The U.S. government said January 5 that Russia was “likely” behind a massive hack of government and private company networks discovered last month and the intrusion was an “intelligence-gathering effort.”

In a joint statement issued by the director of national intelligence, FBI, and other investigative agencies, the U.S. government said that it was still trying to understand the scope and mitigate a “significant cyberincident” involving federal government networks.

The investigation has so far indicated that a hacker “likely Russian in origin” is behind what federal authorities described as an “ongoing” compromise of both government and nongovernmental networks.

“At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence-gathering effort,” the statement said.

Top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have previously suggested Russian intelligence agency hackers are behind the sophisticated operation, which Moscow has denied.

U.S. President Donald Trump has downplayed the seriousness and impact of the cyberattack, while casting doubt on whether Russia is responsible. Instead, he contradicted his own officials and experts by suggesting China may have been behind the breach.

But the January 5 official statement was the first one formally accusing Russia by the Trump administration.

It also provided a partial answer to the open question of what the hackers intend to do with the information by clarifying their goal appears to be intelligence gathering rather than a destructive act such as targeting infrastructure.

The massive breach began as early as March when hackers slipped malicious code into updates in SolarWinds software used by the government and thousands of businesses and entities. The intrusion was first discovered in December 2020 when cybersecurity firm FireEye found the breach when the security firm itself was targeted.

In the statement, the U.S. government said approximately 18,000 public and private sector customers of SolarWinds’ Orion product had been affected.

However, investigators have determined a “much smaller number” have been impacted by follow-on activities.

“We have so far identified fewer than 10 U.S. government agencies that fall into this category, and are working to identify and notify the nongovernment entities who also may be impacted,” the statement said.

“This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,” it added.

There was no mention of which specific U.S. government agencies remain potentially compromised, but among those known to have been targeted include Treasury, Commerce, State, Homeland Security, and Defense.

Russia and Kazakhstan will increase oil production in February and March at the expense of Saudi Arabia as Riyadh seeks to keep the OPEC+ alliance together and maintain a tighter oil market as a resurgent pandemic cools demand.

Russia and Kazakhstan had been pushing OPEC+ during their latest meeting that began on January 4 to increase total oil output in February by another 500,000 barrels a day (bpd).

However, Saudi Arabia opposed the idea amid concern a new strain of the coronavirus could force some countries to reimpose lockdowns, curbing demand and hurting prices.

OPEC+ includes the 13 members of the Saudi-dominated OPEC cartel and 10 allied oil-producing nations led by Russia.

The disagreement between Moscow and Riyadh, which forced the meeting to convene for a second day, raised some concern about the unity of the alliance, whose fragile nature was laid bare during a similar dispute last March that led to the sharpest one-day oil price decline in more than two decades.

The OPEC+ agreement reached on January 5 allows Russia and Kazakhstan to increase oil production by a combined 75,000 bpd in February and another 75,000 bpd in March.

Saudi Arabia will voluntarily cut production by 1 million bpd during those two months while all other members will keep their production steady.

The agreement led to a rally in oil prices with Brent crude climbing 5 percent to $53.65.

Oil and gas account for the lion’s share of Russian export revenue.

Saudi Arabia and Russia locked horns during an OPEC+ meeting in March 2020 as Moscow refused to agree to Riyadh’s proposal for an output cut even as the pandemic was beginning to erode global oil demand.

Russia feared that cutting output would only serve to help high-cost U.S. shale companies. Saudi Arabia responded by announcing it would ramp up oil production, causing the price of crude to drop on March 9 by more than 30 percent, the steepest one-day decline since 1991.

Oil prices continued to tumble throughout March and early April, falling below $10 a barrel for some brands, until OPEC+ agreed to a historic cut of 9.7 million bpd, or about one-tenth of global production.

The alliance has since increased oil output several times. During their previous meeting in December, Saudi Arabia agreed to an increase in OPEC+ total output by 500,000 bpd in January.

The latest agreement would reduce the group’s total output cut to about 7 million barrels a day.

OPEC+ agreed to reconvene in March to discuss April output.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and Energy Intelligence

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian has become the latest world leader with coronavirus, testing positive during a visit to London.

The 67-year-old traveled for leg surgery to the British capital, where he experienced symptoms associated with the coronavirus, Armenian news agencies reported on January 5.

Sarkisian, who has largely ceremonial powers, is self-isolating and continues to work, media reported.

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.

London is experiencing a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases as a new, more contagious strain spreads through the capital and southern regions of England.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on January 4 announced another lockdown for England to contain the spread.

Sarkisian joins a long list of world leaders and officials who have contracted coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic, including Johnson and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian tested positive for coronavirus last year.

Armenia has reported more than 160,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,800 deaths from the disease.

Based on reporting by Armenpress

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, has returned the case against well-known pro-Russian blogger, Ermek Taichibekov, to prosecutors, citing mistakes in the official filing of charges against the 42-year-old defendant.

Taichibekov's lawyer, Ghalym Nurpeisov, told RFE/RL that the Auezov district court pronounced the decision on January 5 at the preliminary hearing into the high-profile case.

Judge Daniyar Sembaev also extended Taichibekov's pretrial detention to one month, Nurpeisov said.

Taichibekov was arrested in September 2020 and charged with using media to incite ethnic hatred.

Taichibekov told his brother at the time that he was detained for an interview with Ukraina.ru, a website tied to the state Rossiya Segodnya media group, which mainly focuses on Russian news and official propaganda abroad.

In a video published on the YouTube channel of Ukraina.ru in May 2020, Taichibekov talked to the presenter against the background of the black-yellow-white flag of the Russian Empire and claimed that the Kazakh authorities were pursuing “a Russophobic policy.”

Taichibekov was previously sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 on charges of inciting ethnic hatred by placing "inflammatory" materials on Facebook and supporting the idea of Kazakhstan uniting with Russia. He served less than two years of that sentence and was released in October 2017.

Several Kazakh citizens have been sentenced to prison since 2014 for inciting separatism and/or ethnic hatred through the Internet amid heightened Kazakh government concern sparked by Russia’s support for separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine and Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

SOFIA --Russian opposition activist Yevgeny Chupov, who fled Russia in 2019 fearing possible prosecution for his political activities, has received refugee status in Bulgaria.

Chupov told RFE/RL on January 5 that Bulgaria’s State Agency on Refugees had ruled he, his wife, and four children could remain in Bulgaria.

According to Chupov, his initial application filed in August 2019 was rejected but the agency changed the ruling before his appeal was considered by the Sofia city administrative court.

Chupov and his family came to Bulgaria in 2019, saying that they feared persecution in Russia for Chupov's political activities.

The 41-year-old English teacher and blogger created a civil movement in Moscow in 2015 promoting local self-governance.

During the municipal elections campaign in 2019, Chupov and his movement supported a candidate for the Moscow city council, Ivan Zhdanov, the director and lawyer of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.

He fled Russia at the time after police detained and questioned him at least twice.

Several sanctioned and unsanctioned rallies were held in Moscow over the summer of 2019 in protest of a decision by authorities to ban independent and opposition candidates from running in the municipal elections that were held in September that year.

Dozens of protesters have been fined or given jail sentences for organizing and participating in the unsanctioned rallies.

The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has declared several activists arrested in the case political prisoners.

Russian security forces have been criticized for their heavy-handed tactics during the rallies.

NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has rejected recent comments by two Russian lawmakers describing Kazakhstan's current territory as being a “gift” from Russia, saying such "provocative" remarks aimed to "spoil" relations” between the two neighbors.

"Nobody from outside gave Kazakhs this large territory as a gift,” Toqaev wrote in an article published in state-run newspapers on January 5.

Kazakhstan must "stand against provocative actions by some foreign citizens" who are trying to "spoil neighborly relations," he said, without mentioning the two Russian politicians.

Last month, Vyacheslav Nikonov and Yevgeny Fedorov -- two members of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma -- described Kazakhstan's current territory as being a “gift” from Russia, echoing remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014 that “Kazakhs never had any statehood” before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry denounced “provocative attacks” that “cause serious damage” to relations between Kazakhstan and Russia.

Some Kazakh opposition activists have claimed the Russian lawmakers made the remarks to boost support for the ruling Nur Otan party’s national unity platform ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for January 10.

Civil rights activists and opposition politicians have accused Kazakh authorities of intentionally refusing to officially register opposition political groups in recent months.

The only officially registered political party that labels itself as an opposition group, the All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), is boycotting the vote, saying that Kazakhstan's political landscape continues to be dominated by the “same” political elite.

In his article, titled Independence -- A Most Precious Thing, Toqaev wrote that democratic reforms in Kazakhstan should be introduced gradually to preserve the Central Asian country’s “foundation” and “unity.”

The upcoming polls for parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis, will be the first parliamentary elections since Toqaev succeeded Nursultan Nazarbaev, who resigned in March 2019 after nearly three decades in power.

Nazarbaev still maintains key positions of power, including head of the country’s powerful Security Council and the ruling Nur Otan party. He also enjoys almost limitless powers and immunity as elbasy -- leader of the nation.

The last parliamentary elections were held in 2016.

International election observers say that past elections in Kazakhstan have been neither free nor fair, citing electoral fraud, repression of opposition candidates, and restrictions on the freedom of the press.

A former senior Belarusian Interior Ministry official has vouched that a 2012 audio recording that allegedly spells out plans to kill several opponents of leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Germany is authentic.

Ihar Makar, a former deputy commander of the Belarusian Interior Ministry's counterterrorism unit, said the tape allegedly of a former top Belarusian KGB officer was "fully authentic."

"I have 100 percent proof that the tape is authentic. Firstly, the tape underwent an audio forensics test; secondly, my anonymous source, who spoke directly with the individuals recorded on that tape and who knows all the details of the recorded conversation, can testify in court," Makar told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America.

The online newspaper EUObserver on January 4 published details of a recording of what it said was the Belarusian KGB security service in 2012 discussing plans to kill a total of four opponents of Lukashenka.

The fresh revelations come as Lukashenka, in power since 1994, faces months of protests demanding he step down following a disputed presidential election in August 2020.

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.

Nearly 30,000 people have been detained, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets, in the postelection crackdown by the government.

The EU and United States refuse to recognize Lukashenka as Belarus's legitimate leader and slapped him and senior officials with sanctions.

Makar told Current Time he was the one who provided the EUObserver with a copy of the audio recording and that the voice on the tape was Vadzim Zaytsau, at the time the chairman of the Belarusian KGB.

On the tape, Zaytsau was said to be briefing members of a special KGB elite counterterrorism unit -- Alfa Group -- about killing three opponents of Lukashenka then living in Germany – Aleh Alkayeu, a former prison director; Uladzimer Baradach, an ex-riot police commander; and Vyachaslau Dudkin, a former anti-corruption police chief.

The audio also includes discussions on killing Belarusian-born Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet, a critic of Lukashenka.

The attacks on Alkayeu, Baradach, and Dudkin never took place, but the plot discussed allegedly would have involved the use of explosives and poisons, the report said.

Sheremet was subsequently killed by a car bomb in Kyiv in 2016. Ukrainian police said on January 4 that they were investigating the fresh documents and recordings, which, if confirmed, would increase suspicions that Belarus's KGB was involving in Sheremet's death.

Three Ukrainian suspects are on trial in Ukraine in connection with the killing but the authorities have not established who ordered it. The suspects deny wrongdoing.

"I obtained the tape from my anonymous source in 2012. I did not try to do anything with this tape right away because it was impossible to change the situation in Belarus then. And most likely my life would have been in danger if I did it. However, in the recording I heard the name of my close friend, Aleh Alkayeu and therefore I turned to the United States asking for help," Makar said.

"As far as I understood then, the United States offered help because the police in Germany offered Aleh Alkayeu bodyguards and warned him not to leave Germany as his life was in danger."

According to Makar, U.S. officials informed the Belarusian Foreign Ministry then that Washington was aware of Minsk's plans to assassinate Lukashenka's opponents abroad, and urged the Belarusian authorities to abandon them.

"And after that Alyaksandr Lukashenka removed...Zaytsau from the post," Makar said.

Makar also said that he had evidence proving Minsk's plans to assassinate an outspoken Lukashenka critic, Russian political observer Andrei Suzdaltsev, who was declared persona non grata and deported from Belarus in 2006.

"The part [about plans to kill Suzdaltsev] is not in the recording but my source can confirm it in court.... I hope very much that the Russian Federation will react to that. I also hope very much that the world community will react to that, especially Europe and America. And I think we will be able to defeat this dictatorial regime in our native country, Belarus," Makar said, adding that he and his supporters will try to bring the case to court at The Hague.

The EUObserver report said that an expert from a NATO country confirmed to the online newspaper that the voice in the recording very much sounded like the voice of Zaytsau.

It "sounds like the same guy," a contact from a NATO country's intelligence service who was familiar with Zaytsau and who examined the bugged audio file for EUObserver, told the website.

Alkayeu wrote a book titled Shooting Brigade in which he revealed details of Lukashenka's "punitive units." He also told RFE/RL that police in Berlin in 2012 offered to provide him with bodyguards, saying they had obtained information about possible Belarusian KGB plans to kill him.

According to Alkayeu, Lukashenka's regime would have wanted to target him because he was a key witness in the disappearances of several political figures in 1999-2000.

DUSHANBE -- An 87-year-old man in Tajikistan has been handed a five-year prison sentence for supporting families of jailed opposition politicians.

Relatives of Doniyor Nabiev told RFE/RL on January 4 that the man was sentenced on December 28 after a court in Dushanbe had found him guilty of "providing relatives of jailed members of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) with material support."

A source in the Ismoili Somoni district court in Dushanbe confirmed to RFE/RL that Nabiev was convicted and sentenced in late December, but refused to give any details, saying that case materials were classified.

A former member of the IRPT, Mahmadi Teshaev, told RFE/RL that Nabiev, who also used to be a party member in the past, had been arrested in September.

Nabiev "has provided families of jailed IRPT members with food, such as meat and fruit during holidays. That is why he was detained and sent to prison," Teshaev said.

The IRPT, long an influential party with representatives in the Tajik government and parliament, was labeled an extremist and terrorist group and banned in 2015 -- moves the party and human rights groups say were unjustified and politically motivated.

Dozens of IRPT officials and supporters have been prosecuted and many of them imprisoned, drawing further criticism of President Emomali Rahmon's government from rights groups.

Activists say Rahmon, who has ruled Tajikistan since 1992, has used the security forces and other levers of power to sideline opponents and suppress dissent.

HOMEL, Belarus -- A man in Belarus, where longtime leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka is under popular pressure to step down, is facing charges over a snowman in his backyard.

The man in the Homel district had scrawled across his creation: "Long live Belarus," a popular slogan of the country's protest movement.

Photos of the white figure also show him decked out with a red scarf, the two colors of the opposition -- adopted from the flag of Belarus's short-lived bid for democratic independence more than a century ago.

A local rights activist told RFE/RL that police on December 29 cited the man for holding an unsanctioned picket.

According to Leanid Sudalenka, the man told the officer he should have charged the snowman, who had melted away by that time.

"The man suggested the officer charge the snowman, since he was picketing. And although there was no snow, nor snowman, the man will face trial," Sudalenka said.

Lukashenka, in power since 1994, has faced months of protests demanding he step down following a disputed presidential election in August 2020.

Nearly 30,000 people have been detained, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets, in the postelection crackdown by the government.

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.

The EU and United States refuse to recognize Lukashenka as Belarus's legitimate leader and slapped him and senior officials with sanctions.

The vote, which handed the 66-year-old Lukashenka a sixth term, was widely dismissed as having been rigged, with the real winner being opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to flee to Lithuania shortly after the election.

South Korea says it will dispatch a government delegation to Iran "at the earliest possible date" to try secure the release of a tanker seized by Iran amid tensions over Iranian funds frozen in Seoul because of U.S. sanctions.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman made the announcement on January 5, a day after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi and detained its crew of 20 near the strategic Strait of Hormuz over pollution violations -- an allegation rejected by the ship's operator.

The spokesman also said that South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun will go ahead with a previously planned trip to Tehran early next week, as Iranian officials seek the release of billions of dollars frozen in South Korean banks under U.S. sanctions.

The frozen assets stem from oil sales earned before Washington tightened sanctions on Iran following the U.S. withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In Tehran, an Iranian government spokesman rejected allegations that Iran's seizure of the tanker amounted to hostage taking.

"If anybody is to be called a hostage taker, it is the South Korean government that has taken our more than $7 billion hostage under a futile pretext," Ali Rabiei told reporters.

Earlier, the U.S. State Department called for the tanker's immediate release, accusing Iran of threatening "navigational rights and freedoms" in the Persian Gulf in order to "extort the international community into relieving the pressure" of economic sanctions.

Meanwhile, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced that a destroyer carrying members of South Korea's anti-piracy unit arrived in waters near the Strait of Hormuz -- through which 20 percent of all oil traded passes -- and was "carrying out a mission to ensure the safety of our nationals."

The MT Hankuk Chemi, which had been traveling from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, is currently in the port city of Bandar Abbas.

The Iranian ambassador to Seoul told officials that the crew, which included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea, and Vietnam, was safe and healthy, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Iranian media quoted the IRGC as saying the vessel was carrying 7,200 tons of "oil chemical products."

The ship was "seized due to the repeated infringement of maritime environmental laws," it said, adding that the case "will be handed over to the judicial authorities of the country."

The incident comes with tensions on the rise in the region coinciding with the first anniversary of the killing by U.S. air strike of a top Iranian general.

SEE ALSO:

Iraqis Mark Anniversary Of Top Iranian General's Assassination

The assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC's elite Quds Force, in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic-missile strike that injured dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that night, killing all 176 people on board.

As the anniversary approached, the United States sent B-52 bombers flying over the region as well as a nuclear-powered submarine into the Persian Gulf.

The Iranian government also said on January 4 that the country had resumed 20 percent uranium enrichment at an underground facility, a level far above limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.

Tehran has gradually reduced its compliance with the accord since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and started imposing crippling sanctions on Iran.

Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear warheads, with 90 percent purity considered weapons-grade.

Tehran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program was strictly for civilian purposes.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Russia and Kazakhstan have sought another increase in oil output during a meeting of OPEC+ as other members express concern about global energy demand amid the rapid spread of a new strain of the coronavirus.

OPEC and allied producers including Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, decided at a meeting in December 2020 to raise their total output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, anticipating a boost in demand, and agreed to meet every month to review production.

At the latest meeting on January 4, Russia and Kazakhstan urged another output increase in February while Iraq, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates recommended holding production steady, Reuters reported, citing two unidentified sources.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said that OPEC+ should be cautious about further production increases as the new variant of coronavirus is unpredictable. Britain was expected to announce a new lockdown in England as the new variant spreads in its southern regions.

Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader of OPEC and its disagreement with Russia in March over oil output quotas caused the largest one-day drop in prices in decades.

After a weeks-long standoff between Moscow and Riyadh, OPEC+ producers agreed in mid April to cut 9.7 million bpd, or about a tenth of global production, as the rapid spread of the coronavirus caused record demand destruction.

OPEC+ have since increased production several times as global demand slowly rebounded and prices moved above $50 a barrel. The January increase has now reduced the existing cuts to 7.2 million bpd.

Bjornar Tonhaugen, the head of oil markets at research firm Rystad Energy, said in a note to clients on January 4 that another production increase before the May driving season would hurt prices.

However, he said that Russia “may not want to lose face and capitulate so easily” and that OPEC+ members “may be in for some lengthy negotiations.”

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and RBC

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg has surpassed that of Moscow for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

St. Petersburg recorded 3,657 new cases of the coronavirus over a 24-hour period ending on January 4 compared with 3,591 new cases in Moscow, Russian media reported.

Moscow, which has about 13 million residents, or nearly double that of St. Petersburg, has seen the number of new cases fall by half over the past two weeks.

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.

Daily new cases in St. Petersburg have remained around the same level.

The decline in Moscow pushed the total number of new daily COVID-19 cases in Russia below 20,000 on January 4 for the first time since December 1.

Russia has recorded more than 3.2 million cases of COVID-19, the world’s fourth-largest tally after the United States, India, and Brazil. The country has officially recorded more than 58,000 deaths, the eighth-highest globally.

However, there are widespread doubts over the accuracy of official Russian data.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova last month revealed that more than 80 percent of excess deaths this year are linked to COVID-19, which would mean its death toll is three times higher than officially reported.

Based on reporting by RBC

Russian officials have stopped the search for the bodies of 17 fishermen who fell into the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean when their trawler capsized during a storm a week ago.

The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) said on January 4 that the search and rescue operations were stopped, adding that none of the bodies were found.

The Onega vessel capsized on December 28, 2020, during a heavy storm, and two of the 19 fishermen aboard were rescued at the time.

On December 30, the remaining 17 missing men were officially presumed dead.

It is not clear what exactly caused the vessel to capsize.

Media reports said ice accumulation on the fishing boat carrying the Russian crew led to the sinking.

The Investigative Committee has launched a probe into what it called "possible violation of exploitation of a vessel."

The Russian-flagged vessel had reportedly been operating since 1979.

Maritime accidents are not uncommon in Russia.

In April 2015, a Russian trawler carrying 132 people sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the country’s Far East. Only 63 were rescued.

Based on reporting by TASS, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and Meduza

A European online newspaper has published what it says is a 2012 audio recording of a top Belarusian KGB officer discussing alleged plots at the time to kill three opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Germany.

EUObserver said in the report published on January 4 that the voice on the tape belonged to the then-chairman of the Belarusian KGB Vadzim Zaytsau.

The attacks on the three never took place, but the plot discussed allegedly would have involved the use of explosives and poisons, it said.

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.

The fresh revelations come as Lukashenka, in power since 1994, faces months of protests demanding he step down following a disputed presidential election last August. Nearly 30,000 have been detained, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets, in the postelection crackdown by the government. The EU and United States refuse to recognize Lukashenka as the country’s legitimate leader and slapped him and senior officials with sanctions.

On the tape, Zaytsau is said to be briefing members of a special KGB elite counterterrorist unit -- Alfa Group -- about killing three opponents of Lukashenka then living in Germany -- Aleh Alkayeu, a former prison director; Uladzimer Baradach, an ex-riot police commander; and Vyachaslau Dudkin, a former anti-corruption police chief. The audio also includes discussions on killing the Belarus-born Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was slain in a car bombing in Kyiv in 2016.

"The president [Lukashenka] is waiting for these operations," Zaytsau is heard saying in the recording said to have been made in his Minsk office on April 11, 2012.

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

An expert from a NATO country confirmed to EUObserver that the voice in the recording very much sounds like the voice of Zaytsau.

It "sounds like the same guy," a contact from a NATO country's intelligence service who was familiar with Zaytsau and who examined the bugged audio file for EUobserver, told the website.

Alkayeu wrote a book titled Shooting Brigade in which he revealed details of Lukashenka's "punitive units." He told RFE/RL that police in Berlin in 2012 offered to provide him with bodyguards, saying they had obtained information about possible Belarusian KGB plans to kill him.

According to Alkayeu, Lukashenka's regime would have wanted to target him since he was a key witness in the disappearances of several political figures in 1999-2000.

Iranian state television has acknowledged that Tehran seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

The report on January 4 alleged that the MT Hankuk Chemi had been stopped by Iranian authorities over alleged “oil pollution” in the Persian Gulf and the strait.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had seized the ship.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed the MT Hankuk Chemi off the port of Bandar Abbas on January 4 without explanation. It had been traveling from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

The incident comes with tensions on the rise in the region coinciding with the anniversary of the U.S. drone strike that killed IRGC Major General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last year.

That attack later saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic-missile strike, injuring dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq. Tehran also admitted that it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that night, killing all 176 people on board.

As the anniversary approached, the United States has sent B-52 bombers flying over the region and sent a nuclear-powered submarine into the Persian Gulf.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, and AP

The Iranian government says the country has resumed uranium enrichment to 20 percent at an underground facility, a level far above limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on January 4 that President Hassan Rohani gave the order for the move at the Fordow facility -- the latest of several recent Iranian breaches of the international agreement that eased UN sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

But Tehran has gradually reduced its compliance with the accord since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and started imposing crippling sanctions on Iran.

Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear warheads, with 90 percent purity considered weapons-grade.

Tehran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program was strictly for civilian purposes.

A European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said that Iran's latest move would be a "considerable departure" from Tehran's commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal that would have "serious nuclear nonproliferation implications."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iranian decision showed the country’s “intention to develop a military nuclear program.”

"Israel will not allow Iran to manufacture nuclear weapons," Netanyahu added.

There was no confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Tehran’s latest announcement, but a spokesman said the UN’s atomic watchdog had been monitoring activity at Fordow and that its Director-General Rafael Grossi would submit a report to IAEA member states later on January 4, according to AFP.

The agency said on January 1 it had been informed by Tehran that it planned to resume enrichment up to 20 percent at the Fordow site.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, later said that Iran planned to enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity at Fordow "as soon as possible."

The step was mentioned in a law passed by Iran's parliament last month in response to the killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, which Tehran has blamed on Israel.

Iran currently enriches its uranium stockpile up to around 4.5 percent, which is above the 3.67 percent cap imposed by the 2015 nuclear pact.

An increase to 20 percent would shorten Iran's break-out time to a potential nuclear weapon, if it were to make a political decision to pursue a bomb.

The Iran nuclear deal also prohibits Tehran from enrichment at the Fordow facility, buried deep in a mountain to protect against air strikes.

With reporting by Mehr and IRNA

The Iranian government has passed a bill that criminalizes violence against women, including action or behavior that causes “physical or mental harm” to women.

The bill was passed by the cabinet on January 3, Massoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s vice president for women’s and family affairs, announced on Twitter, saying the bill was the result of "hundreds of hours of expertise."

The bill, which has been under review since September 2019, will have to be adopted by parliament to become law.

The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in early December that the draft bill falls short of international standards, despite having “a number of positive provisions.”

“While the draft law defines violence against women broadly and criminalizes various forms of violence, it does not criminalize some forms of gender-based violence, such as marital rape and child marriage,” HRW said in a December 2020 report.

"The draft law also does not tackle a number of discriminatory laws including personal-status laws that lawyers said leave women more vulnerable to domestic violence," the report added.

Media reported that the bill specifies punitive action, including legal punishments, civil redress, and prison sentences for those threatening the physical and mental safety of women.

According to the bill, the judiciary will be tasked with setting up and sponsoring offices that provide support for women who suffer some type of violence or who are susceptible to violence. The bill also requires the establishment of special police units to ensure the safety of women.

An Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch, Tara Sepehrifar, said on Twitter on January 3 that the Iranian parliament "should waste no time in addressing the remaining gaps and pass the draft into law."

The bill follows several cases of violence against women that have caused public outrage, including last May's beheading of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi by her father, in an apparent “honor killing."

Days after the gruesome killing, Iran passed a law aimed at protecting children from violence.

Iran is one of four countries that have not ratified the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission (BShK) has launched a probe after an NGO reported that residents in one district said they were threatened with violence if they didn't vote for Sadyr Japarov in the upcoming early presidential poll.

The BShK said it was acting on a report by the group Jalpy Ish (Common Case) over recent alleged voter intimidation in the Kara-Suu district in the southern Osh region.

The report said young men went house to house telling people to vote for Japarov on January 10, threatening them with violence if they didn't.

The BShK also said that it had informed the Central Asian state's Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General's Office about the incident.

There's been no comment from Japarov on the allegations.

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

Japarov, who during the October turmoil was released from prison where he was serving a sentence for kidnapping a political rival, was elected 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 as Kyrgyz law does not allow anyone serving as president in an interim capacity to run in an election for the post.

Seventeen candidates have been registered to run in the January 10 vote.

BISHKEK -- A lawyer for Kyrgyzstan's former President Almazbek Atambaev says he has been transferred from a detention center in Bishkek to a penal colony where inmates with medical conditions are treated.

Zamir Jooshev told RFE/RL on January 4 that his client was transferred late last month to the capital’s Correctional Colony No. 47 because he was suffering from fluctuating blood pressure.

Atambaev, 64, was sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison in June over his involvement in the release of a notorious crime boss in 2013.

In November, the Supreme Court ruled to send the case back to a Bishkek district court for retrial. A reason for the decision was not immediately given.

Atambaev has denied any wrongdoing.

In early October, he was released from custody and rearrested four days later and charged with organizing an illegal demonstration as the country was rocked by mass protests against the official results of parliamentary elections.

Atambaev was arrested in August 2020 after he surrendered to police following a deadly two-day standoff between security forces and his supporters that led to the death of a top security officer and more than 170 injured.

The former president and 13 other people were charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of authorities, hostage taking, and the forcible seizure of power.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz will remain in the Persian Gulf due to "recent threats" by Iran, the Pentagon said on January 3.

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had ordered the Nimitz to “halt its routine redeployment,” citing the threats, which he said had been “issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other U.S. government officials.”

The New York Times reported a day earlier that the Nimitz, which has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November, was returning home.

U.S. officials quoted by The New York Times said the move was part of a "de-escalatory" signal to Tehran to avoid a conflict in Trump's last days in office. But Miller made clear in his statement that the ship would stay in the Gulf.

"The USS Nimitz will now remain on station in the U.S. Central Command area of operations. No one should doubt the resolve of the United States of America," he said.

His statement came on the first anniversary of the twin assassinations by U.S. air strikes of a top Iranian general and the leader of a powerful Iraqi Shi’ite militia.

The drone strike near Baghdad airport killed Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy head of Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi militia, along with several other Iran-allied militiamen.

Thousands of Iraqis converged on central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on January 3 to mark the anniversary. Many of the demonstrators were holding posters of Soleimani and Mohandes. Some people demanded the expulsion of U.S. troops from Iraq and others cried, "Revenge!" and "No to America!"

Iran has vowed to avenge the killing, and for weeks U.S. officials have suggested Iran or allied Iraqi militia could carry out retaliatory attacks around the anniversary.

Security measures have been tightened in Iraq in the vicinity of Baghdad's Green Zone, home to foreign embassies and government offices.

The Vatican said Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk, who was briefly prevented from reentering Belarus after he criticized the Belarusian government's harsh crackdown on opposition protesters.

Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was allowed to return to Belarus last month after being stopped from reentering the country following a trip to Poland in August.

While there, Kondrusiewicz criticized the crackdown on protests against the contested reelection of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

It was not immediately clear whether Kondrusiewicz's resignation was expected.

The resignation was in accordance with a code that allows bishops to retire at age 75, the Vatican said in a short statement.

While in Poland, Kondrusiewicz, who is a Belarus citizen, gave an interview to a radio station calling for an end to police violence against protesters and demanding the resignation of Lukashenka.

Lukashenka, who faces ongoing protests by the opposition against his rule, accused Kondrusiewicz in November of plotting to "destroy the country.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets for months, declaring that opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the real winner of the country's contested August vote. More than 30,000 people have been taken into police custody.

Scattered protests were reported in Minsk and elsewhere on January 3, as opposition groups sought to keep pressure on Lukashenka and his government. There were no immediate reports of arrests.

Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter on January 3 that the archbishop would preside over his last Sunday service later that day.

"Belarusians have been truly blessed" to be under his guidance "during this difficult time", wrote Tsikhanovskaya, who remains in Lithuania after fleeing Belarus following the election.

Catholicism is the second largest religious denomination in Belarus, after Eastern Orthodoxy.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, AFP and Reuters

Thousands of Iraqis converged on central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on January 3 to mark the first anniversary of the twin assassinations in a U.S. air strike of a top Iranian general and a leader of an Iraqi powerful Shi’ite militia.

Last year’s U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport killed Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy head of Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi militia, along with several other Iran-allied militiamen.

Many of the demonstrators were holding posters of Soleimani and al-Mohandes while some demanded the expulsion of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Thousands of mourners marched on the highway leading to the Baghdad airport on the evening of January 2 to honor Soleimani and al-Mohandes and eight other men killed in the U.S. attack.

The scene of the U.S. drone attack was turned into a shrine-like area sealed off by red ropes, with a photo of Soleimani and al-Muhandis in the middle, as mourners lit candles.

The assassination of Soleimani had stoked fears of military conflict between the United States and Iran.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed tough economic sanctions.

At the time of Soleimani’s killing, Trump posted on Twitter that the Iranian had "killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time and was plotting to kill many more."

Iran responded to the killing by launching a volley of missiles at bases in Iraq hosting U.S. troops.

Security measures have been tightened in Iraq and security forces were deployed in great numbers. The Interior Ministry said on January 2 that a plan had been drawn up to safeguard the protests.

Security measures were also stepped up in the vicinity of Baghdad's Green Zone, home to foreign embassies and government offices.

For weeks, U.S. officials have suggested Iran or allied Iraqi militia could carry out retaliatory attacks to mark the January 3 anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination.

On January 2, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged Trump not to be "trapped" by an alleged Israeli plan to provoke a war through attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.

"New intelligence from Iraq indicate(s) that Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans -- putting an outgoing Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli (act justifying war)," Zarif said on Twitter.

"Be careful of a trap, @realDonaldTrump. Any fireworks will backfire badly, particularly against your same BFFs," Zarif added.

A day later, an Israeli official dismissed the allegation that his country was trying to trick the U.S. into waging war on Iran as “nonsense.”

It was Israel that needed to be on alert for possible Iranian strikes on the one-year anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Kan public radio on January 3.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and AP

Iran has hanged two men for "terrorist acts" and another for murder and armed robbery, the judiciary's official Mizan news agency said.

The three were executed in the early morning of January 3 in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province, Mizan reported.

Two were identified as Hassan Dehvari and Elias Qalandarzehi, who were arrested in April 2014 after being found with "a large amount of explosives" and weapons, the report said.

The pair were convicted of the abduction, bombing, murder of security forces and civilians, and of working with the Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), Iranian media reported.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the two had been tortured in detention.

Dehvari and Qalandarzehi were also arrested in possession of documents from Jaish al-Adl on "how to make bombs" as well as "takfiri fatwas," terms used by Iranian authorities to refer to religious decrees issued by Sunni extremists.

Jaish al-Adl has reportedly carried out several high-profile bombings and abductions in Iran in recent years.

In February 2019, 27 members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed in a suicide attack in Sistan-Baluchistan claimed by the group.

Sistan-Baluchistan is a volatile area near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan where militant groups and drug smugglers frequently operate.

The third man executed was named as Omid Mahmudzehi. He was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of civilians, Mizan said.

Iran is one of the world's leading executioners. Amnesty International said in April that at least 251 people were executed by Iranian authorities in 2019.

Iran is also among a handful of countries that execute juvenile offenders.

Based on reporting by AFP, RFE/RL's Radio Farda, the BBC, and IRNA

A Moscow-based foundation with links to the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor force, says three Russians and one Ukrainian national have been freed from captivity in Libya.

Aleksandr Malkevich, head of the Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values, said on Telegram on January 2 that the four individuals had been "kidnapped" several weeks ago, but did not say why they were in Libya or who had allegedly detained them.

The foundation says it is a “a non-profit organization whose activities are aimed at protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation."

Moscow has been accused of supporting mercenaries fighting against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The GNA is vying for power against strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Egypt.

The Vagner Group is believed to be headed by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.

In October, the European Union and Britain hit Prigozhin with an asset freeze and travel ban over Russia’s role in Libya's civil war.

Prigozhin "is engaged in and providing support" for the Vagner Group, threatening Libya's "peace, stability, and security," according to the bloc.

In December, the Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values said two of its employees were released in Libya where they had been held since May 2019.

Malkevich said on December 10 that Russian citizens Maksim Shugalei and Samer Khasan Ali Sueifan had been released and would return to Moscow.

Libyan authorities said Shugalei, who is also a lawmaker in Russia's northern Komi Republic, and his interpreter Sueifan, were arrested on suspicion of trying to influence elections in Libya, which Russian officials have denied.

Shugalei and the foundation are widely known to have links to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based organization known as the Russian "troll farm."

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax

Montenegrin President Milo Dukanovic has refused to approve amendments to a controversial law on religion that has been sharply criticized by ethnic Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Dukanovic sent the amendments back to parliament along with six other laws passed by the ruling coalition, his office said on January 2.

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

The president’s office claimed it was unclear if the required number of lawmakers had been present in parliament during the vote.

Dukanovic heads the long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which is now in opposition.

If lawmakers vote for the amendments again, the president is obliged to sign them.

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

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

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

The new government -- which came to power after elections in August -- said it would rewrite the law to ensure the properties stay in the hands of church, which is based in neighboring Serbia.

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

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

With reporting by dpa