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- By RFE/RL
Pandora Papers Expose Secret Wealth, Dealings Of Aliyev, Zelenskiy, Putin, Other World Leaders
A massive new leak of financial documents has exposed how the presidents of Azerbaijan and Ukraine, as well as hundreds of other politicians and billionaires around the world, are linked with companies that use offshore tax havens to hide wealth.
The files from offshore companies, dubbed the Pandora Papers, involve some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 officials.
The findings of an examination of the files -- the largest organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) -- were released on October 3.
The investigation found that the family of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and their close associates have secretly been involved in property deals in Britain, almost entirely in London, worth nearly $700 million, using offshore companies, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which is part of the ICIJ consortium.
Most of these properties were purchased in cash.
The files show how the Aliyevs, long accused of corruption in the South Caucasus country, bought a total of 17 properties, the BBC reported.
Aliyev’s son, Heydar, owned four buildings in London’s Mayfair district when he was just 11 years old.
A $44.7 million block was bought by a front company owned by a family friend of the president in 2009 and was transferred one month later to Heydar.
Aliyev’s administration did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations, nor did members of his family.
The secret records also show that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his close circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that owned expensive property in London, the OCCRP reported.
It said Zelenskiy and his partners in a television production company, Kvartal 95, set up a network of offshore firms dating back to at least 2012. Among other things, the offshore firms were used by Zelenskiy's associates to purchase three prime properties in the center of the British capital.
The documents also show that just before he was elected in 2019 on a wave of public anger against the country’s political class, Zelenskiy transferred his stake in a secret offshore company to his business partner, who later became his top presidential aide.
And an arrangement was soon made that would allow the offshore firm to keep paying dividends to a company that now belongs to Zelenskiy's wife.
A spokesman for Zelenskiy declined to comment.
According to the OCCRP, other leaked offshore documents show that the “unofficial third wife” of Kazakhstan’s former President Nursultan Nazarbaev received $30 million, apparently for “almost nothing.”
The payment to Asel Qurmanbaeva followed a number of share transfers involving six offshore companies, almost all registered in the British Virgin Islands, a notorious haven for offshore secrecy, the investigative journalism group said.
The payment was structured as a sale, in which Qurmanbaeva gave up her stake in a company that appeared to do no business. She received the money two months after the 2010 death of a man rumored to be Nazarbaev’s confidant, an oligarch named Vladimir Ni, from a company taken over by his daughter.
Nazarbaev did not respond to requests for comment on the claims.
The leaks also link Russian President Vladimir Putin to secret assets in Monaco.
The Washington Post, which is part of the investigative consortium, reported on the case of Svetlana Krivonogikh, a Russian woman who it said became the owner of a Monaco apartment through an offshore company incorporated on the Caribbean island of Tortola in April 2003, just weeks after she gave birth to a girl.
She was at the time in a secret, years-long relationship with Putin, the U.S. newspaper said, citing Russian investigative outlet Proekt.
They are using those offshore accounts, those offshore trusts, to buy hundreds of millions of dollars of property in other countries, and to enrich their own families, at the expense of their citizens."-- Fergus Shiel, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Krivonogikh and her 18-year-old daughter and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on October 4 dismissed revelations leaked in the Pandora Papers as "a set of largely unsubstantiated claims."
In Pakistan, members of Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including cabinet ministers and their families, secretly own companies and trusts holding millions of dollars, the BBC reported.
The files also expose the offshore dealings of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and detail the financial activities of more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey, and other nations.
Many of the transactions in the documents involve no legal wrongdoing, but Fergus Shiel of the ICIJ said the leak documents show “the reality of what offshore companies can offer to help people hide dodgy cash or avoid tax."
"They are using those offshore accounts, those offshore trusts, to buy hundreds of millions of dollars of property in other countries, and to enrich their own families, at the expense of their citizens," he added.
The publishing of the Pandora Papers comes five years after the explosive Panama Papers investigation in 2016.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told journalists at a regular briefing on October 4 that the United States is reviewing the Pandora Papers' findings, but is not in a position to comment on specifics.
The ICIJ obtained the trove of nearly 12 million confidential files from 14 financial services companies in countries such as the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Switzerland that set up shell companies and other nooks for clients.
A team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets spent two years sifting through them, tracking down sources, and digging into court files and other public records from dozens of countries.
Russia Reports Record One-Day COVID Death Toll
The Russian government has said it recorded 890 deaths owing to the coronavirus from October 2-3, the highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began.
The numbers were reported by the government's coronavirus task force, which also said it had recorded 25,769 new cases over the same time period, 4,294 of them in Moscow.
WATCH: Russia recorded a new high for daily deaths from COVID-19 on September 28 as another wave sweeps across the country and vaccination rates stall.
Russia has officially recorded more than 7.5 million coronavirus infections, with more than 210,000 related deaths. However, it is widely assumed that the death toll is being underreported.
According to official statistics, about 50 million of the country's population of 146 million have received at least one vaccination, and there are no major anti-coronavirus restrictions currently in place.
Based on reporting by TASS, dpa, and Reuters
Near-Final Results Point To Win By Georgian Ruling Party After Tense Local Elections
TBILISI --Near-final results from Georgia show the ruling party well ahead of challengers after nationwide local elections amid high tensions, allegations of electoral fraud, and early claims of victory by the South Caucasus country's two main political forces.
With results from all but one of the country's 3,743 precincts tallied, the ruling Georgian Dream party had nearly 46.7 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission on October 3.
The main opposition party, the United National Movement (ENM), had 30.7 percent of the vote. The rest of the vote was split among the remaining 48 parties, with the For Georgia party third at nearly 7.8 percent.
The mayoral races in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Poti and Rustavi were all heading for runoffs after no candidate got an absolute majority of votes.
The elections "took place in a calm, fair, safe and competitive environment. It is very important that today one more step towards democracy and stabilisation was made," President Salome Zurabishvili was quoted as saying by Russia's state-run TASS news agency.
The nationwide elections were held on October 2 in a highly polarized atmosphere and were seen as a referendum on Georgian Dream's rule.
The opposition was seeking to use the elections as leverage to demand early parliamentary elections if Georgian Dream failed to get more than 43 percent of the national vote.
Tensions were heightened with the arrest of former President and ENM founder Mikheil Saakashvili within hours of his return from self-exile to rally the opposition ahead of the vote. Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in 2018 of abuse of office.
Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said on October 3 that Saakashvili would serve his full term of six years in prison.
A mission of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement on October 3 the election had been "marred by widespread and consistent allegations of intimidation, vote-buying, pressure on candidates and voters, and an unlevel playing field," although candidates were able to campaign freely.
In the capital, Tbilisi, the mayoral race appeared headed for a runoff with more than 99 percent of the votes counted.
Mayor Kakha Kaladze of Georgian Dream had nearly 45 percent of the vote, while ENM party chief Nika Melia was at 34 percent.
The incumbent conceded on October 3 that he had failed to reach the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff, saying he respected the will of voters and would begin to assess the reasons for the result, mentioning the strained political atmosphere as one potential cause.
Kaladze claimed, however, that Georgian Dream had retained its majority in the Tbilisi city council, although it appeared to have lost seats.
According to the election commission, all five of the mayoral races being contested in the country were heading for a runoff, and three of the races were led by opposition candidates.
Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze said that he was saddened that the Tbilisi race would go to a second round, but claimed the ruling party had "won convincingly" and predicted that all its candidates facing runoff votes would win.
He scolded the opposition during an October 3 press conference. "You are in a difficult situation," he told a reporter for the opposition-aligned TV channel Mtavari Arkhi in response to a question. "You have severely lost the election, but this should not make you lose face."
After polls closed on October 2, opposition leader Melia claimed Georgian Dream had "lost the political center" and accused the ruling party of "voter intimidation and vote-buying." He called on Georgians to "be mobilized so that Georgian Dream can't manipulate election results."
As the results came in the, other opposition leaders also said there were widespread irregularities despite Georgian Dream saying the elections had been held to the "highest democratic standards."
"The election results were falsified. We have witnessed intimidation and bribing of voters prior to the elections, multiple voting on the election day," Giorgi Baramidze, a leader of the ENM, told AFP.
The Interior Ministry announced on October 3 that it had launched 16 criminal investigations related to incidents that took place on voting day, including physical violence near or at polling stations.
Nongovernmental organizations monitoring the elections reported dozens of suspected cases of electoral fraud, including vote-buying, violations of the secrecy of the ballot, and "carousel voting" -- where voters are bussed into multiple polling stations as an organized group.
According to the Central Election Commission, 366 complaints were filed with the district election commissions during election day, most of them being "procedural deficiencies [that will] require disciplinary action against commission members."
An independent union of journalists, the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, reported cases where journalists were cursed, threatened, or physically assaulted at polling stations.
Transparency International, whose Georgia branch had about 300 observers on the ground, reported 160 violations, including multiple voting, the obstruction of monitoring, and the harassment of journalists. The violations led to the filing of 30 complaints, the corruption watchdog said.
Overall, voters cast ballots for mayors in 64 municipalities, as well as nearly 2,100 members of local self-governing councils. Voter turnout nationally stood at nearly 52 percent, according to election authorities.
The local elections come as the country has been in a protracted political crisis since Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections a year ago. Opposition parties claimed the vote was unfair and fraudulent, while international observers said it had been competitive and that fundamental freedoms were generally respected.
Under an EU-brokered agreement reached in April to defuse the paralyzing political crisis between Georgian Dream and opposition parties, early parliamentary elections were to be called in 2022 if Georgian Dream received less than 43 percent in local elections.
But in July, Georgian Dream leader Kobakhidze annulled the so-called April 19 agreement, blaming the opposition for its failure and claiming most other key provisions had been met.
At the time, Kobakhidze said that smaller opposition parties signed the agreement, but the larger "radical opposition" blocs including the main opposition ENM refused to join the deal.
Observers say the election and its aftermath could usher in a period of instability in the country with aspirations of joining Western institutions.
"Today's vote is probably a culmination of the months-long political crisis that has a good chance to drive Georgia into more instability and less prospects for development," Olesya Vartanyan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL.
"[It's] difficult to say if the ruling party will even want to demonstrate its readiness for compromise after it withdrew from the April 19 agreement that included a step-by-step plan on how to start getting out of Georgia's stagnation and regular crisis situations. Many in the opposition are also very frustrated with the lack of results," she said.
The arrest of Saakashvili, who ruled Georgia from 2004 to 2013, added extra fuel to the country's political crisis, with the ENM's Baramidze saying the situation had undermined the credibility of the elections.
The former president left the country shortly after his term ended, and in 2015 he gave up his Georgian citizenship to become governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, although he continues to be considered a leading opposition figure in Georgia.
Saakashvili was convicted in absentia on corruption and abuse of power charges in 2018 that says are politically motivated. He faces a total of nine years in prison after being found guilty of abusing his authority in two separate cases: one related to trying to cover up evidence related to the 2005 beating of an opposition lawmaker, and another relating to the killing of a Georgian banker.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on October 3 that he would personally press for Saakashvili to be returned to Ukraine.
With reporting by Civil.ge, AFP, and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Report: EU Mulls Ukrainian Military Training Mission
The European Union is considering a training mission for Ukrainian officers due to the "ongoing military activities" of Russia, according to an internal EU document.
With tensions between Kyiv and Moscow running high, some members of the bloc want Brussels to set up an independent training program called the EU Military Advisory and Training Mission Ukraine (EUATM), Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on October 3, citing an EU policy paper it obtained.
"A military mission would underscore the visibility and commitment to the countries of the Eastern Partnership initiative," according to the working document from the European External Action Service, the EU's diplomatic service.
Such a military mission would also "be an expression of solidarity with Ukraine in view of the ongoing military activities of Russia on the borders with Ukraine and in the illegally annexed Crimea," the document said.
In addition to EUATM, the EU's diplomatic service led by top diplomat Josep Borrell is considering three other options to help improve Ukraine's military capabilities, according to the document.
One is to beef up the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine, which was established in 2014 to help civilian security-sector reform. According to the report, the responsible EU ambassadors recently discussed in the document for the first time forming a political and security committee responsible for foreign and security policy.
The three EU Baltic states are especially pushing for the military training mission, as well as Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Sweden and Finland have also expressed support.
Those EU members share similar concerns with Ukraine about Russian military drills on their borders, including the Zapad-2021 military exercises in September and a massive Russian troop build-up near Ukraine in April that raised concern in Kyiv and the West over Moscow's intentions.
Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, is seeking closer ties with the West and its militaries to help it fight Kremlin-backed separatists in a seven-year war that has killed more than 13,200 people in the east of the country.
In 2014, Russia occupied and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, just before the war broke out.
With reporting by Welt am Sonntag
- By RFE/RL
Russian Tycoon Ismailov Seeks Asylum In Montenegro After Arrest On Moscow Warrant
An Azerbaijan-born Russian billionaire wanted by Moscow for allegedly ordering contract murders has been detained in Montenegro.
Local media in Montenegro reported on October 2 that Telman Ismailov is seeking asylum in the Balkan country, a day after he was arrested in Podgorica on an international arrest warrant issued by Russia.
The newspaper Vijesti reported that the political asylum request could complicate Ismailov's extradition to Russia from Montenegro, where his son Alekper Ismailov owns a casino in the coastal town of Budva.
Ismailov is accused in Russia of financing the 2016 killing of two businessmen in the Moscow region, as well as of the abduction of a singer in 2004.
The tycoon has long been a target of President Vladimir Putin, who was reportedly critical of Ismailov's flashy and extravagant lifestyle.
Ismailov -- once one of the best-connected businessmen in Russia -- built the massive outdoor Cherkizovsky market in Moscow, only to have it closed in 2009 for "sanitary and safety violations" and conducting illegal activities.
At the time, Russia's Investigative Committee accused the market of operating as a "state within a state," with its own laws and security.
Critics say the closure of Cherkizovsky market may have been part of a struggle for valuable Moscow real estate. Ismailov ultimately fled Russia and his properties were confiscated to pay debts.
The market's closure came weeks after Putin berated Ismailov for holding a lavish inauguration party at his massive five-star Mardan Place hotel in Turkey at a time Russians were suffering following the 1998 financial crisis in the country. He also suggested billions of dollars made in Russia should be invested in the country, rather than on glitzy projects abroad.
Eyewitnesses at the party said they saw $100 bills being released from the ceiling to shower over the guests, including Hollywood stars and Russian elites.
Vijesti reported that one of Ismailov's guests at the party was Montenegro's then-prime minister, and now president, Milo Dukanovic.
With reporting by AFP, Vijesti, and Current Time
Thousands Protest Corruption In Bosnia's Serbian Entity
Several thousand people have demonstrated in the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia-Herzegovina against government corruption and curbs on media freedom.
Led by opposition parties, protesters on October 2 accused the ruling party of nationalist leader Milorad Dodik of criminal behavior, cronyism, and corruption.
They also demanded the firing of the health minister and hospital managers in the Republika Srpska over alleged corruption in the procurement of supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including oxygen used for ventilators.
Shouts of "Thieves" and "Enough is enough" were heard echoing through the crowd at a protest in the main city Banja Luka.
The opposition in the Republika Srpska has accused the government of curbing media freedoms.
It says the ruling party is attempting to shut down critical media under the guise of Bosnia's switch away from an analogue signal for commercial television.
The Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat entity were formed after the Balkan country's civil war in 1995.
The country's administrative structures created by Dayton accords ending the war left it with a weak central government with most powers devolved to two autonomous entities: the Muslim-Croat federation and the Republika Srpska.
With reporting by AFP
Thousands Rally In Bucharest Against COVID-19 Restrictions
BUCHAREST -- Thousands of people have protested in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, to reject new measures by the authorities to curb an alarming surge of COVID-19 infections.
The participants in the October 2 rally organized by the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) blocked traffic, honked horns, and chanted slogans such as "Freedom!"
Most of them did not wear a mask.
Similar protests were held in other Romanian cities as health authorities registered 12,740 new cases on October 2, Romania's highest daily number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic.
The infection rate in the capital also reached its highest level so far -- 8.28 per 1,000 residents -- putting the country's hospitals under serious pressure with intensive-care units reaching near capacity.
Late on October 2, the ROVaccinare platform noted in a Facebook post that while crowds were demonstrating in Bucharest and elsewhere, "hundreds of doctors are fighting to save the lives of some patients with severe forms of COVID-19."
A Romanian has died every 8 minutes in the last 24 hours due to the disease, and 92 percent of them were not vaccinated, it said.
Romania has fully vaccinated only one-third of all adults, making it the second-least-vaccinated EU member state after Bulgaria.
The new rules and restrictions, which were adopted earlier this week by the National Committee for Emergency Situations, were published in the official gazette on October 2.
They will require people to wear masks in public and make shops close at 10 p.m. Restaurants will remain open at half-capacity but only for people with COVID-19 passes.
The protests came a day after seven people were killed in a fire at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Romania's port city of Constanta -- the third deadly hospital blaze in the country in less than a year.
With reporting by AP
Uzbek Activist Detained At Moscow Airport Flies To Armenia
A noted migrant rights defender who was being held at a Moscow airport and faced deportation to Uzbekistan says she has left Russia on a flight to Armenia.
In a brief interview before her flight departed on October 2 from Sheremetyevo airport, Valentina Chupik told RFE/RL that she was unsure of the legal details of her case, but that she unexpectedly received an Uzbek passport this morning, and then got a PCR test for COVID so she could board a flight.
"After that, I was given the opportunity to turn on the phone a little. Then they put me on plane," she said.
"I'm on a plane. I have to turn off the phone, now we're taking off," she said.
It wasn't immediately clear if Armenia was Chupik's final destination, or whether she would be flying on further.
An Uzbek citizen and rights activist, Chupik fled Uzbekistan in 2006 after authorities there tried to take control of her human rights organization.
She has lived in Moscow since then, running a nongovernmental organization called Sunrise of the World that provides legal defense and assistance to migrant workers from Central Asia.
On September 25, she was detained at Sheremetyevo after returning to Russia from Armenia.
According to her, officers of Russia's Federal Security Service informed her that she has been deprived of her refugee status since September 17 and banned from entering Russia for 30 years.
The move was made, the officers told her, because she presented either false information or forged documents to Russian authorities when she applied for refugee status in 2006.
Chupik, who called the assertion "absolute nonsense," said that she might be jailed, tortured, or even killed while in custody if she is deported back to Uzbekistan.
Earlier, one of Chupik's aides told RFE/RL that they had filed asylum requests with Ukrainian diplomats in Moscow and Kyiv.
Chupik's plight has drawn the attention of rights activists in Russia, as well as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which asked the European Court of Human Rights to intervene on her behalf.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service
Barricades On Kosovo-Serbia Border Removed, Ending Tense Standoff
JARINJE/BRNJAK, Kosovo -- Two crossings along the Kosovo-Serbia border were reopened to traffic on October 2 as ethnic Serbian protesters removed vehicles, Kosovar special police units withdrew, and NATO troops moved in as part of an EU-mediated deal to defuse a tense standoff sparked by a dispute over vehicle license plates.
The pullout of Kosovo special police units, cars, and trucks at the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings was completed at around 3 p.m. local time with no incidents reported, putting an end a potentially explosive situation pitting Kosovar Albanian and Serbian communities against one another.
The crossings were blocked by local ethnic Serbs after Kosovar authorities on September 20 ordered all drivers entering Kosovo from Serbia to use temporary, 60-day, printed license plates.
The government said the move was in retaliation for measures in Serbia against drivers from Kosovo that have been in place since 2008, when the country declared independence from Belgrade.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence and therefore its right to impose rules and regulations such as registering cars and trucks.
Makeshift barricades erected by local Serbs at the border crossings prompted Kosovo's government to send in police units. Serbian military jets and helicopters, meanwhile, also buzzed the border in a show of force.
The barricades included dump trucks with Serbian flags on their side, and piles of trees.
Tensions High As Kosovo, Serbia Continue Border Standoff
Under the deal, workers removed the barricades and Kosovar authorities ordered the withdrawal of its special police units.
Troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, will deploy at the crossings for the next two weeks in an effort to help ensure cross-border traffic resumes without problem.
"As from this weekend and for the next two weeks, KFOR will maintain a temporary robust and agile presence in the area...to ensure a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all communities living in Kosovo," the force said in a statement.
The European Union brokered talks between Serbian and Kosovar government officials in Brussels this week to break the impasse.
EU and U.S. officials also called for dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade to continue to normalize their relations, which remain strained despite substantial cross-border commerce.
RFE/RL's Balkan Service correspondents Arton Konushevci reported from Jarinje and Sandra Cvetkovic from Gracanica
- By RFE/RL
Ukraine Charges Former Official In Presidential Office With Spying
A former official in the Ukrainian president's office has been accused of treason for allegedly passing on secret information to a foreign country, Ukraine’s security agency said.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said on October 1 that a counterintelligence investigation found that the former official was recruited by an unnamed foreign intelligence service.
"It was established that he passed secret information about higher authorities to representatives of the foreign secret service," the SBU said in a statement.
The former official, who was not named, worked in the presidential administration and the office of the National Security and Defense Council, the statement said.
The suspect has been charged with treason and could face imprisonment of up to 15 years if convicted.
Georgians Await Results After Tense Local Elections
TBILISI -- Tensions are high in Georgia as ballots cast for mayors and local councils across the deeply polarized South Caucasus country are being counted amid early claims of victory by both the ruling party and the main opposition force and allegations of electoral fraud.
The October 2 vote is viewed by the opposition as a referendum on the ruling Georgian Dream party. It was already set to be contentious before exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili returned on the eve of the election to rally the opposition party he founded, the United National Movement (ENM), and other opposition groups -- only to be arrested within hours.
With 45 percent of precincts counted, preliminary results from the Central Election Commission early on October 3 showed Georgian Dream leading nationwide with 45.5 percent compared to 31 percent for ENM. The rest of the vote was split among 50 parties, with the For Georgia party third at nearly 7 percent. Official full preliminary results are expected later on October 3.
The opposition is seeking to use the elections as leverage to demand early elections if the ruling party fails to get more than 43 percent of the national vote.
In the capital, Tbilisi, preliminary results with 31 percent of precincts counted pointed to incumbent mayor Kakha Kaladze of Georgian Dream getting 41.6 percent, while ENM party chief Nika Melia was at 28.5 percent.
Georgian Dream supporters gathered outside party headquarters on a central Tbilisi square after polls closed, with Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili congratulating them for their "great victory."
"Today, we finished polarization in the country, the era of hate and lies," he said, referring to the opposition.
Meanwhile, Melia said Georgian Dream had "completely lost the capital."
"They lost the political center," he insisted, adding that the opposition will hold a majority in the Tbilisi city council.
Hours earlier, the opposition leader accused the ruling party of "voter intimidation and vote-buying," and urged Georgians to "be mobilized so that Georgian Dream can't manipulate election results."
Nongovernmental organizations monitoring the elections reported dozens of suspected cases of electoral fraud across Georgia, including vote-buying, violations of the secrecy of the ballot, and "carousel voting" -- where voters are bussed into multiple polling stations as an organized group.
According to the Central Election Commission, 366 complaints were filed with the district election commissions during election day, most of them being "procedural deficiencies [that will] require disciplinary action against commission members."
An independent union of journalists, the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, reported cases where journalists were cursed, threatened, or physically assaulted at polling stations.
Voters cast ballots for mayors in 64 municipalities, as well as nearly 2,100 members of local self-governing councils. Voter turnout nationally stood at nearly 52 percent, according to election authorities.
The local elections come as the country has been in a protracted political crisis since Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections a year ago. Opposition parties claimed the vote was unfair and fraudulent, while international observers said it had been competitive and that fundamental freedoms were generally respected.
Under an EU-brokered agreement reached in April to defuse the paralyzing political crisis between Georgian Dream and opposition parties, early parliamentary elections were to be called in 2022 if Georgian Dream received less than 43 percent in local elections.
But in July, Georgian Dream leader Irakli Kobakhidze annulled the so-called April 19 agreement, blaming the opposition for its failure and claiming most other key provisions had been met.
At the time, Kobakhidze said that smaller opposition parties signed the agreement, but the larger "radical opposition" blocs including the main opposition ENM refused to join the deal.
Georgian Dream was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the reclusive billionaire who served as prime minister.
Observers say the election and its aftermath could usher in a period of instability in the country with aspirations of joining Western institutions.
"Today's vote is probably a culmination of the monthslong political crisis that has a good chance to drive Georgia into more instability and less prospects for development," Olesya Vartanyan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL.
"[It's] difficult to say if the ruling party will even want to demonstrate its readiness for compromise after it withdrew from the April 19 agreement that included a step-by-step plan on how to start getting out of Georgia's stagnation and regular crisis situations. Many in the opposition are also very frustrated with the lack of results," she said.
The arrest of Saakashvili adds extra fuel to the country's political crises.
The former president, who was convicted in absentia in 2018 and has lived in Ukraine in recent years, announced plans earlier this week to fly home for the vote, despite facing prison, claiming he wanted to help "save the country."
Saakashvili published a handwritten letter on Twitter on October 2, and in several opposition media outlets, in which he asked supporters to vote for his ENM.
"I want to ask you all to go to the elections so that not a single vote is lost, and after that, we will have to defend the results of the referendum together," Saakashvili said.
In a video posted on Facebook before his arrest, Saakashvili, who was stripped of his Georgia citizenship, also called on his supporters to protest following the election.
"Everyone must go to the polls and vote, and on October 3 we must fill Freedom Square (in central Tbilisi). If there are 100,000 people, no one can defeat us," he says in the video. "You see -- I risked everything -- my life, freedom, everything, in order to come here. I want only one thing from you -- go to the polls."
In recent years, Saakashvili has held several top government positions in Ukraine, and was briefly the governor of the Odesa region.
He has been a Ukrainian citizen since 2015 and heads the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council.
In 2018, he was sentenced in absentia to a total of nine years in prison after being found guilty of abusing his authority in two separate cases related to trying to cover up evidence related to the 2005 beating of an opposition lawmaker and about the killing of a Georgian banker.
With reporting by Civil.ge, AFP, and Reuters
- By Todd Prince
Russian Bank Founder Agrees To Pay IRS $500 Million In Tax Fraud Case
WASHINGTON -- The founder of one of Russia’s largest privately-owned banks has agreed to pay the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more than $500 million after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
Oleg Tinkov, who was arrested in the United Kingdom in February 2020 at the behest of the United States, will be sentenced to time served at his hearing on October 29, the Justice Department said on October 1.
The Russian-born businessman renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2013, days after his TCS online bank held an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.
Tinkov sold a part of his majority shareholder stake for more than $192 million, and his assets following the initial public offering were estimated at more than $1.1 billion, the Justice Department said.
U.S. citizens are required to pay taxes on income earned abroad as in the case of Tinkov, who returned to Russia after receiving his American passport in 1996.
Individuals with more than $2 million in assets who renounce their U.S. citizenship must pay an exit tax based on any income and capital gains they would receive if they sold their assets.
Tinkov claimed in his 2013 statement to the IRS that he did not have more than $2 million in assets.
“No one who enjoys the immense benefits of United States citizenship, as Tinkov did, may avoid the corresponding obligation to support the country he chose. Tax evaders should take notice of the long reach of U.S. law enforcement,” Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds for the Northern District of California said in the statement.
The Justice Department said the $500 million payment — which includes fines and penalties — is more than double his original tax bill.
Tinkov is one of Russia’s most successful entrepreneurs, having built and sold two businesses before launching his bank in the middle of the 2000s.
TCS is one of Russia’s fastest growing banks. Its stock price has more than tripled over the past year, giving Tinkov a net worth of nearly $8 billion, according to Forbes.
The 53-year-old was not extradited to the United States because he demonstrated to the court and the Department of Justice that he is receiving medical treatment to fight leukemia.
Kazakh Civil Rights Activist Zhumagulov Released From Penal Colony
Kazakh civil activist Almat Zhumagulov has been released from a penal colony after completing almost four years of an eight-year prison sentence on terrorism charges that human rights watchdogs say were politically motivated.
Zhumagulov's October 1 release from the Zarechny penal colony in the Almaty region came after a Kazakh court approved his request to serve the rest of his prison term in a regime of "restricted freedom" -- a parole-like sentence -- rather than in a penitentiary.
He was detained in November 2017 and was sentenced in December 2018 by a court in Almaty on charges of "propagating terrorism" and "inciting national hatred.”
Human rights activists consider Zhumagulov a political prisoner and say that his conviction signaled the beginning of a wave of repression against alleged members of "extremist" groups, including the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement, of which Zhumagulov is a member.
DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.
The European Parliament has urged the Kazakh authorities to release Zhumagulov from prison.
Kazakh Police Detain Demonstrators Demanding Release Of Relatives In China
Kazakh police detained at least 10 protesters, mostly women, who were demanding the release of relatives they say are being illegally held in China. They traveled to Nur-Sultan last week to rally in front of the Chinese Embassy, having protested for months outside the Chinese Consulate in Almaty. The October 1 protests were the latest demanding that Kazakh authorities do more to protect ethnic Kazakhs detained in so-called "reeducation camps" in the neighboring Chinese province of Xinjiang.
- By RFE/RL
Natural Gas Prices Hit Record Highs In Europe, Amid Drop In Russian Supplies
Natural gas prices hit new records in Europe, adding yet more worries for consumers ahead of the winter heating season and putting new scrutiny on the continent’s biggest supplier, Russia.
Gas prices have been climbing higher for weeks now, with a growing chorus of domestic and industrial consumers across Europe warning of sharply higher bills that could stretch through the winter.
The November gas price for a key European benchmark hit an all-time high of 97.73 euros per megawatt hour on October 1. That’s about 400 percent higher for the year.
Analysts point to a combination of factors for the unusually high prices, including some gas shipments being diverted to Asian markets, technical repairs that have crimped shipments from Norway, and colder-than-normal temperatures at the end of last winter that drained storage tanks.
But some experts have also pointed to Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom, which is the main supplier of gas to Europe.
Russian gas supplies via the main Yamal-Europe pipeline fell by almost 77 percent on October 1, from a day earlier, according to data from grid operator Gascade, which said the cause was Gazprom booking only one-third of its available capacity for October.
Last month, a group of European Parliament lawmakers asked the European Commission to investigate Gazprom.
The Kremlin has said that Gazprom was meeting all its contract obligations in full.
Gazprom has nearly completed a second undersea pipeline called Nord Stream 2 that will increase the amount of Russian gas that can shipped directly to Germany. German regulators are reviewing the final paperwork before giving it the green light to start operation.
The pipeline bypasses Russia’s traditional shipment route, via Ukraine. Kyiv has complained about that, while also warning that Russia might resort to using its gas supplies as a political tool, something that has happened in the past.
With reporting by Reuters and TASS
- By RFE/RL
Russia Hosts First Royal Wedding Since Bolshevik Revolution
Russia has held its first royal wedding since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution toppled the Romanov monarchy, with royals from across Europe attending the lavish ceremony in the city of St. Petersburg.
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov, 40, tied the knot with his 39-year-old Italian fiancee, Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, at St. Isaac's Cathedral in the presence of dozens of royals.
Romanov said that the couple chose the former imperial capital for the ceremony because it was the first place in Russia where the family had returned following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
Among the 1,500 guests were some 50 royals from European countries including Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, and Spain.
After the wedding ceremony, which lasted for almost two hours, one-third of the guests were invited for a reception at the Russian Ethnographic Museum, which was founded by Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II. He was executed along with his wife, Aleksandra, and their five children by the Bolsheviks in July 1918.
George Romanov, a descendant of Russia's former imperial family, was born in Madrid to the Prussian Prince Franz Wilhelm of Hohenzollern and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, the self-proclaimed heir to Russia's imperial throne.
She is the granddaughter of Grand Duke Kirill, a cousin of Nicholas II who fled Russia during the revolution.
With reporting by Fontanka.ru and AFP
Russia's FSB Unveils Broad List Of Topics That Could Result In 'Foreign Agent' Label
MOSCOW -- Russia’s main domestic security service has published a 60-point list of non-secret topics that could result in people or organizations being designated as “foreign agents” if they cover or write about them.
The Federal Security Service document, dated September 28 but published on October 1, is the latest in a widening net of restrictions under a 9-year-old law that has been used to target independent media outlets, civil society groups, rights activists, and others.
The list includes broad topics such as collecting information about “the development of military-political circumstances” and “the location, numbers, and armaments” of military forces.
It also includes military purchases and contracts, imports of dual-use products, investigations of crimes in the military, and “problems, including financial and economic ones, constraining the development" of the Roskosmos space agency.
Collecting information on the characteristics of weapons and military technology and “information about compliance with the law and the moral-psychological climate inside the armed forces” were other topics included on the list.
Russia’s so-called “foreign agent” legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.
It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that are deemed by the government to engage in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.
Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media.
Under amendments adopted at the end of 2020, any individual -- whether a Russian citizen or a foreigner -- who is collecting information on any topic on the Federal Security Service list must voluntarily file with the Justice Ministry a request to be designated as a “foreign agent” or face criminal prosecution.
In 2017, the Russian government placed RFE/RL’s Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL, on the list.
At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals, including foreign journalists, on its “foreign agents” media list and to impose restrictions on them. Several RFE/RL journalists have since been added to the list.
On September 29, the Russian government added several organizations and 22 individuals to its various “foreign agent” lists.
As of October 1, 72 organizations and individuals have been included on the Justice Ministry’s media list alone.
The 2020 amendments also include the creation of another register of “foreign agent” individuals who do not qualify as “foreign-funded media.” No one has yet been named to that list.
News of the list reverberated among journalists and experts who write about subjects like Russia’s military or its space program.
Marc Bennetts, the Moscow correspondent for The Times and the Sunday Times newspapers in the U.K., said that a Russian military expert had refused to be interviewed by him recently for fear of being labeled a foreign agent.
“I thought he was being somewhat over-cautious -- I was wrong,” Bennetts wrote in a post to Twitter.
The laws have been broadly criticized within Russia and abroad as an unjustified assault on independent media and civil society.
“Groups including Russia’s most prominent human rights organizations have been struggling for years to fight off illegitimate state interference, and this bill will make the fight even harder,” Hugh Williamson of Human Rights Watch said shortly before the December 2020 amendments were adopted. “The Russian government should halt its efforts to stifle independent groups and comply with its obligations under international law.”
- By RFE/RL
Coronavirus Deaths Hit Record For Fourth Straight Day In Russia
The number of coronavirus fatalities hit a record for the fourth straight day in Russia, with confirmed cases continuing to surge as well, prompting the Kremlin to voice concern.
On October 1, the government's coronavirus task force reported 887 deaths for the previous 24 hours, Russia's highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. The previous record, from a day earlier, stood at 867.
The number of new confirmed cases for the past 24 hours reached 24,522 new confirmed cases -- the highest since late July, the task force said.
“The dynamic is bad,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on October 1. "It elicits concern."
However, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who heads the task force, said the government did not plan to impose a new lockdown.
Russia, the world's fifth worst-hit country with more than 7 million people infected, has had only one nationwide lockdown, at the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of last year.
The country’s authorities have shunned imposing tough restrictions ever since, although the country has seen cases spike since last month as vaccinations stall.
Despite Russia rolling out the world's first COVID vaccine in August 2020, polls show Russians are skeptical of getting vaccinated, with a majority saying they do not plan to get inoculated.
Just over one-quarter of the population had been fully vaccinated as of September 28, according to the Gogov website, which tallies COVID data from the regions.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
Lukashenka Vows To Punish Critics Of KGB Officer Killed In 'Shoot-Out'
MINSK -- Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka has vowed to punish those who have criticized a security officer that authorities say was killed in a shoot-out on September 28 during a raid on a private apartment in Minsk.
The officer of the Committee of State Security (KGB), identified as Dzmitry Fedasyuk, was buried on October 1.
Belarusian authorities claimed earlier that “an especially dangerous criminal” opened fire on security officers after they showed up at his apartment late on September 28 looking for “individuals involved in terrorist activities,” killing Fedasyuk.
The resident of the apartment, who was later identified as Andrey Zeltsar, an employee of the U.S.-based EPAM Systems IT company, was killed in the ensuing shoot-out with officers, authorities claimed.
Lukashenka said on October 1 that "it is too late" for those who praised Zeltsar and criticized both Fedasyuk and the government to remove their posts from social networks, as "we have all their accounts and we can see who is who."
Exiled would-be presidential candidate Valer Tsapkala earlier wrote on social networks that Zeltsar was an example for all Belarusians of how to resist Lukashenka’s oppressive regime.
"Akrestsina is vacant," Lukashenka said, referring to Minsk's notorious Akrestsina detention center, many inmates of which said they were tortured there. "And rascals like Tsapkala think that we will be unable to get them, but they are mistaken. We will not forgive this guy's death."
Meanwhile, the Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights center said on October 1 that almost 90 people have been detained in Minsk and several other cities after the incident.
According to Vyasna, the arrests were connected to comments on social media about the incident. It said those arrested face charges of insulting government officials and inciting social hatred, which carry sentences of up to 12 years in prison.
Belarus was engulfed by protests last year after a presidential election in August -- which the opposition and the West say was rigged -- gave Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.
In response, the government has cracked down hard on the pro-democracy movement, arresting thousands of people and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
On October 1, the Supreme Court of Belarus ordered the liquidation of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the oldest human rights organization in Belarus.
According to Vyasna, in the last three months 130 nongovernmental organizations have been forcibly closed.
Russian Official Urges Tajikistan, Taliban To Avoid Confrontation
Russia has urged Tajikistan and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to take “mutually acceptable measures” to resolve tensions along the Tajik-Afghan border amid reports of an increased military buildup on both sides.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has refused to recognize the Taliban-led government and condemned the militant group for alleged human rights abuses in the Panjshir Valley, which was the last pocket of resistance to the group.
The Taliban has accused Dushanbe of meddling in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Ethnic Tajiks make up more than one-quarter of Afghanistan's 38 million people, but the Taliban is predominately Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in the war-torn country.
Last week, Rahmon reiterated his previous calls for the Taliban to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan with the participation of all political and ethnic groups in order to allay tensions.
Russia is "concerned about the growing tension in Tajik-Afghan relations against the background of the mutually acrimonious statements by the leaders of both countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksei Zaitsev told reporters in Moscow on October 1.
Zaitsev said the Taliban has revealed that tens of thousands of fighters have been deployed in the northeastern province of Takhar, which borders Tajikistan.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency cited Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi as denying the movement was building up its forces at the Tajik border.
Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to the comments.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid last week said that members of the Taliban's special forces unit had been deployed to Takhar to beef up security in the region.
Mujahid added that Taliban fighters took over an airport in the neighboring Afghan province of Kunduz, which also borders Tajikistan.
During the Taliban’s lightning military offensive in July, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin expressed concern as the militants seized large swaths of territory near the border with the Central Asian nation.
Tajikistan that month also urged the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization's member states to help strengthen security along the Tajik-Afghan border.
Since then, the alliance has staged military drills in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Russia and Uzbekistan, which also borders Afghanistan, have also held joint exercises near the Uzbek-Afghan border.
With reporting by TASS, Interfax, RIA Novosti, and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Ukraine Says Russia Halts Gas Flows To Hungary, Adding To Jitters In European Gas Markets
Ukraine said that Gazprom had suspended the transit of natural gas to Hungary, days after the Russian state-controlled gas giant signed a long-term contract with Budapest.
The move, announced October 1 by Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator, was expected to add to jitters about Russian gas supplies in Europe, which is already grappling with record high prices for gas.
Gazprom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The suspension of flows to Hungary via Ukraine does not affect other gas transiting Ukraine to European customers. And Hungary will receive Russian gas via other routes, including TurkStream, a pipeline crossing under the Black Sea.
But it cuts into the revenues Ukraine receives from transit fees, and it complicates Ukraine’s ability to reimport gas from Hungary, which just days earlier signed a long-term supply deal with Gazprom.
"The monopolization of gas routes by Gazprom, which we are now observing, raises the question of the fundamental principles of the functioning of the EU gas markets -- competition and transparency," Serhiy Makogon, the head of the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System operator, said in a statement.
Ukraine’s pipeline network has long been the dominant route for Russia to export its gas to Europe. But that has shifted in recent years as new undersea pipelines have come online.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will add to Russia’s ability to ship gas directly to Germany when it comes online sometime next year. But Ukraine, along with the United States and some other countries, have warned that Nord Stream 2 will only tighten the grip that Gazprom has on European gas markets.
Compounding those fears are record high gas prices, which are being registered in Europe and elsewhere just as the continent gears up for the winter heating season. Some European lawmakers have accused Gazprom of using its dominant market power to push prices higher.
Under the deal with Hungary that takes effect October 1, Gazprom will ship 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Hungary annually, via Serbia and via Austria.
Kyiv’s criticism of the Hungary gas deal adds to ill-will between the two countries; the two have been at odds in recent years over the use of the Hungarian language in Ukrainian schools.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed Ukraine's criticism of the gas agreement.
"We need gas. This is the reality. You need to agree with the Russians," Orban told public radio.
With reporting by Reuters, TASS
Kazakh Police Detain Demonstrators Protesting Relatives' Detention In China's Xinjiang
NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh police detained eight protesters, mostly women, demanding the release of relatives they say are being illegally held in China.
The October 1 protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations in Kazakhstan linked to the massive detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic groups in the neighboring Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Demonstrators have demanded Kazakh authorities do more to protect ethnic Kazakhs who have been caught up in the Chinese sweep. Kazakhstan’s government, however, has been wary of angering Beijing, which is a major investor in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia.
One of the protesters in the Kazakh capital on October 1 was wheelchair-user Khalida Aqytkhan, 65, who fell to the ground as police were forcing her into a vehicle.
The most recent wave of protests began September 20 when demonstrators traveled to Nur-Sultan from the country’s commercial capital, Almaty, where groups had rallied for months in front of the Chinese Consulate there.
As many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers in the western Chinese region, according to the U.S. State Department.
China denies that the facilities are internment camps but people who have fled the province say that thousands are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.
After Kazakhstan gained independence following the Soviet collapse in 1991, many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang and elsewhere resettled in Kazakhstan, as part of a state program.
Many obtained permanent residence or citizenship but continue to visit Xinjiang either to see relatives or for bureaucratic reasons. Some have reported facing pressure from Chinese authorities or even arrests and imprisonment
Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.
China's largest ethnicity, the Han, is the second-largest ethnic group in Xinjiang.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service
Kazakh Court Orders Release Of Jailed Dissident Poet, Reportedly In Poor Health
A Kazakh court ordered the release of a dissident poet who has been in prison for 14 years and recently hospitalized for unspecified health problems.
The order freeing Aron Atabek, 68, was issued by the Pavlodar City Court on October 1.
After his release, Atabek flew to Almaty where dozens of supporters gathered to greet him at the airport. His daughter told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that the poet was in poor health.
Atabek, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2007 after being convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer, is said to be suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.
Yelena Semyonova, a rights activist, said on September 28 that Atabek had been hospitalized several days earlier.
Atabek has maintained his innocence ever since his arrest in 2006.
In 2012, he rejected a government pardon offer that would have required him to admit guilt.
For years, Kazakh and international rights organizations have demanded the government release the poet.
Rights groups say he has been tortured in prison, with guards intentionally splashing water with high concentrations of chlorine on the floor of his cell to damage his health.
Last month, a photograph taken by activists who visited him in prison appeared to show Atabek exhausted and in poor health. The photograph caused a public outcry.
In December 2012, Atabek was transferred to solitary confinement after he wrote an article critical of then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government, and the article was published online.
In 2014, his relatives accused prison guards of breaking his leg, which authorities denied.
Seven Killed After Fire Breaks Out At Romanian Hospital Treating COVID Patients
The Romanian government says seven people have been killed in a fire at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients -- the third deadly hospital blaze in the country in less than a year.
The fire broke out early on October 1 at the intensive care unit at the Hospital for Infectious Disease in the port city of Constanta, officials said.
There was initial confusion about the number of victims, with local authorities reporting nine dead among the 10 patients in the unit treating serious COVID-19 cases.
Seven Killed After Blaze Breaks Out At Romanian COVID Hospital
However, prosecutors investigating the fire later said only seven people had been killed, Interior Minister Lucian Bode told a news conference.
Firefighters extinguished the fire after an hour, with help from additional teams brought in from nearby regions.
Patients and staff at the facility were evacuated, authorities said. Bode said that 125 patients were in the hospital at the time of the fire.
WATCH: With Only One-Third Of Adults Vaccinated, Romania Fears COVID-19 Surge
Romania has been marred by several deadly hospital blazes in recent years, including during the pandemic.
Five patients died in January in a fire in the COVID-19 ward of a Bucharest hospital, two months after another blaze killed 15 patients in the intensive care unit of a COVID-19 hospital in Piatra Neamt in northeastern Romania.
Romania is suffering a new wave of COVID-19 infections, as the vaccination rate for its population is second-lowest in the European Union.
The government has struggled to boost the number of intensive care beds and direct more resources for treatments and medication. As of October 1, there were only six intensive care unit beds available in the whole country, health officials said.
Authorities reported 10,887 new infections and 169 deaths on October 1, a day after more than 12,000 cases were registered -- a record since the start of the pandemic that so far has infected 1,244,555 people. A total of 37,210 people have died so far.
Complicating matters is political infighting which has put the government on the brink of collapse.
Prime Minister Florin Citu, whose government is facing a no-confidence vote on October 5 brought forward by the leftist opposition, blamed the latest incident on the neglected health-care system of the former communist country.
"It is unacceptable for this kind of thing to happen, for these kinds of tragedies to happen in Romanian hospitals. This is the reality that we have been trying to change starting from this year, after the 20 to 30 years during which nothing had been done for the health-care system in Romania."
President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement that he was "horrified" by the incident.
"The Romanian state failed its basic mission of protecting its citizens," he said.
With reporting by hotnews.ro, digi24.ro, and g4media.ro
- By RFE/RL
In CNN Interview, Lukashenka Rejects Reports Of Police Abuses, Torture
Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka rejected any suggestion that he should apologize for the harsh police crackdown and sweeping arrests that targeted protesters in the wake of last year’s disputed election.
In an interview broadcast September 30 on CNN, Lukashenka dismissed media and rights groups’ criticism about widespread human rights abuses in Belarus.
"No, I wouldn't like to use this opportunity [to apologize]. If I would, I would do it via Belarusian media. They are quite good, I hear.... And, in principle, I have nothing to apologize for," Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka has been isolated and shunned by much of the international community after he claimed reelection victory in August 2020, sparking months of unprecedented protests from Belarusians.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
The demonstrations drew a brutal police crackdown, with thousands jailed, and widespread reports of police torture.
Amid the isolation, Lukashenka has pulled closer to Russia, seeking loans and military support from President Vladimir Putin.
Asked about reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about police abuse and torture, Lukashenka claimed that Belarus does not have "a single detention center...like Guantanamo, or those bases that the United States and [the United Kingdom] created in Eastern Europe."
"As for our own detention centers, where we keep those accused or those under investigation, they are no worse than in Britain or the United States. I can guarantee you that," Lukashenka said.
Many from Belarus’s opposition have been arrested or forced to leave the country.
While Lukashenka speaks regularly to Belarusian state media, he rarely gives interviews to independent, or foreign media.
CNN said the full interview with Lukashenka would be broadcast on October 1.
Lukashenka's press service, meanwhile, issued another part of the interview on Telegram in which Lukashenka discussed further integration of Belarus and Russia as part of a long-stalled project called the Union State.
Lukashenka dismissed the suggestion that Belarus would be uniting with Russia as “absolute nonsense” and "a fiction of, as we say here, the collective West."
"We, along with Putin, the leadership of Russia and Belarus in general, are smart enough to create, in the framework of two independent, sovereign states, such a union that will be stronger than any unitary formation," Lukashenka said.
With reporting by CNN
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