SOFIA -- Bulgaria's defense chief says there is no need to deploy NATO troops in the Southeast European country in response to Russia's troop buildup near the border with Ukraine.

Defense Minister Stefan Yanev wrote in a Facebook post that "such a decision would not match [NATO allies'] interests nor the national interests of Bulgaria."

Yanev confirmed reports that "various options for response" are being discussed within NATO, including the deployment of additional troops to members Bulgaria and Romania, as part of the alliance's Enhanced Forward Presence strategy.

"These processes call for a unified approach by NATO, but without unnecessarily escalating tensions," he wrote.

"Various response options are currently being discussed within NATO, including the deployment of additional troops to Bulgaria and Romania, modeled on Enhanced Forward Presence. At this stage, they are at the level of military-technical discussion and no final decision has been made."

He added, though, that "my position is that such [an approach] has the potential to lead to an undesirable increase in tensions in the region."

"I do not believe that there are the necessary circumstances that can justify a decision related to the deployment of additional troops on our territory. Such a decision would correspond neither to the union interests nor to the national interest of Bulgaria."

Yanev said that Bulgaria -- a NATO member since 2004 -- was "ready to increase the capacity of its own national forces on its territory in the context of the alliance's deterrence and defense capabilities."

"This readiness is a function of the potential possibility of any type of threat, regardless of the direction from which it arises."

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The comments come as tensions rise amid Western concerns about the presence of tens of thousands of Russian troops near Ukraine's border, which has triggered fears of an invasion of that country.

U.S. President Joe Biden on December 9 held talks with Ukraine's leader and offered security reassurances to nine Eastern European NATO members.

Biden held a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and then spoke with the leaders of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

The diplomacy come two days after Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a video call amid the rising tensions.

Russia denies it is planning to attack, claiming instead that Ukraine and NATO are provoking tensions. Moscow is demanding security guarantees against NATO's expansion to Ukraine, which is not a member of the alliance.

During the call, Biden told Putin that Moscow will face "severe economic sanctions" should Russian troops launch an attack against Ukraine.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

PRISTINA -- Kosovar authorities say they have detained 10 people, including a former mayor, municipal directors, and heads of private companies, over allegations of illegal construction work at a tourist resort.

Those detained are suspected of bribery and misuse of office over illegal permits issued for the construction of villas and other buildings in Brezovica, a winter tourism destination in the Balkan country's southeast, prosecutors said on December 21.

The ex-mayor of the Shterpce/Strpce municipality, Bratislav Nikolic, was among them. He is accused of receiving up to 1 million euros ($1.13 million) in exchange for the illegal permits.

The former mayor and other suspects are also accused of receiving villas, cars, and other gifts.

Investigators said cash amounting to a total of 61,000 euros ($69,000) and eight cars worth 300,000 euros ($338,000) were seized in raids at 12 locations across Kosovo.

The governing board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $558 million loan program to help Moldova recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly $80 million would be released immediately under a program that will last 40 months, the IMF said in a statement on December 21.

"The Moldovan authorities have made commendable progress in rehabilitating the bank sector and bolstering macro-financial stability," IMF Deputy Managing Director Kenji Okamura was quoted as saying.

"However, the COVID-19 pandemic, drought in 2020, and the ongoing surge in global energy prices have slowed economic activity, intensified downside risks, and complicated policy making."

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Last month, the country struggled to meet a deadline to pay $79 million to Russia's Gazprom, which had threatened to cut off natural-gas supplies to the country.

In November 2020, Moldovans elected pro-European former World Bank economist Maia Sandu as president on a platform of economic reform and fighting corruption.

Opposition protesters in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, have attempted to force their way through a security perimeter of buses and other obstacles surrounding the de facto parliament of the breakaway Georgian region.

Protesters threw fireworks at police, who responded with smoke grenades, local media reported on December 21.

There were no immediate reports of arrests or injuries, although reports on social media showed protesters attempting to overturn some of the buses.

Earlier, protesters outside the city's main drama theater met with Abkhaz leader Aslan Bzhania.

But the opposition protesters were not satisfied with the discussions, and they marched to the parliament building.

"We told him about the views of the protesters and asked to hear the president's views on the matters raised," said Aslan Bartsits, head of the opposition Forum of Popular Unity of Abkhazia.

"He answered that he heard us and that he'd expressed his views in his speech on [December 20] and that there was no need for protests."

In his speech, Bzhania condemned "all those trying to carry out illegal and unconstitutional acts."

The same day, de facto Interior Minister Valter Butba called on citizens not to participate in illegal protests or hamper the functioning of the government.

The opposition accuses the de facto authorities of failing to cope effectively with the coronavirus pandemic, failing to manage the energy network properly, and expanding the bureaucracy.

Abkhazia and another Georgian breakaway region, South Ossetia, declared independence following a brief war between Georgia and Russia in 2008. Only Russia and a handful of other countries have recognized the two regions.

A majority stake in the Euronews media network is being sold to a company run by the son of a key adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been widely criticized as an enemy of press freedom.

Euronews announced on December 17 that Portuguese investment firm Alpac Capital, whose chief executive officer, Pedro Vargas David, is well connected in Hungary and is the son of Orban adviser Mario David, will buy an 88 percent share from Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris.

In recent years, Euronews has seen falling revenues and has been subsidized by the European Commission.

The purchase price has not been disclosed, but the planned capital increase could further increase the share of Portuguese ownership in the troubled channel, which provides content in 15 languages and reaches an estimated 145 million people.

RFE/RL contacted Pedro Vargas David with questions about the Euronews acquisition but has not yet received a reply.

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'Causes For Serious Concern': EU Warns Hungary, Poland Over Rule Of Law, Media Freedom

Under Orban, Hungary has been chided by rights groups for having a poor record on media freedom, while being accused of influencing media regulators, targeting media and journalists who have reported critically on his government, and providing state funds for pro-government media.

In 2010, when Orban returned to the post of prime minister for the second time, Hungary was ranked 23rd on Reporters Without Borders' press-freedom list. By 2021 it had slipped to 92nd place.

Mario David, the father of the Alpac Capital CEO, is a right-wing Portuguese politician, former member of the European Parliament, and current adviser to Orban on issues related to the European Union. He also served as the vice president of the center-right European People's Party, the largest party in the European Parliament.

According to a list on the website of the Hungarian prime minister's office, Mario David has a contract until the end of 2021 and is advising Orban for free.

RFE/RL contacted the prime minister's office about Mario David's relationship with Orban but has not yet received a reply.

Orban and Mario David have reportedly known each other since the fall of the Berlin Wall and, in April 2016, Orban called Mario David a "true friend" when he awarded him the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in Lisbon. The Portuguese politician received the award for "supporting Hungarian interests."

When Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa visited Budapest in summer 2020, Mario David attended the meeting as part of the Hungarian delegation, Portugal's online publication Observador reported.

Pedro Vargas David, who was educated at Harvard and has worked for the McKinsey & Company management consulting firm, has many ties to Hungary, and according to a profile in the Hungarian-based Index magazine lived in Budapest in 2019.

Pedro Vargas David founded a joint investment fund in 2017 with EXIM, Hungary's official export-credit agency. He also has a 5.25 percent stake and seat on the board of directors in 4iG, a Hungarian communications giant that has won numerous state contracts in the IT sector and whose owner, Gellert Jaszai, is considered well connected to Orban.

'Europe's CNN'

Euronews was founded in 1990 with the aim of becoming the "European CNN" and was initially in the hands of a consortium of European public broadcasters.

In 2015, the Egyptian tycoon Sawiris became the main owner through the Luxembourg-based Media Globe Networks. NBC News, which is owned by U.S.-based telecommunications conglomerate Comcast, sold its 25 percent stake in Euronews to Sawiris in 2020.

After the sale to Alpac Capital, the remaining 12 percent of Euronews will remain in the hands of a consortium of public television companies and local authorities.

For years, the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has subsidized Euronews with significant sums of money.

Politico reported that in 2019, the European Court of Auditors expressed concerns that between 2014 and 2018, Euronews relied on 122 million euros ($138 million) in funding from the European Commission, around one-third of the company's annual turnover.

A spokesman from the European Commission, who wished to remain anonymous, told RFE/RL that a decision had been made in March to renew the partnership agreement with Euronews.

The contract, signed in July, runs until 2023 and "does not contain direct funding obligations, but allows the commission to sign specific contracts on funding," the spokesman said.

According to the auditors in 2019, the European Commission, which has been criticized in the past for taking little action to curb attacks on press freedom, should have a mechanism in place to check that Euronews "complies with its commitments to maintain editorial impartiality."

Speaking to RFE/RL, the commission spokesman did not comment on the change in ownership, saying Euronews is a private company and that the European Commission has no stake in the channel, nor does it have any role in making financial, managerial, or personnel decisions.

"That said, we are following developments closely to make sure that any changes in the company's management or editorial workflows do not impact our contractual arrangements," the commission spokesperson said.

KYIV -- Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has denounced a decision by the authorities to investigate him for high treason over his alleged financing of Kremlin-backed separatist forces in the country's east, as Kyiv's Western backers called for a fair and transparent probe.

"Accusing the head of state of state treason, financing terrorists, and facilitating terrorist organizations is a crossing of red lines," Poroshenko said in a video from the Polish capital, Warsaw.

The 56-year-old ex-president vowed to return from his trip abroad in January.

The U.S. and U.K. embassies in Kyiv said they were following proceedings "closely" and urged an independent trial.

On December 21, the State Investigation Bureau said Poroshenko had been placed under formal investigation for high treason, accusing him of "facilitating the activities" of separatists fighting government forces in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,200 lives since April 2014.

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Ukraine Accuses Ex-President Poroshenko Of Treason

Ukraine faced an acute shortage of resources after the separatists seized territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where the country's main coal mines are located.

During his presidency, Poroshenko is suspected of helping the separatists to sell some 1.5 billion hryvnyas ($54 million) worth of coal to Kyiv in 2014-15, it said in a statement.

The politician, who is now a lawmaker and the leader of the opposition European Solidarity party, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

"The United States is closely following the case against former President Poroshenko," the U.S. Embassy wrote on Twitter. "Crucial that process and outcome be based on the rule of law, not politics."

British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons tweeted it was "vital" that the case be tackled "independently, impartially, and professionally, ensuring fairness and respect for due process."

Officials have said the accusations against Poroshenko were related to similar charges against pro-Russian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been under house arrest since May.

In October, Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova accused Medvedchuk of colluding with officials during Poroshenko's administration to buy coal from mines located in separatist-held areas as a way to finance the separatists. His political party is the second largest in parliament.

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Kremlin-Allied Ukrainian Lawmaker Medvedchuk To Remain Under House Arrest

Poroshenko's and Medvedchuk's political parties dismissed the accusations, calling them an effort to divert attention from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government's own wrongdoing and failures.

Zelenskiy succeeded Poroshenko as president after defeating him in a 2019 election.

TBILISI -- Several thousand supporters of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili took to the streets in protest in the wake of a report by an independent medical commission finding that he had been "tortured" while in custody.

The protesters on December 21 waved flags and held banners demanding Saakashvili's immediate release as they marched through the capital, Tbilisi, and gathered in front of the parliament building.

Addressing the crowd, Nika Melia, chairman of Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM), announced a "mass hunger strike that will not end until Mikheil Saakashvili is released from captivity."

It was not immediately clear how many people would participate in the hunger strike, which is to be held outside ENM's Tbilisi headquarters.

The protest was timed to coincide with Saakashvili's 54th birthday.

There were no reports of arrests or violence.

Shortly before the protest, Saakashvili -- who has been in custody since early October -- posted a message on Facebook calling for national unity and peaceful demonstrations.

"For me personally, the choice is clear -- either death or freedom, because Georgia will die without freedom and then my life will lose its meaning," he wrote. "In our diversity and our love of freedom is our strength and the secret of survival."

The ex-president said someday Georgia will "elect a government that will serve all Georgians, rather than one man," referring to the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Ivanishvili is believed to be the top decision-maker in the South Caucasus country even though he does not hold any office.

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Always Polarizing, Now Hunger-Striking, Saakashvili Has Sparked A Georgian Feud Over How Best To Keep Him Alive

Saakashvili served as Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013. He was arrested October 1 shortly after returning from self-imposed exile in Ukraine.

He conducted a 50-day hunger strike while in jail to protest his convictions on charges of abuse of office, which he says were politically motivated.

On December 18, an independent group of seven doctors examined him in the Gori Military Hospital and issued a statement saying that Saakashvili's health had been seriously compromised as a result of "torture" and mistreatment while in custody.

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Independent Medics Say Georgian Ex-President's Health Compromised By 'Torture' In Prison

The commission, organized by the NGO Empathy Center, said the former president had developed several neurological conditions "as a result of torture, ill-treatment, inadequate medical care, and a prolonged hunger strike."

One member of the team alleged Saakashvili had been wrongly given "antipsychotic drugs" and accused the authorities of "pharmacological torture."

Earlier this month, the Georgian State Inspectorate announced it had opened an investigation into Saakashvili's allegations of mistreatment.

TIRANA -- Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia have signed a raft of deals and agreed to further their Open Balkan initiative to promote ties as the three countries’ leaders held two days of talks in Tirana.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hosted the December 20-21 summit in the Albanian capital with his counterpart from North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The sides inked six agreements on the labor market, electronic identification, and the lifting of nontariff barriers for businesses, among other things.

They had previously decided to abolish customs controls from January 1, 2023.

Rama said the Open Balkan initiative's goal is to establish a single market among its members and pave the way for EU membership.

"Our goal is that the Balkans have no more borders for people, for the movement of goods, capital, and services -- four European Union principles," Albania's prime minister said.

The Open Balkan initiative, launched in October 2019, "is one of the biggest ideas in today's Europe," according to Vucic.

"The most important goal is to unite people who have been focusing more on the past rather than the future. It is important to connect people and their businesses," the Serbian leader said.

According to Zaev, "Open Balkan is our way forward on the road to the European Union."

The three Western Balkan countries are at different stages on the path to EU membership.

While Serbia has launched full membership negotiations, accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania have been delayed.

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Serbia Takes 'Very Important' Step Forward In EU Accession Process

"We agreed that our three countries would not be held hostage to the failure of the European Union to unblock our European integration process," Zaev said. "That process can be stopped in Brussels, but the Europeanization and implementation of European values in Northern Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania have no reason to be on hold."

Officials of the three other Western Balkan countries seeking to join the EU -- Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Montenegro -- have expressed skepticism toward the Open Balkan initiative and rejected calls to join.

Vucic's arrival in Tirana on December 20 triggered a protest by thousands of Albanians opposed to his visit and the summit.

The rally was called by former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who said the Open Balkan initiative was meant to "establish Serbian hegemony in the region."

The next Open Balkan summit is scheduled for February in North Macedonia's capital, Skopje.

Anti-vaccination protesters affiliated with a far-right Romanian parliamentary party have tried to force their way into the legislature building in Bucharest, blocking traffic and vandalizing vehicles, including a car belonging to the U.S. Embassy.

An estimated 2,500 people gathered outside parliament on December 21 waving Romanian flags and chanting "Freedom," in a protest organized by the opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) party.

The protesters, whose march had been announced days in advance, were attempting to prevent lawmakers from making a COVID-19 health pass mandatory for workers.

Police guarding the sprawling Parliament Palace -- one of the largest buildings in the world -- appeared to be caught off-guard when hundreds of protesters poured in through a gate while others climbed over the fence, spray-painting parked vehicles.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed that one of its vehicles was damaged in the mayhem.

Police blocked the building's entryways, preventing protesters, who came from across the country, from entering the building, but they did not use force. The protesters later left, with some 700 marching toward government headquarters.

Amid a lackluster vaccination campaign, EU member Romania faced a deadliest surge of coronavirus infections and deaths through October and November, with tens of thousands of daily infections and hundreds of deaths.

Romania's coalition government is discussing legislation that would require employees to have a green certificate -- proof of full vaccination, having recovered from COVID-19, or a negative test.

Only 40 percent of Romania's 19 million people, or 7.7 million people, have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, and 2 million of those also received the booster dose that is considered necessary to combat the Omicron variant.

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In a live online video from the protest, AUR co-Chairman George Simion urged people to "stand with us today to block the green certificate" and called the bill "unconstitutional."

"Side with AUR, side with the people who are right-headed -- who want justice," Simion said.

The commander of the Bucharest riot police told the media many protesters entered the premises in vehicles belonging to AUR lawmakers, who have a free pass.

AUR is a newly formed far-right party that acceded to parliament in December 2020 and currently has 43 lawmakers.

Hundreds of thousands of Romanians have been pouring into the country for the winter vacation, many of them unvaccinated, causing huge bottlenecks at western border crossings and prompting the authorities on December 20 to implement passenger location forms to improve the traceability of infections.

With reporting by G4media.ro, Digi24.ro, Reuters, and AP

The United States and Russia will likely hold bilateral talks to discuss Moscow's security proposals next month as the Kremlin ramped up is rhetoric by again warning it was prepared to take military measures if the West launched "unfriendly" actions with regard to Ukraine.

"We will decide on a date together with Russia, and we believe that that will take place in January," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried said in a call with media on December 21.

Donfried said that NATO will be holding a meeting on December 21 to discuss inviting Russia for talks on its proposals. Meanwhile, she said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was working out how it wants to engage Russia.

"My sense is that we will be seeing movement in these channels in the month of January," she said.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped for constructive talks with Washington and Brussels on Moscow's security concerns, which include opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine.

"Armed conflicts and bloodshed are absolutely not something we would choose. We do not want such a scenario," the Russian leader said.

He said Russia's proposals were no ultimatum, but added it had nowhere to retreat over Ukraine, which Moscow considers part of its sphere of influence.

In a meeting with Defense Ministry officials, Putin took a much sharper tone, warning the West against supplying weapons to Ukraine, including missiles that could reach Moscow in minutes.

He said if the West continued its "obviously aggressive stance," Russia would take "appropriate retaliatory military-technical measures."

Russia "will react toughly to unfriendly steps," Putin said, adding that he wanted to underscore that "we have every right to do so."

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His tough comments follow on Russia's publication last week of the sweeping new security demands it is seeking from the West that would essentially give Moscow a sphere of influence in neighboring countries while rolling back many of the advances NATO has made in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union since the 1990s.

The demands were laid out in the form of two draft agreements with the United States and NATO.

Donfried said that some of the demands were unacceptable and that Russia knows this, but added, "there's merit in having a discussion" and that the West was "ready to engage."

Addressing concerns among the military alliance's eastern contingent, the U.S. official said that NATO will consult with all 30 members as it engages in talks with Russia.

The Russian security demands come as the Kremlin amasses about 100,000 combat-ready troops near the border with Ukraine in what the United States has said could be a prelude to an invasion as early as next month.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier in the day that Russia had continued the "groundless and unexplained" buildup of troops.

Donfried called on Russia to pull back its troops, saying talks can only succeed in an atmosphere of de-escalation.

Analysts have said the military buildup could be aimed at strengthening Russia's position at the bargaining table with the United States and NATO.

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Russia is seeking a commitment from the West that Ukraine will not join NATO, calling its membership in the alliance a "red line." NATO has said that Ukraine would someday become a member, a move fiercely opposed by Moscow.

Most analysts say that Ukraine is at least a decade away from joining the security alliance.

Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskiy remained defiant in the face of Russia's hostile posture, saying in an address on December 21 to his ambassadors that he hopes next year to attain "a very clear timeline" for NATO membership.

Earlier in the day, Stoltenberg reiterated the alliance's support for Ukraine, saying it backed Kyiv's "right to choose" its own geopolitical orientation.

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Flurry Of Diplomacy

Russia's buildup and security demands have sparked a flurry of diplomacy to avoid hostilities.

Putin spoke separately with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on December 21 about Moscow's security proposals and the nearly eight-year war in eastern Ukraine.

German and France, two of the largest members of NATO, are participants in the so-called Normandy Format peace talks to end the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk, where Kremlin-backed rebels are battling government forces.

The United States this year has allocated more than $450 million in military aid to Ukraine to defend itself against possible Russian aggression, including lethal anti-tank missiles. It is also helping refit Ukraine's ports to host NATO ships.

Donfried told media during the call that the United States would increase defense aid to Ukraine if Russia launches hostilities against the country.

She said that any Russian aggression against Ukraine would be met with powerful sanctions by the West.

"We have been clear that we would respond with strong economic measures that we have not considered in the past, and that would inflict significant costs on the Russian economy and financial system," she said.

Donfried also said that the United States would increase defense aid to Ukraine in the event of Russian aggression.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and dpa

Budapest will stick to its immigration laws despite a European court ruling, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on December 21, as his nationalist FIDESZ party is bracing for what promises to be a closely fought national election due early next year.

"The government decided that we will not do anything to change the system of border protection," Orban told a news conference in Budapest. "We will maintain the existing regime, even if the European court ordered us to change it. We will not change it and will not let anyone in."

Last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Budapest broke EU law by allowing police to physically "push back" asylum seekers across the Serbian border.

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When Orban's justice minister asked Hungary's Constitutional Court to review the CJEU ruling, the court ruled that Budapest has the right to apply its own measures in areas where the European Union has yet to take adequate steps for common implementation of EU rules.

But the court also struck down the government's bid to challenge the European court's decision.

The conflict with the EU over democratic standards has prompted a freeze in EU recovery funding to Hungary, dealing a blow to Orban's hopes for reelection since the country's economy relies heavily on the funds from the bloc to boost growth.

Orban, 58, faces a united opposition as inflation hit at a 14-year-high and the budget deficit has spiked to record levels.

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Orban, whose anti-immigration stance boosted support for Fidesz after the 2015 migrant crisis, said that migration and LGBT rights -- the two main issues which have caused conflict with the bloc -- would dominate the campaign agenda.

He said he would also pursue another contested issue: a referendum on LGBT rights.

The referendum will ask whether people support sexual orientation workshops in schools without parental consent and whether they believe gender reassignment procedures should be "promoted" among children.

With reporting by Reuters

The Russian human rights group Gulagu.net has released new videos purportedly showing instances of torture in a prison hospital for tuberculosis patients in Siberia.

The group published the latest clips on YouTube on December 20, saying that they had been recorded in the tuberculosis infirmary No. 1 in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

According to the rights group, the videos are the first in the latest batch from an archive compiled by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) that a new informant managed to smuggle out of the country in recent weeks.

Neither FSB or FSIN officials immediately commented on the videos.

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'Torture Machine': Russian Rights Defender Shares Shocking Prison Videos

One of the videos shows two FSIN officers instructing two inmates on how to beat and rape a third inmate. Later, a young inmate is brought into the room, where the two inmates beat him. They push him under a bed and cover the bed with mattresses and blankets to muffle what is happening.

A video also shows an inmate falling from a window. The founder of the Gulagu.net group, Vladimir Osechkin, says the inmate died.

"It was not suicide," Osechkin says.

According to Osechkin, the published videos represent less than 1 percent of the latest batch of materials that he and his group have obtained.

Osechkin, who currently resides in France, has issued several other videos showing the beating and torture of inmates by guards, penitentiary employees, and other inmates since October.

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Exiled Russian Activist Added To Wanted List After Sharing New Prison-Abuse Videos

In November, he published videos showing instances of rape allegedly recorded in an infirmary in the city of Saratov. Osechkin has said that the men involved in raping and torturing the inmates were hired by the prison hospital as administrative managers and nurses.

Osechkin said they were supervised by the regional branches and directorates of the FSIN and FSB and identified some of them.

According to Osechkin, the footage was handed to the infirmary’s administration, which then passed them on as classified material to the FSIN and FSB. FSB and FSIN officers recruited the victims as informants after telling them that the videos would be made available to other inmates if they did not cooperate, he said.

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

In penitentiaries across Russia and most of the former Soviet republics, homosexuals and inmates who have been raped are treated as pariahs, face humiliation on a daily basis, and are forced to do dirty menial work.

In October, Osechkin said his group obtained a large batch of videos showing FSB and FSIN officers using rape and other forms of torture to force inmates to cooperate.

Osechkin's materials -- published on YouTube -- sparked a public outcry and led to investigations in the FSIN directorate and in penitentiaries in the Saratov region.

China has imposed sanctions on four members of the U.S. government's Commission on International Religious Freedom in the latest tit-for-tat measure after Washington's penalties last week against Chinese officials and companies over alleged abuses in the country’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on December 21 that commission Chairwoman Nadine Maenza, Vice Chairman Nury Turkel, and members Anurima Bhargava and James W. Carr are barred from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. In addition, any assets they have in the country will be frozen.

Locked Up In China: The Plight Of Xinjiang's Muslims

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is partnering with its sister organization, Radio Free Asia, to highlight the plight of Muslims living in China's western province of Xinjiang.

Zhao gave no indication as to whether those barred have assets in China.

Beijing's move came as Washington appointed a new special coordinator for Tibet on December 20.

China has been under growing international criticism and hit with sanctions for detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and representatives of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in camps for "political reeducation" in Xinjiang.

China insists such camps are "vocational education centers" aimed at helping people steer clear of terrorism.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on December 10 on two officials accused of involvement in the repression of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

The U.S. sanctions also included a ban on virtually all imports from the region -- a major global cotton producer -- over forced labor allegations and the blacklisting of Chinese companies such as drone maker DJI over their alleged work with authorities in Xinjiang.

The U.S. State Department on December 20 named Undersecretary of State Uzra Zeya as the special coordinator for Tibet.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Zeya, who is responsible for democracy and human rights, would lead U.S. efforts to ensure that China respects Tibet's religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

Washington has also announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in China. Several other countries have joined in the boycott, which does not affect them from sending athletes.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

MOSCOW -- Russian authorities have published new regulations on the expedited mass burial of humans and animals who die as a result of military conflicts or noncombatant emergencies, stoking already heightened tensions that the country may be preparing to invade Ukraine.

The document -- published on the Emergencies Ministry's website on December 20 -- appears as the United States, the European Union, and Ukraine have expressed alarm over Russia' buildup of tens of thousands of soldiers near Ukraine’s borders, interpreting it as a possible prelude to military action.

Russia has denied it is planning to invade Ukraine and has issued a series of demands, including direct dialogue with the United States to resolve security issues. Moscow is seeking a guarantee that Ukraine won’t one day become a member of NATO.

According to the document, expedited mass burials pertain to those "killed during military conflicts or as a result of these conflicts, or, if necessary, as a result of an emergency in peacetime." The regulations will take force as of February 1, 2022.

The regulations would not allow mass graves to be located close to water supply and sewage systems, natural sources of mineral water, and rivers and lakes with water levels up to 2 meters from the land surface.

The document also says that regional authorities will be responsible for preparing and carrying out work related to mass burials.

An ongoing military conflict between pro-Russia separatists and Kyiv's armed forces in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has displaced more than 1.5 million people and killed more than 13,200.

Some areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, commonly known as the Donbas, have been under the control of Moscow-backed separatists since April 2014.

The conflict started after Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in February-March 2014.

Despite overwhelming evidence showing Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to the separatists, Moscow maintains it is not involved in Ukraine's domestic affairs.

A Belarusian blogger has been sentenced to three years in prison on charge of "insulting" Alyaksandr Lukashenka by writing in a post that the country's authoritarian ruler was "illegitimate" amid a wave of protests against the results of a presidential election last year that opposition figures say was rigged.

A court in the western town of Shchuchyn pronounced its ruling against Vadzim Ermashuk, also known in his posts on social media as Vadimati, on December 21.

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The 36-year-old blogger, who was also charged with desecrating the flag for a post in which he called it a "rag," rejected the charges and refused to testify in the courtroom or answer questions from the judge.

Emashuk was initially detained in August of this year and sentenced to several days in jail on hooliganism charges for protesting. He was not released after serving his sentence as prosecutors brought new charges against him for his posts.

Ermashuk is one of dozens in Belarus who have faced trials in recent months as authorities brutally suppress dissent in any form since the disputed presidential election in August 2020.

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Russian Man Faces 12 Years In Prison In Belarus Over Anti-Lukashenka Activities

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's 26-year rule. Thousands have been detained during countrywide protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.

A Russian submarine has successfully launched a Kalibr cruise missile from the Sea of Japan at a land target more than 1,000 kilometers away, Russian news agencies reported on December 21.

The diesel-electric submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky hit a target located at a Russian training ground onshore, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russia's Pacific Fleet said the exercise also included covert movement and support from navy vessels, aircraft, and drones.

Japan continues to assert territorial rights to the Kurile Islands in the nearby Sea of Okhotsk. Japan calls the islands the Northern Territories. Soviet troops seized them from Japan at the end of World War II.

The dispute has kept Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty formally ending the war.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has told his Russian counterpart that Washington is ready to engage in diplomacy over Russia's buildup of troops near Ukraine, but that any dialogue must take place in coordination with its allies and partners in Europe.

Sullivan told Yury Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, that the United Stats is ready to hold talks through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the NATO-Russia Council, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the White House said on December 20.

The statement is consistent with “ongoing outreach and engagement with the Russians,” as well as the Ukrainians and European partners, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Sullivan spoke by phone with Ushakov amid ongoing tensions in Europe over the buildup of as many as 100,000 Russian troops near the border with Ukraine.

Russia denies that it is a prelude to an invasion of Ukraine and says it is Ukraine's growing relationship with NATO that has caused the tensions.

Sullivan "made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia’s actions, and take place in full coordination with our European allies and partners,” Psaki said.

Moscow, whose troop buildup has alarmed NATO and Ukraine, last week unveiled a wish list of security proposals it wants to negotiate, including a promise to end NATO’s eastward expansion and limitations on the alliance’s military activity in Eastern Europe, including cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia.

Psaki reiterated the U.S. position that sovereign nations have the right to choose their alliances and NATO's relationship with Ukraine “is a matter only for Ukraine and 30 NATO allies to determine.”

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How Long Could Ukraine Hold Out Against A New Russian Invasion?

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Ushakov told Sullivan that Moscow was ready to begin talks on draft documents on security guarantees and that Russia would be represented at these talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Ryabkov said that Moscow had so far received no response from the United States.

"I think they'll try to turn this into a slow-moving process, but we need it to be urgent, because the situation is very difficult, it is acute, it tends to become more complicated," he was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

With reporting by Reuters, RIA Novosti, and TASS

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel this week for discussions likely to be dominated by a perceived threat from Iran amid U.S. concerns that the time Tehran would need to develop a nuclear weapon has become “unacceptably short.”

Sullivan will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to "reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and consult on a range of issues of strategic importance to the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship, including the threat posed by Iran," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement on December 20.

He and other officials will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to discuss strengthening U.S. relations with the Palestinians, Horne said. Her statement did not provide the dates of Sullivan's meetings.

The trip comes as negotiators report that talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are moving at a slow pace.

A Biden administration official, who spoke earlier to reporters on condition of anonymity, said U.S. and Israeli officials will talk about the status of negotiations and the future of Iran's nuclear program.

"It will be a good opportunity to sit down face-to-face and talk about the state of the talks, the time frame in which we are working, and to reemphasize that we don't have much time," the official said.

The United States believes the amount of time required for Iran to develop nuclear weapons has become “unacceptably short," an unidentified Biden administration source said last week.

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The official did not offer an estimate of Iran's so-called "breakout time" -- the time it would take Iran to develop a nuclear weapon if it renounced all international agreements restricting its nuclear program -- but it has previously been estimated at several months.

Iran has denied that its nuclear program is for developing weapons.

The latest round of talks aimed at salvaging the nuclear deal adjourned on December 17. They are to resume next week.

Sullivan said last week that the talks were "not going well,” adding that the United States had conveyed to Iran its "alarm" over the purported progress of its nuclear program.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on December 20 that because of the way the Iranians “approached and participated in the last round of talks,” Biden had asked the national-security team “to be prepared in the event that diplomacy fails” and to look at other options.

“That has been ongoing, including in consultation with a range of partners around the world,” she said, declining to elaborate on what the other options might be.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

Dutch prosecutors said on December 20 that the 298 victims of the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine "didn't stand a chance" once a rocket hit the aircraft, as they began their closing arguments in the closely watched trial.

MH17 was shot down on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine, killing all passengers and crew.

The four suspects -- Russians Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Igor Girkin, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko -- are being tried in absentia for involvement in the tragedy. Only one of the suspects, Pulatov, is represented by lawyers at the trial.

All four are accused of being key figures among Russia-backed separatists battling Ukrainian government forces in a conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

A team of international investigators concluded in May 2018 that the missile launcher used to shoot down the aircraft belonged to Russia's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.

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In their closing arguments, prosecutors said evidence such as photos, intercepted telephone conversations, videos, and witness statements shows that the accused procured the Buk missile and fired it on July 17, 2014.

However, they added, they probably intended to hit a Ukrainian military jet.

Recalling the incident, Prosecutor Berger Thijs looked back at the moment when Ukrainian air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17.

Berger said the passengers "did not stand a chance" as the cockpit was detonated by the blast.

"At that moment, a warhead from a Buk missile detonated to the left of the cockpit, shrapnel and missile parts pierced the left of the cockpit and the accompanying blast does the rest," he said, adding: "The passengers of flight MH17 didn't stand a chance."

A sentencing demand was expected on December 22 at the end of the 20-month trial, which is being held in the Netherlands because the plane departed from there and 196 of the victims were Dutch.

A verdict is likely to be handed down late next year.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa

U.S. authorities have unveiled the formal charges against Kremlin-linked Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin, who was extradited from Switzerland to the United States last week over his alleged involvement in a global scheme to trade on hacked confidential information.

The Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts said in a statement on December 20 that four other Russian nationals who remain at large were also charged as part of the scheme, which it said netted tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.

Klyushin, 41, was arrested in Switzerland on a U.S. warrant in March and was extradited to the United States on December 18.

He was charged with “conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and with obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and securities fraud," the U.S. statement said.

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Klyushin is set to appear in federal court in Boston later on December 20.

In an e-mail sent to RFE/RL, his Swiss lawyer, Oliver Ciric, described the case as politically motivated and argued that the real reason he was sought was "the nature of his work for and contacts within the Russian government."

"The U.S. intelligence had attempted to recruit Mr Klyushin in the past and only after he refused such cooperation had he been indicted and arrested," he added.

There were no immediate comments from U.S. officials about Ciric's allegations.

The Russian Embassy in Bern has called the Swiss decision to extradite him “another episode in Washington's ongoing hunt for Russian citizens in third countries.

Klyushin owns M13, a Russian company that offers media monitoring and cybersecurity services. According to Russian opposition media, he is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Aleksei Gromov.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said two of Klyushin’s co-defendants -- 35-year-old Ivan Ermakov and Nikolai Rumiantcev, 33 -- have been charged with “conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud and with obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and securities fraud.”

In 2018, U.S. courts charged Ermakov, a former officer in Russia’s GRU military intelligence, for his alleged role in hacking and disinformation operations related to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, and for similar activity targeting international anti-doping agencies, sporting federations, and anti-doping officials, it said.

The two other suspects, Mikhail Vladimirovich Irzak 43, and Igor Sergeevich Sladkov, 42, have been charged with “conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and with securities fraud.”

“The integrity of our nation’s capital markets and of its computer networks are priorities for my office,” Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel Mendell said.

“Today’s charges show that we, the FBI, and our other law enforcement partners will relentlessly pursue those who hack, steal and attempt to profit from inside information, wherever they may hide.”

KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities have placed Petro Poroshenko under formal investigation for high treason, accusing the former president of links to financing Russia-backed separatists fighting government forces in the country’s east.

The State Investigation Bureau said on December 20 that it suspected Poroshenko of "committing treason" and supporting the activity of "terrorist organizations," referring to the separatists controlling parts of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

During his presidency, Poroshenko helped the separatists to sell some 1.5 billion hryvnia ($54 million) worth of coal to Kyiv in 2014-15, it said in a statement.

The 56-year-old politician, who is now a lawmaker, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The ex-president gave no immediate comment on the announcement, but Oleksander Turchynov, a senior member of his European Solidarity party, said the accusation was “fabricated” on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko's party said he had left the country for a planned trip.

The accusations against Poroshenko are related to similar charges against pro-Russia lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been under house arrest since May. Medvedchuk's political party, the second largest in parliament, denies wrongdoing.

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Zelenskiy succeeded Poroshenko as president after defeating him in a 2019 election.

The war in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 13,200 lives since April 2014. Kyiv banned trade with the breakaway regions in 2017.

Ukraine faced an acute shortage of resources after the separatists seized territory on which the country's main coal mines were located.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

ORAL, Kazakhstan -- Police in the Kazakh city of Oral have launched an extortion investigation into an activist after she was hospitalized in grave condition following a suicide attempt amid what she called a pressure campaign imposed on her by police for her activism on municipal housing.

Neighbors of Nadezhda Solodovnikova told RFE/RL that she was taken to hospital on December 19 after she drank extremely concentrated vinegar.

The Western Kazakhstan regional health directorate confirmed that Solodovnikova was being treated for "an extreme poisoning" in an intensive care unit of a hospital in Oral.

Oral city police officials told RFE/RL on December 20 that a probe had begun into Solodovnikova's actions, which may be deemed as an attempt to use suicide "as an act of extortion."

A day before the hospitalization, Solodovnikova issued a video statement saying that local authorities and law enforcement were pressuring her over her active participation in rallies and other actions demanding Oral city administrators officially recognize dozens of families as owners of apartments where they were "temporarily" moved 10 years ago after inspections had officially condemned their previous dwellings.

Police in Oral have detained Solodovnikova several times in the past over the rallies and pickets.

Poland and Lithuania have joined Ukraine in calling for stronger sanctions against Russia, with Polish President Andrzej Duda saying that “everything must be done” to prevent potential Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

In a joint statement issued after their December 20 meeting in the western Ukrainian village of Huta, the Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Polish presidents “called upon the international community to step up sanctions on the Russian Federation over its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again urged the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories.”

The trilateral summit, which was part of the Lublin Triangle regional forum, comes as Kyiv and its Western backers accuse Russia of massing about 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine as a possible prelude to an invasion as early as next month.

The European Union has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its March 2014 seizure and illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, as well as for Moscow’s backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine in an ongoing conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

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Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was “absolutely against any policy of concessions to Russia.”

It is “absolutely undesirable to yield to such an ultimatum, to such blackmail," he added.

“Our common task is to deter the threat posed by Russia and defend Europe from Russia's aggressive policies,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, said that any attempts by Russia to draw “red lines” are “unacceptable in Europe in the 21st century.”

The bloc has urged Russia to de-escalate the current situation and engage in renewed diplomacy instead of conflict, threatening strong new sanctions in coordination with Britain and the United States if there were any attack.

Russia denies it has plans to launch an offensive and has issued a series of demands about Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO and the alliance's activities near its western border.

Ukraine and another former Soviet republic bordering Russia, Georgia, are seeking to join the Western military alliance -- which Moscow vehemently opposes.

U.S. and European officials have called some of the Russian proposals unacceptable and said Russia cannot "dictate" terms to NATO.

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Moscow “must step back from the actions that it has taken in recent years,” the Polish president said, noting that Russia “de facto occupies” parts of Ukrainian and Georgian territory.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 and Russian troops have since remained in the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"In 2008, there was an attack on Georgia. Six years passed. In 2014, there was an attack on Ukraine. A few more than six years have passed, and here we have the current situation. Seven years have already passed since 2014. Russia has once again gathered strength. Russia is once again flexing its muscles," Duda said.

With reporting by AP

Belarus claims a group of people has damaged the facade of its embassy in London and physically assaulted some of its diplomats, "seriously" injuring one of them.

London's Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to a reported disturbance outside the diplomatic mission on the evening of December 19, where “a member of staff reported he had been assaulted and was left with a facial injury.”

One man was detained nearby, it said on December 20, adding that the investigation is continuing.

Posts on social media show there was a small demonstration outside the Belarusian diplomatic mission on the day the incident took place.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the injured diplomat required "urgent medical assistance” and was diagnosed with a broken nose, a light concussion, and a broken tooth following the "attack."

The ministry said the alleged attackers were thought to belong to “the radical emigre group Nadzeya."

A Facebook group with the same name as the radical group Nadzeya said it had “nothing to do with yesterday's disgusting incident.”

The group appears to support the Belarusian political opposition amid an ongoing violent crackdown on dissent following last year’s disputed presidential election that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term. Opposition politicians and activists say the vote was rigged.

The West has refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus, and imposed several rounds of sanctions on his regime.

Western countries also accuse Belarus of having engineered a migrant influx at its border with EU members Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland by letting thousands of people in and encouraging them to cross into the bloc.

Belarus’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.K. charge d'affaires in Minsk and lodged a “strong protest.”

It demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and said the perpetrators of the alleged attack must be brought to justice.

Russia says it is expelling two German diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat move following Germany's expulsion of two Russian diplomats after a court in Berlin convicted a Russian man last week of fatally shooting a former Chechen militant in Berlin on the Kremlin's orders in 2019. Berlin had expelled two Russian diplomats in response.

"The German Ambassador was informed about the declaration of two diplomatic employees from the German Embassy in Russia as 'personae non gratae' as a symmetrical response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 20.

It gave no date for when the German diplomats needed to leave Russia.

The Russian move “does not come as a surprise, but, in the view of the federal government, it is completely unjustified," the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Today's decision by Russia's Foreign Ministry puts renewed strain on the relationship," the ministry added.

On December 15, the second criminal division of the Higher Regional Court in Berlin sentenced a Russian national named as Vadim Krasikov, aka Vadim Sokolov, to life in prison over the murder of Tornike Kavtarashvili, aka Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in a Berlin park in August 2019.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Olaf Arnoldi ruled that the murder was an act of "retaliation" against the 40-year-old victim, an ethnic Chechen of Georgian nationality, for being a Kremlin opponent.

Prosecutors had alleged that the gunman was an officer in Russia's FSB secret service.

Hours after the verdict, Germany declared two Russian diplomats personae non gratae, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock saying that Russian involvement in the murder was a "serious violation of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany."

The Russian Foreign Ministry at the time denounced the "unfriendly" action by Berlin, and said Moscow would respond with "retaliatory measures."