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- By RFE/RL
Husband Of British-Iranian Woman Jailed In Iran Ends Hunger Strike
The husband of a British-Iranian women who has been jailed in Iran has ended a three-week hunger strike he staged in London to protest British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's handling of the case.
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Naznin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, spent 21 days camping without food outside the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in London after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran.
He began his demonstration on October 24, saying his family was "caught in a dispute between two states."
"We probably hoped we'd get a breakthrough doing this. We haven't yet," Ratcliffe told journalists in London. "I didn't want to go out in an ambulance. I want to walk out with my head held high."
Ratcliffe also criticized Johnson for refusing to meet with him during the protest, saying that Johnson's absence was "telling."
"He hasn't dealt adequately with Nazanin's case for years," Ratcliffe said. "He hasn't honored his promises. And we live with those consequences."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
She was taking the couple's 7-year-old daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin prison and one under house arrest.
Her family says Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of Britain's failure to pay an outstanding $458 million debt to Iran.
Iranian officials have said that Britain told Tehran it could not pay the debt because of sanctions against Iran.
Ratcliffe had gone on 15-day hunger strike in 2019 in front of the Iranian Embassy in London -- a protest that he says resulted in getting his daughter back to Britain.
With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and The Guardian
Kosovo Set For Mayoral Runoffs That Will Test PM
Kosovar voters will go to the polls on November 14 for runoff mayoral races in 21 of 38 municipal elections in the Balkans' youngest independent state.
The second-round contests following last month's elections are considered a key test for Kosovo's governing Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party and its prime minister, Albin Kurti.
Kurti's progressive, pro-Albanian party won an unprecedented landslide in February with over half of all votes cast in the country of 1.9 million and among expatriates abroad.
But a mere 10 months later, Self-Determination was the only major party that failed to secure a single mayor's seat in the local elections on October 17.
A Yugoslav-era student leader, the 46-year-old Kurti has repeatedly championed Albanian nationalism, greater "reciprocity" in relations with neighbor Serbia, and a more urgent approach to Pristina's efforts to join international institutions.
In the run-up to the latest voting, Kurti acknowledged that his party's "activism and mobilization" for local elections continues to lag well behind its national allure, which is boosted by the Kosovar diaspora.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 in a move that is still not recognized by Belgrade or Moscow but has been acknowledged by around 110 countries, including the United States and most of the European Union.
Self-Determination could still win out in any of 12 municipalities. including the four major prizes of Pristina, Prizren, Gjilan, and Gjakova.
The other major parties, including the Democratic Party (PDK), the Democratic League (LDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) celebrated local victories last month.
The Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party won nine of 10 Serb-majority municipalities in mostly northern Kosovo, reaffirming its dominance within the Serbian community.
- By RFE/RL
Top British Commander Warns Of Soaring Risk Of Russia-West War
Britain's most senior military officer has warned about the changing "character of warfare," saying in an interview that the world faces the greatest risk in decades of a "miscalculation" that could lead to war between Russia and the West.
General Nick Carter, chief of the British Defense Staff, cited the willingness of authoritarian foes to use any means, including migrants, gas prices, proxies, or cyberattacks, to achieve their aims on the international stage.
In an interview with Times Radio to be broadcast on November 14, Carter said that "traditional diplomatic tools and mechanisms" available during the Cold War and an era of unipolar U.S. dominance were gone.
"Without those tools and mechanisms there is a greater risk that these escalations or this escalation could lead to miscalculation," he said. "So I think that's the real challenge we have to be confronted with."
His comments come with tensions high on EU member Poland's border with Belarus, where Minsk ally Russia has launched nuclear-capable bomber patrols in the past week as thousands of Middle Eastern migrants are congregated in hopes of reaching the West.
They also reflect direct strains between Moscow and NATO over Ukraine, where Kremlin-backed separatists are fighting a seven-year war, and the Black Sea region that includes Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, raised the stakes in his rhetoric on November 13.
Lukashenka told Russia's National Defense magazine that he wants Russia to deploy its nuclear-capable Iskander missile systems in the south of his country near the border with Ukraine and in the west near Belarus's borders with Poland and Lithuania.
Lukashenka said he needed "several divisions" of the Iskander mobile-ballistic-missile system "in the west and the south," adding that Russia should "let them stay" there.
The Iskander system has a range of up to 500 kilometers. It can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.
Lukashenka did not indicate whether he has had any talks with Moscow about receiving the missile system. Russia's Defense Ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a stark warning to the United States and NATO on November 13 by saying their activities in the Black Sea represented a "serious challenge" to Russia.
U.S. and European officials have repeatedly cautioned of a threat of Russian military attack, citing Russian troop buildups near its border with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian mercenaries are fighting in central Africa, Russian intelligence has been accused of high-profile assassinations abroad, Belarus has threatened to block Russian gas supplies to Western Europe, and groups with ties to Russian intelligence have been fingered for major cyberattacks on Western targets in recent years.
British Typhoon fighters reportedly escorted two Russian military aircraft out of the United Kingdom's area of interest on November 12.
London also said it had deployed a small team of British military personnel for potential "engineering support" on Poland's borders.
Carter concluded that the changing "character of warfare" means "we have to be careful that people don't end up allowing the bellicose nature of some of our politics to end up in a position where escalation leads to miscalculation."
With reporting by Reuters
U.S. Assails Russian Efforts To Close Memorial Rights Group, 'Misuse' Of 'Foreign Agents' Law
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russian authorities of attacking freedom of expression by trying to shut down one of Russia's most venerated human rights groups and demanded that they quit using a controversial law on "foreign agents" to persecute and intimidate society.
Blinken's remarks, via Twitter, follow reports of a two-track campaign by Russian prosecutors to close down the widely respected Memorial Human Rights Center and International Memorial.
"Russian authorities' lawsuits, aiming to close Memorial International and Human Rights Center Memorial, is their latest attack on freedom of expression," Blinken said. "Russia must end the lawsuits and stop misusing its law on 'foreign agents' to harass, stigmatize, and silence civil society."
Moscow prosecutors have asked a city court to order the Memorial Human Rights Center's closure, while Russian federal prosecutors want the Supreme Court to order a shutdown of International Memorial. Hearings in both cases are scheduled for late November.
The Memorial organization was launched shortly before the Soviet collapse in part to document Soviet repression.
In the decades since, it has produced hallmark indicators of the rights situation and elsewhere through lists of political prisoners, and documenting historical and ongoing injustices.
Memorial has maintained that Russia's "foreign agents" legislation from 2012 and its subsequent amendments are meant to suppress independent organizations and it sees no legal basis for it to be dismantled.
They require nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance, and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity, to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.
The Memorial Human Rights Center was put on the list in November 2015.
International Memorial, a stand-alone group and the umbrella group for Memorial Human Rights Center and more than 70 other organizations, including 10 operating outside Russia, was added to the "foreign agents" registry five years ago.
The Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, which is usually aligned with the policies of the Kremlin, also expressed concerns over the closure efforts on November 12, calling them an "extreme measure" that was "unjust and disproportionate" to the alleged violations.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, a pan-European rights body, said this week that the "foreign agents" legislation "stigmatizes" NGOs, media, and individuals and "has had a repressive impact on civil society in Russia over recent years."
Memorial Human Rights Center expects a hearing on the Moscow prosecutors' charges on November 23, while International Memorial expects a hearing on federal prosecutors' effort to close it down on November 25.
Skirmishes Reported At Armenian-Azerbaijani Border After Bombing Incident
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of cease-fire violations along their border, hours after three Azerbaijani soldiers were reportedly wounded by an explosive device at a Nagorno-Karabakh checkpoint.
Armenia's Defense Ministry said on November 13 that Azerbaijani forces opened fire at Armenian positions in the eastern Gegharkunik Province shortly after midday.
"The enemy fire was suppressed with retaliatory actions. There are no casualties on the Armenian side," it said in a brief statement.
Azerbaijan, for its part, accused Armenian forces of firing sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers at its military posts on the afternoon of November 13 in the Kalbacar district that borders Armenia.
Military authorities in Baku said skirmishes were continuing there in the late afternoon, but did not report any casualties.
The latest escalation of border tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan comes after an ethnic Armenian civilian was killed on November 8 in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh near the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Susa, known in Armenian as Shushi.
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Stepanakert condemned the attack, saying the victims were utility workers who were trying to repair a damaged water pipe.
Earlier on November 13, an Armenian man threw an explosive device at an Azerbaijani checkpoint close to where the November 8 incident occurred.
That is the same day that Armenians and Azerbaijanis commemorated the first anniversary of the end of their bloody six-week fighting in starkly different ways, highlighting the continued tensions over the breakaway region and surrounding districts.
Russian peacekeepers detained the man and handed him over to the breakaway region's ethnic Armenian authorities.
Baku says three Azerbaijani soldiers were injured in the blast. They identified the bomber as a citizen of Armenia, saying he had acted together with a "group of criminals" to carry out a "terrorist act."
The so-called Lachin corridor -- a Russian-controlled road linking Armenia to ethnic Armenian controlled parts of Nagorno-Karabakh -- was temporarily closed to traffic in both directions after the attack on the checkpoint.
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said the vital supply route had been reopened later in the day.
The Russian soldiers have been deployed along the 25-kilometer-long and 5-kilometer-wide corridor for the past year.
De facto Armenian authorities in Stepanakert also said a joint investigation with Russian peacekeepers was under way to establish the circumstances of the November 13 attack.
They said their preliminary findings suggest that the person who threw the explosive device was responding to “provocative actions” by Azerbaijani soldiers.
They also refuted Baku's claims of casualties, insisting that no one was hurt by the explosion.
A peace deal has been mostly holding but interrupted by occasional instances of violence since 44 days of intense fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended a year ago in major Azerbaijani gains on the ground in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and Russian troops keeping the Caucasus rivals apart.
Nearly 7,000 people were killed in the hostilities, which were brought to an end by a Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement signed on November 9, 2020.
The resulting peace deal was hailed as a triumph in Azerbaijan, but Armenian losses sparked months of massive protests in Yerevan to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation.
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven nearby regions had been controlled by ethnic Armenians since a bitter war began as the Soviet Union crumbled in the late 1980s and then gave way to a three-decade "frozen conflict."
With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian and Azerbaijani services
- By RFE/RL
Putin Says U.S., NATO Moves In Black Sea 'Serious Challenge' For Russia
President Vladimir Putin has called U.S. and NATO activities in the Black Sea a "serious challenge" for Russia, which has asserted additional naval rights in the region since seizing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Putin's November 13 statements were the second effort by the Kremlin in less than 24 hours to highlight the Western military presence in the Black Sea region and accuse Washington of escalating tensions since media reports this week claimed U.S. officials were warning European allies of the risk of a possible Russian attack.
"The United States and its allies in NATO are carrying out unplanned exercises in the Black Sea," Russia said on the state's Vesta TV channel. "Not only is a rather powerful naval group involved in these exercises, but also aviation, including strategic aviation. This is a serious challenge for us."
It was unclear what exercises he was referring to, although NATO has carried out major Black Sea drills in the past four months or so.
WATCH: More than 30 vessels from 32 countries -- including NATO members -- took part in military drills in July co-hosted by Ukraine and the United States on the Black Sea.
U.S. officials last week raised alarm bells over Russian activities near Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists control swaths of territory in an ongoing seven-year conflict.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia against making another "serious mistake" on Ukraine as Washington sought information about an alleged Russian troop movement near the border that the Pentagon called "unusual in its size and scope."
EU officials reiterated those concerns on November 12 and said they were monitoring the situation along with their U.S. and British allies.
France articulated its concerns and warned Moscow that any aggressive actions would have "serious consequences."
The warning came during talks in Paris in which French Defense Minister Florence Parly and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian were meeting with their Russian counterparts, Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov.
Russia has insisted despite considerable evidence that it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict.
Previous Russian troop buildups near the Ukrainian border have elicited concern before in Kyiv and among Ukraine's Western partners.
Tensions have also been ratcheted up around Ukraine by the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will help Russia avoid transit through Ukraine with energy supplies bound for Western Europe.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
Netherlands Detains Russian Sought By U.S. Over 'Ryuk' Ransomware
A Russian national sought by the United States for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency tied to a notorious ransomware gang has been detained in the Netherlands, according to his lawyer.
The U.S. Justice Department is requesting the extradition of the suspect, 29-year-old Denis Dubnikov, for allegedly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of digital currency from Ryuk, a ransware gang believed to have extracted tens of millions in ransom, including from U.S. victims.
Arkady Bukh, Dubnikov's U.S.-based lawyer, told RFE/RL by phone on November 13 that his client denied the charges. He said Dubnikov, who co-owns small crypto-exchanges, did not know the source of the money that the United States alleges came from ransomware payments.
Bukh said Dubnikov's crypto-exchange activities complied with Russian law, including customer due-diligence requirements, and he "had no knowledge or idea about the criminal acts of clients."
Dubnikov's arrest has been called one of U.S. law enforcement's first potential blows to the Ryuk ransomware gang, which is suspected of being behind a rash of cyberattacks on U.S. health-care organizations. The attacks forced delays in potentially life-saving treatments for cancer and other patients.
In October 2020, the FBI and other U.S. agencies warned that Ryuk presented an "imminent" threat to U.S. health-care institutions. The Wall Street Journal said the Ryuk gang took in more than $100 million in ransom payments last year.
In a ransomware attack, a criminal encrypts files on a target computer network and demands payment in cryptocurrency to unlock them. In the health-care industry, where time is often critical, such delays can result in deadly outcomes.
Bukh said that Dubnikov flew to Mexico earlier this month for vacation and was denied entry. Instead of being put on a plane back to Russia, he was sent to the Netherlands, where he was detained upon arrival.
Bukh said he believed the United States was behind Mexico's decision. "We feel it is almost kidnapping in that sense," he said, adding that there were direct flights between Mexico and Russia.
He pointed out that unlike Mexico, the Netherlands nearly always extradites suspects to the United States and has a more secure prison system.
Suspects facing extradition from Mexico to the United States have been known to escape from prison.
Bukh said he expects Dubnikov to be extradited to the United States soon.
The Justice Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Dubnikov is the general director of Briefcase, which describes itself as a legal firm offering a variety of services, including help applying for a crypto-exchange license.
Bukh could not immediately say whether Dubnikov was a lawyer himself. Unlike most websites for legal firms, Briefcase does not list the name of any partners or lawyers.
Briefcase announced Dubnikov's arrest in a statement on November 5.
Russian media say he is a co-founder of Coyote Crypto and EggChange, two Russia-based exchanges.
Dubnikov's arrest is the latest in a series by U.S. law enforcement against alleged Russian cybercriminals over the past decade, dozens of whom have subsequently been extradited, convicted, and jailed.
South Korea last month extradited a Russian national to the United States to face cybercrime charges.
Russia, which does not extradite its citizens, has accused the United States of hunting Russian nationals abroad.
The United States, in turn, has accused Russia of turning a blind eye to cybercriminals operating inside the country.
President Joe Biden called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to crack down on Russian cybercriminals during their summit in Geneva in June.
U.S. officials have said they have not seen any evidence yet that Russia is taking action against its own cybercriminals.
Written and reported from Washington by Todd Prince with reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service
- By RFE/RL
EU Takes Bulgaria To Court Over Failure To Protect Biodiversity
The European Commission says it is referring Bulgaria to the EU's Court of Justice for ignoring environmental commitments under a decades-old directive on protecting and repairing crucial habitats.
The EU's independent executive arm said on November 12 that Sofia had mismanaged its Natura 2000 "sites of community importance" by failing to declare them special areas of conservation (SACs) and implement conservation measures within the required six years of their listing.
"Bulgaria has not yet designated 194 out of 229 Sites of Community Importance as Special Areas of Conservation within the required time limit and has generally and persistently failed to set site-specific conservation objectives and measures for these sites," the European Commission said in a statement. "These are key requirements to protect biodiversity across the EU."
Preserving natural sites and restoring damaged ecosystems have been prioritized by the commission as part of its European Green Deal and its 10-year biodiversity strategy.
Each EU member state proposes its own sites of special environmental interest for protection under the 1992 Habitats Directive, which envisages an EU-wide network of safeguarded natural areas.
The EU's poorest member, Bulgaria has battled rampant corruption and political stagnation since its accession to the bloc in 2007.
Its voters are going to national polls alongside a presidential election for the third time in less than a year on November 14 after two inconclusive parliamentary elections in April and July, with little sign of a breakthrough.
The commission's suit before the Court of Justice comes after warnings in a formal notice in January 2019 and a follow-up in July 2020.
- By RFE/RL
Biden Says Situation On Poland-Belarus Border 'A Great Concern,' As Migrant Deaths Mount
The U.S. and Russian presidents have publicly stepped into the debate over the mounting crisis on the Poland-Belarus border, where military movements and the discovery of a body overnight have highlighted the dangers as thousands of third-country migrants shelter in freezing conditions on the Belarusian side hoping to cross into the European Union.
U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern on November 12 about the situation, calling it "a great concern."
"We communicated our concern to Russia, we communicated our concern to Belarus," Biden told reporters on November 12 as he departed the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. "We think it's a problem."
Hours later, on November 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted his country was not involved in the border crisis despite Western accusations and recent air patrols and military exercises along Belarus's western border with the EU.
And a Belarusian report said strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who the European Union blames for "weaponizing migrants" to spark the crisis, has ordered food tents and aid to be sent to migrant children at the makeshift encampments.
Biden's remarks came hours after Vice President Kamala Harris voiced similar concerns during a visit to France, where she said she discussed the issue with President Emmanuel Macron.
Belarus "is engaged in very troubling activity. It is something that I discussed with President Macron, and the eyes of the world and its leaders are watching what is happening there," she told a news conference.
EU leaders have accused Minsk of "hybrid warfare" tactics, saying it has lured migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa and then pushed them toward the border.
EU officials say Minsk's policies are retaliation for sanctions that Brussels has imposed on Lukashenka's regime over its violent crackdown on dissent after he claimed victory in last year's election, widely seen as rigged.
They have signaled their intention to impose additional sanctions as soon as next week.
Belarus denies that it is doing so. It says it cannot help resolve the migration crisis unless Europe lifts sanctions that were imposed in response to the crackdown.
Some EU governments, including Poland, have accused Moscow of helping ally Lukashenka orchestrate the border crisis.
This week, Russia launched ongoing nuclear-capable bomber patrols over Belarus and surprise joint paratrooper exercises near Belarus's western border, on top of political and diplomatic support it has offered Lukashenka since the highly criticized vote in August 2020.
Putin issued a statement on November 13 insisting that Moscow was not a party to the Belarus border problem while reiterating concerns about Russia's regional security.
"I want everyone to know. We have nothing to with it," Putin told state broadcaster Vesti in an interview.
He said he hoped German Chancellor Angela Merkel might speak with Lukashenka, since, as he put it, most of the migrants congregating in Belarus are seeking to travel to Germany.
The Russian president also suggested that NATO activities in the Black Sea region, tense since Russia annexed Crimea and Kremlin-backed separatists launched a conflict in 2014, were a security irritant.
Ukraine is wary of becoming a new flashpoint in the crisis and on November 12 said it would send some of its border guards and national guard officers to its border with Poland to share intelligence on the handling of the crisis.
"Ukraine supports Poland in this difficult time and hopes that it will be able to resolve the artificially inspired crisis in a peaceful and civilized way," Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyskiy said, according to a statement.
Belarus's Defense Ministry said on November 12 that it was holding joint paratrooper exercises with Russia near the Polish border. Moscow called the drills part of a "surprise combat-readiness check."
Russia later reported that two of its paratroopers had died about 10 kilometers from the Polish border in a fall amid gusty wind conditions during those exercises.
Belarus also said on November 12 that it had sent some 2,000 migrants back to their countries and had revoked the right of 30 tourist firms to invite migrants into Belarus.
Several airlines said on November 12 that they'll limit access to flights between Turkey and Minsk to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East.
Polish police said on November 13 that the body of a Syrian man had been found the previous day near the Belarusian border.
It was at least the 11th reported migrant death on or near the border since the crisis began.
"Yesterday, in the woods, near the border, near Wolka Terechowska, the body of a young Syrian man was found," local police said on Twitter. They said they were unable to make an "unequivocal determination of the cause of death."
A number of previous deaths have been blamed on exhaustion or exposure, and temperatures in the region have plummeted in recent weeks.
Belarusian news agency BelTa reported on November 13 that Lukashenka -- whose embattled regime has been accused of propagandizing the migrants' plights -- had ordered food tents be set up in the border region and said a priority should be given to children.
A significant proportion of migrants heading through Belarus to the EU are Iraqis. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on November 12 announced the withdrawal of the work permit of the Belarusian consul in Baghdad and said the Iraqi embassies in Moscow and Warsaw were coordinating efforts for the voluntary return of Iraqis stranded on the border.
The Foreign Ministry also said Iraq had stopped direct flights between Iraq and Belarus, according to a statement quoted by the Iraqi News Agency.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, INA, and RFE/RL's Belarus Service
Bipartisan Group Of U.S. Lawmakers Urge Rahmon To End Pressure On RFE/RL's Tajik Service
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has sent a letter to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon urging him to help end what they say are pressure and threats to RFE/RL's Tajik Service journalists and their families.
"We are writing to express concern about the reported ongoing harassment and intimidation of employees of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Tajik Service (known locally as Radio Ozodi) and their families, as well as numerous obstacles that your government have used to prevent Radio Ozodi from operating freely," the eight members of U.S. Congress wrote in their letter dated October 29.
The letter was signed by Representatives Adam Schiff (Democrat-California), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Steve Chabot (Republican-Ohio), Carolyn B. Maloney (Democrat-New York), Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey), David N. Cicilline (Democrat-Rhode Island), Jamie Raskin (Democrat-Maryland), Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican-Pennsylvania), and Ron Kind (Democrat-Wisconsin).
The letter is a follow-up to similar appeals made in 2019 and last year, when Schiff and Chabot also called on the Tajik authorities to stop interfering in the activities of Radio Ozodi, cited unduly short extensions of press credentials for some RFE/RL correspondents, and the outright refusal by authorities to renew the press accreditation of others.
In the new letter, the U.S. lawmakers warn that "despite the statements of your government on the recognition of democratic values and freedom of speech, the journalists of Radio Ozodi and their family members in the country and abroad are subjected to serious pressure from the authorities, and even receive threats of physical harm."
The lawmakers go on to list examples of the harassment that RFE/RL journalists face in Tajikistan, including frequent raids on the reporters' workplace and homes, direct pressure on reporters and indirect pressure through their relatives to stop working for Ozodi, denial of accreditation and limiting its duration to only three months instead of the customary one year, and the interdiction of internships at the Dushanbe bureau since 2019.
"For example, denials of accreditation are currently impacting the ability of at least eight journalists to work with Radio Ozodi," the letter says.
"The ability of the press to operate accurately and independently is a vital component of a free society, and we hope to be partners in improving and preserving media freedom in your country," the U.S. lawmakers said, urging Rahmon to take all necessary steps to ensure the smooth operation of Radio Ozodi in the country.
"As members of the U.S. Congress, which funds RFE/RL, we express our continued concern about these reports of ongoing harassment and undermining of Radio Ozodi and its staff.
"We remain worried that these continuing actions, which we first raised two years ago, could pose challenges for the U.S.-Tajik relationship."
More Jailed In Russia's North Ossetia For COVID-Related Protests
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A Russian court in southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don has handed lengthy prison terms to a third group of individuals from the North Caucasus region of North Ossetia who took part in a massive rally in April 2020 against anti-coronavirus restrictions.
The Kirov district court on November 12 found Akhsartag Ailarov, Dzhon Dzhioyev, Valery Melikyan, and Bimbolat Bekuzarov guilty of taking part in mass disorders and sentenced them to 3 1/2 years in prison each.
A fourth individual, Zaur Kaitmazov, was sentenced to four years in prison on the same charge.
More sentences are expected to be announced against others involved in the protests against measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus in North Ossetia.
On April 20, 2020, police in North Ossetia detained dozens of protesters when about 2,000 people gathered in the central square of the regional capital, Vladikavkaz, demanding the resignation of regional leader Vyacheslav Bitarov.
The rally lasted for several hours until police violently dispersed it.
The protest was initiated online via social networks by North Ossetian opera singer Vadim Cheldiyev, who lives in St. Petersburg.
Cheldiyev was detained in St. Petersburg after the rally in Vladikavkaz and brought to North Ossetia, where he was charged with spreading fake news about the coronavirus and assaulting police, which he vehemently denies.
Earlier this year, 10 other participants in last year's protest were sentenced to prison terms between four and six years on charges of taking part in mass disorders.
Lithuania Jails Two Citizens For Spying For Russia
A court in Lithuania has sentenced two of its citizens to prison terms on charges of spying for Russia.
A court in the Baltic Sea port city of Klaipeda on November 12 sentenced Aleksejus Greicius to four years in prison and Mindaugas Tunikaitis to 18 months in prison after finding them guilty of collecting data for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Greicius, a public figure and managing director of the Baltic Youth Association who is known for his pro-Russian views, pleaded not guilty, while Tunikaitis pleaded guilty.
The trial was held behind closed doors because of national security concerns in the former Soviet republic.
Investigators said the two defendants did not know each other, but were in contact with same FSB agent in recent years.
Greicius is a grandson of Jonas and Marijona Greicius, who the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" for saving a Jew during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s.
Since 2014, when Russia's seizure of Crimea and its backing of separatists in a war in eastern Ukraine raised concerns among some other former Soviet republics, Lithuanian courts have convicted several people of spying for Russia or its close ally, Belarus.
With reporting by LRT
- By RFE/RL
U.S., EU Warn Russia Against New Threats To Ukraine
France has added its voice to concerns expressed by the United States and the European Union over Russia's reported military movements in the vicinity of Ukraine and warned Moscow that any aggressive actions would have "serious consequences."
The warning came during talks which French Defense Minister Florence Parly and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks in Paris on November 12 with Russian counterparts Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov.
According to a French Foreign Ministry statement, Le Drian and Parly told Lavrov and Shoigu that they were worried about the deterioration of security in border regions.
The statement said the French ministers reminded the visiting Russians of Moscow's obligations regarding "the transparency of military activities" on the border with Ukraine.
They also urged Russia to use its links with the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to bring an end to a migrant crisis on Belarus's border with European Union members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
They accused Lukashenka of "irresponsible and unacceptable behavior" in using "migratory flows to target several countries of the European Union."
The Kremlin has vowed to safeguard its borders in the face of actions by countries that it says are trying to "contain" Russia.
Lavrov said after the Paris talks that he had raised the issue of increased numbers of NATO forces in the Black Sea region, charging that NATO had recently been aggressive toward Russia.
Lavrov also said his delegation had told the French ministers they should start looking for ways out of a "dead end" in Russia-EU relations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on November 12 reiterated Washington's concern about Russia's actions and warned Moscow against an invasion.
"We're very concerned about some of the irregular movements of forces that we see on Ukraine's borders," Blinken told reporters.
"It would be a serious mistake for Russia to engage in a repeat of what it did in 2014," Blinken said, reiterating a warning made earlier in the week during a meeting in Washington with the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, when he also said the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's security and territorial integrity was "ironclad."
On November 12, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Lieutenant General Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Russia had massed some 2,100 military personnel in the separatist-controlled areas, adding that Russian military officers hold all commanding positions in the separatist forces.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated sharply since Russian military forces seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Moscow illegally annexed the territory through a hastily organized referendum that has been widely condemned as bogus.
Moscow-backed separatists continue to control wide swaths of eastern Ukraine in a seven-year conflict that followed Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea. Periodic buildups of Russian troops in the area have set off alarms in Kyiv and Western capitals.
More recently, there has been increased Russian involvement in the standoff between Lukashenka and the European Union, with surprise joint military drills by Russian and Belarusian paratroopers likely to further ratchet up tensions.
In Brussels, EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano told journalists that the bloc was alarmed by Russia's military activities close to Ukraine's border.
"We continue to watch the situation and the information we gathered so far is rather worrying," Stano said.
He said the 27-member bloc was monitoring the situation with partners including the United States and Britain and "we are open to look at further steps as necessary."
Brussels also accuses Minsk of "weaponizing" thousands of migrants who are camped out at Belarus's borders with the EU.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also discussed the situation around Ukraine with U.S. President Joe Biden during a visit to Washington this week.
Russia has insistently denied having any aggressive intentions, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Moscow "does not pose a threat to anyone," but it needs to ensure its security in response to alleged increasing "provocative actions" by NATO.
"We mind our own affairs and take measures to ensure our security if necessary, if there are provocative actions of our opponents near our borders," Peskov said.
Moscow this week launched a military show of support for the embattled Lukashenka by flying Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers over Belarus in an operation that Minsk says will continue on a regular basis.
Lukashenka said this week that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new punitive measures and raised the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.
But Peskov sought to reassure Russia's gas customers on November 12 by citing a previous presidential statement saying Russia, a major supplier of gas to the region, has always met its contractual commitments to European customers.
With reporting by AFP, AP, RIA Novosti, dpa, and Reuters
Saakashvili Supporters Again Demand Transfer To Civilian Clinic
TBILISI -- Hundreds of supporters of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have gathered in the capital to hold rallies demanding the politician's transfer to a civilian medical clinic as his health fails due to a hunger strike.
Two groups of protesters organized by Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) party marched on November 12 in Tbilisi from two different subway stations toward the Health Ministry and the Justice Ministry holding posters saying "Free Misha!" and chanting "Misha! Georgia!"
A significant number of police were deployed at the sites, while the demonstrators demanded the health and justice ministers meet with them.
The day before, Saakashvili agreed to follow a call by the European Court of Human Rights to end his hunger strike if he is transferred to a civilian clinic.
Saakashvili began the strike immediately after he was arrested on October 1 upon his return to Georgian after an eight-year absence.
Health Minister Rati Bregadze has said he will not transfer Saakashvili to a civilian clinic. Instead, he has said the 53-year-old will be transferred back to the Rustavi detention center from which he was transferred to a prison hospital on November 8.
The ENM has held several rallies and protest actions in recent days demanding Saakashvili's transfer to a civilian facility.
Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, left the country shortly after the presidential election of 2013 and was convicted in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power and seeking to cover up evidence about the beating of an opposition member of parliament.
He is also accused of ordering the violent dispersal of opposition activists in 2007 while he was in office. The trial in that case started on November 10 without Saakashvili's presence in the courtroom.
Saakashvili has said all the charges against him are politically motivated.
Georgia has been mired in a political standoff since a disputed election last year, which prompted the ENM to boycott parliament for months.
The ENM was outpolled decisively by the ruling Georgian Dream party in October 3 nationwide municipal and mayoral votes.
Georgian Dream, founded by billionaire and Saakashvili rival Bidzina Ivanishvili, won the mayoral races in the country's five biggest cities as a result of the vote, which some opposition parties have alleged was rigged.
Deadline Nears On Senior Ruling Bloc's Call For New Montenegrin Prime Minister
The fate of Montenegro's government hangs in the balance as a senior ruling group's deadline nears for the current coalition to jettison Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic.
The mostly pro-Serbian coalition has ruled the Balkan nation of 620,000 or so with a razor-thin parliamentary majority for nearly a year.
Instead of steady progress on reforms to further its EU aspirations, the government has mostly been hobbled by infighting over the fight against corruption, statements on war guilt from conflicts in the 1990s, relations with neighboring Serbia, and the timing of local elections in key cities.
Krivokapic was picked to lead a disparate coalition government that was mostly united by a desire to oust the longtime ruling allies of President Milo Djukanovic.
The ruling coalition's strongest bloc, the strongly pro-Serbian Democratic Front (DF), set a November 12 deadline for Krvokapic's exit and a government reshuffle or it would force a no-confidence vote.
The crisis within the nearly dozen ruling parties has intensified over individual ministerial appointments and calls by the two largest blocs for party loyalists to replace Krivokapic's "cabinet of experts" appointed after the August 2020 elections.
- By RFE/RL
Kremlin Lashes Out At West, Defends Troop Movements, As It Boosts Role In Belarus-EU Border Crisis
The Kremlin has vowed to safeguard its borders in the face of actions by countries it accused of trying to "contain" Russia and sought to walk back a Belarusian threat of a cutoff of Russian natural gas to Western markets amid a Belarusian-EU border crisis.
The statements come amid increased Russian involvement in the intensifying standoff between Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the European Union, with surprise joint military drills by Russian and Belarusian paratroopers likely to further ratchet up tensions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a conference call with journalists on November 12 that "Russia is not a threat to anyone" and that "the movement of our armed forces on our territory should not be a cause for concern."
He was responding in part to U.S. media reports suggesting Washington had raised concerns with its European allies about an attack by Russian forces.
Kremlin-backed separatists continue to control wide swaths of eastern Ukraine in a seven-year conflict that followed Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and periodic buildups of Russian troops in the area have set off alarms in Kyiv and Western capitals.
Moscow is also working closely with its ally Belarus amid a border crisis as thousands of third-country migrants the EU accuses Minsk of "weaponizing" are camped out at Belarus's border with EU member Poland.
Peskov lashed out at adversaries he accused of provocations and of efforts at "containment" near Russia's borders, including in the Black Sea region.
He alleged increased actions by NATO in the region and more airborne spying, saying, "If necessary, we take measures to ensure our security if our opponents take action along our borders."
Moscow this week launched a military show of support for the embattled Lukashenka by flying Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers over Belarus in an operation that Minsk says will continue on a regular basis.
Then on November 12, Belarusian and Russian officials announced suddenly that they were conducting joint military drills near Belarus's border with Poland.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry said via Telegram that a "joint battalion tactical group" of paratroopers at the Gozhsky range in western Belarus were a response to the "buildup of military activity" near its border.
They reportedly include Russian Il-76 aircraft and Belarusian helicopters.
Russia's Defense Ministry described the drills as a "surprise combat readiness check."
EU leaders have accused Lukashenka of "hybrid warfare" tactics by luring migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa and then purposely pushing them to its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to retaliate for EU sanctions.
Lukashenka said this week that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new punitive measures and raised the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.
But Kremlin spokesman Peskov sought to reassure Russia's gas customers on November 12 by citing a previous presidential statement saying Russia, a major supplier of gas to the region, has always met its contractual commitments to European customers.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled amid a crackdown after a disputed presidential election in 2020, said Lukashenka was "bluffing" about cutting off gas and urged the EU to stand firm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone twice this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and "spoke in favor of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.
The EU has refused. The bloc severed ties and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition that followed last year's presidential election, which Lukashenka claimed to win, but no Western countries have recognized.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
Four More Jailed For Corruption At Cosmodrome Project In Russia's Far East
A Russian court has sentenced four people to lengthy prison terms after finding them guilty of embezzling 400 million rubles ($5.6 million) during the construction of the country’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East.
The Investigative Committee said on November 12 that the four former executives and experts from construction companies -- Yevgeny Yermolayev, Andrei Zakharov, Olga Zugayeva, and Sergei Polivanov -- were handed prison terms of between four and 5 1/2 years.
All of the defendants had pleaded not guilty.
A fifth person charged in the case, Vyacheslav Fatkullin, remains at large, the Investigative Committee's statement said.
The Vostochny project in the Amur region near the Chinese border was intended to reduce Russia's dependence on the Soviet-era Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for manned rocket launches. But the project has been dogged by reports of corruption, with dozens of people involved in the planning and construction of the facility arrested on embezzlement and fraud charges in recent years.
The construction of the new cosmodrome started in 2012. In 2019, a Kremlin spokesman said that 11 billion rubles ($154.2 million) had been embezzled during the building process.
Prosecutors said in late 2019 that 163 probes had been launched against individuals involved in the construction, adding that about 60 persons involved in the project had been convicted.
The first launch at Vostochny occurred in April 2016, but only a few other attempts have taken place since. Construction at the site continues.
- By RFE/RL
Russian Move To Close Memorial Sparks Condemnation At Home, Abroad
Russia's move to close down the rights group Memorial has sparked widespread condemnation, even from within the country, amid concerns over the government's widening crackdown on civil society.
The request by the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office asking for the Supreme Court to shut down part of one of the country's most prominent human rights groups was called "regrettable" by the head of the Council of Europe (CoE) on November 12, while German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he was shocked by the news.
Even the Kremlin's own rights council questioned the wisdom of the move of shutting down a respected organization founded by rights activists including renowned scientist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, calling it "unjust."
The office said it made the request because International Memorial, a part of the rights group, had failed to comply with requirements of the controversial law on "foreign agents," legislation that Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the secretary-general of the CoE, a pan-European rights body, said "stigmatizes" NGOs, media, and individuals and "has had a repressive impact on civil society in Russia over recent years."
Memorial is among several investigative news outlets, journalists and rights organizations to have been labelled foreign agents in what is seen as a historic crackdown on independent organizations that oppose the government or uncover corruption by authorities.
The group said on November 12 that it had received the official 11-page claim and 180-page annex filed by the Prosecutor-General's Office.
It said the text included the claim that Memorial's materials contain "signs of justifying extremism and terrorism" including the activities of Islamic groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, and At-Takfir Wal Hijra -- all of which are labeled as terrorist groups and banned in Russia. It also cited the Jehovah's Witnesses and Artpodgotovka (Artillery Bombardment), which are also designated as extremist by Russian authorities.
Memorial says it recognized some of the members of the named groups as political prisoners, noting that Russian authorities have used terrorism and extremism charges to clamp down on dissent for years.
"The liquidation of International Memorial would deal a further devastating blow to civil society, which is an essential pillar of any democracy," Pejcinovic Buric said in the statement.
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 the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.
International Memorial, which said a hearing on the case will be held on November 25, was added to the "foreign agents" registry in October 2016.
The group -- along with many officials from countries in the West -- says the "foreign agents" legislation was meant to suppress independent organizations and that it saw no legal basis for it to be dismantled.
"We have repeatedly emphasized that the Russian foreign agent legislation is unlawful and consciously designed to suppress civil society. We have insisted that this law must be repealed. Yet, as long as it is in force, we are obliged to fulfill its requirements," the group said in a statement on November 11 when it announced it faced liquidation proceedings.
"The decision to abolish International Memorial is politically motivated. It aims to destroy the organization, which deals with the political repressions of the past and fights for human rights today," the statement added.
"Russian authorities' lawsuits, aiming to close Memorial International and Human Rights Center Memorial, is their latest attack on freedom of expression," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter. "Russia must end the lawsuits and stop misusing its law on 'foreign agents' to harass, stigmatize, and silence civil society."
"The politically motivated persecution of critical civil society must end," Germany's Maas said.
The Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, which is usually aligned with the policies of the Kremlin, also expressed concerns over the move on November 12, calling it an "extreme measure."
"The proposed sanction is unjust and disproportionate to the cumulative violations, as over the past 14 months the surveillance bodies have not revealed a single violation by International Memorial of its legal obligations, while only two minor violations have been found at the Memorial human rights center," the statement said.
The Memorial human rights center -- another branch of the highly respected Moscow-based organization -- was placed on the government's "foreign agent" register in November 2015.
A movement rather than a centralized structure, Memorial was established in the late 1980s during the "glasnost" and "perestroika" reforms initiated by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
By 2018, Memorial had more than 60 branches and affiliated organizations scattered across Russia, with a quarter of them established in 2014 or later.
The branches share the same interest in respectiong human rights, documenting the past, and marking Days of Remembrance for the victims of political repression.
The “foreign agents” laws also require those designated to label their content with an intrusive disclaimer, with criminal fines for not doing so.
The label has forced several NGOs, media organizations, and other groups to shut down as they lose revenues from spooked advertisers.
With reporting by TASS, dpa, and Interfax
Purported Leader Of Kazakh Criminal Group Released Early On Health Grounds
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The purported leader of a criminal group who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for stealing an unprecedented amount of oil in 2018 has been released "due to his state of health."
Relatives of Erkin Izbasar, the head of a group known as Four Brothers, told RFE/RL on November 12 that the 54-year-old was taken home in the northeastern city of Aqtobe three days earlier.
According to Izbasar's mother, her son was released from a penitentiary in the northeastern city of Oskemen in late October and rushed to the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, for surgery for unspecified reasons before he was transferred to Aqtobe.
Izbasar had been wheelchair-bound for many years following a traffic accident.
He and 25 others were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2018 after a court found them guilty of stealing hundreds of tons of oil in the Aqtobe region.
Izbasar rejected all the charges at the time and claimed he was tortured into confessing while in custody.
A court in Oskemen said on November 12 that Izbasar was released from the OV-156/20 correctional colony on October 21 due to his poor health, adding that parole-like restrictions were imposed on him for the remaining 11 years of his term.
- By RFE/RL
Russia's Daily COVID-19 Deaths Break 1,200 Mark For Fourth Consecutive Day
Daily COVID-19 deaths in Russia have topped 1,200 for a fourth consecutive day as a surge in infections from the coronavirus continues.
The coronavirus crisis center said on November 12 that 1,295 people had died from COVID-19 over the previous 24 hours, with 40,123 new cases being detected.
With cases and deaths hovering around record levels, hospitals have been filling up with patients, putting a strain on the country's health-care system.
The country recently introduced a paid holiday from October 30 to November 7 in an effort to lessen workers' exposure to COVID-19. Stay-at-home orders were issued for older adults and businesses are required to have 30 percent of their staffs work from home.
Officials have blamed the surge in cases in part on the reluctance of Russians to get vaccinated. Even though the country has several domestically produced vaccines, only about one-third of the population is vaccinated.
The country has recorded almost 9 million coronavirus infections and just under 253,000 related deaths.
But critics and some health experts have accused officials of skewing the numbers to cover up a much higher death count, making the situation in hospitals even more precarious, they say.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Exiled Russian Activist Added To Wanted List After Sharing New Prison-Abuse Videos
Russian authorities have added the founding leader of a human rights group that recently released a second batch of videos purportedly showing torture and rape at a prison hospital to the country's list of wanted criminals.
Vladimir Osechkin's name appeared on the wanted persons registry of Russia's Interior Ministry on November 11, two days after his Gulagu.net organization released a second batch of videos that Osechkin says were recorded in the OTB-1 tuberculosis infirmary between July 2015 and September 2020.
The ministry's registry says Osechkin, who has lived in France since 2015, was added "again" because he is suspected of an unspecified crime.
In July 2020, he was briefly put on the fugitives list after a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for him on unspecified fraud charges.
Last month, Osechkin said Gulagu.net obtained a large batch of videos showing prison inmates being tortured in order to coerce them to cooperate with Federal Security Service (FSB) and prison-service (FSIN) officers.
Videos released by Osechkin in October sparked a public outcry that led to the resignation of the chief of the FSIN's directorate in Saratov and the firing of several senior prison officials in the city.
More than 400 inmates later made statements alleging they had been tortured in the prison hospital.
Osechkin has said the videos were provided by a former prison inmate and an IT expert, Belarusian national Syarhey Savelyeu.
Savelyeu fled to France last month, where he applied for political asylum.
Russia issued an arrest warrant, accusing Savelyeu of "illegal access to digital information." But on November 11, prosecutors withdrew the charges and stopped the probe against Savelyeu.
- By RFE/RL
Ukraine To Send Personnel To Border With Poland To Share Intel On Belarus Migrant Crisis
Ukraine says it is sending some of its border guards and national guard officers to its border with Poland to share intelligence on the handling of the Belarus migrant crisis.
Thousands of migrants are sheltering in freezing conditions in the woods of Belarus near its borders with the European Union states of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
France on November 12 urged Russia's visiting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to use Moscow's links with the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to end the migrant crisis.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also condemned what he called "the irresponsible and unacceptable behavior of the Belarusian authorities in using migratory flows to target several countries of the European Union."
U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed "great concern" over the migrant crisis.
"We communicated our concern to Russia, we communicated our concern to Belarus," Biden told reporters as he prepared to depart the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. "We think it's a problem."
EU leaders have previously accused Minsk of "hybrid warfare" tactics, saying it has lured migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa.
EU officials say Minsk's policies are a form of retaliation for sanctions that Brussels has imposed on Lukashenka's regime over its violent crackdown on dissent after he claimed victory in an August 2020 election widely seen as rigged.
Belarus denies that it is doing so.
Ukraine, which is on Belarus's southern border, is wary about becoming a new flashpoint in the crisis. It has already said it is sending thousands of additional troops to reinforce its own borders.
"Ukraine supports Poland in this difficult time and hopes that it will be able to resolve the artificially inspired crisis in a peaceful and civilized way," Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyskiy told his Polish counterpart on November 12, according to a statement.
"We are ready to promptly consider any request from the Polish side to provide assistance in resolving the current situation."
Meanwhile, Belarus's Defense Ministry said on November 12 that it was holding joint paratrooper exercises with Russia near the Belarus-Polish border. Moscow called the drills part of a "surprise combat-readiness check."
Russia's Defense Ministry said two of the Russian paratroopers were killed in a parachute accident during the drills.
Facing growing accusations of encouraging the migrants to cross into Poland and Lithuania, Belarus said on November 12 that it had sent some 2,000 migrants back to their countries as part of its efforts to stop illegal migration.
Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makey said Belarus had revoked the right of 30 tourist firms to invite migrants "just about a month ago," according to transcript of a news conference published by his ministry.
"We have detained around 700 violators at the border. We have turned back around 2,000 people who came from other countries and did not have proper documents," Makey said, without elaborating.
Several airlines said earlier on November 12 that they'll limit access to flights between Turkey and Minsk to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East to the European Union's border with Belarus.
Belarus's state-owned airline Belavia, Turkish Airlines, and Iraqi Airlines all vowed on November 12 to try to stop migrants from heading to Belarus and onward to the European Union.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry said on November 12 that it had halted direct flights to Belarus from Iraq, in a bid to protect Iraqis against human-trafficking gangs.
"The Iraqi Embassy in Moscow and Warsaw coordinate Iraq's efforts for the voluntary return of those who are stranded at the Belarus border," the Iraqi state News Agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.
"Iraq has stopped direct flights between Iraq and Belarus," he added.
At the United Nations, Western governments have condemned Minsk over Belarusian policies that have trapped the migrants along Belarus's border.
A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said contacts with airlines were "already showing fruit."
The moves by the three airlines include the suspension of some flights to Minsk and the prohibition of one-way ticket sales to Minsk.
In a Twitter statement, the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority said that "citizens of Iraq, Syria, and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets" or board flights until further notice.
Belavia said on its website that, "in line with a decision by Turkish authorities, citizens of Iraq, Syria, Yemen will not be accepted for transportation on flights from Turkey to Belarus," beginning on November 12.
Belavia is prohibited from overflying EU airspace after Belarusian authorities ordered the grounding of an international Ryanair flight earlier this year in an apparent move to detain a Belarusian regime critic and his Russian girlfriend.
Belarusian authorities said on November 12 that about 100 more migrants were traveling toward a makeshift camp near the border with Poland.
Meanwhile, a Belarusian NGO says three migrants from Iraq and Syria were attacked and robbed near the border.
The nonprofit Grupa Granica (Border Group) said one of the migrants, an Iraqi, was hospitalized after being struck in the head with a metal pole. It said the robbers stole thousands of dollars after the migrants asked them for water.
The United States, Britain, Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, and Albania on November 11 condemned "the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus."
They also accused Lukashenka's regime of becoming a threat to regional stability.
The joint statement makes no mention of Belarus's ally Russia, which has rejected Western allegations that it was working in conjunction with Minsk to send the migrants over the EU's eastern border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had his second phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in as many days and "spoke in favor of restoring contacts between EU states and Belarus in order to resolve this problem," the Kremlin said in a statement.
The EU has refused. The bloc severed ties and imposed sanctions after a heavy crackdown on the opposition that followed last year's presidential election, which Lukashenka claimed to have won, but which no Western countries have recognized.
Moscow has put on a show of support for Belarus by dispatching nuclear-capable strategic bombers to fly over Belarus two days in a row in patrols that Minsk said will continue.
Lukashenka has said that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new measures, raising the possibility of cutting off transit through a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas through Belarus to Poland and farther into Europe.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
North Macedonia Opposition Falls Short Of Toppling Government -- By One Vote
North Macedonia's opposition failed in its bid to topple the government after ruling coalition lawmakers blocked a no-confidence vote.
The November 11 vote was a temporary victory for the government, which has been weakened by poor results in municipal elections. The deepening impasse threatens to plunge the country into outright political crisis.
The opposition bloc pushed the confidence motion against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's cabinet, saying it had secured 61 votes in the 120-seat legislature. But only 60 lawmakers attended the session, one short of the required quorum of 61.
The lawmaker who did not attend comes from a smaller ethnic Albanian party that is in the opposition.
Technically, the deadline for the vote expires at midnight.
But Kastriot Rexhepi, who earlier backed the no-confidence motion, wrote on Facebook that he had decided not to participate in the vote because he thought that toppling the government would create problems for North Macedonia on the international stage.
The tiny Balkan country is hoping to start EU accession talks.
The opposition, led by the VMRO-DPMNE party, said earlier that if Zaev loses the vote they would try to form a new government before heading to an early election.
After a poor showing by Zaev’s Social Democrats in municipal elections in October, the prime minister pledged to resign.
That announcement came after months of Zaev’s struggles to keep afloat the country's pandemic-hit economy amid stalled accession talks with the European Union.
Analysts say that the former Yugoslav republic is heading into a potentially lengthy political crisis with no clear outcome.
Elected prime minister in 2017, Zaev is best known for the deal he struck with Greece to change the country’s name to North Macedonia -- in order to distinguish it from the Greek province of Macedonia.
The change enabled the country to join NATO and was a precondition for EU membership.
With reporting by dpa and AFP
Protesters Rally In Tbilisi Following Release Of Saakashvili Prison Hospital Video
Hundreds of supporters of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili held a rally in Tbilisi on November 11, demanding his transfer to a civilian clinic following the release of a video showing Saakashvili's November 8 transfer to a prison infirmary. The video has provoked outrage from opposition politicians and human rights activists. The Georgian Special Penitentiary Service says the footage "proves" that Saakashvili "disobeyed lawful orders and acted aggressively."
Jailed Tajik Opposition Politicians Placed In Solitary Confinement For Sending Letter To President
DUSHANBE -- Two jailed Tajik opposition politicians have been placed in solitary confinement after sending a letter to President Emomali Rahmon from a penal colony.
Two imprisoned members of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) -- Zubaidullo Roziq and Rahmatullo Rajab -- told their relatives that the administration of the penal colony in Vahdat near Dushanbe had ruled to place them in solitary confinement for two months as punishment for sending a letter to Rahmon without obtaining preliminary permission from the warden.
In their letter, Rajab and Roziq "revealed certain details of their case, trying to prove their innocence," their relatives told RFE/RL on November 11.
An official with the state penitentiary service confirmed to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that the two men are currently in solitary confinement for "violating regulations."
Dozens of IRPT officials and supporters have been prosecuted and many imprisoned in recent years, prompting criticism of Rahmon's government from rights groups.
Rajab and Roziq were arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 28 and 25 years in prison, respectively, after a court found them guilty of involvement in a purported insurrection against Rahmon's government led by Army General Abduhalim Nazarzoda.
The IRPT, long an influential party with representatives in the Tajik government and parliament, has denied any links to the deadly events and called the imprisonment of its members and leaders politically motivated. The IRPT was declared extremist and banned in 2015.
Activists and rights groups say Rahmon, who has ruled Tajikistan since 1992, has used the security forces and other levers of power to sideline opponents and suppress dissent.
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