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- By RFE/RL
U.S. Senators Urge Response To Cyberattack Blamed On Russian Hackers
Two U.S. senators say the United States must respond to a widespread cyberattack that U.S. officials say was carried out by Russian hackers who managed to break into the computer networks of multiple U.S. government agencies.
Senator Mitt Romney (Republican-Utah) said the intrusion "demands a response" and what would be expected is a "cyber-response." But he said he was not sure the United States had the "capability to do that in a way that would be of the same scale or even a greater scale than Russia has applied to us."
Speaking on December 20 on U.S. broadcaster NBC, Romney also said he was disappointed in President Donald Trump’s reaction to the data breach.
In his first public comments on the incident, Trump on December 19 downplayed the seriousness and impact of the intrusion and cast doubt on whether Russia was to blame.
Romney said Trump "has a blind spot when it comes to Russia" and doesn’t want to recognize Russia as the "extraordinarily bad actor they are on the world stage."
He added that Russia goes against the United States "on every front" and the administration has "not been serious enough about how damaging an adversary Russia can be."
'Russia Acted With Impunity'
Romney said experts on U.S. cybersecurity have determined that the intrusion came from Russia and was very serious and damaging, noting that the hackers got into the agency that’s responsible for U.S. nuclear capacity and research into nuclear weapons.
He also called for a "rethink" at the Department of Defense and other agencies about U.S. cybercabilities -- offensive and defensive.
"What this invasion underscores is that Russia acted with impunity," Romney said. "They didn’t fear what we would be able to do from a cybercapacity. They didn’t think that our defenses were particularly adequate and they apparently didn’t think that we would respond in a very aggressive way."
Trump's response to the cyberattack came in a tweet in which he said it was "far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality" and indicated that the perpetrators may be the Chinese.
The assertion ran counter to comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said in an interview on December 18 that the United States "can say pretty clearly” that it was the Russians.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
U.S. Senator Mark Warner (Democrat-Virginia) said on December 20 on ABC that the hack could still be going on and that officials had yet to determine its full scope. He backed Romney’s call for retaliation, but he called the hack an invasion "in that gray area between espionage and an attack."
Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Washington needed to make clear to adversaries "that if you take this kind of action we and others will strike back."
President-elect Joe Biden is deliberating how to respond, incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said.
"It's not just sanctions, it's steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to engage in these attacks," he said on CBS.
But he cautioned that there were still “a lot of unanswered questions about the purpose, nature, and extent of these specific attacks."
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, NBC, CBS, ABC, and The Washington Post
Magnitude-4.5 Quake Strikes Northwestern Iran
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 struck northwestern Iran, near the border with Turkey, state media reported.
The official news agency IRNA reported on December 20 that the quake struck the region of Qotur in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province at a shallow depth of 5 kilometers.
IRNA did not report if the quake had caused any casualties or damage.
A magnitude-5.7 earthquake in February in the same area on the Iran-Turkey border killed nine people in Turkey, injured more than a hundred in villages and towns in both countries, and caused buildings to collapse across southeastern Turkey.
Iran sits on top of major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.
A 7.3-magnitude quake in the western province of Kermanshah killed 620 people in November 2017.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake destroyed the ancient mud-brick city of Bam in Iran’s southeast, killing at least 31,000 people.
Iran's deadliest quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 others, and left half a million homeless in the country's north.
Based on reporting by IRNA and Reuters
More Than 150 Anti-Lukashenka Demonstrators Detained In Belarus
MINSK -- A Belarusian human rights group says security forces have detained more than 150 people during protests calling on strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka to step down.
The Vyasna rights group published the names of 151 people that it said had been detained in the capital Minsk and the cities of Barysau, Homel, Hrodna, Salihorsk, Smilovichi, Navapolatsk, Brest, and other locations.
Marches and rallies were reported in several districts of Minsk, accordng to RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, with many carrying the opposition’s red-and-white flag or banners. It was the 19th Sunday in a row on which opposition marches took place in the capital.
Smaller protests were also held in other towns and cities across Belarus.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Belarus has been roiled by nearly daily protests since early August when Lukashenka was declared victor of a presidential election that opposition leaders said was flawed.
Police have violently cracked down on the postelection protests, with more than 27,000 detentions, according to the United Nations. There have also been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment, and several people have died.
The marches continue to call for Lukashenka to resign, an end to the crackdown, the release of political prisoners, and new elections.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote, and imposed sanctions on Lukashenka and his allies, citing election rigging and the police crackdown.
Crowd numbers at protests in Minsk and elsewhere have dropped amid fatigue, repression, and the cold weather. Protests organizers have also switched tactics, calling for smaller gatherings to evade arrest and stretch the riot police.
Small marches and rallies were also reported on December 19 in Minsk and elsewhere, including the western city of Hrodna.
Bosnia-Herzegovina's Mostar Holds First Local Elections In 12 Years
Polls have closed in Bosnia-Herzegovina's ethnically divided southern city of Mostar is holding its first local elections in 12 years on December 20, amid concerns that a surge in coronavirus infections would keep many voters away.
Thirty-five city councilors will be elected under the city's new election rules. Those city councilors will then vote to determine Mostar's next mayor by a two-thirds majority vote.
Polling stations closed at 7 p.m. local time. Preliminary results are expected around midnight. The Central Election Commission said about 40 percent of the eligible voters had turned out by 4 p.m., according to RFE/RL's Balkan Service.
The number of coronavirus cases and related deaths in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been rising sharply in recent weeks, with health authorities now reporting more than 105,000 infections, including more than 3,600 fatalities.
In order to mitigate the risk of infection, voters at polling stations were required to observe strict physical distancing, wear face masks, and wash their hands. Voters also had their temperatures taken and polling stations were regularly disinfected.
Local elections were held on November 15 across the rest of the country, with opposition parties winning contests in the Balkan country’s two largest cities.
The results dealt a blow to long-ruling nationalists amid a wave of dissatisfaction with the handling the coronavirus pandemic.
Bridging The Divide? Local Elections In Mostar Aim To End Years Of Impasse
The long-delayed vote in Mostar came after Bosnia-Herzegovina’s main Bosniak and Croat parties in June reached a last-minute agreement on a new statute for the city.
The deal was signed by Bakir Izetbegovic and Dragan Covic, the leaders of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), respectively, following lengthy negotiations on the issue.
Mostar has not held municipal polls since 2008 because of the authorities' failure to enforce a 2010 ruling by the Bosnia's Constitutional Court that said the city's power-sharing structure was unconstitutional and needed reform.
Ljubo Beslic, of the HDZ, has served as mayor of Mostar without a mandate since his term expired in 2013.
Last October, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Bosnia for its failure to change its election law and enable municipal elections in Mostar.
Mostar is a city of 100,000 people with a divided population, comprising mostly Catholic Bosnian Croats in its west and mainly Muslim Bosniaks in its east.
Bosnia's Croats and Bosniaks were allied against ethnic Serbs during much of the 1992-95 Bosnian War. But the two communities also fought fierce battles over Mostar and other areas.
The city has reflected a tense situation throughout the country after the Dayton peace accord of 1995, which left Bosnia divided into two autonomous regions -- the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the mainly ethnic Serb Republika Srpska -- united under a weak central government in Sarajevo.
Southeast Europe Hit By Traffic Jams Despite COVID-19 Travel Restrictions
Despite travel restrictions, huge traffic jams have been reported on the borders between Slovenia and Croatia as well as Hungary and Serbia.
Reports on December 19 spoke of thousands of people waiting for hours to cross.
Many people from countries like Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Bosnia work and live in Western Europe. They traditionally travel home by car for holidays, both in the winter and in the summer.
Some European Union nations with big migrant worker communities have imposed obligatory coronavirus tests and isolation upon their return, hoping to dissuade people from holiday travel to countries with high infection rates.
Countries throughout the Balkans have reported thousands of new virus infections daily and hospitals across the region are full.
Aside from the regular holiday traffic, the current border rush could be linked to Serbia’s decision to demand mandatory negative coronavirus tests for foreigners coming in starting on December 21. Serbian citizens without negative tests will have to isolate for 10 days upon arrival.
Croatia, a member of the EU, is also demanding mandatory negative virus tests for its citizens coming in from abroad, which has slowed down the usual border checks.
The Croatian state television station, HRT, reported on December 19 that lines of cars had formed on Croatia's borders with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.
Serbia's RTS television said travelers waited for at least four hours to enter Hungary overnight. It said some 16,000 people had entered Serbia in the previous 24 hours.
Based on reporting by AP
- By Reuters
Armenian Prime Minister Heckled During March To Mourn War Victims
Thousands of Armenians marched through the capital, Yerevan, on December 19 to commemorate the soldiers killed in a six-week conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in which Azerbaijan made significant territorial gains. The conflict and the fatalities on the Armenian side have increased pressure on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian who is facing calls to resign after being accused by the opposition of mishandling the conflict by accepting a Russian-brokered cease-fire last month. Pashinian led the march to the Erablur military cemetery on the first of three days of mourning. Although he was flanked by his supporters, shouts of “Nikol is a traitor!” could be heard along the way and outside the cemetery.
Protests Continue In Belarus Demanding End To Authoritarian Lukashenka Rule
People marched and rallied in Minsk and elsewhere in Belarus on December 19 as demonstrations demanding that Alyaksandr Lukashenka step down entered day 133.
Belarus has been rocked by protests since August 9 when Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of the country’s presidential election, a vote many Belarusians and others charge was rigged and actually won by opposition challenger Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Since then, some 28,000 Belarusians have been detained, hundreds beaten on the streets and in detention -- with many cases considered torture -- and several killed in the regime’s crackdown.
The United States and European Union refuse to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate ruler and have slapped sanctions on him and other officials held responsible for the voter fraud and post-election crackdown.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania shortly after the election amid threats to her and her family, has become the face of the Belarusian protests abroad.
Crowd numbers at protests in Minsk and elsewhere have dropped amid fatigue, repression, and the cold weather. Protests organizers have also switched tactics, calling for smaller gatherings to evade arrest and stretch the riot police.
On December 19, small marches were reported in several districts of Minsk, RFE/RL’s Belarus Service reported, with many carrying the opposition’s red-and-white flag or banners.
Small marches and rallies were also reported elsewhere, including the western city of Hrodna.
So far, there have been no reports of demonstrators being detained by riot police.
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Will Shut Last Two Consulates In Russia
The United States plans to close its last two consulates in Russia, leaving only an embassy in Moscow as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.
The State Department confirmed on December 19 that the United States will shutter its consulate in Vladivostok in the Far East and suspend operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in consultation with Ambassador John Sullivan, decided to close the two consulates “as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the safe and secure operation of the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Russian Federation,” a State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL in a statement.
“The Department’s decision on the U.S. consulates in Russia was taken to optimize the work of the U.S. mission in Russia,” the spokesperson said. Some diplomatic personnel would be moved to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow “to advance our foreign policy interests in Russia in the most effective and safe manner possible.”
The decision will not impact Russian consulates in the United States.
The State Department notified Congress on December 10 that it planned to close the two consulates, the Associated Press reported on December 18.
The notice to Congress was sent three days before it publicly emerged that suspected Russian government hackers were behind a massive cyberattack on the U.S. government and other entities. Pompeo on December 18 said "that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity."
A copy of the notification to Congress stated that the move was "in response to ongoing staffing challenges of the U.S. Mission in Russia in the wake of the 2017 Russian-imposed personnel cap on the U.S. Mission and resultant impasse with Russia over diplomatic visas.”
Russia ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in 2018 in a tit-for-tat move after the United States ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle to shutter over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil.
It’s unclear why the United States is closing the consulates now, nearly three years after the cap on the number of American diplomats was imposed. The timing of the closures was not mentioned, and it’s unclear whether it will occur before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20.
The consulate in Vladivostok has been closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg employ a total of 10 American diplomats and 33 local staff.
The American diplomats will be relocated to the embassy in Moscow, while the locals will be laid off, according to the notice.
Following the closures, the United States would only have diplomatic representation in Moscow. That would leave all consular services for Americans and visa operations for Russians to be run from Moscow. It would also lessen U.S. diplomatic outreach across the vast country.
“Hard to understand logic of this. Important to know what is happening outside of capital in country that spans 11 time zones,” Steven Pifer, a former State Department official focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, wrote on Twitter.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the United States needs consulates to promote public diplomacy.
"The U.S. should be seeking ways to engage more directly with Russian society. These consulates help," he wrote on Twitter.
He noted that even with a cap on the number of American diplomats, the United States can choose how to deploy diplomats within those limits to maintain a presence outside of Moscow.
With reporting by Current Time, RFE/RL's Russian Service, and AP.
UN Agency Pushes Back Closure Deadline On Overfilled Bosnian Migrant Camp
The UN's top agency on migration has further postponed, for at least two days, the closure of a major camp for thousands of migrants in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina where international watchdogs have warned that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told RFE/RL's Balkan Service on December 19 that a weekend deadline to shut down the Lipa reception facility was moved to December 21 after a request from the relevant Bosnian authorities.
It had already been moved back once.
There are estimated to be up to 10,000 migrants in Bosnia, a quarter of whom sleep rough in the woods, abandoned buildings, or by roadsides.
The IOM, which oversees all migrant facilities in Bosnia, stopped funding the Lipa facility earlier this month because it said authorities had failed to ensure the necessary conditions to make it suitable for winter.
In October, authorities 75 kilometers away in the town of Bihac closed a migrant center there and moved hundreds of people to the already full Lipa camp.
The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic warned in a letter to Bosnian officials on December 11 that a lack of action and coordination between the country's various governments risks having grave consequences for migrants and asylum seekers left without housing, food, and medical care.
Bosnia's Council of Ministers -- the executive branch of an ethnically divided governing structure imposed to stop an ethnically fueled war 25 years ago -- is responsible for a final decision on finding accommodation for around 1,200 migrants at the Lipa camp.
Bosnia has become a transit route for migrants and refugees from Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa since European Union countries shut their borders to new arrivals in 2015, but it has few resources to provide for the inflow.
Many have made their way to Bosnia's northwest hoping to cross into EU member Croatia to the west.
Russia To 'Return' Icon Gifted To Lavrov In Balkans Amid Signs It's Stolen Ukrainian Heritage
Russia announced on December 19 that it is returning a centuries-old Orthodox icon that was given to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit this week to the Balkans after revelations that it might have been a protected cultural treasure stolen from Ukraine.
The embarrassing episode began when Milorad Dodik, the Republika Srpska representative of Bosnia-Herzegovina's tripartite presidency, presented Moscow's top diplomat with the artwork on December 14.
"The icon will be returned to its donors for further clarification on its history via Interpol," the Russian Foreign Ministry told journalists five days later.
A shared image of the artifact and its seal had suggested it might be from the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, which has been mostly controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.
Its seal appeared to clearly state that it was Ukrainian "cultural heritage" under protection of authorities in the Odesa region.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Sarajevo quickly sent a letter to the Bosnian Foreign Ministry demanding a "public, immediate, and unambiguous denial by the state leadership" of the reports that suggested it had possessed or transferred an important cultural, historic, and religious artifact originating in Ukraine.
The Bosnian ministry redirected the Ukrainian request to the Bosnian Presidency, which is a frequently awkward, ethnically based power-sharing arrangement stemming from the Dayton agreement to end the Bosnian War in 1995.
Problematic Visit
Bosnian Serb leader Dodik has repeatedly threatened to try and secure independence for the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, which along with the Bosniak and Croat federation composes Bosnia.
Lavrov's visit this week proved problematic in other ways, too.
He cut out planned events after the Bosniak and Croat members of the Bosnian Presidency declined to meet with him over his choice to begin his visit on December 14 at Dodik's offices outside Sarajevo and because of Lavrov's reported suggestion that the Dayton terms should remain in place. He also was said to have supported Dodik's rejection of Bosnia's NATO aspirations.
The statements were seen by joint presidents Sefik Dzaferovic and Zeljko Komsic as "disrespectful" toward Bosnia.
The Dayton agreement, which turned 25 last week, salvaged Bosnia's statehood and saved many lives by ending bitter fighting between Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.
But its ethnically based divisions and decentralization of power parceled up authority normally vested in a central government.
Republika Srpska's threats to secede from Bosnia and Serbia’s reluctance to recognize its former province of Kosovo as an independent country are two of the key issues hindering some Balkan countries' ambitions to join the European Union and, in some cases, NATO, along with rampant corruption and threats to the rule of law.
- By RFE/RL
Trump Downplays Cyberattack, Doubts Russian Involvement
U.S. President Donald Trump has downplayed the seriousness and impact of a widespread cyberattack and cast doubt on whether Russia was to blame in his first public comments on the incident.
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality," Trump said on Twitter on December 19. "Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)."
Trump's assertion that China may be behind the hacking spree, which has so far affected more than a half dozen federal agencies including the Commerce and Treasury Departments, runs counter to comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and several lawmakers briefed on the matter.
"We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity," Pompeo said on December 18 in an interview.
"The cyber hack is like Russian bombers have been repeatedly flying undetected over our entire country," Republican lawmaker Mitt Romney said in a tweet on December 17.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
In his tweet, Trump tagged Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has yet to publicly comment on who is behind the massive data breach, which exploited a piece of software developed by network management firm SolarWinds that is widely used throughout the public and private sectors.
Microsoft said it had notified more than 40 customers hit by the malware, which security experts say could allow attackers network access to sensitive government information and networks that operate infrastructure such as electricity power grids.
Roughly 80 percent of the affected customers are located in the United States, Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post. Other victims of the cyberattack are in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.
"This is not 'espionage as usual,' even in the digital age," Smith wrote. "Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world." He added that the number and location of victims will keep growing.
'The Scale Is Daunting'
James Lewis, vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the attack may end up being the worst to hit the United States, eclipsing a 2014 suspected Chinese infiltration.
"The scale is daunting. We don't know what has been taken so that is one of the tasks for forensics," Lewis said, according to the AFP news agency.
"We also don't know what's been left behind. The normal practice is to leave something behind so they can get back in in the future," Lewis said.
The cyberattack was first reported on December 13 in news reports that quoted unidentified U.S. officials as saying Russia-based hackers were suspected.
Russia's U.S. Embassy has denied any involvement, saying in a statement on December 14 that Russia “does not conduct offensive operations in the cyber domain.”
The Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Department, and the Commerce Department were among those affected in the attack, according to media reports that quoted unidentified officials with knowledge of the cyberattack.
The Department of Energy acknowledged on December 17 that it was among those that had been hacked. The department includes the agency that manages the country's nuclear-weapons stockpile.
The FBI and other agencies investigating an extensive cyberattack on U.S. government computer networks briefed members of Congress on December 18 about the intrusion.
SolarWinds admitted on December 16 that hackers from an "outside nation state" inserted malicious code into updates of its network management software issued between March and June this year.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and The Washington Post
Pashinian Leads Armenians In Procession To Mourn Deaths In Recent Conflict
Armenians on December 19 began three days of mourning for those who died in six weeks of fierce fighting against Azerbaijani forces in and around Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Masked against the coronavirus and surrounded by security, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian joined a crowd of thousands in downtown Yerevan shortly after 1 p.m. local time for a procession to honor the dead in the September-November escalation.
Pashinian had said the march would follow a route, familiar to many Armenians who have grown up in the shadow of a "frozen conflict," from Republic Square to the Erablur Military Pantheon, on the outskirts of the capital.
Scuffles With Police
At the military memorial cemetery, the prime minister's opponents, shouting “Nikol, you traitor!,” engaged in scuffles with his supporters and police.
Police dispersed the protesters to clear the way for Pashinian and his security guards covered him with shields and umbrellas as protesters attempted to hit him with eggs.
Later in the day, about 20,000 opposition supporters marched across Yerevan for a memorial church service for the victims of the conflict.
Also on December 19, 14 retired military generals issued a statement calling for the resignation of the government over its handling of the latest fighting, the AP news agency reported.
Pashinian has been under political fire since agreeing to a Moscow-brokered deal with Azerbaijan that took effect on November 10.
The opposition held a similar, torch-lit procession the previous evening that also attracted many people.
His opponents want the prime minister to quit over what they say was his disastrous handling of the conflict, which handed Azerbaijan swaths of territory that ethnic Armenians had controlled since the 1990s.
Some mothers of soldiers who were killed vowed in a statement quoted by Interfax not to allow Pashinian onto the grounds of the pantheon, which lies on a hilltop on the outskirts of the capital and is a burial place for Armenian casualties of the long-running conflict.
Pashinian's critics also planned a rally to begin shortly after the Pashinian-led event started on December 19 to renew calls for his resignation.
Another anti-Pashinian rally is slated for December 22 along with a national strike the same day.
Meanwhile, parents and relatives of dozens of ethnic Armenian soldiers reportedly captured in a raid by Azerbaijani forces on December 12 -- more than a month after the current cease-fire -- have been blocking highways and protesting to press their demand for the return of their loved ones.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said it had launched an offensive against Armenian servicemen who had refused to leave an area near Khtsaberd (Caylaqqala in Azeri), in the district of Hadrut.
Pashinian said the Azerbaijani troops took advantage of the fact that Russian peacekeepers hadn't yet reached the area to "attack villages." He has demanded the return of the captives to allow for a return to searching for other soldiers still missing from the fighting.
Armenian officials were reportedly preparing a case on some of the affected ethnic Armenians to take to the European Court of Human Rights.
More than 5,600 people on both sides, including civilians, have been confirmed killed in the heavy clashes that erupted in late September and threatened to draw regional powers Russia and Turkey into the conflict.
Prayer services for the fallen will be held at churches nationwide in Armenia on December 20 as part of the three-day mourning period.
With additional reporting by Interfax an AP
- By Todd Prince
Bulgaria's 'Oligarch In Chief' Taps Washington Lobby Firm Following Critical Report
WASHINGTON -- One of Bulgaria’s most powerful businessmen has hired a top Washington lobby firm amid accusations he is undermining democracy and inflaming corruption in the East European nation.
Delyan Peevski, a media mogul and lawmaker, tapped BGR Group, Washington's third-largest lobbying firm by revenue, to help him with “issues in the U.S.,” according to lobbying registration documents published on December 17. The six-month contract was concluded between Aleksandr Angelov, a lawyer close to Peevski, and BGR.
Peevski will pay the Washington firm $30,000 a month. BGR lobbyist Tom Locke, a retired senior FBI official, will oversee the government affairs effort for Peevski, according to the filing.
Locke specializes in dealings with the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, the Treasury Department, and other U.S. and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies, according to the BGR website.
Angelov and Peevski did not respond to RFE/RL’s requests for comment about the mogul's "issues" in the United States. Jeff Birnbaum, who heads BGR’s public relations division, did not immediately reply to an RFE/RL request for comment.
Peevski’s lobbying effort comes on the heels of a critical report about his influence in Bulgaria, a NATO and EU member, and shortly before a new administration that has promised to address democracy failings and corruption among allies takes power in Washington.
Marshall Harris, a Washington lobbyist for another Bulgarian businessman, Plamen Bobokov, distributed informational material on Capitol Hill that described Peevski as one of the “key architects of Bulgaria’s democratic decline and devolution into a criminal state,” including the capture of privately held assets by extralegal means.
Harris, a former State Department official who served in Bulgaria from 1988 to 1990, is a managing partner at Alexandria Group International. He was hired by Bobokov in July after the businessman and his brother Atanas Bobokov were detained in Bulgaria on allegations of waste mismanagement and corruption.
Harris said at the time that the allegations against the Bobokovs were contrived and an attempt by corrupt officials to seize their profitable assets, which include one of the largest producers of motor oils and industrial lubricants in Eastern Europe.
'Ultimate Puppet Master'
The material that Harris distributed to U.S. lawmakers described Peevski as Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s “oligarch in chief” and the “ultimate puppet master” in the country.
Harris told RFE/RL on December 18 that it didn’t make much sense for Peevski to spend so much money for his lawyer to work with BGR unless they had been receiving inquiries from U.S. agencies and need to respond.
Harris said the timing of the hiring comes at a critical juncture in U.S. policy. He expects the incoming Biden administration to take concerns about the rule of law in Bulgaria and other allied nations "much more seriously" than the Trump administration has.
President-elect Joe Biden has expressed alarm about the rollback of liberal values in certain Central and Eastern European countries and said he would hold a democracy summit in his first year in part to "confront the change of nations that are backsliding."
Peevski, 40, controls newspapers, a private TV channel, and news websites. Reporters Without Borders says he accounts for some 80 percent of the print media in Bulgaria, as well as private television networks and websites, giving him enormous influence.
Opposition officials say he has been behind the appointment of ministers and members of the judiciary.
This is not the first time Peevski has hired BGR through his lawyer Angelov. Peevski tapped the firm in 2017 after yet another Bulgarian businessman, Tsvetan Vassilev, began lobbying the U.S. government to sanction the media mogul under the Global Magnitsky Act.
The act, named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, allows the U.S. government to impose visa bans and targeted sanctions on individuals anywhere in the world responsible for committing human rights violations or acts of significant corruption.
Vassilev, a former bank owner living in exile in Serbia, is wanted by Bulgaria, which accuses him of running a criminal operation.
Vassilev has denied the charges and claimed Peevski and former prosecutor Sotir Tsatsatov were behind the government’s campaign against him. Peevski dismissed the accusation.
Peevski was never sanctioned and Vassilev ended his unsuccessful lobbying campaign in August 2019, according to filings. Peevski’s contract with BRG ended four months later.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service
Russian Serviceman Killed Clearing Mines In Nagorno-Karabakh
Russia has suffered its first casualty in Nagorno-Karabakh since its peacekeepers were deployed to the breakaway region last month under a Moscow-brokered cease-fire deal that brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on December 18 that the serviceman was killed while demining a road.
The officer died on his way to hospital from heavy wounds after a mine exploded near the town of Susa, which is known as Shushi in Armenian, according to Interfax.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the region's population reject Azerbaijani rule.
They had been governing their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan's troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region and seven adjacent districts in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.
Heavy clashes erupted over Nagorno-Karabakh in late September during which more than 5,600 people, including civilians, were killed. In early November, Azerbaijan shot down a Russian military helicopter on its border with Armenia, killing two crew members.
The sides agreed to a Russia-brokered cease-fire deal that took effect on November 10, resulting in Azerbaijan regaining control over swaths of territory ethnic Armenians had administered for almost 30 years.
Under the truce deal, nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the conflict zone to monitor the agreement and facilitate the return of refugees. Russian military engineers were sent to the area to clear minefields.
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS
- By RFE/RL
Media Watchdog Calls For Release Of Turkmen Reportedly Jailed For Online Photo Post
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on December 18 urged the OSCE’s new representative on freedom of the media to press for the release of a journalist jailed in Turkmenistan for posting a photo on a news website.
Nurgeldy Halikov’s conviction “exemplifies the absurdity of the trumped-up charges used by the authorities to gag the free press’s few remaining representatives. He risks being tortured in prison,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement on December 18.
Turkmen.news, a website based in the Netherlands for which Halikov works, reported earlier this week that its editors had learned that the journalist was found guilty of fraud and handed the prison sentence in mid-September.
The 26-year-old Halikov has been in custody since July 13, a day after he reposted a photo of a visiting World Health Organization delegation on Turkmen.news, which specializes in covering human rights in Turkmenistan.
The delegation was in Turkmenistan to evaluate the possible spread of COVID-19 in the country, where officials have insisted that there are no coronavirus cases.
Turkmenistan is led by authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who heads one of the world's most oppressive governments.
Halikov’s family had been reluctant to talk about the case amid hopes -- ultimately dashed -- that he would be amnestied on International Day of Neutrality, which is celebrated on December 12.
“Turkmenistan is a black hole for news and information. The media are completely controlled by the state and few journalists take the risk of doing independent reporting,” according to Cavelier.
“We urge the authorities to free him at once and we ask Teresa Ribeiro, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s representative on freedom of the media, to firmly condemn his arbitrary detention,” he said.
One And Only Satellite Launch This Year From Russia's Far Eastern Cosmodrome
Russia has hailed what it says was the first and only commercial launch this year from a space center in the country’s Far East that has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.
A Soyuz rocket carrying 36 British telecommunications and Internet satellites blasted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on December 18, the Russian space agency Roskosmos said.
A spokesperson for the agency said that the launch was the first and only one to take place at the Vostochny Cosmodrome this year.
Hours later, Roskosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin announced all the satellites had reached their intended orbit.
"The mission has been successfully completed. Congratulations!" he wrote in a tweet.
The high-tech equipment belongs to a London-based company -- OneWeb -- which is building a network in low orbit as part of a project to provide enhanced broadband services to countries around the globe.
The company has launched nearly 100 satellites into orbit so far. It hopes to have its Internet service up and running, supported by some 650 satellites, by 2022.
Several unmanned launches have taken place from the Vostochny Cosmodrome since 2016.
The facility near the border with China is intended to reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome it rents from Kazakhstan.
The project was plagued by controversy, including corruption linked to work-related contracts and construction delays.
Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
Bulgaria Expels Another Russian Diplomat For Spying On U.S. Troops
SOFIA -- Bulgarian authorities have given a Russian diplomat 72 hours to leave Bulgaria, alleging involvement in espionage in the EU and NATO member state.
It is the sixth case of a Russian diplomat or official at the Russian Embassy in Sofia being expelled for suspected espionage since October 2019.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has declared “persona non grata” a diplomat from the Russian Embassy “due to actions incompatible with his diplomatic status," the ministry tweeted on December 18.
Bulgarian prosecutors issued a separate statement alleging that from 2017 until now the diplomat "has engaged in spying activities, during which he collected military information, including about the numbers of U.S. troops deployed on Bulgarian territory during exercises."
The aim was to transfer this information to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said, adding that they had evidence the diplomat had been in contact with a Bulgarian citizen with access to classified information to whom money had been offered.
Neither the Foreign Ministry nor prosecutors gave the identity or rank of the diplomat.
However, the Russian Embassy said the diplomat was the military attache, and that Moscow reserved the right to respond to the “groundless” expulsion.
The move “is not conducive to dialogue between our countries in the military field, nor does it help improve stability in the Black Sea region,” it said in a statement on Facebook.
Russia expelled two Bulgarian diplomats in October, nearly three weeks after two staff at the Russian Embassy in Sofia accused of military espionage were told to leave.
After the announcement of the expulsion, the United States and Britain expressed support for Bulgaria's efforts to protect its sovereignty and security.
"As a close partner and strong NATO ally, [Britain] supports [Bulgaria's] determination to defend its citizens, security, and sovereignty against malign threats," the British ambassador to Sofia, Rob Dixon, wrote in a tweet.
“We have in recent weeks and months seen too many examples of Russian officials carrying out aggressive actions, from espionage in Bulgaria to poisoning opponents both at home and abroad,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and Interfax
Prosecutor Seeks Three-Year Sentence For Russian Opposition Politician
MOSCOW -- Prosecutors in Moscow asked a court on December 18 to sentence a local opposition politician to be sentenced to three years in prison over her involvement in anti-Kremlin rallies.
The case against Yulia Galyamina, an opposition member of a Moscow district council and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was launched in late July.
Investigators say Galyamina repeatedly violated rules about public gatherings when she organized and staged unsanctioned rallies and protests.
Galyamina told RFE/RL earlier that the case against her had been launched to “pressure” her.
Amnesty International has condemned the charges as “appalling and reprehensible,” saying they are aimed at “silencing a major dissenting voice and threatening to ban her political activities.”
Galyamina was involved in a campaign against what she says are "illegal plans" by Putin to remain in power beyond term limits.
Her team organized a peaceful rally in central Moscow in July against constitutional reforms introduced in 2020 that give Putin an option to remain in power for another 16 years after his current term expires in 2024.
Dozens of people were detained by police during the protest.
The Moscow Tver District Court said on December 18 that Galyamina's verdict and sentence will be announced on December 23.
- By RFE/RL
CIS Virtual Summit Focuses On COVID, Nagorno-Karabakh, Cooperation
Leaders of former Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have met online for a virtual summit to discuss issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the situation the South Caucasus region following the war over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Other topics included cooperation on security issues and how CIS members can achieve greater integration.
During the December 18 online gathering, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will assist all other CIS members in the battle against COVID-19 with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and other vaccines that have been developed by laboratories in Russia.
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said his country will start producing the Sputnik V vaccine, as well as Kazakhstan's own coronavirus vaccine, starting next week.
Kyrgyzstan's Acting President Talant Mamytov said Bishkek is interested in receiving COVID vaccines from Russia.
Talking about the situation in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, some parts of which and seven adjacent districts around it were returned under Baku's control last month after a 44-day war between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces, Putin said Russian peacekeepers are doing their best to preserve peace in the area.
Putin also said "the risks of terrorism have increased" in the region following a November cease-fire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia that was brokered by Russia.
The accord took effect on November 10, ending the worst clashes in the conflict since the early 1990s.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during the online summit that the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is now "history." He said all talk about the war "must be in the past tense."
Aliyev also said Azerbaijan's armed forces had defeated an Armenian army that was established by previous Armenian presidents -- Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian. He said Armenia's current leader, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, was not responsible for the army's poor performance.
Pashinian did not take part in the summit due to the death of his father on December 16.
Pashinian’s domestic opponents have been rallying in Yerevan since the end of the conflict to demand his resignation.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon called on the CIS member states to establish a "common list of terrorists and extremist organizations" in order to increase joint counterterrorism efforts.
Putin expressed his gratitude to other CIS leaders for what he called "support of Russia's efforts to preserve historic truth about the Soviet Union's contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany" in 1945.
"I am confident that we have to continue to act in solidarity to defend the memory of our peoples, who managed to save the world from aggression by paying enormous and irreversible sacrifices," Putin said.
In recent years, Russian leadership has been using the victory in World War II, known in former Soviet republics as the Great Patriotic War, in propaganda that has intensified since Moscow's seizure and illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Putin also said that in 2020, some countries in the CIS have faced "attempts by external forces to meddle" in their domestic affairs.
Although Putin didn't specify any country, observers suggest he was referring to Belarus, where anti-government rallies have been staged across the country regularly since election officials in Minsk declared Alyaksandr Lukashenka had won reelection to a sixth term on August 9.
Tens of thousands of Belarusians continue to march weekly to demand Lukashenka's resignation -- despite mass arrests and beatings by police, a tightened grip on media, and expulsions of opposition leaders that have included the exiled presidential challenger Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Lukashenka has resisted the calls of protesters and Western government to hold a new election and speak to the opposition.
He has blamed the European Union and the United States for "inciting mass disorders" in Belarus.
The CIS summit also covered issues of trade, economic cooperation, and cultural exchanges between their countries.
Belarus was announced as the next chairman of the CIS. The next CIS summit was scheduled for October 15, 2021.
CIS members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan has an associate status in the group.
Ukraine quit the CIS in 2018, four years after Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Georgia quit the CIS following a five-day Russian-Georgian war in August 2008.
Russia is among the few countries in the world to recognize the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia continues to maintain a military presence in both regions.
With reporting by TASS, RIA Novosti, and Interfax
Lines Of Hearses At Hospital Challenge Official COVID-19 Death Toll In Tatarstan
Hearses line up outside Hospital No. 7 in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan to pick up the bodies of people who have died after contracting COVID-19. RFE/RL filmed the long lines and grieving relatives over four days in December as official figures recorded just 11 deaths from COVID-19 over the same period.
Backer Of Kosovar War Veterans Declines To Enter Plea At Hague Hearing
The deputy leader of an association of Kosovar war veterans declined to enter a plea before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on December 18 in a hearing related to witness endangerment and other charges in connection with investigations of possible war crimes.
Nasim Haradinaj accused the prosecutors of “selective, political, and biased" prosecutions and "trying to place the blame on Kosovo" for atrocities during the former Yugoslav province's war of independence from Serbia in 1998-99.
Hysni Gucati, the head of the Kosovo War Veterans' Association of which Haradinaj is vice president, pleaded not guilty to the same charges when he appeared at a separate hearing later on December 18.
Both men are accused of obstruction of justice and divulging the identities of witnesses in violation of the secrecy of proceedings before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office.
Haradinaj's lawyer, Toby Cadman, said his client would enter a plea to the charges at his next appearance, in early 2021.
The War Veterans Association represents former ethnic Albanian separatists who fought Serb troops in the late 1990s.
A handful of ex-guerrilla leaders including Kosovar ex-President Hashim Thaci are also under indictment by The Hague-based prosecutors -- who operate under Kosovar law -- for alleged murder, abduction, and other serious crimes stemming from Kosovo's war and its aftermath.
Thaci and the others deny the charges.
They and many Kosovars have accused The Hague-based prosecutors of unfairly targeting Kosovars' actions while ignoring atrocities by Serbs who fought to prevent their independence.
Serbia still does not recognize Kosovar independence, and international mediation efforts for over a decade have focused on trying to get the two Balkan neighbors to normalize relations.
Haradinaj's lawyer, Toby Cadman, said he would enter a plea to the charges at an appearance before the chambers early next year.
With reporting by AP
After Long Delays, Kyrgyzstan Announces New Biometric Passports
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan has announced the introduction of long-awaited biometric passports for its citizens -- passports embedded with a microchip containing information that can be read and authenticated electronically.
The move comes after months of speculation that Kyrgyzstan's inclusion on a U.S. partial travel ban list may have been linked to delays in fully switching to a biometric system.
The State Registration Service (MKK) in Bishkek said on December 18 that new biometric passports made by a German company -- Muhlbauer ID Services GmbH -- will be available starting on January 1.
According to the MKK, the passports will consist of 34 pages and cost citizens just under $5. It says those who frequently travel can obtain a 52-page biometric passport at a cost of about $5.30.
The White House announced in late January that it was suspending the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for citizens of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.
It said the move would not impact nonimmigrant visas for visitors to the United States from the listed countries.
U.S. officials said the six countries had failed to meet U.S. security and information-sharing standards.
Without specifying concerns about each country, Washington noted issues ranging from substandard passport technology to the failure of governments to adequately exchange information about terrorist suspects and convicted criminals.
Weeks before the White House's announcement, media reports said that the United States was planning a total travel ban against citizens from Kyrgyzstan.
At the time, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Chyngyz Aidarbekov said the lack of biometric passports could have been the reason Kyrgyzstan was included on the list.
Kyrgyzstan had planned to start issuing biometric passports in 2019. But the introduction of the technology was delayed after the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (UKMK) canceled the results of a tender on who would produce the documents.
In February 2019, the MKK announced that a Lithuanian company, Garsu Pasaulis, had won the tender.
But in April 2019, the UKMK annulled the decision and launched an investigation into alleged irregularities that bolstered the bid by the Lithuanian firm.
Notorious 'Thieves-In-Law' Crime Boss Escapes From Russian Court Building
Notorious organized crime boss Levan Abuladze -- known in the criminal underworld by the nickname Levan Sukhumsky -- has reportedly escaped from a Russian court building where he had been brought for a pretrial hearing.
Russian media reports quote police sources in the city of Vladimir, about 200 kilometers east of Moscow, as saying that Abuladze's handcuffs were removed inside the Oktyabr District Court building shortly before his December 16 hearing so that he could use a toilet.
The police sources said Abuladze went missing after going into the toilet and that guards have been unable to find him.
Abuladze, a 45-year-old citizen of Georgia, is a member of an infamous group of criminals from former Soviet republics known as the Thieves-In-Law.
On December 15, Abuladze completed a four-year prison sentence for illegal drug trafficking and forgery.
Authorities initially had planned to deport Abuladze to his native Georgia after he completed that four-year sentence.
But in September, prosecutors filed additional charges against him of "occupying the highest rank in the criminal hierarchy" -- a crime with a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.
The Oktyabr District Court had been expected to issue a ruling on Abuladze's pretrial detention on December 16.
But court officials told Russia's Kommersant newspaper that a ruling was not issued "because he was not brought to the courtroom."
The directorate of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service in Vladimir has refused to answer journalists' questions regarding Abuladze's reported escape.
The regional prosecutor's office and the police department in Vladimir also have declined to comment.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) describes the Thieves-In-Law as "a Eurasian crime syndicate that has been linked to a long list of illicit activity across the globe." It says the syndicate poses a threat to the United States and its allies.
Thieves-In-Law originated in Stalinist prison camps during the Soviet era.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the OFAC says Thieves-In-Law has expanded across former Soviet republics, Europe, and the United States, with crimes that include money laundering, extortion, bribery, kidnapping, and robbery.
According to the OFAC, the syndicate's members are "initiated or 'crowned' after demonstrating an 'ideal' criminal biography and take an oath to uphold a code that includes living exclusively off their criminal profits and supporting other Thieves-In-Law."
Being a member of the Thieves-In-Law was criminalized in Russia in April 2019. In Georgia, it was criminalized in 2005.
Two other former Soviet republics, Armenia and Ukraine, also have made it a crime to be a top member of the criminal hierarchy.
With reporting by Kommersant
- By RFE/RL
Satellite Photos Reportedly Show New Construction At Iran Nuclear Facility
Satellite imagery obtained by the Associated Press on December 18 shows construction work has begun at a controversial underground Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow, the news agency said.
New work at any nuclear facility in Iran is likely to exacerbate international tensions as the outgoing U.S. administration of Donald Trump continues to exert pressure on Tehran over its nuclear and weapons programs and its activities in the region.
A photo from a week earlier obtained from Maxar Technologies reportedly shows what looks like a freshly dug foundation for a building with dozens of pillars extending into the ground that could provide anti-earthquake support.
Iran's representatives to the United Nations and officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were not initially available for comment, AP reported.
“Any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed," said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on December 17 that if the incoming U.S. administration wanted to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement that Washington pulled out of two years ago, it would have to reach a new deal on reversing Iran's subsequent breaches.
One of the possible breaches involves the resumption, announced a year ago, of uranium-enrichment activities at Fordow.
President-elect Joe Biden has said the United States will rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) "if Iran resumes strict compliance" with the deal, which eased UN sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear activities.
Trump exited the deal in 2018. Biden is due to be sworn in on January 20.
"I cannot imagine that they are going simply to say, 'We are back to square one' because square one is no longer there," Grossi told Reuters at IAEA headquarters on December 17.
Citing "more [nuclear] material" and "more activity, more centrifuges" and other factors, Grossi said that the question of a resumption is "at the political level to decide" and that "undoubtedly" there would have to be a second deal.
"It is clear that there will have to be a protocol or an agreement or an understanding or some ancillary document which will stipulate clearly what we do," Grossi said.
The recent construction site lies northwest of Fordow's underground facility, which is known to house uranium-enrichment technology and is built deep inside a mountain for security reasons.
A Twitter account called Observer IL recently published an image of Fordow showing the work, saying it had come from South Korea's Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
The Korean institute later acknowledged taking the photo, AP said.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
Tomsk Lawmakers Demand Investigation Into Navalny's Poisoning
TOMSK, Russia -- Seven local lawmakers of the Siberian city of Tomsk have called on Russia's Investigative Committee to launch a probe into the nerve-agent poisoning in August of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
The city legislators said in an official letter to the Investigative Committee that they are concerned about the possible use of "a chemical poison in our city...with the state's participation."
The letter was made public on December 17 in a Twitter post by Tomsk City Duma member Ksenia Fadeyeva.
The letter says data collected by independent investigative journalists, as well as the conclusions of experts at European laboratories who tested medical samples from Navalny, provide enough evidence to launch an investigation.
The local lawmakers stressed that since the names of individuals allegedly involved in Navalny's poisoning have been made public, the investigation must be launched immediately.
The letter appeared on Twitter hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Navalny "is supported by the U.S. secret services."
Putin said that is why Russia's secret services "must keep an eye on him, but it does not mean that it is necessary to poison him."
"Who needs him? If they wanted to, they would have finished the job,” Putin said.
The 44-year-old Navalny was airlifted to Germany in August after falling ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow.
Laboratory tests in three European countries, confirmed by the global chemical weapons watchdog, established that Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent.
Some earlier investigative reports concluded that Navalny was most likely poisoned before he boarded the plane in Tomsk.
Russia has rejected previous calls for an investigation into the poisoning and denies the involvement of state agents in the case -- saying it has yet to be shown any evidence.
A report issued on December 14 by the British-based open-source investigative group Bellingcat published the names and photos of FSB operatives accused of taking part in a state-backed poisoning operation.
The report, which includes a timeline of events around the attack on Navalny, was prepared jointly by Bellingcat, The Insider, Der Spiegel, CNN, and a Russian investigative website.
Navalny has said that such an operation could not have been implemented without direct orders from Putin and Aleksandr Bortnikov, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the reports about possible FSB involvement in the poisoning as "funny."
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov canceled his daily briefings on December 15-16 after the Bellingcat report was published, citing preparations for Putin's annual press conference.
Earlier in the week, three lawmakers in St. Petersburg and two lawmakers from Russia's northwestern city of Pskov also officially demanded that Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin launch an investigation into Navalny's poisoning.
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