Ukraine’s parliament voted on December 4 to reimpose penalties for officials who provide false information about their incomes, defying an earlier ruling from the nation’s highest court.

Ukraine's Constitutional Court in October annulled key parts of the nation's anti-corruption legislation, sparking a widespread backlash at home and abroad. The decision threatened Western financial aid to Kyiv and visa-free travel to Europe Union countries.

The nation’s highest court declared unconstitutional a provision that required officials to submit electronic asset declarations. It also struck down legislation that made providing false income information a criminal offense.

Ukraine has suffered from widespread corruption for decades that has held back foreign investment and economic growth. The prior legislation, passed after the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests that pushed Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovuych from power, helped combat the problem by exposing and punishing those officials involved in graft.

The new bill passed by parliament on December 4 is less severe.

According to its provisions, an official who deliberately conceals assets worth between 1.3 million and 9 million hryvnya ($46,000 and $318,000) can be fined between 42,500 and 51,000 hryvnya ($1,500 to $1,800) or sentenced to between 150 and 240 hours of community service.

Those who fail to declare assets worth over 9 million hryvnya will face a fine of between 51,000 and 85,000 hryvnya ($1,800 to $3,000) and between 150 and 240 hours of community service or up to two years of “restrictions of freedom” that do not include imprisonment.

Additionally, any official convicted of hiding income can be banned from holding public office for up to three years

Based on reporting by AP and the Kyiv Post

Iran plans to install more advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges at an underground plant in breach of its troubled deal with major powers, Reuters reported on December 4, citing a UN nuclear watchdog report.

The confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters said Iran plans to install three more clusters of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in the underground plant at Natanz, located about 300 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

According to its 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, Iran can only use the less-efficient, first-generation IR-1 centrifuges at the underground plant.

Iran recently started uranium enrichment with one cluster of IR-2m machines at Natanz and is planning to install two more clusters, Reuters reported, citing the document.

The breach is the latest in a series of violations by Iran of the nuclear deal in response to President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the agreement and his reimposition of punishing economic sanctions.

Tehran says its breaches can quickly be reversed if Washington's moves are undone. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20, said he is willing to rejoin the nuclear agreement if Iran moves back into compliance.

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said later on December 4 that Iran was "desperately" signaling its willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief, though he did not back his claim with any proof.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

Bulgaria said it will close 28 facilities for the mentally ill and handicapped after harsh criticism by the Council of Europe.

The Prosecutor-General's Office issued a statement on December 4 saying it planned to close the facilities by 2027 due to poor conditions, as well as violence against patients and misuse of medication.

A Council of Europe committee on December 2 called on Bulgaria to stop using chains at mental health facilities to restrain individuals, calling it “totally unacceptable.”

The committee said in its report that its delegation had visited several facilities and heard allegations of staff "pushing, punching, and kicking” patients.

Based on reporting by AFP

German diplomat Helga Schmid, a key participant in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, was appointed secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), becoming the first woman to head the post.

The Foreign Ministry of Albania, which chairs the organization, made the announcement on Twitter on December 4 following a vote by the foreign ministers of all 57 OSCE member countries.

Schmid, 59, has been serving as German secretary-general of the EU diplomatic service since 2016. She previously served as the German Embassy's spokeswoman in Washington during the 1990s.

The Vienna-based regional security organization plays an important role in resolving conflicts in Europe, including in the post-Soviet region and Western Balkans. Its mandate also includes election monitoring as well as the promotion of human rights and freedom of the press.

Schmid takes over the OSCE at a tough time for the institution as it faces crises in Belarus, Ukraine, and in Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenian and Azerbaijani forces had been fighting

Based on reporting by dpa and AP

VLASIKHA, Russia -- A Russian military appeals court has upheld the sentence of Airat Dilmukhametov, a prominent opposition activist from the Republic of Bashkortostan who was sentenced to nine years in prison on extremism charges.

The court in the town of Vlasikha near Moscow on December 4 rejected the appeal filed by Dilmukhametov, who has insisted that the case against him is politically motivated.

The charge against Dilmukhametov stems from a video statement he made in 2018 urging the creation of a "real" federation in Russia with more autonomous rights given to ethnic republics and regions.

Debates over ethnic rights and regional autonomy are especially sensitive in Bashkortostan -- with its sizable populations of Tatars, Bashkirs, and ethnic Russians -- particularly since President Vladimir Putin ordered an end to the ability of Russia's ethnic regions and republics to mandate regional language instruction in schools.

Dilmukhametov was arrested in March 2019; in August of this year, he was convicted of issuing public calls to violate Russia's territorial integrity and for making public calls for extremism and to support terrorism.

The extremism and terrorism charges are linked to his criticism of regional authorities for incarcerating several Bashkirs on charges of belonging to a banned Islamic group and his public statements about a conflict between local residents and workers from Chechnya in the village of Temas.

In May, the Supreme Court of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostanbanned a group, called Bashqort, which for years has promoted Bashkir language and culture as well as equal rights for ethnic Bashkirs.

PODGORICA -- Montenegrin lawmakers have approved a new cabinet after a coalition comprised of pro-Serb, center-right and green parties won an election, ushering in the first transfer of power in three decades.

A total of 41 deputies of 81 in parliament voted to support Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic's government on December 4.

The coalition narrowly edged former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which had never before lost an election.

Krivokapic, a 62-year-old university professor and political newcomer, has promised to make "significant progress" in Montenegro's talks to join the European Union.

The country has been a NATO member since 2017.

Several international rights watchdogs have accused Kazakh authorities of launching a pressure campaign on human rights organizations by making baseless claims about tax improprieties.

Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, and International Partnership for Human rights said in a joint statement on December 3 that tax authorities in Kazakhstan since mid-October had notified at least 13 human rights groups in the country, alleging that they had incorrectly completed declaration forms relating to foreign income, a requirement of a controversial and heavily criticized law introduced in 2016.

Failure to fill out the forms in a timely manner carries a fine of 555,600 tenges (some $1,300) and a suspension of activities, with a greater fine and a ban on activities for a repeat offense within a year.

The statement by the international human rights organizations called on the Kazakh authorities to "immediately drop these unfounded complaints against independent civil society organizations and live up to their international human rights obligations to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill human rights, including the right to freedom of association."

“Targeting over a dozen prominent human rights groups with alleged financial reporting violations is more than gross overreach by Kazakhstan tax authorities,” said Marie Struthers, Eastern Europe and Central Asia director at Amnesty International. "It is a cynical attempt to silence independent and critical voices precisely when these voices matter the most.”

Those under government attack include leading human rights groups in Kazakhstan, such as the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law; the International Legal Initiative; Qadyr Qasiyet; and Echo Public Foundation. The groups work on human rights and other issues, ranging from election monitoring and environmental rights to freedom of expression and media freedom.

“It is of particular concern that the increased targeting coincides with the upcoming parliamentary election in January 2021,” said Andrew Anderson, executive director at Front Line Defenders.

“The targeting of human rights defenders will have a chilling effect on civil society, obstructing the important role of independent watchdogs in ensuring respect for human rights in the context of the elections, independent monitoring during the election campaign and election day.”

The groups also expressed concern that the tax authorities can impose penalties without due process of law. The targeted organizations in Kazakhstan have only 10 days after a fine is imposed to file a court appeal.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee have urged Tajik officials "to stop harassing" the family of exiled opposition activist Fakhruddin Saidmukhidinov.

In a joint statement issued in December 4, the rights watchdogs said Tajik authorities summoned, interrogated, and threatened Saidmukhidinov's relatives in late-November, "apparently to force him to cease his online criticism of the government."

"The Tajik government has severely curbed free speech in the country and left no space for any criticism by targeting opposition political figures and activists, lawyers, journalists, and relatives of peaceful dissidents," said Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director.

"The authorities should immediately stop harassing Saidmukhidinov’s relatives over his activism," he added.

Saidmukhidinov, who has resided in an unspecified European Union country since 2016, is a supporter of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), an opposition party that was labeled a terrorist organization and banned by Tajik authorities in 2015.

Saidmukhidinov's online articles have been critical of the Tajik government's ongoing crackdown on dissent and political opposition.

The rights groups' joint statement cites Saidmukhidinov as saying that Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security summoned his brother and father on November 19, where they were interrogated and threatened for five hours.

The interrogators told the two men that Saidmukhidinov should cease all his online activities, shut down his social media accounts, and publicly apologize to Saimuddin Yatimov, the head of the country’s feared security services.

In addition, the security officials told Saidmukhidinov's father and brother that the activist had taken part in two conferences with the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2016 and 2017, calling them “anti-state conferences" where Saidmukhidinov sat right next to "traitors.”

According to Saidmukhidinov, the officials told his father that “they will bring him back, but they [the family] will never see him again.”

Saidmukhidinov’s family members were threatened by officials in a similar way in December 2019.

“By targeting critical voices abroad, the Tajik regime is posing a tangible threat to freedom of expression in Europe and elsewhere,” said Gunnar Ekelove-Slydal, acting secretary general of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. "The time is overdue for the European Union and others to implement meaningful measures to counter the Tajik human rights crisis.”

Many rights activists and opposition politicians have fled Tajikistan in recent years, fearing for their safety. Tajik government has targeted critics abroad by murdering, abducting, and extraditing them, as well as by imposing pressure on exiled critics’ relatives in Tajikistan.

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission (BShK) says 20 potential candidates for the January 10 presidential election have submitted the required fees and signatures from their supporters to register for the vote.

The commission made the announcement on December 4 after the deadline expired at midnight for candidates to submit the 1 million-som ($11,800) fee and a petition with at least 30,000 signatures from supporters.

The BShK will now check the validity of the signatures on the petitions before announcing the final list of presidential candidates on December 15.

Initially, 65 potential candidates officially informed BShK about their intentions to take part in the early presidential poll.

The early presidential election was called after a political crisis caused by mass protests in early October over the outcome of parliamentary elections led to the resignation of the government and prompted President Sooronbai Jeenbekov to step down.

Amid the October demonstrations, Sadyr Japarov was released from prison, where he had been serving a sentence for kidnapping a political rival. H e was later voted prime minister by lawmakers and took over presidential powers following Jeenbekov's resignation.

In mid-November, Japarov suspended his duties as acting president and prime minister to become eligible to seek the presidency, because Kyrgyz law does not allow anyone serving as president in an interim capacity to run in an election for the post.

ASHGABAT -- The traffic police directorate in Ashgabat has says it has started accepting applications from women looking to get or extend their driver's licenses almost two years after imposing unannounced constraints on female drivers in the male-dominated Central Asian country.

RFE/RL correspondents reported from the Turkmen capital that, without any official announcement, the change was implemented as of December 1, ending a campaign that had started with arbitrary stops, the issuance of citations, and on-the-spot confiscations of licenses from female drivers.

But over the past four days, women in Ashgabat said they have been collecting en masse all of the documentation needed -- including forms, passports, medical reports, marriage certificates, confirmations of permanent addresses, car-ownership papers, and vehicle technical certificates -- to get or renew their licenses as soon as possible after word of the change began to spread.

Some people told RFE/RL that they were racing to file their applications as rumor spread that they will be accepted only until December 12, while others said they were told by police that each application will be decided by an unspecified special commission.

Ashgabat police officials were not available for comment on the issue.

Women in Turkmenistan have been fighting against the campaign ever since it began in early 2019.

Some filed lawsuits with local courts and turned to the country's ombudsman, saying that the Turkmen Constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women.

In October, around 100 women staged a rally, an extraordinary event in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, in the northeastern region of Lebap, demanding that their driver's licenses be renewed. At the time, local officials promised to look into the situation.

Authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has ruled the country with a iron fist and has established a pervasive cult of personality since becoming Turkmenistan’s leader in 2006 after the death of his autocratic predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov.

Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the restrictive country during his reign.

Several years ago, traffic police in the former Soviet republic forced all car owners in Ashgabat to paint their vehicles white saying it was Berdymukhammedov's favorite color.

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'Bad Luck' For Black Car Owners In Turkmen Capital

MOSCOW -- Investigators say they found a "suicide note" in the mouth of a notorious Russian antigay ultranationalist, Maksim Martsinkevich, whose death in September sparked allegations of foul play.

A lawyer for Martsinkevich's family, Aleksei Mikhalchik, said on December 3 that the late ultranationalist's father had received an official letter from the Investigative Committee noting that his request to launch a probe into his son's death had been rejected as the written message found in his son's mouth proved that the death was a suicide.

According to the Investigative Committee, the message was written on a piece of paper wrapped in plastic. In the note, Martsinkevich wrote that he had nothing to do with unspecified murders that he had confessed to and which he had testified about against his former associates.

Martsinkevich's parents have alleged that their son was killed or driven to suicide and filed a police complaint over his death in an attempt to have it fully investigated.

The Investigative Committee twice has refused to launch a probe since Martsinkevich was found dead in a solitary confinement cell in the west-central Russian city of Chelyabinsk in mid-September.

The committee said at the time that its investigators found two other suicide notes in Martsinkevich’s belongings addressed to his girlfriend and his relatives.

The previous decisions not to launch a probe were canceled by the Investigative Committee's Investigative Directorate for unknown reasons.

The 36-year-old was a leader of the neo-Nazi group Format 18 and known by his nickname, Tesak (Machete).

Officials have hinted that he may have been driven to suicide by a confession in connection with ethnically charged killings in the mid-2000s, for which Martsinkevich faced a possible life sentence.

Martsinkevich had since said in prison that he had abandoned his neo-Nazi views.

In addition to his Format 18 activities, Martsinkevich founded a homophobic group called Occupy Pedophilia whose aim was to "cure" homosexuals.

Russian authorities opened an investigation against him after several videos showing Martsinkevich and his followers humiliating and beating gays circulated on the Internet in 2013.

Martsinkevich fled to Cuba but authorities there arrested him for a visa violation in January 2014 and repatriated him to Russia.

In late December 2018, a court in Moscow found Martsinkevich guilty of robbery and hooliganism and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Before that, Martsinkevich had been convicted three times on extremism charges.

Kremlin critics have said the government used Martsinkevich's group to counter opposition protests.

With reporting by RIA Novosti and TASS

MOSCOW -- A member of the Pussy Riot protest group has been sentenced to 20 days in jail for taking part in a protest performance in Moscow last week.

Lawyer Mansur Gilmanov said late on December 3 that Rita Flores, also known as Margarita Konovalova, was found guilty of repeatedly violating the law on public gatherings. He added that the court’s ruling will be appealed.

Maria Alyokhina, a member of the protest group, said earlier on December 3 that police detained Flores after she was taken to a Moscow hospital overnight to be treated for an unspecified illness.

On November 28, Flores, Alyokhina, and artist Farkhad Israfilli-Gelman staged a protest performance called Fragile! Handle With Care! not far from the State History Museum near Red Square.

In the performance, two women in Russian national costumes tied Israfilli-Gelman, who was wearing a riot police uniform, to a light pole with packing tape.

The event highlighted several cases against protesters who received prison terms last year for throwing plastic cups and plastic bottles at police during the dispersal of rallies in the Russian capital.

Police briefly detained Israfilli-Gelman on November 28 and Alyokhina on December 2. The two were charged with violating the law on public gatherings. Their trials are pending as well.

With reporting by RIA Novosti and TASS

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reiterated on December 4 that Budapest will not accept a clause on observing the rule of law attached to the European Union's budget and coronavirus-recovery fund, prompting Brussels to warn both Hungary and Poland that the bloc is ready to proceed without them.

Poland and Hungary are blocking about 1.8 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) worth of EU funds, including some 750 billion euros due to be disbursed soon to help pull the 27-country bloc out of a double-dip recession caused by a second surge in coronavirus infections.

Both countries are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and risk losing access to tens of billions of euros because of the newly introduced rule-of-law clause.

Orban told public radio that an explanatory declaration attached to the regulations, which prompted a senior Polish government member to say Poland might accept the package, would be unacceptable to Budapest.

"For us this solution, attaching some statement like a reminder on a sticky note attached on a piece of paper, it won't work," Orban said. "Hungary insists that these two things should be separated."

Budapest and Warsaw have said they would act and vote together on the rule of law issue, and Orban said he would stick to that agreement.

He said there was no rush to get an agreement on the EU budget this year, adding if the EU does not have an agreement by January, it will have one later.

"Leave the legal status quo unchanged and everything will go smoothly and quickly," he said.

The block by Warsaw and Budapest will most likely significantly delay the adoption of the EU's 1.8-trillion-euro ($2.1-trillion) plan.

However, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni warned the two countries that the EU is ready to "go on" without them if they do not drop their opposition.

"Of course we will not surrender to a veto, this should be very clear to Hungary and Poland, but I am still confident that we will overcome this veto," Gentiloni told the Rome Med 2020 conference on December 4.

"I think we are very clear towards these member states that we will go on without them, but I am confident that we will at the end make the agreement happen," he added.

On December 3, EU sources confirmed media reports that plans were under way to allow the other 25 member states to green-light the virus aid, circumventing the two countries' opposition.

Gentiloni said the fact that Germany, the EU's most powerful economy, currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency may be "a good advantage in looking for a solution."

The budget dispute is expected to dominate a December 10-11 EU summit in Brussels.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

The United States is partially withdrawing some staff from its embassy in Baghdad as tensions with Iran and Iraqi militia groups spike.

U.S. Ambassador Mathew Tueller confirmed on December 3 a “temporary reduction” in staff at the mission following recent media reports of the change.

In a video posted on the U.S. Embassy's Facebook page, Tueller said he and a core team of diplomats and military advisers would continue to carry out duties for the "foreseeable future."

It was unclear how many of the several hundred diplomats at the largest U.S. Embassy had been pulled out.

The drawdown comes as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Iran ahead of a transition to President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he will try to revive diplomacy with Tehran upon entering the White House in January.

Biden is expected to try to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord that Trump quit in 2018 and work with allies to strengthen its terms, if Tehran first resumes compliance.

Tension have spiked across the region following last week’s assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel and, indirectly, the United States, raising the possibility that Iran or one of its regional proxies will retaliate.

U.S. officials have also voiced concern that Iran or allied Iraqi militia may carry out retaliatory action on the first anniversary of a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, and senior Iraqi militia leaders near Baghdad's airport on January 3.

The partial withdrawal from the embassy is taking place against the backdrop of the Trump administration last month ordering a reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500 by mid-January.

In September, the Trump administration warned Iraq that it would close its embassy in Baghdad in response to repeated rocket and other attacks by Iranian-backed militias on American and allied interests in the country.

With reporting by AP and AFP

A Russian court has ordered the arrest of a physicist specializing in hypersonic aircraft on suspicion of high treason.

Anatoly Gubanov took part in international conferences and projects involving hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft, the Interfax news agency reported on December 3, citing unnamed sources.

"According to the investigation, Gubanov handed over secret aviation development data abroad," the TASS news agency reported, citing another source.

The closed-door court ordered Gubanov to be held in detention until February.

The scientist is said to be a lecturer at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Russia views hypersonic aircraft and missiles as providing a strategically important military advantage.

In October, the Russian military said it had successfully test-launched a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile that flew more than eight times the speed of sound, in what President Vladimir Putin hailed as a “big event” for the country.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, dpa, TASS, and Interfax

Israel's government is warning that Israeli targets abroad could come under attack by Iran, citing threats issued by Tehran following the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist last week.

"In light of threats recently coming from Iranian officials and in light of the involvement in the past of Iranian agents in terror attacks in various countries, there is a concern that Iran will try to act in such a way against Israeli targets,” according to a December 3 statement issued by the prime minister’s National Security Council.

It advised against travel to nearby countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), and Bahrain, as well as the Kurdish area of Iraq and Africa.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was at the heart of the country's past covert nuclear program, was killed on the outskirts of Tehran on November 27.

No one has claimed responsibility, but Iranian officials have blamed the killing on Israel, an exile opposition group, and Saudi Arabia.

A top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response.

Israeli officials have declined to comment on the killing, while the Iranian opposition group and Saudi Arabia have denied any involvement.

Elliott Abrams, the top U.S. envoy on Iran, said on December 3 that Iran is unlikely to retaliate over the assassination before the inauguration of Joe Biden as U.S. president on January 20, 2021, in case it jeopardizes any future sanctions relief from the United States.

"If they want sanctions relief, they know that they're going to need to enter some kind of negotiation after January 20, and it's got to be in their minds that they don't want to...undertake any activities between now and January 20 that make sanctions relief harder to get," Abrams told Reuters.

Iran and its proxies have targeted Israeli tourists and Jewish communities in the past.

Israel in recent months has signed U.S.-brokered agreements establishing diplomatic relations with the U.A.E. and Bahrain.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

The son-in-law of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev raked in tens of millions of dollars as part of a secret project linked to the construction of a natural-gas pipeline from Central Asia to China, the Financial Times reported.

The December 3 report, based on leaked e-mails and other documents, said Timur Kulibaev arranged the contracts via a Moscow-based company called ETK.

Under the scheme, ETK bought cheaply produced steel from China, and then imported it to industrial facilities in Ukraine and Russia, where pipes were made for the pipeline going from Central Asia to China.

The documents obtained by the Financial Times said that the major part of the sum made by the scheme, some $53 million, went to a company controlled by Kulibaev.

Kulibaev's lawyers told the Financial Times that he “has never had any interest or stake in any ETK entity, directly, indirectly or via any kind of nominee arrangement or similar scheme."

Married to Nazarbaev's middle daughter Dinara, Kulibaev has accumulated a vast fortune in Kazakhstan, Russia, and elsewhere. He's long been dogged by accusations that his wealth derives from his family connections, something he has repeatedly denied.

The paper reported that the scheme echoed corruption allegations that were publicized last year by Kulibaev's nephew Aisultan, who is the son of Nazarbaev's eldest daughter, Darigha.

Aisultan Nazarbaev was found dead in London in August. An autopsy by British authorities said he died of cardiac arrest.

Over his career, Kulibaev has held top executive positions in several major Kazakh oil and gas companies since the late-1990s. Since 2011, he has also served as a board member for Russia's state-controlled natural-gas giant, Gazprom.

With reporting by the Financial Times

YEREVAN -- Armenian opposition groups angry over Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have united by naming a single candidate they want to head a transitional government until new elections can be held.

The move, announced by 17 opposition parties on December 3, was a sharp increase in pressure on Pashinian, who has been criticized by many Armenians for agreeing to a cease-fire that ended six weeks of fighting with Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway mountainous territory.

He's been criticized by many Armenians for agreeing to a cease-fire that ended the fighting with Azerbaijani forces over the disputed mountainous territory.

The fighting ended about a month ago with the Russian-brokered deal that resulted in Azerbaijan retaking control over much of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Yerevan in recent weeks demanding Pashinian step down, but the prime minister has not given any indication of resigning.

The opposition groups nominated Vazgen Manukian, a former prime minister and ex-defense minister, to head a “transitional, anti-crisis government” until early parliamentary elections could be held.

In their statement, the 17 opposition parties announced they had set up a “pan-Armenian, nonpartisan” movement that would include “representatives of political parties, the intelligentsia, and the general public.”

The aim, they said, includes “getting rid of the catastrophic regime of Armenia in a constitutional way, creating a transitional, anti-crisis government, which will prevent the loss of Armenian statehood, [and] carry out postwar recovery."

Later in the day, hundreds of people blocked streets in the capital, Yerevan, shouting slogans such as "Nikol, leave!"

Several demonstrators were detained by police.

TBILISI -- The ruling Georgian Dream party will hold a large majority in the incoming parliament -- 90 seats out of 150 -- according to the final results of a general vote that the opposition claims was rigged.

The runoff vote on November 21 was boycotted by the opposition, which demanded a repeat of the first round on October 31 and has staged regular protests against results they describe as illegitimate and unfair.

Central Election Commission Chairwoman Tamar Zhvania announced the final results on December 3, saying Georgian Dream, founded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, had captured 48.22 percent of the vote.

The United National Movement bloc had 27.18 percent (36 deputies) and European Georgia was third with 3.79 percent (5 deputies).

Six other smaller parties crossed the 1 percent threshold to enter parliament.

Three members of the opposition left the election commission session ahead of the announcement in protest against the results.

The first session of the parliament is to be convened within 10 days of the announcement.

The election was the first under a reformed system backed by the United States and EU that gives more weight to proportional representation. Of 150 seats in parliament, 120 seats are determined based on party lists and 30 seats through single-mandate districts.

Thirteen single-mandate constituencies were determined in the first round.

The runoff vote was for 17 seats in single-mandate districts where no candidate garnered more than 50 percent of ballots in the first round.

Moldova's Socialist-controlled parliament has approved legislation stripping President-elect Maia Sandu of control over the country’s intelligence service and moving it back under lawmakers' jurisdiction just weeks before she takes office.

The bill was approved on December 3 despite thousands of Sandu supporters protesting in central Chisinau.

Sandu, a former World Bank economist who favors closer ties with the European Union, defeated the Russia-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in last month's presidential election, but parliament is still dominated by the pro-Moscow Socialists aligned with Dodon.

The Socialists have argued that since Moldova was a parliamentary republic, control over the intelligence service should be handed to parliament.

In June last year, the Socialists voted to transfer the control of the Information and Security Service (SIS) from parliament to Dodon -- their former party leader.

Moldova, which declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has been rocked by corruption scandals, including the disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system several years ago. A frozen conflict with its Moscow-backed separatist Transdniester region has also added to the continued instability in Europe's poorest country.

Sandu's supporters shouted "down with the mafia" and "down with Dodon," while inside parliament, proceedings were suspended after lawmakers from Sandu's Action and Solidarity Party, supported by others, blocked the central rostrum.

However, the lawmakers approved the bill in two readings at once, the press service of Moldova’s parliament reported.

"The draft bill has been approved by 51 votes [out of 101] in the first and second, final reading," announced Vlad Batrincea, deputy speaker of parliament.

Sandu has described the move to strip her office of control of the SIS as "an attempt to usurp power" and undermine her presidency.

"People gave us their vote to punish the thieves, to return the stolen money to people," she told the protest rally.

"But the robbers now got scared, they want to protect the old corruption rackets, they want to throw the voice of the people into a landfill."

The Socialists have also drafted legislation that would give special status to the Russian language, which is widely spoken alongside Romanian in the country sandwiched between Ukraine and EU member state Romania.

Sandu's call for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniester prompted the Kremlin to warn it could lead to "serious destabilization" this week.

With reporting by Reuters and unimedia.md

DUSHANBE -- Tajik authorities say they have yet to launch an official search for opposition leader Mahmurod Odinaev, disputing a claim by relatives that a request to do so has been filed.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nusratullo Mahmudzoda said on December 2 that Odinaev, deputy chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party, has not been officially placed on the missing persons list because police did not receive a request from his relatives.

Relatives of Odinaev, who hasn't been seen since November 20, told RFE/RL that he went missing days after he placed a post on Facebook asking Dushanbe Mayor Rustam Emomali to allow him and his party's activists to stage a protest over food price hikes.

According to the relatives, they officially turned to police several times, asking law enforcement officers to find the missing politician. Odinaev's relatives also said police questioned them regarding the opposition figure's mysterious disappearance.

Last week, the Interior Ministry said Odinaev’s son, Shaihmuslihiddin Rizoev, was charged with hooliganism over his alleged involvement in a brawl.

Earlier in October, Odinaev said that unknown attackers had severely beaten his son, adding that the assault was a part of a pressure campaign being imposed on him for his political activities.

The Social Democratic Party is the only opposition party functioning in Tajikistan currently.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who has tightly ruled the former Soviet republic since 1992, has been criticized for what international human rights groups say is an increasing disregard for political pluralism, civil society, and religious freedoms.

BAKU -- Nearly 2,800 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in fighting with ethnic Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani officials said, the first time Baku has published casualty figures from the 44-day conflict.

The figures, released December 3 by the Defense Ministry, came nearly three weeks after a Russian-brokered cease-fire ended fighting over the breakaway territory, which is legally part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s.

The fighting, which erupted September 27, was the worst since the early 1990s, and ended with Azerbaijani forces taking control over much of the mountainous region and surrounding districts.

The Defense Ministry said that 2,783 of its soldiers and officers were killed during the conflict, more than 100 military personnel were still missing, and 1,245 servicemen were wounded.

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In Armenia, officials at the Health Ministry told RFE/RL that corpses of 2,718 servicemen were being examined by medical personnel, adding that the bodies of Azerbaijani soldiers could be among the corpses.

Administration officials in Nagorno-Karabakh have previously said that the corpses of 1,741 soldiers and officers had been identified so far. That figure includes the figure from the Armenian Health Ministry.

The conflict over the region erupted in the late 1980s in the waning days of the Soviet Union. All-out war ended in 1994, with more than 30,000 people killed and more than 1 million people displaced, mainly ethnic Azeris.

Ethnic Armenians had controlled the region, even though it was still internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Russia has deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to the region to monitor the Russian-brokered cease-fire, which does not settle the question of the region's legal status.

The outcome of the fighting has been humiliating for many Armenians. The signing of the truce prompted street protests in Yerevan and threatened Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's government.

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In Azerbaijan, though, the agreement has been hailed as a great victory. President Ilham Aliyev's office announced that November 8, the day when Azerbaijani troops regained control over the symbolic and strategic city of Susa, will be marked each year as Victory Day.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says a law passed by parliament to expand and accelerate the country's nuclear program will not be implemented if international sanctions on Tehran are dropped.

"We will implement it because it [will be] the law of the land...[but] it is not irreversible," he told an Italian diplomatic conference via video link on December 3.

Zarif reiterated arguments that Iran is within its rights to reduce compliance with a landmark 2015 agreement with world powers after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of it and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

However, President-elect Joe Biden has said he will rejoin it if Tehran first resumes strict compliance. He has also said he would work with allies "to strengthen and extend it."

Under the deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran pledged to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

But Iranian lawmakers on December 1 approved a bill to suspend UN inspections of the country's nuclear facilities and boost its uranium enrichment if the remaining signatories to JCPOA do not provide relief from sanctions.

The hard-line-led parliament's passing of the legislation was also seen as a show of defiance days after the assassination on November 27 of prominent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was at the heart of the country's past covert nuclear program, on the outskirts of Tehran.

Zarif said that if the United States honored its original commitments, Tehran would show full compliance with the pact.

"[If the United States and Europe] come back into full compliance with the JCPOA, not only will this law not be implemented, but in fact our actions, the actions we have taken...will be rescinded, that is, we will go back into full compliance," Zarif said.

In a related development, Iranian President Hassan Rohani on December 3 warned hard-line lawmakers who passed the legislation against interfering with the country's nuclear policy.

"Our brothers [in parliament] should not make hasty decisions....Let those who know about diplomacy deal with these issues with the needed maturity, calm, and attention," Rohani said on state television.

Prisoner Swaps

Zarif also added that Tehran is prepared for more prisoner exchanges after swapping a jailed British-Australian academic with three Iranians detained abroad last week.

"We can always engage in that, it is in the interests of everybody," Zarif told the diplomatic conference.

"Iran is ready to reciprocate. We can do it tomorrow. We can also do it today," he added.

Iran on November 25 released detained British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence for spying, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad.

Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic studies at Melbourne University, was sent to Tehran's Evin prison in September 2018 on widely criticized espionage charges.

International pressure on Iran to secure her release had grown in recent months following reports that her health was deteriorating in solitary confinement and that she had been transferred to Qarchak prison, east of Tehran.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

BRUSSELS -- European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova says the EU's executive arm will propose sanctioning entities who spread disinformation -- especially "foreign actors" from such countries as Russia and China -- in an effort to "impose a cost" on those putting out fake news.

Jourova told RFE/RL in an interview to coincide with the release of the European Democracy Action Plan on December 3 the bloc must crack down on the spread of disinformation, especially for those who repeatedly do so.

"The producers [of disinformation] do not pay any price for that. And I think that it should not go without any price, so that's why we will be considering how to apply the sanctions and the costs," she said.

"We will deal especially with the foreign influence and foreign actors," she added.

Jourova said sanctions will should follow the EU's cybersanction regime, which was used for the first time this year to freeze assets and introduce visa bans on offenders -- primarily Russian, Chinese, and North Korean citizens and companies -- that have attacked the bloc.

The East StratCom Task Force, a division of the European External Action Service, which monitors Russian disinformation, has identified 10,000 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation since it started monitoring in 2015.

When asked whether Russian media companies such as RT and Sputnik can be targeted in the future, Jourova said she didn't want to specify at the moment, but added that "it can be governmental or nongovernmental actors, whoever will be identified, using very good evidence, that they are systematic producers or promoters of disinformation."

Some EU countries, notably the Baltic states, have already banned Russian media belonging to the Rossia Segodnya (Russia Today) media group since it has been linked to Dmitry Kiselyov.

Kiselyov, a TV commentator known for his anti-Western diatribes, is on the European Union's sanctions list for his role in promoting Kremlin propaganda in support of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

He heads the state Rossia Segodnya media group, which focuses mainly on Russian news and official propaganda abroad.

Jourova said that Europeans were being inundated with "an avalanche" of misinformation, especially during the current coronavirus pandemic, that aims to "harm the people in Europe."

Next week the European Union will also propose new, tougher legislation for online platforms such Facebook, Google and Twitter to take more action on the transparency of ad placements and moves against fake accounts.

Jourova said she believes the companies will comply with stricter regulations that increase "the responsibility and accountability" of social-media platforms even though so far they have cooperated with Brussels solely on a voluntary basis.

"The only efficient way to force anyone, not only big tech, is to adopt the regulation. This is what we are going to do next week," she said.

"I think that they know what they can expect from us, that once we adopt the legislation through our very difficult legislative process, which is now ahead of us, we will insist on compliance," she added.

The European Democracy Action Plan says that the 27-member bloc "needs to use more systematically the full range of tools in its toolbox for countering foreign interference and influence operations and further develop them, including by imposing costs on the perpetrators."

It is the first time that the European Commission has suggested in an official document the imposition of sanctions for the spread of disinformation.

The document adds that the plan comes at a time when "pressure is mounting on democracy, the rule of law, and human rights globally."

Warning that information can be "weaponized by foreign actors," the document goes on to say that "certain third countries (in particular Russia and China) have engaged in targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns around COVID‑19 in the EU, its neighborhood, and globally, seeking to undermine democratic debate, exacerbate social polarization, and improve their own image."

The European Union's next budget and its massive pandemic relief fund cannot come into force without Hungary's approval and Budapest cannot accept it in its proposed form, which ties the disbursal to observing the rule of law in member countries, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff has said.

Poland and Hungary are blocking about 1.8 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) worth of EU funds, including hundreds of billions due to be disbursed soon to help pull the 27-country bloc out of a double-dip recession caused by a second surge in coronavirus infections.

Both countries are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and risk losing access to tens of billions of euros because of the newly introduced rule-of-law clause.

"There will not be an agreement" if the present EU proposal linking access to money to a clause on respecting the rule of law is maintained, Gergely Gulyas said on December 3.

"In its present form we cannot accept the EU budget, and every member state has the right of veto," Gulyas told a weekly government briefing.

However, Gulyas said that Hungary was still open to further negotiations.

In a related development, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, the foreign minister of fellow EU member Spain, warned Poland and Hungary that they should behave responsibly and reach an agreement on the EU budget and recovery fund.

"Spain wants Poland, Hungary to behave responsibly on EU rescue funds," Gonzalez Laya told Bloomberg TV on December 3, adding that both countries had a responsibility toward their own citizens and firms that need the recovery money.

Orban and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, signed a joint declaration last month pledging to support each other in blocking the EU's next budget and pandemic relief fund because of the proposed rule-of-law mechanism.

Orban and Morawiecki said after signing the declaration in Budapest on November 26 that the mechanism risked derailing the bloc.

With reporting by Reuters and AP