The Russian minister overseeing digital communications says the government has no plans to block the video sharing platform YouTube despite threats to do so over parent company Alphabet Inc's failure to delete content Moscow has deemed illegal.

Speaking at an education event in Moscow on May 17, minister of digital development, communications and mass media, Maksut Shadayev, said "Russia must remain part of the global network," though it must "learn to filter information" in the Internet.

"We do not plan to ban YouTube. First of all, when we restrict something, we must clearly understand that our users do not suffer... A ban is an extreme move that can be only possible, to my understanding, when we have a competitive alternative," he said.

Last month, Russia's media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, openly accused YouTube of "spreading fake news" about Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

In March, Roskomnadzor demanded Alphabet stop the spread of videos on its YouTube platform that it said were "threatening Russian citizens."

Shadayev said Russia "must build up barriers to avoid too much pressure on Internet users."

Days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Roskomnadzor ordered media across the country to publish information about the war in Ukraine only if it is provided by official sources.

It also has forbidden describing what several Western nations have called an "unjustified and unprovoked" attack on Ukraine as an invasion or a war, instead insisting it be called a "special military operation."

Over the past year, Russia has tightented the screws on opposition voices, forcing the closure of most independent media outlets and limiting the free flow of information.

On March 4, Roskomnadzor blocked Facebook, claiming the world's largest social-media platform was discriminating against Russian media and information resources such as RT, RIA Novosti, and Sputnik.

A day later, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.

The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian army that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.

It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a penalty possible of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.

Multiple websites of RFE/RL, BBC, and other independent media outlets have been blocked over what Russian regulators claim is erroneous reporting.

Some Russian journalists have left Russia after their companies had to stop or suspend operations following the criminalization of the coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Several have since started up their own streams on YouTube to cover and discuss the ongoing war.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

Moscow says it is expelling two Finnish diplomats in retaliation for Helsinki's decision to expel a similar number of Russian diplomats in April.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on May 17 that it had summoned Finnish Ambassador to Russia Antti Helantera to inform him of the move, citing "Finland's confrontational course towards Russia."

Finland has provided arms to Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February, and lawmakers in Helsinki are expected later on May 17 to formally endorse joining the NATO security alliance.

Last month Finland expelled two staff members of the Russian embassy in Helsinki in reaction to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

European nations have expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats since the unprovoked invasion was launched on February 24.

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has delayed a hearing into jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's appeal against his latest sentence.

The court started the hearing on May 17 but postponed it for one week after Navalny, who took part in the hearing via a video link from a prison in the Vladimir region, asked the court to give him time to get better acquainted with case documents. The next hearing will be held on May 24, the court said.

Navalny, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in March while he was already serving another prison term from a separate case, said he wanted to compare the texts of his verdict and sentence with what a court pronounced at his trial.

Navalny also said that his family members were scheduled to visit him on May 20, and he did not want to lose the visit, which is granted just a few times a year, as he may be transferred to another penal colony if his sentence is upheld.

A court handed down a new sentence against Navalny -- nine years in prison -- on March 22 after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court charges that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated. That sentence is expected to come into force if the Moscow court rejects the appeal.

Navalny was arrested in January last year upon his arrival to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack with what European labs defined as a Soviet-style nerve agent. He was then handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole because of his convalescence abroad. The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.

Navalny has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning with a Novichok-style chemical substance. The Kremlin has denied any role in the attack.

International organizations consider Navalny a political prisoner. The European Union, U.S. President Joe Biden, and other international officials have demanded Russian authorities release the 45-year-old Kremlin-critic.

Navalny is currently serving his term in a penal colony in the town of Pokrov, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow.

With reporting by Mediazona

Sweden has signed a formal request to join NATO, a day after Stockholm announced it would seek membership in the 30-member Western military alliance amid security concerns sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The parliament of neighboring Finland is due later on May 17 to follow suit and formally endorse Finnish leaders' decision to joint the alliance as well.

The two Nordic countries have moved quickly toward joining NATO since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

In Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde signed the official request to join NATO, which she said would be sent to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

"It feels like we have taken a decision that is the best for Sweden," Linde said while signing the document.

Meanwhile, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto arrived in Sweden for an official visit. He is scheduled to address Sweden's parliament in a speech expected to focus on NATO, and meet Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

The steps taken by the two Nordic neighbors have prompted warnings from Russia, which would see NATO expand right up to its western border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 16 that while Russia did not see Finland and Sweden's decision to join NATO as a threat, any deployment of military infrastructure there may trigger a response from Moscow.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 17 echoed Putin's comments, saying that Finland and Sweden joining NATO probably wouldn't make "much of a difference," as the two countries had long participated in the alliance's military drills.

But he warned that Russia would closely monitor NATO's activities in the future member states.

"NATO takes their territory into account when planning military advances to the east. So in this sense there is probably not much difference. Let's see how their territory is used in practice in the North Atlantic alliance."

While most NATO members are keen to welcome the two countries as quickly as possible, Turkey has potentially complicated their accession, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing them of failing to take a clear stance against terrorism, a reference to the harboring of Kurdish militants.

According to Justice Ministry sources quoted by the official Anadolu news agency, Sweden and Finland have failed to respond positively to 33 Turkish extradition requests over the past five years.

Sweden and Finland have said they plan to send delegations to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials, but Erdogan said they shouldn't bother.

"I am confident that with the help of constructive talks, the situation will be resolved," Niinisto told Sweden's parliament in a speech, later adding during a question period, "I'm optimistic."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on May 17 that he too was "confident" Turkey would support the move by both countries.

Bids to join NATO must be unanimously approved by all 30 members.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Armenian police have detained hundreds of protesters who attempted to block streets in Yerevan as opposition-led demonstrations continue in an effort to force Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian from office.

Demonstrations organized by opposition that have taken place since April 17 have called on the public to commit acts of civil disobedience, accusing Pashinian of what they said were unacceptable concessions made during negotiations with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinian has faced heavy criticism since he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed last month in Brussels to begin drafting a peace treaty to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and set up a joint commission on demarcating their common border.

On the morning of May 17, hundreds of opposition supporters attempted to block streets across central Yerevan.

Armenia's police department said "286 people who disobeyed lawful demands of law enforcement agents" were detained.

Hours later, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported that the number of people detained had climbed above 400.

The previous day police detained almost 100 drivers who took part in a car rally in Yerevan.

Azerbaijan wants the peace deal to be based on five elements, including a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity.

Pashinian has publicly stated that the elements are acceptable to Yerevan in principle, fueling Armenian opposition claims that he is ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia lost control over parts of the breakaway region in a 2020 war that ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire that an estimated 2,000 Russian troops have been deployed to monitor.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Pashinian, who said he had agreed to the 2020 cease-fire to avoid further losses, said he would not sign any peace deal with Azerbaijan without consulting ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

With reporting by AFP

The United Nations' children's agency says war in Ukraine, one of the world's largest grain suppliers, is threatening to plunge the world into a "spiraling" food crisis, exacerbating the problem of severe hunger among a growing number of children.

UNICEF said in a report released on May 17 that the cost of life-saving treatment for the most severely malnourished children is set to jump by as much as 16 percent due to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which comes on top of strains on the food system created by the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.

“Even before the war in Ukraine placed a strain on food security worldwide, conflict, climate shocks and COVID-19 were already wreaking havoc on families’ ability to feed their children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering from wasting,” she added.

The report says prices of raw ingredients for ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) have jumped amid the global food crisis sparked by the war and pandemic, while global financing to save the lives of children suffering from wasting is also under threat.

Without an influx of funds before the end of the year, as many as 600,000 more children could join the 10 million severely wasted children already suffering from not having access to the food packets.

“For millions of children every year, these sachets of therapeutic paste are the difference between life and death. A 16 percent price increase may sound manageable in the context of global food markets, but at the end of that supply chain is a desperately malnourished child, for whom the stakes are not manageable at all,” Russell said.

Severe wasting – where children are too thin for their height resulting in weakened immune systems – is the most immediate, visible and life-threatening form of malnutrition. Worldwide, at least 13.6 million children under five suffer from severe wasting, resulting in one in five deaths among this age group, according to UNICEF.

To prevent a worsening of the crisis, the agency called on governments to increase wasting aid by at least 59 percent above 2019 levels, and to include treatment for child wasting under health and long-term development funding schemes.

The Ukrainian government says it is continuing efforts to complete the evacuation of its fighters from the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold in the southern city of Mariupol, after around 260 soldiers, some of them wounded, were able to get out of the sprawling complex.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on May 17 that Ukraine was working on "further stages" of the evacuation of fighters, writing in a post on Telegram that "God willing, everything will be fine."

She did not give any further details of the operation.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said 264 Ukrainian fighters -- including 53 who were "seriously wounded" -- were ferried out of the plant on May 16 and taken to Russia-controlled territory and that efforts were under way to evacuate those still inside.

SEE ALSO:

More Than 260 Ukrainian Soldiers Evacuated From Steelworks In Mariupol, Defense Ministry Says

Russia's Defense Ministry said 256 Ukrainian fighters had "laid down their arms and surrendered," including 51 gravely wounded.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said 53 badly wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, while another 211 were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor to the town of Olenivka. Both areas are controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Months of Russian bombardment reduced Mariupol to rubble and killed thousands of civilians before Ukraine ceded control of the strategic Sea of Azov port, where hundreds of troops and civilians had been holed up for weeks in underground bunkers in the sprawling Azovstal industrial complex.

"The 'Mariupol' garrison has fulfilled its combat mission," the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement on May 17.

"The supreme military command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel.... Defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time," the statement added.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on May 16 that Ukrainian military and intelligence negotiators as well as the Red Cross and the United Nations orchestrated the evacuation.

"Ukraine needs its heroes alive," Zelenskiy said.

However, he warned that the Ukrainian fighters may not be freed immediately, adding that negotiations over their release will require "delicacy and time."

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 17 that Ukrainian fighters who "surrendered" would be treated "in accordance with international standards," and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had guaranteed this.

The Russian Defense Ministry earlier announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the steelworks for treatment in a town held by separatists, while Kyiv said the Ukrainian fighters would be exchanged for captured Russian soldiers.

However, Russia's TASS news agency quoted the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, as calling the Ukrainian fighters "Nazi criminals" that should not be exchanged.

Another lawmaker, Leonid Slutsky, said that although Russia had a moratorium on the death penalty, it should "think carefully" about capital punishment for the Azov fighters.

The Ukrainian military leadership said the Azovstal defenders forced Moscow to station some 20,000 troops in Mariupol, preventing them from rapidly capturing other parts of the country.

While the evacuation of the last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol marked a defeat for Ukraine, Russia's bombardment turned the port with a prewar population of some 400,000 into rubble and rendered it unusable.

British military intelligence said in its daily bulletin on May 17 that Russia's growing reliance on indiscriminate artillery bombardment in the conflict betrayed a limited capacity to accurately identify targets and "an unwillingness to risk flying combat aircraft routinely beyond its own front lines."

The bulletin posted on Twitter said that in another operational theater, the Chernihiv region north of Kyiv, Russia's heavy use of artillery destroyed or damaged an estimated 3,500 buildings during its failed advance toward the Ukrainian capital.

Some 80 percent of the damage has been caused to residential buildings, the U.K. bulletin said, cautioning that Russia will likely continue to rely heavily on massive artillery bombardment in its attempt to regain momentum in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military said Russia was "continuing its offensive" in the east of the country, adding "the enemy focused its main efforts on Donetsk" in the east.

An unnamed Western military source quoted by the BBC said that Putin and his military chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, were believed to be directly intervening in Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine and making decisions normally made by more junior officers.

Meanwhile, Sweden on May 17 signed a formal request to join NATO, a day after Stockholm said it would seek membership in the 30-member Western military alliance amid security concerns sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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Sweden Signs NATO Admission Request; Finland Set To Follow Suit

The move came a day after Finland also announced that it was seeking to join the alliance.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, BBC, and TASS

Tajikistan's Ministry of Internal Affairs on May 17 said one person was killed in the Central Asian nation's volatile Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) the previous day as security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters calling for the resignation of political leaders in the region.

A large group of youths began a march in Khorog, the region's capital, after authorities in GBAO refused to consider the resignation of the head of the region, Alisher Mirzonabot, the mayor of Khorogh, and other officials, RFE/RL's Tajik Service (Radio Ozodi) reported on May 16.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement that one of the protest leaders, whom it identified as Zamir Nazrishoev, born in 1993, was "wounded and died in hospital" as security forces repulsed "an armed attack" as protesters headed to regional administration buildings.

Radio Ozodi said that several sources claimed that Nazrishoev died under different circumstances. No details were immediately available.

Video footage sent to Radio Ozodi shows law enforcement officers using rubber bullets and tear gas against participants. Two sources in Khorugh confirmed to Radio Ozodi that three people were injured and were taken to the hospital.

The Ministry said that GBAO prosecutor's office initiated a criminal case against the organizers of the protest.

The situation in GBAO has been tense since November 25 when security forces fatally wounded Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, a local man wanted on charges of kidnapping.

After the incident, thousands of people gathered in the central square in Khorogh. The rallies continued for four days as protesters called for those responsible for killing Ziyobekov to be brought to justice.

The authorities promised to meet the demands and pledged not hold the protesters accountable if they left the square. The rallies ended on November 28, but according to members of a commission created by civil activists, the investigation into the killing of Ziyobekov has not been completed.

BUDAPEST -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned of an era of insecurity and war in Europe after the National Assembly elected him prime minister following the victory of his Fidesz party in elections last month.

Orban, who took the oath of office after the assembly voted 133-27 to elect him to his fourth consecutive term, said the country faces a decade of war and a recession, but he pledged to protect jobs, family benefits, and pensions.

"This decade will be an era of dangers, insecurity, and wars," he said in his acceptance speech.

The war in Ukraine and the European sanctions policy in response to it have led to an energy crisis and inflation that he predicted will cause "a period of recession and economic downturn."

While Orban repeated familiar complaints about Brussels "abusing its power" by pushing back member states' sovereignty, he said Hungary's place is in the European Union for the next decade.

He also said Hungary would not block EU sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as long as they posed no risk to Hungary's energy security.

Hungary and other member states, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, have rejected the EU's proposed sanctions designed to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Diplomats in Brussels currently are negotiating the package as they seek to achieve the required unanimity of all 27 EU members.

Orban has clashed with the EU, most recently over LGBT rights and rule-of-law issues, but he said the importance of Hungary being a member of NATO had never been more obvious.

With reporting by Reuters

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Bolat Abilov, a prominent businessman and once an opposition figure in Kazakhstan, has announced a return to politics after he quit the Central Asian country's political scene almost nine years ago, as he looks to establish a new political party.

Abilov and his associates told reporters in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, on May 16 that the new party will be called Bizding Tangdau (Our Choice).

Abilov said that once the party is registered, it will establish an independent commission to investigate political assassinations in Kazakhstan, including the killings of opposition politicians Zamanbek Nurqadilov in 2005 and Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly in 2006.

It will also look into the deadly dispersal of anti-government protests in January this year, the killing of at least 16 oil workers in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen in 2011, the deadly dispersal of Kazakh youth in Almaty by Soviet troops in 1986, and Soviet-era famine in Kazakhstan in the 1930s.

The 64-year-old politician added that the new party will work on leaving Russian-led groupings such as the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

According to Abilov, one of the main goals of his party will also be renaming cities, streets, and other geographic objects that are currently named after former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

In September 2013, Abilov, who was then the chairman of the Azat (Free) party, announced his decision to quit politics without giving any explanation.

Abilov is one of the most successful businessmen of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. He left pro-presidential political circles and joined the opposition in the early 2000s.

Before 2013, he faced numerous trials on charges tied to his financial and opposition activities. He was fined or sentenced to several days in jail on numerous occasions at the time.

YEREVAN -- Police in Yerevan have detained dozens of drivers who took part in a car rally in the Armenian capital as opposition-led demonstrations continue in an effort to force Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian from office.

Anti-government demonstrations organized by the opposition since April 17 have called on the population to commit acts of civil disobedience, accusing Pashinian of making unacceptable concessions during negotiations with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. `

Police in Yerevan said on May 16 that at least 91 people who attempted to take part in the car rally were detained, most of them near the Razdan sports stadium on the edge of the city center.

Police warned drivers "to avoid committing traffic violations and any attempts to restrict the rights of other citizens to move around the city."

Opposition politicians said earlier that they planned to resume protests in Yerevan on May 17.

Pashinian has faced heavy criticism since he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed last month to start drafting a bilateral peace treaty to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and set up a joint commission on demarcating their common border at talks in Brussels.

Azerbaijan wants the peace deal to be based on five elements, including a mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity.

Pashinian has publicly stated that the elements are acceptable to Yerevan in principle, fueling opposition claims that he is ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia lost control over parts of the breakaway region in a 2020 war that ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire that an estimated 2,000 Russian troops have been deployed to monitor.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Pashinian, who said he had agreed to the 2020 cease-fire to avoid further losses, said he would not sign any peace deal with Azerbaijan without consulting ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

MOSCOW -- Moscow municipal lawmaker Lyusya Shtein, who is also a member of the Pussy Riot protest group, has been added to the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list.

Shtein’s name appeared in the ministry’s registry of wanted suspects on May 16. She is wanted for violating a parole-like sentence she was handed last August for violating coronavirus safety precautions by calling on people to protest against the detention of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

The outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine left the country last month after her apartment door was marked with a Z-shaped sticker inscribed with the slogan "Collaborator. Do Not Sell The Motherland" in an apparent attempt to intimidate her.

Many Russian military vehicles and tanks have been marked with the letter Z during the ongoing invasion, with the insignia becoming an increasingly ubiquitous symbol of support for the war launched against in February, for the military, for the Kremlin’s policies, and most of all for President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, Shtein's partner and a founding member of the Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, told the New York Times that she also had left Russia after a Moscow court changed the remainder of her one-year parole-like sentence to real prison time last month, saying she violated the terms of her punishment.

Alyokhina's whereabouts were unknown for weeks after the Russian Interior Ministry added her to its registry of wanted persons on April 26, five days after a Moscow court approved the change in a parole-like sentence she was handed last September on the same charge as Shtein faced.

Alyokhina, Shtein, and other members of the protest group have been sentenced to up 15 days in jail several times in recent months over taking part in protest actions and unsanctioned rallies.

Pussy Riot came to prominence after three of its members were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for a stunt in which they burst into Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral and sang a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time and campaigning for his subsequent return to the Kremlin.

Alyokhina and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova had almost completed serving their two-year prison sentences when they were freed in December 2013 under an amnesty. The two have dismissed the move as a propaganda stunt by Putin to improve his image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics that were held in the Russian resort city of Sochi.

AQTAU, Kazakhstan -- Officials in Kazakhstan’s western Manghystau region say 64 endangered seals and five huge sturgeon washed up dead on the shores of the Caspian Sea over the weekend.

The Manghystau regional fishery inspection agency said on May 16 that all of the animals found near the port of Fort Shevchenko had been taken for tests to determine the cause of their deaths.

Less than three weeks ago, authorities said the bodies of 94 dead seals were found in the same area. They said at the time that the animals were too decomposed to perform any forensic investigations on them.

On May 4, Ecology Minister Serikqali Birekeshev rejected allegations that the mass deaths of the endangered seals might have been caused by operations of the North Caspian Operating Company, which drills oil wells in the Caspian Sea bed.

The Caspian seal is the only mammal living in the Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water.

The endemic species has for decades suffered from overhunting and industrial pollution in its habitat, with their numbers now estimated at less than 70,000, compared with more than 1 million in the early 20th century.

Listed as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2008, the seal was included in Russia's Red Data Book of endangered and rare species last year.

The Caspian Sea, shared by five riparian states -- Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan -- boasts vast oil and gas reserves.

Pollution from hydrocarbon extraction and declining water levels are posing a threat to many local species and putting the future of the sea itself at risk.

With reporting by Lada.kz

Global fast-food giant McDonald's and French carmaker Renault have become the latest major corporations to announce their exit from Russia, joining dozens of others in an exodus over Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

U.S.-based McDonald's said in a statement from its corporate headquarters in Chicago on May 16 that after more than 30 years of operations in Russia, it will exit the Russian market and has initiated a process to sell its Russian business.

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The Week In Russia: Big Mac Memories And Long-Held Grievances

Dozens of major international companies from a broad range of sectors have exited Russia since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

"The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald's to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald's values," the statement says.

SEE ALSO:

G7 Asks China Not To Aid Russia; Demands Moscow Lift Blockade On Ukrainian Grain Exports

"As part of McDonald's decision to exit, the Company is pursuing the sale of its entire portfolio of McDonald's restaurants in Russia to a local buyer. The Company intends to initiate the process of “de-Arching” those restaurants, which entails no longer using the McDonald’s name, logo, branding, and menu, though the Company will continue to retain its trademarks in Russia," it added.

The announcement came the same day Renault said it had reached an agreement to sell its Russian holdings, including its controlling interest in AvtoVAZ, the maker of Lada vehicles.

Renault said that it was selling its 100 percent stake in Renault Russia to the city of Moscow, while its 67.69 percent interest in AvtoVAZ will be sold to the state-owned Central Research and Development Automobile and Engine Institute (NAMI), with a provision to buy back that stake "at certain times during the next six years."

"Today, we have taken a difficult but necessary decision; and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia, while preserving the Group's performance and our ability to return to the country in the future, in a different context," Luca de Meo, the chief executive officer of Renault Group, said in the statement.

Financial details of the transactions were not revealed, but Renault has said it would record a non-cash adjustment charge of $2.3 billion related to Russia in its 2022 first-half results.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said after the announcement that production of passenger cars under the Moskvich brand will resume at the Moscow Renault plant as "we cannot allow thousands of workers to be left without work."

Russian truck manufacturer KamAZ will become a technical partner at the plant. he said.

McDonald's directly manages more than 80 percent of the restaurants in Russia that bear the company's name, and accounts for about 9 percent of its revenue and 3 percent of its operating profit.

Worldwide, McDonald's have more than 39,000 locations in over 100 countries.

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- An opposition activist in Kazakhstan's southern city of Shymkent has been sentenced to seven years in prison on terrorism charges that he rejects.

The Al-Farabi district court sentenced Erulan Amirov on May 16 after finding him guilty of inciting social hatred, propagating terrorism, and involvement in the activities of a banned organization.

After his sentence was pronounced, Amirov said, "I do not know why I am in custody."

An RFE/RL correspondent said a bruise could be seen on Amirov's head, but when asked about it, the activist answered that he was "scared" to talk about it.

Amirov's mother, Sharipa Niyazova, said the court ruling will be appealed.

Amirov, who went on trial in January, was arrested in April last year. But his family only learned that he was being held in a detention center in Shymkent in December after what a Kazakh human rights group said was attempt to commit suicide.

Niyazova says her son suffers psychiatric disorders.

Kazakh human rights organizations have designated Amirov as a political prisoner and have demanded his release.

The charges against Amirov stemmed from his posts on social networks criticizing Kazakh authorities and for his participation in unsanctioned protest rallies organized by the banned Koshe (Street) political party.

Many activists across the Central Asian nation have been handed prison terms or parole-like restricted freedom sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the Koshe party and its affiliate Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement.

DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government.

Human Rights Watch earlier this year criticized the Kazakh government for using anti-extremism laws as a tool to persecute critics and civic activists. Several hundred people have been prosecuted for membership in the Koshe party.

The Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the country.

Kazem Darabi, an Iranian sentenced to life in prison over the 1992 murder of four Iranian dissidents, has called on President Ebrahim Raisi to pressure the Swedish government for the release of former Iranian official Hamid Nouri, who is on trial in Stockholm over the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners.

In an interview with the hard-line Fars news agency, Darabi, who was released in 2007 after serving 15 years in prison in Germany, claimed Nouri, an alleged former deputy prosecutor and member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was put on trial with “no logic nor evidence.”

Nouri is charged with international war crimes and human rights abuses in connection with the murders of more than 100 people at a prison in Karaj.

Swedish prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Nouri, who has been held in custody in Sweden since his arrest in Stockholm in November 2019. The Stockholm District Court has said that a verdict in the case is expected on July 14.

Tehran has threatened to execute Swedish-Iranian national Ahmadreza Djalali, who is currently being held in Iran and is accused of spying for Israel.

Iranian officials have claimed that the two cases, which have strained relations between Sweden and Iran, are not related.

Darabi whose case sparked a diplomatic crisis between Berlin and Tehran, said the trial with Nouri and other similar court proceedings, are to put “the Islamic republic on trial.”

Iran’s clerical establishment has been accused of having threatened and assassinated dozens of political opponents outside the country.

Iranian officials have denied the accusations.

After the trial of Darabi and four others that lasted more than 3 years, a German court in 1997 concluded that Iranian government was "directly involved" in the 1992 killings of three top members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and one of their supporters at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin.

Darabi who had worked as a grocer in Berlin and has steadfastly claimed his innocence, was identified as an agent of the Iranian government who organized the killings.

Sweden has joined Finland in deciding to apply to join the NATO military alliance in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will "certainly" react to the alliance's expected enlargement into the two Nordic countries.

"The government has decided to inform NATO that Sweden wants to become a member of the alliance. Sweden's NATO ambassador will shortly inform NATO," Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters on May 16, effectively ending two centuries of the country's nonaligned status.

"Russia has said that that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO," she said. "We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us."

The move comes a day after Nordic neighbor Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, made a similar announcement. Finland has remained neutral in the postwar era after losing some 10 percent of its territory to the Soviet Union.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin have said that after consulting parliament, their country intends to rapidly apply for NATO membership.

Both countries have moved quickly toward the military alliance since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Their bids to join must be unanimously approved by NATO's 30 members.

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: All You Need To Know As Finland And Sweden Inch Closer To NATO 

In Moscow, Putin said on May 16 that while Russia did not see Finland and Sweden's decision to join NATO as a threat, deployment of military infrastructure there may trigger a response from Moscow.

The expansion of NATO to Sweden and Finland poses "no direct threat for us...but the expansion of military infrastructure to these territories will certainly provoke our response," Putin told a televised summit meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led military alliance.

Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO would be a "grave mistake with far-reaching consequences."

Finland and Sweden "should have no illusions that we will simply resign ourselves to this," Ryabkov said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Russia "will have to take steps in response to Sweden’s accession to NATO" but this would depend on the terms of Sweden's integration, including possible deployment of offensive weapons on Swedish territory.

Sweden's accession to NATO "will do serious harm to the security of Northern Europe and the European continent in general," a Defense Ministry statement quoted by TASS said, adding that "Russia will have to take response steps of the military-technical and other nature to avert threats to its national security stemming from it."

While no formal date is expected to be announced immediately for when accession could take place, NATO will hold a summit in Madrid on June 28-29.

NATO officials have indicated that the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden could be signed at that time if the formal applications landed on Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s desk by the end of May.

In response to the news, Stoltenberg said their entry would be "smooth and swift."

But the alliance first will have to find a way around Turkey's threat to block the expansion.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Turkey's opposition to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, accusing them of failing to take a clear stance against terrorism, a reference to the harboring of Kurdish militants.

According to Justice Ministry sources quoted by the official Anadolu news agency, Sweden and Finland have failed to respond positively to Turkey's 33 extradition requests over the past five years.

Sweden and Finland have said they plan to send delegations to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials, but Erdogan said they shouldn't bother.

U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on May 16 that the U.S. Congress will seek to ratify Finland's application to join NATO before going on holiday in August.

"Certainly we hope to achieve it before the August recess when Congress typically goes out of session," McConnell told reporters in Helsinki after meeting with Niinisto.

McConnell said there was broad bipartisan support among U.S. lawmakers for the Finnish membership.

Russian exports of power to Finland were down to zero early on May 16, flow data showed, after Russian utility firm Inter RAO said last week it would halt them because it had not been paid.

Finnish grid operator Fingrid said on May 14 that the suspension of Russian transmission was due to restrictions on payments imposed by Western states. But is added that it can replace Russian supplies with Swedish power and by boosting domestic production.

With reporting by dpa, AFP, Reuters, and TASS

TBILISI -- Noted Georgian opposition journalist Nika Gvaramia has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term on corruption charges that he and his supporters reject as politically motivated.

A Tbilisi court sentenced the 45-year-old journalist and lawyer to 3 1/2 years in prison on May 16, after finding him guilty of abuse of power related to his activities as director-general of the Rustavi-2 television channel in 2019.

Judge Lasha Chkhikvadze also found Gvaramia guilty of embezzlement and ordered him to pay a 50,000-lari ($16,300) fine on that charge.

Gvaramia, however, was acquitted on charges of money laundering, bribery, and forgery.

"Good job!" Gvaramia shouted out in the courtroom in reaction to the judge's ruling.

The court found Gvaramia's co-defendant, Kakhaber Damenia, former financial director of Rustavi-2, guilty of embezzlement and ordered him to pay a 50,000-lari fine as well. Another co-defendant, the director of the Inter Media Plus news agency, Zurab Lashvili, was acquitted of all charges.

Gvaramia left Rustavi-2 in 2019 after the European Court of Human Rights upheld a verdict by Georgia's Supreme Court on restoring the ownership of the country's then main opposition channel to its previous owner, Kibar Khalvashi, who was seen as close to the government.

Transparency International-Georgia condemned Gvaramia's conviction, calling it a case of retaliation by the authorities for his journalistic activities.

"Based on the case study and observation of the process, we can conclude that the case is politically motivated with the aim of punishing Nika Gvaramia and disrupting the activities of his TV channel as it was critical of the authorities." Transparency International-Georgia said.

"The use of the justice system for media censorship and intimidation is a dangerous message for other critical media outlets as well."

"At the same time, this verdict is a continuation of the political persecution that has been carried out against the state opponents for years," Transparency International-Georgia concluded.

Georgia ranked 89th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders 2022 World Press Freedom Index. In 2019 it ranked 60th.

French car maker Renault says it has reached an agreement to sell its Russian holdings, including its controlling interest in AvtoVAZ, the maker of Lada vehicles, due to Moscow's unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Renault said in a statement on May 16 that it is selling its 100 percent stake in Renault Russia to the city of Moscow, while its 67.69 percent interest in AvtoVAZ will be sold to the state-owned NAMI research institute (the Central Research and Development Automobile and Engine Institute), with a provision to buy back that stake "at certain times during the next 6 years."

"Today, we have taken a difficult but necessary decision; and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia, while preserving the Group's performance and our ability to return to the country in the future, in a different context," Luca de Meo, the chief executive officer of Renault Group said in the statement.

Dozens of major international companies from a broad range of sectors have exited Russia since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Financial details of the transactions were not revealed, but Renault has said it would record a non-cash adjustment charge of $2.3 billion related to Russia in its 2022 first-half results.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said after the announcement that production of passenger cars under the Moskvich brand will resume at the Moscow Renault plant as "we cannot allow thousands of workers to be left without work."

Russian truck manufacturer KamAZ will become a technical partner at the plant. he said.

The European Union's plans to impose an oil embargo on Russia were being blocked by just one of the bloc's 27 members, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on May 16.

"The whole union is being held hostage by one member state ... we have to agree, we cannot be held hostage," Landsbergis said as he arrived for a meeting with his counterparts.

EU diplomats quoted by Reuters said the country Landsbergis was referring to is Hungary.

A sixth round of EU sanctions including a ban on Russia oil has been drawn up by experts in the European Commission, but Hungary and other member states, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, have voiced reservations.

With reporting by Reuters

Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka appears careful to avoid direct involvement in Russia's war in Ukraine out of concern about potential further economic reprisals, retaliation from Kyiv, and possibly discontent among his own armed forces, British intelligence said on May 16.

The West has imposed biting sanctions on Belarus following a 2020 election which the opposition says was heavily rigged in favor of Lukashenka, who subsequently unleashed a harsh crackdown on protesters, activists, and the media.

Isolated and economically weakened, Lukashenka has again turned to long-time ally Vladimir Putin for support, and once Moscow invaded Ukraine, he allowed Russia to launch attacks and supply forces from Belarusian territory.

However, despite early speculation, Belarus has not been directly involved in the conflict, the Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter on May 16.

Belarus announced the deployment of special forces along the Ukraine border following military maneuvers earlier this month, a move that Britain's Ministry of Defense said was likely to force Ukraine to keep a number of troops in the border area and prevent their deployment in the east.

But Lukashenka is "likely balancing support for Russia’s invasion with a desire to avoid direct military participation with the risk of Western sanctions, Ukrainian retaliation and possible dissatisfaction in the Belarusian military," the bulletin concluded.

More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated on May 16 from Azovstal, the steelworks in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol that has been under siege for weeks.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced the evacuation after one of the commanders of the Azov Battalion, the Ukrainian military unit that has been holed up in the steelworks, signaled a possible end to the siege.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said 53 "heavily wounded" soldiers were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, while another 211 others were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor to another site.

The Azov Battalion announced earlier on social media that in order to save lives "the entire Mariupol garrison is implementing the approved decision of the Supreme Military Command and hopes for the support of the Ukrainian people."

Azov Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Denis Prokopenko said in an accompanying video that the decision was "the highest level of overseeing troops, all the more so when your decision is endorsed by the highest military command."

The Russian Defense Ministry earlier announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the steelworks for treatment in a town held by Moscow-backed separatists. The ministry said a cease-fire had been introduced in the area of the plant and a humanitarian corridor opened, according to TASS.

There was no word on whether the wounded would be considered prisoners of war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a cease-fire had been introduced in the area of the plant and a humanitarian corridor had been opened, according to TASS, quoting the ministry. It said Ukrainian soldiers were being taken to a medical facility in Novoazovsk.

The news came amid a renewed Russian assault in the east in which at least 19 civilians were killed, officials in the region said.

Serhiy Hayday, the governor of the Luhansk region, said 10 civilians were killed in Severodonetsk after saying earlier that heavy shelling had caused fires in residential areas. Another nine civilians were killed in the Donetsk region, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.

The renewed Russian assault in the east came as NATO said that Moscow's invasion was not going to plan and its push to capture the Donbas region had ground to a halt.

SEE ALSO:

Russia's Offensive In Ukraine Has Lost Momentum, Western Military Officials Say

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address late on May 15 that Ukrainian forces were "preparing for new attempts by Russia to attack in Donbas, to somehow intensify its movement in the south of Ukraine."

"The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are in a dead end and their so-called 'special operation' has already gone bankrupt," he added.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military said its counterattack around Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, gained momentum and its forces pushed Russian troops back to the border in the region around Kharkiv.

"The 227th Battalion of the 127th Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Kharkiv armed forces drove out the Russians and went to the state border," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook on May 16.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian troops were being transferred in the direction of Donbas after withdrawing from Kharkiv following the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukraine's claims could not be immediately verified.

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Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said he and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had discussed the situation on the battlefield and Austin's call last week with the Russian defense minister.

Reznikov told Austin how Ukrainian forces were successfully using 155-millimeter howitzers sent by the United States.

Ukraine has deployed many of the newly received U.S. howitzers at the front lines, and Washington has delivered all but one of the 90 artillery pieces they were due to send, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said.

In Estonia, NATO is due to kick off some of the largest-ever exercises later on May 16. The scheduled exercise, code-named Hedgehog, will last two weeks and involve 15,000 troops from 10 countries, including Britain, the United States, and nonmembers Finland and Sweden.

Sweden on May 16 officially announced it will apply for NATO membership as a deterrent against Russian aggression. The announcement came a day after Finland announced that it was seeking to join the alliance.

SEE ALSO:

Sweden Joins Finland In NATO Bid As Putin Warns Of 'Response'

Russia on May 16 again warned that the admission of the two Nordic neighbors into the alliance would be a "grave mistake" that would have "far-reaching consequences."

In Brussels, foreign ministers from the 27-member European Union failed to reach a breakthrough on new sanctions on Russia at a meeting in Brussels on May 16 as Hungary continued to block a ban on Russian oil imports.

Talks between ministers "clarified some issues" but no agreement was possible, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a press conference after the meeting.

Borrell said that representatives of the EU member states had returned to technical negotiations.

Hungary, a country heavily dependent on Russian oil, has been refusing to agree to the oil ban, demanding far-reaching concessions.

Arriving for the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the EU continues "to finance the Russian war machine, its aggression and atrocities" with its energy imports.

Referring to an ongoing stalemate over a potential EU ban on Russian oil imports, Kuleba said, "We are all curious to see how this saga ends."

As he left the talks Kuleba urged the EU to send a message to Hungary to move the package forward.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, BBC, and TASS

A UN working group has concluded that Turkmenistan violated international human rights laws when it detained a lawyer who was organizing a pro-democracy rally.

Police in the tightly controlled Central Asian state arrested Pygamberdy Allaberdyev, a lawyer at a state oil company, in September 2020 for "hooliganism" after a man attacked him near a grocery store in the western city of Balkanabat.

Officers from the National Security Ministry immediately took over the case and charged Allaberdyev with having ties with the activists abroad.

He was sentenced later that month to six years in prison after a closed-door, two-hour trial during which he had no legal representation.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last week determined that Allaberdyev was arrested for exercising his freedom of expression and association, according to the human rights group Freedom Now, which is helping Allaberdyev.

"We welcome the Working Group's recognition that Pygamberdy Allaberdyev is wrongfully detained," Freedom Now legal officer Adam Lhedmat said in a May 13 statement.

"Allaberdyev's imprisonment is indicative of Turkmenistan’s intolerance of dissent and its strategy of using fabricated charges to silence its citizens. We call on the Turkmen government to comply with the United Nations' decision and immediately and unconditionally release Allaberdyev."

Prison officials have denied family and legal representatives access to Allaberdyev since his sentencing.

Allaberdyev was accused of having links to Turkmen activists residing abroad who had staged a number of rallies in the United States, Turkey, and Northern Cyprus to protest against constitutional amendments.

Allaberdyev had denied any links to the activists.

The protesters in the United States at the time suspected autocratic leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of using the constitutional amendments to secure his lifetime presidency and its eventual succession to his son and grandchildren.

Berdymukhammedov's son, Serdar, in March won a presidential election in a unfair contest widely viewed as a formality to the transfer of political power within the family.

It is unclear what, if any, effect the UN working group's decision will have on Allaberdyev’s fate.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Berlin on May 15 and that "more weapons and other aid is on the way to Ukraine.”

Kuleba was due to brief NATO foreign ministers meeting in Berlin on the situation on the ground in Ukraine and on how the alliance can further help the country as it battles invading Russian forces for a 12th week.

"We agreed to work closely together to ensure that Ukrainian food exports reach consumers in Africa and Asia. Grateful to Secretary Blinken and the U.S. for their leadership and unwavering support,” Kuleba tweeted.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Blinken and Kuleba discussed the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including on global food security.

"The secretary conveyed details regarding the latest tranche of U.S. security assistance to bolster Ukraine’s defenses," Price said.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in Stockholm after visiting the Ukrainian capital on May 14, told reporters on a conference call that he expects the Senate to approve just under $40 billion in further aid for Ukraine in a vote on May 18.

U.S. President Joe Biden had requested $33 billion in aid for Ukraine on April 28, including over $20 billion in military assistance. But House lawmakers boosted that amount to roughly $40 billion, adding more military and humanitarian aid.

With reporting by Reuters

Unidentified individuals have attempted to set fire to military enlistment offices in two locations in Russia in a possible sign of protest against the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 at least 10 enlistment offices have been attacked, according to Russian news portal Baza.

In the early morning hours of May 15, individuals tried but failed to set fire to an office in the village of Pronsk in Ryazan region, located about 270 kilometers southeast of Moscow, the news agency reported.

Around the same time, a fire broke out at an office in the city of Volgograd in Russia's south.

Police believe a Molotov cocktail was tossed through the window. The fire damaged about 20 square meters.

On May 13, a military enlistment office in the town of Gukovo in the southern Rostov region was partially burned. A Molotov cocktail is also believed to be the cause of that fire, which was quickly put out.

Military enlistment offices in the northern Khanty-Mansi region in and Volgodonsk region in the south have also been attacked.