Kyrgyzstan has announced it is lifting coronavirus restrictions to allow citizens of foreign countries entry to the Central Asian nation.

In a statement on December 5, the Foreign Ministry said foreign visitors can arrive at the international airports of Manas, Osh, and Issyk-Kul.

The requirement for entry is a negative PCR coronavirus test taken within 72 hours. If the test has expired, visitors are able to take a new one at the airport.

Kyrgyzstan implemented border restrictions in the spring to combat the pandemic and later began allowing limited entry to citizens from countries where it had deemed coronavirus outbreaks were stable.

As part of the order lifting border restrictions, the Foreign Ministry said international election observers would be allowed into the country for next year’s presidential and parliamentary votes.

The presidential election is scheduled to take place on January 10, 2021, while no date has been set for the parliamentary poll.

Health officials have reported 75,000 infections and 1,290 deaths in Kyrgyzstan since the beginning of the pandemic.

With reporting by AFP and Kloop

Several protesters have been detained at a rally in Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East as locals continued for a 148th day to voice opposition to the arrest of the regional governor.

Braving subfreezing temperatures, about 150 people attended the December 5 march through the city center.

Six people were detained for violating protests laws, OVD-Info, a rights group, reported. Earlier in the week, a journalist was arrested for covering a protest.

"Journalists are beaten and persecuted and, we, grandmothers, are dragged to the courts. It's a shame on the police and the authorities," one of the protesters, Galina, told RFE/RL.

Protest attendance has dwindled since thousands rallied over the summer against the arrest of Governor Sergei Furgal in July on decades-old murder-related charges.

Furgal has denied the accusations, which his supporters say were engineered by his opponents with help from the Kremlin.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill giving U.S. authorities the power to prosecute individuals responsible for doping at international sporting competitions involving American athletes, sponsors, or broadcasters.

Trump signed the Rodchenkov Act, which earlier passed Congress, on December 4 despite international opposition, including from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The law, named after whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, who lifted the lid on state-sponsored doping in Russia, empowers U.S. prosecutors to seek fines of up to $1 million and jail terms of up to 10 years, as well as restitution to victims.

"The Rodchenkov anti-doping act is now law and part of the United States criminal code, giving the Department of Justice a powerful and unique set of tools to eradicate doping fraud and related criminal activities from international competitions." said Jim Walden, Rodchenkov's lawyer, in a statement.

WADA, which has authority to sanction athletes for doping, has expressed concern over the legislation, warning it could lead to a patchwork of laws that weaken the principle of having one set of rules for all athletes around the world.

"No nation has ever before asserted criminal jurisdiction over doping offences that occurred outside its national borders -- and for good reason," the agency said last month after the bill passed the Senate.

The International Olympic Committee has also questioned why American professional and college athletes are exempt.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has said there was no need to include U.S. professional and college sports in the legislation as existing law allows their prosecution.

Responding to the bill, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin told Match Strana TV on December 5 that it creates “a situation where one country claims the right to judge."

"We are negative about it and will have to think about how to minimize risks for Russian athletes," the sports minister added.

Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, exposed a state-backed doping conspiracy designed to cover up Russia's cheating at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other events.

Rodchenkov fled to the United States in 2016 and provided evidence of the doping conspiracy to WADA.

An independent WADA report confirmed the allegations, leading to partial bans for Russia at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Russian prosecutors have accused Rodchenkov of being largely responsible for the scandal.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and TASS

The Armenian opposition intensified pressure on December 5 as thousands of protesters rallied in the Armenian capital demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign over a controversial truce deal with Azerbaijan to end fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Some 20,000 protesters gathered in central Yerevan, chanting "Nikol the traitor" and "Armenia without Nikol,” and then marched to the prime minister's official residence.

Armenia was plunged into political crisis in the wake of a Moscow-brokered deal struck on November 10, ending a 44-day war between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces that left thousands dead on both sides.

Under the deal, Azerbaijan took back control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and all surrounding territories in what amounted to a capitulation in the face of Armenian battlefield defeats.

The deal was a blow to Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian forces who controlled all of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as seven surrounding areas since a 1994 cease-fire ended all-out war. Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the population reject Azerbaijani rule.

Calls To Step Down

Armenian opposition groups demanding Pashinian’s resignation over his handling of the conflict warned at the rally that there will be countrywide civil disobedience if he does not step down by December 8.

The ultimatum comes after earlier this week 17 opposition groups nominated Vazgen Manukian, a former prime minister and ex-defense minister in the early 1990s, to head a “transitional, anti-crisis government” until early parliamentary elections are held.

Addressing the rally, Manukian said that Pashinian should take the chance to leave in a “civilized manner.”

Manukian said a new government would have to abide by the Russian-brokered agreement, because it could not afford a war with Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey.

However, he said a new government would strive to resolve some vague issues of the agreement in close coordination with Russia, Armenia's most important ally. Crucially, the agreement failed to address the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian has also called for early parliamentary elections and the formation of an interim government of national accord to handle the political crisis.

But Pashinian has not given any indication he intends to resign, and his My Step faction still holds a wide majority in the 132-seat parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote.

While Pashinian has acknowledged that the peace deal he signed was “bad for us,” he has defended it as Armenia's only option and that it ensured Nagorno-Karabakh's survival.

In an address to the nation on December 5, he again sought to cast Armenia’s defeat in the war as a symptom of past leadership failures and endemic corruption, which he says left the country in a difficult diplomatic position and the army unprepared to withstand the Azerbaijani offensive.

Pashinian, a reformist pressing an anti-corruption campaign, came to power in 2018 in the wake of mass popular protests.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, AP, dpa, and Interfax

Iran’s Supreme Court has said it will review the cases of three young men sentenced to death over links to anti-government protests in November 2019.

"The case will be reviewed in another tribunal," the court’s website said on December 5, without providing further details.

The men were sentenced earlier in 2020, after being found guilty of "collusion to endanger national security" and "destroying and setting fire to public property with the aim of confronting the political system of the Islamic republic," according to their lawyers.

But in July, Iran’s judiciary suspended the men’s executions, amid public anger and condemnations.

The men, identified as Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi, and Saeed Tamjidi -- all in their 20s -- were arrested during the protests over gasoline price hikes that quickly turned political, with protesters demanding that top officials step down.

Human rights advocates had said the death sentences initially handed to the three men had been aimed at intimidating future protesters.

Rights groups said at least some 300 people were killed and up to 7,000 were detained during the protests that rocked more than 100 towns and cities across Iran. They accused Iranian authorities of brutally cracking down on demonstrators.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Moscow has begun distributing the domestically developed vaccine Sputnik-V via 70 clinics across the city, authorities said, marking Russia's first mass immunization against COVID-19.

The December 5 announcement by Moscow's coronavirus task force comes as critics say the vaccine has yet to complete the advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety in line with established scientific protocols.

Russian authorities say the vaccine would first be made available to health workers, teachers, and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the virus.

People with certain underlying health conditions, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and those who have had a respiratory illness for the past two weeks are barred from vaccination in the initial rollout in Moscow. The age for those receiving shots is capped at 60.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on December 4 that "over the first five hours, 5,000 people signed up for the jab."

The government says the vaccine will be free to all Russian citizens and that inoculation will be voluntary. The Sputnik-V vaccine is administered in two injections, with the second dose expected to be given 21 days after the first.

The Russian government gave a regulatory approval to Sputnik-V in early August, but the move drew considerable criticism from experts, because at the time the vaccine only had been tested on several dozen people.

President Vladimir Putin said at the time that the early vaccine recipients included one of his daughters.

On December 2, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 100,000 people in Russia had been given the shots.

Russia reported a record high of 28,782 new COVID-19 cases on December 5, including 7,993 in Moscow, taking the national total to 2,431,731 since the pandemic began.

Authorities confirmed 508 deaths related to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the official national death toll to 42,684.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

The acting head of the Serbian Orthodox Church was hospitalized on December 4 after testing positive for the coronavirus, the church’s information service said.

Bishop Hrizostom was admitted to a hospital in the nation’s capital, Belgrade, it said. The church did not release information about the condition of the 68-year-old.

Hrizostom became interim leader of the church after Patriarch Irinej died of COVID-19 last month. Hrizostom presided over the funeral services of Irinej, who was 90 years old.

Metropolitan Amfilohije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, died of COVID-19 in October.

Irinej led the funeral services for Amfilohije.

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.

SEE ALSO:

'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