Jailed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on a hunger strike since October 1, needs treatment in hospital as his condition is worsening, his doctor said in an October 10 television interview.

Saakashvili declared a hunger strike after he was arrested on October 1 and incarcerated in the city of Rustavi, hours after he announced he had returned to Georgia following an eight-year absence.

Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power during his presidency, charges he says were politically motivated.

He had lived in Ukraine in recent years, but last month announced plans to fly home for the October 2 local elections despite facing prison, claiming he wanted to help "save the country" amid a protracted political crisis.

Nikoloz Kipshidze, Saakashvili's doctor, said that he had been discussing his condition with doctors at the prison where he is being held, not far from the capital, Tbilisi.

"I spoke with them for half an hour about how to get through this night. I plan to visit him again tomorrow. We will probably need to transfer him to hospital," the doctor said on Georgian television.

The Georgian Justice Ministry later denied the lawyer’s comments and said that Saakashvili’s “health condition is satisfactory.”

It added that Saakashvili was receiving proper medicines and that his vital signs are “normal.”

With reporting by Reuters

Iran's state electricity company has warned that illicit cryptocurrency miners in the country could cause new power cuts this winter.

Illegal cryptocurrency mining will account for at least "10 percent of electricity outages this winter", the power company said in an October 10 statement published by the official government news agency IRNA.

Such illegal mining was responsible for 20 percent of blackouts over the summer, the statement added.

Iranian officials have repeatedly blamed unlicensed cryptocurrency miners for using vast amounts of electricity -- draining the power grid and raising air pollution levels in many cities.

The operations are an enormous energy drain because they use banks of high-powered computers to try to unlock complex numerical puzzles related to international financial transactions.

Iranian news agencies have reported frequent police raids on "illegal farms" for cryptocurrency.

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates that around 4.5 percent of global bitcoin mining takes place in Iran, allowing the country to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies that can be used to bypass U.S. sanctions, which have crippled the country’s economy.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and IRNA

Russia will suspend test-firing rocket engines at one of its design bureaus in the city of Voronezh until the end of the month to save oxygen supplies for COVID-19 patients, the head of the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, said on October 10.

Russia, which is grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases, registered 968 COVID-19 deaths on October 9, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. Many observers say the government is undercounting COVID-19 deaths, and the actual number is likely significantly higher.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Coronavirus Daily Death Toll Hits New Record High

"In view of growing demand for medical oxygen to treat the sick, today we decided to suspend test firing rocket engines at Voronezh's Chemical Automatics Design Bureau ranges until the end of the month," Roskosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter.

"Our company alone supplies up to 33 tons of oxygen per day," Rogozin added.

The spike in Russia’s coronavirus figures mirrors trends in other countries, where the more contagious Delta variant has spread widely.

However, Russian authorities have also blamed a stubbornly low vaccination rate.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Tass

Iran’s nuclear chief has said Tehran has far more enriched uranium than what the UN’s nuclear inspectors reported just last month.

Speaking on Iranian state television late on October 9, Mohammad Eslami said Iran has 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium.

In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated Iran's stockpile to be 84.3 kilograms.

It takes about 170 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon. Most nuclear weapons, however, use enriched uranium above 90 percent.

Under the terms of a 2015 deal between Iran and the international community, Tehran is barred from enriching uranium beyond 3.67 percent. In return, the other signatories agreed to provide Iran with 20 percent enriched uranium for its research reactor.

"But it was not delivered," Eslami said. "If we did not produce it by ourselves, this would have become a problem."

The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

In 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sanctions, saying the JCPOA failed to address Iran's ballistic-missile program or Tehran's support for terrorist groups in the Middle East.

Since the U.S. withdrawal, the other signatories -- Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia -- have tried to preserve it.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said he is open to rejoining the JCPOA, but talks with Iran have not produced clear results.

Based on reporting by AP and The New York Times

At least 16 people were killed when an aircraft carrying skydivers crashed shortly after takeoff in the Russian region of Tatarstan.

In addition, six people were reportedly seriously injured in the October 10 incident near the city of Menzelinsk.

Russian news agencies reported that 22 people were aboard the aircraft, including 20 parachutists and two crew members. Interfax reported that seven people had been rescued alive.

The aircraft was a twin-engine L-410, which was designed by the Czechoslovakian firm Let Kunovice (now Aircraft Industries), and has been produced in Russia in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg since 2018.

It is designed to transport up to 19 passengers a distance up to 1,500 kilometers. An unnamed source told the TASS news agency that overloading was being investigated as a contributing factor in the Tatarstan incident.

It was the third fatal crash involving an L-410 since June.

On June 19, three passengers and two pilots were killed when an L-410 made a hard landing in Siberia’s Kemerovo Oblast.

SEE ALSO:

Four Survivors Of Fatal Plane Crash In Siberia In Serious Condition

On September 13, four people were killed when an L-410 crashed in a remote forested area of Siberia’s Irkutsk region.

The L-410 that crashed in Tatarstan belonged to a volunteer military-preparedness organization known by the acronym DOSAAF.

Based on reporting by Meduza, DozhdTV, TASS, RIA Novosti, and Interfax

The rival sides in the Libyan conflict signed an initial deal on the pullout of foreign fighters and mercenaries from the war-torn country, UN mediators said.

The UN mission said on October 9 that a 10-member joint military commission, with five representatives from each side, signed a “gradual and balanced” withdrawal deal at the end of three-day talks facilitated by the UN in Geneva.

The UN special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, said the deal “responds to the overwhelming demand of the Libyan people and creates a positive momentum that should be built upon to move forward towards a stable and democratic stage.”

Libya has been in chaos and conflict since a NATO-backed uprising a decade ago ousted longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, sparking rival eastern and western-based administrations, each supported by various outsiders and armed groups.

The country had been split between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, also backed by Turkey and Qatar, and an eastern-based administration backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose international backers are Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

Libya's split came to the forefront in 2019, when Haftar launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the UN-supported but weak government in the country's capital.

The presence of foreign fighters and mercenaries has been a major issue seen as an obstacle to free and fair elections, scheduled for December in the North African country.

In August, a journalistic investigation brought new insights into the “key” role of a Russian military contractor in the Libyan civil war, including links to war crimes and the Russian military.

The content of a Samsung tablet left behind by an unidentified member of the Vagner Group after the contractor's fighters retreated from areas south of Tripoli in spring 2020 include frontline maps in Russian, the BBC said on August 11.

Vagner Group is believed to have indirect ties to Russia's political elite and to be controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both Prigozhin and Russian authorities have denied any involvement with Vagner.

Meanwhile, Turkey has sent Syrian rebel fighters to back the internationally recognized Tripoli government.

A UN official in December estimated there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over recent years, including Russians, Syrians, Sudanese, and Chadians.

The UN said the newly agreed plan, along with an implementation mechanism, would be "the cornerstone for the gradual, balanced, and sequenced process of withdrawal" of the mercenaries and foreign forces.

Kubis, the UN special envoy, called the accord "another breakthrough achievement."

He said the deal is a step toward the "holding of free, credible, and transparent national elections on December 24, with results accepted by all."

The accord also calls for deployment of UN observers to monitor the cease-fire before the implementation of a withdrawal plan for foreign combatants.

A UN-brokered roadmap has set both parliamentary and presidential elections for December 24, although it remains unclear if opposition from eastern-based forces will interfere with those plans.

With reporting by AP and Anadolu Agency

A 37-year-old performer has been killed at Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theater in an accident that occurred on stage during an opera.

The Bolshoi said the October 9 incident occurred during a set change in Sadko, an opera by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The name of the victim was not immediately released.

"The opera was immediately stopped and the audience was asked to leave," the Bolshoi said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

City authorities said they were investigating the death of a male performer at the theater. It did not identify the victim.

Interfax quoted a source as saying the performer was crushed by a ramp during a scenery change. Other reports said the man was struck by a falling piece of decoration.

Some spectators said they at first thought the accident was part of the production. However, someone on stage shouted "call an ambulance! There's blood here" and the opera was halted.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has revoked the right of a Russian laboratory to carry out blood sample analysis after it failed to comply with laboratory standards and ethics.

In an October 9 statement, WADA said the National Anti-Doping Laboratory (MSU) in Moscow “remains ineligible to carry out any work related to the analysis of blood samples” in connection with the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) or any other form of anti-doping analysis for WADA-compliant Anti-Doping Organizations.

The Moscow laboratory’s full accreditation was revoked in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of institutionalised doping in Russian athletics.

A year later, WADA authorized the laboratory to analyse ABP to ensure the program's continuity. However, its right to carry out other anti-doping activities remained revoked.

ABP is designed to monitor different biological components that reveal doping over time.

Last year, WADA provisionally suspended the Moscow laboratory from conducting ABP analysis after it determined that some of the data had been manipulated.

Russia is banned from competing under its flag and with its national anthem at major international sporting events, including next year's Beijing Winter Olympics, as part of sanctions designed to punish Moscow for having provided WADA with doctored laboratory data.

With reporting by Reuters

The United States and the European Union have expressed frustration with Ukraine as the nation continues to drag its feet on electing the chief of a unit responsible for prosecuting corrupt officials.

Washington and Brussels have tied significant financial and military aid to Kyiv’s progress on reforms, including battling corruption, which many experts say is one of the major factors hindering Ukraine’s aspiration of joining the bloc.

On October 9, Ukraine again failed to move forward with the process for choosing the next head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) after several members of the selection committee did not show up, preventing a quorum.

The process of selecting a new head -- which activists say should have taken several months at best -- has now lasted more than a year due to repeated quorum failures and other excuses.

The latest delay resulted when three members selected by parliament failed to attend -- either in person or online, triggering anger in Western capitals.

In a joint statement issued on October 9, the United States and the EU described the latest delay “incomprehensible and unjustified” and called on the committee to “resume its work without further delay.

“Failure to move forward in the selection process undermines the work of anti-corruption agencies, established by Ukraine and its international partners,” they said.

Following the rebuke by the West, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took to Twitter to criticize the delay.

“The members of the competition commission must perform their duties properly. For [Ukraine], the effectiveness of anti-corruption institutions is a priority,” he said in a tweet.

Tetiana Shevchuk, legal counsel for the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Kyiv, told RFE/RL that Zelenskiy should not have waited for the West to react before speaking about the long-delayed selection.

He had plenty of opportunities to speak out in the past following similar delays, she said.

Control Of SAPO

The SAPO selection committee consists of 11 members, including seven selected by parliament.

The remaining four are independent members selected by the Prosecutor-General’s Office from a list submitted by Ukraine’s Western backers. Three of the four independent members are foreigners.

Following the lengthy selection process, which includes various tests, the committee has narrowed down its choice to two candidates, one of whom is an investigator at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) behind a failed probe into a member of Zelenskiy’s team.

SAPO oversees investigations carried out by NABU and is independent of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, potentially making it a very powerful tool in combating graft.

SAPO also prosecutes cases in court brought forward against an individual by NABU. As of December 31, 2020, SAPO and NABU had achieved 43 convictions against 50 people.

SAPO and NABU were created after the 2013-14 revolution that toppled Kremlin-leaning former President Viktor Yanukovych amid a push to fight corruption that had left Ukraine among the poorest nations in Europe despite vast natural resources and bountiful agricultural land.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s Office has been viewed as historically ineffective in the fight against corruption and under the control of vested interests, thus requiring the creation of SAPO and NABU.

Shevchuk said those special interests fear a SAPO head “they can not control.”

Those vested interests fear the appointment of a tough head of SAPO and are seeking to undermine the process, anti-corruption activists say.

It isn’t the only crucial reform measure currently facing sabotage, they say.

Ukraine’s Council of Judges has dragged its feet on appointing members to a panel that will help vet judges.

The panel is a central element of judicial reform that the United States, the EU, and Ukrainian activists say is vital to cleaning up endemic corruption in courts.

Georgian officials said nine people, including three children, have been found dead in the wreckage of a residential building that partially collapsed in the Black Sea city of Batumi.

Emergency workers were able to pull one man out alive on October 9. No one else is believed to be under the rubble of the seven story building and rescue operations have ended.

The building had a total of 12 apartments.

Police say the building collapse may have been caused by renovation work carried out in an apartment on the first floor.

Investigators have detained the owner of the apartment and 2 construction workers, accusing them of gross violations.

The Georgian government has declared October 11 a national day of mourning.

Flags on all government buildings in Georgia will be flown at half mast while all entertainment events have been canceled.

Abolhassan Banisadr, who was elected Iran’s first president after the 1979 revolution and later fled the country and became an outspoken opponent of the theocratic government, has died. He was 88.

A statement issued by his family said Banisadr died October 9 in a Paris hospital and had been suffering from a long illness. No further details were released.

Banisadr served as Iran's president during the 444-day crisis when 52 Americans were held hostage by radical college students. And he was the first to be impeached by the country’s parliament after 16 months in office.

Born in the western city of Hamadan on March 22, 1933, Banisadr studied finance at the Sorbonne in Paris after World War II. His father was a cleric who was close to Ayatollah Khomeini, who later led the Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran’s monarchy.

Banisadr reportedly first met Khomeini at the funeral for Banisadr’s father in 1972.

Banisadr was active in underground student movements in Iran opposed to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government and was imprisoned twice. While living in France, he joined the religious movement inspired by Khomeini and then returned to Iran in February 1979 with Khomeini one month after Pahlavi fled the country.

He served as finance minister and foreign minister in the new theocratic government before being elected president in February 1980.

A year later, Banisadr fell out with Khomeini, who as supreme leader, retained ultimate authority in the country.

Iran’s parliament impeached Banisadr on June 21, 1981, as he sought to rein in the influence of clerics on the country’s judicial system.

Banisadr fled back to France where he co-founded the National Council of the Resistance of Iran, and became an outspoken opponent of the Tehran government, accusing Khomeini and his successors of being responsible for the violence in the Middle East.

He also condemned the government’s crackdown on protesters after the 2009 presidential election that was won by the hard-line Mahmud Ahmadinejad and sparked the opposition Green Movement.

In an interview with RFFE/RL’s Radio Farda in 2019, on the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, Banisadr broadly criticized the Iranian regime and its conduct of elections.

"Not only are elections in Iran not free, but they also humiliate voters, because there is neither freedom to run nor freedom to vote,” he said.

He also said that the collapse of the Iranian regime was “inevitable.”

Banisadr is survived by his wife, Ozra Hosseini, whom he married in 1961, and three children.

No funeral arrangements were announced.

With reporting by Radio Farda

Russian officials said the number of people who have died after drinking bootleg alcohol had jumped to 29, as investigators detained more people in the southern region of Orenburg.

A local government official told the Orenday news outlet that 28 people were hospitalized with at least 13 of them in serious condition.

Police in Orenburg are currently carrying out a mass inspection of stores in search of counterfeit alcohol.

Local news reports said at least six people had been detained since the first reports of the people falling ill on October 7.

Those detained include one man who was arrested for allegedly distilling the booze at his house, and three others for distributing the alcohol in local shops.

Poisonings involving homemade, bootleg alcohol occur regularly in Russia as people seek out cheaper options to store-bought vodka.

Like many countries around the world, Russia is currently experiencing a sharp rise in food prices. Russian inflation exceeded 7 percent in September, a five-year high.

In December 2016, 78 people died in and around the Siberian city of Irkutsk after drinking a scented herbal bath lotion that contained methanol -- a toxic type of industrial alcohol.

Methanol poisoning symptoms -- including headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, and vertigo -- take a while to surface. Most victims seek medical care after a significant delay, which contributes to the high level of morbidity and mortality, experts say.

Ukrainian prosecutors said they had broadened a criminal investigation into pro-Russian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, accusing him of colluding to finance separatist forces in the eastern Donbas region.

The October 8 announcement increases pressure on Medvedchuk, whom prosecutors initially targeted in May with allegations of treason.

That has added to tensions between Moscow and Kyiv.

At a joint briefing in Kyiv, Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova accused Medvedchuk of conspiring with officials from former President Petro Poroshenko's government to buy coal from mines in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine, as a way to finance the separatists.

"We are talking about the sale of state interests and the financing of Russian terrorists," Ivan Bakanov, the head of the state security service, said at the briefing.

"While our soldiers were being killed at the front, the state sent suitcases of cash to the leaders of terrorist organizations," Venediktova said.

Poroshenko's party called the accusations an effort to divert attention from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy government's own wrongdoing.

Zelenskiy defeated Poroshenko in the 2019 election to win the presidency.

Medvedchuk's political party, Opposition Platform-For Life, also dismissed the new accusations and accused Zelenskiy's government of trying to "divert people's attention from their catastrophic failures."

Medvedchuk is a Ukrainian citizen but has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said Putin is godfather to his daughter.

His political party is the second largest in parliament.

Ukraine has been at war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Russia added a dozen new journalists and media organizations to its "foreign agents" list, including RFE/RL reporters and the open-source investigative group Bellingcat, as authorities tightened their grip on independent journalism in the country.

The move, on October 8, came hours after the chief editor of Russia's best-known independent newspapers won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The “foreign agent” list now includes dozens of reporters and media organizations, including some of Russia’s best-known journalism groups, as well as many prominent civil society and rights groups.

Being labeled as a “foreign agent” obligates individual journalists and media organizations to register with authorities, and label their content with an intrusive disclaimer, with criminal fines for not doing so.

That has led to several media organizations shutting down as they lose revenues from spooked advertisers.

The designation also restricts other media from citing a “foreign agent” organization without including a disclaimer, something that has caused confusion among some reporters.

SEE ALSO:

Who Has Russia Labeled As A 'Foreign Agent'?

The inclusion of Bellingcat, which has published major investigative stories about Russian intelligence’s efforts to poison political opponents, was noteworthy, since the group has no physical or legal presence inside of Russia.

But by including the group on the “foreign agent” list, that potentially means another Russian media organization could now be fined for citing Bellingcat’s reporting.

Aside from Bellingcat, the Justice Ministry on October 8 designated five RFE/RL journalists: Tatyana Voltskaya, Ekaterina Klepikovskaya, and Elena Solovyova, who collaborate with RFE/RL's Russian Service and its North Desk; Elizaveta Surnacheva, a Russian journalist who works for Current Time in Kyiv; and Current Time freelance TV journalist Roman Perl.

“Today’s targeting by the Kremlin of five Russian nationals who work for RFE/RL is just the latest attempt to silence independent media in Russia,” the company president, Jamie Fly, said in a statement. “We will continue to fight this absurd use of the 'foreign agent' law to control the information that the Russian people can access and engage with.”

RFE/RL was one of the first media organizations to be targeted under the law, which was originally adopted in 2012 then later expanded to including NGOs and media organizations. That includes RFE/RL’s Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time. Several RFE/RL correspondents have also been added to the list.

While some media organizations have shut down, others have complied with labeling requirements. RFE/RL, however, has not and now faces more than $4 million in fines and criminal liability for some of its top officials.

RFE/RL has filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights over the law and the fines.

Others added to the list on October 8 included journalists from TV Dohzd and the BBC Russian Service, as well as the publisher of Caucasian Knot, a website focused on the North Caucasus.

On September 1, editors in chief and publishers of more than 20 independent Russian publications demanded in an open letter that the current list of media "foreign agents" be canceled, and amended.

The new designations came hours after the Nobel Committee announced that Dmitry Muratov, the editor in chief of the newspaper Novaya gazeta, was a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, honoring him and Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa for the commitment to press freedoms.

In the two decades Muratov has led the newspaper, the publication has seen six of its journalists and contributors killed or assassinated.

Most of those killings have never been fully solved.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service and Current Time

International mediators say they are ready to facilitate a meeting between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia as the two Caucasus nations attempt to end their long-standing conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The co-chairs of the Minsk Group, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in an October 8 statement that they have taken “positive note” of statements by leaders of the two countries for their “readiness in principle to meet with each other” to seek a settlement.

“The co-chairs look forward to engaging the sides on modalities and details of such a meeting and reiterate their willingness to visit the region in the near future to discuss next steps in the process,” the Minsk Group said in a statement on the OSCE website.

On October 4, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed readiness to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss further steps to regulate the situation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

A week earlier, Aliyev said he was ready to meet with Pashinian if such a meeting were organized by the OSCE Minsk Group.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan, but the entire territory and seven surrounding districts were controlled by ethnic Armenian forces from the early 1990s until recently.

The two sides have skirmished regularly over the years.

Internationally mediated negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE involving the so-called Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States, and France, have been unable to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict.

In September 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive that resulted in Baku regaining control of the seven surrounding districts, and a significant chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh itself.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian and Azerbaijani Services

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden has congratulated journalists Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines after they won the “much-deserved” Nobel Peace Prize for their work promoting "the basic principles of the free press."

Muratov and Ressa “have pursued the facts -- tirelessly and fearlessly," Biden said in a statement on October 8.

"They have worked to check the abuse of power, expose corruption, and demand transparency,” he added.

"They have been tenacious in founding independent media outlets and defending them against forces that seek their silence."

Biden said that “for their commitment to the basic principles of the free press -- principles that are indispensable to a healthy democracy -- they have faced constant threats, harassment, and intimidation, legal action, and even, in the case of Muratov, the death of his colleagues.”

Muratov, 59, is one of the founders of Novaya gazeta in 1993 and has been the newspaper’s editor in chief for 24 years.

The Nobel committee said Novaya gazeta, which it described as “the most independent newspaper in Russia today,” has defended freedom of speech in Russia “under increasingly challenging conditions.”

The committee hailed the paper’s “critical attitude towards power” and its “fact-based journalism and professional integrity,” which it said “have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media” -- including corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, and electoral fraud.

Novaya gazeta has faced “harassment, threats, violence, and murder” since its start, with six of its journalists being killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, whose reporting exposed high-level corruption in Russia and rights abuses in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.

The award is accompanied by a gold medal and more than $1.14 million to share between the two laureates. The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

Muratov said part of the money he will receive will be used to treat children with serious illnesses and young journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had earlier congratulated Muratov, saying he was “talented and courageous,” while the spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the award was "well-deserved."

Russian authorities have been accused of increasingly cracking down on independent media outlets, civil society groups, rights activists, and others, using legislations on “undesirable” individuals or groups, as well as the so-called “foreign agents” law.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Russia recorded a new record-high daily death toll from COVID-19, as daily deaths exceed 900 for the fourth day in a row.

The national coronavirus task force said October 9 that 968 people had died of the disease over the past day.

That is more than 30 more than the previous day, and about 100 more than were recorded in late September.

The task force also said more than 29,000 new infections were confirmed over the past 24 hours.

The surging figures mirror trends in other countries, where the more contagious Delta variant has spread widely. However, Russian authorities have also blamed a stubbornly low vaccination rate.

Despite the Kremlin last year announcing the world’s first approved coronavirus vaccine, Russians have been reluctant to get vaccinated, either for one of five domestically produced vaccines or foreign-made vaccines which are less common in the country.

Tatyana Golikova, a deputy prime minister who oversees health policy, said on October 8 that almost 33 percent of Russia’s nearly 146 million people, had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

She said about 29 precent were fully vaccinated.

Despite the surging numbers, the Kremlin has resisted imposing a new nationwide lockdown, delegating the power to tighten restrictions to regional authorities.

In some areas of the country, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, life remains largely normal, with businesses operating as usual and mask mandates loosely enforced.

Many observers say the government is undercounting COVID-19 deaths, and the actual number is likely significantly higher.

The latest coronavirus data from the state statistical service Rosstat showed more than 254,000 deaths in the first eight months of 2021, surpassing the more than 163,000 coronavirus deaths for all of 2020.

By contrast, the coronavirus task force only counts the deaths of patients for whom COVID-19 was considered the main cause. Rosstat includes people who had COVID-19 but died of other causes, and those for whom the coronavirus was suspected but not confirmed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city was "far from peak numbers" and that the growing infections are largely linked to high detection rates.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and TASS

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has voiced support for the troops guarding the Belarusian frontier from illegal migration after reports that Belarusian forces allegedly fired shots -- possibly blank ammunition -- at Polish servicemen.

Morawiecki tweeted that "all state powers" were behind the border guards and the military.

Earlier on October 8, Polish Border Guards spokeswoman Anna Michalska said Belarusian forces fired shots across the European Union's eastern border on October 7, without specifying what forces were targeted.

Michalska said no one was injured and that most probably blank ammunition was used.

"I am and I always will be firmly with our soldiers and our Border Guards," Morawiecki said on Twitter. "I want to thank our services for their professional and responsible approach."

The Polish Foreign Ministry also summoned Alyaksandr Chasnowski, the chargé d'affaires of Belarus in Poland, "in connection with the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and the aggressive actions of the Republic of Belarus against Poland," the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.

In Belarus, State Border Guard Committee spokesman Anton Bychkouski rejected the claim, saying that the Belarusian border guards hadn't used weapons over the last 24 hours.

Bychkouski said that the committee had officially asked the Polish authorities to specify their claim, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

EU members Poland and Lithuania are facing a surge in migrants, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, crossing over from Belarus in what European officials say is retaliation by Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka for sanctions against him and his regime by the bloc.

SEE ALSO:

Poland Claims Mounting Evidence Minsk, Moscow Orchestrating Migrant Flow Across Border

Both countries have declared states of emergency that deny entry to some border regions to anyone except border guards and the security services.

They are also building razor-wire fences along their border with Belarus.

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

Russia's Justice Ministry has added more reporters, including five RFE/RL journalists, to the register of "foreign media agents."

Russia's "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires NGOs that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

Later modifications of the law targeted allegedly foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time. Several RFE/RL correspondents have also been added to the list.

In the latest such step, authorities added to the list the following journalists: Tatyana Voltskaya, Yekaterina Klepikovskaya, and Yelena Solovyova, who collaborate with RFE/RL's Russian Service and its North.Realities desk; Yelizaveta Surnacheva, a Russian journalist who works for Current Time in Kyiv; and Current Time freelance TV journalist Roman Perl.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly condemned the move as another attack on the free media in Russia and reaffirmed the media outlet's commitment to its Russian audiences.

"Today's targeting by the Kremlin of five Russian nationals who work for RFE/RL is just the latest attempt to silence independent media in Russia. We will continue to fight this absurd use of the 'foreign agent' law to control the information that the Russian people can access and engage with," Fly said.

"Our commitment to serving our audiences in Russia will not waver."

RFE/RL said in a statement that "due to its refusal to submit to the unjust and invasive content labeling provisions of the ‘foreign agent’ law, RFE/RL now faces nearly $4.4 million in fines, and the prospect of additional fines in the near future as well as criminal liability for the officers of its own Russia-based legal entity."

RFE/RL added that it has filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law and the fines.

"The ECHR has accepted the case on a priority basis, and has formally communicated its acceptance to the government of Russia. The Russian government is due to submit its observations on the admissibility and merits of the application by November 10," it added.

SEE ALSO:

Who Has Russia Labeled As A 'Foreign Agent'?

Also added to the list on October 8 were journalist Daniil Sotnikov, from independent news channel TV Dozhd and BBC Russian service correspondent Andrei Zakharov. Galina Arapova, director of the Media Rights Protection Center, and environmental activist Yevgeny Simonov were also included.

The register also added the Bellingcat investigation project, MEMO, the publisher of the Caucasian Knot website, and the U.S. firm Mason GES Anonymous Foundation, which owns the M.News online publication.

Some 85 people and organizations have so far been included on the "foreign agents" register, 68 of them since the beginning of the year.

On September 1, editors in chief and publishers of more than 20 independent Russian publications demanded in an open letter that the current list of media "foreign agents" be canceled, as well as 12 amendments to the current legislation on "foreign agents" be introduced.

The open letter was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko. The Kremlin has promised to consider the appeal of journalists to amend the law on "foreign agents."

Hungary says it is signing up to a 15 percent global minimum tax rate on multinational corporations, becoming the last member of the European Union to do so after Ireland and Estonia joined on October 7, bringing the international reform a step closer.

The agreement is aimed at preventing international corporations from paying less tax by registering in countries with low rates.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development brokered the deal, and it was approved by the Group of 20 in July.

"A compromise has come about that we are able to join wholeheartedly," Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said. "Hungary will be able to collect the global tax using a targeted solution."

"Hungary's position has been consistent throughout: we made it clear that we would only adopt a global minimum tax that does not lead to a tax increase in Hungary, does not endanger the competitive advantage of the Hungarian economy, and protects the workplaces of the Hungarian people," Varga said.

On October 7, Ireland dropped its opposition to the overhaul, agreeing to give up its 12.5 percent rate for large multinationals, which helped it lure Apple, Google, Facebook, and other large corporations to make Ireland the location for their European headquarters.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced the government's decision at a news conference, saying that joining the agreement ensures that Ireland "is part of the solution."

The decision is a reversal of the stated policy of successive Irish governments that vowed never to give up the low rate. Some 1,500 multinationals that will be hit by the higher rate currently employ around 400,000 people or one in six workers in Ireland, Donohoe said.

He said he nevertheless was "absolutely satisfied that our interests are better served within the agreement."

Estonia had been concerned that joining the reform could threaten its tech start-up sector, but Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on October 7 that it "will not change anything for most Estonian business operators, and it will only concern subsidiaries of large multinational groups."

The U.S. Treasury Department has pressed countries to support the global minimum tax.

"We are on the way to a generational achievement of creating a global minimum tax, which would create a more level playing field so jobs and investment can flourish in the United States," U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on October 7.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Romanian health authorities have reported 385 COVID-19 fatalities, a new record since the start of the pandemic, prompting doctors to urge a new lockdown.

Out of the total number of fatalities, 357 were registered over the past 24 hours while the rest were previous COVID-19 deaths that had not been reported before.

The number of new coronavirus infections in Romania -- with the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union -- rose by 13,854 in the past 24 hours.

Romania, one of the poorest countries in the EU, is suffering from a spike in deaths as a fourth wave described as "catastrophic" by President Klaus Iohannis takes hold.

The record -- 15,037 infections -- had been registered on October 5. A total of 1,332,221 cases have been registered in Romania since the start of the pandemic.

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Lines of ambulances have been waiting outside several hospitals in Bucharest and the northeastern city of Iasi for beds to become available, television footage showed. Doctors at the infectious-diseases hospital in Iasi on October 8 urged the authorities to impose an immediate lockdown to curb the infections.

Just one intensive-care bed was available on October 8 in the country of 19 million.

"I fear we are already in the Italy scenario," said Valeriu Gheorghita, the head of the national vaccination campaign, referring to the overwhelming of the health-care system in northern Italy during the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020.

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, Romania is considering transferring some 200-300 patients outside the country for treatment.

Neighboring Hungary has offered to help with sick patients, while the Netherlands and Poland have offered oxygen supplies within the framework of an EU-wide mutual support mechanism.

SEE ALSO:

Hungary Offers Help To Romania Amid COVID-19 Surge

Anti-vaccine sentiment is widespread in the country, especially in rural areas, fueled both by conspiracy theories on social media and a lack of trust in the authorities.

Missteps by the center-right government have added to the difficulties.

At the start of the vacation season in summer, the authorities allowed Romanians to mingle without masks and gave over-optimistic public messages, including a statement by Prime Minister Florin Citu in June, who said Romania had defeated the pandemic, although only 25 percent of the population was vaccinated at the time.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service, Digi24.ro, and AFP

TASHKENT -- During a visit to Kabul, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov discussed economic cooperation with the Taliban leadership and said he received "clear assurances" that the militant group will never pose any security threat to Uzbekistan.

Kamilov met separately with the acting deputy head of the Taliban-led government, Mulla Abdul Kabir, and the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, when he visited the Afghan capital on October 7, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted a video on social media showing Kamilov saying he had "received from our Afghan brothers strong and clear assurances that Afghanistan will never impose any threat or danger on Uzbekistan."

Muttaqi told reporters after his talks with Kamilov that the Taliban seeks to expand relations with Uzbekistan with a focus on economic projects.

"Talks were held with the friendly Uzbek foreign minister on electricity, railways, as well as the reconstruction of Mazar-e Sharif airport," he said.

The Taliban has sought to reassure Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan that it poses no threat after it gained control over much of the country in August.

The hard-line Islamist group's takeover has triggered alarm among neighboring Central Asian states over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to cross the border.

According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, the sides discussed the situation in Afghanistan, humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, and infrastructure projects in the war-torn country’s energy and transportation sectors.

The ministry statement also quoted Taliban leaders as expressing gratitude to Tashkent for calling on the international community to seek a "constructive dialogue" with Afghanistan’s new rulers and to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets held abroad.

The sides agreed to meet in the Uzbek city of Termiz, near the Afghan border, "in the nearest future" to discuss trade and economic cooperation between the two neighboring countries, it said.

This story includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.

ASHGABAT -- A top World Health Organization (WHO) official has traveled to Turkmenistan, whose government has denied any presence of coronavirus within the Central Asian state's borders.

Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov held "constructive" talks with WHO's regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, when the two met in Ashgabat on October 7.

Kluge's visit came as hospitals in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

Authorities in Turkmenistan continue to insist there are no coronavirus cases in the country, but they have imposed strict restrictions in territories where a high number of people with COVID-19 symptoms have been reported.

SEE ALSO:

Majlis Podcast: Will Turkmenistan Come Clean About COVID-19?

On October 6, several nongovernmental organizations issued an open letter in which they urged Kluge to publicly state the WHO's official position on the coronavirus situation in Turkmenistan.

According to the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation, Democratic Civil Union of Turkmenistan, Association of Independent Lawyers of Turkmenistan, Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, and Turkmen.News online newspaper, the epidemiological situation in Turkmenistan is dramatic due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The groups called on the WHO official to publicly challenge the Turkmen government regarding its promise to provide the UN agency with biological material of patients with COVID-19 symptoms so that they can be tested by independent, international labs.

In January, Kluge said Turkmenistan had failed to meet the WHO's request to send samples of Turkmen patients diagnosed with pneumonia for testing.

WHO officials previously visited Turkmenistan in July 2020, after which the authorities imposed restrictions to prevent the spread of the disease in the country.

The WHO officials at the time recommended Turkmenistan carry out measures "as if there is coronavirus in the country."

KYIV -- Ukraine's state-owned export-import bank lent $60 million to companies owned by a businessman with interests in parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, a new investigation has found.

The businessman, Serhiy Bryukhovetskiy, has also paid millions of Ukrainian hryvnyas in taxes to the separatists and put up as collateral for the loan a Kyiv shopping mall whose ownership is under dispute, according to the findings by Schemes (Skhemy), an investigative news project run by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in cooperation with UA: Pershy television.

The findings raise questions about why Ukreksimbank -- which is Ukraine's third-largest bank by assets and serves as the authorized financial agent for the government when making foreign loans -- was allowed to issue financing to an entity doing business with the separatists, possibly in violation of Ukrainian law.

The findings also come as Ukreksimbank's chief executive is under fire for a confrontation with Schemes reporters who raised the question of the loan as they interviewed him earlier this week.

SEE ALSO:

Ukrainian Bank Chief Under Investigation After Confrontation With RFE/RL Journalists

In April, the loan committee at Ukreksimbank authorized a $60 million loan to two companies controlled by another company owned by Bryukhovetskiy. The bank, which is nominally independent from government interference, is overseen by a supervisory board, whose members are, under the bank's governance rules, appointed by the cabinet after an independent competition. Observers say that, in fact, they usually represent the interests of three entities: Ukraine's president, Cabinet of Ministers, and parliament.

Corporate registry documents show that the parent company, registered in Horlikva, just north of the regional capital of Donetsk, specializes in the maintenance of equipment and machinery used in mines.

Mining for coal and other minerals is a major industry in eastern Ukraine. It is also major source of revenue for the separatists who have controlled parts of the area known as the Donbas and its mines since war against government forces erupted in April 2014.

Ukrainian authorities later imposed a trade blockade and made it illegal for Ukrainian companies to do business with companies in the separatist-held areas under a law prohibiting "terrorist financing." The blockade, however, is known to be porous, with some trade circumventing the prohibition.

Public records, however, show that Bryukhovetskiy's company paid around 1.4 million hryvnyas (about $50,000) to the separatists based in Donetsk in the first seven months of 2021 -- something that could be considered illegal under the "terrorist financing" law.

Schemes was unable to contact Bryukhovetskiy for comment. A request for comment submitted to Bryukhovetskiy's son-in-law, who is a member of Ukraine's parliament, went unanswered.

Sky Mall

Adding further to the mystery is the question of the collateral that Bryukhovetskiy put up to receive the Ukreksimbank loan: a Kyiv shopping mall known as Sky Mall, which has been at the center of a multinational legal battle pitting an Estonian businessman against a Ukrainian businessman.

The multiyear fight over the mall's ownership has been heard in London arbitration court and drawn a public warning from Estonia's president about investing in Ukraine. It has also been the target of investigations by Ukrainian authorities.

Bank documents seen by Schemes show Bryukhovetskiy's company in fact currently owns Sky Mall, something that had not been previously reported.

During an interview on October 4 at Ukreksimbank's Kyiv offices, Schemes sought commentary from bank CEO Yevhen Metsher, and showed him the ownership documents. Metsher became defensive, and he and his spokesman ordered a security guard to seize the cameras and memory cards of two Schemes reporters.

The journalists were allowed to leave the office after the interview was apparently deleted from their memory cards. But Schemes’ technicians managed to retrieve video showing the entire confrontation.

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Amid condemnation from top government officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, Metsher stepped down temporarily as CEO.

The day after the interview, Ukreksimbank released a statement saying that the information being sought by Schemes reporters was a "bank secret," and made the false assertion that the crew left the bank offices "without hindrance."

In a post to Facebook on October 5 that was later deleted, Metsher wrote: "What happened yesterday and is unfolding today around the bank's brand and my name is no longer journalism, but actions deliberately and purposefully aimed at provoking and tarnishing the reputation of management and its activities."

After the announcement that he was stepping down temporarily, Metsher posted another message to Facebook, and apologized to RFE/RL for his actions.

"I am ready to fully cooperate with the investigation. I am deeply confident that freedom of speech is an important element of Ukraine's development," he wrote. "Once more, I would like to express my sincere apologies to the journalistic community and personally to" the reporters involved.

On October 8, prosecutors announced that Metsher and two other bank employees were being criminally charged in connection with the confrontation with the Schemes reporters.

TBILISI -- Georgian police have detained several supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili who were protesting in front of the detention center where the former president is being held.

Dozens of people had gathered in front of the detention center in the city of Rustavi on October 8, and tried to write "Free Misha!" on its walls.

Well-known opposition activist Zviad Kuprava was among those detained.

Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 and incarcerated in Rustavi, hours after he announced he had returned to Georgia following an eight-year absence.

Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in 2018 and had lived in Ukraine in recent years.

Last month, he announced plans to fly home for the October 2 local elections despite facing prison, claiming he wanted to help "save the country" amid a protracted political crisis.

Saakashvili has been on hunger strike since the day of his arrest.