The U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against an Iranian political scientist accused of being an agent for Iran’s government.

The Justice Department said on January 19 that Kaveh Afrasiabi, an Iranian citizen with U.S. permanent residency, was arrested at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts the previous day on charges of "acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent" of Tehran.

Afrasiabi is due to make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston later on January 19. If convicted on both charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“For over a decade, Kaveh Afrasiabi pitched himself to Congress, journalists, and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran,” John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

Demers said that Afrasiabi “was actually a secret employee of the government of Iran and the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations (IMUN) who was being paid to spread their propaganda," he added.

There was no immediate comment from Afrasiabi or his lawyer.

Federal prosecutors said Afrasiabi worked to influence public opinion in the United States on behalf of Iran in news articles and during appearances with U.S. news media.

They said he also lobbied a U.S. congressman and the State Department to adopt policies favorable to Iran, and counseled Iranian diplomats concerning U.S. foreign policy.

Afrasiabi is said to have been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn from the official bank accounts of the Iranian mission to the United Nations since 2007. He also received health benefits since at least 2011.

With reporting by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg

A Ukrainian court has rejected a request by a jailed suspect in the high-profile 2016 killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet to be transferred to house arrest.

Kyiv’s Shevchenko district court on January 19 ordered Andriy Antonenko to be remanded in pretrial detention.

Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who had made Kyiv his permanent home, was leaving his apartment to head to the studio where he hosted a morning radio show when an improvised explosive device planted under his vehicle exploded on July 20, 2016, killing him.

Antonenko and two other suspects, Yulia Kuzmenko and Yana Duhar, were arrested in December 2019. Duhar and Kuzmenactuako were later transferred to house arrest.

The three suspects took part in military operations in different capacities in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists since April 2014.

The Interior Ministry and the National Police have said the group's goal was "to destabilize the political and social situation in Ukraine" by killing Sheremet.

In January last year, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office said that additional evidence was needed for the case to go to trial.

A leaked tape published by the Brussels-based newspaper EUObserver earlier this month suggested that Belarusian authorities may be behind the killing.

With reporting by UNIAN and Ukrinform

The Anti-Corruption Foundation of Aleksei Navalny issued a fresh investigation on January 19, shining a spotlight on a Black Sea mansion allegedly built for Russian President Vladimir Putin, one day after the opposition leader and Kremlin critic was ordered to remain in custody for 30 days pending trial following his dramatic return to Russia from Germany.

The investigation -- A Palace For Putin -- alleges the luxurious estate on the Black Sea's exclusive Gelendzhik Bay cost at least 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion).

The report says the site includes a church, a 2,500-square-meter greenhouse, an amphitheater, several residential buildings, and a "special tunnel" that leads to the shore.

The palace itself is 17,691 square meters and is said to include a home theater, a lobby with a bar, a hookah bar, a casino and a hall with slot machines, and a swimming pool.

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The investigation includes what it says are the first photos made public of the interior of the estate, long known as Putin's Palace, although the Russian leader has denied any link to the property.

For Russia's political opposition, the property has become a brazen symbol of rampant state corruption running straight to the top.

“This in the most guarded place in Russia, in fact, a state within a state, and this is Putin’s biggest secret, which is protected by hundreds, even thousands of people -- from unknown guards, gardeners, and builders to the richest and most famous people in Russia,” begins a nearly two-hour YouTube video accompanying the report.

According to the investigation, the property -- 39 times larger than Monaco -- “was built so that it could not be approached either by land, sea, or air,” with a buffer zone of some 7,000 hectares, allegedly owned by Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB) and leased to the firm that owns the palace.

It said a no-fly zone also has been introduced over the territory of the estate.

The probe also said thousands of estate employees “are forbidden to carry even a simple mobile phone with a camera with them,” and all cars arriving at the compound are “inspected at several checkpoints.”

It includes photos of the luxurious interior that it says most Russians have never seen.

“Today we will show you Putin’s main secret -- his palace. We will show it from the outside and the inside. We have published the architectural plans -- from the layout of furniture to the ventilation grilles. Every room, every corridor, every square meter is from now on the property of the public. Russians will be able to visit Putin’s home,” the investigation says.

• RFE/RL

Images made by Aleksei Navalny's anti-corruption team reveal the astonishing scale and luxury of a property on Russia's Black Sea coast purportedly used by Vladimir Putin as his personal "palace."

The so-called Putin's Palace was built between 2005 and 2010.

In 2010, Russian businessman Sergei Kolesnikov fled Russia after publishing an open letter to then-President Dmitry Medvedev revealing the construction of the lavish Black Sea palace commissioned by Putin and funded with a billion dollars in illegally diverted funds.

The investigation says the estate is now owned by a firm called Binom, and is managed by people allegedly linked to Putin’s nephew Mikhail Shelomov. The real owner of the property, however, the investigation claims, is Putin himself.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen the report but dismissed it as a rehash of old allegations, and suggested that Putin does not own such a property.

"I'm not familiar with this investigation," Interfax quoted Peskov saying on January 19. "However, I can immediately say that this is an old record. We explained many years ago that Putin does not have any palace in Gelendzhik."

The investigation comes a day after a court in Moscow ordered Navalny to remain in custody for 30 days pending trial on charges supporters say are politically motivated.

The 44-year-old was detained at Sheremetyevo airport after he arrived on January 17 from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a poison attack in August 2020 that Navalny says was ordered by Putin.

Navalny’s detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring Putin for the Kremlin critic’s immediate release.

With reporting by Interfax

BUCHAREST -- The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has convicted Romania of violating the rights of two transgender people by refusing to recognize their gender identity because they had not undergone sex-change operations.

The Strasbourg-based court on January 19 ruled that the Romanian state violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which upholds the “right to respect for private and family life,” and ordered the country to pay a total of nearly 26,000 euros ($31,525) in moral and nonpecuniary damage, costs, and expenses.

The applicants, named as X and Y by the ECHR, are Romanian nationals who were born in 1976 and 1982, respectively, and were registered as female at birth.

X moved to Britain in 2014 and obtained male forenames there after Romanian courts refused to change his gender.

Y was issued with a new Romanian identity card in 2018 indicating a male forename and giving his gender as male, but only after undergoing surgery the previous year.

The ECHR said in a statement that Romanian national courts "presented the applicants, who did not wish to undergo gender reassignment surgery, with an impossible dilemma: either they had to undergo the surgery against their better judgement…or they had to forego recognition of their gender identity."

The court said that Romania’s stance placed the pair in a situation of "vulnerability, humiliation, and anxiety.”

Forensic audio experts have concluded that a 2012 audio recording revealing an alleged plot to kill critics of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka is authentic.

The Crime Lab for Audio and Video Documents (KLAD), based in Russia's second-largest city, St. Peterburg, studied the tape at the request of Current Time, and concluded that the voices on the tape belong to three men, one of whom is the former chief of Belarusian KGB, Vadzim Zaytsau. The men discuss ways to poison and kill with explosives critics of Lukashenka and his government living abroad.

"The liquidation...must look very natural so that nobody could f....ing question it. It must be just a pinpoint strike," Zaytsau says on the tape, which runs for more than one hour.

The leaked audio was published by the Brussels-based EUObserver newspaper on January 4, saying the conversations were recorded in 2012, when Zaytsau was the KGB chief.

The newspaper received the audio from a former Belarusian Interior Ministry official, Ihar Makar, who currently resides in an unspecified EU country.

KLAD experts compared the voice on the tape with five other recordings of Zaytsau that were freely available on the Internet. From audio, linguistic, and instrumental forensic analyses of the voice, they said they could conclude that the voice on the tape in question was his.

On January 19, the Belarusian Interior Ministry issued a statement calling Makar "a swindler," adding that the ministry has evidence proving Makar's "fraudulent objectives."

Daily demonstrations have rocked Belarus since officials announced that their tally of the country's August 9, 2020 presidential vote showed Lukashenka winning a landslide victory, handing him a sixth consecutive term.

Those results are seen by many in Belarus and abroad as being rigged in favor of Lukashenka, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994. The European Union and the United States both refuse to recognize his reelection.

The men on the tape also discuss the murder of Belarusian-born Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in a car-bomb attack in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, in 2016.

"How to provoke a natural explosion...it is necessary to work on Sheremet, who [became a pain in the arse].... We will place some kind of input or something so that this rat's f...ng...hands and legs could not be collected," Zaytsau says on the leaked tape.

Sheremet died after a bomb exploded in his car.

Andriy Antonenko is currently being held by Ukrainian authorities as a suspect in the killing, along with two others who are under house arrest. All three took part in military operations in different capacities in Ukraine's east, where government forces are fighting Russian-backed separatists.

In addition to Sheremet's killing, the men on the tape also discuss the murders of three other opponents of Lukashenka who resided in Germany. Those attacks were not carried out.

In the recording, Zaytsau also says Lukashenka has allocated $1.5 million for the operation, which he stressed must leave no trace of any possible KGB involvement.

After the audio was leaked, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said that the new information would help in the investigation to find those who ordered the high-profile killing.

Iranian authorities have convicted an American-Iranian businessman on spying charges, U.S. media have reported, in a recently revealed case which comes amid high tensions between the two countries.

The State Department confirmed late January 18 in a statement to AFP that "we are aware of the reports that Iran has detained another U.S. citizen."

The statement did not identify the person and declined to provide further details, but Iranian media on January 14 reported the arrest of Emad Sharqi, describing him as the deputy head for international affairs at an Iranian venture capital company called Sarava.

Sarava Holding's former managing director, Saeed Rahmani, previously resigned in September 2019 and left Iran.

The website of the Young Journalists Club news agency said Sharqi had been caught "trying to illegally flee the country from the western border," RFE/RL's Radio Farda reported on January 14.

The Iranian agency did not disclose that he was a dual U.S. citizen, as Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.

The Young Journalists Club is an offshoot of Iran's monopolized radio and TV network but run by managers close to the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Young Journalists Club reported that Sharqi had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of espionage and gathering military information and was out on bail ahead of an appeal when he tried to hide.

But a family friend quoted by NBC television on January 18 said Sharqi, 56, whom the channel identified as Iranian-American, was summoned to a Tehran court on November 30, 2020, and told that he had been convicted of espionage without a trial.

NBC said that Sharqi was arrested in 2018, but was originally acquitted by an Iranian court in December 2019, ahead of his conviction late last year.

Based on reporting by AFP

PRISTINA -- A court in Kosovo has acquitted former Prime Minister Agim Ceku and 11 other ex-government officials of misusing public money in welfare benefits to fake war veterans.

The Basic Court in Pristina on January 19 cleared Ceku and 11 codefendants, including another former defense minister and several ex-lawmakers, of abusing their official positions to add people to a government-approved list of Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) veterans eligible for benefits.

The Special Prosecution of Kosovo had charged the defendants in 2018 over illegal payments made to around 19,000 people who hadn't fought during the 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia, generating tens of millions of euros in losses for the state budget.

The defendants were all members of the government commission launched in 2012 to verify veterans. The commission in 2016 issued a list of 46,000 names of people eligible for benefits.

The commission was headed by Ceku, a former UCK commander, former prime minister, and ex-defense minister.

The defendants also included former Defense Minister Rrustem Berisha and three ex-lawmakers, Shkumbin Demaliaj, Nuredin Lushtaku, and Shukri Buja.

Other suspects accused of falsifying documents have been convicted or are awaiting trial.

With reporting by Balkan Insight

BISHKEK -- Aibek Tokoev, a relative of former Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, has been arrested on corruption charges.*

The State Committee for National Security (UKNK) said on January 19 that the chief of a directorate at the Service For The Fight Against Economic Crimes was arrested for illegally obtaining property in Bishkek and the Central Asian nation's second-largest city, Osh.

According to the statement, a financial police major was arrested after documentation showed he owns properties worth $4 million, an amount not in keeping with his legal income.

The man was identified by his initials, T.A.R., which corresponds to the initials of Tokoev Aibek Rakhmanberdi-Uulu, who leads a directorate at the Service For The Fight Against Economic Crimes and is also a brother of the former first lady Aigul Tokoeva. No other employee at the department has the same initials.

Neither Tokoev, his relatives, nor his lawyer have commented on the charges.

Jeenbekov resigned from his post in October 2020 amid anti-government protests that challenged parliamentary elections.

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that the arrested official is a brother of the former first lady Aigul Tokoeva, but at least two sources told RFE/RL on January 20 that Aibek Tokoev is Jeenbekov's distant relative, not his wife's brother.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) has suspended three weightlifters from Kazakhstan, Romania, and Thailand for violating anti-doping rules.

In a statement dated January 18, the ITA said that it had suspended Nizhat Rakhimov from Kazakhstan and Dumitru Captari from Romania, the first two weightlifters ever to be charged with a doping offence that involved allegedly swapping urine samples provided for tests.

The decision was made after the ITA received a case file from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following WADA's Intelligence & Investigations report on the International Weightlifting Federation.

Rakhimov, 27, was a gold medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Captari, 31, had already been suspended for two years for a doping violation in January 2018.

The alleged offences took place "over a period of time in 2016" according to the ITA.

The ITA also suspended Thai weightlifter Rattikan (Siripuch) Gulnoi for the use of a prohibited substance throughout her career.

"Given the sensitivity of the current investigations, the ITA will not comment further during the ongoing proceedings and will issue regular status updates," the statement says.

The ITA is an independent nonprofit organization that implements anti-doping programs for international sports federations, major event organizers, or any other anti-doping organization requiring support.

CHITA, Russia -- Prosecutors have asked a military court in Siberia to sentence Private Ramil Shamsutdinov to 25 years in prison for killing eight fellow servicemen in a rampage he says was brought on by the hazing he suffered while being initiated into the army.

The Second Eastern Military District Court resumed the hearing into the high-profile case on January 19, where Shamsutdinov's defense team reiterated that Shamsutdinov had gone on a shooting spree in October 2019, killing eight -- including two high-ranking officers -- in the town of Gorny in the Zabaikalye region after being tortured and beaten by other soldiers and officers during his induction into service.

On December 28, a jury found Shamsutdinov guilty of murder and attempted murder, but decided that he deserves leniency, which according to Russian law means that he may be sentenced to a maximum of 13 years and four months in prison.

The court's officials told RFE/RL that Shamsutdinov’s sentence will be announced on January 21.

The case shocked many in Russia and attracted the attention of rights activists after Shamsutdinov claimed that he committed the act while suffering a nervous breakdown caused by what he had endured.

The Defense Ministry accepted at the time that Shamsutdinov "had a conflict" with one of the officers he killed. In March, Private Ruslan Mukhatov was found guilty of bullying Shamsutdinov and was handed a suspended two-year prison term.

Deadly shootings at Russia's military units as the result of widespread hazing have been a focus of human rights organizations for years.

In November, a soldier at a military air base in the country’s western region of Voronezh shot an officer and two soldiers dead.

In recent years, photos and video footage have been posted online by members of the Russian military that show the severe bullying of young recruits as they are inducted into the army.

A police officer in the Russian city of Samara has been placed under house arrest on suspicion of leaking data that may have helped the Bellingcat investigative group identify the alleged poisoners of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, the RBC business daily reports, citing its sources.

Police officer Kirill Chuprov was detained in December and charged with abuse of power, according to an RBC report from January 19.

Chuprov, who may face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, is accused of leaking confidential information from a database containing information about the movement of people across Russia to a third party, according to the RBC source, who is said to be close to the investigation, said.

The leaked data was later used by investigative journalists who studied flights taken by agents of Russian's Federal Security Service (FSB) who allegedly secretly followed Navalny for several years before he was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in Siberia in August last year.

Bellingcat, a British-based open-source investigative group, and Russian media outlet The Insider published the investigation in December in cooperation with Der Spiegel and CNN.

SEE ALSO:

Bellingcat Joint Report Alleges Russia's FSB Behind Navalny Poisoning

Citing "voluminous evidence in the form of telecoms and travel data," the investigation, showed the August 2020 poisoning of the Kremlin critic appeared to have been in the works since at least early 2017.

The European Union and Britain have imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials believed to be responsible for the Navalny poisoning, as well as one entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok.

Navalny, who was transported from Siberia to Germany for treatment after the incident, returned to Moscow on January 17. He was immediately arrested and sent to a pretrial detention center.

On February 2, a court is expected to decide whether to convert into jail time a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence, which Navalny served in an embezzlement case that he says was trumped up.

With reporting by RBC and Reuters

Belarus has blasted the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for its decision to move this year's World Championships from Minsk due to safety and security concerns amid a violent government crackdown on protests over a disputed presidential election last year.

The government's organizing committee on January 19 called the IIHF's decision, which is a blow to strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, "unreasonable," while the head of the Belarus Ice Hockey Federation Dzmitry Baskau said it was "deplorable" that the Zurich-based governing body changed its mind on holding the tournament this spring in the capital.

"[The IIHF's] decision creates a precedent where sports tournaments that are supposed to unite countries and peoples, promote peace and unity in the spirit of the Olympic principles, can turn into a tool of discord and pressure to please the interests of politicians," the Belarusian committee's statement said.

The IIHF's announcement on January 18 came amid mounting pressure from European countries and sponsors for Belarus to be stripped of its role as co-host of the tournament in May-June with Latvia because of the postelection crackdown.

Lukashenka has faced ongoing protests since a disputed August 9 presidential election, which the opposition says was rigged, handed him a sixth presidential term.

The European Union and the United States have declined to recognize Lukashenka’s reelection and have imposed sanctions in connection with the crackdown on protesters.

Several prominent Belarusian athletes have been handed jail terms of 10 to 15 days for their open support of the ongoing protests, demanding Lukashenka's resignation.

Nearly 350 Belarusian athletes and other members of the sports community threw down the gauntlet to Lukashenka by signing an open letter calling for the presidential election to be annulled and for all "political prisoners" and those detained during mass demonstrations that followed to be released.

"It is a very regrettable thing to have to remove the Minsk/Riga co-hosting bid," IIHF President Rene Fasel said in the announcement of the decision.

“During this process, we had tried to promote that the World Championship could be used as a tool for reconciliation to help calm the socio-political issues happening in the Belarus and find a positive way forward...And while the Council feels that the World Championship should not be used for political promotion by any side, it has acknowledged that hosting this event in Minsk would not be appropriate when there are bigger issues to deal with and the safety and security of teams, spectators, and officials to prioritize.”

Losing the chance to co-host the tournament is also a further blow to Lukashenka, who has cultivated an image as a jock, regularly taking to the ice to play hockey, his favorite sporting pastime.

Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left her country for Lithuania following a disputed presidential election that she and her supporters claim she won, has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to assist her and other exiled opposition politicians to safely return home.

In a January 18 post on her website, Tsikhanouskaya said she made the request during an online meeting with European Union Ambassadors to the OSCE a day earlier.

"Together with the international community, I would like to find an opportunity to safely return to Belarus. Two criminal probes have been launched against me, and they also put my name on the international wanted list, so there must be special guarantees for my return," Tsikhanouskaya said at the meeting.

She added that the situation with the Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who was immediately arrested upon his arrival to Moscow from Berlin over the weekend "shows that assistance from the international community, especially from the OSCE is essential" in this matter.

Results from Belarus's August election, which Lukashenka claims to have won, sparked mass protests, with Tsikhanouskaya’s supporters and opposition figures claiming she was the victor.

In the days following the vote, several opposition figures, including Tsikhanouskaya, left the country amid security fears.

Several protesters have been killed and thousands arrested during the ongoing mass demonstrations demanding Lukashenka's resignation. There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.

Tsikhanouskaya also proposed that the OSCE organize an inclusive dialogue to solve the ongoing crisis in Belarus by creating a contact group to start negotiations between representatives of the European Union, the Belarusian opposition, and Lukashenka, who has run Belarus since 1994.

Tsikhanouskaya reiterated her support for holding a new presidential election in Belarus, adding that "we are ready to hold the poll in 45 days."

Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has been placed in a cell in Moscow's notorious Matrosskaya Tishina detention center after a judge at a hastily arranged hearing ruled to keep the Kremlin critic in custody for 30 days following his dramatic airport arrest upon arrival from Germany.

The Kremlin said on January 19 that it was unfazed by mounting international pressure over the arrest of the 44-year-old, who was detained at the Sheremetyevo International Airport’s passport-control booth after he arrived from Berlin late on January 17, where he had been recovering from a poison attack in August that Navalny says was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Aleksei Melnikov, secretary of the Public Monitoring Commission human rights group, wrote on Telegram late on January 18 that he had visited Navalny in his cell in the detention center.

Melnikov said that Navalny is being kept isolated in a three-bed cell since he has to be quarantined for two weeks according to coronavirus regulations for people arriving from abroad.

Navalny’s detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring Putin for the Kremlin critic’s immediate release.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, however, shrugged off the criticism telling journalists at a press briefing in Moscow on January 19 that Navalny’s case was a "domestic issue" and that Russia has "no intention of listening to such statements.”

Matrosskaya Tishina (Sailor's Silence) is the jail where several of Putin's outspoken critics have been sent, including former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev. In one of the most-infamous cases, prominent whistle-blower, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, died from an untreated illness while in the jail after accusing Russian officials of tax fraud totaling $230 million.

Melnikov wrote that Navalny thanked his supporters and said that he was happy to be back in Russia. Navalny said that there was no moral or physical pressure on him from the detention center’s personnel, according to Melnikov.

At the January 18 hearing held in an improvised court at a police station outside Moscow, which Navalny called a "mockery of justice," the judge ruled to keep him incarcerated until February 15.

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On February 2, a different court is expected to decide whether to convert into jail time a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence, which Navalny served in an embezzlement case that he says was trumped up.

After the court's decision, Navalny and his associates urged Russians to take to the streets in protest.

SEE ALSO:

'Take To The Streets': With Call For Protests, Navalny Throws Down Gauntlet To Kremlin -- And Russian Society

Navalny’s detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring the Kremlin for his immediate release.

In St. Petersburg, police detained at least 20 people among a crowd of hundreds of Navalny supporters who had gathered on January 18 at the Gostiny Dvor trade complex.

People were also detained during similar rallies in support of the politician in Moscow and Khimki, near the capital.

Navalny himself called on Russians to take to the streets and his team headquarters in St. Petersburg called for nationwide protests on January 23.

Parler, a social-media website popular with U.S. right-wing groups, has partially returned online with the apparent help of a Russian-based technology company, according to reports on January 18.

The far-right-friendly social network went offline on January 11 after being kicked off Amazon Web Services (AWS) over allegations it failed to properly police violent content.

Messages of support for the violence that shocked the United States in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol and calls for new protests had flourished on the platform before the AWS move and led Apple and Google to remove the Parler app from their stores.

Parler's website was reachable again on January 18, but only with a message from its chief saying he was working to restore its functionality. Messaging services were not active.

The Internet protocol address it used is owned by DDos-Guard, which is controlled by two Russian men, according to Reuters and Dave Temkin, vice president of network and systems at Netflix.

“Parler is back up, and being hosted by 'DDOS GUARD' out of Russia,” Temkin said on Twitter. “If that's not an obvious sign of its malfeasance, there's nothing else that could possibly be shown to convince you.”

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials have said Russia has meddled in U.S. elections through propaganda efforts and hacking aimed at stoking political divisions, manipulating public opinion, and supporting outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump. Russia has denied the allegations.

DDos-Guard generally provides services such as protection from distributed denial of service attacks, Reuters quoted infrastructure expert Ronald Guilmette as saying.

Parler CEO John Matze and representatives of DDoS-Guard did not reply to requests for comment, Reuters said.

In an update on January 18, Parler.com linked to a Fox News interview in which Matze said he was "confident" Parler would return at the end of January.

DDoS-Guard has worked with racist, right-wing, and conspiracy sites that have been used to share messages, and it has also supported Russian government sites, Reuters said.

DDoS-Guard's website lists an address in Scotland under the company name Cognitive Cloud LP, but Guilmette told Reuters that it is owned by two men in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Temkin’s tweet included a screen shot of Parler’s URL registration that also lists Rostov-on-Don as the address.

Parler filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon last week after AWS cut off its service, but Amazon defended its decision because Parler had shown an "unwillingness and inability" to remove violent content.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Parler could return to the App Store if it changes how it moderates posts.

Cook justified the suspension because of "the incitement to violence," but on January 17 said on Fox News: "We've only suspended them. So, if they get their moderation together, they would be back" on the App Store.

With reporting by Reuters, Engadget, Fox News, and dpa

The United States plans to sanction a Russian vessel as it seeks to stop the completion of a controversial natural gas export pipeline to Europe.

The administration of outgoing President Donald Trump told government officials in Berlin and other European capitals on January 18 that the sanctions on the Fortuna ship would go into effect the following day under existing legislation known as CAATSA.

The sanctions would punish any European company that helps Fortuna complete the Nord Stream 2 project, which is designed to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic seabed.

The United States opposes the project, claiming it would strengthen the Kremlin’s grip on the European energy market while undermining Ukraine’s security and economy.

The pipeline would reroute natural gas destined for Europe around Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of billions of dollars in annual transit fees.

The German government expressed disappointment over the U.S. decision.

"We're taking note of the announcement with regret," an Economy Ministry spokesman in Berlin said.

The United States in December 2019 passed legislation sanctioning any vessel building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, forcing Swiss-based AllSeas to forgo its work on the project with more than 90 percent completed.

Russia is now seeking to finish the project with its own ships, prompting the United States to impose a wider array of sanctions.

The new sanctions will take effect one day before Trump leaves office.

President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to take a tougher stance on Russia than his predecessor, has expressed opposition to the pipeline in the past.

However, he has said he will seek to improve relations with European allies, including Germany.

Based on reporting by Handelsblatt and Reuters

A 71-year-old Turkmen journalist has been nominated among three finalists for a prestigious human rights award for her reports from Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive countries in the world.

The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva said on January 18 that Soltan Achilova "documents the human rights abuses and social issues affecting the Turkmen people in their daily lives."

The jury composed of 10 activist groups, including Amnesty International, recognized Achilova's work in a country where "freedom of speech is inexistent and independent journalists work at their own peril."

"Despite the repressive environment and personal hardships, she is one of the very few reporters in the country daring to sign independent articles," the statement said.

Based in Ashgabat, Achilova is a contributor to the Vienna-based independent news website Khronika Turkmenistana (Chronicles of Turkmenistan), which focuses on news and developments in Turkmenistan.

She has in the past worked as a reporter for RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service.

Turkmen authorities, who don’t tolerate an independent press, have targeted the journalist for her work.

Achilova has been detained by police and physically assaulted by officers, thugs, and other unidentified assailants, while her relatives had also come under pressure by the authorities.

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RFE/RL Correspondent Roughed Up -- Again -- In Turkmenistan

The two other nominees for the Martin Ennals Award are leading Saudi advocate for women’s rights Loujain Al-Hathloul and Chinese lawyer and human rights activist Yu Wensheng. Both of them are currently in jail.

The statement said that the award ceremony "will celebrate their courage" during an online event co-hosted by the city of Geneva on February 11.

MINSK -- The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) says it has decided to move the 2021 World Championship from Minsk due to safety and security issues that are "beyond its control."

The January 18 announcement comes amid mounting pressure from European countries and sponsors for Belarus to be stripped of its role as co-host of the tournament in May-June with Latvia because of an ongoing crackdown by authorities following a disputed election last year.

Losing the tournament is a further blow to strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has cultivated an image as a jock, regularly taking to the ice to play hockey, his favorite sporting pastime.

"The IIHF Council has determined that it is currently impossible to ensure the welfare of teams, spectators, and officials while holding a World Championship in Belarus," it said in a statement.

"It is a very regrettable thing to have to remove the Minsk/Riga co-hosting bid," said IIHF President Rene Fasel, adding: "During this process, we had tried to promote that the World Championship could be used as a tool for reconciliation to help calm the socio-political issues happening in the Belarus and find a positive way forward."

While the championship "should not be used for political promotion by any side," the council "acknowledged that hosting this event in Minsk would not be appropriate when there are bigger issues to deal with and the safety and security of teams, spectators, and officials to prioritize," Fazel said.

Belarus's opposition and many European countries, including Latvia, have been calling for the IIHF to cancel Minsk’s involvement because of Lukashenka’s violent crackdown on protesters who dispute August elections that kept him in power.

Czech carmaker Skoda Auto and other companies have warned they would not sponsor the championship if the event was held in Belarus.

Concerns have also been voiced about the country's ability to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya called the decision to withdraw hosting rights "a very wise step – to support human rights & fair sport, not to cooperate with the regime in Belarus."

"We are grateful that the voices of Belarusians were heard," she tweeted

Writing on her Telegram channel, Tsikhanouskaya dubbed the IIHF decision a "victory,” saying “there will be no additional wave of repression" aimed at clearing out demonstrators ahead of the 2021 World Championship.

Swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia, a three-time Olympic medalist who heads the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, said the decision "restored the Belarusian community's faith in justice."

"Sporting events cannot be held in countries where violence and torture are used against civilians," she said in a statement.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, a fierce critic of Minsk hosting the competition, tweeted: "Democracy 1, Lukashenko 0."

The IIHF said the council must now “consider the status of Latvia as a co-host, and will also evaluate the possibility of moving to a single-venue format to facilitate COVID-19 safety regulations and team travel.”

Denmark and Slovakia have been named as possible hosts or Latvia could stage the world championship on its own.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said his country would "honor its commitment" and was "ready to evaluate" how it could host the entire event.

A media watchdog has called on Turkey to halt the expulsion of an Iranian journalist sentenced to prison for alleged activities against the regime after criticizing Tehran's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S-based Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement on January 18 that Mohammad Mosaed contacted the group a day earlier saying he had been detained by Turkish border police after crossing into Turkey from Iran at the eastern border city of Van.

Mosaed told the CPJ that he fled to Turkey after being summoned by Iranian authorities to begin serving his prison sentence in two days’ time.

He said the Turkish police took him to hospital for medical treatment, and told him he would soon be handed back to Iranian border guards.

Mosaed was sentenced in August by an Iranian court to four years and nine months in prison on charges of "colluding against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the system" after posting a tweet critical of the government's tackling of the outbreak.

The CPJ at the time described the ruling as a further attempt by Iranian authorities to try to "suppress the truth."

Mosaed was first detained in November 2019 in connection with messages he had posted on social media during an Internet shutdown implemented by the government amid widespread protests over high gas prices.

He was honored with the CPJ’s 2020 International Press Freedom Award in November.

“We believe that Mohammad Mosaed has a well-founded fear of persecution should he be returned to Iran,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour said in the statement.

"We urge Turkish authorities to respect their obligations under international law; to refrain from deporting Mosaed; to consider any request for political asylum that Mosaed may make; and to assure Mosaed's rights are protected through due process of law."

CPJ said phone messages to the office of the Turkish province of Van, where Mosaed is being detained, were not immediately returned.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) says Turkmenistan has registered Russia's Sputnik-V vaccine against COVID-19 even though the country claims to have no cases of the coronavirus.

"Turkmenistan became the first country in Central Asia that officially approved the use of the Sputnik-V vaccine on its territory," the RDIF, which helped develop the vaccine, said in a statement on January 18, adding that the vaccine had been registered thanks to an emergency-use authorization without additional clinical research.

Turkmenistan is the only nation in Central Asia that has yet to report officially on a single coronavirus infection to the World Health Organization (WHO).

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

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

In August, the WHO expressed concern over an increase in atypical pneumonia cases in Turkmenistan and unsuccessfully urged Ashgabat to allow it to organize independent coronavirus tests in the country.

Turkmen officials have clung to their zero-infections statistics despite signs of outbreaks in prisons, schools, and the general population as hospitals get increasingly crowded, as well as large numbers of cases in neighboring countries.

Many Turkmen citizens report staying home despite illness, fearing that a trip to the doctor could infect them as hospitals quietly strain under high numbers of patients reporting COVID-19-like symptoms.

The bodies of victims of lung ailments are being delivered to relatives in special plastic bags, and there have been an unusually high number of fresh graves across the country, RFE/RL's correspondents have reported.

Russia's Sputnik-V vaccine has been officially approved for use in several countries including Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Palestine, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

Based on reporting by Interfax, TASS, and Reuters

Russian authorities say as many as 12 people may have been buried under snow from an avalanche that struck a skiing area in the North Caucasus region of Karachai-Cherkessia.

Russia's Emergency Ministry said on January 18 that the avalanche hit the area around the resort town of Dombai on Mussa-Achitara mountain at around 1:30 p.m. local time.

According to the ministry, rescue work to locate and extract those trapped by the avalanche is under way.

The wall of snow buried two ski equipment rental stands and damaged a cafe, the ministry said.

Dombai is a popular skiing resort in the North Caucasus.

Based on reports by TASS and Interfax

A Turkish rescue team has found the bodies of four crew members of a Ukrainian-owned cargo ship that sank in bad weather in the Black Sea over the weekend, including the vessel's captain, a Russian citizen.

The Russian Embassy in Ankara said on January 18 that the body of the vessel's captain Vitaly Galenko, a Russian national had been discovered.

Russia's Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) said earlier that three more bodies were found from the January 17 maritime disaster.

According to Rosmorrechflot, six crew members, including a Russian citizen, had been rescued, while two of 12 crew members of the bulk carrier Arvin were Russian citizens and the rest were Ukrainians

Turkish authorities said on January 17 that there were 13 people aboard the vessel when it encountered bad weather conditions.

The ship, registered under the flag of the country of Palau, was heading for Bulgaria from Georgia when it sank, Ukrainian officials said. The Black Sea region has been hit by heavy rains, snow, and strong winds in recent days.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the ship was owned by a Ukrainian firm.

Based on reporting by Novaya Gazeta, Hurriyet, and Interfax

Russia has launched a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign opened to all Russians in a bid to stem the spread of the virus without reimposing a new nationwide lockdown.

Dozens of Moscow residents lined up on January 18 at a mobile clinic set up at the GUM department store on Red Square, where they received their first shot of the locally developed Sputnik-V vaccine.

Russia, which has the world's fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases, began large-scale vaccinations last month, initially for people in key professions such as medical workers and teachers, even though the inoculation was still in its third phase of clinical trials.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

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

Last week, President Vladimir Putin instructed officials to open up the inoculation program to the rest of the country’s population of 146 million, and to boost production of its vaccine.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on January 18 that authorities planned to vaccinate more than 20 million Russians against COVID-19 in the first quarter of the year.

But while the vaccine has been widely available in Moscow, with vaccination centers located at prominent sites in the capital, reports said most regions have reported receiving fewer than 5,000 doses so far.

Unlike many European countries, Russia has refrained from reimposing a strict nationwide lockdown despite being hit by a second wave of infections.

Russian health authorities have reported more than 3.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, with over 66,000 deaths. However, the death toll is believed to be much higher.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS

HRODNA, Belarus -- Three associates of jailed Belarusian blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, the husband of opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, have gone on trial in the western city of Hrodna.

The October district court opened the trial of Dzmitry Furmanau, Yauhen Raznichenka, and Uladzimer Kniha on January 18 for organizing mass disorder. Raznichenka and Kniha are also charged with assaulting a police officer.

The defendants were arrested in late May 2020 after police disrupted public events in Hrodna to collect signatures to support Tsikhanouskaya's bid to become a presidential candidate.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Tsikhanouski was arrested at the same time and later charged with the organization and preparation of actions that severely violated public order and disrupting the work of the Central Election Commission.

Tsikhanouski is the owner of a popular YouTube channel called The Country For Life, which challenges the Belarusian authorities.

When Tsikhanouski's candidacy was rejected by election officials, his wife took over and ran for president. She became the main challenger to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian leader who has run the country since 1994.

The official results of the August election that Lukashenka claims to have won sparked mass protests, with Tsikhanouskaya's supporters and opposition figures claiming she was the victor.

Since then, Lukashenka has overseen a violent crackdown on protesters by law enforcement, detaining thousands of people -- including media members -- and injuring scores.

The European Union and the United States have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate ruler of Belarus, characterizing the election as fraudulent.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has expelled two Dutch diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after the expulsion for espionage of two Russian diplomats from The Hague last month.

The ministry said in a statement on January 18 that, "guided by the principle of reciprocity," the Dutch acting charge d’affaires, Joost Reintjes, had been summoned to a meeting where he was informed of the decision to expel the two diplomats.

The dispute started on December 10, when the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said it was expelling two unidentified Russians who were seeking information on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.

The AIVD added that the two men worked for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Russia's embassy in The Hague at the time said the Netherlands had presented no evidence of unlawful acts by the Russian diplomats and the Foreign Ministry said in its statement on January 18 that the allegations were "unfounded and slanderous."

It added that the two Dutch diplomats had two weeks to leave Russia.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP