Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, says the country needs an alternative to YouTube, the U.S. online video-sharing platform that it struggles to censor.

"Due to the absence of a direct competitor in Russia, YouTube is still irreplaceable," Roskomnadzor said in a statement on December 29.

The regulator added that there was a need for a "popular equivalent" in Russia that would reduce Russians' dependence on foreign social media.

The Kremlin is losing its grip on information dissemination inside the country as more and more Russians turn to foreign social-media sites like YouTube and Instagram for content.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been able to maintain high ratings during his two decades in power in part thanks to Kremlin control over the country's main TV stations.

An effective and popular Russian competitor to YouTube would enable the government to impair YouTube's ability to operate inside the country.

Roskomnadzor's comments came the same day that Russia's Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against Aleksei Navalny, the Kremlin critic who has deftly used YouTube to expose corruption at the highest levels of government.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Launches Criminal Case Against Kremlin Critic Navalny

It also comes the same day that Gazprom-Media, the media arm of state-controlled natural-gas giant Gazprom, acquired a 100 percent stake in Russian video-streaming service Rutube.

Gazprom-Media is Russia's largest media company, with holdings including several leading television channels, radio stations, and print media.

Roskomnadzor's chief, Aleksandr Zharov, said work was under way to make Rutube as "convenient" as YouTube.

On December 23, the State Duma approved in a final reading a bill that would allow Roskomnadzor to block websites that "discriminate against Russian media."

Roskomnadzor would be allowed to partially or fully restrict or slow access to websites found in violation of the law.

The bill is seen affecting major social media such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against Aleksei Navalny, accusing the Kremlin critic of stealing hundreds of millions of rubles donated to his anti-corruption organization.

The criminal case now raises questions as to whether Navalny, who is recuperating in Germany following his poisoning in August with a military-grade nerve agent, will return to Russia, where he could face a lengthy prison term if convicted.

Navalny dismissed the latest charges as the government's revenge against him for surviving the poisoning and then exposing those who were behind it. The activist has called the poisoning an assassination attempt by the state's security services.

"I immediately said: they will try to jail me for not dying and then looking for my killers. For proving that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is personally behind everything. He is a thief, ready to kill those who refuse to keep quiet about his theft," Navalny said in a tweet on December 29 shortly after the launch of the case.

Navalny has become a thorn in the Kremlin's side over the years with his detailed investigations into corruption at the highest levels of government and has been jailed for short periods of time on several occasions.

His investigative videos -- which often take him abroad to film the rich lifestyle of Russian officials -- receive millions of views each time they are uploaded online and have helped sour the public on the government and the ruling party, United Russia.

The launch of a criminal case against Navalny comes amid an intensifying clampdown in recent years on the Kremlin opposition as the Russian economy struggles to grow and public frustration mounts over declining living standards.

Russia holds key parliamentary elections next year after what is likely to be the country's worst economic performance in more than a decade. Navalny is seeking to weaken United Russia's hold by urging his supports to vote for other candidates.

The Investigative Committee said in a post on December 29 that a series of nonprofit organizations run by Navalny, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation, raised a total of 588 million rubles ($7.94 million) from citizens.

Investigators claim he spent 356 million rubles ($4.81 million) acquiring personal items and vacationing abroad. They did not say what those items were, whether they were used to carry out his work, nor whether the alleged vacations coincided with the destinations he filmed.

Navalny later tweeted a link to his foundation's donation page, telling his supporters that "the best way to laugh" at the new criminal case "invented" by the authorities was to finance his work.

Optima Ventures, the U.S. real-estate holding company owned by two Ukrainian tycoons under FBI investigation for money laundering, has filed a motion in a court in the U.S. state of Delaware to sell two more buildings in the city of Cleveland amid foreclosure proceedings.

Optima Ventures, once the largest commercial real-estate operator in the Midwestern city, is seeking to sell 55 Public Square, a 22-story skyscraper, as well as its stake in the Westin Cleveland Downtown hotel, according to court documents filed on December 24.

The holding company, which is controlled by Ukrainian billionaires Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov, owes about $50 million on the two properties and has failed to make payments in recent months, according to separate lawsuits filed in Cleveland.

The United States has accused Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov of buying U.S. assets, including real estate and metals plants, with hundreds of millions of dollars laundered from their Kyiv-based lender PrivatBank.

Kolomoyskiy, who owns media, energy, and metals assets, is one of the most powerful magnates in Ukraine. He and Boholyubov deny the charges and claim they bought the U.S. assets with money received from the sale of a steel business.

Ukraine nationalized PrivatBank in 2016 and pumped $5.5 billion into the lender to stave off its bankruptcy. PrivatBank in May 2019 then filed a civil lawsuit in Delaware against the billionaires to recoup the money it claims they stole. The motion to sell the two Cleveland properties was filed as part of those proceedings.

The FBI confirmed on August 4 that it was investigating the two tycoons for embezzlement and money laundering. That probe is continuing, the FBI told RFE/RL earlier this month.

Separately, the Justice Department is seeking the forfeiture of two commercial buildings owned by Optima Ventures in Louisville, Kentucky, and Dallas, Texas.

Optima Ventures had owned nine commercial buildings in the United States at its peak, including five in Cleveland, making it temporarily the largest commercial real-estate owner in the city. The holding has sold off several of the buildings in recent years.

Upon completion of the two sales, Optima Ventures will own just one building in Cleveland as well as the two buildings currently facing forfeiture.

Moscow authorities say they will extend the winter school holidays by one week until January 17 to limit the spread of the coronavirus and avoid new restrictions.

Russian schoolchildren will be on holiday starting January 1. Russian officials have resisted imposing a strict lockdown as they did earlier this year, relying on such targeted measures instead.

Authorities are betting on a mass vaccination program using Russia's Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine to get the outbreak under control.

In a statement on December 29, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the extended school holidays will help stabilize the daily rate of COVID-19 infections "at a lower level than at present."

"This means we would be able to avoid introducing new, highly undesirable restrictions in January," he added.

Sobyanin called the Russian capital's surging coronavirus outbreak "alarming."

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

Russia reported 27,002 new COVID-19 cases on December 29, including 5,641 in Moscow, taking the total to 3,105,037 since the pandemic began.

On December 28, Russia confirmed that it has been underreporting its coronavirus death toll, announcing that the actual number of fatalities related to the pandemic was more than three times higher than previously released figures.

The Rosstat statistics agency said more than 186,000 Russians had died from COVID-19.

The admission places Russia third behind the United States and Brazil in terms of COVID-19 fatalities.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Russian police have released two colleagues of Lyubov Sobol, a prominent lawyer for outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, after seven days in jail.

Olga Klyuchnikova, who ran Sobol’s 2019 campaign for a seat in the Moscow city parliament and produces the YouTube channel Navalny LIVE, and Akim Kerimov, a director for the YouTube show, were freed on December 29, the lawyer said in a tweet.

Klyuchnikova and Kerimov were detained on December 21 outside the home of Konstantin Kudryavtsev, a Federal Security Service (FSB) agent suspected of involvement in the August poisoning of Navalny.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Associate Sobol Says Criminal Charges Against Her Are Kremlin's 'Revenge'

The two Sobol associates were sentenced the following day to seven days in jail for not obeying the orders of a police officer. Sobol was also detained outside Kudryavtsev’s home on December 21 but was fined and freed.

The three, along with a group of journalists, sought to speak with Kudryavtsev about the poisoning of Navalny.

Sobol was detained again on December 25 when FSB agents raided her home. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into Sobol trespassing "with the use of violence or a threat to use it."

The investigation was launched following a complaint from Kudryavtsev's mother.

Sobol says the investigation is politically motivated.

The Council of Europe says it is concerned about Russia branding individuals as "foreign agents" after Moscow added five people to a registry that activists say is used as a way to clamp down on dissent.

The council, one of the continent's leading human rights organizations, said in a statement on December 29 that the move -- and the foreign agent law in general -- "stifles the development of civil society and freedom of expression."

The comment comes a day after Russia said it had placed five people -- three journalists who contribute to RFE/RL and two human rights activists -- on the Justice Ministry's registry of "foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent."

Previously, only foreign-funded, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and rights groups were placed on the registry, in keeping with Russia's passage of its controversial "foreign agents law" in 2012. The law was later expanded to include media outlets and independent journalists.

Inclusion on the registry imposes additional restrictions, such as the obligation to provide regular financial reports on activities and in the way publications are labeled.

"Labeling individuals, including journalists, researchers, and human rights defenders, as foreign agents stigmatizes these persons and risks further undermining pluralism and democracy in the Russian Federation,” the Council of Europe added in a statement.

The three listed individuals affiliated with RFE/RL are Lyudmila Savitskaya and Sergei Markelov, freelance correspondents for the North Desk (Sever.Realii) of RFE/RL's Russian Service; and Denis Kamalyagin, editor in chief of the online news site Pskov Province and a contributor to RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Prominent human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov was also named to the registry, as was activist and Red Cross worker Darya Apakhonchich.

On December 29, the ministry expanded the list again, adding the Nasiliu.net human rights center, which deals with domestic violence cases.

The additions bring the total number of individuals or entities listed to 18, the majority of them affiliated with RFE/RL.

According to Russia's controversial "foreign agents law," any individual who distributes materials of a publication or a legal entity recognized as a foreign agent, participates in its creation, and receives foreign funding from abroad can be recognized as a "foreign media agent."

The Justice Ministry did not explain on what grounds it included the recent additions of the five individuals and one entity to the registry.

Russian officials have previously said that amending the "foreign agents law" to include mass media in 2017 was a "symmetrical response" to the U.S. requirement that Russia's state-funded channel RT register under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

U.S. officials have said the action is not symmetrical, arguing that the U.S. and Russian laws differ and that Russia uses its "foreign agent" legislation to silence dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas.

In 2017, Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based rights group, called the law "devastating" for local NGOs, saying more than a dozen had been forced to close their doors.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as a whole was listed in the original registry in December 2017, along with several of RFE/RL's regional news sites: the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL Ukrainian Service; the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service; RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service; Idel.Realii of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service; Kavkaz Realii; RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service; and Factograph, a former special project by RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America, was also named in the original list, as was Voice of America.

In November 2019, the list was expanded to include Sever.Realii. In February 2020, the Russian Justice Ministry added RFE/RL's corporate entity in Russia.

RFE/RL Vice President and Editor in Chief Daisy Sindelar said in response to the December 28 move that it was "reprehensible" that professional journalists were among the first individuals singled out by Russia as "foreign agents."

With the December 28 action, "the Justice Ministry is stating unambiguously that reporting the facts is a crime, and that it will stop at nothing to silence the voices that seek to inform, protect, and engage their compatriots, the people of Russia," she added.

The only non-U.S. entity named to the list is the Czech news agency Medium Orient.

On December 23, the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave its final approval to a bill that would allow individuals and public entities to be recognized as foreign agents if they are considered to be engaged in political activities "in the interests of a foreign state."

A separate bill passed the same day introduces of penalties of up to five years in prison against individuals identified as "foreign agents" if they do not register as such or fail to report on their activities.

Under the proposed legislation, which still has to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, grounds for being recognized as a "foreign agent" could be holding rallies or political debates, providing opinions on state policies, actions promoting a certain outcome in an election or referendum, or participation as an electoral observer or in political parties if they are done in the interest of a foreign entity.

Moscow says it has added several senior German security officials to its list of those barred from the country in response to the European Union's decision to place travel bans on Russian officials over a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not name the individuals added to the list on December 29 in the tit-for-tat move, saying "the new persons involved in the Russian stop-list have been elected senior officials of the German security and intelligence agencies that are part of the system of the German Defense Ministry."

In October, the European Union and Great Britain imposed sanctions against the head of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, a unit within the agency, and one of its officers for their involvement in the cyberattack.

During the attack, the Bundestag's information system's operations were disrupted for several days, a "significant" amount of data was stolen, and the e-mail accounts of several members of parliament, including Chancellor Angela Merkel's, were "affected," according to the EU.

The sanctions included an asset freeze on a unit within the GRU's 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS), also known as military unit 26165, whose officers took part in the cyberattack against the Bundestag, according to the EU.

The individuals hit by asset freezes and travel bans include GTsSS officer Dmitry Badin, who the EU said was part of the team that conducted the cyberattack.

The EU also targeted Igor Kostyukov, saying that as head of the GRU he is responsible for cyberattacks carried out by the GTsSS.

The Iranian government has delayed implementing parliament’s controversial legislation that ordered an immediate ramping up of the country’s uranium-enrichment program.

Iran’s President Hassan Rohani had opposed the bill, saying it was detrimental to diplomatic efforts, while the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in a recent interview that the bill did not designate funds to implement the law, which calls on the government to enrich uranium at 20 percent immediately.

“Where is the money for [implementing it]? Where should the [money] come from?” Salehi said on December 21.

On December 28, Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri announced the adoption of a bylaw for the implementation of the parliament’s legislation that was sent to relevant bodies. The legislation was adopted by parliament on December 1 and quickly approved by the powerful Guardians Council.

The bylaw says Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, which is in charge of the country’s nuclear activities, will have two months to prepare a report on the technical and financial requirements for enriching uranium at 20 percent as ordered by the hard-line-dominated parliament, which passed the legislation following the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

"With the allocation of funds and technical requirement, the [Atomic Energy] Organization will take necessary measures for enrichment for peaceful purposes," the bylaw says, according to the official government news agency IRNA.

Experts had warned that the legislation, which could potentially reduce the time Iran needs to produce a nuclear weapon, complicates diplomacy for the upcoming White House.

"Enriching to near 20 percent would accelerate the crisis because by that stage, nine-tenths of the enrichment work required to reach weapons grade [is done]. And while there is a civilian use, Iran has no rational need to produce 20 percent-enriched uranium for any reason other than to try to gain negotiation leverage," former U.S. diplomat Mark Fitzpatrick told RFE/RL earlier this month.

SEE ALSO:

Will Iranian Moderates' Attempt To Deal With Biden On Nuclear Agreement Be Sabotaged?

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally exited the United States from the accord in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. In response, Tehran has gradually reduced its commitments under the accord.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal if Tehran returns to full compliance.

Lawmakers, including Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, have yet to react to the government’s delaying tactic, which provides Rohani and his team more time to reach an agreement with the incoming U.S. administration.

Some analysts have suggested that Iran could use the parliament's law to gain leverage in future talks with the U.S.

An ultraconservative, coronavirus-denying Russian priest who was stripped of his religious rank has been arrested in a police raid on a convent that turned violent.

Father Sergiy’s lawyer said his client was arrested overnight and charged with encouraging minors to commit suicide.

Local media reports said that during the raid, parishioners and some clergy skirmished with police. Three nuns were injured in the clashes, according to TASS.

The rogue priest has been sent to Moscow where a court is to rule on his pretrial detention.

The case against him reportedly stems from a YouTube video in which he called on his followers to "die for Russia."

Police and local authorities have not publicly commented on the arrest.

Media outlet Znak.com posted a video apparently showing riot police storming the Sredneuralsk Women’s Monastery in the Urals.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Court Upholds Fine Imposed On Rogue Orthodox Priest Who Was Stripped Of His Rank

Farther Sergiy, aka Nikolai Romanov, made headlines in June after he took over the monastery by force with help from Cossack guards.

He was later stripped of his religious rank by the Diocesan Court in the Sverdlovsk region for what the court called disobedience toward Russian Orthodox Church authorities.

Father Sergiy is known for his public praising of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, for calling the coronavirus pandemic a Western plot, and for publicly condemning the Russian Orthodox Church's order in April to stop church services to prevent the spreading of the virus.

After forcibly taking over the convent, Father Sergiy issued political statements saying that constitutional amendments offered by President Vladimir Putin "would legalize a slave-owning system."

The constitutional changes approved earlier this year allow Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister for more than 20 years, to stay in power until 2036 if he chooses to run again after his current term ends in 2024.

With reporting by Interfax

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has cut off an international drug-smuggling network through a collaboration with the United States, culminating in the seizure of about 1 billion rubles ($13.6 million) worth of cocaine.

The FSB said in a statement on its website on December 29 that the drug network stretched from South America to Russia, before the drugs were trafficked around Europe.

Video released by the FSB to Russian media showed plainclothes agents dragging suspects from cars as well as boxes of confiscated cash and drugs.

“As a result of a joint operation with foreign partners, at least 330 kilograms of cocaine were seized from illicit trafficking,” the FSB said of the rare example of coordination between Russian and American drug enforcement agencies.

The FSB said the sting operation started in May and that the investigation continues to root out further parts of the network.

Russia's bilateral relations with the United States are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues ranging from the conflict in Syria to U.S. allegations that Moscow meddled in its 2016 presidential election.

However, the countries continue to cooperate on international security and other global issues.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A Russian court has sentenced Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an opposition politician, to 15 years in prison in absentia on embezzlement charges he has denied.

The Moscow Tagansky District Court handed down the sentence on December 29 after finding him guilty in a criminal case regarding the alleged embezzlement of 58 billion rubles ($790 million) between 2006 and 2009.

Four other defendants, all former BTA Bank employees, were tried in absentia in the same case and received prison terms ranging between 10 years and 13 years.

According to investigators, Ablyazov developed complex schemes aimed at financing investment projects in Russia that allowed him to embezzle funds from BTA Bank in large amounts.

Ablyazov, who has been living in Europe since 2009, is also sought by Kazakhstan and Ukraine, where he is facing similar charges. He has rejected all of the allegations against him calling them politically motivated.

A Kazakh court in 2017 convicted Ablyazov, a vocal critic of the authorities and head of the banned opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), of embezzlement and sentenced him to 20 years in prison after an in-absentia trial he called "a farce."

The next year, he was handed a life sentence on a murder charge.

France granted political asylum to the exiled opposition leader in September 2020.

The Moscow City Court has found Karina Tsurkan, an executive with energy holding company Inter RAO, guilty on charges of spying for Moldova, which she denies, and sentenced her to 15 years in prison.

After a hearing held behind closed doors because the case is classified, Tsurkan's defense lawyers, part of the Team 29 rights group, said on December 29 that it will appeal the decision.

"This day will undoubtedly go down in history as a black page of Russian justice. An innocent person -- and I am responsible for my words -- was given 15 years in prison," Ivan Pavlov, one of Tsurkan's lawyers, said.

"We disagree with the conviction and will appeal it.... We will do our best to get this unjust sentence overturned."

Pavlov said that Team 29 had carried out a "thorough analysis" of the evidence against Tsurkan and determined that some of it was forged.

Tsurkan was arrested in June 2019 by Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and charged with spying for an unnamed foreign country. Tsurkan has called the charges "absurd."

State-owned Inter RAO is Russia's monopoly exporter and importer of electricity and the nation's fourth-largest producer of power.

Day-to-day operations are run by CEO Boris Kovalchuk, the son of billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Inter RAO is overseen by Chairman Igor Sechin, one of the most powerful individuals in Russia.

Tsurkan’s profile on the Inter RAO website identified her as the head of the company's trading division.

At the time of her arrest, Tsurkan oversaw electricity trades in parts of Eastern Europe, including Moldova. Local media have reported that Tsurkan had links to a businessman tied to Romanian intelligence.

Tsurkan’s profile on the company website also said she was a graduate of a Moldovan university, and in 2010-2011, worked in the company’s division overseeing Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania.

The prosecution had asked the court to jail her for 18 years.

PODGORICA, Montenegro -- Montenegro's parliament has approved changes to a controversial law on religion that had been sharply criticized by ethnic Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

A total of 41 deputies of the ruling coalition, comprised of pro-Serb parties and closely aligned with the Serbian Orthodox Church, in the 81-seat legislature backed amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion in a vote early on December 29 that was boycotted by the opposition.

On December 28, several thousand people protested outside the parliament building in the capital, Podgorica, against the new government’s proposed changes, waving Montenegrin flags and chanting slogans such as “Treason” and “This Is Not Serbia.” No clashes were reported.

The rally was the first major protest in the Balkan country against the coalition government of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, who came to power after the opposition won a slim majority over the long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) during August parliamentary elections.

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Krivokapic hailed the vote in parliament as “a victory for the rule of law.”

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, who heads the now opposition DPS, has seven days to sign the amendments into law or send them back to parliament. If the deputies vote for the amendments again, the president is obliged to sign them.

Under Montenegro's religion law adopted a year ago, religious communities must prove property ownership from before 1918.

That is the year when predominantly Orthodox Christian Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes -- and the Montenegrin Orthodox Church was subsumed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, losing all of its property in the process.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, its supporters, and pro-Serbian parties claimed the law could enable the Montenegrin government to impound church property, though officials deny they intend to.

The new government has proposed rewriting the law to ensure the properties stay in the hands of the church, which is based in neighboring Serbia.

Serbia and Montenegro were part of a federation until 2006, when Montenegro declared its independence.

Montenegro is a member of NATO and aspires to join the European Union.

Eight men have been arrested in North Macedonia on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, police said on December 28.

Authorities suspect the men have links with the Islamic State terrorist group, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The men were arrested late on December 27 in Skopje and the town of Kumanovo following an investigation lasting several months, the statement said.

One of the suspects had a previous conviction of participation in the Islamic State group.

The eight have been charged with creating a terrorist organization based on the ideology of Islamic State “for committing murders and destroying public buildings" and with the aim of creating fear or insecurity among the public.

No specific targets in North Macedonia were mentioned. If convicted, the suspects, who are between the ages of 21 and 31, face prison sentences of up to 10 years.

Officers also seized a large quantity of weapons at eight locations in the north of the country.

The men are accused of procuring the weapons, ammunition, and military equipment and hiding them near Kumanovo. Authorities also accused the men of making improvised explosive devices and carrying out test firings.

The men allegedly shared their plans, including blueprints for making explosive-lined vests for suicide bombings, in an online platform.

North Macedonia has a large, mostly Muslim ethnic Albanian community, and radical Islamists have been active in the country and elsewhere in the region.

Police said the men belong to the same group as three others who were arrested in September on suspicion of storing a large quantity of ammunition, mines, and explosives near Kumanovo.

The arrests come less than two months after an Austrian-born man of Macedonian-Albanian descent killed four people and wounded more than 20 in Vienna before being shot dead by police.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa

Russia's Federal Prison Service has told Kremlin critic and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny to return immediately from Germany -- where he is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent -- or face jail in Russia.

In a December 28 statement, the prison service accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and of evading criminal inspectors.

Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20 and was treated and placed in an induced coma in a Siberian hospital before being transferred to a world-class facility in Germany.

Lab tests in three European countries, confirmed by the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, have established the Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok class. The findings led the European Union to imposed sanctions on six Russian officials and a state research institute.

Russian authorities have claimed that no trace of poison was found in Navalny's body before he was airlifted to Germany, and have refused to open a criminal investigation into the incident. Navalny has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning.

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The service cited an article in the British medical publication The Lancet in arguing that Navalny was discharged from Berlin's Charite hospital in September and that he was fully recovered by mid-October.

"The convicted man is not fulfilling all of the obligations placed on him by the court, and is evading the supervision of the Criminal Inspectorate," the prison service said.

Navalny's probationary period for his suspended 3 1/2 year prison term expires on December 30. Navalny, an opposition politician and vocal Putin critic, has said that the case was politically motivated. The suspended sentence could be changed to a real jail term if the alleged violations are determined by Russian officials to be valid.

Audio Recording

On December 28, Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted that the Criminal Inspectorate had ordered Navalny to show up at its office on the morning of December 29.

Navalny, who has vowed to return home at an undisclosed time, responded by saying that the demand showed that the Russian government was accepting that he was poisoned.

Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted that it would not be possible for Navalny to return to Russia by the deadline, and that he was still recuperating from his poisoning.

SEE ALSO:

'Russian Watergate': Russian Social Media Reacts After Navalny 'Dupes' FSB Agent On His Poisoning

"There's no way he could appear at the Moscow Criminal Inspectorate tomorrow. But does the FSIN [prison service] really care about common sense? They were given an order, they are fulfilling it," she wrote.

Navalny made waves recently when he released an audio recording on December 21 of a telephone call with a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer in which his poisoning was openly discussed. In the call, an FSB officer identified as Konstantin Kudryavtsev appears to believe he is speaking to a Russian security official and freely describes the circumstances of the poisoning.

The FSB has dismissed the recording as a fake.

Lyubov Sobol, a longtime Navalny associate and lawyer for his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), was recently charged with "violent trespassing" after she rang the doorbell of Kudryavtsev's home on December 21 in an attempt to question him about the recording released earlier that day.

She was detained by police on December 25 and her home searched and computers and phones confiscated. On December 27, she was charged and released. She faces from two to five years in prison if found guilty of the charges, which she has said are "revenge" for Navalny surviving his poisoning.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

PODGORICA, Montenegro -- Several thousand people in Montenegro have protested the new government’s plan to amend a controversial law on religion.

Protesters chanted “Treason” and “This Is Not Serbia” as they gathered on December 28 outside the parliament building in the capital Podgorica, where lawmakers planned to discuss the proposed changes.

Under Montenegro's new religion law, adopted in January, religious communities must prove property ownership from before 1918.

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That is the year when predominantly Orthodox Christian Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes -- and the Montenegrin Orthodox Church was subsumed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, losing all of its property in the process.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, its supporters, and pro-Serbian parties fear the law will enable the Montenegrin government to impound church property, though officials deny they intend to.

But the new government -- a coalition comprised of pro-Serb parties that is closely aligned with the Serbian Orthodox Church -- has proposed rewriting the law to ensure the properties stay in the hands of the church, which is based in neighboring Serbia.

Serbia and Montenegro were part of a federation until 2006, when Montenegro declared its independence.

Montenegro is the newest member of NATO and aspires to join the European Union.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has delivered clothes and food to hundreds of refugees and migrants exposed to falling temperatures and heavy snow after their tent camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina was destroyed by a fire.

The stranded migrants at the camp in northwest Bosnia have been without shelter after a fire destroyed much of the camp on December 23, the same day the site was due to be temporarily closed.

Since the fire at the camp, known as Lipa, Bosnian officials have failed to agree where to house the migrants and refugees.

Many of the migrants have attempted to shield themselves from the elements with only blankets and sleeping bags.

The Red Cross on December 28 delivered gloves, hats, and socks to the around 800 migrants and refugees at the Lipa camp. They were also given one hot meal.

• RFE/RL

Hundreds of migrants at the Lipa camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina are stranded amid heavy snowfall after a fire destroyed much of the camp on December 23.

The camp, which had previously come under criticism for inadequate facilities, is located near Bosnia's border with EU-member Croatia.

About 10,000 migrants from Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa are stuck in Bosnia, hoping to reach the European Union.

The EU has warned Bosnia that migrants face freezing conditions and has urged the country's officials to take action to accommodate them.

Russia has confirmed that it has been underreporting its coronavirus death toll, announcing that the actual number of fatalities related to the pandemic is more than three times higher than previously released figures.

The admission would place Russia third behind the United States and Brazil in terms of COVID-19 fatalities.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

The Rosstat statistics agency said on December 28 that the number of deaths from all causes recorded between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared to the previous year.

"More than 81 percent of this increase in mortality over this period is due to COVID," Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said. The percentage increase would mean that more than 186,000 Russians have died from COVID-19, whereas recorded figures stand at around 54,500 deaths and more than 3 million infections.

Golikova added that death rates in November-December were higher than other periods due to the "autumn/winter period, when the spread of COVID-19 is increasing in combination with other diseases."

Rosstat on December 28 announced that 23,610 deaths in Russia were attributed to COVID-19 in November alone, whereas the initial figure for that month was recorded as 19,626. Rosstat said that the additional deaths had been assumed to be coronavirus-related, but that additional medical research was required to confirm it.

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'A Chance To Return To Normal Life': Russians React After Getting Sputnik-V Vaccine

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Russia has consistently downplayed its impact even as outside observers suggested that the casualty count was far too low. Earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had done a better job managing the pandemic than Western countries and rejected introducing a nationwide lockdown.

Some of the disparity is attributed to Russia only listing deaths as coronavirus-related if COVID-19, rather than other causes such as upper respiratory infections, were listed in the autopsy as the cause of death.

Based on AFP and TASS

Russia has for the first time branded individuals as "foreign agents," including three who contribute to RFE/RL.

Five journalists or activists in total were added to the Russian Justice Ministry's registry of "foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent" on December 28.

Previously only foreign-funded, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and rights groups were placed on the registry, in keeping with Russia's passage of its controversial "foreign-agents law" in 2012. The law was later expanded to include media outlets and independent journalists.

Inclusion on the registry imposes additional restrictions, such as the obligation to provide regular financial reports on activities and in the way publications are labeled.

The legislation has been criticized by rights groups, who say the law has harmed NGOs and is used to clamp down on dissent.

The three listed individuals affiliated with RFE/RL are: Lyudmila Savitskaya and Sergei Markelov, freelance correspondents for the North Desk (Sever.Realii) of RFE/RL's Russian Service; and Denis Kamalyagin, editor in chief of the online news site Pskov Province and a contributor to RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Prominent human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov was also named to the registry, as was activist and Red Cross worker Darya Apakhonchich.

The additions bring the total number of individuals or entities listed to 17, the majority affiliated with RFE/RL.

"It is reprehensible that professional journalists are among the first individuals singled out by Russia as 'foreign agents,'" RFE/RL Vice President and Editor in Chief Daisy Sindelar said in response on December 28.

"Our Sever.Realii colleagues have reported responsibly on everything from free-speech rights to local government corruption and the ongoing toll of coronavirus. With today's action, the Justice Ministry is stating unambiguously that reporting the facts is a crime, and that it will stop at nothing to silence the voices that seek to inform, protect, and engage their compatriots, the people of Russia."

According to Russia's controversial "foreign-agents law," any individual who distributes materials of a publication or a legal entity recognized as a foreign agent, participates in its creation, and receives foreign funding from abroad can be recognized as a "foreign media agent."

The Justice Ministry did not explain on what grounds it included the five individuals added to the registry on December 28.

Russian officials have previously said that amending the "foreign-agents law" to include mass media in 2017 was a "symmetrical response" to the U.S. requirement that Russia's state-funded channel RT register under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

U.S. officials have said the action is not symmetrical, arguing that the U.S. and Russian laws differ and that Russia uses its "foreign-agent" legislation to silence dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas.

'Devastating'

Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based rights group, in 2017 called the law "devastating" for local NGOs, saying more than a dozen had been forced to close their doors.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as a whole was listed in the original registry in December 2017, along with several of RFE/RL's regional news sites: the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service; the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service; RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service; Idel.Realii of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service; Kavkaz Realii; RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service; and Factograph, a former special project by RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America, was also named in the original list, as was the Voice of America.

In November 2019, the list was expanded to include Sever.Realii. In February 2020, the Russian Justice Ministry added RFE/RL's corporate entity in Russia.

The only non-U.S. entity named to the list is the Czech news agency Medium Orient.

On December 23, the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave its final approval to a bill that would allow individuals and public entities to be recognized as foreign agents if they are considered to be engaged in political activities "in the interests of a foreign state."

A separate bill passed the same day introduces penalties of up to five years in prison against individuals identified as "foreign agents" if they do not register as such or fail to report on their activities.

Under the proposed legislation, which would have to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, grounds for being recognized as a "foreign agent" could be holding rallies or political debates, providing opinions on state policies, actions promoting a certain outcome in an election or referendum, or participation as an electoral observer or in political parties if they are done in the interest of a foreign entity.

Russia says it has given a Bulgarian diplomat 72 hours to leave the country following the expulsion of its military attache in Sofia.

In a December 28 press release, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had sent the Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow a note announcing that the assistant to Bulgaria's military attache had been declared "persona non-grata" in response to the "unjustified" removal of a Russian diplomat earlier this month.

Bulgarian authorities on December 18 gave a Russian diplomat 72 hours to leave the EU and NATO member state after prosecutors alleged he had been involved in espionage since 2017.

Prosecutors have said that the diplomat had "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, they 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.

It was the sixth case of a Russian diplomat or official at the Russian Embassy in Sofia being expelled for suspected espionage since October 2019.

NATO says it scrambled its air forces across Europe more than 400 times this year to intercept unknown aircraft -- mainly from Russia -- approaching the alliance's airspace.

The Western security alliance said in a statement on December 28 that almost 90 percent of the missions were in response to flights by Russian military aircraft. The overall total is a slight increase from the previous year.

“In recent years, we have seen an increased level of Russian military air activity close to the alliance’s borders,” said NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu.

“We are always vigilant. NATO fighter jets are on duty around the clock, ready to scramble in case of suspicious or unannounced flights near the airspace of our allies. Air policing is an important way in which NATO provides security for our members,” she added.

NATO said that Russian military aircraft often do not transmit a transponder code indicating their position and altitude, do not file a flight plan, or do not communicate with air-traffic controllers, posing a potential risk to civilian airliners.

The alliance has about 40 air-surveillance radars and reporting hubs across Europe, and about 60 NATO jets that are on duty around the clock to serve as a quick-response force for aircraft which fall into distress or defy international flying rules near NATO airspace.

Since 2004, NATO also has operated a Baltic air-policing mission for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as air-policing coverage for allies in the Western Balkans who do not have fighter jets of their own.

The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society says the country will receive a shipment of coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in three weeks.

“According to arrangements made with a group of philanthropists in the U.S., 150,000 doses of [Pfizer] coronavirus vaccines are expected to enter the country,” Red Crescent Director Karim Hemmati told the semi-official Tasnim news agency on December 28.

He added that the vaccines will be distributed based on the priorities set by the Health Ministry. He did not provide more details.

On December 26, Hemmati said that his organization was in talks to purchase 1 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from China.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

The head of Iran’s central bank said last week his country had received approval from U.S. authorities to buy coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization-led COVAX alliance.

Central bank chief Abdolnaser Hemmati did not say which vaccines Iran was buying.

Iranian officials have said that U.S. sanctions are preventing them from making payments to COVAX, to which some 190 nations have signed up.

U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran after exiting a 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 that was signed by Tehran and a group of major nations.

Humanitarian goods, including medicines, are exempt from U.S. sanctions. But the U.S. restrictions have deterred some foreign banks from processing financial transactions for Iran deals.

Iran has wrestled with the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, which according to official figures has killed nearly 55,000 people and infected over 1.2 million.

Health officials have said that the real death toll is likely double what has been reported.

In recent days and following the introduction of tighter restrictions aimed at containing the pandemic, the number of official COVID-19 deaths and infections has dropped significantly.

On December 27, Iran reported 119 deaths from the coronavirus, the lowest daily fatality total in more than three months.

With reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters, and Tasnim

At least three people are dead, including two law enforcement officers, after a shoot-out in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya.

Unknown assailants initiated the assault on police on December 28, local media quoted sources as saying.

Interfax and TASS said the attackers opened fire on police, while other media said they attacked the officers with knives as they tried to disarm the law enforcement officials.

Interfax reported that two attackers were killed when police fired on them, while TASS said one was killed.

A search operation is now under way in the area as police investigate the attack.

Chechnya and Russia's other mostly Muslim-populated North Caucasus regions are the site of frequent fighting between government forces and militants whose insurgency stems from two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya.

The volatile North Caucasus in recent years has also been at the epicenter of organized criminal gang violence linked to business turf wars, political disputes, clan rivalries, and the spread of militant Islam.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

An Iranian cleric who was allegedly behind the 2016 attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran has been appointed as the head of the cultural committee of Iran’s Judo Federation.

The federation said on December 27 that Hassan Kordmihan, who had been named by Iranian media as the mastermind of the January storming of the Saudi mission in the Iranian capital, will also serve as an adviser to the federation’s president.

Protesters stormed and ransacked the Saudi missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who had criticized the kingdom’s treatment of its Shi’ite minority.

Kordmihan was arrested following the attack and went on trial behind closed doors in the Special Clergy Court that prosecutes clerics accused of wrongdoing.

It is not clear whether a sentence was issued against Kordmihan who, according to media reports, had been arrested after returning from Syria where Iran-backed forces have provided military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian conflict.

Kordmihan, who has denied having played a role in the attack, was among about 100 people arrested following the storming of the Saudi diplomatic missions.

In all, 21 suspects went on trial in the case. Some of the defendants were handed sentences of three months or six months in jail, while others were acquitted, Iranian media has reported.

Saudi Arabia severed its diplomatic ties with Iran following the attacks on its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashad.

The Iranian government has condemned the attacks, but tensions have still been on the rise in recent months between the two regional rivals.

Iran was banned last year from international judo competitions over the country's refusal to face Israeli competitors.

The Islamic republic does not recognize Israel, and Iranian sports teams have employed a policy of not competing against Israelis.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Azerbaijan says one of its servicemen has been killed and another wounded in an attack by ethnic Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, a claim dismissed by the breakaway region's de facto authorities.

The country's Defense Ministry said on December 28 that six members of “an illegal Armenian armed group" attacked an Azerbaijani military unit in the village of Agdam in the Khojavend district the previous day, adding that all of the attackers were killed.

The ministry vowed to take "decisive measures" if similar attacks were carried out.

The ethnic Armenian military in Nagorno-Karabakh rejected the report as a “propaganda provocation,” saying it was “strictly observing” last month’s cease-fire that brought an end to six weeks of fighting over the region.

The Armenian Defense Ministry earlier denied media reports of fighting in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Moscow-brokered truce took effect on November 10, placing a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it -- including Khojavend -- under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by Armenians.

Most of the Khojavend district had been captured by the Azerbaijani Army during the war.

On December 12, new clashes were reported in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Armenia and Azerbaijan accusing each other of breaching the cease-fire.

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.