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- By RFE/RL
Turkey Reportedly Arrests Iranian Official Over Dissident's Murder
An Iranian official suspected of instigating the killing of an Iranian dissident in 2019 has been arrested in Turkey, Reuters has reported.
Quoting unnamed sources, Reuters said it had confirmed a report by Turkey's Sabah newspaper that Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh was detained earlier this week on suspicion of planning the shooting of Masud Molavi Vardanjani, a critic of Iran's political and military leadership.
Sabah reported that Naserzadeh worked at the civic registry department of the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul. Reuters said it could not independently confirm that information.
The incident could strain ties between regional powers Turkey and Iran. Iran's Foreign Ministry called the newspaper report "baseless."
Vardanjani, a former Iranian intelligence operative who exposed corruption involving Iranian officials, was shot and killed in Istanbul on November 14, 2019 -- a year after leaving the Islamic republic. He had been put under investigation by Iranian authorities.
A Turkish police report published in March 2020 said Vardanjani had an “unusual profile.” It said he had worked in cybersecurity at Iran’s Defense Ministry before becoming a vocal critic of the Iranian regime.
Two senior Turkish officials told Reuters in 2020 that Vardanjani's killing was instigated by intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.
At the time, one of the Turkish officials identified the two suspects by their initials. One set of initials matched Naserzadeh's.
A senior U.S. administration official said in April 2020 that Washington had grounds to believe that Iran's Intelligence and Security Ministry was directly involved in the killing of Vardanjani.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied that any consulate staff had been involved in Vardanjani's shooting death.
The Foreign Ministry's website said Iran was in talks with Turkish officials to shed light on the issue.
Last week, a Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison on charges of planning an attack on an exiled opposition group.
It was the first trial of an Iranian official on terrorism charges in Europe since Iran's 1979 revolution.
With reporting by Reuters
COVID-19 Vaccine Delay Stirs Political Tensions In North Macedonia
Political tensions have been stirred up in North Macedonia by the government's failure to deliver its first COVID-19 vaccination shot while neighboring countries boast about progress in their vaccination programs.
A government statement in Skopje on February 12 said "technical" issues had delayed the expected delivery of 8,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from neighboring Serbia this week.
The handover of vaccines had been expected on February 11 during a ceremony at the Tabanovce border crossing that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had been scheduled to attend. Vucic's office said more documentation was needed after the event was canceled.
North Macedonia has yet to secure a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for its population of 2.1 million.
The main opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, called on the center-left government to resign after the latest delay. It said "incompetence" on the part of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev had forced him to "beg” other countries for vaccines.
North Macedonia is hoping to receive 840,000 vaccine doses in February under a scheme led by the World Health Organization to help poorer countries immunize their populations. But manufacturing delays in recent weeks have held up those plans -- as well as similar plans for Ukraine and Moldova.
Earlier this week, the Macedonian authorities signed an agreement to receive 200,000 doses of the Chinese SinoPharm vaccine. They hope to launch their vaccination program later in February.
Another 800,000 vaccines are expected to arrive in the country later in 2021 through the EU. But officials in Skopje also have asked neighbors Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia for assistance, along with Poland and Hungary.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service and AP
Report: Russian Court To Hear Navalny Appeal On Sentence Change February 20
The Moscow City Court will consider an appeal of the decision to convert opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's suspended sentence to real jail time on February 20, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
RIA Novosti reported on February 12 that it learned of the hearing through a lawyer with knowledge of the court's decision.
The Kremlin critic on February 2 was ordered to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison for violating the terms of a suspended sentence imposed on him from a widely criticized 2014 embezzlement case.
Navalny could not report to parole officers because he was recovering from a coma in Germany after being poisoned with a nerve-agent in Siberia last August, in an attack he blames on Putin and his security agents. The Kremlin dismisses the allegations.
Navalny was immediately arrested on returning to Russia in January, triggering nationwide protests and a crackdown on his allies and supporters.
Based on reporting by RIA Novosti
Russian Media Ordered To Delete Reports On Planned 'Flashlight' Protest
MOSCOW -- Russia's federal media regulator has ordered media outlets, including RFE/RL's Russian Service and Current Time TV, to delete all reports about a planned mobile-phone "flashlight" protest against the jailing of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
The official order from Roskomnadzor was received by media groups on February 12. It says Russian authorities consider any reporting about the planned flashlight protest to be a call for people to take part in an unsanctioned public demonstration and mass disorder.
Roskomnadzor's order also was sent to online newspapers Meduza and Open Media, and the TV-2 news agency in the Siberian city of Tomsk.
Navalny's team in Tomsk said they also were warned by the city prosecutor's office on February 12 that they could be held liable for staging an unsanctioned protest.
Navalny's team has called on people across Russia to switch on their mobile-phone flashlights for 15 minutes beginning at 8 p.m. on February 14 -- shining the light into the sky from courtyards and posting pictures of the protest on social media.
Leonid Volkov, director of Navalny's network of teams across Russia, announced the change of tactics on February 9 in response to police crackdowns against mass street demonstrations that have led to tens of thousands of arrests across Russia.
The "flashlight" protest is a tactic similar to what demonstrators have been doing in neighboring Belarus following brutal police crackdowns targeting rallies against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Volkov says it is a nonviolent way for Russians to show the extent of outrage across the country over Navalny's treatment without subjecting themselves to arrests and police abuse.
The 44-year-old Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been treated for a nerve-agent poisoning he says was ordered by Putin. The Kremlin denies it had any role in the poison attack against Navalny.
Navalny's detention sparked outrage across the country and much of the West, with tens of thousands of Russians taking part in street rallies on January 23 and 31.
Police cracked down harshly on the demonstrations, putting many of Navalny's political allies behind bars and detaining thousands more -- sometimes violently -- as they gathered on the streets.
A Russian court on February 2 ruled Navalny was guilty of violating the terms of his suspended sentence relating to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated.
The court converted the sentence to 3 1/2 years in prison. Given credit for time already spent in detention, the court said Navalny must serve another 2 years and 8 months behind bars.
That prompted fresh street protests across the country. But Volkov called for a pause in street rallies until the spring -- saying weekly demonstrations would only result in more mass arrests.
Authorities have criticized Volkov's call for flashlight protests.
Kremlin-friendly political observer Aleksei Martynov accused Navalny's team of stealing the idea from commemorations of Soviet war veterans.
With reporting by Meduza, TV-2, Dozhd, and Znak
- By RFE/RL
France, Germany, U.K. 'Strongly Urge' Iran To Halt Breach Of Recent Nuclear Deal
The so-called E3 European powers have urged Iran to reverse its decision to violate a landmark nuclear deal by producing uranium metal and avoid "noncompliant" steps before it's too late.
Britain, France, and Germany issued the plea on February 12 following a call the previous day by Russia's deputy foreign minister for Iran to "show restraint" as a new U.S. administration weighs possible paths to rejoining the multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) from 2015.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi informed member states on February 10 that the UN atomic watchdog's inspectors had confirmed this week that 3.6 grams of uranium metal had been produced at an Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan.
"We strongly urge Iran to halt these activities without delay and not to take any new noncompliant steps on its nuclear program," the E3 said in a statement. "In escalating its noncompliance, Iran is undermining the opportunity for renewed diplomacy to fully realize the objectives of the JCPOA."
Ex-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018 from the agreement and reimposed punishing sanctions against Iran, but President Joe Biden campaigned ahead of the U.S. elections in November 2020 on seeking a way to revisit that move.
The Biden administration has insisted that Iran move to full compliance with the JCPOA before Washington will return to the deal, but Tehran has rejected any preconditions.
U.S. and other intelligence sources have suggested Iran could be just months away from nuclear bomb-making if it chose to pursue such a weapon, given its return to some sensitive nuclear activities since Trump's withdrawal.
Tehran has resolutely insisted it wants nuclear technology for a civilian energy program and not a weapon, although the IAEA and some Western governments point to a history of obfuscation and deceit by Iranian officials in the face of past concerns.
"We reiterate that Iran has no credible civilian justification for these activities, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon," the statement by the E3 repeated.
The nuclear agreement, which exchanged sanctions relief for curbs on technology, put a 15-year ban on Iran "producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys."
Russia -- which along with the E3 and China is a signatory to the JCPOA -- has sought to keep diplomatic channels open to Tehran as it cooperates on Syria, Libya, and on other problems in the region.
"We understand the logic of their actions and the reasons prompting Iran," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said of Tehran on February 11. "Despite this, it is necessary to show restraint and a responsible approach."
The nuclear agreement -- reached by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain -- put a 15-year ban on Iran "producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys."
Tehran has gradually breached the deal since the U.S. pullout by building up its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, refining uranium to a higher level of purity, and using advanced centrifuges for enrichment.
After the assassination in Iran of a top nuclear scientist in December 2020 that Tehran blames on Israel, Iranian officials signaled their intention to research uranium metal production.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Hungary Becomes First EU State To Use Russian Vaccine
Hungary on February 12 was on its way to become the first EU nation to use Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, breaking ranks with the rest of the 27-member bloc.
"Today we are beginning to vaccinate with the Sputnik V vaccine, this is taking place in the designated vaccination stations," Cecilia Muller, Hungary's chief medical officer, told a daily press briefing in Budapest.
Hungary last month gave emergency approval to the Russian vaccine, ordering 2 million doses to be delivered over three months, enough to inoculate 1 million people, rather than wait for a green light from the EU's European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Budapest also approved the Chinese-made Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine -- again the first in the EU to do so -- and said it had ordered 5 million doses.
Hungary has often come into conflict with Brussels, mainly on migration, and repeatedly criticized what it says is the slow pace of vaccine approval and procurement by the EU's health agencies.
"Each day we spend waiting around for Brussels, we would lose 100 Hungarian lives," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during his weekly interview with state radio on February 12.
On February 12, Hungary reported 99 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the country's overall death toll to 13,543, while the number of infections and coronavirus patients in hospitals has begun rising sharply this month.
Orban blamed the surge in infections on the probable spread of the variant of the disease first detected in Britain.
However, he said there was no need for further lockdown measures to curb the spread, as a planned acceleration of inoculations with Russian and Chinese vaccines could offset the rise in cases in coming weeks.
"If we start inoculations with the Chinese vaccine as well, by Easter we will be able to vaccinate all the [more than 2 million] people who have registered for vaccines," Orban said.
Russia registered Sputnik V in August 2020, months ahead of Western drugmakers but before the start of large-scale clinical trials, which prompted skepticism from experts.
However, results published in The Lancet medical journal last week showed that Sputnik V is 91.6 percent effective against the virus.
Just over 300,000 Hungarians -- health-care workers and the most vulnerable among the elderly -- in a population of almost 10 million have so far received at least one shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine. Hungary also started using the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine this week.
Hungary's tourism industry has been seriously hit by the pandemic, with restaurants and bars being closed since November 2020 and a curfew enforced from 8 p.m.
With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Uzbekistan Aims For Full Transition To Latin-Based Alphabet By 2023
Uzbekistan plans to fully transition the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic script to a Latin-based alphabet by January 1, 2023.
The Justice Ministry said in a statement on February 11 that the government approved the target date and a corresponding road map for the plan a day earlier.
The government's decision comes less than four months after President Shavkat Mirziyoev issued a decree to expedite the full transition of the Uzbek language to a Latin-based alphabet.
Uzbek, as well as other Central Asian languages, was written in an Arabic script until the late 1920s. It then switched to Latin script as part of a larger Latinization of Turkic languages, before the Soviets introduced Cyrillic in 1940.
In 1993, less than two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan began to transition back to a Latin script but Cyrillic is still widely used.
After going through various iterations, a working group at Tashkent State University presented a final draft of the updated Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin alphabet in 2019.
The updated alphabet consists of 30 characters: 29 letters and an apostrophe to denote a hard sign, specific sounds, or intonations..
In neighboring Kazakhstan, the process of switching to the Latin alphabet has been going on since 2017, when former President Nursultan Nazarbaev first instructed the government to work on the transition to a Latin-based alphabet by 2025.
Another Central Asian country, Turkmenistan, switched from the Cyrillic script to Latin in 1993, while Azerbaijan, a Turkic-speaking former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus, replaced its Cyrillic-based alphabet with the current Latin-based script on December 25, 1991.
The move to shift to Latin script was in part driven by political considerations, in order to distance the Turkic-speaking nations from years of Russian influence and develop a stronger national identity in the young states. The Latin script is also considered better suited to Turkic languages.
The Soviet-era transition of Turkic languages to Cyrillic was in part implemented to distance Central Asian states and Azerbaijan from Turkey, which as part of a Westernization drive changed its Persian-Arabic script to a Latin one in the 1920s.
The switch away from Arabic script among Turkic languages in the former Soviet Union was designed to distance the Muslim Central Asian nations from the Islamic world.
Russia 'Ready To Cut Ties' With EU If Sanctions Threat Carried Out
Russia says it is prepared to sever ties with the European Union if the bloc follows through with threats to implement tough new economic sanctions against Moscow over the detention and jailing of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
Speaking in an interview with the YouTube channel Solovyev Live on February 12, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that if further sanctions are imposed on Russia and they "create risks" to the country's economy, "then yes," relations could be broken off.
Lavrov's comments come a day after diplomatic sources suggested the European Union was likely to impose travel bans and asset freezes -- possibly within weeks -- on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We do not want to be isolated from international life, but we must be ready for this. If you want peace, then you should prepare for war," Lavrov said.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added at a meeting with reporters on February 12 that Moscow had to be ready to provide replacement elements for anything in its vital infrastructure if foreign sanctions called for it.
The 44-year-old Navalny, Putin's top critic, was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for a nerve-agent poisoning that he says was ordered by Putin, which the Kremlin has denied.
The detention sparked outrage across the country, with tens of thousands of Russians taking to the streets in rallies. Police, in turn, cracked down harshly on the demonstrations, putting many of Navalny's allies behind bars for the actions, and then detaining thousands more -- sometimes violently -- as they gathered.
It also prompted condemnation from the United States and the European Union and demands for Navalny's immediate release and proper investigations into his poisoning in August last year.
In the past week, Russia has expelled several diplomats from EU countries after the Kremlin accused them of participating in the protests. The moves have been matched tit-for-tat by Sweden, Poland, and Germany, which have told Russian diplomats to pack their bags and head home.
The two sides were already at odds over Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and its support for separatist formations waging a war against Kyiv in parts of eastern Ukraine, the EU's rejection of a disputed presidential election in Belarus and criticism of a brutal crackdown by the government of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and other issues.
Germany's Foreign Ministry called Lavrov's comments on February 12 " really disconcerting and incomprehensible."
Moscow has accused the West of hysteria and double standards over Navalny and has accused the United States and others as meddling in Russia's internal affairs.
Lavrov pushed that theme in the February 12 interview, saying the threats weren't about Navalny, but a broader course "coordinated by the entire collective West, which goes beyond mere deterrence of Russia and evolves into an aggressive deterrence of Russia."
"They don't like us because we have our own idea of what's going on in the world," he said.
Jailed anti-corruption campaigner Navalny was back in court on February 12 for his latest legal battle.
Navalny is accused of slandering a World War II veteran who took part in a promotional video in support of last year's constitutional amendments that cleared the way for Putin to run for two more terms in office after 2024, if he wants.
Meanwhile, Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, flew from Moscow to Frankfurt in a sign that -- following her brief detention recently -- she might be concerned for her safety amid a sweeping crackdown in Russia on Navalny allies.
German magazine Der Spiegel, citing sources, reported Navalnaya arrived in the country for "private" matters.
A court in Moscow on February 10 ordered the arrest of Leonid Volkov, an exiled ally of Navalny's, in a move seen as part of an effort by authorities to squelch demonstrations demanding the release of Navalny.
Russian security agents -- including one allegedly linked to Navalny's poisoning -- tailed another Kremlin critic, Vladimir Kara-Murza, in the days and weeks before his two near-fatal poisoning illnesses, investigative group Bellingcat said this week in a new report.
Kara-Murza, who lives in suburban Washington, has built strong alliances with senior U.S. lawmakers, believes he was targeted for his support for the U.S. Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law targeting alleged Russian human-rights abusers with sanctions.
Kyrgyzstan's Ex-Grand Mufti Implicated In Corruption Case Released From Custody
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's former top Muslim cleric, Grand Mufti Maksatbek Hajji Toktomushev, has been released from custody and ordered not to leave Bishkek while investigations are carried out over allegations of corruption.
A court in Bishkek ruled late on February 11 that Toktomushev may be released as long as he does not leave the capital until the case goes to trial.
Dozens of Toktomushev's supporters rallied in front of the court building while the former grand mufti's pretrial restrictions were being defined.
On February 10, the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said Toktomushev was suspected of being involved in the alleged misuse of funds raised by worshipers for a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca later this year.
Toktomushev, who in his capacity was also head of Kyrgyzstan's Religious Directorate -- the state agency in charge of Islamic affairs -- had handed in his resignation over the affair on February 10.
The directorate's press office told RFE/RL that Toktomushev's place will be taken by his deputy until a replacement is elected.
The UKMK announced on February 10 that the directorate's chief accountant, whose identity was not disclosed at the time, had been arrested on suspicion of misusing the equivalent of almost $2 million raised by worshipers.
According to the UKMK, the accountant's arrest occurred on February 9 during an alleged attempt to bribe a UKMK officer.
On February 12, the Birinchi Mai district court sent the accountant, who was identified as Jenishbai Bekiev, to pretrial detention until April 10.
The directorate's press office has said that it won't publicly comment on the case until after the trial.
A majority of the Central Asian nation's population of 6 million are Sunni Muslims.
Turkmen Leader's Son Takes On New Roles; Rapid Rise Renews Talk Of Succession
ASHGABAT -- Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has appointed his son Serdar to the posts of deputy prime minister and chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber, renewing speculation the 63-year-old autocrat is grooming his son to be his successor.
State media outlets reported on February 12 that according to the presidential decrees signed the day before, Serdar Berdymukhammedov also became a member of the State Security Council.
The promotions come a year after the younger Berdymukhammedov assumed the post of minister of industry and construction. A year before that, he was promoted to the post of provincial governor.
The rapid rise of Berdymukhammedov's son, whose political career started in late 2016 when he became a lawmaker, appears to lay the groundwork for the 39-year-old to eventually take over the tightly controlled Central Asian state.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has run the former Soviet republic since 2006, tolerating no dissent and becoming the center of an elaborate personality cult. Turkmens often refer to him as "Arkadag" (The Protector).
Serdar Berdymukhammedov is often referred to in state media as "the son of the nation," and his appearances in television reports along with his father are called "the symbol of generations' continuance."
In his new job, Serdar Berdymukhammedov will supervise activities related to digitalization and the introduction of innovative technologies to the state and social infrastructure, as well as the health-care, education, financial and economic sectors, his father said in a televised statement.
Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the secretive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov.
Like his late predecessor, Berdymukhammedov has relied on subsidized prices for basic goods and utilities to help maintain his grip on power.
According to Human Rights Watch, Berdymukhammedov, "his relatives, and their associates control all aspects of public life, and the authorities encroach on private life."
Harsher Charges Revealed Against Jailed Belarusian Opposition Figures Kalesnikava, Znak
MINSK -- Opposition sources say that the Belarusian authorities have added charges including conspiracy to seize state power and organizing extremism to the cases of jailed opposition figures Maryya Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak.
Both are among the detained ranking members of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus's disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.
News of the fresh prosecutions came after the first day of a Soviet-style "All-Belarusian People's Assembly" mounted by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to float possible reforms and development in a move that appears designed to buy him time amid unprecedented protests against his regime.
Lawyer Dzmitry Layeuski and the Telegram channel of jailed would-be presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka disclosed the emergence of the new charges against Kalesnikava and Znak, which could carry prison sentences of up to 12 years.
The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept its results.
Western governments have also repeatedly called for the release of senior opposition leaders and thousands of protesters jailed during months of crackdown on the street demonstrations against Lukashenka.
Kalesnikava and Znak were arrested in September and Kalesnikava was charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country's national security via the media and the Internet after she urged people to protest the official election results.
Znak was previously charged with public calls for actions aimed at harming the country's security, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, and defense.
Both have rejected the charges as politically motivated.
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.
Mass demonstrations engulfed the country after Lukashenka claimed victory and a sixth consecutive term.
Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran for president after her husband was jailed while trying to mount a candidacy of his own, left the country for Lithuania shortly after the election due to security concerns.
Thousands of Belarusians, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the "falsification" of the vote and postelection crackdown.
The 66-year-old Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, opened the two-day "People's Assembly" on February 11 by saying that a foreign "blitzkrieg" on Belarus had failed.
The U.S. Embassy in Belarus issued a statement on February 11 saying that the assembly was "neither genuine nor inclusive of Belarusian views and therefore does not address the country's ongoing political crisis."
- By RFE/RL
HRW Joins Other Rights Watchdogs In Condemning Uzbek Blogger's Arrest
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has joined other rights organizations in condemning the arrest of Uzbek video blogger Otabek Sattoriy, calling the extortion case against him "dubious" and urging the Central Asian country's government to drop all charges and release him.
"Otabek Sattoriy's blogging on sensitive issues such as alleged corruption and farmers' rights has put him in local authorities' crosshairs," Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at HRW, said in a statement on February 12.
"Uzbek authorities should release Sattoriy, drop the charges for lack of evidence, and respect and protect freedom of expression," Rittmann added.
The 40-year-old founder and editor of the video blog Halq Fikiri (People's Opinion), which is streamed on his Telegram and YouTube channels, was detained in late January.
A court in the southern city of Termiz on February 1 placed him in pretrial detention on suspicion of extorting a new mobile phone from the head of a local bazaar.
HRW said in the statement that the authorities claim that Sattoriy extorted a new phone from the head of a local bazaar in Termiz, while his relatives and a colleague insist that unknown individuals attacked Sattoriy in late December when he was trying to collect material at the bazaar for his report about irregularities there.
The head of the bazaar later agreed to replace the broken phone and brought it to Sattoriy in late January, and several men in plain clothes detained the blogger right after that, HRW said,citing Sattoriy's relatives.
Sattoriy's lawyer has called the case against his client "fabricated."
"Targeting Sattoriy with questionable criminal charges is a blow to freedom of speech," HRW's Rittmann said. "The authorities should release Sattoriy from pretrial detention and, unless they can present any credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing, drop the case."
The Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office, however, said on February 11 that the criminal case against Sattoriy was "lawful."
Since Shavkat Mirziyoev became president in late 2016, the Uzbek authorities have promised to ease media restrictions put in place by his predecessor, longtime authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, that earned the government a reputation as a chronic abuser of rights.
Despite some improvements, rights groups say the media is still being kept on a short leash.
Sattoriy has been known as a harsh critic of regional Governor Tora Bobolov. In one of his recent postings, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the "crackdown."
The HRW statement comes on the heels of similar reports from Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, which have also condemned Sattoriy's arrest and demanded his release.
Since his arrest, Sattoriy has already been tried in a separate case and was found guilty of defamation and distributing false information. According to the Prosecutor-General's Office, the blogger was ordered to pay a fine for the offenses.
Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
Gas Leak Suspected In Russian Supermarket Blast
A supermarket in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz was engulfed by a powerful explosion before opening hours early on February 12, causing major damage but apparently no deaths.
Authorities suggested it was caused by a gas leak, an all-too frequent danger from suspect infrastructure and sometimes lax safety enforcement in the sprawling country of around 144 million people.
The building housing the Magnit supermarket was said to have been nearly completely destroyed.
A security guard who was said to be sleeping inside the store at the time of the blast and found by rescuers reportedly escaped mostly unharmed.
"I fell asleep when it was nearly morning and woke up from the explosion," the guard said afterward, according to RIA Novosti. "I crawled out of there somehow."
The Interior Ministry said the market "exploded...it was like a house of cards" and said the cause was unknown.
But later reports suggested a gas explosion was to blame.
Based on reporting by Current Time and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Back In Court, Navalny Tells Russian Judge To 'Stop Disgracing Yourself'
A court appearance by jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has resumed with a testy exchange with the judge in a slander case involving a World War II veteran, resuming a trial that was interrupted last week.
The anti-corruption campaigner has described the slander case as a fabricated Kremlin public-relations campaign meant to harass and discredit him.
Navalny is accused of slandering a World War II veteran who took part in the promotional video in support of last year's constitutional amendments that cleared the way for President Vladimir Putin to run for two more terms in office after 2024, if he wants.
As the process resumed on February 12, Navalny and his lawyers expressed frustration that while filming was prohibited at the hearing, some national media outlets received video feeds taken from the courtroom.
"Let's ask a normal journalist if any of them received the video as well," Navalny said.
"You don't have a right to ask questions," the judge responded.
"I am very frustrated and want you to pay attention to the situation that every time a witness is unable to answer my questions, you stop the hearing and let the witness leave the courtroom so that he's instructed outside what to say and how to answer my questions," Navalny fired back.
He accused the judge of having a "poor knowledge of the Criminal Code" and "speaking like a parrot," according to a TV Dozhd account retweeted to Navalny's Twitter feed.
"I believe that you need to stop disgracing yourself and arranging a political theater, and take some courses," Navalny was quoted as saying.
The trial centers on a social-media post from June in which Navalny, one of Putin's most vocal critics, described those in the video as "traitors," "people with no conscience," and "corrupt lackeys."
Russia's Investigative Committee argues the comments contained "deliberately false information denigrating the honor and dignity" of the World War II veteran.
If convicted, Navalny faces a fine, community service, or jail time.
The trial was interrupted last week after the plaintiff, Ignat Artyomenko, said he was feeling ill and was taken away by ambulance.
Before he was rushed away, the 94-year-old veteran said he wanted a public apology from Navalny, who said he believed that the elderly man was being used "like a doll on a chain."
Navalny also suggested Artyomenko, who attended the proceedings by video from his home, was mentally unable to follow the trial.
"You have perverted criminal law, and now you are using Artyomenko to defend the thief Putin and his friends with [Artyomenko's] medals," Navalny told the court.
The trial comes after the Kremlin critic on February 2 was ordered to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison for violating the terms of probation imposed from a widely criticized 2014 embezzlement case.
Navalny could not report to parole officers because he was recovering from a coma in Germany after being poisoned with a nerve-agent in Siberia last August, in an attack he blames on Putin and his security agents. The Kremlin dismisses the allegations.
Navalny was immediately arrested upon his return to Russia in January, triggering nationwide protests and a crackdown on his allies and supporters.
- By RFE/RL
EU, WHO Announce Vaccine Program For Six Eastern European Countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union are launching a 40 million euro ($48.5 million) regional program to help six Eastern European countries with COVID-19 vaccinations.
The program will involve Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the EU and UN health agency said on February 11.
"By strengthening preparedness and readiness of the countries for vaccinations, this program will prepare the countries for the effective receipt and administering of vaccines, including those from COVAX and through vaccine-sharing mechanisms with EU member states," the European Commission said.
COVAX is a global initiative aimed at providing shots to poorer countries.
The six countries are part of the Eastern Partnership that seeks to strengthen ties between the EU and several Eastern European states.
The EU will pay for the vaccine program over a three-year period while the WHO will help implement it.
Navalny Lawyer Calls New Russian Charges Against Her 'Revenge'
Lyubov Sobol, a prominent lawyer for jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has been indicted on fresh charges she labeled political "revenge" for daring to speak to an alleged security officer behind the assassination attempt against the Kremlin critic.
The case against Sobol, who is under house arrest for allegedly violating COVID-19 restrictions during recent anti-government protests, comes amid a widening crackdown on Navalny's allies and supporters.
Using her Facebook account, Sobol's team wrote on February 11 that the Investigative Committee case against the lawyer related to her December detention, when she and journalists attempted to speak to a security agent at his home.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, has been linked to the August poisoning of Navalny, which Western countries say was carried out with a military-grade nerve agent.
In December, Navalny published a recording of what he said was a phone conversation with Kudryavtsev. The man speaking with Navalny in the 49-minute phone call, in which the anti-corruption campaigner posed as an FSB official, described details of the operation to poison him.
The FSB and the Kremlin have denied any role in the poisoning.
According to the Investigative Committee, Sobol and others used or threatened to use violence as they tried to gain entry into the apartment to speak with Kudryavtsev about the poisoning. The charges were brought by Kudryavtsev's mother-in-law.
In the Facebook post, Sobol's team described the case as political "revenge" for the lawyer not being afraid to ask questions of the alleged assassin.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon his returned to Russia from Germany, where he received life-saving treatment after the nerve-agent poisoning.
The detention sparked outrage across the country, drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets. At least 10,000 people were detained.
A court later ordered Navalny to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison for violating terms of his probation while in Germany in a 2014 fraud case widely considered political.
Most of Navalny's allies have been detained, fined, put under house arrest, or forced to leave the country in recent weeks.
- By RFE/RL
RFE/RL Accuses Russia Of Violating Treaty Through 'Foreign Agent' Law
PRAGUE -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says Russia is violating a bilateral investment treaty by targeting the organization’s news operations within Russia under its controversial “foreign agent” law.
The assertion, made public by RFE/RL in a statement issued on February 11, comes as Russian regulators have hit the company with a series of fines in recent weeks.
Media regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded RFE/RL comply with strict requirements to label content published and broadcast within Russia as financed by foreign sources. Those demands include prominent 15-second disclaimers shown at the start of every television, radio, or video program, be it online or broadcast.
RFE/RL, one of three foreign news organizations to be labeled as a “foreign agent” and the only one facing fines, has not complied. In response, Roskomnadzor has served RFE/RL with 260 notices of violations. When they go through the court system in the coming weeks, the total fines levied will amount to almost $1 million.
In its statement, the company said Moscow’s move violated a bilateral investment treaty signed in 1994 between Russia and the Czech Republic that obligates Moscow to treat Czech investments in Russia fairly. It called on Russia to negotiate to try to resolve the dispute.
If Russia is not willing to do so, the treaty allows for international arbitration proceedings against Moscow, the company said.
“These punitive measures by the Russian government are a nervous reaction aimed at driving RFE/RL out of business at a time when our audience in Russia is skyrocketing,” said Daisy Sindelar, the organization’s acting president and editor in chief.
“We intend to use every legal avenue available to defend our operations in Russia, so we can continue to deliver the accurate, unflinching journalism our audiences expect and depend on," she said.
Prague HQ
Funded by the U.S. Congress, RFE/RL is a private nonprofit organization incorporated under Delaware law in the United States. RFE/RL’s global headquarters have been based in the Czech Republic since moving there from Munich in 1995, and its operations there are executed through a Czech legal entity called a "branch."
For that reason, the company argues its investments in Russia are covered under the 1994 treaty between Prague and Moscow.
With dozens of employees in Prague, about 50 full-time staff in Russia, and close to 300 freelance reporters across the country, RFE/RL’s Russian-language operations -- TV, radio, and online -- make it one of the largest independent foreign news organizations within Russia.
Press watchdogs have said the effort appears aimed at closing down all of RFE/RL’s operations in Russia, which currently reach nearly 6.7 million people a week.
First passed in 2012 and expanded several times since, the “foreign agent” law gives authorities the power to brand nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, and news media deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as “foreign agents,” a label that carries pejorative Soviet-era connotations.
The law subjects these organizations to bureaucratic scrutiny and spot checks and requires them to attach the “foreign agent” label to their publications. They must also report on their spending and funding.
Among other things, the law requires certain news organizations that receive foreign funding to label content within Russia as being produced by a “foreign agent.” It also puts RFE/RL journalists at risk for criminal prosecution.
RFE/RL executives have said Russian regulators singled out the organization for punishment as compared with other foreign news organizations. The only other news organizations to be hit with the “foreign agent” designation and ordered to label their content, but not yet fined, are Voice of America and a small Czech outlet called Medium-Orient -- neither of which currently have a physical presence in the country.
Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers called for new sanctions against Moscow if the Kremlin moves to enforce the fines and stringent restrictions.
Since early in Vladimir Putin’s presidency, the Kremlin has steadily tightened the screws on independent media. The country is ranked 149th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders.
- By RFE/RL
Ukrainian Supreme Court To Hear Appeal Against Sanctions On Three Opposition TV Stations
The Cassation Administrative Court of the Ukrainian Supreme Court next month will hear an appeal against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decree to block three TV channels linked to Russia.
The court scheduled the hearing to start on March 15, the Supreme Court said on February 11.
Zelenskiy's government decided on February 2 to shut several television channels controlled by a Russia-linked magnate, a move supported by Washington but questioned by Brussels and slammed by Moscow.
The Supreme Court has already heard two other appeals against the decision, rejecting one and returned a second one to the plaintiff to eliminate some technical flaws from the motion.
Zelenskiy last week defended the decision in a meeting with a group of ambassadors from the G7 and European Union, telling them on February 3 in Kyiv that the decision to block 112, NewsOne, and ZIK channels was justified by the need to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the information arena.”
Relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated in 2014 after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine. The conflict, now in its seventh year, has killed more than 13,200 people.
The now-blocked channels are believed to belong to Viktor Medvedchuk, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk supports the Opposition Platform for Life, a political party that is popular in Ukraine's southeast and holds a minority in the Ukrainian parliament.
According to Zelenskiy, the sanctioned TV channels have long been actively used for disinformation campaigns in Ukraine aimed at undermining reforms and Ukraine's course towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
The three blocked TV channels, which broadcast mainly in Ukrainian, issued a statement denouncing the ban as “political repression.” Medvedchuk called the presidential order illegal.
The U.S. Embassy voiced support for Ukraine’s efforts “to counter Russia’s malign influence, in line with Ukrainian law, in defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the blocking of the three stations as a violation of media freedom and of international standards.
The EU questioned the move, suggesting it could sacrifice media freedom in Ukraine.
With reporting by Interfax
Uzbek Authorities Say Case Against Jailed Blogger 'Lawful'; Rights Groups Blast 'Fabricated Charges'
TASHKENT -- The Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office has said a criminal case against Otabek Sattoriy, a video blogger critical of the regional government, is "lawful," while rights watchdogs say the case is fabricated and have urged Tashkent to immediately release him.
In its February 11 statement, the Prosecutor-General's Office said that special inspections had not revealed any wrongdoings by the Interior Ministry's directorate in the southern Surxondaryo region, where the 40-year-old founder and editor of the video blog Halq Fikiri (People's Opinion) was arrested in lateJanuary.
"A criminal case launched against Otabek Sattoriy is based on complaints related to seven episodes, which are currently being investigated," the statement said, without giving any other details of the case.
The statement added that since his arrest on January 29, Sattoriy, who streamed on Telegram and YouTube, has already been tried in a separate case and was found guilty of defamation, insult, and distribution of false information. According to the Prosecutor-General's Office, a court in the city of Termiz ordered the blogger to pay a fine after finding him guilty.
Sattoriy's relatives told RFE/RL earlier that he was charged with extorting money and stealing mobile phones from unspecified individuals. If found guilty, Sattoriy may face up to 10 years in prison.
Sattoriy has been known as a harsh critic of the regional governor Tora Bobolov. In one of his recent postings, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the "crackdown."
Media-freedom watchdogs have condemned Sattoriy's arrest.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on February 11 that the charges against the blogger were aimed at silencing his reporting on local corruption.
"This is yet another attempt to silence critical voices in Uzbekistan," Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in the statement.
"We firmly condemn the use of fabricated charges with the aim of covering up local corruption, and we call on the authorities to release this blogger at once and to drop all proceedings against him," Cavelier added.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists earlier this month called for Sattoriy's release, saying that "the persecution of bloggers and citizen journalists for their reporting on corruption violates their constitutional rights."
RSF said that despite a "relative improvement" in press freedom since President Shavkat Mirziyoev took over the Central Asian country in 2016, "critical journalists and bloggers are still often imprisoned, and extortion charges are still often used to silence dissent."
Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
Moldova's Parliament Rejects Government Lineup Put Forward By President
Moldovan lawmakers rejected President Maia Sandu's choice of a new government on February 11, paving the way for an early election that pro-Western Sandu has welcomed as an opportunity to consolidate her power against the Moscow-leaning Socialist party.
A former World Bank economist, Sandu defeated Socialist Igor Dodon in a presidential election in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.
But she has accused parliament, which is still dominated by Dodon's Socialists and their allies, of attempting to sabotage her presidency and sees snap polls as a way of cementing her hold on power.
Sandu last month nominated Natalia Gavrilita, 43, as prime minister. Gavrilita was finance minister during Sandu's short-lived tenure as prime minister in 2019.
Gavrilita on February 11 failed to garner a single vote in parliament.
Under Moldovan law, Sandu is allowed to nominate a candidate to be prime minister, who has to be confirmed by parliament. If parliament rejects her choice twice in the space of 45 days, Sandu can dissolve parliament and set a date for a new election.
The November presidential election was seen as a referendum on two divergent visions for the future of the Eastern European country of 3.5 million people that is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.
Since the November election, Sandu has called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova's Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniester, prompting the Kremlin to warn it could lead to "serious destabilization.”
Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with the European Union and, especially, neighboring EU member Romania.
Most of Moldova was part of Romania until World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and a majority of its population is ethnic Romanian.
With reporting by Reuters and Interfax
- By RFE/RL
Bellingcat: Alleged Navalny Assailant Tailed Another Poisoned Kremlin Critic
Russian security agents -- including one allegedly linked to the poisoning of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny -- tailed another Kremlin critic in the days and weeks before his two near-fatal poisoning illnesses, the investigative group Bellingcat said in a new report.
The Bellingcat investigation, published on February 11, focuses on two incidents in Moscow in which Vladimir Kara-Murza, a veteran opposition activist who has lobbied Western governments for sanctions against Russian officials, nearly died after suffering what his doctors described as toxicity from an “unidentified substance.”
Previous reporting by RFE/RL documented how Kara-Murza’s mysterious illnesses have been discussed at the top levels of the White House, the State Department, and the U.S. intelligence community, including involvement on the part of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Citing Russian travel records it obtained, Bellingcat found that in the run-up to both the May 2015 and February 2017 incidents, Kara-Murza had been tailed by agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
One of the FSB officers whose travel overlaps with Kara-Murza’s, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, was previously linked by Bellingcat and partners to the near-fatal poisoning of Navalny in August 2020 in Siberia.
German doctors later concluded that Navalny had been targeted with a substance related to Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent that had been used against former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in March 2018.
"It is curious that all these people who are now standing up to [Russian] authorities and represent a political danger are going through a sudden spate of illnesses,” Kara-Murza told RFE/RL’s Russian Service. “It has to be said that this method [of intimidation] no longer works because no one believes any more that the current authorities are unconnected with these poisonings.”
In December 2020, Navalny published a recording of what he and Bellingcat said was a phone conversation with Kudryavtsev. The man speaking with Navalny in the 49-minute phone call, in which Navalny posed as an FSB official, described details of the operation to poison the opposition politician.
U.S. Alliances
The new Bellingcat investigation states that Kudryavtsev’s travel overlapped with Kara-Murza’s on the activist's trip to Russia’s Kaliningrad region two months before Kara-Murza’s first illness, in 2015, and on a visit to the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod in late 2016, around two months before Kara-Murza again fell ill with poisoning symptoms.
The Bellingcat report could heighten pressure on the U.S. government to release additional information on what it knows about the alleged poisonings of Kara-Murza, who believes he was targeted for his support for the U.S. Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law targeting alleged Russian human-rights abusers with sanctions.
Kara-Murza, who lives in suburban Washington, D.C., has built strong alliances with senior U.S. lawmakers, including the late Republican Senator John McCain, at whose funeral in 2018 Kara-Murza served as a pall bearer.
As RFE/RL previously reported, Kara-Murza sued the Justice Department to obtain records on his case held by the FBI, which launched a criminal investigation into his matter as a case of “intentional poisoning.”
In response to the lawsuit, the Justice Department has provided Kara-Murza with hundreds of pages of FBI records related to his poisoning and testing that was done on biological samples he provided.
But the testing reflected in those records does not include screenings for potentially exotic poisonings, but rather standard toxicological tests for narcotics and other substances, a toxicologist who reviewed the records previously told RFE/RL.
FBI correspondence and lab reports seen by RFE/RL show that officials also sought the expertise of the national laboratories under the auspices of the U.S. Energy Department, which conduct nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons research, among other things.
The records released so far indicate that U.S. labs tested for radioactive substances, but do not include the results of such testing.
"It's possible that the national-security rationale for withholding them is embarrassment over an inability to determine what agent was used to poison Vladimir," Stephen Rademaker, who is representing Kara-Murza in his lawsuit, told RFE/RL in December 2020. "But given the enormous technical capabilities of the U.S. government, we think it's more likely that they did reach some conclusions about the agent used to poison him.”
The new findings should add pressure on Western governments to impose sanctions on Russian officials, Kara-Murza said, something that is under active discussion in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.
"The story of my poisonings has shown how much the incumbent Kremlin regime is afraid of these personal sanctions, that this is their Achilles heel, because the entire modus operandi of the Putin regime comes down to embezzling funds in Russia only to stash or spend the stolen riches abroad, in the West,” he said.
- By RFE/RL
Bulgaria Condemned For Refusal To Probe Journalist's Violent Arrest
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the beating of Bulgarian freelance journalist Dimitar Kenarov while in police custody in September 2020.
“We condemn the Sofia police’s refusal to reexamine this journalist’s arbitrary and violent arrest, and the absurd and dystopian narrative, worthy of George Orwell, being used by the authorities,” Pavol Szalai, the head of the Paris-based media freedom watchdog’s European Union and Balkans desk, said in a statement on February 11.
Szalai said a new independent investigation is needed to “establish the facts and to ensure that the authorities do not tolerate such behavior towards journalists covering demonstrations.”
Kenarov, who has worked for international media such as the BBC and RFE/RL, was detained while covering an anti-government protest in Sofia on September 2.
The journalist was “badly beaten, handcuffed, and held for more than five hours without being able to speak to a lawyer,” RSF said.
But Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev’s office on January 22 refused to open an investigation into the violent arrest, according to the Association of European Journalists.
RSF cited findings of a police investigation according to which “Kenarov was ‘invited’ to the police station after provoking a difference of opinion with police officers.”
The police “conducted an internal investigation into suspicions that police officers hit Kenarov but, according to the prosecutor’s office, were unable to identify those responsible,” according to the group, which noted that other journalists were the victims of police violence during the September 2020 rally.
Bulgaria is ranked 111th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index -- the lowest place among the EU's 27 member nations.
Kyrgyz Tycoon Fined $3,000 After Pleading Guilty To Corruption In Funneling Hundreds Of Millions Abroad
BISHKEK -- The former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov, who was placed on the U.S. Magnitsky sanctions list for his involvement in the illegal funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars abroad, has been fined just over $3,000 after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
The Bishkek Birinchi Mai district court ruled on February 11 that, because Matraimov had paid 2 billion soms ($23.7 million) to the State Treasury in damages caused by illegal activities and cooperated with investigators and testified against two top customs officials, he would receive a mitigated punishment of 260,000 soms ($3,088) and no jail time.
After the court's ruling was handed down, Matraimov quickly left the courtroom while refusing to comment to journalists.
Matraimov was detained on corruption charges in October and placed under house arrest.
ALSO READ: Plunder And Patronage In The Heart Of Central Asia
Kyrgyz authorities said at the time that he had agreed to pay compensation for the damage he caused. Days later, Kyrgyzstan's government announced an economic amnesty for individuals convicted or suspected in economic crimes.
In June 2019, an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan by Chinese-born Uyghur businessman Aierken Saimaiti, who was assassinated in Istanbul in November 2019.
In early December, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had slapped sanctions on Matraimov for his role in a vast corruption and money laundering scheme.
The $700 million scheme involved a company controlled by Matraimov bribing officials to skirt customs fees and regulations, as well as engaging in money laundering, "allowing for maximum profits," the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions fell under the Magnitsky Act, a piece of legislation passed by the United States in 2012 that penalizes individuals responsible for committing human rights violations or acts of significant corruption.
Recent reports said that Raimbek Matraimov had changed his last name to Ismailov, and that his wife had changed her surname into Sulaimanova, which was viewed by many as a move to evade the U.S.- imposed sanctions.
Last month, a spokesperson for Kyrgyzstan's state registration service, Damira Azimbaeva, confirmed to RFE/RL that both Matraimov and his wife, Uulkan Turgunova, had changed their surnames.
There have been no official statements from lawyers for Matraimov's family to explain the decision to change surnames.
Russian Court Gives Jehovah's Witness More Than Seven Years In Prison
ABINSK, Russia -- A court in Russia's Krasnodar region has sentenced a 63-year-old Jehovah's Witness to 7 1/2 years in prison, a decision immediately condemned by the U.S. State Department.
The sentence is the harshest since authorities launched a campaign against the religious group after it was officially labeled as extremist and banned in the country in 2017.
The Abinsk district court on February 10 found Aleksandr Ivshin guilty of the "organization of an extremist group's activities," and sentenced him the same day.
Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses told RFE/RL on February 11 that this was the "harshest sentence ever given to a Jehovah's Witness in Russia" and is "equal to life imprisonment" given Ivshin's age.
"Aleksandr Ivshin is an old person and has medical problems. In fact, he was handed a prison term that might be longer that the time he will live," Sivulsky said.
Ivshin pleaded not guilty, saying that his life principles are based on Bible teachings that do not include violence and extremism.
Investigators say that Ivshin organized online Bible studies with other members of the group, which according to them, is a crime since the religious group is officially banned in the country.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on February 11 that the United States condemns Russia's continued crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses and other peaceful religious minorities in the strongest possible terms.
Also on February 10, police in Moscow and the surrounding region searched 15 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses and detained several of them for questioning. Three of them remain in custody.
Meanwhile, the Kursk regional court in Russia's west on February 10 again rejected the early release request of a jailed Danish member of the Jehovah's Witnesses who has been serving a 6 year prison term since 2017, the religious organization said.
For decades, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.
The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejection of military service, and not celebrating national and religious holidays or birthdays.
Since the faith was outlawed in Russia, many Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Russia and the Russia-annexed Ukrainian Black Sea Crimean Peninsula.
According to the group, dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses were either convicted of extremism or are in pretrial detention.
In September 2019, Washington banned two high-ranking regional officers from Russia's Investigative Committee from entering the United States over the alleged torture of seven detainees who are Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses who've been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners.
No Sputnik Shot For Ukraine As Kyiv Bans Registration Of COVID Vaccines From 'Aggressor States'
KYIV -- Ukraine's government has banned the registration of vaccines for COVID-19 from "aggressor states," a designation it has applied to Russia since 2015.
The government made the decision on February 8 but did not announce it publicly until February 10, when it appeared on the government's website.
"The registration of vaccines or other medical immunobiological medicines specific to the prevention of the acute respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus...[that were] developed and/or produced in a nation recognized by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine as an aggressor-state, is banned," the government's ruling says.
Talking about the possible use of Russian vaccines, Zelenskiy said last week that "Ukrainians are not guinea pigs" and that the government didn't "have the right to conduct experiments on our people."
Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been tense since Russia forcibly seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and threw its support behind pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east, where the ongoing conflict has claimed more than 13,200 lives.
The ban comes despite criticism of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the government's sputtering vaccination plan.
Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Ukraine would begin the first phase of the vaccination campaign later this month even though it has yet to receive a single dose of any vaccine.
On February 10, the Health Ministry said that China's Sinovac Biotech had officially applied to get its COVID-19 vaccine registered in Ukraine. Kyiv has already agreed to buy 1.9 million doses from the Chinese company.
Zelenskiy said last week that his government had agreed to get 20 million vaccine doses from India’s Serum Institute and the global COVAX scheme, adding that, by early 2022, at least half of the country's 41 million population will be vaccinated.
Ukraine has also agreed to get COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novavах.
As of February 11, the number of registered coronavirus cases in Ukraine was 1,258,094, including 24,058 deaths.
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