Police in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg have detained a doctor and four nurses suspected of issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination certifications.

According to an Investigative Committee statement on October 23, the five work at a health clinic at the Pavlov State Medical University. They are accused of giving people paper and online certificates of vaccination while destroying the unused vaccines.

SEE ALSO:

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

The authorities said they were investigating 12 alleged cases, for which the medical workers purportedly received more than 100,000 rubles ($1,425).

If convicted, the medical workers could face up to 12 years in prison.

The new governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province was assaulted during his inauguration ceremony by a man who rushed the stage and slapped him.

The new governor, General Abedin Khorram, had just approached the podium on October 23 in the city of Tabriz when an unidentified man strode onto the stage and struck him without warning.

Footage of the incident was broadcast on state television, which showed that it took several seconds for security forces to apprehend the assailant.

Khorram later returned to the podium and told the audience that he did not know his assailant.

The IRNA state news agency reported that the attacker was a member of the Ashura Corp of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and that the attack was a “personal dispute.” Those claims could not be independently verified.

Khorram was among 48 Iranians held hostage in Syria in 2013. Iran claimed the hostages were “Shi’ite pilgrims,” while the United States said they were technical advisers to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He was appointed governor of the northwestern province by President Ebrahim Raisi on October 17.

IRNA said a criminal case had been opened.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Prime Minister Viktor Orban and joint opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay both held campaign-style rallies in Budapest on October 23, nearly six months ahead of an election that is expected to be closely contested.

Tens of thousands of Orban supporters marched on their way to hear the prime minister give a speech devoted to the commemoration of the country’s 1956 uprising against Soviet domination.

Organizers said they expected as many as 400,000 people to show up.

In his remarks, the nationalist Orban referred to his government’s often-tense relations with the European Union, saying the bloc “speaks and behaves to us…as if we were enemies.”

“Brussels would do well to understand that even the communists could not handle us,” Orban said. “We’re the David whom Goliath is better off avoiding.”

Meanwhile, several thousand opposition supporters gathered to hear a speech by Marki-Zay.

Marki-Zay said the Hungarian people were tired of Orban’s “hate campaigns” against migrants and LGBT people.

“People had enough in 1956, and they have had enough now,” he said.

“Our basic goal -- for all of us, left and right -- is for Hungary to be a democracy, to be governed by the rule of law in a market economy and as part of the European Union,” he added.

Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old conservative mayor, won an opposition primary on October 17 to head a six-party opposition alliance in the general election expected to be held in April.

Orban and his nationalist Fidesz party have won three landslide elections since 2010. But opinion polls show the opposition alliance running closely against Fidesz, and analysts says this could be the closest vote the country has seen since Orban was defeated in 2006.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

MOSCOW -- Russia has issued an arrest warrant for a former prison inmate who has admitted to releasing graphic video evidence of hundreds of cases of inmate torture by other inmates at the direction of prison officials.

The Interior Ministry on October 23 issued the warrant without specifying the crime that the Belarus-born Syarhey Savelyeu is accused of.

According to the prisoners’ rights NGO Gulagu.net, which published some of the videos and reported on their contents, Moscow intends to send documentation on Savelyeu to Interpol to seek his extradition.

After leaking the videos, Savelyeu left Russia and is seeking political asylum in France.

SEE ALSO:

'I Was Always Afraid Of Getting Caught': Former Inmate Who Leaked Russian Prison-Torture Videos Speaks Out

Gulagu.net founder Vladimir Osechkin told RFE/RL that his organization will forward all the materials it received from Savelyeu to authorities in France. He also said his group will ask Interpol to suspend Russia’s participation in the network until the country’s prison and judicial systems have been reformed and torture rooted out.

Five senior prison officials have been fired since Gulagu.net published the videos earlier this month.

As an inmate, Savelyeu -- an IT specialist -- helped operate a prison computer network that gave him access to the videos.

Gulagu.net has said guards and other prison officials bribed or forced inmates to torture other inmates in order to secure false testimony. The videos purportedly show hundreds of cases of rape and other torture at Russian prisons and pretrial detention centers in several regions.

In an interview with Gulagu.net, Savelyeu said he believes Russia will seek to charge him with disclosing state secrets.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened seven criminal cases in connection with the leaked videos.

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has rejected the idea of hosting a U.S. military base in his country, saying such a move would place Kyrgyzstan in a "cat and mouse" game in terms of its relations with Washington and with Russia.

Japarov made the remark on October 23 during an annual press conference in which he answered questions from state and private media outlets as well as independent bloggers and freelance journalists.

Answering a question about potential for a U.S. military base being reestablished in Kyrgyzstan for the first time in seven years, Japarov noted that the country already hosts a Russian military base at Kant in the Chui region.

"One [foreign] base will be enough for us," Japarov said. "We do not want to play cat and mouse with influential countries by stationing two bases on our territory."

A U.S. airbase had been opened at part of Bishkek's Manas Airport in December 2001 in order to support international troop deployments to Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations as part of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

But U.S. operations there ended in 2014 after Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted that Washington should vacate the facility -- a move seen as being aimed at pleasing Bishkek's former overlord, Russia.

SEE ALSO:

Good-Bye, Manas

Recent U.S. media reports have suggested that the U.S. military would seek to reposition some of its troops in Central Asia after its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Japarov spent about four hours answering journalists' questions at his October 23 press conference.

He said border crossings between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have remained closed to Tajik citizens since April "to prevent any possible conflict" following bloody clashes that killed 36 Kyrgyz citizens and 19 Tajiks.

More than 200 people were wounded in the violence. Hundreds of houses and shops were also burned down or damaged.

"The borders will be open [for Tajik students and other Tajik citizens] after all delimitation and demarcation works are completed," Japarov told journalists on October 23.

"Members of the intergovernmental commission will be heading to Tajikistan soon," the Kyrgyz president said. "They have been working constantly."

When questioned by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service about the persecution of political opposition figures by authorities in Kyrgyzstan, Japarov denied that there has been any political persecution in the country.

Several former prime ministers and opposition politicians, as well as former President Almazbek Atambaev and several his associates, remain jailed in Kyrgyzstan over their alleged role in mass protests against Japarov's government in October 2020.

Some face charges of attempting to seize government buildings. Others are accused of corruption.

Japarov said all of those cases remain under investigation and await court rulings.

DUSHANBE -- Afghan military pilots who fled to Tajikistan when the Taliban seized power in Kabul say the militant group is pressuring them to return to Afghanistan by threatening to kill their relatives.

Trained by the United States, the Afghan pilots say their documents have been completed for traveling and they hope they will soon be able to go to the United States.

But two Afghan pilots who are sheltering at sanatoriums on the outskirts of Dushanbe told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on October 23 that the Taliban is now trying to force them to return to Afghanistan.

One Afghan pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that his son back in Afghanistan was beaten by the Taliban and that the militants threatened to kill the boy if the pilot did not return.

Another pilot told RFE/RL that Taliban militants have gone to the homes of several of his family members to demand that the pilot return to Afghanistan.

He told RFE/RL that the Taliban has a list of the names of all 143 Afghan pilots now in Tajikistan. He said Taliban authorities are increasing pressure on all of the pilots by threatening their relatives in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied that the Taliban is threatening the relatives of the pilots.

"Nobody cares about them," Mujahid told RFE/RL on October 23. "They come up with high-profile stories to obtain refugee status. We have said many times that if they return, no one will touch them here."

In August, shortly after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the Taliban issued a call for all of the U.S.-trained Afghan pilots to join them in order to fly aircraft that the group had seized at military bases across Afghanistan.

Russia on October 23 reported 1,075 COVID-19 deaths during the previous 24 hours, its fifth straight daily record, as authorities prepare to shut workplaces across the country and impose a lockdown in the capital.

A record 37,678 new cases of COVID-19 across Russia were also reported on October 23 during the previous 24 hours.

Despite developing one of the world's first vaccines against COVID-19, Russia has inoculated only about a third of its population. That is one of the lowest rates in Europe.

President Vladimir Putin this week urged all Russians to get vaccinated and approved a nationwide workplace shutdown that is due to come into force during the first week of November.

Municipal authorities in Moscow are reimposing a partial lockdown from October 28, with only essential shops such as pharmacies and supermarkets allowed to remain open in the Russian capital.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

Members of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have completed another joint counterterrorism training exercise in Tajikistan near the border with Afghanistan.

The exercise on October 23 presented a scenario in which columns of vehicles transport militants across the border from Afghanistan into Tajikistan.

As part of the drills, two Soviet-era Aero L-39 Albatros trainer jets from Tajikistan's Air Force conducted air reconnaissance over the Kharb-Maidon training ground about 20 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan.

They spotted two mock columns of militants' vehicles and relayed coordinates to a border guard detachment from Tajikistan's State National Security Committee.

The Tajik border guards were deployed to intercept the mock enemy vehicles. CSTO special forces were also deployed in the drill, using grenade launchers and assault rifles.

"The massive drills with the CSTO Collective Operational Response Forces that came to an end in Tajikistan were a major response to the sharp deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan," the Russian Central Military District commander, Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin, said.

"The drills that were held are called upon to secure the CSTO states against any terrorist threat," Lapin said at a ceremony on October 23 marking the completion of the exercises.

Lapin also said he was convinced by the exercises that the CSTO's joint forces are prepared to "uncover mounting threats in advance and thwart the outlawed armed gangs' intentions."

"The experience acquired in the drills will serve as a reliable guarantee of fulfilling tasks in a real combat environment," he said.

It was the third in a series of CSTO drills near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan that was announced in August after the Taliban seized control of power across Afghanistan.

CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zainetdinov says a fourth CSTO drill is scheduled near the Tajik-Afghan border in November.

Altogether, the CSTO drills involve 4,000 troops and more than 500 military vehicles.

The drills are being conducted at the Kharb-Maidon and Momirak training grounds near the Tajik-Afghan border. They are under the direction of the Russian Central Military District commander, Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin.

The Taliban has sought to reassure Afghanistan's neighbors and Russia that it does not pose a threat to them after it gained control over most of Afghanistan’s territory, including the capital Kabul along with border crossings into Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

But Central Asians states bordering Afghanistan -- particularly Tajikistan -- have expressed concerns about the Taliban as a security threat and about the potential for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees to cross the border.

Russia has military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It has vowed to defend Moscow's allies in Central Asia against any security threat from Afghanistan.

On August 17, Russia and Tajikistan launched a monthlong joint military drill near the Afghan border.

A week earlier, Russia completed joint military exercises with Tajik and Uzbek troops near the border with Afghanistan, which followed smaller Russian-Uzbek drills along the Uzbek-Afghan border.

In early September, several thousand troops from CSTO member states were also involved in border exercises in Kyrgyzstan.

CSTO members include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

Belarusian authorities have abolished mask mandates less than two weeks after they were introduced and a day after the country registered a record number of new coronavirus infections.

The decision came after authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka dismissed the mask mandates and other measures to control the spread of COVID-19 as unnecessary.

The mask mandates were introduced earlier this month amid a new wave of infections and required Belarusians to wear medical masks in all indoor public areas, including public transport and stores.

Doctors who have been treating COVID-19 patients were shocked by the decision, especially after the country on October 21 reported 2,097 new confirmed daily infections, the highest number so far.

Dr. Mikita Salavey, a leading Belarusian infectious disease expert in Minsk, sharply criticized the decision, describing it as "madness" amid soaring infections.

"Clinics and hospitals in all regions of the country have been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and suffered shortages of oxygen and medicines," he wrote on Facebook.

Lukashenka dismissed concern over the coronavirus as "psychosis" when the pandemic began and refused to impose any restrictions.

His attitude angered many Belarusians and contributed to their outrage over the presidential election in August 2020 that handed Lukashenka a sixth term -- an outcome the Belarusian opposition and the West have refused to accept.

In announcing the end of the mask mandates, Lukashenka said: "This is the advantage of a dictatorship -- whoosh, and a wrong decision is no longer valid."

Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who moved to Lithuania after the 2020 election fearing for the safety of her family, said people in Belarus don’t believe the government or official statistics.

"Belarus faces the worst wave of the coronavirus, and it’s not ready for that," Tsikhanouskaya said during an online conference.

Countries across Eastern Europe have experienced a surge of infections in recent weeks, prompting authorities in the region to announce a raft of restrictions.

Russia has set several daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths in recent days, prompting President Vladimir Putin to order a nationwide week of "nonworking" starting on October 30.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reintroduced lockdown measures from October 28 through November 7 -- with all shops, bars, and restaurants due to close, except those selling essential goods.

In Ukraine, government data on October 22 showed a record 614 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, up from 546 the day before. Schools were shut in high-infection areas the same day, including the capital Kyiv, where a two-week holiday was announced.

Latvia has begun a monthlong lockdown as the number of new coronavirus cases reached an all-time high in the country, while hospitals in Bulgaria and Romania feel the strain of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Elsewhere in the world, U.S. federal health regulators said that kid-size doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech appear highly effective at preventing symptomatic infections in children aged 5 to 11 and caused no unexpected safety issues.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted its analysis of data provided by the company ahead of a public meeting next week to debate whether the shots are ready to be approved for U.S. children in the 5- to 11-year age range.

The review affirmed results showing the two-dose shot is nearly 91 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection in young children.

The agency will put the question of whether the vaccine should be authorized to its panel of independent advisers on October 26 and weigh their advice before making its decision.

Parents are awaiting protection for younger children to stem infections from the delta variant and help keep kids in school.

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

The gun that actor Alec Baldwin fired on the set of a movie, killing Ukrainian-born cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was loaded with live rounds, according to court records made public on October 22.

An assistant director handed Baldwin the loaded gun and told him it was safe to use in the moments before he fatally shot Hutchins.

The assistant director used the words “cold gun,” indicating it was safe, when he handed the weapon to Baldwin, according to court documents filed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and quoted by news agencies.

The assistant director did not know the gun contained live rounds, Santa Fe Sheriff's Department Detective Joel Cano said in the documents, which were filed in support of a search warrant request.

The shot hit Hutchins in the chest. Director Joel Souza, who was behind her, was hit in the shoulder, according to the documents. It was unclear how many rounds were fired.

Hutchins died of her wounds, and Souza was injured but has since been released from the hospital.

Investigators are seeking to document the scene at the ranch in the U.S. state of New Mexico where the shooting took place and examine the clothing worn by Baldwin along with firearms, documentation, ammunition, and cameras from the scene.

The shooting took place during a rehearsal for a movie titled Rust, a Western starring Baldwin, but it was unclear whether the scene has been filmed.

In a series of messages on Twitter, Baldwin said there were no words to convey his “shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation.”

No charges have been filed.

Hutchins, 42, was a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute and was named a rising star by American Cinematographer in 2019.

Her website says she was born in Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle "surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines."

She held a graduate degree in International Journalism from Kyiv National University and had previously worked as an investigative journalist with British documentary productions in Europe.

Hutchins was director of photography on the 2020 action film Archenemy, a police drama. Joe Manganiello, who starred in Archenemy, called her “an incredible talent” and “a great person” on his Instagram account.

“She had such an eye and a visual style, she was the kind of cinematographer that you wanted to see succeed because you wanted to see what she could pull off next,” he said.

The production of Rust was immediately halted after the shooting.

Rust is about a 13-year-old boy who is left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in the 1880s in the U.S. state of Kansas, according to the Internet Movie Database website.

The teen goes on the run with his estranged grandfather, the character played by Baldwin, after the boy is sentenced to be hanged for the accidental killing of a local rancher.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

A U.S. jury on October 22 found Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen Lev Parnas, a onetime associate of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, guilty of violating campaign finance laws during the 2018 elections.

Parnas was found guilty on all six counts of federal election law violations that he faced, including illegally helping a foreigner contribute to a U.S. election campaign, making contributions in the names of others, and lying to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

Prosecutors in New York City said Parnas used funds from Russian businessman Andrei Muravyov to make political contributions to candidates while lying about the source of the money.

Parnas and his former associate Igor Fruman, a Soviet-born Florida businessman, were accused of soliciting funds from Muravyov to donate to candidates in states where their group was seeking licenses to operate cannabis businesses in 2018.

SEE ALSO:

Lev Parnas's South Florida Stomping Ground A Mecca For Financial Scams

Parnas also concealed that he and Fruman were the true source of a donation to a group supporting former U.S. President Donald Trump, prosecutors said.

Another Muravyov associate, Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen Andrey Kukushkin, was on trial alongside Parnas. Kukushkin was pronounced guilty on just one of the criminal charges.

The defendants' attorneys argued during the trial that the two men were not involved in campaign contributions but rather conducting business, including on behalf of an energy company and legal marijuana industry startups.

After the guilty verdicts were announced, Parnas said he had never hidden anything.

"I've always stood and tried to tell the truth," he said as he left the court.

SEE ALSO:

With FBI Searches Targeting Trump Lawyer Giuliani, Ukraine Slips Back Into U.S. Politics

In his closing statement Parnas’s attorney Joseph Bondy characterized his client as a passionate proponent of marijuana legalization who was "in well over his head." He argued that Muravyov's money funded business operations, not campaign contributions.

Bondy said he would be filing a motion to vacate the verdict "in the interest of justice."

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken denied a request from prosecutors to detain Parnas and Kukushkin. Oetken set February 16 as the sentencing date for Kukushkin but did not set a sentencing date for Parnas, who faces another possible trial on separate fraud charges.

The trail has drawn attention because Parnas and Fruman helped Giuliani pressure Ukrainian government officials to produce political dirt on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election campaign.

At the time, Giuliani was Trump's personal lawyer, and his association with Parnas and Fruman in 2019 helped trigger the first impeachment of Trump.

Giuliani, who served as a U.S. prosecutor in the 1980s before he was elected New York's mayor in 1994, has not been charged with any crimes and denies wrongdoing.

Fruman pleaded guilty in September to one count of soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreigner.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

European Union leaders have backed new sanctions on Belarus to pressure authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka to halt the flow of illegal migrants that the bloc says amounts to a hybrid attack.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after an EU leaders' summit on October 22 that the bloc will "keep up the pressure" on Lukashenka, accusing him of instrumentalizing migration to retaliate against the European Union.

Thousands of illegal migrants have crossed from Belarus -- mainly into neighboring Lithuania and Poland -- prompting the two EU members to declare a state of emergency and bolster their borders.

The EU accuses Lukashenka of funneling migrants across the bloc's borders to retaliate against sanctions on his government over a brutal crackdown on the opposition following last year's presidential election that is widely considered to have been rigged.

After nearly five hours of discussions, EU leaders agreed in a final statement to "continue countering the ongoing hybrid attack launched by the Belarusian regime, including by adopting further restrictive measures against persons and legal entities, in line with its gradual approach, as a matter of urgency."

Most of the migrants flew to Belarus from the Middle East and Africa, and were then helped across the border to Poland and Lithuania. Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers discussed possible measures against the Belarusian airline Belavia.

Von der Leyen, whose EU executive is responsible for drawing up sanctions, said Belarus is now looking at opening new routes to bring in migrants.

"It has offered further visa waivers to additional third countries. We will continue our engagement with these countries to limit this state-sponsored smuggling," she said.

EU leaders also called for the return and full implementation of readmission agreements with countries where the migrants are coming from, "using the necessary leverage."

Led by the EU’s Baltic members and Poland, about a dozen countries said before the summit that the bloc should fund the construction of physical barriers and use surveillance drones to stem migration.

But von der Leyen said the EU executive opposed such demands.

"I was very clear that there is a longstanding view in the European Commission and in the European Parliament that there will be no funding of barbed wire and walls," she said.

Kosovo has ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats, accusing Moscow of “destabilizing” activities.

President Vjosa Osmani said on October 22 that the two diplomats at Russia’s liaison office to Kosovo were declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country.

Osmani said that her country was committed to countering the malign influence of Russia and its "proxies in the region," which she accused of aiming to undermine the achievements of Kosovo, the United States, NATO, and the European Union.

"For this reason, we will continue to work closely with our American and European allies in order not to allow Kosovo and our region to fall prey to the destabilizing ambitions of the Russian Federation," she said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what activities prompted the government to expel the two officials.

Russia opened a liaison office in Kosovo in 2005, three years before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.

Serbia and its close ally Russia have not recognized Kosovo's independence.

The United States and most of the West recognize Kosovo's independence, which was declared in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas that ended after a NATO air campaign against Serbia.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has welcomed plans for a more capable European defense saying it complements the NATO alliance.

Led by France, the European Union is pressing ahead with plans to jointly develop weapons and create an EU force that could intervene in crises.

Some European countries have said the chaotic U.S.-led withdrawal from Afghanistan highlighted the EU's need for greater "strategic autonomy," while others have argued any EU force would still need U.S. military capabilities.

Russia's expanding military presence has further heightened the need for synergy between the EU and NATO.

"What we'd like to see are initiatives that are complementary to the types of things that NATO is doing," Austin told a news conference at a NATO summit in Brussels on October 22.

He added that the alliance must create a "credible deterrence and defense."

Austin also said European and American strategy in the Indo-Pacific were in line to counter challenges posed by China's military rise.

French President Emmanuel Macron has used a new Indo-Pacific security alliance between Australia, the U.S. and the UK -- known as AUKUS -- that torpedoed a major French submarine deal to bolster his argument for greater EU defense efforts.

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly told her NATO counterparts that the EU's defense plans will benefit the United States and strengthen the alliance.

"European defense isn't being built in opposition to NATO, quite the contrary: a stronger Europe will contribute to a strengthened and more resilient alliance," Parly said.

The EU aims to agree on a master military strategy document ahead of next year's NATO summit in Madrid, where the alliance is expected to agree on joint strategic objectives.

In an interview with Politico Europe, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said the parallel strategic reviews present a "unique opportunity" to bring EU and NATO policy into line.

"These processes must be linked," she said. "It makes no sense to conduct them separately and then look where there is common ground and where there are contradictions only afterward."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also warned against duplicating NATO and EU efforts.

"What is needed are more capabilities, not new structures," he told a news conference.

Of the 27 EU states, 21 are also members of the 30-strong NATO.

Eastern European states are particularly wary of any shift away from NATO because of common concerns about Russia.

With reporting by Reuters and Politco Europe

CHISINAU -- Moldova's parliament has voted to approve a 30-day state of emergency in the energy sector to try to ease gas shortages after the government failed to agree on a new energy deal with Russia's Gazprom.

"We face a critical situation," Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita told lawmakers ahead of the vote on October 22, adding that the introduction of a state of emergency will "allow the purchase of the necessary volume of natural gas from alternative sources."

The measure will last until November 20 and allow the government in Europe's poorest country to buy gas under a simplified scheme with additional funds amid soaring world energy prices.

Moldova's contract with Russia's state-controlled Gazprom, the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, expired at the end of last month.

Gazprom has extended the contract to the end of October, while raising the price to $790 per cubic meters from $550 last month.

Some experts say Moscow has boosted prices as a reprisal against Moldova for electing pro-Western President Maia Sandu last year.

Gavrilita said Moldovagaz, whose main shareholder is Gazprom, "is not keeping its word" and failed to supply the required volume of gas -- an accusation rejected by the company.

The prime minister thanked neighbors Romania and Ukraine for supplying some gas, and said her country will be seeking supplies from EU countries.

The country of 2.6 million people, sandwiched between EU member Romania and Ukraine, consumes 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Moldova’s gas crisis come as gas prices across Europe and other parts of the world have soared to record levels in recent weeks.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A U.S. jury will begin deliberations on October 22 in the case of Lev Parnas, who stands accused of funneling money from a Russian financier into U.S. elections in violation of campaign finance laws.

Manhattan prosecutors say Parnas, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, used funds from Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev to contribute to candidates while lying about the source of money.

"It is plain as day that these defendants agreed to donate Muraviev's money to U.S. political campaigns," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said in closing arguments.

Another Muraviev associate, Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen Andrey Kukushkin, is on trial alongside Parnas.

SEE ALSO:

Lev Parnas's South Florida Stomping Ground A Mecca For Financial Scams

The defendants' attorneys argued in the trial that the two men were not involved in campaign contributions but rather conducting business, including an energy company and legal marijuana industry startups.

The trial has drawn attention because Parnas and another Soviet-born Florida businessman, Igor Fruman, helped Rudy Giuliani investigate Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election campaign.

At the time, Giuliani was former President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

Fruman pleaded guilty in September to one count of soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreigner.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

PODGORICA -- Montenegro's prosecutors have released the former head of the National Security Agency (ANB) from custody after interrogating him over the illegal wiretapping of the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

Dejan Perunic was set free on the morning of October 22 to allow him to defend himself following a two-hour interrogation at the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

Perunic was detained by special police the previous day as part of an investigation into the wiretapping of Chief Special Prosecutor (SDT) Milivoje Katnic after an illegal surveillance bug was recently found in his office.

He was appointed to the helm of the ANB in 2015 by the government, then led by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). He was dismissed in December 2020 by the government that was formed by three opposition coalitions following elections last August.

In a separate case, Perunicic has been on trial since May at the High Court for the illegal surveillance of political figures and journalists.

The criminal complaint was filed by his successor, Dejana Vuksic, soon after his appointment 10 months ago.

The ANB has long been accused of having links with criminal groups and of acting under the political influence of the former ruling DPS.

Six officials at the Moscow regional prosecutor's office have reportedly been fired for liking social media posts by jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which is banned in the country as extremist.

The Baza Telegram channel cited sources in the prosecutor’s office on October 21 as saying that a deputy prosecutor for the town of Lytkarino is among the officials who were fired.

According to the sources, the officials were relieved of their duties after a campaign was held to check the online history of all employees to see if they had any ties to "organizations hostile to Russia."

Earlier this year, dozens of workers at the Moscow Metropolitan Company were fired for joining an online campaign to support Navalny. Some of them managed to get their jobs back via courts later.

In August, Moscow police used leaked online personal data from projects linked to Navalny and visited almost 500 residents of the Russian capital demanding explanations as to how their names were included in the leaked data.

In some cases, police tried to force people to file legal complaints against Navalny to accuse him of sharing personal data.

Embed share

5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:33 0:00

Navalny associates said earlier in April that a former FBK worker had stolen the personal data of those who registered at the pro-Navalny site.

In June, a court in Moscow labeled FBK and Navalny's other projects and groups extremist and banned them. Under Russian law, cooperation with such groups is considered illegal and may lead to criminal prosecution.

Navalny was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he went through a life-saving treatment for poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he says was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has denied any role in the incident, which was the latest of numerous attacks on Navalny.

More than 10,000 people were rounded up during nationwide rallies protesting Navalny's arrest organized in more than 100 Russian towns and cities on January 23 and January 31.

On February 2, Navalny was convicted of violating the terms of his 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 by a real prison term.

That ruling sparked new protests that were also forcibly dispersed by police.

More than 1,400 people were detained by police in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities during those demonstrations.

Russia has notched yet another daily record for coronavirus infections and deaths as authorities prepare to reintroduce lockdown restrictions.

The government's coronavirus crisis center on October 22 reported 37,141 new COVID-19 cases with 1,064 people dying over the past 24 hours in what is the second successive daily case record and the fourth straight day of record deaths.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a nationwide "nonworking" week, starting on October 30, in a bid to stem the rise in infections, which has been attributed to vaccine hesitancy, virus variants, and lax health measures.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reintroduced lockdown measures between October 28 and November 7 -- with all shops, bars, and restaurants due to close, except those selling essential goods.

Russia has by far the largest official death toll in Europe -- 228,453 -- and the fourth-highest in the world.

Although Russia was the first country to announce the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, only about a third of its nearly 146 million people are fully vaccinated.

A European Union report said on October 21 that a systematic disinformation campaign by Russia to promote COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the West has backfired.

The EU study said Russian state broadcaster RT and other media outlets had sown mistrust about the efficacy and safety of vaccines in several European languages, including in Russian.

"Disinformation can kill. That should be kept in mind when we see Kremlin media continue spreading lies on COVID-19 and the vaccines, even as the death tolls in Russia are surging," said the EU study, entitled "Disinformation Review."

The Kremlin denies it conducts disinformation about vaccines.

Countries across Eastern Europe have experienced a surge of infections in recent weeks, prompting authorities to announce a raft of restrictions.

In Ukraine, government data showed a record 614 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, up from 546 the day before. Ukraine's number of infections in the pandemic stands at 2.72 million, with 63,003 deaths.

Schools were shut in high-infection areas on October 22, including the capital, Kyiv, where a two-week holiday was announced.

The government also announced a requirement for vaccine certificates or negative tests to access public transport in the capital, adding new measures on the unvaccinated, whose access to restaurants, sports, and other public events is restricted.

Only 6.8 million in a population of 41 million are fully vaccinated.

Latvia has begun a monthlong lockdown as the number of new coronavirus cases reached an all-time high in the country, while hospitals in Bulgaria and Romania feel the strain of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

SEE ALSO:

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

Coronavirus hospitalizations in Bulgaria have risen 30 percent over the last month and hospitals in the capital have suspended nonessential surgeries.

Just one adult in four is fully vaccinated in Bulgaria, and many still resist getting the shot. Hundreds protested in Sofia and other cities against vaccination certificates that limit access to many indoor public spaces to those who have been vaccinated.

In Romania, where new daily cases have soared toward 19,000 this week, about one adult in three has been vaccinated, the second-lowest rate in the European Union.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

USSURIISK, Russia -- A court in Russia's Far East has sentenced a woman to three months in prison after she played the role of an Interior Ministry spokeswoman in an online satirical series about a fictional official.

Police in the Primorye region said on October 21 that 43-year-old Larisa Krivonosova, who has a criminal record, was sent to prison for a parole violation.

Last month, Krivonosova was sentenced to 10 days in jail after she performed the role of Interior Ministry spokeswoman Marina Vulf ("Vulf" is a Russified variant of the German surname Wolf) in the YouTube series about Vitaly Nalivkin, a fictional chairman of the executive committee of the city of Ussuriisk.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Actors Jailed In Latest Clampdown On Political Parody

Many in Russia saw the parallel between Krivonosova's character and the real Interior Ministry spokeswoman, Irina Volk. Volk means wolf in Russian.

Police said at the time that Krivonosova was jailed for illegally wearing a police uniform, but later changed their statement to say that she was jailed for a parole violation.

According to police, Krivonosova was released on parole in 2017 after she served an unspecified amount of time for the "premeditated infliction of injury." There were no further details given concerning the charge.

In 2020, police said her parole restrictions were toughened after Krivonosova "started committing violations endangering social order and public security."

The satirical online show about Nalivkin mocks the everyday life of ordinary people and the behavior of local authorities in Russian provinces.

Earlier in the year, Andrei Neretin, who plays the role of Nalivkin in the show, was sentenced to five days in prison and fined for "minor hooliganism" after an episode about a corrupt police officer was placed on YouTube.

Russian opposition politician Lyubov Sobol says she doesn't feel "fully safe" after recently fleeing Russia in the summer, but she insists she will continue to fight against President Vladimir Putin's "criminal regime" and widespread corruption in her country.

Speaking in an October 21 interview with Current Time via a video link from an unknown location, Sobol declined to reveal her whereabouts.

Sobol, a close associate of Aleksei Navalny, fled Russia in August after she was handed a parole-like sentence amid an intensifying crackdown on groups and individual linked to the jailed opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner. Media reports last month placed the 34-year-old lawyer, who was recently added to Russia's wanted list, in neighboring Estonia.

Asked about possible concerns regarding her safety, Sobol said she had switched from a "more dangerous" location to a "little less dangerous" one.

"But do I feel fully safe? Of course not. I think that no one who fights against Putin's criminal regime can feel fully safe," she told the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA..

"The key issue is whether I will continue to engage in political activities and fight against corruption, speak the truth, and be the voice of ordinary people -- and I will continue doing all that," she added.

SEE ALSO:

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

The opposition politician and lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) fled Russia days after a Moscow court found her guilty of publicly calling for people to attend rallies supporting Navalny after he was jailed upon his return to Russia from Germany where he was receiving treatment for a poisoning he blames on the Kremlin.

The court ruled Sobol's actions violated measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic and sentenced her to 18 months of parole-like limits on her freedom.

Several Navalny associates have been found guilty on similar charges, which justice officials have been using as a thinly veiled pretense for rounding up those around the Kremlin's most vocal critic.

Separately, another court in the Russian capital in April handed Sobol a one-year suspended sentence of correctional labor after finding her guilty of trespassing in what she described as a ruling designed to silence her.

Sobol was added recently to Russia's database of wanted persons at the Interior Ministry with the designation that she is "wanted under an article of the Criminal Code."

Sobol told Current Time that she learned about the move through the media and that she still had not received an official notice of the designation, nor the reason behind it.

She said, however, she assumed the decision is linked to the April court verdict.

"I personally did not receive any warnings from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And as far as I understand, my lawyer [Vladimir] Voronin, who represents my interests in criminal cases, also didn't," she said.

Navalny was arrested in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he says was ordered by Putin.

In February, Navalny was convicted of violating the terms of a suspended sentence related to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated. Due to the violation, which occurred because he needed life-saving treatment in Germany, his suspended sentence of 2 1/2 years was changed to real prison time.

Embed share

Profile: Aleksei Navalny, Winner Of The Sakharov Prize

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:06:06 0:00

Navalny was awarded the European Union's top human rights honor -- the Sakharov prize -- earlier this week, which the opposition politician said was a "great honor and responsibility" that sends a signal of support to anti-corruption crusaders around the globe.

Commenting on Navalny’s award, Sobol said the prize "is very important and fully deserved."

Putin "is seriously upset that Navalny hasn't been forgotten -- especially given that they are trying to isolate him in a prison, to make his life hard in detention," she said.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Dedicates Top European Rights Award To World's Anti-Corruption Fighters

She said she didn't expect "any immediate effect" from Navalny receiving the award, but that it will "definitely contribute to the struggle for Navalny's release from prison."

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been killed, and a movie director injured, after Hollywood star Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of a Western they were filming in New Mexico.

Local police said Hutchins, 42, died from a gunshot wound late on October 21 after being flown to a nearby hospital , while director Joel Souza was taken to a hospital but his condition was not immediately known.

Police questioned Baldwin and others on the set of the movie, titled Rust, but no charges have been laid. They added that deputies were still trying to determine whether what happened was an accident.

In a series of messages on Twitter, Baldwin said that his heart was broken by the tragic incident.

"There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation," he wrote on Twitter. "My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna."

Hutchins' website says she was born in Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle "surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines."

She held a graduate degree in international journalism from Kyiv National University and had previously worked as an investigative journalist with British documentary productions in Europe.

She was also the director of photography of the art-house superhero action film Archenemy. Her other movie credits include the racially charged police drama Blindfire and Darlin', a horror feature film.

"The entire cast and crew has been absolutely devastated by today's tragedy, and we send our deepest condolences to Halyna's family and loved ones," production company Rust Movie Productions said in a statement.

"We have halted production on the film for an undetermined period of time and are fully cooperating with the Santa Fe Police Department's investigation," it added.

The 63-year-old Baldwin, who has won several acting awards, is one of the film's stars as well as a producer.

The incident evoked memories of the 1993 death of 28-year-old actor Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, who was fatally wounded by a prop gun while filming The Crow.

Lee's sister, Shannon, decried the incident in a tweet, while also calling for better protection measures on film sets.

“Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on ‘Rust’. No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period,” she wrote.

With reporting by NBC News, Variety, and Reuters

A fire caused by an explosion at a gunpowder workshop has killed at least 16 people in Russia's Ryazan region.

Local media reports, citing sources at regional law enforcement and emergency services, said that the explosion at a gunpowder workshop of the Elastik synthetic-fibers plant occurred early in the morning on October 22.

According to the local authorities, there were 17 people in the workshop when the blast hit the building.

Firefighters and rescue teams are working at the site.

The deputy governor of the Ryazan region, Dmitry Filippov, and acting Emergency Situations Minister Aleksandr Chuprian have also arrived at the scene, local media reported.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said that a "violation of the technology process" may have caused the explosion.

The Investigative Committee said it had launched a probe into the deadly explosion and fire.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, TASS, and Interfax

ORAL, Kazakhstan -- Activists in the western Kazakh city of Oral are under pressure ahead of planned opposition protest rallies scheduled for October 23.

On October 22, a court in Oral sentenced Amangeldy Orazbaev to 20 days in jail for "violating the law on peaceful demonstrations" by organizing an unsanctioned rally last month.

Orazbaev rejected the charge, saying that "every Kazakh citizen has a constitutional right to hold public events and publicly express opinions."

Another activist in Oral, Bekbolat Otebekov, told RFE/RL that during a recent regular health check-up, doctors tried to "persuade" him to check in to the hospital even though his state of health is "very good."

Another rights activist and Orazbaev associate, Marua Eskendirova, told RFE/RL that she had been under surveillance, adding that a car had been parked next to her house in Oral for hours as men in civilian clothing watched her house.

A day earlier, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev publicly warned about legal repercussions of "illegal mass gatherings" in the country.

The anti-government rallies scheduled to be held across the country were planned by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the exiled former head of BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who resides in France.

The authorities declared Ablyazov's Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and the associated, unregistered Koshe (Street) party "extremist" organizations in March 2018.

Human Rights Watch earlier this year criticized the Kazakh government for using anti-extremism laws as a tool to persecute critics and civic activists. Several hundred people have been prosecuted for supporting or being members of the DVK or Koshe.

The Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the Central Asian country.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging authorities in Uzbekistan to swiftly investigate the numerous online death threats received by staff members of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service ahead of next week's presidential election, and to ensure that the journalists can work safely.

The "unprecedented and repugnant" threats made to the RFE/RL employees in recent days should trigger a "clear response" from the authorities, the New York-based media-freedom watchdog said in a statement on October 21.

"No journalist should have to work in the face of such threats, and the Uzbek government should take immediate steps to investigate these threats’ origins and hold those responsible to account," said Gulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.

On a single day, October 16, mostly anonymous users of the Telegram messaging app sent dozens of death threats to staff members of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, known in Uzbekistan as Ozodlik.

Over the course of 30 minutes, the service's Telegram channel received posts hurling insults at staff members and their mothers, and carrying threats of beheadings and sexual assaults. The posts were accompanied by images with pornographic elements.

Many of the images appeared to have been created by the same person or group, as they featured an identical caption reading, "Ozodlik's real goal is to marshal a mutiny in Uzbekistan, to disrupt peace, to discredit our president."

The service's Telegram communication managers found out that at least two threats came from accounts associated with users promoting the Uzbek government's policies related to the armed forces.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called the online threats "disgusting," and urged the government in Tashkent to immediately end its intimidation tactics against independent media.

SEE ALSO:

Majlis Podcast: What To Expect From The Presidential Vote In Uzbekistan

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has positioned himself as a democratic reformer after he took over Central Asia's most populous state following the death of authoritarian predecessor Islam Karimov in September 2016.

However, arrests and attacks on bloggers and journalists have been on the rise across Uzbekistan ahead of a presidential election scheduled for October 24.

The website of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service was blocked several times, and RFE/RL's requests for official accreditation of its correspondents in the country have remained unanswered.

Uzbekistan ranked 157th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2021 World Press Freedom Index.