visit to Azerbaijan.

Raisi had been accused of serving as a prosecutor for an "execution committee" that sent thousands of political prisoners and regime opponents to their deaths in the late 1980s.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on June 3 that it had expanded Moscow's sanctions list of British nationals by adding an unspecified number of "representatives of the political establishment, the expert community, and the U.K. media." The ministry said those sanctioned have been responsible for "forming and implementing London's anti-Russian course." It did not give any details on those who were added to the sanctions list. To read the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement, click here.

The situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant “remains precarious” and it would be unsafe to restart the facility, which has been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on June 3. “All seven pillars of nuclear safety and security have been fully or partially compromised,” the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. Grossi said he met on May 28 in Kaliningrad with Aleksei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom, to discuss the possibility of restarting the facility. Both sides in the conflict have accused the other of launching drone and missile attacks on the site as fighting rages in the region. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

A centrist Iranian newspaper has accused a Taliban representative in Iran of “torturing” a photographer, ultimately leading to his expulsion from the country.

The Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper claimed on June 1 that a Taliban representative in the Afghan Consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad had “dragged” the unnamed Iranian photographer into the consulate and “tortured” him.

The paper said the photographer later filed a complaint against the “diplomat,” identified as “Dr. Salim,” which ultimately resulted in him being expelled from Iran and replaced by another Taliban representative.

The newspaper has been a staunch critic of the Taliban since the group seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and has questioned Tehran’s willingness to maintain relations with the group.

In its report, Jomhuri-ye Eslami alleged that “Dr. Salim” was one of three “diplomats” who had moved into the consulate prior to receiving Iran’s approval. It described the move as a “sign of disrespect toward Iran.”

In the same piece, the newspaper claimed that the same trio had “kidnapped” Qari Eisa Mohammadi, a prominent Afghan opposition figure based in Germany who had traveled to Mashhad several months ago.

According to Mohammadi, he was held “prisoner” in the consulate for several days until Iranian authorities secured his release.

The authorities in Iran have been criticized for maintaining relations with the Taliban after it took control in Afghanistan. The Islamic republic has kept its embassy in Kabul open and handed over the Afghan Embassy in Tehran to the Taliban.

Nevertheless, Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan and has called for the formation of an inclusive government.

Since the extremist group seized power in Kabul, Iran and the Taliban have had disputes over water rights and engaged in sporadic border clashes.

BISHKEK -- The Bishkek City Court on June 3 ruled that a move by Kyrgyzstan's Culture Ministry to shut down the website of the independent investigative media outlet Kloop was legitimate.

Kloop's lawyer, Fatima Yakupbaeva, said the ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

In March, the Bishkek Administrative Court canceled the ministry's move to block Kloop's Russian-language site, after which the ministry appealed the ruling to the Bishkek City Court.

Separately, Kloop's Kyrgyz-language website was blocked in November amid a government campaign to pressure the Kloop Media Public Foundation.

The ministry said it disrupted the sites after the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) claimed that Kloop distributed false information.

The claim referred to a report that appeared on Kloop's website in September about jailed opposition politician Ravshan Jeenbekov and a statement he made about being tortured while in custody.

The ministry demanded Kloop remove an article about the alleged torture of Jeenbekov from its Russian-language website or face being blocked.

Kloop refused to remove the material, saying the story in question attributed all information about the situation faced by Jeenbekov while in custody to actual individuals and sources.

Kloop said at the time that it was officially informed of the lawsuit against it and that the move was taken after an audit by the UKMK determined its "published materials are aimed at sharply criticizing the policies of the current government" and that "most of the publish materials are purely negative, aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies."

On February 9, a court in Bishkek ordered the closure of the Kloop Media Public Foundation, saying that the group's website was distributing "false information aimed at damaging the reputation of Kyrgyz officials."

Established in June 2007, Kloop is a Kyrgyz news website whose main contributors are students and graduates of the Kloop Media Public Foundation School of Journalism.

As an independent media entity, it is known for publishing reports on corruption within various governmental bodies and for providing training to Central Asian journalists in fact-checking and investigative techniques.

Azerbaijani economist Farid Mehralizada has been arrested and charged with foreign currency smuggling in what appears to be part of a crackdown on dissent and free press. A court in Baku ruled over the weekend that Mehralizada must stay in pretrial detention for three months and 20 days. Investigators said Mehralizada's arrest was linked to the cases against several journalists from the Abzas Media independent investigative website who are under pretrial arrest on charges of illegally smuggling foreign currency, which they reject as politically motivated. Mehralizada maintains he had nothing to do with the media outlet. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.

A major Russian retailer says it has been unable to work with payment cards for three days following a hacking attack, the Kommersant daily reported on June 3. The Verny trade network's website and app have also been out of operation. Officials from the network confirmed that the problems arose after hackers attacked several of its systems. Last week, SDEK delivery service activities in Russia were paralyzed for three days after its online systems were attacked by a ransomware virus. A pro-Ukrainian Head Mare hacking group claimed responsibility for that attack. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Kyrgyz presidential spokesman Askar Alagozov told RFE/RL on June 3 that the Central Asian nation's Prosecutor-General Kurmankul Zulushev has stepped down. According to Alagozov, the move was made by Zulushev on his own accord. It is unclear who will replace Zulushev or when someone will be appointed. Zulushev served as the Prosecutor-General since October 2020, right after President Sadyr Japarov took over the country following antigovernment protests sparked by irregularities during parliamentary elections. Last month, Japarov publicly reprimanded Zulushev amid reports about the alleged involvement of some prosecutors into the activities of the Mineral Resources Ministry's license issuing agency. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

A 34-year-old foreign national was detained in Romania’s capital on June 3 after he allegedly attacked the entrance of the Israeli Embassy with a Molotov cocktail, resulting in a small fire but no casualties. The man was apprehended by antiterrorism officers from the Romanian Intelligence Service before police arrived at the scene. The man allegedly also tried to set himself on fire. The Israeli Embassy told RFE/RL's Romanian Service that "a person, apparently of Syrian origin, arrived in the vicinity of the building where the Embassy of Israel in Romania is located" and threw a lit Molotov cocktail. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Romanian Service, click here.

Kazakh tycoon Qairat Boranbaev, whose daughter is a widow of a grandson of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has retaken the post of the president of the Central Asian nation's Paralympics Committee after being release from prison in November.

Boranbaev wrote on Instagram over the weekend that he is "grateful to everyone who supported me."

Last week, the deputy chief of the Financial Monitoring Agency, Zhenis Elemesov, said a criminal case against Boranbaev had not been closed yet and Nazarbayev's former in-law is suspected of tax evasion and embezzlement.

Elemesov added that Boranbaev paid 134.5 billion tenges ($300 million) to the State Treasury to compensate for the damages caused by his crimes.

According to Elemesov, Boranbaev may be requested to pay more in compensation but would not require being incarcerated.

Boranbaev was granted an early release from prison in early November last year after being sentenced several months earlier by a court in Astana to six years in prison after a retrial procedure.

That came after Boranbaev and his two co-defenders were sentenced to eight years in prison each on embezzlement charges -- which the trio rejected at the time -- in March 2023.

The sentences, however, were canceled in June by a court in Astana with the judge citing the absence of key documents that the charges against the three men were based on.

Boranbaev subsequently changed his plea during a new hearing into the case and accepted that he embezzled 14.6 billion tenges (more than $32 million), which he returned to the State Treasury.

Boranbaev's daughter, Alima Boranbaeva, and Nazarbaev's grandson, Aisultan Nazarbaev, married in 2013.

In September 2020, Aisultan Nazarbaev, who reportedly suffered from a drug addiction and had run-ins with the law in the United Kingdom, died in London at the age of 29.

Boranbaev, 57, was arrested following unprecedented antigovernment protests in early January 2022 after which the Kazakh regime began to quietly target Nazarbaev, his family, and other allies -- many of whom held powerful or influential posts in government, security agencies, and profitable energy companies.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said on June 3 that his country has taken the Taliban off of its terrorist list. Addressing a session of the parliament speakers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Almaty, Toqaev stressed the move was made to develop trade and economic ties with Taliban-led Afghanistan. Toqaev also called on the parliament speakers of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to support Kazakhstan’s proposal to establish a UN regional center for the stable development of Central Asia and Afghanistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.