News
Canadian Firm Dismantles $12 Million Solar Plant In Ukraine Amid Dispute With Tycoon
A Canadian company has dismantled one of its multimillion-dollar solar investments in Ukraine following a dispute with a powerful tycoon believed to be close to the presidential administration in a case that has underscored the former Soviet state's troubled investment climate.
TIU Canada completed the removal of its 10.5 megawatt power plant in Nikopol, a city about 500 kilometers southeast of the capital, Kyiv, in mid-November after failing to be reconnected to the electricity grid, company spokesman Brian Mefford told RFE/RL on December 28. The plant contained more than 32,000 solar panels
TIU Canada commissioned the $12 million plant on the territory of the Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant in January 2018 amid much fanfare, with representatives from the local government, foreign embassies, and business community in attendance.
TIU's solar plant symbolized foreign investors' interest in the country's burgeoning alternative-energy industry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy even highlighted TIU's investment in a pitch to Canadian investors during a visit to Toronto in July 2019.
However, on March 1, 2020, the Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant disconnected TIU Canada from the electricity grid on the pretext of needing to make repairs to the power substation on its territory, the solar company said.
Almost two years later, the solar power plant remained idle, costing TIU Canada millions of dollars in lost revenue.
The decision to dismantle the plant follows an unsuccessful, two-year legal, media, and lobbying campaign against Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant and its main owner, Ihor Kolomoyskiy.
TIU hired Washington-based Blue Star Strategies late last year to lobby on its behalf before the U.S. government on "sustainable energy investments in Ukraine."
TIU has accused Kolomoyskiy of cutting the company off from the grid in an attempt to purchase it at a knockdown price. Such ruthless business practices were common in the 1990s and early 2000s in many former Soviet states but have since subsided.
Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant, meanwhile, accused TIU Canada of blackmail and preventing it from carrying out urgent repairs.
However, Yurkovich told Voice of America he didn't see anyone doing repairs. Instead, Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant had sent offers to buy the solar power plant at rock-bottom prices, he said.
Ukrainian business ombudsman Marchin Svenchintskiy told Voice of America that even if Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant had to urgently carry out repairs, the work "couldn't last that long."
Ukrainian law requires power stations to give their permission to be disconnected, making Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant's actions illegal, TIU has argued.
However, the company has failed to win over a court system that is widely considered highly corrupt and its Nikopol project has become the latest poster child for the dangers of doing business in Ukraine.
Two court cases have failed to deliver any results for TIU. Several judges recused themselves from hearing the case, something that Yurkovich has attributed to their fear of crossing Kolomoyskiy.
"There are not many judges willing to take on the oligarchs, particularly Kolomoyskiy, and adhere to the rule of law," Mefford said.
CEO Yurkovich "saw no solution to that situation" and decided to dismantle the project, Mefford said. TIU is storing the recoverable assets -- at least temporarily -- in Ukraine, he said.
TIU Canada has two other solar plants in Ukraine. Mefford declined to comment on the company's future plans.
Ukraine has struggled to attract significant foreign investment since achieving independence from the Soviet Union 30 years ago due to its weak rule of law.
Ukraine's economy is dominated by a handful of tycoons like Kolomoyskiy, who exercise outsized influence over the government and courts.
Nowhere is that dominance more evident than in the country's energy and metals industries.
Banned By United States
Kolomoyskiy, a billionaire who made his wealth in the 1990s scooping up former state assets, is known for his aggressive business practices, which have included sending armed men to take over companies.
The State Department in March officially banned him and his immediate family from entry into the United States due to accusations of corruption that he denies.
Political analysts and members of civil society have expressed concern over Kolomoyskiy's ties to Zelenskiy.
The tycoon's media assets backed Zelenskiy's presidential campaign and are credited with helping the former comic and political novice win the April 2019 election in a landslide.
A month later, Kolomoyskiy returned to Ukraine following several years of self-imposed exile over fear of prosecution for bank fraud.
Zelenskiy promised during his campaign to take on the tycoons and improve Ukraine's investment climate.
While he has passed a law to reduce their influence and gone after several of the wealthiest individuals, he has largely left Kolomoyskiy alone, analysts say.
Yurkovich told Voice of America he removed the solar panels, a costly process, so that Kolomoyskiy would not get them for free.
Neither Nikopol FerroAlloy Plant nor the president's office responded to Voice of America's request for comment on the situation.
- By RFE/RL
European Powers Call For 'Urgency' As Iran Nuclear Talks Resume
Diplomats from the three European countries directly involved in the negotiations to breathe new life in a faltering nuclear deal with Iran have stressed the "urgent" nature of talks.
The eighth round of negotiations aimed at reviving the agreement, which unraveled after the United States withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran, opened in Vienna on December 27.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Iran, which claims its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, reacted to the U.S. withdrawal by gradually ramping up its activities and enriching uranium well beyond the thresholds allowed in the original agreement.
"This negotiation is urgent.... We are clear that we are nearing the point where Iran's escalation of its nuclear program will have completely hollowed out the JCPOA," negotiators from Britain, France, and Germany said in a statement, referring to the deal's official name by its acronym.
"That means we have weeks, not months, to conclude a deal before the JCPOA's core nonproliferation benefits are lost."
Beside negotiators from the three European powers, diplomats from the other two countries that remained party to the deal -- China and Russia -- are also directly taking part in the efforts to restart the accord.
Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian envoy to the talks, said on December 29 that he had met with his U.S. counterpart, Robert Malley, in Vienna.
"Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and the U.S. delegations in the course of the Vienna talks constitute an important prerequisite for progress towards restoration of the JCPOA," Ulyanov said 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, including that U.S. sanctions be lifted.
Tehran has said that it wanted "guarantees" that Washington, which is participating in the Vienna talks indirectly, will return 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 Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying in Tehran before negotiations resumed this week.
Russia's envoy to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on December 28 that the working group was making "indisputable progress."
"Sanctions lifting is being actively discussed in informal settings," he wrote on Twitter.
However, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington thinks it is too soon to say how substantive this progress is, and told reporters the United States has not yet seen sufficient urgency demonstrated by Iran.
Also on December 28, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he is not opposed to a "good" nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, but expressed skepticism that the talks can result in such an outcome.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Iran's Hard-Line President To Visit Russia 'Early' Next Year
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will Russia after receiving an invitation from Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, an Iranian government spokesman said on December 28.
Putin has invited Raisi to Moscow early next year "in the framework of strategic interaction between Iran and Russia," Ali Bahadori Jahromi said..
The visit would address "bilateral, regional and national cooperation" and in particular "economic and commercial" cooperation, Bahadori Jahromi said.
The last Iranian president to visit Russia was moderate Hassan Rohani in March 2017.
Raisi, a hard-line conservative, took over from Rohani in August.
According to the Kremlin website, the invitation was extended by Putin earlier this month during a joint news conference with visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Russia and Iran have good relations and are key allies of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's decade-long civil war.
Russia is also one of the parties to the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers under which Tehran was granted sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Moscow has been taking part in ongoing negotiations in Vienna to revive the deal after then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 and began reimposing sanctions, prompting Iran to rescind some of its commitments.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Israeli Prime Minister Says He's Not Opposed To 'Good' Nuke Deal With Iran As Talks Resume
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said he is not opposed to a “good” nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, although he expressed skepticism that the talks that resumed this week can result in such an outcome.
"At the end of the day, of course there can be a good deal,” Bennett told Israeli Army Radio on December 28. “Is that, at the moment, under the current dynamic, expected to happen? No, because a much harder stance is needed."
Israel is not a party to the talks and opposed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that curbed Iran's controversial nuclear program, saying it was not tough enough.
In the past, Israel has accused its archenemy Iran of using "nuclear blackmail" as a bargaining chip that allowed it to inch closer to developing a nuclear weapon.
The eighth round of negotiations aimed at reviving the deal, which stalled after the United States withdrew from the accord in 2018, opened in Vienna on December 27.
Iran, which claims its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, reacted to the U.S. withdrawal by gradually ramping up its nuclear program and enriching uranium well beyond the thresholds allowed in the original agreement.
Tehran has said that the current negotiations should focus on lifting sanctions on the Islamic republic and obtaining "guarantees" that Washington, which is participating the talks indirectly, will return 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 Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying in Tehran before negotiations resumed this week.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, but sanctions were reimposed after the United States backed out of the deal under former President Donald Trump.
Diplomats from the parties that remained party to the deal -- China, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia -- are directly taking part in the efforts to restart the accord.
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, including that U.S. sanctions be lifted.
Diplomats from the three European countries directly involved in the negotiations said after that round ended 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."
Russia's envoy in the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on December 28 that the working group was making "indisputable progress."
"Sanctions lifting is being actively discussed in informal settings," he wrote on Twitter.
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 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 AP and Reuters
'Huge Number' Of Russian Officials Knew Of Prison Abuse, Whistle-Blower Says
The former inmate of a Russian jail who publicized shocking videos of torture said numerous officials from various agencies were aware of the abuse of prisoners but chose to cover it up rather than expose it.
Syarhey Savelyeu, a 31-year-old Belarusian national who copied the videos while serving a sentence in Saratov in Russia’s Volga region, said in an interview with RFE/RL that he was "astonished" by the number of officials who knew of the torture.
“A huge number of state bodies support and ‘protect’ [the abuse], create a shield around this torture conveyor -- so long as it continues to function,” he said in an interview from France, where he is seeking asylum.
Savelyeu was arrested while visiting the southern Russian region of Krasnodar in 2015 and sentenced on drug-trafficking charges. He said he was asked to hold a package for an acquaintance; the package later turned out to contain illegal drugs. He said he was sentenced to nine years in prison but was released in February 2021.
Savelyeu said officials from Russia’s Investigative Committee, Prosecutor-General's Office, and Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) -- including both the central and regional offices -- “repeatedly” came to the jail in the Saratov region and “all took some measures and actions to conceal these facts" of abuse.
Russia has fired five senior prison officials -- including Aleksandr Kalashnikov, the director of the FSIN -- and opened a slew of criminal investigations into the abuse since Gulagu.net began publishing the videos earlier this year. But Savelyeu has said he sees little chance of substantive reform.
Russia's Interior Ministry has also put Sergei Savelyeu on its wanted list.
The videos, which show instances of both torture and sexual assault, have made headlines around the globe.
Savelyeu, an IT specialist, was asked to help operate the prison’s local computer network, including uploading videos and distributing them to prison staff, while serving his sentence. He secretly copied the videos of abuse to a flash drive and turned it over to Gulag.net shortly after his release.
Savelyeu said he could not recall his reaction to the first video of abuse because it was so quickly followed by the second, third, and 10th in “a never-ending series of violence.”
He said he had to hide his feelings about the videos for years while working in the prison.
He described the majority of prison employees as indifferent to the scenes of abuse and said they do not raise their voices because they feel “it is not my business.”
However, Savelyeu chose otherwise.
“If a person watches the suffering of other people day in and day out and sees that everyone thinks this is normal, he has only two paths: He can either accept it and become part of this machine or he can try to do something about it and somehow change it. I chose the second way,” Savelyeu told RFE/RL.
He said the abuse is carried out for a variety of reasons, including “banal blackmail” and punishment for noncompliance with rules. Some prisoners are abused to coerce testimony, including “false” testimony against themselves or someone else.
In the case of prisoners respected or feared by other inmates, the videos of abuse were used to blackmail them into helping the authorities, Savelyeu said.
The guards could influence “a whole mass” of inmates through just one prisoner, he said.
“This prison hierarchy is actively used by the FSIN and FSB officers themselves and is used for their own purposes,” he said.
Savelyeu said he feared for his life as he fled, a trip that took three weeks as he wound his way from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk to Moscow, then Minsk, and then on to Turkey, before arriving in France on October 16.
He said he could not sleep or eat well and lost more than 8 kilograms on the road. But once in France, he said he finally felt a sense of relief.
“I am aware that the threat of my physical elimination has not gone away. It remains. But we have taken a number of steps to make it pointless,” he said, without going into detail.
'Huge Disaster': Russian Police Detain Three Former Navalny Coordinators
Russian police have taken three former regional coordinators of Aleksei Navalny's campaign team in for questioning amid continued pressure against the imprisoned opposition leader's associates.
The home of Zakhar Sarapulov, who headed the Irkutsk headquarters of Navalny's network of regional campaign groups, was searched early on the morning of December 28 and Sarapulov was detained by Russia's Investigative Committee.
The same morning, the offices of the banned Navalny movement's Tomsk headquarters were raided and its former head, Kseniya Fadeyeva, was detained at her cottage and taken in for questioning.
In Saratov, regional coordinator Andrei Gorodetsky was also detained, according to Siberia.Realities of RFE/RL's Russian Service.
It is unclear if a reported raid carried out against a fourth Navalny associate, Vadim Ostanin, the Navalny campaign's former Barnaul office head, has resulted in his detention or charges.
Leonid Volkov, who is among several Navalny associates who have fled Russia this year amid pressure from the Russian authorities, described the situation as a "huge disaster" in a post on his Telegram channel on December 28.
Volkov wrote that both Sarapulov and Fadeyeva, a representative in the Tomsk city council, had earlier refused his advice for them to leave the country.
RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities reported that both detainees have been allowed access to lawyers, who were not allowed to reveal details of their clients' cases.
Fadeyeva is suspected of using her official position in relation to the organization of an extremist group, according to Tomsk's TV2 information agency, a charge punishable by up to two years in prison.
TV2 also reported that Fadeyeva is likely to be transferred to Moscow for interrogation and is also suspected of participation in a nonprofit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens, which is also punishable by prison.
Sarapulov and Gorodetsky have also reportedly been detained on suspicion of using their official positions to create or participate in an extremist community.
Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation and his political movement were declared extremist organizations by the Russian authorities in June and disbanded.
In November, a criminal case was opened against the head of Team Navalny's Ufa regional office, Lilia Chanysheva, who was charged with the creation and management of an extremist community.
Chanysheva was ordered last week to remain in pretrial detention until April 9.
Navalny himself has been in prison since February after he was arrested the month prior upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been undergoing treatment for a near-fatal poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he says was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny's poisoning.
Several of the opposition leader and Kremlin critic's associates have been charged with establishing an extremist group. Many of his close associates, including lawyer Lyubov Sobol, have fled the country amid pressure from the Russian authorities.
With reporting by TV2, Irkutsk Insider, and OVD-Info
Russia Lurches Toward 'Total Repression' As Supreme Court Rules To Shut Memorial
MOSCOW -- Russia's Supreme Court has ordered the closure of Memorial International, one of the country’s oldest and most respected human rights organizations, capping a year of what critics called the state’s systematic dismantling of the country’s civil society.
The decision by the court at a hearing in Moscow on December 28 was condemned by the United States and other Western governments as well as human rights groups.
It came in a year during which Kremlin critics, their associates, independent news outlets, and rights organizations have been either muzzled, jailed, closed or forced to flee the country.
Maria Eismont, one of the lawyers in Memorial’s legal team, told the court that closing the rights organization, which counts Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov as one of its founders, would "throw the country back and increase the risk of total repression."
Yan Rachinsky, Memorial's chairman of the board, said the decision would be appealed and that the organization's work would not stop since parts of it are not legal entities.
"The decision of the Supreme Court once again confirmed that the history of political terror organized and directed by the state authorities remains for Russia not an academic topic of interest only to specialists, but an acute problem of our time," Memorial said in a statement.
"Our country needs an honest and conscientious reflection on the Soviet past; this is the guarantee of her future. It is ridiculous to believe that the judicial liquidation of International Memorial will remove this issue from the agenda. The entire Russian society needs to remember the tragedies of the past. And not only Russian: the memory of state terror unites all the former Soviet republics," it added.
Dozens of people were at the court building in support of Memorial, which was launched shortly before the Soviet collapse in part to document Soviet repression. In the decades since, it has produced hallmark indicators of the rights situation and documented historical and ongoing injustices.
The case was initiated by prosecutors under the controversial "foreign agent" law, which increasingly is being used by officials to shutter civil society and media groups in Russia.
Judge Alla Nazarova said that Memorial International breached its designation as a "foreign agent" by not marking all its publications with the label as required by law.
In a separate case, the Moscow City Court will hold a hearing on December 29 over a prosecutor's request to shut down sister organization Memorial Human Rights Center as well for violations of the "foreign agent" legislation.
The U.S. State Department condemned the ruling on Memorial International and said it was following with concern Russia's ongoing efforts to close Memorial Human Rights Center.
"We urge Russian authorities to end their harassment of independent voices and human rights defenders and stand in solidarity with those who have been targeted for repression for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
Germany's Foreign Ministry called the decision "more than incomprehensible," adding that it went against international obligations to protect fundamental civil rights.
"Justified criticism from organizations like Memorial should be listened to. The decision causes us great concern, not least because it deprives victims of oppression and repression of their voice," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Rights activists say there are no legal grounds to liquidate the organization, which also has been devoted since the late 1980s to promoting human rights in Russia and the former Soviet republics. They say the demand by the Prosecutor-General Office to shut down Memorial International is "a politically motivated decision."
"The closure of International Memorial represents a direct assault on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The authorities' use of the 'foreign agents' law to dissolve the organization is a blatant attack on civil society that seeks to blur the national memory of state repression," said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director.
"The decision to shut down International Memorial is a grave insult to victims of the Russian gulag and must be immediately overturned," she added.
Memorial said it would appeal the ruling "in all ways available to us."
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.
"Memorial is the heart and soul of the Russian human rights movement," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
"It is an utter outrage that the Kremlin is now moving to shut Memorial down. It speaks to the fears of the Russian government that it is no longer willing to tolerate the honest and objective recounting of its conduct that Memorial provides."
"This is bitter, as Memorial -- an island of free thought and one of the last bastions of democratic civil society in Russia -- will be liquidated. Internal authoritarian harmonization and aggressive external politics go hand in hand," said Ralf Fuecks, managing director of the Center for Liberal Modernity and a former politician in Germany.
The forced liquidation of the highly respected human rights organization International Memorial is another step in the deplorable degradation of human rights in Russia."-- Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod
Memorial International, the umbrella organization under which the Memorial Human Rights Center and several other activist groups operate, is among several news outlets and rights organizations to have been labeled "foreign agents" in what is seen as a historic crackdown on civil society and critics of the government.
"The forced liquidation of the highly respected human rights organization International Memorial is another step in the deplorable degradation of human rights in Russia," Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.
"I call on Russia to protect human rights defenders, independent media, journalists, and opposition figures," he added.
"We fear its [Memorial International's] companion organization focusing on contemporary repression is next," HRW's Roth said.
With reporting by Interfax and Reuters
U.S., Russia To Hold Ukraine Talks In Geneva On January 10
U.S. and Russian officials will hold security talks on January 10 amid mounting tensions over Ukraine.
The bilateral talks will focus on nuclear arms control and Ukraine, a spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council told the AFP and Reuters news agencies on December 27.
"When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table, and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia's activities as well," the White House spokesperson said. "There will be areas where we can make progress and areas where we will disagree. That's what diplomacy is about."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed the date of the talks in comments to the TASS news agency on December 28, saying they will be held in Geneva and expressing hope that a raft of proposed "security agreements" sent to Washington earlier will be discussed.
Russia's proposals, which came amid heightened tensions stemming from a massive Russian troop buildup on the country's border with Ukraine, included demands that NATO halt its eastward expansion and end military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, among other things.
Russia and NATO are also likely to hold separate talks on January 12, while Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States and its European allies, will meet on January 13, the U.S. spokesperson said.
Russia has called the meeting with NATO "important" but has insisted on the inclusion of military officials and has yet to confirm the date. Those talks are expected to focus on the Russian troop buildup, which Washington and its European allies have said could be a prelude to a possible invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
If the NATO-Russia Council meets as proposed by the alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, it would be the first such gathering of the council in 2 1/2 years.
Moscow's participation in the council was suspended after Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Russia is also backing separatists in eastern Ukraine fighting a nearly eight-year war against Kyiv's forces.
Russia has denied an intention of launching an invasion, instead accusing Ukraine and NATO of provocations. The United States and its European allies have threatened Moscow with harsh consequences and economic sanctions in the event of a military escalation in Ukraine, while also offering to hold negotiations.
U.S. officials have said that some of Russia's demands are either unworkable or impossible, and that no decisions would be made about Ukraine without Ukraine.
Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Georgian Parliament Plans Vote To Eliminate Human Rights Watchdog
Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party plans to move ahead this week with a proposal to dissolve an independent agency responsible for monitoring personal data protection and abuse of power despite concerns that the move is politically motivated.
The Georgian opposition, member of the country's civil society, the UN, and the United States have all joined in criticizing the bill being rushed through parliament to shutter the State Inspector’s Office and fire all of its employees.
The proposal comes as the State Inspector’s Office is probing the alleged torture and mistreatment of former President Mikheil Saakashvili since his arrest in early October upon returning from self-imposed exile in Ukraine.
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After meeting with the State Inspector’s Office on December 27, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Degnan said she was concerned about the bill and the rushed manner in which Georgian Dream is pursuing the changes.
Degnan called on parliament to pause what she called “a strange process rushing through legislation when there’s no need to rush it through,” and for lawmakers to conduct transparent consultations with all stakeholders.
Georgian Dream unveiled a bill over the weekend that would split the State Inspector’s Office into two separate bodies tasked with monitoring data privacy and investigating abuse of power by officials. If passed, all employees at the oversight body would be dismissed by March. Parliament is expected to push through the legislation on December 29 or 30.
Degnan said firing experts at the body was the “most troubling and most difficult” part to explain.
“These are experts who’ve been doing these jobs for several years without any complaint or questions by parliament,” she said, adding that dismissing all qualified employees of this service would be a loss of talent and experience.
Earlier, the UN Human Rights Office said it had “deep concern” over the proposal to abolish an independent office with a key role in torture prevention and privacy protection.
Public Defender Nino Lomjaria said on December 27 that the bill violates the constitution and the country’s human rights commitments “and aims to interfere with the activities of an independent institution.” She called the rushed nature of the bill without proper consultation with stakeholders “especially alarming.”
“[It’s] clear that the purpose of the legislative change is to influence the functioning of an independent body,” she said.
State Inspector Londa Toloraia accused the government of trying to retaliate against the agency for its investigations and decisions against state bodies.
Saakashvili, who went on a 50-day hunger strike, has claimed he was subjected to death threats, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse while in custody. His arrest and ongoing trials have triggered large anti-government protests at a time the country has been in a protracted political crisis stemming from disputed parliamentary elections in 2020.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Georgian Service and Civil.ge
- By RFE/RL
Over 11,000 Migrants Entered Germany Via Belarus Route In 2021
More than 11,000 illegal migrants have entered Germany this year after transiting through Poland from Belarus, German police said on December 27.
The EU accuses Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime of funneling mostly Middle Eastern migrants to the borders of Poland and fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania as part of a “hybrid attack” to retaliate for Western sanctions.
Most of the illegal migrants are seeking to reach Germany, which has stepped up police checks along the passport-free border with Poland in recent months.
German federal police said in a statement that there had been 11,162 illegal entries “with a connection to Belarus” this year, with more than 95 percent of those cases occurring between August and November.
Police said there is a downward trend in illegal border crossings, with 470 cases in December compared to more than 8,000 in October and November combined.
Under German law, migrants who apply for asylum are allowed to stay in the country pending the processing of their claim for protection.
The drop in migrant crossings in December may reflect a change of policy in Belarus after Lukashenka's regime was hit with a fifth EU sanctions package that also put pressure on third countries to stop migrant flows.
Belarusian authorities have cleared makeshift migrant camps at the border and transferred about 2,000 people to a warehouse turned into a shelter. Several thousand Iraqis have also returned home on repatriation flights amid reports they suffered violence or threats and horrible conditions at border camps.
Poland has also taken steps in response to the migrant crisis, including building a barbed-wire fence and massing thousands of soldiers along its 400-kilometer border with Belarus. In some cases, Warsaw has been accused of pushing back migrants to Belarus, in a policy criticized by human rights groups.
The EU, the United States, and partners first expanded sanctions on Belarus after Lukashenka cracked down on the country's pro-democracy movement following a disputed August 2020 presidential election.
French Tourist Detained In Iran Since Last Year Goes On Hunger Strike
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
- By Current Time
BBC Reporter Leaves Russia For British Self-Exile
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
Belarus Unveils Draft Constitutional Changes To Tighten Strongman's Grip On Power
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.
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.
Russian In Belarus Sentenced To 11 Years For Social Media Posts Urging Protests
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.
Bosnian Prosecutors Indict Man For Crimes Against Humanity
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.
Russian Court Hikes Sentence Of Historian Dmitriyev To 15 Years On Charges He Denies
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.
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
- By RFE/RL
Lavrov Says Security Talks With Washington To Take Place After Russian Holidays
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."
"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.
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.
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
- By RFE/RL
Talks Aimed At Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal Resume In Vienna
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.
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
Saudi-Led Coalition Accuses Iran, Hizballah Of Helping Yemen's Huthi Rebels
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
Christian Prisoners In Iran Get Rare 10-Day Holiday Leave
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
Tatar Catholics Celebrate Christmas
Like their coreligionists elsewhere, Roman Catholics in Russia's Tatarstan region also celebrated Christmas midnight Mass on the night of December 24-25. Dozens attended the service at the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the region's capital, Kazan. Tatarstan is predominantly Muslim and Orthodox Christian, but some 1,000 Catholics also live there, too, including students from abroad.
- By RFE/RL
Putin To Mull Options If West Doesn't Meet 'Security Guarantees'
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.
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
Russian Rights Lawyer Reports 'Abduction' Of 21 Relatives In Chechnya
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.
- By RFE/RL
'Zone Of Repression': Watchdog Says Russia's Internet Crackdown 'Redoubled' In 2021
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- By RFE/RL
Pope Calls For 'Dialogue,' Cautions Against 'Fresh Outbreaks' In Ukraine Conflict
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
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