French tourist Benjamin Briere, who has been in an Iranian prison since spring last year on spying charges, has begun a hunger strike, his lawyer and sister have said.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesperson said December 27 that French authorities maintain close contact with Briere, visiting him on December 21 and contacting him again on December 27.

The ministry has called the charges against the 36-year-old Frenchman, who is being held in the Valikabad prison in the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, "incomprehensible."

Briere was charged with spying and propaganda against Iran after being arrested in May 2020 when he flew a remote-controlled mini-helicopter in the desert near the Turkmenistan-Iran border. A spying conviction is punishable by death in Iran.

His family says he is an innocent tourist who set out in 2018 on a road trip in his camper van that began in Scandinavia before heading overland towards Iran.

"The feeling of abandonment -- and distress -- has led Benjamin Briere to embark on a hunger strike in order to alert Iranian and French authorities to the absurdity of his detention," his sister Blandine Briere and lawyer Philippe Valent said in an e-mailed statement.

Separately, Iranian human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan called for his release on Twitter.

"What is the Mashhad Revolutionary Court waiting for to hear the case against him, who has now been in custody for 570 days ?" Dehghan wrote.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

An investigative reporter for the BBC's Russian-language service in Moscow says he has left Russia for London after noticing that he had been placed under "rather unprecedented surveillance" by the authorities.

Andrei Zakharov made the announcement in a video released on December 27.

Zakharov had been designated a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities in October, a decision the BBC at the time strongly rejected and said it would take measures to overturn.

"It is not yet clear what the surveillance was connected with: my being designated as a 'foreign agent' or maybe my reporting on hackers from the Evil Corp group, which I did together with my British colleagues," Zakharov said.

In December 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 17 individuals and seven legal entities associated with Evil Corp, which it described as "a Russia-based cybercriminal organization" that it said worked for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and conducted cybercrime "on an almost unimaginable scale."

Russia's "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been repeatedly criticized within Russia and abroad as being an unjustified assault on independent media and civil society.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and are deemed by the government to engage in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

At the end of last year, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to place on its “foreign agents” media list and impose restrictions on them. The legislation provides for those put on the list e registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

A number of journalists, including several RFE/RL reporters, have since been added to the list.

In August, another BBC journalist, Sarah Rainsford, left Russia after Moscow refused to extend her permission to work.

Zakharov has investigated topics ranging from President Vladimir Putin's personal history to Russian disinformation factories.

With reporting by Reuters

Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka has published draft constitutional amendments that would allow him to further strengthen his authoritarian rule and remain in office until 2035.

Lukashenka, 67, has said the changes, outlined by the state-run BelTA news agency and published on the presidential website on December 27, will be put to a referendum sometime in February 2022.

Lukashenka proposed amending the constitution following a domestic and international backlash over the violent crackdown following the disputed August 2020 presidential election that he claims gave him a sixth consecutive term, but which the opposition and the West say was rigged.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

The proposed changes would give Lukashenka immunity from prosecution and put in place a limit of two terms in office, each for five years. However, the restrictions would only apply going forward, meaning Lukashenka could rule until he is 81 years old.

The amendments would also weaken the current rubber-stamp parliament and strengthen the role of the All-Belarus People's Assembly, a periodic gathering of loyalists that currently has no governing status under the laws.

The assembly would act as a parallel structure next to parliament, holding wide-ranging powers to approve foreign, security, and economic policy. It would also be able to propose changes to the constitution, draft laws, and select members of the country's Central Election Commission and judges of the top courts.

According to the proposed amendments, a sitting president automatically becomes a delegate of the 1,200-seat assembly and may chair it, if elected by other delegates.

Tadeusz Giczan, a nonresident fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said Lukashenka would "most likely" become chairman of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly at some point.

For Lukashenka, the amendments present "a hybrid -- both the opportunity to get reelected as president until 2035, and the opportunity to remain in power as a possible leader of the All-Belarus Assembly," Belarusian political analyst Valer Karbalevich told the Associated Press.

The amendments would also prohibit anyone who temporarily left the country in the last 20 years from becoming president, a change that appears to be aimed directly at opposition members, many of whom were forced into exile to avoid political persecution.

Lukashenka's opponents have called the attempt to rewrite the constitution a sham exercise to help him cling to power amid Western sanctions and international isolation for Minsk's crackdown on dissent following last year's presidential election.

"The regime's draft constitution doesn't give Belarusians a real choice. It will let the dictator secure power, control the situation through the artificial All-Belarusian People's Assembly, and avoid prosecution. A new presidential election is the only solution to the crisis," opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has said she is the rightful winner of last year's election, said on Twitter.

The U.S. State Department called on Lukashenka to hold a "national dialogue" with the opposition and civil society to reach a political solution, call new elections, and arrange the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Nearly Three-Decade Rule

Lukashenka, a former state farm director, has run Belarus with an iron hand since winning independent Belarus's first presidential election in 1994, three years after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

The country has never held free and fair elections under his rule, according to international observers.

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Belarusians have grown frustrated with Lukashenka's rule over the decades. The economy remains largely unreformed and heavily dependent on cheap energy from Russia, while salaries and living conditions remain low compared with countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets for months following the 2020 presidential election to peacefully protest Lukashenka's claim of victory. They were the largest anti-government demonstrations in Belarus since the early 1990s.

The authoritarian ruler responded with a brutal suppression of his own people as police used force to detain thousands. There also have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces and several people have died during the crackdown.

There are more than 900 political prisoners in the country, according to the Vyasna human rights group.

The European Union, the United States, and several countries have since refused to recognize Lukashenka as the country's legitimate leader and imposed several rounds of sanctions on the country in response to the violent crackdown.

MINSK -- The Minsk City Court has sentenced a Russian citizen to 11 years in prison for his alleged actions against the rule of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The court handed down the verdict and sentence on December 27 against 21-year-old Yegor Dudnikov, who says police severely beat him after his arrest, for allegedly inciting hatred and calling for actions to hurt Belarus.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

The charges stem from Dudnikov allegedly taking part in preparing online materials in connection with unprecedented mass rallies in Belarus protesting official results of the August 2020 presidential election that handed Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term in office.

Investigators say that from January until May, Dudnikov placed at least 55 posts about the protests on the Telegram channel administered by the so-called Groups of Civic Self-Defense of Belarus (OGSB), an organization labeled as extremist and banned in Belarus in the aftermath of the protests.

Dudnikov is one of dozens in Belarus who have faced trial in recent months after authorities brutally suppressed dissent in any form following last year's presidential election.

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.

The Prosecutor-General's Office of Bosnia-Herzegovina says it has filed an indictment against Novica Tripkovic for crimes against humanity in the eastern town of Foca during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.

"The accused is charged with committing the war crimes of raping two Bosniak victims captured and illegally detained in the Foca area as part of a widespread and systematic attack by military, paramilitary, and police forces of the Republika Srpska Army against the Bosniak civilian population in the Foca municipality," the Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement on December 27.

The indictment has been forwarded to the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina for confirmation, it added.

The announcement comes amid a series of arrests for war crimes by the Investigation and Protection Agency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SIPA).

Bosnia's declaration of independence in 1992 helped spark the 1992-95 conflict that left almost 100,000 people dead and displaced more than 2 million.

As part of a campaign of intimidation and ethnic cleansing during the war, thousands of women and girls were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence by military and paramilitary groups.

Foca was a focal point for the mass persecution and killing of Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces, who were seeking to establish an exclusively ethnic Serb region. These forces set up detention camps in which women and young girls were raped and enslaved.

A Russian court has increased the sentence of historian Yury Dmitriyev, the local head of the human rights group Memorial in the northwestern region of Karelia, to 15 years in prison for allegedly taking pornographic images of his foster daughter, a charge he has staunchly denied.

The city court in Petrozavodsk on December 27 handed down the verdict after a review of the case against Dmitriyev, who in September 2020 was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Prosecutors had been seeking an increase in the sentence to 15 years.

Dmitriyev’s lawyers have said that all of his appeals have been exhausted.

SEE ALSO:

In Rare Interview, Gulag Historian Speaks From Jail About His Case And The Fate Of Memorial

The trial comes as the Russian government is seeking to shut down International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow, both of which have long been designated “foreign agent” NGOs. Their fate could be sealed by the Supreme Court and Moscow’s top court in the coming weeks.

Dmitriyev is best known for his research into the victims of political repression in Karelia under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. He was instrumental in the investigation and memorialization of the Sandarmokh mass graves, where the bodies of at least 6,000 victims were buried.

As his case has gone back and forth between courts, Dmitriyev, who turns 66 next month, has spent almost all of the last five years in pretrial detention at a jail in Petrozavodsk, the regional capital.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says talks between Washington and Moscow to discuss security issues will take place after Russia's holiday season is over and that Russia wants military officials involved in its negotiations with NATO.

Speaking on the high-profile, pro-Kremlin talk show Solovyov Live on December 27, Lavrov said, "We will be holding a major round of [security] talks with the United States that will take place immediately after the end of the New Year holidays."

Russia celebrates Orthodox Christmas on January 7, meaning the first subsequent working day would fall on January 10.

Lavrov's comments come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington over a massive Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border and demands by the Kremlin that there be no further NATO expansion, among other "guarantees" of Russian security.

During his annual news conference last week, President Vladimir Putin urged the West to meet the demands "immediately," listing a litany of grievances about Ukraine and NATO.

Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian state TV on December 26 that he would ponder various options if the West failed to meet Moscow's demands. Russia's response "could be diverse," he said. "It will depend on what proposals our military experts submit to me."

In his December 27 comments, Lavrov said that Russia wanted to include military officials in any talks with NATO and criticized the Western security alliance, repeating Moscow's position that it could not remain indifferent to perceived NATO aggression on Russia's "doorstep."

SEE ALSO:

Tough Talk And Tough Talks: At Annual News Conference, Putin Sends Signals On Ukraine And NATO

"NATO is now a purely geopolitical project to develop territory that became ownerless after the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact and after the collapse of the Soviet Union," he said. "This is what they are doing."

The Warsaw Pact disintegrated after the Soviet-led Eastern bloc shed decades of dominance by Moscow in 1989 and most Soviet republics secured independence when the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991. All former Warsaw Pact countries, with the exception of the defunct Soviet Union, have since joined NATO of their own free will, as have the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which declared independence from the U.S.S.R. already in early 1990, when the Soviet state still existed.

Lavrov's comments came a day after the Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledged that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had proposed holding a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on January 12. The Kremlin has not yet said whether it will take part.

"We are considering it," a spokesman for the Kremlin was quoted on December 26 as saying, according to TASS.

Apparently timed for release at the same time with Lavrov's comments, a statement by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin warned Western diplomats and military attaches in Moscow of the dangers posed by an armed conflict between Russia and NATO.

The Defense Ministry distributed footage showing Fomin criticizing NATO to assembled international military representatives including those from some 14 NATO member states.

"Recently the alliance has resorted to direct provocations that pose a high risk of escalating into an armed confrontation," Fomin told them on December 27.

"The alliance has been ignoring Russia’s interests and avoiding an equal discussion of the existing problems," he said.

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The NATO-Russia Council was set up in 2002 but is currently inactive because of the conflict in Ukraine's east between Kremlin-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

If the meeting takes place on January 12, as Stoltenberg proposed, it would be the first meeting of the council in 2 1/2 years and would take place on the first day of a two-day meeting of the military chiefs of NATO's 30 member states in Brussels.

The January 12 meeting is the first proposed by Stoltenberg since Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO's eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among other things.

SEE ALSO:

Putin To Mull Options If West Doesn't Meet 'Security Guarantees'

U.S. officials have said that some of the demands are either unworkable, impossible, or fundamentally contrary to Western values, but the United States also has said it is ready to engage in talks regarding the demands. This includes bilaterally, through NATO, and through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The talks have been proposed against the backdrop of a buildup of Russian military troops near Ukraine's borders in a possible prelude to an invasion. The United States and European Union have threatened Moscow with harsh consequences in the event of a military escalation.

Russia has denied any intention of launching an invasion.

Russia's Defense Ministry announced on December 25 that more than 10,000 troops had finished monthlong drills near Ukraine and that the soldiers involved were returning to their permanent bases.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and Current Time

Talks aimed at reviving a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers have restarted in Vienna, with Tehran saying that negotiations should focus on lifting sanctions on the Islamic republic and "guarantees" that Washington will return to the fold.

"The 8th round of the Vienna Talks just started," Alain Matton, spokesman for the European Union, which is chairing the discussions, wrote on Twitter.

The seventh round of talks, the first under new hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, ended on December 17 after Tehran added some new demands to a working text.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said ahead of the resumption that on the agenda should be "the issue of guarantees and verification" on the lifting of U.S. sanctions if Washington returns to the accord.

"The most important issue for us is to reach a point where, firstly, Iranian oil can be sold easily and without hindrance," Iranian media quoted Amir-Abdollahian as saying in Tehran on December 27 ahead of the resumption of negotiations in Vienna. "The money from the oil [sales] is to be deposited as foreign currency in Iranian banks, so we can enjoy all the economic benefits stipulated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action."

The JCPOA limited Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, but sanctions were reimposed after then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018. Tehran, which claims the country's nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, reacted by gradually ramping up the program and enriching uranium well beyond the thresholds allowed in the agreement.

SEE ALSO:

Iranians Express Skepticism, Frustration Over Nuclear Talks

Diplomats from the parties still in the deal -- China, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia -- are taking part in direct talks with Iran. The United States has participated indirectly.

Iran refuses to meet directly with U.S. officials, with the other participants shuttling between the two sides. Washington has repeatedly voiced frustration at this format, saying it slows down the process, and Western officials still suspect Iran is simply playing for time.

Diplomats from the three European countries involved said after the talks adjourned 10 days ago that negotiators were "rapidly reaching the end of the road." They have expressed frustration with Tehran's new demands in recent weeks but pointed to "some technical progress" so far.

An EU statement said participants would "continue the discussions on the prospect of a possible return of the United States to the [deal] and how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the agreement by all sides."

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that current diplomatic efforts aimed at reviving the deal may be exhausted within "weeks," while the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, warned of a "period of escalating crisis" if diplomacy failed to restore the agreement.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A Saudi-led coalition fighting Huthi rebels in Yemen has accused Iran and Lebanon's Tehran-backed Shi'ite militant movement Hizballah of helping the insurgents to launch missiles and drones at the kingdom.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters on December 26 that the Iran-aligned Huthis had been “militarizing” Sanaa airport and using it as a base to target Saudi Arabia, an allegation the Huthis deny.

Malki showed reporters a video clip which he said depicted "the headquarters of Iranian and Hizballah experts at the airport,” where the Islamic militant group allegedly "trains the Huthis to booby-trap and use drones.”

The footage and Malki’s claims could not be independently verified.

He said that the rebels had fired 430 ballistic missiles and 851 armed drones at Saudi Arabia since 2015, killing 59 Saudi civilians.

The most recent casualties were reported on December 24, when the coalition claimed that a Huthi missile hit the Saudi city of Jazan, killing two people.

Saudi officials have regularly accused Iran of supplying the Huthis with weapons and Hizballah of training the insurgents.

Tehran denies the accusations. Hizballah has previously denied sending fighters or weapons to Yemen to support the Huthis.

Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Huthis have been locked in war since 2014, when the insurgents seized Sanaa.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, supporting forces of the ousted government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fighting the Huthis.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Iran’s judiciary has granted Christian prisoners 10 days' leave to spend the holidays at home with their families, in a rare move toward members of the Islamic republic’s Christian minority.

"The decision is to mark the New Year 2022 and the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said on December 26.

The website said that the head of the judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi instructed authorities across the country to issue the dispensation. But it wasn’t clear when the 10-day period starts, or how many Christian prisoners will benefit from the furlough.

According to Mizan Online, the measure doesn’t apply to inmates convicted for undermining security, organized crime, abductions, armed robberies, and those sentenced to death.

Most Christians in Iran are ethnic Armenians who celebrate Christmas on January 6.

Around that time of year, some shops in major cities put up decorations, including Christmas trees while people dressed up as Santa Claus stand outside stores.

Christians represent less than one percent of Iran's total population of 83 million, the majority of whom are Shi’ite Muslims.

Based on reporting by AFP and tasnimnews.com

President Vladimir Putin has said he would ponder various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands for security guarantees, amid heightened tensions involving a massive deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine.

Moscow earlier this month submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among other things.

Speaking at his annual news conference last week, Putin urged the West to meet the demands “immediately,” listing off a litany of grievances about Ukraine and NATO.

SEE ALSO:

Tough Talk And Tough Talks: At Annual News Conference, Putin Sends Signals On Ukraine And NATO

He warned that Moscow would have to take adequate measures if the West continues its “aggressive” course “on the threshold of our home.”

Asked to specify what Moscow's response could be, he said in comments aired by Russian state TV on December 26 that “it could be diverse,” adding: “It will depend on what proposals our military experts submit to me.”

He did not elaborate.

U.S. officials have said publicly that they were willing to hold talks on the Russian demands. Privately, however, officials in Washington and elsewhere have said some of the demands are either unworkable, impossible, or fundamentally contrary to Western values.

The United States and its allies have agreed, however, to launch security talks with Moscow next month to discuss its concerns.

On December 25, a NATO official was quoted as saying Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had decided to convene a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on January 12 and that the alliance was in contact with Russia on the matter.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the proposal was still under consideration, with the format and timing needing clarification.

It would be the first meeting of the council in 2 1/2 years.

Kyiv and its Western backers accuse Russia of having massed around 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders in a possible prelude to an invasion. The United States and the European Union have threatened Moscow with harsh consequences in the event of a military escalation.

Russia has denied intending to launch an invasion.

Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and shortly after threw its support behind separatists battling Ukrainian government forces in the country’s east in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,200 lives since April 2014.

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on December 25 that more than 10,000 troops had finished monthlong drills near Ukraine, and that the soldiers involved were returning to their permanent bases.

The ministry said in a statement that the exercises for Southern Military District forces had taken place in a host of southern Russian regions such as Rostov and Krasnodar, and further afield, including in Stavropol, Astrakhan, and the North Caucasus.

Combat training sessions were also held in Russia’s ally Armenia, occupied Crimea, and the Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it said.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Current Time

A lawyer at the North Caucasus branch of the Russian human rights organization Committee Against Torture says 21 of his relatives have been “abducted” in Chechnya.

Over the past few days, a total of six opposition activists, who have been critical of the Chechen authorities, and human rights defenders have reported the detention or disappearance of dozens of relatives.

Abubakar Yangulbayev of the Committee Against Torture told Caucasus.Realities of RFE/RL's Russian Service on December 25 that unidentified men wearing black uniforms took his relatives to police stations, and seized their mobile phones, passports, as well as other documents.

The raids took place on December 23-25 in the village of Goity and the regional capital, Grozny, he said.

"They have not been charged with any official indictments. According to my information, 21 people have been abducted. At the moment in Chechnya there is a mass abduction of relatives of opposition bloggers, human rights activists, in general people dissatisfied” with Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, Yangulbayev said.

The lawyer said that he and his brother are accused of moderating and administrating the opposition 1ADAT Telegram channel, which he denied.

Since December 22, it has been reported that relatives of opposition bloggers Tumso Abdurakhmanov, Khasan Khalitov, Minkail Malizayev, human rights defenders Mansur Sadulaev and Aslan Artsuev have disappeared or been detained.

Federal authorities have not commented on the situation.

Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya since 2007 with a cult of personality around him, is frequently accused by Russian and international human rights groups of overseeing grave human rights abuses including abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and targeting the LGBT community.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Russian authorities have “redoubled their efforts” over the past year to repress online freedoms, citing the blocking of tools used to circumvent censorship, expanding “oppressive” Internet laws, and pressure on tech companies to comply with “increasingly stifling regulations.”

“This past year’s dramatic crackdown on Internet freedoms is the culmination of many years’ efforts by the authorities to restrict the rights and freedoms of Russians online,” Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at HRW, said in a statement on December 24.

The government “is using its growing technological capacity to engage in nontransparent, unlawful, and extrajudicial restriction of digital rights in Russia,” she said.

The New York-based human rights watchdog cited the blocking earlier this month of Tor, an encrypted browser commonly used to circumvent local Internet censorship or to browse the Internet anonymously.

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Russia Blocks Privacy Service Tor In Latest Move To Control Internet

Since June, Russia has also blocked at least eight virtual private network (VPN) service providers for allegedly violating a 2017 law that prohibits proxy services from facilitating access to websites banned in Russia, it said.

HRW said such efforts have been facilitated by Russia’s deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, which allows the authorities to “directly filter, reroute, and block” Internet traffic.

The “sovereign Internet” law adopted in 2019 requires all Internet service providers to install DPI technology in their networks.

In March, authorities used DPI technology to slow down access to Twitter for its failure to take down content the government deemed unlawful, HRW said, noting that the measure came weeks after social media companies were given large fines for failing to take down posts calling for participation in peaceful mass protests in support of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

According to HRW, the authorities repeatedly threaten to block access to the websites of foreign and Russian tech firms over alleged noncompliance with the country’s Internet legislation.

In September, digital rights groups reported the temporary blocking of access to the Google Docs service by Russian Internet service providers, in what they said illustrated the extrajudicial and nontransparent nature of DPI technology.

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Watchdogs Say Google Docs Temporarily Blocked In Russia After Navalny Releases Smart Voting List

It coincided with the publication by Navalny associates of a list of candidates voters should cast ballots for to topple ruling party incumbents in parliamentary elections.

Navalny’s voting app also disappeared from the Apple and Google online stores in what Navalny associates slammed as censorship and the tech giants bowing to Kremlin pressure.

SEE ALSO:

Telegram Messenger Blocks Navalny's Bot During Vote

Over the past year, major social media platforms and other tech companies have also been fined for allegedly violating Russian Internet legislation.

Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Google, TikTok, and other Internet companies received fines totaling at least $2.5 million over failures to take down supposedly illegal content or store the personal data of Russian users in the country.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Court Fines Twitter, Google, TikTok For Refusing To Delete Content

According to HRW, the Russian government has also attempted to use its domestic legislation to “dictate content moderation practices to Internet companies, even in relation to their business operations in other countries.”

Earlier this month, Roskomnadzor threatened to block YouTube for taking down the German-language channel of Russia's state-owned media company RT, citing a Russian law adopted a year ago and said to be aimed at safeguarding Russians’ right of access to information.

This law allows the authorities to block websites over censored Russian state media content.

HRW said other recent Russian laws raise concerns, including legislation requiring websites designated by the authorities to monitor the number of users and their preferences, and a law allowing for the extrajudicial blocking of alleged defamatory information.

“Russian authorities claim that they’re working to safeguard the interests of Russian Internet users,” Kruope said.

“Instead, relying on their growing arsenal of internet censorship, they are rapidly turning the Internet in Russia into a zone of repression,” she added.

Pope Francis on December 25 called for dialogue amid a "tendency to withdraw" during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 5.3 million people worldwide in just over two years and is now in one of its worst phases as the omicron variant rages around the world.

"On the international level too, there is the risk of avoiding dialogue...Yet only those paths can lead to the resolution of conflicts and to lasting benefits for all," he said during his "Urbi et Orbi" blessing and message to the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square.

The pope cautioned against fresh violence in the long-simmering conflict in Ukraine amid rising tensions between Russia and Western countries, which accuse Moscow of having massed around 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders in a possible prelude to an invasion.

"In Ukraine, prevent fresh outbreaks of a long-festering conflict," the pope said in his Christmas Day message to the faithful gathered at St Peter's Square at the Vatican.

Pope Francis also said that "immense tragedies" in conflict-torn Syria, Yemen, and Iraq were "being passed over in silence.”

The Pope will celebrate Christmas Mass at 7:30 p.m. local time, the same time as last year when a 10 p.m. curfew was in effect. The Vatican will check temperatures of worshipers as they enter St. Peter's Basilica and require everyone to wear a mask and observe social distancing.

Last year the pope called for coronavirus vaccines to be made available to the world’s neediest people. He said then it was a time of “darkness and uncertainty regarding the pandemic,” which by then had killed 1.7 million people worldwide.

Pope Francis on December 24 called for more solidarity with those living in poverty as he celebrated Christmas Eve Mass in front of a masked congregation of around 2,000 people.

As he spoke, surging coronavirus cases around the world put a damper on Christmas Eve for a second year, forcing churches to cancel or scale back services, disrupting holiday travel plans, and requiring people to once again comply with mask mandates.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

At least 10 people have been killed in a road accident in southwestern Iran.

The official government news agency IRNA said the accident happened as a truck hit a minibus that was carrying laborers on the road linking the city of Khorramshahr with the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province.

Between five and 15 injured people were taken to local hospitals, domestic media reported.

Roads in Iran regularly see such chain-reaction accidents and pileups. Fourteen people, including eight children, were killed in a road accident in March.

Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records, with some 17,000 deaths annually. The heavy death toll is blamed on wide disregard for traffic laws and unsafe vehicles.

Over 8,200 people were killed in road accidents in the first seven months of the current Iranian year, according to figures released by the police.

With reporting by AP

Russia’s communications regulator has blocked the website of OVD-Info, a prominent human rights monitor that tracks political persecution and anti-Kremlin protests, the group said on December 25.

OVD-Info, which also provides support to victims of political persecution, said Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor had blocked its website earlier this week.

"At the moment, we have not received a notice and do not know the reason for being blocked," the group said on Twitter.

The Interfax news agency said the ruling on restricting access to the ovdinfo.org site was issued by a court in the Moscow region on December 20.

Russia declared the OVD-Info group a "foreign agent" in September, in a move that critics say is designed to stifle dissent.

OVD-Info co-founder Grigory Okhotin had blasted the move as being part of “the pressure campaign against independent organizations and media.”

Russia’s so-called foreign agent legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance, and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

Human Rights Watch has condemned Russia’s “foreign agent” laws, calling them “another repressive tool the government can use to harass independent groups.”

Russian authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against opposition activists as well as independent media and rights groups in recent months.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Mali's government has denied any deployment of Russian mercenaries from the Vagner group following charges earlier this week by more than a dozen European countries as well as Canada.

Bamako "gives a formal denial to these baseless allegations" of "an alleged deployment of elements from a private security company in Mali," the government said in a statement on December 24.

Over a dozen Western countries on December 23 strongly condemned the deployment in Mali of Russian mercenaries working for the Vagner group, accusing Moscow of providing material backing for the fighters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Vagner Group does not represent the Russian state and is not paid by it. He has also said private military contractors have the right to work and pursue their interests anywhere in the world as long as they do not break Russian law.

The countries, who included, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, called on Russia to "revert to a responsible and constructive behavior in the region."

"This deployment can only further deteriorate the security situation in West Africa, lead to an aggravation of the human rights situation in Mali," the world powers said.

Their statement said the powers "deeply regret" the choice of the Malian authorities to use "already scarce public funds" to pay foreign mercenaries instead of supporting the Malian armed forces.

Washington was not a signatory of the statement but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month warned Mali not to accept Vagner mercenaries, saying a deal would further destabilize the country.

Mali's government said on December 23 that "Russian trainers" were in the country as part of efforts to strengthen the operational capacity of the national security forces.

Mali has experienced sustained political instability since 2012. A military transitional government took power in May.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa

The United States grew "arrogant and self-confident" after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev said in an interview published on the eve of the 30th anniversary of his resignation as president of the U.S.S.R.

Gorbachev, 90, said there was a triumphant mood in the West, especially in the United States after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The former Soviet president told state news agency RIA Novosti in the interview published on December 24 that the Kremlin had been in a weak bargaining position because the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 provoked economic chaos.

“In such a position, how can you expect equal relations with the United States, with the West?” Gorbachev said. “That’s the first thing. Secondly, and no less important, is the triumphal mood in the West, especially in the U.S. Arrogance and self-confidence went to their heads.”

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Gorbachev blamed a U.S. desire to “build a new empire” for current disputes over NATO and Ukraine.

But he welcomed forthcoming security talks between Moscow and Washington prompted by a Russian military buildup near its border with Ukraine.

"I hope there will be a result," he said.

Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, days after the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine said the U.S.S.R. no longer existed.

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In recent years President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly critical about NATO’s expansion and recently demanded "legal guarantees" that would prevent any further NATO expansion to the east and the deployment of weapons to neighboring states, primarily in Ukraine.

The U.S. has said that some of Russia’s demands are unacceptable.

Putin said in a news conference on December 23 that Washington had been willing to discuss the proposals and talks could happen at the start of next year in Geneva.

A senior U.S. administration official said the United States was ready to engage in talks with Russia in early January regarding its demand for security guarantees, but the official did not name a location.

Putin once called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century,” and in a documentary that aired on state television earlier this month he said it was the “disintegration of historical Russia.”

With reporting by AFP

Russia has doubled the imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan this year, Moscow's ambassador in Ashgabat told reporters on December 24.

Russia this year stands to buy about 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Turkmenistan, nearly twice the amount purchased in 2020, Ambassador Aleksandr Blokhin said.

Relatively cheap imports of gas from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries have enabled Russia to boost its exports to Europe.

This year's volumes were on a par with the period before 2016, when Russia halted gas imports from Turkmenistan amid pricing disputes.

The move put significant pressure on Turkmenistan's economy, which is highly dependent on hydrocarbons as a source of hard currency.

Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom resumed the purchases of Turkmen gas in 2019 when it signed a five-year contract envisaging annual deliveries of 5.5 billion cubic meters.

Russia was once the leading importer of Turkmen gas until it was displaced by China in 2010. Turkmenistan annually exports up to 40 bcm of gas to China.

Turkmenistan owns the world's fourth-largest known reserves of natural gas but has limited infrastructure to export its energy resources.

Earlier in 2021, China’s state-owned CNPC started work to set up new wells at Turkmenistan’s giant natural gas fields in exchange for future gas supplies.

Turkmenistan also hopes to export gas to India and Pakistan via Afghanistan in the future. However, the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-India-Pakistan (TAPI) gas pipeline has been stalled for many years.

The 1,800-kilometer pipeline is expected to carry 33 bcm of natural gas each year from Galkynysh, the world's second-biggest gas field, to the Indian city of Fazilka near the Pakistani border.

Turkmenistan has already built its segment of the pipeline, but it remains unclear when the remaining length of the pipeline will be constructed.

Based on reporting by Interfax, AP, and Reuters

The Russian Foreign Ministry says a Molotov cocktail has been thrown at the Russian Consulate in Ukraine’s Lviv, calling the attack “an act of terrorism.”

The ministry said on December 24 that it summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affairs to protest over the attack and demanded apologies from Kyiv.

Ukrainian police said they had launched a probe into the matter, which they described as "hooliganism.”

The incident comes as tensions have escalated between Kyiv and Moscow after Russia massed about 100,000 combat-ready troops near its border with Ukraine in what the United States has called a possible prelude to an invasion.

New satellite images captured by a private U.S. company revealed that Russia has in recent weeks continued stationing more tanks, mobile rocket artillery systems, and advanced short-range ballistic missile batteries near the border as well as on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The images released by U.S.-based Maxar Technologies on December 23, showed a base in Crimea packed with hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks as of December 13. A Maxar satellite image of the same base in October showed the base was half empty.

Asked about the military build-up, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on December 24 that Moscow was acting to defend its own security.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says war games conducted this week in the country were intended to send a message to Israel.

The military drill, which reportedly included firing ballistic and cruise missiles, ended on December 24.

"These exercises had a very clear message: a serious, real...warning to threats by the Zionist regime's authorities to beware of their mistakes," Guards chief General Hossein Salami told state television.

Tehran’s announcement was swiftly condemned by Britain, which said Iran's use of ballistic missiles was a "threat to regional and international security.”

"The launch is a clear breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which requires that Iran not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons -- including launches using ballistic missile technology," the British Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 24.

It urged Iran “to immediately cease its activities.”

Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said 16 ballistic missiles of different classes had been fired simultaneously and had destroyed predetermined targets.

Bagheri's claims could not be verified independently, and Western experts say Iran often exaggerates its military capabilities.

"These exercises were designed to respond to threats made in recent days by the Zionist regime," Bagheri told state media.

Israel has long hinted that it could resort to preemptive strikes to deny Iran the means to make a bomb. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear arsenal.

Tehran says all its nuclear activities are peaceful.

Iran has accelerated its nuclear advances as negotiations to return to the accord struggle to make headway. The talks will resume on December 27.

The military drills began on December 20 in the south of the country.

The drills came as U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan met on December 22 with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett amid the Jewish state’s opposition to efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Bennett has accused Iran of "nuclear blackmail" and charged that revenue it gained from sanctions relief would be used to acquire weapons to harm Israelis.

Sullivan told reporters in Israel that Washington continues to believe that "diplomacy, deterrence, and pressure" remain the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP and IRNA

A court in Moscow said on December 24 that it was fining Alphabet's Google 7.2 billion rubles ($98 million) for what it said was a repeated failure to delete content Russia deems illegal, the first revenue-based fine in this kind of case in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused social media platforms and other tech giants of flouting the country's Internet laws, including a push to force foreign firms to open offices in Russia and store Russians' personal data on its territory.

Many critics say the move is an attempt by Russian authorities to exert tighter control over the Internet and quell dissent.

Social media companies have already been fined hundreds of millions of rubles for content violations.

However the fines that Meta, Twitter, Google and other foreign tech giants received stretched into the tens of millions of rubles, not billions.

The Interfax news agency reported that the fine was calculated as a percentage of Google's annual earnings.

Google said it would study the court documents and then decide on its next steps.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and TASS

In a sign of thaw in ruptured ties, Saudi Arabia has approved visas for three Iranian diplomats allowing them to take up posts at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the kingdom, Saudi and Iranian officials said.

Shi’ite-led Iran and Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia have held several rounds of talks since April aimed at improving relations.

The two regional rivals severed diplomatic relations in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.

“Saudi Arabia has agreed to grant visas to three Iranian diplomats as part of a routine procedure for representatives of a member state of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is headquartered in Jeddah,” a Saudi Foreign Ministry official said on December 24.

Speaking in Tehran on December 23 alongside his Iraqi counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the visas were issued last week and that a new round of talks with Saudi Arabia in Baghdad will take place soon.

He added that Baghdad-brokered talks with Riyadh had gone well, and Saudi officials had responded positively to Tehran’s proposals.

"We are ready to send technical delegations to restore relations to normal," he said.

The Saudi kingdom has described the direct discussions launched earlier this year with Tehran as cordial but exploratory.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters and Bloomberg

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said in a statement on December 23.

"The president has mild symptoms and feels well. In line with epidemiological measures, he will remain in self-isolation from where he will perform his regular presidential duties," the statement said.

Djukanovic canceled meetings earlier in the day after coming in contact with an infected person. One of the meetings canceled was with Mustafa Sentop, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament, who is on an official visit to Montenegro.

Djukanovic, 59, has led the former Yugoslav republic, a NATO member, and a candidate for membership in the European Union, either as president or prime minister for over three decades. He is facing re-election in 2023.

Montenegro, which has a population of only 620,000, has lost 2,385 people to COVID-19 among a total of 161,944 people infected.