The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman who has been detained in Iran for more than five years, has gone on a hunger strike again after a court decided she has to serve an additional year in prison.

Richard Ratcliffe started his fast on October 24 outside the British government's Foreign Office in central London.

He plans to maintain a “constant vigil” by sleeping in a tent outside the building's main entrance in an effort to pressure Prime Minister Boris Johnson to secure the release of his wife and other detained dual British-Iranian nationals, Amnesty International said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first jailed in 2016 after being accused of plotting against the regime -- charges that she, her supporters, and rights groups deny.

She was sentenced to another year's confinement in April on charges of "spreading propaganda against the system” while participating in a protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.

She spent the final year of her initial sentence on parole at her parents' home in Tehran in 2020 as Iran temporarily released thousands of inmates in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The initial court ruling against Zaghari-Ratcliffe was five years plus a one-year ban on traveling abroad. The extra year added to her sentence means Zaghari-Ratcliffe cannot leave Iran to join her husband and 7-year-old daughter in London for nearly two more years.

Ratcliffe went on a 15-day hunger strike two years ago outside the Iranian Embassy, a move he credits with getting their daughter released.

"We are now giving the U.K. government the same treatment. In truth, I never expected to have to do a hunger strike twice. It is not a normal act," Ratcliffe said on his Change.org petition.

He said Iran remains the “primary abuser” in Nazanin’s case, but that the "U.K. is also letting us down."

"It is increasingly clear that Nazanin’s case could have been solved many months ago – but for other diplomatic agendas," he said. "The PM needs to take responsibility for that.”

Employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the Reuters news agency, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken into custody at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport in April 2016 when she tried to return to Britain after visiting family in Iran.

Rights groups accuse Iran of holding dual-nationals as bargaining chips for money or influence in negotiations with the West. Tehran denies the accusation.

With reporting by AP

Moscow has criticized the United States after Washington added Russians seeking U.S. visas to a list of “homeless nationals” who can apply for visas in third countries.

The move allows Russians to apply for U.S. visas in Warsaw instead of their home country after the U.S. Embassy stopped processing most visa applications in May due to Moscow's ban on employing embassy staff in Russia.

The U.S. State Department lists as "homeless" applicants from countries in which the United States has no consular representation, or where consular staff cannot issue visas due to the political or security situation.

Russia became the 10th nation on the list, after Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.

"The Russian government's decision to prohibit the United States from retaining, hiring or contracting Russian or third-country staff severely impacts our ability to provide consular services," a State Department spokesman said in a statement received by the AFP news agency.

"The extremely limited number of consular staff in Russia at this time does not allow us to provide routine visa or U.S. citizen services."

Moscow claimed that Washington was to blame for the current difficulties.

"American diplomats have for many years been destroying the system of consular services in Russia ..." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

"They have turned a technical procedure, a routine one for the 21st century, into a real hell."

With ties already at post-Cold War lows, Russia and the United States are in a dispute over the number of diplomats they can post to each other's capitals, and failed to make progress at talks this month.

In addition, Russia has placed the United States on a list of "unfriendly" countries who must seek approval to employ Russian nationals -- and has set the U.S. quota at zero.

At the talks, Moscow said it was willing to lift all the restrictions imposed in recent years, and Washington said it wanted parity on diplomatic staff numbers and visa reciprocity.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

The world governing body of amateur boxing says it is in talks with the Serbian Boxing Federation over Belgrade's refusal to allow Kosovo boxers to enter the country in order to compete in the world championships this week.

The 2021 World Boxing Championships are being hosted by Serbia at Belgrade's Stark Arena from October 24 through November 6.

But the Kosovo Olympic Committee said late on October 23 that its athletes have been denied permission to cross the border twice by Serbian officials.

In a Facebook post, the Kosovo Olympic Committee said its team was turned back the first time for wearing Kosovo's national symbols.

It said the team returned to Pristina, then made another attempt to cross into Serbia without the symbols but were denied entry again.

Kosovo, a former part of Serbia, declared independence in 2008. It is recognized by around 100 nations. But the government in Belgrade still considers it to be a part of Serbia.

The Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) says it is trying to "remedy the situation" through its contacts with the Serbian Boxing Federation.

"The Kosovo Boxing Federation has been a full member of AIBA since November 2014 and is expected to attend the AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships," the AIBA said in a statement.

"The AIBA expects that the Kosovo Boxing Federation’s delegation will be treated no differently than the delegation of any other AIBA member," it said.

The AIBA also said that it aims to "provide a welcoming home for every boxer, and the world of boxing has no borders."

It said "all athletes must receive a fair chance to compete and demonstrate their best abilities in the ring," adding that "sport is intended to unite people and should be free of national politics."

Reports from Pristina say Kosovo's foreign minister, Donika Gervalla-Schwarz, and sports minister, Hajrullah Ceku, have written to Serbia's sports minister, Vanja Udovicic, about the development.

They said they "strongly condemn" Serbia's action which they called "unfair and politically influenced" and urged Serbia to grant their athletes the right to compete.

With reporting by dpa

An investigation into the fatal shooting of Ukrainian-born cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a movie set is focusing on the specialist in charge of weapons and the assistant director who handed the gun to actor Alec Baldwin before he fired it.

Hutchins, 42, was struck in the chest and died shortly after the incident in the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico on October 21, while director Joel Souza, 48, was wounded and briefly hospitalized.

Souza spoke out about the shooting for the first time on October 23, saying he was "gutted" by the loss of Hutchins.

"She was kind, vibrant, incredibly talented, fought for every inch, and always pushed me to be better," he told Deadline, an entertainment news website.

The shooting on the set of the movie Rust during a rehearsal at a ranch near the city of Santa Fe raised questions about gun-safety protocols for film sets.

Some details of the incident emerged in court documents submitted by the Santa Fe County sheriff's office to obtain a search warrant.

The documents said assistant director Dave Halls, who handed the gun to Baldwin, called out "cold gun," indicating the weapon had no live ammunition.

The assistant director did not know the gun contained live rounds, a detective with the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department said in the documents.

Baldwin handed the gun to Hannah Gutierrez-Reed -- the movie's weapons master -- immediately after the shooting, and she removed a spent casing and handed it and the gun to deputies when they arrived, the court documents say.

Neither Halls nor Gutierrez-Reed have commented publicly.

There also have been reports that the shooting occurred only hours after a walk-out by film crew members over various complaints about working conditions.

Rust Movie Productions said in a statement that it had not been made aware of any official complaints but would "continue to cooperate with the Santa Fe authorities" while also conducting its own review.

Baldwin, 63, is known for his roles in the television series 30 Rock, the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October, and his impression of former President Donald Trump on the television sketch show Saturday Night Live.

He has cooperated with investigators and no charges have been filed.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Deadline

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has been declared the winner of a presidential election at the weekend, an expected result in a vote that featured no genuine opposition and western observers called "not truly competitive."

Central Election Commission Chairman Zainuddin Nizomhojaev said on October 25 that 80.1 percent of those casting ballots supported Mirziyoev. He added that 80.4 percent of the some 20 million eligible voters took part in the election.

Mirziyoev, 64, faced four little-known candidates who are largely pro-government. Three opposition parties were not allowed to register or have candidates in the race.

It was Uzbekistan’s sixth presidential election since the country of some 35 million people gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

As Mirziyoev's first term nears its end, he is struggling to counter impressions that his government is sliding back toward the authoritarian habits of his long-reigning predecessor Islam Karimov.

Mirziyoev did open up Central Asia's most-populous nation to foreign investment, improved Uzbekistan’s relations with its neighbors, and eased the Karimov-era restrictions on religious freedoms while also releasing dozens of political prisoners.

But like his predecessor, Mirziyoev exercises virtually unrestrained political power in Uzbekistan and his relatives have been accused of using his political clout to amass wealth.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have also overshadowed some of his initial economic achievements, leading to higher unemployment and sharp rises in the cost of living.

He has also come under criticism for cracking down on his critics and activists ahead of the vote.

An international monitoring mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on October 25 that despite some movement in the ongoing reforms, the election was "not truly competitive."

"Remaining restrictions on fundamental freedoms and the right to stand continue to run counter to OSCE commitments. While multiple candidates contested the election, there was no meaningful engagement with each other or with voters, and candidates refrained from challenging or criticizing the incumbent," an OSCE's preliminary assessment of the balloting said.

The Vienna-based organization added that counting procedures at polling stations "were often not followed and the figures in the result protocols did not reconcile in many polling stations observed."

Uzbekistan has never held an election that was deemed fair or democratic by Western observers.

Meanwhile, observer missions from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Turkic Council, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization said the voting was fair, transparent, and without major violations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the authoritarian strongman of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka congratulated Mirziyoev by phone hours before the official results were announced.

SEE ALSO:

Uzbek President's New Promises Ring Hollow In His Bid For A Second Term

Mirziyoev received 88.6 percent of the vote in the previous election in 2016.

Three unregistered opposition parties announced their intention to field candidates: the Erk Democratic Party, the Truth and Development Party, and the People’s Interest Party.

Despite their attempts, none was registered and official pressure eventually forced all of them to end their efforts to have candidates in the race.

SEE ALSO:

Uzbekistan Clamps Down On Activists, Critics Ahead Of Presidential Election

The Erk Party's leader, Muhammad Solih, who has been living in exile in Turkey since the 1990s, called the presidential poll in Uzbekistan "fake."

"This election is a fake election. Fake elections are in the genetic code of Uzbekistan's political regime. All elections in Uzbekistan are based on that code, and that genetic code is Islam Karimov's code, which Shavkat Mirziyoev used today," Solih said, adding that the October 24 poll is no different from the 1991 presidential election that was "rigged" to declare Karimov as president of independent Uzbekistan.

Mirziyoev's only challenger to receive significant attention during the campaign was Alisher Kodirov, who proposed that Uzbeks working outside of the country should pay taxes in Uzbekistan.

That position is unpopular among a large portion of Uzbekistan's population that depends upon remittances from family members who work abroad.

Mirziyoev openly disagreed with Kodirov's proposal.

Some observers suggested that Kodirov announced his tax proposal to channel more votes to Mirziyoev -- a view bolstered by the fact that Kodirov's National Revival Party is in a parliamentary coalition with Mirziyoev's Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan.

The three other candidates in the race and their political parties were Bahrom Abduhalimov of the Adolat (Justice) party, Maksuda Borisova of the People’s Democratic Party, and Narzullo Oblomuradov of the Ecological Party.

Borisova was the second woman to run in an Uzbek presidential election. Oblomuradov is the first presidential candidate fielded by the Ecological Party.

SEE ALSO:

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

Mirziyoev was prime minister from 2003 to 2016, when Uzbekistan’s first and only previous president, Islam Karimov, died.

Mirziyoev became acting president and then won a snap presidential election on December 4, 2016, receiving just over 90 percent of the vote.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog says his monitoring program in Iran has been restricted at a key facility, raising concern that it will not be possible for world powers that are party to a 2015 nuclear deal to “reconstruct the picture” of Iran’s nuclear program down the road.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi made the comments in an interview with NBC News broadcast on October 23. Grossi is currently visiting Washington as the countries that are party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) urge Iran to return to negotiations to restore the deal.

Earlier this year, after Iran stopped allowing IAEA inspectors conduct snap inspections required under the agreement, Grossi brokered an arrangement in which Iran would allow IAEA cameras inside nuclear facilities to keep running.

Grossi said Iran has allowed the IAEA to access most of its cameras except for those at a facility in the Tehran suburbs that makes centrifuge parts.

The facility was damaged in June in what Iran says was an act of sabotage by Israel and, Grossi said, Iran has cited an ongoing investigation into the attack in refusing IAEA access to the site.

Without that access the IAEA’s monitoring and verification program in Iran is “no longer intact,” Grossi said.

“It hasn’t paralyzed what we are doing there, but damage...has been done, with a potential of us not being able to reconstruct the picture, the jigsaw puzzle,” Grossi told NBC News in the interview.

“If and when the JCPOA will be restarted, I know that for the JCPOA partners to go back to an agreement, they will have to know where they are putting their feet,” Grossi said.

Iran has called on the IAEA to clarify its position regarding an alleged Israeli attack on the centrifuge-component manufacturing workshop.

Speaking to journalists on October 3, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy organization, Mohammad Eslami, deplored that the IAEA and Western powers had not condemned the "terrorist act" in which the TESA Karaj facility was “severely destroyed.”

The JCPOA imposed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions. Then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States unilaterally from the pact in 2018 and started reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran has progressively rolled back its own commitments to the deal.

The Biden administration and European partners want to restore the deal, and Iranian officials have repeatedly said they were ready to resume talks, but no date has yet been announced.

Indirect negotiations on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, via intermediaries from other parties to the accord -- Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia -- were launched in Vienna in April, but the talks were suspended following the June election of hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

With reporting by NBC

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:

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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.

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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.