The Russian Justice Ministry has designated a human rights organization in the Far Eastern region of Yakutia a “foreign agent," as the authorities continue to tighten their grip on civil society across the country.

The nongovernmental group Yakutia - Our Opinion appeared on the list of "foreign media agents” on October 14, bringing the number of people and organizations on the register to 86.

The head of the organization, Stepan Petrov, was designated in August. He has written about corruption in Yakutia and called for a criminal investigation into the activities of the region’s head, Aisen Nikolaev.

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.

Hours after the editor in chief of Russia's best-known independent newspapers won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 14, the Justice Ministry designated a dozen new journalists and media organizations, including five RFE/RL journalists, in what RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called “just the latest attempt to silence independent media in Russia.”

TBILISI -- Thousands of people have gathered in the center of the Georgian capital demanding the release of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose detention earlier this month deepened a protracted political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

Shouting slogans such as “Free Misha” and waving national flags, the protesters filled Tbilisi’s Freedom Square and the city’s main thoroughfare, Rustaveli Avenue, in the evening of October 14.

Busloads of riot police were deployed outside the parliament building ahead of the demonstration, according to footage aired on television.

The 53-year-old Saakashvili declared a hunger strike following his arrest on October 1 and incarceration 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 and had lived in Ukraine in recent years.

In an address read out by his lawyer Nika Gvaramia to the protesters, Saakashvili said he had come back to Georgia to “contribute to the struggle of the Georgian people against poverty, corruption, injustice, destruction.”

He also called for the government linked to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, to be "defeated" and for Georgia to return to its pro-Western path.

Ahead of the demonstration, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told journalists that "inmate Saakashvili's sole goal is to stir up destabilisation and upheaval in the country."

The rally ended without reported incident after the participants sang the Georgian national anthem on Freedom Square.

Last month, Saakashvili announced plans to fly home for the October 2 nationwide local elections despite facing prison, claiming he wanted to help "save the country," amid political turmoil triggered last year after opposition parties said elections won by Georgian Dream were rigged.

In this month's vote, Georgia's main opposition force -- the United National Movement (ENM) that Saakashvili founded -- was outpolled decisively by Georgian Dream.

However, the party's mayoral candidates failed to surpass the required 50 percent threshold in the key cities of Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Poti, and Rustavi and runoffs are scheduled for October 30.

Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was sentenced in 2018 to a total of nine years in prison in absentia after being convicted of abuse of power in two separate cases. The ex-president has rejected all charges as politically motivated.

Saakashvili's doctor, Nikoloz Kipshidze, said on October 10 he needed to be transferred to hospital as his condition was worsening.

The Justice Ministry later said that Saakashvili’s “health condition is satisfactory.”

With reporting by AFP and Civil.ge

In a push to resume talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the European Union’s envoy charged with coordinating the negotiations met with Iranian officials in Tehran on October 14, as the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was in Washington to discuss the matter with his U.S. counterpart.

The nuclear accord, which offered Tehran the lifting of some international sanctions in exchange for a ramping down of its nuclear enrichment program under strict UN supervision, was left in tatters after the United States unilaterally pulled out of the pact in 2018.

The administration of then-President Donald Trump started reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran, while Tehran has progressively rolled back its own commitments to the deal.

Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran, via intermediaries from other parties to the accord -- Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia -- began in Vienna in April, but the talks were suspended following the June election of hard-dline Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Amid mounting pressure from EU countries and the United States for a swift resumption of talks, visiting EU chief negotiator Enrique Mora met with Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri, who in charge of the nuclear file for Iran.

"I will raise the urgency" of resuming the talks, Mora tweeted before his arrival in Tehran.

Bagheri tweeted that the meeting would include talks about the "removal of cruel sanctions."

The EU spokesman on foreign affairs said Mora was in Iran underlining the "urgency of resuming discussions," adding: "We are awaiting the Iranians' response."

Peter Stano also said that Borrell was in Washington to discuss the nuclear accord with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who the previous day warned of "other options" if diplomacy fails.

"A meeting will be called if all parties are in agreement and are all ready," Stano said, adding that “there is an urgent need to resume discussions very soon."

U.S. President Joe Biden, who took office in January, has signaled a willingness to return to the nuclear deal, which was designed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said they were ready to resume talks "soon," but no date has yet been announced.

On October 13, Blinken expressed hope for the success of talks with Iran, but warned that "the runway that we have left to do that is getting shorter and shorter."

As his visiting Israeli counterpart, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, reserved the right to use force against Iran, Blinken told reporters: "We are prepared to turn to other options if Iran doesn't change course."

He did not elaborate.

Tehran warned Israel in a letter to the UN Security Council chief on October 14 against “any miscalculation or military adventure targeting Iran and its nuclear program."

In the letter published by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, Iran's ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi accused Israel of taking its "provocative and adventurous threats...to alarming levels."

Israel has been engaged in a shadow war with Iran, targeting its military sites in Syria and carrying out a sabotage campaign against its nuclear program.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of serious human rights violations as the two Caucasus states who fought a six-week war last year faced off at the UN court in The Hague on October 14.

Armenian representative Yeghishe Kirakosian made the accusation as a hearing opened at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) into a request by Armenia for judges to impose urgent interim measures to prevent Azerbaijan breaching an international convention to stamp out ethnic discrimination.

The case stems from last year's war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that left more than 6,600 people dead. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since the end of a separatist war the early 1990s.

Kirakosian said Armenia wasn't asking the court to rule on the root causes of the war, but “seeks to prevent and remedy the cycle of violence and hatred perpetrated against ethnic Armenians."

Addressing the court, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov rejected Armenia's "inaccurate picture" and defended his country's actions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan also has filed a similar case alleging discrimination against its citizens by Armenia and also has requested the world court to impose interim measures.

Hearings in the Azerbaijan case are scheduled to start on October 25. Rulings on both requests will likely be issued in coming weeks.

Both nations' cases alleging breaches of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination will likely take years to reach their conclusion at the ICJ.

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 end of a separatist war in 1994 until last year's war.

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.

The conflict ended when Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian signed a Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement that granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as adjacent territories occupied by Armenians.

Armenia says more than 3,700 Armenians and Nagorno-Karabakh residents died in the war. Azerbaijan said it lost 2,900 people.

Late on October 14, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed by sniper fire from Armenian forces located in territory under the control of Russian troops deployed in the area as part of a peace accord.

The ministry said it had called on a joint Russian-Turkish monitoring mission based in Azerbaijan to investigate.

There was no immediate comments from Armenian officials.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa

Jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, a group of Afghan women, and a jailed Bolivian opposition politician are the final three candidates for the European Parliament's top human rights prize.

The announcement of the shortlisted finalists for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was made on October 14 in Brussels by David McAllister, chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

McAllister said the nomination of the 12 Afghan women was "a strong signal of support for safeguarding women's rights and fundamental rights and those who defend them not only in Afghanistan but also worldwide."

The Afghan women include: Shaharzad Akbar, Mary Akrami, Zarifa Ghafari, Palwasha Hassan, Freshta Karim, Sahraa Karimi, Metra Mehran, Horia Mosadiq, Sima Samar, Habiba Sarabi, and Anisa Shaheed.

McAllister said the nomination of Navalny "recognizes and underscores the efforts of a courageous individual to stand up for democratic governance, the rule of law, civic freedoms, and the fight against corruption."

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Urges Associates Who Have Fled Russia To Continue Anti-Corruption Work From Abroad

Navalny was jailed in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for a poisoning he said was ordered by the Kremlin, a charge Moscow denies.

Navalny was subsequently sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on a parole violation charge that he denounces as politically motivated.

The third and final candidate shortlisted for the Sakharov Prize is Jeanine Anez, a jailed Bolivian opposition politician.

The winner is due to be announced on October 21, with the award ceremony scheduled to take place in Strasbourg on December 15.

The 50,000-euro ($58,000) Sakharov prize, which recognizes human rights activists and dissidents around the world, is awarded annually in memory of Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.

Last year, the prize was awarded to Belarus's democratic opposition, which staged weeks of protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka following a disputed presidential election that the strongman claimed to have won, but which the opposition and the West said was heavily rigged in his favor.

Russia has again reported new record daily figures related to COVID-19.

For the third day in a row, the country's coronavirus task force registered a new record number of deaths -- 986 -- in the last 24 hours, and 31,299 new cases, its highest one-day infection tally since the pandemic began.

The case tally announced on October 14 marked the first time Russia has officially reported more than 30,000 cases in a single day.

The Kremlin has blamed the rising death toll on Russia's slow vaccination campaign and has appealed to people to get the shot. Take-up has been slow, with many Russians citing distrust of the authorities and fear of new medical products.

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Russia was fast to develop and launch its Sputnik V vaccine when the pandemic struck last year and has since approved four vaccines for use.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

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

Despite the surge in infections and deaths, the Kremlin has ruled out a nationwide lockdown, delegating the power to make decisions on toughening coronavirus restrictions to regional authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized on October 12 the importance of broad vaccination and urged lawmakers to help encourage the population to get the shots.

"We must patiently and persistently work with people and explain all the advantages of prophylactics against this dangerous disease," Putin told a meeting with newly elected Russian lawmakers.

Around one-third of the population -- 43 million -- has been inoculated, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on October 12.

Based on reporting by Interfax and Reuters

A Russian court has imposed one year of restrictions on the freedom of movement on Anastasia Vasilyeva, the head of the Alliance of Doctors labor union, who used to treat jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, after finding her guilty of breaching COVID-19 safety rules.

Vasilyeva was prosecuted for urging people earlier this year to join a protest against Navalny's imprisonment that authorities said was illegal due to COVID-19 safety restrictions.

In March, the Alliance of Doctors was placed on the state's controversial "foreign agents" list, which has been used to stymie monitoring groups and the media, to disqualify prominent opposition candidates, to drive opposition leaders to flee the country, and to restrict access to volunteers and fundraising for any person or group placed on it.

Vasilyeva treated Navalny in 2017 for an injury to his right eye after he was targeted by Kremlin supporters, and voiced support for him after the opposition leader's arrest earlier this year.

But she publicly broke ties with the Kremlin critic's exiled associates last month as the authorities stepped up a crackdown against them.

In a Facebook post on September 16, Vasilyeva accused Navalny's now-defunct Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) of leaving her and her team without any support after "using" them, saying that Navalny associates Leonid Volkov, Ivan Zhdanov, and Maria Pevchikh, who currently live outside of Russia, "are ruining everything that we once created."

Vasilyeva's post sparked a heated reaction online, with many believing that she was forced to make the statement on the eve of parliamentary elections as the Kremlin-backed ruling party, United Russia, which has seen its support slump, looked to retain power.

Vasilyeva, who famously played her piano while police ransacked her apartment in January during a crackdown over the past year against Navalny and his allies, had been under increasing pressure from the authorities.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Prosecutors Seek 'Restricted Freedom' For Yet Another Navalny Aide In 'Sanitary Case'

Some compared Vasilyeva's situation with that of Belarusian blogger Raman Pratasevich, once a critic of his country's strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his crackdown on the opposition.

Pratasevich was arrested along with his girlfriend in Minsk on May 23 after Belarusian authorities forced their Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in the Belarusian capital. He later changed his public stance and views on the political situation in Belarus, a move many opposition leaders say appeared to be made under duress.

The beginning of the year marked Navalny's return to Russia following treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning he claims was carried out by Russian security agents at Putin's behest.

Navalny was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation on a charge that he denounces as politically motivated.

Thousands of Russians were detained during nationwide protests calling for his release and later the FBK and his network of regional offices were shut down as "extremist" organizations.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

The head of the Russian sovereign fund that has backed development of Sputnik V says Russia is ready to provide up to 300 million doses of the vaccine to the COVAX initiative, the UN-backed program designed to share vaccines more evenly around the world.

That's despite the lack of World Health Organization (WHO) approval of Sputnik V and production issues that are drawing concerns worldwide.

Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriyev and the WHO had different views on October 13 on when the Russian vaccine would get the WHO's stamp of approval, which is required before the vaccine can be used in the COVAX program.

Dmitriyev said the Russian vaccine will be made available to COVAX once it is approved by the WHO. He expects the approval to come in the next two months.

"We believe that we can supply COVAX around 200 million doses a year --200 to 300 million," Dmitriyev said in an interview with the AP. "We just need the WHO approval to work with COVAX."

But Mariangela Simao, the WHO's assistant director-general for access to health products, wouldn't make any commitment to a timetable.

She said the approval process for Sputnik V was currently on hold, and once the legal procedures are sorted out, "we will reopen the assessment, which includes the submission of the data in the dossier...and resuming the inspections in the sites in Russia."

The timeline will depend on when the WHO gets the legal procedures done and then it will be able to assess what would be the next step and how long it will take, Simao said at a briefing in Geneva.

Sputnik V is already being used in 70 countries around the world. Some government officials, particularly in Latin America, have expressed concerns they aren't getting the vaccine's second shot in time to properly inoculate their people.

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Also on October 13, the WHO says the number of global coronavirus cases fell in the last week, continuing a downward trend that began in late August.

The agency said there were about 2.8 million new cases and 46,000 confirmed deaths in the last week, a drop of 7 percent and 10 percent respectively. Europe reported a 7 percent rise in cases, while all other world regions reported a decrease.

WHO says Europe also had the biggest rise in deaths in the previous week, with 11 percent more COVID-19 deaths. WHO says the highest numbers of new cases in Europe were reported in Britain, Turkey, and Russia.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

The United States and Israel say they are exploring a Plan B for dealing with Iran if Tehran does not return in good faith to negotiations to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said discussions between their two countries had begun on "other options" should Iran reject an offer to come back into compliance with the agreement if the United States rejoins. They did not elaborate on what the options might be.

"We will look at every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran," Blinken said on October 13 at a joint news conference at the State Department with Lapid and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed.

The three-way talks were held to try to expand on the so-called Abraham Accords, agreements that were signed under the Trump administration to normalize relations between Israel and the U.A.E. and other Arab states.

Then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran. President Joe Biden has signaled a willingness to return to the deal if Tehran returns to full compliance.

Blinken said on October 13 that "time is running short" for Iran to return to compliance with the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but declined to give a date at which it would be too late.

"We are getting close to a point at which returning to compliance with the JCPOA will not in and of itself recapture the benefits of the JCPOA and that's because Iran has been using this time to advance its nuclear program in a variety of ways," Blinken said.

Lapid was more blunt, repeating Israel's warnings that it will act with military force if necessary to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

"There are moments when nations must use force to protect the world from evil," he said. "If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon we must act. We must make clear that the civilized world won't allow it. If the Iranians don't believe the world is serious about stopping them, they will race to the bomb."

SEE ALSO:

EU Envoy To Visit Iran, Raise 'Urgency' To Resume Nuclear Talks

Rob Malley, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, said Washington was ready to consider "all options" if Iran is unwilling to return to compliance with the deal.

"We will be prepared to adjust to a different reality in which we have to deal with all options to address Iran's nuclear program if it's not prepared to come back into the constraints," Malley said on October 13 in a virtual appearance at a Washington think tank.

"There is every possibility that Iran will choose a different path, and we need to coordinate with Israel and other partners in the region," he added.

The State Department said Malley would travel to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia from October 15-21 to coordinate with Persian Gulf allies.

Iran has hinted that it's ready to return to indirect negotiations with the United States in Vienna but has not committed to a date. The talks between Iran and the remaining parties to the agreement -- Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia -- have been on hold since a June election in Iran that brought to power hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi has stressed the need for sanctions to be lifted through diplomatic means amid concerns that his negotiating team could make new demands. Iran has long denied any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.

Enrique Mora, the top European diplomat coordinating the international talks to revive the deal, is traveling to Iran on October 14 to push for a resumption of the talks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is expected to lead Iran's new negotiating team, confirmed that he would meet Mora.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Imprisoned Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny says his supporters who have left Russia in the face of growing repression can continue their efforts to oppose the Russian government from abroad.

"We have not emigrated but have been forced to temporarily change the location of our office," Navalny wrote in a letter to his employees and associates published by the Latvia-based independent news site Meduza on October 13.

Navalny urged his supporters not to think about what harm may come to him when they publish materials and investigations.

"Publish. Be careful. Work without looking back. We are not negotiating with the hostage-taking terrorists," Navalny said in the letter.

Navalny said that leading members of his organizations, including Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, who are among several Navalny associates who have fled the country this year, had rebuilt the infrastructure of his groups abroad.

He thanked Volkov and Zhdanov along with Lyubov Sobol, Maria Pevchikh, and others for being able to preserve the infrastructure of his team under pressure. He also asked supporters who were forced to leave Russia not to think that they are "foreign opposition" but to continue working for the good of the country.

"It is not yet clear what kind of animal we will become, but definitely beautiful. And fast. And brave. And with sharp teeth," Navalny said.

Navalny's letter also gave a renewed assessment of his voting system's success in the September parliamentary elections, which he said "gouged" the United Russia party.

But Navalny also admitted that the Russian authorities used every opportunity to stop his Smart Voting strategy, and they "basically succeeded." However, he said the Russian leadership will pay a great price for this.

SEE ALSO:

Activist In Siberia Says He Fled Russia To Avoid Jail Amid Crackdown On Dissent

Navalny is one of the most prominent opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was arrested in Moscow in January after returning from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning.

He and his supporters say the poisoning was carried out by Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives at the behest of Putin in retribution for Navalny's political activities. The Kremlin has denied any role in the incident.

In February, Navalny was convicted of violating the terms of a suspended sentence related to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated. The remainder of Navalny's suspended sentence, 2 1/2 years, was then replaced with a real prison term.

SEE ALSO:

Researcher Says Raw Voting Data Points To Massive Fraud In United Russia's Duma Victory

A Moscow court in June declared Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) political network "extremist," but its members pledged to continue their efforts to campaign for change and expose corruption in the upper echelons of power.

The Moscow City Court ruling prevents people associated with the FBK from and his collection of regional political offices from seeking public office.

Putin, meanwhile, on October 13 said that Navalny and other opposition figures were being held in prison for breaking laws, not for their political activities.

"They have been repeatedly forgiven for their violations of the law, but at some point there had to be consequences," Putin told international attendees at Russian Energy Week.

With reporting by dpa and Meduza

YouTube has blocked a channel belonging to a U.S. news organization known for its coverage of Central Asia, Caucasus, and Russia, after state media in authoritarian Turkmenistan complained about copyright violations.

The site, Eurasianet, said it was notified by Google-owned YouTube that its channel was being blocked after receiving several "takedown notices" over several days this week.

The notices, YouTube said, were filed by Watan Habarlary, the official TV channel belonging to Turkmenistan's State Committee on Television, Radio Broadcasting, and Cinematography.

David Trilling, managing editor for Eurasianet, said the site had struggled to find someone at YouTube to appeal the decision. He said that Eurasianet's website, which publishes mainly in English and Russian, is itself blocked in Turkmenistan, as is YouTube.

"It's ironic given that [YouTube] is blocked in Turkmenistan...just like every other social-media company," he told RFE/RL

Trilling said the organization's YouTube channel had a couple thousand subscribers, and was mainly used to clip videos from the nightly newscast by Turkmen state TV, and embed them in web articles about Turkmenistan. The organization republished the clips under fair-use laws, and were contextualized to give them added news value.

An e-mail sent to Turkmenistan's embassy in Washington, D.C., was not immediately responded to. YouTube did not respond to a message sent by RFE/RL to its main complaints e-mail address.

Eurasianet isn't the first news organization or foreign organization reporting on Turkmenistan to be hit with copyright strikes from YouTube. In May, the Chronicles of Turkmenistan, run by an Austrian-based opposition group, also reportedly had its YouTube channel blocked after complaints from Turkmen state media.

One of the most closed countries in the world, Turkmenistan is run by an authoritarian government that controls all media and strictly limits Internet access and outside media. State media devotes lavish coverage to the country's president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. The country has some of the world's largest natural-gas reserves.

SEE ALSO:

The Son Rises In Turkmenistan

Trilling said Eurasianet was seeking to move its small online video presence to a smaller network, Vimeo.

YouTube's move comes amid growing questions about the reach and clout of U.S. technology and social-media companies, who critics say hold outsized power to censor, or amplify, people or organizations.

Critics say some of the biggest technology companies -- Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, for example -- have also shown a willingness to bend to the demands of authoritarian governments, to censor information that, for example, might embarrass the government.

In the run-up to last month's elections for Russia's lower house of parliament, Russia demanded that Google and Apple remove from their stores an app that was used by opposition activist Aleksei Navalny to promote candidates who were not from the Kremlin-allied ruling party.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny App Disappearance Shows Russia's Strength In The Battle Against Big Tech

Another popular tech platform, the Telegram messaging app, also removed some Navalny-linked information prior to the election.

Both Google and Apple have local employees in Russia, and the authorities threatened to prosecute them if the U.S. tech giants did not remove the Navalny-backed app.

Other countries like Turkey and India have also increasingly pressured the tech companies to remove or outright censor some political speech.

Housed at Columbia University's Harriman Institute, Eurasianet is a private nonprofit corporation, funded by grants from the Open Society Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Romanian doctors have issued an open letter titled A Cry Of Despair as the country's overwhelmed health-care system copes with a surge of coronavirus infections and deaths.

The College of Physicians of Bucharest, a nongovernmental organization representing doctors in Romania's capital, said in an October 13 letter that the medical system had "reached the limit" and that low vaccination rates revealed a "failure of trust."

"We are desperate because every day we lose hundreds of patients who die in Romanian hospitals," the letter reads. "We are desperate, because, unfortunately, we have heard too many times: I can't breathe.… I'm not vaccinated."

SEE ALSO:

Their COVID Certificates Were Fake But Now They Want To Get Vaccinated: Forgery And Regret In Romania And Bulgaria

One of the poorest countries in the EU, Romania is suffering from a spike in COVID-19 deaths amid a fourth wave described by officials as "catastrophic."

On October 13, Romania-- the EU member state with the second-lowest vaccination rate -- recorded 442 deaths and nearly 17,000 new confirmed virus cases.

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.

"Every day we witness tragedies: dying patients, suffering families, doctors who have reached the end of their powers," the letter from Bucharest's doctors reads.

The pressure on hospitals prompted Romanian officials last week to suspend nonemergency medical procedures for 30 days and to ask the EU for help.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on October 13 that his country will help Romania treat 50 COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care. Szijjarto said the 50 people would be treated at two Hungarian hospitals and the countries would work out the logistics over the coming days.

SEE ALSO:

Hungary Offers Help To Romania Amid COVID-19 Surge

Janez Lenarcic, the EU commissioner for crisis management, said last week that the EU would send 250 oxygen generators to Romania.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service, AP and Reuters

The top European diplomat coordinating international talks to revive the 2015 nuclear with Iran is traveling to Iran to push for a resumption of nuclear talks that have stalled amid a change of government in Iran.

Enrique Mora said on Twitter on October 13 that he will raise "the urgency" to resume nuclear talks in Vienna.

"Crucial to pick up talks from where we left last June to continue diplomatic work," Mora said, noting that his trip comes "at a critical point in time."

Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is expected to lead Iran's new negotiating team, confirmed that he would meet Mora.

"Exchanging views on bilateral & regional issues including Afghanistan, as well as talks on removal of cruel sanctions, are on the agenda," Bagheri Kani said on Twitter on October 13.

Mora's trip to Tehran comes amid mounting pressure from EU countries as well as the United States for a swift resumption of talks on the revival of the nuclear agreement, which restricted Iran's sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Tehran has said repeatedly that it is ready to resume talks "soon," while being vague about the time frame.

SEE ALSO:

Blinken, Lavrov Discuss Iran Nuclear Deal As Tehran Signals Talks 'Days' Away

Diplomats from Britain, France, and Germany were quoted by Reuters as saying that Mora's visit cannot be considered "business as usual" given the worsening nuclear situation on the ground.

"The visit comes at an important time, as the Vienna talks on a full return to the JCPOA have now been suspended by Iran for almost four months," the diplomats from said in a note.

"The situation in the nuclear field has been worsening and worsening continuously since then. For this reason, we do not see this visit as 'business as usual,' but rather as a crucial visit in the crisis."

"The European capitals, including Berlin...must give their clear assurance to the Islamic republic that this time, no party will violate the nuclear deal," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on October 12, referring to the 2018 withdrawal from the deal by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran.

Tehran reacted by gradually decreasing its commitments under the accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled a willingness to return to the deal if Tehran returns to full commitment.

Speaking on October 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that "time is running short" for Iran to return to compliance with the 2015 deal and that Washington would look at every option to deal with the challenge posed by Tehran.

"We are getting close to a point at which returning to compliance with the JCPOA will not in and of itself recapture the benefits of the JCPOA and that’s because Iran has been using this time to advance its nuclear program in a variety of ways," Blinken said.

Talks in Vienna between Iran and the remaining parties to the agreement -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- have been on hold since a June election in Iran that brought to power hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi has stressed the need for sanctions to be lifted through diplomatic means amid concerns that his negotiating team could make new demands. Mora attended Raisi's inauguration in August.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asserted the United States ignored Afghanistan's history and culture when it invaded, as he lamented what he said was a tragedy in the country.

Putin spoke on October 13 at a Moscow energy forum, just days before Russia was to host members of the Taliban-led government for talks on Afghanistan's future.

"Freedom and democracy, they cannot be disconnected from the culture and traditions of a certain people," Putin said, responding to a question from the forum moderator. "The United States intruded into Afghanistan in defiance of the traditions, culture, and history of the Afghan people. The result was tragic."

Putin made no mention of Moscow's own history in Afghanistan, beginning with the 1979 Soviet invasion to bolster the communist government in Kabul. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, Afghanistan descended into chaos and civil war, before the Taliban took control of the country in the mid-1990s for the first time.

Russia was also a quiet supporter of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, giving approval for Washington to use bases in Central Asia, and Russian supply routes to help equip U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

In August 2021, nearly 20 years after the U.S. invasion, the United States withdrew its forces, and the Taliban swept to power and seized Kabul as the Western-backed government collapsed.

Though Russia has outlawed the Taliban as a terrorist group, Moscow has sought to capitalize on the U.S. withdrawal and build ties with the new government in Kabul.

SEE ALSO:

Reports: Russia Invites Taliban To Moscow For Afghanistan Talks

Amnesty International has called on Iran to carry out an "impartial and transparent" investigation into the "suspicious" death in custody of prisoner Shahin Naseri, who claimed that he witnessed the torture of champion wrestler Navid Afkari before his execution on homicide charges.

The London-based rights group said it has received information that a day before his death in custody, Naseri called at least two people from the prison clinic using another prisoner's phone, expressed fears about his life being in danger, and indicated he'd been transferred from his regular ward to a cell intended for solitary confinement, but at the time used to detain several prisoners.

Iranian authorities said last month that they were investigating Naseri's death after the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group quoted unnamed sources as saying Naseri had died under "suspicious circumstances" in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary after being transferred to solitary confinement.

SEE ALSO:

Iran Confirms Death Of Prisoner Who Claimed He Witnessed Torture Of Champion Wrestler

The rights group said the source told it that Naseri had been transferred to an unknown location on the anniversary of the execution of Afkari, who had been convicted of murdering a security guard during mass anti-government protests in 2018.

Afkari was hanged on September 12, 2020, despite an international outcry after he said he was tortured into making a false confession, while his attorney said there was no proof of his guilt.

Iran's judiciary dismissed the torture claim.

Naseri claimed he witnessed Afkari being subjected to a severe beating by two plainclothes agents and that he had heard him scream.

A statement by the General Directorate Of Prisons of Tehran Province on September 23 said Naseri died 45 minutes after being taken to a prison clinic, where resuscitation efforts, including cardiac massage and artificial respiration, failed to save him.

The statement, which said Naseri was serving a prison term for fraud, theft, and forgery, added that the cause of his death was being investigated and would be announced later.

In a report released in September, Amnesty International said it had recorded at least 72 such deaths in custody since January 2010 despite credible reports that the deaths were the result of torture or other ill-treatment, or the lethal use of firearms and tear gas by officials.

The rights group said not a single Iranian official had been held accountable for these deaths.

PRISTINA -- Ethnic Serbian villagers have blocked roads and clashed with police in northern Kosovo as police units conducted sweeps aimed at cracking down on cross-border smuggling.

The October 13 violence left at least 20 people injured, including police officers, and renewed fears of wider violence and tension between Pristina and Belgrade. It also prompted a new warning from the European Union.

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An RFE/RL crew that was covering the unrest, near the village of Rudare, was attacked by a mob that surrounded the taxi the journalists were traveling in and broke the crew's camera. The reporters escaped without injury.

Clashes were also reported in North Mitrovica, not far from Rudare, where trucks and other vehicles were parked on main roads, blocking traffic. Tear gas was fired to disperse crowds in North Mitrovica, and another nearby village, Zvecan.

At least eight people were arrested, Kosovar officials said. Of the 20 injuries, 10 were police officers, according to Sabedin Mehmeti, director of Kosovo's police.

Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla pushed back on assertions the sweep was aimed at local Serbs, saying that most of those arrested were ethnic Albanians.

"This operation is not directed against any nationality. This operation is directed against criminals who smuggled goods illegally in Kosovo," Svecla told a news conference.

In a statement earlier, the police said the violence broke out in the town of North Mitrovica when "criminal groups...created roadblocks with various means of transport, [and] used gas cylinders, shock bombs, gunfire and hand grenades, in order to prevent and attack customs and police officials who have been on duty."

The violence came just weeks after the resolution of another dispute between Kosovo and Serbia over license-plate requirements that were imposed by Kosovo.

Ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo balked at the new rules, and blockaded parts of the border. At one point, Serbia sent fighter jets and helicopters flying along the border, and Kosovo sent riot police to the region.

SEE ALSO:

Vehicles, Their State Symbols Hidden, Now Crossing Kosovar-Serbian Border

EU officials ultimately brokered an agreement between the two sides, and troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping forces in the country, known as KFOR, deployed to the region.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who won office pledging greater "reciprocity" in relations between Pristina and Belgrade, defended the police sweeps, and promised officials would continue cracking down on smuggling.

"Crime and criminal groupings will not be tolerated and will be fought," Kurti said. "We shall fight and prevent smuggling."

In Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic demanded that the international community, including KFOR, help avoid "wider chaos."

"The situation is more than dramatic and this is the last moment in which a clear reaction is needed to stop the crazy policy pursued by Pristina," Brnabic said in a statement. "This kind of behavior has gone beyond any measure and leads us to the brink of chaos."

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was reportedly headed to the town of Raska, on the Serbian side of the border, for meetings with representatives of Serbian communities in Kosovo.

During the license-plate standoff last month, Vucic had threatened direct sanctions before the European Union brokered an agreement.

Serbia, which doesn't recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, has imposed a similar requirement on Kosovar-registered vehicles for years.

A U.S. State Department spokesman called for calm following the clashes: "The United States urges calm in response to the events in Kosovo today. We will continue to work with EU and NATO partners to help all parties maintain progress in normalizing relations and reducing tensions."

The European Union's foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell, called for an end to the violence.

"The violent incidents in the north of Kosovo need to stop immediately. Unilateral and uncoordinated actions that endanger stability are unacceptable," Borrell said on Twitter.

"All open issues must be addressed through the EU-facilitated Dialogue," he added.

President Vladimir Putin has defended the reliability of Russia's natural-gas exports to Europe, saying Moscow was ready to supply even more gas and rejecting accusations that it was using energy exports as a political tool.

Speaking at an energy conference in Moscow on October 13, Putin also brushed off suggestions that Russia was contributing to the record-high gas prices that have rattled European capitals.

"The problem isn't ours; it's the Europeans'" he told the conference.

Putin's remarks came as the European Commission on October 13 presented what it termed a "toolbox" for member states to use to protect households and businesses against the rapidly rising energy prices.

Gas prices across Europe, and other parts of the world, have soared to record levels in recent weeks.

That's caused a spike in electricity prices in countries where gas is the primary fuel for power stations, and it's pushed up household rates -- all before the onset of colder, winter temperatures.

SEE ALSO:

Winter Is Coming: Europe's Gas Markets Hit Unusual Turbulence -- And Eyes Turn To Moscow

Some analysts, and European lawmakers, have pointed the finger at Russia, which is Europe's single-largest supplier. Its state-controlled gas-export monopoly supplier, Gazprom, has declined to book additional transit space on Ukrainian pipelines, even as prices have spiked.

But other experts have pointed to a combination of factors including disruptions with supplies from Norway -- another important energy supplier -- and the fact that U.S. liquified natural gas is being diverted to East Asian markets, where gas prices have been higher.

Another factor is last year's winter, which was colder and longer than normal, and many storage facilities have not yet been able to replenish reserves.

Russia has historically relied on pipeline networks across Ukraine to supply Europe. But in recent years, Moscow has built bypass pipelines -- Turk Stream, under the Black Sea; Nord Stream, under the Baltic Sea.

A second Baltic Sea pipeline, Nord Stream 2, which is complete and awaiting approval from German regulators, will significantly increase volumes of Russian gas supplied to Europe.

Putin said Russia was fulfilling its contract obligations and that Moscow was ready to increase gas exports, though he did not say how, when, and via what routes.

"If they ask us to increase [deliveries] more, we are ready to do so. We are increasing them as much as our partners are asking us," he said.

The commission, meanwhile, said the current price spike required a "rapid and coordinated response" at EU level and the existing legal framework allowed the EU to take action to address the immediate impacts.

Among the measures proposed by Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on October 13 were emergency income support to households, state aid for companies, and targeted tax reductions.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Azerbaijan and Iran have agreed to resolve their diplomatic crisis through dialogue amid tensions that erupted last month over exercises near their shared border and a dispute over a possible Israeli military presence in Azerbaijan.

Both sides announced the de-escalation effort on October 13 after they said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had spoken by phone the previous evening.

"The sides noted that recent rhetoric has harmed bilateral relations and that any differences should be settled through dialogue," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In September, Iran protested and threatened unspecified action over what it alleged was the presence of archenemy Israel in Azerbaijan, which reportedly used Israeli drones last year in an intense battle with Armenia over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Baku has denied that there's an Israeli presence in the country.

Iran's military then staged major exercises near the border with Azerbaijan, further ratcheting up tensions.

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: What's Behind Fresh Tensions On The Iran-Azerbaijan Border?

Azerbaijani authorities' imposition of customs duties on Iranian truck drivers bound for Armenia has also grated on relations.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on October 13 that Amir-Abdollahian had stressed that both sides' would like to "avoid misunderstandings and boost relations."

"Tehran and Baku have enemies and the two governments should not give them the opportunity to disrupt relations," Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

Baku has long bristled at Tehran's backing of Armenia in its decades-long "frozen conflict" with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring districts.

Based on reporting by AFP

Russia's Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of gulag historian Yury Dmitriyev, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing his foster daughter. The decision was announced on the court's website.

"Refusal to transfer the case for consideration in the session of the court of cassation," said the case card on the court's website.

The Supreme Court's decision comes after a St. Petersburg appeals court also rejected the request by Dmitriyev, who has said the charges brought by prosecutors were based on fabricated evidence.

Dmitriyev, 65, who is also the head of the Karelian branch of the Memorial rights group, was arrested on charges related to child pornography in 2016 based on photographs of his foster daughter that authorities found on his computer.

He said the images were not pornographic and were made at the request of social workers concerned about the child's physical development.

In July last year, he was found guilty, and he was scheduled to be freed in November due to time served.

But a court in the northwestern Karelia region, where Dmitriyev lives, abruptly added a decade to his sentence and ordered him held in a high-security prison.

Dmitriyev's historical work has focused on exposing the victims of the 1937-38 Great Terror, in which nearly 700,000 people were executed.

After the Soviet collapse, he found a mass grave containing thousands of bodies of Great Terror victims.

Memorial has said the accusations against Dmitriyev were groundless.

German authorities have complained of a flood of illegal migrants via the "Belarus route" while Polish officials have announced plans to permanently strengthen the border with Belarus as a long-running border crisis mounts between EU states and the regime in Minsk.

The German Federal Police said on October 13 that the flow of migrants arriving via Poland and Belarus has spiked with more than 4,300 illegal entrants to the country since August, amid a long-running crisis in which the European Union has accused Minsk of "weaponizing" refugees.

They said on October 13 that most of the undocumented migrants arriving via the "Belarus route" are from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

They are mostly being housed at asylum reception centers in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, police said.

"The situation is not drastic, but it is hard," Olaf Jansen, head of the central foreigners' office in the eastern German town of Eisenhuettenstadt, said, adding that numbers were likely to increase: "We are not seeing any efforts to halt this."

The arrivals in Germany mark an expansion of similar problems this year as swelling numbers of migrants from increased flights to Belarus have crossed porous borders into EU member states Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland.

EU and national officials have accused Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka of orchestrating the "weaponization" of migrants in response to Brussels' sanctions on Minsk over a brutal crackdown on dissent since a 2020 presidential election that is widely considered to have been rigged and Belarusian authorities' diversion of an international flight to detain a Lukashenka critic in May.

Poland's interior minister announced late on October 12 as soldiers continued work on a 2.5-meter barbed-wire border fence that Warsaw wants to permanently fortify the frontier with Belarus.

Mariusz Kaminski said the country needs a "solid, high barrier equipped with a surveillance system and motion detectors."

A government plan for the construction that avoids use of the term "wall" in favor of the terms "barrier" and "barricade" is currently headed to the Polish parliament for approval.

The European Commission said on September 29 that it wants member states to consider suspending parts of a "visa facilitation agreement" with Belarus that came into force in July 2020 and was meant to bring the former Soviet republic closer to Europe.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa

WASHINGTON -- The United States is rallying dozens of allies and partners at a two-day virtual conference to discuss ways to combat ransomware as online attacks proliferate, hurting businesses and undermining national security.

Representatives of 30 countries from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Asia will join Biden administration officials at the conference on October 13-14 to consider how to disrupt the ransomware ecosystem, including making it harder to use cryptocurrency as a means of payment.

The meeting -- whose participants include representatives from Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania -- will also focus on how to prosecute cybercriminals and how to deal with nation-states that fail to tackle cybergangs operating inside their borders.

The Biden administration has made fighting ransomware a top priority as the number and severity of cases has surged in recent years, impacting a wide array of industries from retail and food to health care and critical infrastructure.

Ransomware payments globally topped $400 million last year, the White House said.

Frank Cilluffo, the director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and a government adviser, told RFE/RL that ransomware has become a transnational issue which requires some transnational solutions.

"We're going to need to be able to work with like-minded allies to start addressing this challenge in earnest and collectively applying some pressure on countries that are turning a blind eye to some of this," Cilluffo said. "I'm not sure we're going to get to the goal on all that (at the conference) but you need to start the conversation."

In two high-profile cases earlier this year, cybergangs believed to be based in Russia disrupted the operations of a major U.S. pipeline operator as well as a large meat packing company. Moscow has denied allegations of cyberattacks on Western countries.

SEE ALSO:

Fuel Shortages Spread To U.S. Capital After Pipeline Cyberattack

Representatives from Russia were not invited to the conference, a senior administration official told reporters on October 12, adding that Washington and Moscow recently set up a high-level, bilateral dialogue on cybersecurity.

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at their June summit in Geneva to relaunch talks about cyberattacks. Biden called on Putin to tackle cybercriminals operating from inside Russia.

The senior official said that the United States has "seen some steps by the Russian government" since the talks began in the summer but declined to say what they were.

The official said the October 13-14 conference would be the first in a series on the topic and did not rule out that Russia could be invited in the future.

The acceptance of cryptocurrencies and the partial anonymity they offer has helped fuel the growth of ransomware.

Herbert Lin, a senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at Stanford University, told RFE/RL that conference participants need to focus on how to interfere with cryptocurrency payments.

Ransomware will become less attractive if cybercriminals can't turn the cryptocurrency payments into cash, he said.

"The more countries involved in the discussion, the better but in the end you want to have global controls on cryptocurrency redemption," he said.

The Treasury Department last month imposed sanctions on a cryptocurrency exchange for the first time as it seeks to crack down on the use of digital currencies in ransomware attacks. The department said about 40 percent of the transactions at Suex, which operates in Russia, involves illicit activities. The new sanctions will block all trades involving Suex and U.S. entities.

Cilluffo also said the conference needs to draw attention to the problem of servers that host malware and black market websites.

Along with cryptocurrencies, such servers are key elements in the ransomware ecosystem and many are located in East European countries.

"The big issue that I'd like to see coming out of this is...putting a little bit of pressure or at least raising of awareness of what these service providers and services are offering," he said.

With reporting by Todd Prince

Russia saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 deaths for the second day in a row on October 13, amid a spike in infections and fatalities that has prompted the Kremlin to urge health authorities to speed up the pace of vaccinations.

Russia's COVID-19 task force reported 984 coronavirus-related deaths, the highest single-day toll since the start of the pandemic, as well as 28,717 new infections in the last 24 hours.

Russia has repeatedly hit record daily death tolls this month, with the previous high on October 12, when authorities reported 973 deaths. A total of 219,329 patients have died of the infection, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on October 13.

Many Russian doctors and some senior authorities say the official figures are likely to be a fraction of the real total.

Despite the surge in infections and deaths, the Kremlin has ruled out a nationwide lockdown, delegating the power to make decisions on toughening coronavirus restrictions to regional authorities.

Russian health authorities also blame a low vaccination rate of just one in three Russians in a country of some 146 million people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized on October 12 the importance of broad vaccination and urged lawmakers to help encourage the population to get the shots.

"We must patiently and persistently work with people and explain all the advantages of prophylactics against this dangerous disease," Putin told a meeting with newly-elected Russian lawmakers.

The president of the Serb-majority entity that makes up part of Bosnia-Herzegovina has implemented a decree to reverse a ban criminalizing the denial of genocide and other serious crimes stemming from the bitter ethnic wars there in the 1990s.

Republika Srpska President Zeljka Cvijanovic's edict on the “non-application of Inzko's law" was meant to go into effect on October 8 after it was published in the official bulletin the previous day.

Valentin Inzko was the international community's overseer as high representative to Bosnia until German Christian Schmidt took over the job on August 1.

In late July, Inzko amended Bosnia's criminal code to prohibit and punish the denial of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, saying “there is no reconciliation without the recognition of crimes and without responsibility.”

Inzko's move particularly upset elements who refuse to acknowledge that the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces was genocide, including secessionists in Republika Srpska.

The legitimacy of Cvijanovic's decrees could still face legal challenges, including via the country's Constitutional Court.

Just last month, that court struck down as unconstitutional a law in Republika Srpska declaring its forests the sole property of Republika Srpska. The court said such properties belonged to the whole country.

A spokesperson for the Bosnian Constitutional Court told RFE/RL that by October 12 it had received no challenges to Cvijanovic's impending decrees.

A second decree by Cvijanovic that was published on October 8 prohibits “disparaging and mocking” the Republika Srpska, one of two entities along with the Bosniak and Croat federation that compose Bosnia.

The country is still governed and administered along ethnic lines established by the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the three-year Bosnian War following the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The Dayton accords established the Office of the High Representative to ensure compliance with civilian aspects of the agreements, but secessionists in Republika Srpska and some outside countries have been pressing hard for its abolition.

The Serb representative to Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, has said the Srebrenica genocide "did not take place" and has refused to work with "Bosnian institutions" since Inzko's ban was instituted.

Russia and China challenged Schmidt's appointment at the UN Security Council session in July.

Efforts to thwart Inzko's denial ban mark one of the most serious challenges to the high representative's authority in its history.

The first article of Cvijanovic's decree on the Inzko law states that "the decision of the High Representative shall not apply" to Republika Srpska. A second article states that Republika Srpkska authorities "will not cooperate with the competent authorities" of Bosnia to implement the ban.

The decree says it is pursuant to legislation "on non-application" of Inzko's law that was passed by the Republika Srpska's National Assembly on July 30.

Seventy of the 73 deputies present for that vote backed the challenge.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned of "recent rights setbacks" and exclusions of potential challengers ahead of a presidential election this month in Uzbekistan.

The rights group said in a statement on October 13 that the restrictions "expose the limits" of claims of reforms under President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who faces virtually certain reelection on October 24 after a dominant campaign on state-run media in the tightly controlled post-Soviet republic.

“Uzbekistan has garnered significant international attention for pursuing a reform agenda, but recent human rights setbacks in the country, and the lack of any opposition or independent candidates in these elections, expose the limits of those claims,” HRW quoted Hugh Williamson, its Europe and Central Asia director, as saying.

"Uzbekistan could have shown its genuine commitment to meaningful reforms by allowing presidential candidates who don’t share the government’s views to participate in upcoming elections -- but it did not."

Mirziyoev took over under questionable circumstances after the sudden death in 2016 of the country's first post-independence president, Islam Karimov, and was elected months later with nearly 87 percent of the vote.

His early moves included pledges of reform in the country, which keeps a firm grip on media and dissent and whose elections have never been deemed fair and democratic by Western observers.

As in past Uzbek elections, many of the existing leadership's most serious critics have been excluded from the presidential vote.

HRW complained that the Uzbek requirement that candidates may only be nominated by registered parties allows officials to "deny broader political participation in this important vote."

It cited the rejection of aspiring candidacies from the opposition Erk Democratic Party, independent Uzbekistan's oldest registered party, and the Truth and Development party.

Erk's would-be candidate, singer Jahongir Otajonov, quit politics after a rowdy mob attacked a political meeting.

Both parties' supporters and other critics of Mirziyoev's administration complain of routine harassment and persecution.

Five largely uncritical candidates are running from among parliamentary parties: Bahrom Abduhalimov of Adolat (Justice), Alisher Qodirov of Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival), Narzullo Oblomurodov of the Ecological Party, and the only woman candidate, Maksuda Varisova of the People’s Democratic Party.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) warned recently that Uzbekistan has failed to correct many of its long-standing recommendations to make the voting more democratic.

In May, OSCE/ODIHR called for reforms including "the implementation of a revised legal framework, the work of election commissions at all levels, including the on-going efforts of the authorities to prevent proxy voting and the conduct of election day procedures, the voter and candidate registration, the conduct of the election campaign, its media coverage and election dispute resolution."

Earlier this month, visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Mirziyoev to underscore Washington's strategic partnership with Tashkent while calling for “continued progress on economic, democratic, and human rights reforms” in Uzbekistan.