Two strong earthquakes struck southern Iran near the port of Bandar Abbas on November 14, killing at least one person, state TV reported.

The quakes measured 6.3 and 6.4 magnitude, jolting the southern province of Hormozgan, state TV said.

"One person died after an electricity pole fell on him," Iranian state TV said, citing local officials.

Walls of buildings cracked in the southern port city Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan province, local Governor Azizollah Konari told journalists.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the tremors at magnitudes of 6 and 6.3.

"The quake was felt in several southern Iranian cities in Hormozgan province," an official told state TV, adding that rescue teams had been sent to the area.

There was no immediate report about damage caused by the quakes.

Iran lies on major seismic faults and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years.

Based on reporting by IRNA, Reuters and AP

Bulgarian officials say an overnight fire at a ward for COVID-19 patients has killed three patients.

The fire at the General Hospital in the southern town of Sliven broke out before 3 a.m. on November 14 in a room where three patients were receiving care.

Two of them died on the spot, while the third one later died of severe burns.

The fire was extinguished by firefighters, and an investigation was launched to establish the cause of the tragedy.

A new surge in coronavirus cases is overwhelming Bulgaria’s ailing health-care system, with the authorities on November 14 reporting 8,178 patients in COVID-19 wards, 745 of them in intensive care.

With less than one-third of its adults fully vaccinated, the country of 7 million is the least-vaccinated in the 27-nation European Union.

The fire in Sliven came as Bulgarians are electing a new parliament and president.

With reporting by AP

Russia has reported a new record one-day death toll from COVID-19, as the weekly number of coronavirus cases in Europe now stands at levels unseen since the start of the pandemic.

The Russian national coronavirus task force said on November 14 that a record 1,241 people died from the virus over the past day -- two more than the previous record reported on November 10.

The task force said 39,256 new infections were recorded, bringing the country’s total number of cases to more than 9 million.

The task force has reported more than 254,000 deaths since the pandemic began in early 2020 -- by far the highest death toll in Europe.

Russia imposed a weeklong workplace shutdown in early November, closing many businesses, that was designed to curb an uptick in case numbers.

The surge in infections and deaths has been blamed on low vaccination rates, lax public attitudes toward taking precautions, and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions.

Less than 40 percent of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine months before most of the world.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and AP

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called on NATO to take "concrete steps" to resolve the migrant crisis on the Belarusian border, adding that Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia may ask for consultations under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows any ally to request consultations if it feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

"It is not enough just for us to publicly express our concern -- now we need concrete steps and the commitment of the entire alliance," Morawiecki told the state news agency PAP on November 14.

Polish authorities say they expect a major attempt by migrants to break through the country’s border with Belarus by force, a day after more than 200 of them tried to force their way into the EU member state.

Thousands of people, mainly from the Middle East, are stuck in makeshift camps in dire conditions on the Belarusian side of the border, caught at the center of an escalating diplomatic row between Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the EU.

Minsk faces new sanctions over the crisis at the bloc’s eastern frontier, with EU officials accusing Lukashenka of provoking it to undermine the bloc' security -- which he denies.

“After a ‘quiet’ night in the vicinity of the camp in Kuznica, we are currently observing that more groups of armed officers of Belarusian services are located in this site,” the Polish border guards tweeted on November 14, adding: “We are noticing a commotion among migrants. There was also a TV broadcast van.”

The force wrote that migrants were “preparing today for a major attempt at crossing the border. Our forces are ready for action.”

Earlier, the border guards said they recorded 223 attempts to illegally cross the border the previous day, while police said officers were attacked in the evening in the Kolonia Klukowicze area during such an attempt.

The impact of a stone thrown by a migrant was so forceful that one officer's helmet was damaged, police said following similar clashes in recent days.

In a separate incident, police said about 50 migrants broke through a border barrier by force near the border village of Starzyna. Police said 22 Iraqi citizens were detained.

Polish authorities have also been detaining people suspected of smuggling the migrants, with two citizens of Georgia, one Pole, and one Syrian held on November 13, police said.

Poland's government said it was seeking to dispel rumors among migrants that on November 15 “coaches from Germany will come pick them up from the border and Poland will let them through.”

“It's a lie. The Polish border is and will be well guarded,” Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski tweeted late on November 13, saying that security alerts were being sent to peoples' phones.

The influx of migrants to Belarus has been building for several months, with thousands of people from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa trying to illegally enter Poland, as well as fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania.

Embed share

'Food And Milk': Video Lures More Migrants To Belarusian Border As 'Catastrophic' Crisis Grows

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:50 0:00

The EU has accused Lukashenka of flying in migrants and funneling them to the bloc's borders to retaliate against Brussels for sanctions imposed after last year's disputed presidential election.

Lukashenka's government, which is backed by Russia, denies the EU charges and has accused Poland and the EU of violating human rights by refusing to allow the migrants to apply for asylum.

Poland and other EU governments have accused Moscow of helping ally Lukashenka orchestrate the border crisis, which the Kremlin denies.

Poland has reinforced its border with 15,000 soldiers in addition to border guards and police in an attempt to stop the migrants and refugees stuck in makeshift camps on the Belarusian side of the frontier from entering the country.

Amid the tense standoff on Poland’s eastern border, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on November 15 may approve a new, fifth package of sanctions that are expected to target Belarus's state-owned airline Belavia for its alleged role in transporting migrants to Minsk.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a French weekly that the ministers will allow sanctions against "all those who are participating in the trafficking of migrants" in Belarus, including airlines, travel agencies, and officials.

In a tweet, Borrell said he had raised the "precarious humanitarian situation at the border with the EU" with Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makey.

"People's lives must be protected and humanitarian agencies allowed access," Borrell said on November 14.

"The current situation is unacceptable and must stop. People should not be used as weapons," he added.

"We will certainly discuss further sanctions, including the complete closure of the border to cut off the regime from any economic benefits,"Morawiecki told PAP.

Morawiecki also said that the EU "should contribute jointly" to a Polish project to build a wall along the border.

Lukashenka has said that Minsk "must respond" if the EU takes new measures -- raising the possibility of cutting off the transit of Russian natural gas via a pipeline that runs through Belarus to Poland and further into the EU.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 13 that such a move "would mean a breach of our gas transit contract.”

"I hope this will not happen," Putin said in a television interview, adding: "There's nothing good in this, and I will, of course, talk to him about this subject. Perhaps he said that in a fit of temper."

On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the treatment of migrants by the Belarusian government in a telephone call with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau on November 13, the State Department said.

"Secretary Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Poland in the face of the [Lukashenka] regime’s cynical exploitation of vulnerable migrants," spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on November 14.

"The actions by the [Lukashenka] regime threaten security, sow division, and aim to distract from Russia’s activities on the border with Ukraine,” the statement added.

With reporting by Journal du Dimanche and PAP

PRISTINA --Preliminary results in Kosovo's election show that British-educated architect Perparim Rama, who is running with the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) party, has won the race in the capital, Pristina, beating former Health Minister Arben Vitia from the governing Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) movement.

The results were released after the counting of 90 percent of the votes in the elections in 21 of 38 municipalities in the second round of mayoral voting in the Balkans' youngest independent state.

The November 14 runoff races, one month after the first round, are considered a key test for Self-Determination and its prime minister, Albin Kurti.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. local time at some 575 voting stations and are expected to remain open for 12 hours in this ethnic Albanian majority country of 1.85 million people. Preliminary turnout was 38.4 percent.

About 1.26 million voters in the Balkan country were eligible to choose between the two mayoral candidates who finished with the highest vote totals in the first round.

About 1.2 million people are eligible to vote, choosing between the two mayoral candidates who finished with the highest vote totals in the first round.

Self-Determination won more than 50 percent of the vote during parliamentary elections in February, but it did not secure any mayoral position in the first round.

The party is competing in 12 municipalities in the second round.

Election authorities said turnout had surpassed 7 percent after four hours of voting, which is being monitored by 62 observers deployed by the European Union.

After casting her ballot, President Vjosa Osmani called on citizens to fulfill their "civic obligation" to vote.

"It is very important that citizens respond to this obligation so that tomorrow they have more rights and better quality in the municipalities where they live," she said.

Self-Determination leader Kurti had a similar message.

Kosovo "has proved that it is a democratic state, where the rights of all citizens are respected and where they freely and honestly elect those who will vote for us in the future," he said.

The 46-year-old Yugoslav-era student leader 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.

Kurti has vowed that officials would continue cracking down on the smuggling of goods -- such as beverages, food, and cigarettes -- from Serbia into Kosovo.

The most closely watched race is in Pristina between the Self-Determination candidate, former Health Minister Arben Vitia, and British-educated architect Perparim Rama, who is running with the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) party.

In the 2017 local elections, Self-Determination won the capital.

The Serbian List, which is close to the Serbian leadership in Belgrade, won nine out of 10 Serb-majority mayoral races in the first round, while the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won four races, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) two, and the LDK two.

Western-backed 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.

Serbia and Kosovo fought a war in 1998-1999 that ended when NATO bombed Serbian forces.

The elections are taking place under conditions designed to help fight the spread of COVID-19, with masks and the maintaining of physical distance mandated.

Kosovo has registered a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks compared with some regional counterparts.

On November 13, seven new cases and one death were registered. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 160,934 cases have been registered, along with 2,980 deaths.

About 41 percent of population has received either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine.

SOFIA--No clear winner has emerged in Bulgaria's parliamentary elections, the third held this year, exit polls showed on November 14, with the center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in a neck-to-neck race with the anti-graft, We Continue the Change, led by two Harvard-educated former businessmen.

Alpha Research's exit poll showed GERB narrowly leading the election with 24.8 percent, while Gallup International saw the new faction, We Continue the Change, coming first with 25.7 percent. The other exit polls showed GERB leading.

Five other parties are said to have made it into the 240-seat chamber. They include the Socialist Party, the ethnic Turkish-backed Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), the anti-elite There is Such a People party , the liberal anti-corruption group Democratic Bulgaria , and the nationalist Revival party.

The results were released as polling stations closed in the country at 8 p.m. local time.

Bulgarian voters went to the polls to elect a parliament and a president in a bid to break a monthslong political deadlock and secure a government to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic as well as rising energy prices and endemic corruption.

The Central Election Commission said voter turnout was nearly 26% by 4 p.m., lower than in previous elections.

Failure to form a government could slow Bulgaria's plan to adopt the euro currency by 2024 and delay measures to soften the impact of high energy costs on consumers this winter.

A member of both NATO and the European Union, Bulgaria has been plagued by rampant corruption since overthrowing communism more than three decades ago. It is the EU's poorest member and routinely comes in at the bottom of the bloc for perceptions of corruption and media freedom.

Boyko Borisov, who was at the helm for more than a decade, stepped down as prime minister in April after widespread anti-corruption protests against him and his center-right GERB party, the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria.

That led to two inconclusive parliamentary polls in April and July, prompting this third attempt.

Opinion polls released ahead of the vote suggested Borisov’s GERB will be the party that wins the most seats up for grabs in the 240-seat National Assembly. But its lack of obvious coalition partners will likely lead to difficulties cobbling together the majority needed to govern.

In the race for the largely ceremonial presidency, a Gallup International exit poll suggested that incumbent Rumen Radev has a commanding lead but will still have to face runner-up Anastas Gerdzhikov in a runoff on November 21 as voter turnout remained below the requisite 50 percent.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and closed at 8 p.m.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are monitoring the vote.

After casting his ballot in Bankya on the outskirts of Sofia, Borisov accused Radev of throwing the country into "chaos."

Radev, a vocal critic of Borisov, said he had voted for freedom, legality, and justice.

"These are the values I stand for," he said after voting in the capital.

One of the final opinion polls before the vote, conducted on November 11 by Alpha Research, gave GERB 24.1 percent support among likely voters. It was followed by We Continue the Change, a new centrist party, with 16.5 percent, and the leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) with 16 percent.

The same poll showed Democratic Bulgaria -- a coalition of three left parties -- with 10.2 percent, the anti-establishment There is Such a People (ITN), with 9.9 percent, and the DPS party at 9.8 percent, meaning all would secure seats in parliament, the National Assembly.

ITN, established in February 2020 by popular late-night talk-show host and folk-pop singer Slavi Trifonov, narrowly won the second 2021 elections on July 11, but failed to form a coalition government.

If GERB wins the most seats in the parliamentary election, Borisov told Bulgarian media he would not rule out seeking the support of DPS -- largely supported by members of Bulgaria's Muslim, Romany, and Turkish communities -- which he had in the past deemed political opponents. Borisov also named Democratic Bulgaria as "natural allies."

However, according to Ivaylo Ditchev, a Bulgarian political scientist, a coalition between GERB and DPS would be difficult to reach. Ditchev predicted in comments to RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that talks on forming a new government will likely again be inconclusive, forcing yet another parliamentary poll.

We Continue the Change, established by Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev in September, could score big in the parliamentary elections, said Aleksey Pamporov, a political scientist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

"We were all laughing when they stated that they will do “left” policy with “right” instruments," but that is exactly what they are proposing. In terms of economy, energy, business, and tourism they are very right-minded. But in terms of social policies, education, healthcare they lean left," Pamporov told RFE/RL.

Petkov, 41, and Vasilev, 44, served for some four months as interim economy and finance ministers earlier this year, gaining public support for efforts to uncover wrongdoing in state institutions under GERB and Borisov.

In May, Petkov found that the state-run Bulgarian Development Bank, set up to support small business, had extended 946 million levs ($559.43 million) in loans to just eight companies.

Vasilev boasted of boosting tax collection by 2.5 billion levs by increasing controls on big businesses that operate with public and EU funds.

Two other parties, Stand Up.BG! We are coming! and the right-wing pro-Russian Vazrajdane (Rebirth) party were hovering in opinion polls just below the 4 percent threshold needed to win seats in parliament.

In the presidential election, Radev, who has maintained high approval ratings since he was elected in 2016, was leading in polling conducted by Alpha Research with 46.4 percent.

A former air force commander, Radev has the backing of several parties, including the BSP, ITN, and is a vocal critic of Borisov.

His strongest challenge should come from Anastas Gerdzhikov, who is backed by GERB, which has accused Radev of dividing the nation. The latest Alpha Research polling put Gerdzhikov at 28.3 percent.

Far behind in that poll in third was Mustafa Kradaya, the DPS candidate, with 7.1 percent, followed by Lozan Panov, the Democratic Bulgaria candidate, with 6.9 percent.

If no presidential candidate wins at least 50 percent in the first round, a runoff between the two leading vote-winners will be held a week later on November 21.

With reporting by Reuters, Nova, and AP

Ukraine’s new defense minister says the country will speed construction of a naval base at the port of Berdyansk amid tense relations with Russia in the unstable region.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on November 13 following a visit to Berdyansk that the move is designed to prevent what Ukraine calls attempts by Moscow to take control of the crucial Sea of Azov.

The sea borders along the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia illegally seized from Ukraine in 2014.

“Strengthening our capabilities in this direction and the development of the navy in general is one of the priorities,” said Reznikov, who toured the region along with Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff General Valery Zaluzhny.

"The corresponding instructions will be given to accelerate the construction of the naval base," Reznikov said in statement released by the Defense Ministry.

The comments come as Kyiv and Western powers, including the United States, raised alarm bells over Russian activities near Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists control swaths of territory in an ongoing seven-year conflict.

U.S. 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."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Western suggestions Moscow might be considering offensive military action and accused Washington of aggressive moves in the Black Sea, where Ukraine and the United States have held major military drills in recent months.

Ukraine in 2018 said it planned to build a naval base in Berdyansk after losing its military bases on the Crimean Peninsula when Moscow seized the territory.

The creation of the base "will create conditions for repelling Russian aggression in that region," the Ukrainian government said at the time.

Reznikov said security risks had been heightened and threats to shipping had emerged because of Russian actions in the Azov and Black Seas.

"Following the occupation of Crimea and parts of [eastern Ukraine], Russia is trying to de facto occupy the Sea of Azov as well," Reznikov said.

Russia has denied that it wants to take control of the Sea of Azov, but it did not comment on Reznikov comments.

With reporting by Reuters and Unian

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

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.

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.

SEE ALSO:

Biden Says Situation On Poland-Belarus Border 'A Great Concern,' As Migrant Deaths Mount

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.

SEE ALSO:

Putin Says U.S., NATO Moves In Black Sea 'Serious Challenge' For 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. 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.

SEE ALSO:

Outrage, Dismay As Russia Moves To Shut Down Its Oldest Human Rights Group

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.

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.

SEE ALSO:

Azerbaijan, Armenia Mark Anniversary Of End Of Nagorno-Karabakh War

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

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.

Embed share

Black Sea Tensions Rise Amid NATO, Russian Exercises

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:05:47 0:00

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.

SEE ALSO:

U.S., EU Warn Russia Against New Threats To Ukraine

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

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

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.

SEE ALSO:

As Bulgaria Gets Set To Vote For President And Parliament, New Allegations Emerge Of Vote Rigging And Fraud

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.

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.

Embed share

'Food And Milk': Video Lures More Migrants To Belarusian Border As 'Catastrophic' Crisis Grows

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:50 0:00

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.

SEE ALSO:

Putin Says U.S., NATO Moves In Black Sea 'Serious Challenge' For Russia

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.

SEE ALSO:

Ukraine To Send Personnel To Border With Poland To Share Intel On Belarus Migrant Crisis

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.

SEE ALSO:

On Poland's Border With Belarus, A Syrian Refugee's Desperate Battle To Save His Family

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

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."

SEE ALSO:

Majlis Podcast: Is China's Base In Tajikistan A Sign Of Creeping Penetration?

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."

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.

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

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."

SEE ALSO:

Top U.S., Ukrainian Diplomats Discuss Russian Troop Buildup

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.

SEE ALSO:

Kremlin Lashes Out At West, Defends Troop Movements, As It Boosts Role In Belarus-EU Border Crisis

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

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.

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.

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.

Embed share

'Food And Milk': Video Lures More Migrants To Belarusian Border As 'Catastrophic' Crisis Grows

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:50 0:00

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.

SEE ALSO:

As Belarus Facilitates Migrant Crisis With EU, Putin Could See Chance To Use Clout

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.

SEE ALSO:

The Week In Russia: 'If You're Wondering When This Will Stop...'

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