Reports from eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina suggest that many Bosniaks boycotted a rerun election in the city of Srebrenica on February 21 after local authorities claimed fraud in November voting.

The results were almost certain to be challenged and exacerbate already high political tensions in the area.

Ethnic Serbs dominated the balloting in November. But Bosnia's Central Election Commission concluded that irregularities like multiple voting and caches of pre-marked ballots before voting began had compromised its legitimacy.

Bosnian Muslims had vowed to boycott the rerun in Srebrenica because, they said, officials hadn't done enough to rectify the problems.

Moreover, the Bosniak parties complained, officials weren't including mail-in ballots in the new election. Many diaspora Bosnians were unable to vote in November after mail-in ballots were distributed late.

They vowed to appeal to Bosnia's Constitutional Court to contest the new voting.

"We expect the BiH Constitutional Court to uphold our appeal, which would allow all Bosniaks from Srebrenica to vote, wherever they may be," Sadik Ahmetovic, president of an initiative uniting Bosniak parties called Moja Adresa (My Address), told RFE/RL's Balkan Service. "In this respect, we expect new elections to be called in which every citizen of Srebrenica would have the right to choose their [preferred] candidates. That's the only way the elections in Srebrenica will be legitimate and democratic."

Bosnia comprises two entities: the Muslim and Croat federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.

Srebrenica is regarded as a potential flashpoint for ethnic tensions because it was the scene of the murder of around 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces late in the Bosnian War. The massacre was the most notorious act of genocide in post-World War II Europe.

The country continues to struggle domestically and internationally under an ethnically based deal that ended fighting among the sides in 1995.

A rerun of the November voting was also being held in the northern city of Doboj in February 21.

President Joe Biden's national-security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on February 21 that the new administration has "begun to communicate with the Iranians" on the issue of detained Americans.

Speaking on a weekend current-affairs program, Sullivan said Washington's "strong message to the Iranians will be that...we will not accept a long-term proposition where they continue to hold Americans in an unjust and unlawful manner."

The United States has repeatedly called on Iran to help locate former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared when he traveled to the Iranian resort of Kish Island in 2007 and is presumed dead.

At least four other American-Iranians are thought to still be in Iranian custody, including businessmen Emad Sharghi and Siamak Namazi.

"It will be a significant priority of this administration to get those Americans safely back home," Sullivan said.

The United States and other Western governments have long accused Tehran of detaining dual nationals who visit Iran and other foreign nationals -- frequently on dubious espionage charges -- in order to use them as bargaining chips for prisoner swaps.

"We intend to very directly communicate with the Iranians about the complete and utter outrage, the humanitarian catastrophe that is the unjust, unlawful detention of American citizens in Iran," Sullivan said on CBS's Face The Nation program. "We have begun to communicate with the Iranians on this issue, yes. And we will continue to do so as we go forward."

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has warned that the United States will respond within "weeks, not months" to a suspected Russian cyberattack, discovered in December, that targeted branches of the U.S. government and other key institutions.

Sullivan was talking about the breach -- which began with malicious code slipped into updates of the SolarWinds software used by the government and thousands of businesses -- on CBS's Face The Nation program on February 21.

He said the response was likely to include "a mix of tools seen and unseen" and "it will not simply be sanctions."

"We're in the process of working through that, and we will ensure that Russia understands where the United States draws the line on this kind of activity," Sullivan said.

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Experts have called the so-called SolarWinds breach one of the biggest and most sophisticated cyberattacks in history and suggested it could only have been pulled off by a state actor.

It targeted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for border security and protecting the country from online attacks, as well as the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, in addition to thousands of other entities.

It was traced back to infiltrated network management software dating back to at least June.

Intelligence and industry sources have blamed it on Russian hackers.

Moscow has denied any involvement, saying in a statement on December 14 that Russia “does not conduct offensive operations in the cyberdomain.”

"First of all, we have asked the intelligence community to do further work to sharpen the attribution that the last administration made about precisely how this hack occurred, what the extent of the damage is, what the scope and scale of the intrusion is, and we are in the process of working through that now," Sullivan told CBS. "And then what I have said is that it will be weeks, not months, before we have a response prepared."

Suspected Russian government hackers behind the massive intrusion of government and private company networks discovered in December were able to gain access into Microsoft’s source code, a key building block for software or operating systems, the tech giant said on December 31.

Microsoft President Brad Smith in mid-February said the attack was "probably the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen."

A rise in U.S.-Russian tensions greeted the new U.S. presidency of Joe Biden but did not prevent his administration and Moscow from successfully negotiating a five-year extension of the New START arms-control treaty, their last remaining arms-control pact.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that he had warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that the new U.S. administration will respond "firmly in defense of U.S. interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies."

Blinken cited Russia's ongoing detention of two former U.S. Marines, Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, but the so-called SolarWinds cyberattack has also cast a long shadow over U.S.-Russian relations amid signals that a state actor like Russia was behind it.

But a State Department statement said Blinken also raised “Russian interference” in last year’s presidential election that brought Biden to the White House, Moscow’s “military aggression” in Ukraine and Georgia, the poisoning of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, and the SolarWinds hack of U.S. government systems.

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FireEye, a prominent cybersecurity company that was breached in connection with the SolarWinds incident, said targets included government, technology, and telecommunications companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

France's cybersecurity watchdog said this month that it had discovered a hack of French organizations that bore similarities to other attacks by a group linked to Russian intelligence.

In a report released on February 15, the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) said the hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in monitoring software sold by the Paris-based company Centreon.

The ANSSI said it discovered intrusions dating back to late 2017 and stretching into 2020.

It stopped short of identifying the hackers but said they had a similar modus operandi as the Russian cyberespionage group often nicknamed Sandworm and thought to have links with Russian military intelligence.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg expects the European Union to adopt new sanctions against Russia over the case of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

A step likely could be taken when European foreign ministers meet on February 22, he said in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

"We will discuss at the Foreign Affairs Council appropriate reactions to the case of Navalny," Schallenberg said.

This would likely include targeted measures against individuals and organizations under the bloc's newly created sanctions instrument to punish human rights violators.

Schallenberg said he expects "a broad majority of support" for sanctions among the EU's 27 members, but added the sanctions "have to be politically smart and legally watertight."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter on February 21 that “EU actions” will be discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on February 22.

Borrell said the courts in Russia continue to ignore a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asking the Russian government to free him.

A Moscow court on February 20 upheld Navalny’s prison sentence relating to his embezzlement conviction, but reduced the sentence by about 50 days considering time served. Later in the day, Navalny was fined a large sum on charges of insulting a World War II veteran.

Both trials were decried as politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested last month on his return from Germany where he was recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he and supporters say was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency said after talks in Iran on February 21 over Tehran's threat to curb international inspections that the two sides reached an agreement but that Iran will suspend a key document on cooperation and offer "less access" to inspectors.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi was speaking after meetings with senior Iranian officials to seek a compromise two days before Iran's deadline for the reductions if U.S. sanctions are not lifted.

In an assessment that will surely be challenged by Iran hawks in the West, Grossi said he got "a good, reasonable result" from his talks.

Grossi said Tehran will apply a law passed two months ago by the hard-line parliament suspending the so-called Additional Protocol of nuclear safeguards that allows IAEA inspectors to visit undeclared sites in Iran at short notice.

But he added that he had agreed with Iranian officials that the IAEA would continue necessary verification and monitoring activities for up to three months.

"What we agreed is something that is viable, [is] useful to bridge this gap that we are having, [that] salvages the situation now," Grossi said after his return from Iran.

"There is less access, let's face it. But still we were able to retain the necessary degree of monitoring and verification work," he said, calling it "a temporary technical understanding."

As Grossi was on his mission to Tehran, senior Iranian and U.S. officials each left open the possibility of fresh negotiations over a return by both sides to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal that traded sanctions relief for nuclear curbs.

But they also heaped pressure on the other to move first in the ongoing diplomatic standoff over Iran's ongoing pursuit of nuclear technology.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by Iranian Press TV as saying on February 21 that Tehran was open to such talks once all signatories were fulfilling all their obligations.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden's national-security adviser told a weekend news program on February 21 that "Iran has not yet responded" to the new U.S. administration's call for a return to the negotiating table.

Jake Sullivan reiterated that Biden is "prepared to go to the table to talk to the Iranians about how we get strict constraints back on their nuclear program."

"That offer still stands because we believe diplomacy is the best way to do it," Sullivan added.

Iran this month threatened to stop implementing "voluntary transparency measures" under the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) with major powers, including the Additional Protocol, by February 23. Tehran has said that the steps are reversible.

That prompted the visit by Grossi for talks with officials including Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's civilian Atomic Energy Organization.

The IAEA said last week that Grossi’s visit to Tehran was aimed at finding “a mutually agreeable solution for the IAEA to continue essential verification activities in the country.”

Zarif has said the IAEA's cameras will be shut off despite Grossi's visit in line with legislation passed by the hard-line parliament.

“This is not a deadline for the world. This is not an ultimatum,” Zarif told the state-run, English-language broadcaster Press TV in an interview aired during Grossi's visit. “This is an internal domestic issue between the parliament and the government.

"We are supposed to implement the laws of the country. And the parliament adopted legislation -- whether we like it or not.”

Iran's parliament in December approved a bill that would suspend part of UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if the country does not receive sanctions relief.

Iran has stressed it will not cease working with the IAEA or expel its inspectors.

Iran and six major powers struck the JCPOA over the objections of conservatives in both countries to trade curbs on Iran’s uranium-enrichment program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

But then-President Donald Trump in May 2018 pulled the United States out of the accord and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran, saying the terms were not strict enough.

In response, Tehran has gradually breached the deal by building up its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, refining uranium to a higher level of purity, and using advanced centrifuges for enrichment.

Biden's administration is exploring ways to return to the deal.

The White House said on February 19 that the European Union has floated the idea of a conversation among Iran and the six major powers that signed the deal.

On the same day, Biden said that Washington is prepared to reengage with the international partners that signed the deal on Iran's nuclear program.

The U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal two years ago has led to tensions among Western partners over the best way to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

On CBS television, Sullivan said on February 21 that Washington's call for "hard-headed, clear-eyed diplomacy" has had the result "that the script has been flipped" on Iran.

"It is Iran that is isolated now diplomatically, not the United States," he said. "And the ball is in their court."

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on February 20 that his country is considering the European Union’s offer to host a meeting between Iran and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Now we are considering [the offer] and are engaged in consultations with our other friends and partners like China and Russia,” Araqchi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

"However, we believe a U.S return to the nuclear accord does not require a meeting and the only way for it is to lift the sanctions," Araqchi said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, Press TV and IRNA

Russia has reported the first case of a bird-flu strain, H5N8, being passed from birds to humans.

Officials said seven workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia had been infected following an outbreak in December.

They are believed to have caught the virus from poultry on the farm.

Anna Popova, the head of Russia's health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on February 20 that authorities had alerted the World Health Organization (WHO).

Popova said all seven people infected by H5N8 were “now feeling better.”

She added that there was no sign of transmission between humans.

The WHO confirmed that it had been notified by Russia about the infections.

"We are in discussion with national authorities to gather more information and assess the public health impact of this event," a spokesperson said. "If confirmed, this would be the first time H5N8 infects people."

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Russia has approved its third domestically produced coronavirus vaccine, although large-scale clinical trials have yet to be completed.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on February 20 that registration of the CoviVac vaccine makes Russia “the only country today that already has three vaccines."

The first 120,000 doses of the vaccine, produced by the state-run Chumakov Center, are expected to reach Russians by March. By the end of the year, Russia aims to have some 20 million doses of CoviVac produced.

Scientists at the Chumakov Center claim their vaccine is more than 90 percent effective against COVID-19, although Phase 3 clinical trials aren't expected to start until April.

In August, Russia approved the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, prompting scientists around the world to question its safety and efficacy because it was registered before the results of Phase 3 studies were made available.

But in early February, peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet medical journal showed the two-dose regimen of Sputnik V was 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, about the same level as the leading Western-developed vaccines.

The vaccine has now been approved for use in some 30 countries.

A second vaccine developed in Russia, called EpiVacCorona, was registered in October and is expected to go into arms in March.

Even though Russia was early to register domestically produced vaccines, so far only about 2.2 million people in the country have received at least one of two necessary injections, or about 1.5 per cent of the population.

Unlike the Sputnik V vaccine and Western shots, the new CoviVac vaccine was developed using a whole inactive virus. A similar vaccine has been developed by China.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, Interfax, and Reuters

BISHKEK -- A court in Bishkek has ruled to place Raimbek Matraimov, the controversial former deputy chief of the Customs Service who was rearrested on corruption charges this week, in pretrial detention.

The Birinchi Mai district court on February 20 said Matraimov will remain in pretrial detention for at least two months.

Matraimov's lawyer, Madina Niyazova, said she would appeal the ruling.

Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said Matraimov was rearrested on February 18 due to an ongoing probe launched into money laundering.

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The move came days after hundreds rallied in the Kyrgyz capital, protesting a Bishkek court ruling last week that ordered a mitigated sentence and no jail time for Matraimov.

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, was fined just over $3,000 after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

The court said on February 11 that Matraimov had paid back around $24 million that disappeared through corruption schemes that he oversaw.

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 subsequently assassinated in Istanbul in November 2019.

On February 15, a day after the protests, the UKMK said the criminal case against Matraimov would resume if allegations are confirmed that he has numerous properties in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, and Russia.

The estimated $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 U.S. Treasury Department said.

Recent reports said that the 49-year-old Matraimov had changed his last name to Ismailov, and that his wife, Uulkan Turgunova, had changed her family name to Sulaimanova in a move seen as an attempt to evade the U.S.- imposed sanctions.

Last month, Damira Azimbaeva, a spokesperson for Kyrgyzstan's state registration service, confirmed to RFE/RL that both Matraimov and his wife had changed their surnames.

There have been no official statements from lawyers for Matraimov's family to explain the name change.

KYIV -- Ukrainians have marked the seventh anniversary of the shooting deaths of dozens of participants in the Euromaidan anti-government protests that toppled the country's Russia-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014.

The commemorations honored those who were killed in the capital, Kyiv, during clashes with Yanukovych's security forces on February 18-20, 2014.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, laid flowers at the so-called Monument of the Heavenly Hundred in Kyiv's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) on February 20.

"Eternal memory to all those who died for the future of Ukraine," Zelenskiy said at the ceremony.

Gatherings were held across Ukraine on February 20 to commemorate those killed during the Euromaidan protests.

• RFE/RL

Ukraine is marking the seventh anniversary of the bloody end of the mass street protests that ousted Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych and in which some 100 people were killed, most of them between February 18-20, 2014.

Some parts of Ukraine began honoring the slain demonstrators two days earlier, on the day when the shootings started.

The Euromaidan movement began in November 2013 when protesters gathered on the central square in Kyiv to protest Yanukovych's decision not to sign a crucial trade accord with the European Union. Instead, he sought closer economic ties with Russia.

Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured as a result of violent crackdowns by authorities against protesters.

Shunning a deal backed by the West and Russia to end the standoff, Yanukovych abandoned power and fled Kyiv on February 21, 2014.

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The former president, who was secretly flown to Russia and remains there, denies that he ordered police to fire on protesters, saying that the violence was the result of a “planned operation” to overthrow his government.

In March 2014, shortly after Yanukovych's downfall, Russian military forces seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula -- a precursor to the Kremlin's illegal annexation of the territory through a hastily organized and widely discredited referendum.

Russia also has supported pro-Russia separatists who are fighting Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine.

More than 13,200 people have been killed in that conflict since April 2014.

YEREVAN -- Thousands of protesters have rallied in the Armenian capital to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian over his handling of a six-week war with Azerbaijan last year.

Demonstrators gathered on February 20 in Freedom Square in central Yerevan under a heavy police presence shouting, "Armenia without Nikol!" and "Nikol traitor!"

Pashinian has refused calls to step down but raised the possibility of holding early parliamentary elections.

Pashinian, who swept to power amid nationwide protests in 2018, has come under fire since agreeing to a Moscow-brokered deal with Azerbaijan that took effect on November 10. The deal ended six weeks of fierce fighting in and around the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh that saw ethnic Armenian forces suffer battlefield defeat.

A coalition uniting 16 opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to hand over power to an interim government.

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Opposition forces want their joint candidate, Vazgen Manukian, to become transitional prime minister to oversee fresh elections.

"It doesn't matter how many people gather on the square, Nikol Pashinian will not resign voluntarily," Manukian told a crowd of protesters waving Armenian flags in Freedom Square.

Despite facing a united opposition front, Pashinian’s My Step bloc maintains an overwhelming majority in parliament.

Under the Moscow-brokered cease-fire, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by Armenians.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the region's population reject Azerbaijani rule.

They had been governing their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan's troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region and seven adjacent districts in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.

With reporting by AFP

TBILISI -- A court in Georgia has sentenced a Russian citizen to four years in prison for involvement in an alleged plot to kill a Georgian journalist.

The Tbilisi City Court on February 20 found Magomed Gutsiyev, a native of Russia's North Caucasus region, guilty of illegal border-crossing, forgery, and the illegal surveillance of journalist Giorgi Gabunia.

Gutsiyev was arrested by Georgian authorities in June with documents identifying him as Vasambek Bokov.

Georgia's Service for State Security (SUS) said at the time that they had arrested a Russian citizen, identified as V.B., who they suspected of planning to kill Gabunia.

In July 2019, Gabunia crudely insulted Russian President Vladimir Putin live on air amid worsening ties between Georgia and Russia.

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The reporter called Putin a "stinking occupier" and used a string of obscenities to curse the Russian president, as well as Putin's mother and father -- and vowed to defecate on Putin's grave.

Gabunia's controversial comments were condemned by Russian and Georgian authorities.

The Moscow-backed leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, publicly vowed to "punish" Gabunia at the time.

In recent years, several Kadyrov critics have been killed outside Russia, and many believe that either Kadyrov himself or Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) were behind the apparent assassinations.

Rights groups say Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the volatile region.

They allege Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

NORILSK, Russia -- A building at an iron ore processing plant in Russia's Arctic city of Norilsk has collapsed, killing at least two workers.

The regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry said on February 20 that eight workers were in the building when it collapsed. One worker remained missing.

The ministry said three workers were in serious condition.

Authorities have launched a investigation into the collapse.

The facility belongs to the metallurgical giant Norilsk Nickel, which is owned by Russia's richest man, Vladimir Potanin.

In early February, a court in the regional capital, Krasnoyarsk, ordered Norilsk Nickel to pay more than 146 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) for a spill that dumped thousands of tons of diesel fuel into the Russian Arctic in May 2020.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

A Russian political researcher has been arrested in Moscow on a charge of high treason.

Moscow’s Lefortovo district court disclosed on February 20 that Demuri Voronin will remain in pretrial detention until at least April 13.

Media reports cited sources close to the investigation as saying that Voronin was suspected of sharing classified material to a Western intelligence agency.

If convicted, Voronin faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to 500,000 rubles ($6,759).

Russia’s Investigative Committee has not commented on the arrest.

In recent years, the number of cases of alleged high treason has increased dramatically in Russia.

One of the latest high-profile high treason cases involves Ivan Safronov, a journalist and an aide to the Russian Roskosmos space agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin.

Safronov was arrested on July 7 and later charged with passing classified material to the Czech Republic.

Safronov’s lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said on February 20 that Voronin's arrest was not linked to his client's case.

With reporting by RIA Novosti, Interfax, and TASS

The United States imposed additional sanctions on a Russian vessel and the ship’s owner for their work on the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, but the move was immediately criticized as inadequate by Republican lawmakers.

The sanctions were announced in a report submitted to Congress by the State Department late on February 19.

Two Republican lawmakers immediately denounced the administration for failing to impose sanctions on additional targets and demanded the administration explain what it is doing to oppose the completion of the pipeline.

Representative Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas) said that simply adding a layer of sanctions to previously sanctioned targets was “wholly inadequate” and does not meet lawmakers' intent to stop the pipeline.

“Allowing this pipeline to be completed would be nothing short of a victory for Vladimir Putin,” McCaul said.

Senator Jim Risch (Republican-Idaho) echoed McCaul’s concerns, saying in a statement that Congress has passed multiple bipartisan laws regarding the construction of the pipeline.

Congress specifically broadened the mandatory sanctions to include the types of pipe-laying activities occurring now, Risch said. But the State Department report ignores these activities, which “demands an immediate explanation.”

The lawmakers also said the new sanctions duplicate existing penalties that the Trump administration imposed on the pipe-laying ship Fortuna and its owner KVT-RUS in January.

The United States and several European countries oppose the pipeline, which will reroute Russian natural gas exports under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Ukraine. They say this will deprive Kyiv of billions of dollars in much needed transportation fees while strengthening the Kremlin’s grip on the European energy market.

“We’ve been clear for some time that Nord Stream 2 is a bad deal and that companies risk sanctions if they are involved,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters just hours before the report was transmitted to Congress.

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“We’ll continue to work with our allies and partners to ensure that Europe has a reliable, diversified energy supply network that doesn’t undermine our collective security. Our goal in all of this is to reinforce European energy security and safeguard against predatory behavior,” he said.

But Risch and McCaul were unimpressed that the administration failed to impose any sanctions on additional targets, notably people and firms in Germany, which is a strong Nord Stream 2 proponent.

Opposition to the pipeline in Congress has increased since the poisoning and arrest of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and a crackdown against demonstrators who have protested in his support.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on February 17 called on the Biden administration to brief Congress on its steps to stop the controversial pipeline, which is believed to be around 90 percent complete.

The lawmakers also said they wanted to know if Germany had made any proposal to halt or water down U.S. sanctions targeting the pipeline amid news reports that it had.

A first round of U.S. sanctions specifically targeting vessels laying the pipeline forced a European contractor to halt work, delaying the launch of Nord Stream 2 by at least a year.

Congress last year passed the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Clarification Act (PEESCA) to widen the list of sanctionable services against the project to include providing insurance, reinsurance, pipeline testing, inspection, and certification services. PEESCA became law on January 1.

The United States plans no additional actions in response to pressure from Tehran ahead of proposed talks on a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the White House said on February 19.

The White House has “no plan to take additional steps" on Iran in advance of having a "diplomatic conversation" about a possible U.S. return to the deal, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Psaki noted the European Union has floated the idea of a conversation among Iran and the six major powers that struck the agreement: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, known as the P5+1.

"The Europeans have invited us and...it is simply an invitation to have a conversation, a diplomatic conversation,” she said, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as President Joe Biden flew to Michigan.

The European Union is working on organizing an informal meeting with all participants, a senior EU official said on February 19.

Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, arrived in Tehran on February 20 ahead of Iran’s deadline for U.S. sanctions to be lifted, state media reported.

Grossi is expected to meet Ali Akbar Salehi, the U.S.-educated head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, among other officials, Iranian media reported.

Grossi’s trip came after Iran warned that it would ban short-notice IAEA inspections on its nuclear facilities by February 21 if the United States does not lift the sanctions it has imposed on Tehran since 2018.

In an address on February 19 to the Munich Security Conference, Biden said that Washington is prepared to reengage with the international partners that signed the deal on Iran's nuclear program.

Biden also said his administration is going to work with Europe and “other partners” to address Iran’s “destabilizing activities across the Middle East.”

In 2015, the P5+1 -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany -- signed a landmark agreement with Tehran that called for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

But in 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the accord and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran has increasingly breached limits it had agreed to under the pact.

The United States on February 19 also notified the UN Security Council that it had withdrawn Trump's September 2020 invocation of the so-called “snap-back” mechanism under which it insisted that all UN sanctions against Iran were to be reimposed.

The United States said earlier this week that it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to the deal. But the countries have been at odds over which one should make the first step.

Iran has said the United States must first lift sanctions, while Washington says Tehran must first return to compliance with the deal.

Iran said on February 19 that it would “immediately reverse” actions that contradict a 2015 nuclear agreement once U.S. sanctions are lifted.

When sanctions are lifted, "we will then immediately reverse all remedial measures. Simple," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has upheld opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's prison sentence relating to an embezzlement conviction, but reduced the sentence by about 50 days considering time served.

The prison sentence was upheld on February 20, the same day another court found the prominent anti-corruption activist and Kremlin critic guilty of defaming a World War II veteran. The court fined him 850,000 rubles ($11,500) on the defamation verdict.

Navalny was in court to appeal the sentence handed down earlier this month in relation to a 2014 embezzlement case he has said is politically motivated. The prominent anti-corruption activist and Kremlin critic also faced a second court hearing later in the day relating to charges of defaming a World War II veteran.

During Navalny's appeal hearing, the prosecution called on the court to uphold the February 2 sentence by a lower court, arguing that the decision to convert a suspended sentence related to the 2014 conviction into real jail time was lawful.

That 3 1/2-year sentence, considering time already spent in detention, had been set earlier this month at two years and eight months.

"Taking into account today's decision by the Moscow City Court, Navalny will have to spend two years and six months in captivity with a little extra," Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev was quoted as saying following the February 20 ruling.

Speaking from a glass cage in the Babushkinsky district court, where the Moscow City Court session was physically held, Navalny told the judge ruling on his case that it would be good if the court would now let him go. He also acknowledged that he was aware of a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asking Russia to free him.

In And Out And In Again: All The Times Navalny Has Been In Jail

Members of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which has conducted high-profile investigations of official corruption in Russia, harshly criticized the court's decision to reject Navalny's appeal.

"The court decision to keep Aleksei in jail says only one thing. There is no law in Russia right now," members of the foundation's staff wrote on Twitter.

Navalny's 3 1/2-year sentence came after the prominent anti-corruption activist was accused of violating his parole when he did not report to authorities in Russia while he was recovering in Germany from a near-deadly poisoning he suffered in Siberia in August. Navalny has blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin, which it has denied.

Navalny, 44, the most prominent critic and political rival of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested immediately upon his return from Germany.

He told the court that he was unable to report to the Moscow prison service as required under his suspended sentence because he was still recuperating.

SEE ALSO:

The Week In Russia: Was Navalny's Return A Masterstroke Or A Mistake?

"I don't want to show off a lot, but the whole world knew where I was," Navalny told the judge. "Once I'd recovered, I bought a plane ticket and came home."

His detention triggered international condemnation and protests across Russia on January 23 and January 31 during which more than 10,000 people were rounded up by police.

Navalny said he had no regrets about returning to Russia, saying that "strength was in truth."

"Our country is built on injustice," he said. "But tens of millions of people want the truth. And sooner or later, they'll get it."

In his closing statements, Navalny said that "Russia shouldn't just be free, Russia should be happy as well."

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, speaking after the decision confirming that Navalny will go to prison, suggested that political life will continue without the powerful opposition figure in the mix.

"The Kremlin has many opponents. This is a normal political process," he said. "Political life in Russia has developed, and it will continue to develop."

The Strasbourg-based ECHR on February 16 called for the "immediate" release of Navalny, a demand rejected by the Kremlin as “unlawful" and “inadmissible” meddling in Russia's affairs.

Moscow has remained defiant about Western criticism over its jailing of the opposition politician and the crackdown on his supporters, calling it foreign interference in its internal affairs. The Kremlin has also denied any role in Navalny's poisoning, which foreign experts have determined was carried out with a Novichok class nerve-agent.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Ambassador Says Navalny Poisoning, Jailing Is Not Just An Internal Russian Matter

In a separate case, Navalny was also found guilty on February 20 of slandering a 94-year-old veteran for his role in a Kremlin-organized promotional video supporting constitutional changes that could allow Putin to remain in office until 2036. Case prosecutors had demanded that Navalny be fined 950,000 rubles ($13,000).

Navalny mocked the people in the clip, calling them "corrupt lackeys and traitors." Navalny’s allies have called the trial a politically motivated sham and Navalny has accused Russian officials of "fabricating" the case against him.

Addressing the court for his closing statements in that case, Navalny accused the authorities of using the veteran "like a doll."

"Through this process, the purpose of which is clear, you humiliated and insulted all these veterans 10 times [more] than everything you did before," Navalny was quoted as saying by Mediazona. "For this, all of you will burn in hell."

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, Current Time, Reuters, AP, and TASS

Russian police have once again removed a makeshift memorial to slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow and detained two activists guarding it, local media reported.

Grigory Simakov, one of the volunteers who help guard the memorial, told the Novaya gazeta newspaper that police destroyed it and later placed two metal barricades on the spot.

Simakov said police took two of the volunteers to the station to check their documents while he and his wife were chased away.

The memorial consisting of flowers, photographs, and candles is located on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge -- a short walk from the Kremlin -- where Nemtsov was gunned down nearly six years ago, on February 27, 2015.

Supporters of Nemtsov have maintained the memorial ever since his death despite police, city workers, and others regularly destroying or removing it. A volunteer died in August 2017 after he was beaten on the bridge.

Nemtsov was an ardent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Five Chechens have been found guilty of involvement in his killing, but critics, including relatives and colleagues of Nemtsov, say Russian authorities failed to determine who ordered it.

Based on reporting by Novaya gazeta

KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a decree that brings into force sanctions against Viktor Medvedchuk, a political heavyweight and tycoon, and other Ukrainian politicians who have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskiy signed the decree on February 20, a day after Ukraine’s National Security Council announced sanctions against Medvedchuk, his wife, Oksana Marchenko, as well as six other individuals and 19 companies all believed to be tied to the tycoon. Some of the individuals are Russian citizens.

The sanctions freeze the assets of Medvedchuk and his wife for three years and prevent them from doing business in Ukraine. Most of Medvedchuk’s assets are under his wife’s name. Ukraine has also said an oil pipeline that transports Russian oil products to Europe and is reportedly controlled by Medvedchuk will be nationalized.

The measures are the latest in a series of moves by Zelenskiy’s administration to go after Ukrainian individuals who critics say have close ties to the Kremlin.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said it supported Ukraine’s “efforts to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity through sanctions.”

“Medvedchuk has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014 for undermining Ukraine’s security, territorial integrity, and democratic institutions,” it said in a statement.

Earlier on February 20, Medvedchuk called the sanctions "illegitimate" and "illegal."

Ukraine on February 2 sanctioned Taras Kozak and three television stations he formally owns. Ukrainian media say the media assets, which aired pro-Kremlin propaganda, really belong to Medvedchuk.

Medvedchuk, who is a lawmaker and chairman of the pro-Russia Opposition Platform For Life (OPZZh), criticized the moves against him and fellow party member Kozak.

"My fellow faction member Taras Kozak and I, as well as our family members, have been subjected to sanctions illegally and without any evidence," Medvedchuk told Russia's Interfax on February 20. "As a specialist in law, I can say that all these sanctions that the sitting administration has imposed on me, my family, my associates, and journalists are illegitimate and cannot be imposed other than through a court ruling."

He vowed that he would not flee the country following the measures taken against him, which the Kremlin on February 20 called "very alarming."

In a separate move, Zelenskiy’s government recently launched a criminal investigation into meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

SEE ALSO:

Ukraine Sanctions 'Russian Trojan Horse' Media Assets Associated With Putin Friend

Ukrainian individuals are accused of seeking to harm the campaign of U.S. President Joe Biden by publishing alleged recordings of his conversations while he served as vice president overseeing the Obama administration’s relationship with Kyiv.

Godfather Putin

Medvedchuk is the head of the political council of the OPZZh, which is the largest opposition group in the Ukrainian parliament. He is one of the party’s 44 deputies in the 450-seat legislature.

Medvedchuk has a warm personal relationship with Putin, who is the godfather of his daughter. The lawmaker was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 for undermining democracy in Ukraine.

Ukraine said it is investigating Medvedchuk and the other individuals on suspicion of “financing terrorism.” The sanctions are tied to exports of coal to Russia from a separatist-held region in eastern Ukraine.

Russia-backed separatists took control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after Ukrainian protesters toppled pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Profits from the illegal coal trade allegedly funded the three TV channels Medvedchuk reportedly owns. Ukrainian media reported about the illegal coal sales as early as 2016.

Ukraine also said on February 19 that it is seizing PrykarpatZakhidtrans, an oil product pipeline owned by offshore companies reportedly connected to Medvedchuk.

The OPZZh has sharply criticized the sanctions and asset seizure, calling it "the destruction of Ukrainian democracy."

Political analysts say the moves by the Zelenskiy administration could be an attempt to cozy up to the Biden administration following Kyiv’s strained relationship with former President Donald Trump.

“I would see this [action] more as Zelenskiy trying to demonstrate to Washington that he will be a good partner,” John Herbst, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and an analyst at the Atlantic Council think tank, said about the timing of the Medvedchuk sanctions.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, UNIAN, Ukrayinska Pravda, and the Kyiv Post

Legendary Serbian singer Djordje Balasevic has died after contracting the coronavirus, state television reported on February 19.

The 67-year-old, who was also a poet and director, had remained popular across the former Yugoslavia after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Balasevic was admitted to a hospital in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad on February 16 after suffering from pneumonia that appeared to be caused by the coronavirus.

State broadcaster RTS reported that Balasevic died in the hospital on February 19.

Balasevic, born in Novi Sad in 1953, began his career in the 1980s, first performing in bands before going solo. He was known for his soft pop music and humorous lyrics.

Igor Mirovic, the head of the provincial government in Novi Sad, said Balasevic’s death had left a “huge, irreplaceable void.”

“With his poetry and music, Djordje Balasevic has permanently marked the art scene not only in our country, but in the whole region,” Mirovic said in a telegram sent to Balasevic’s family.

Balasevic stood out as a sharp critic of the late Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The media in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina broadcast news of Balasevic’s death.

Croatia's state HRT television hailed Balasevic's “utterly anti-war and pacifist position that is present in many songs, concert speeches, and interviews.”

With reporting by AP

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Balasevic was 66. He was in fact 67 when he died.

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has praised what he called "allied ties" between Bishkek and Moscow, and expressed confidence that his planned trip to Russia will lead to the further strengthening of bilateral ties.

"The course to bring our ties with Russia to the highest level of allied ties and strategic partnership corresponds to Kyrgyzstan's national interests,” Japarov wrote in a commentary published in Slovo Kyrgyzstana (The Word Of Kyrgyzstan) state newspaper on February 19.

Last month, Japarov's office said the president would travel to Russia for his first official trip abroad since his election on January 10. It remains unclear when the visit will take place.

In his commentary, Japarov also said he would always oppose "any attempts of political manipulations" around the official status of the Russian language in the Central Asian nation.

"For many years, Kyrgyzstan lived and developed hand in hand with Russia, and the Russian language is not just an official language but also the language of interethnic communication,” the president wrote.

Kyrgyzstan has been in crisis since parliamentary elections in October 2020 led to protests that triggered the toppling of the government and the resignation of then-President Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

Japarov was among several prominent politicians freed from prison by protesters during the unrest. He had been serving a 10-year prison sentence for hostage taking during a protest against a mining operation in northeast Kyrgyzstan in October 2013. He has denied the charge.

The 52-year-old's landslide victory came in an election that international observers said "generally respected" fundamental freedoms even though the vote was not "fully fair."

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden warned allies that the world is at an “inflection point” in the ideological battle between democratic and autocratic values, and called on them to join with Washington in defending freedom.

In a speech delivered on February 19 to the Munich Security Conference, Biden also sought to dispel any concerns in Europe about Washington’s commitment to the transatlantic relationship, saying it was vital to containing threats posed by China and Russia, which he accused of seeking to undermine democracy and weaken NATO.

This year’s annual gathering of the world’s top national security and military leaders is being held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. president told the conference that many countries are now engaged in a debate about whether autocracy is the best way forward in a world facing monumental upheaval caused in part by revolutionary technological change and a deadly pandemic.

He said there was no doubt that democracy was “essential” to meeting such challenges.

“In so many places, including in Europe and in the United States, democratic progress is under assault. Historians are going to examine and write about this moment as an inflection point and I believe with every ounce of my being that democracy will and must prevail,” Biden said in his first foreign policy address to an international audience since his inauguration last month.

His administration is seeking to mend relations with Europe, strengthen NATO, and support democratic values around the world following criticism that all three have been atrophied under the leadership of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump was accused of cozying up to authoritarian leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, undermining NATO, and testing relations with close allies such as Germany and France.

The former president publicly harangued European countries for not meeting NATO defense spending levels and sought to rewrite trade terms with the EU to help U.S. companies.

In an indirect reference to Trump’s policies, Biden said relations with Europe were "not transactional" and "not extractive."

“I know the past few years of strain has tested our transatlantic relationship. But the United States is determined to reengage with Europe. To consult with you. To earn back our position of trust and leadership,” he told the conference.

He pointed out as an example his decision to overturn a Trump administration plan to cut the number of U.S. troops in Germany.

'Economic Abuses And Coercion'

Biden highlighted China and Russia as key challengers that the U.S. and Europe need to address together.

He accused China of “economic abuses and coercion” and said its companies must play by the same rules as U.S. and European countries.

The U.S. president accused Putin of trying to “bully and threaten individual states” rather than negotiate “with a strong and closely united transatlantic community.”

Biden cited Ukraine as an example, saying the defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity from Russian aggression was of “vital concern” to the United States and Europe.

Despite highlighting the need for competition with the Kremlin, Biden said it must “not lock out cooperation” with Russia on issues of mutual concern such as nuclear proliferation and Iran’s nuclear program.

Addressing the Munich Security Conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg accused China and Russia of working against the international order.

"Europe and North America must defend the international rules-based order, which is being challenged by authoritarian powers," Stoltenberg said, adding that China and Russia “are trying to rewrite the rules of the road to benefit their own interests."

Russia is set to remain NATO's main adversary during this decade, and the 30-member alliance is considering including China in its official master strategy document, its Strategic Concept, to face up to the country’s military rise.

Biden said that Washington is prepared to reengage with international partners in the so-called P5+1 group -- China, France, Russia, Britain, the United States, plus Germany -- on Iran's nuclear program.

Biden also said his administration is going to work with Europe and “other partners” to address Iran’s “destabilizing activities across the Middle East.”

The P5+1 group in 2015 signed a landmark agreement with Tehran that called for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

But Trump in 2018 pulled his country out of the accord and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran has increasingly breached limits it had agreed to under the pact.

Th president concluded by saying Europe’s contribution to the successful landing of a NASA robotic rover on Mars on February 18 underscored the ability of the transatlantic relationship to meet “any challenge” it faces.

“The United States will do our part. We will stand with you. We will fight for our shared values and meet the challenges of this new moment in history,” he said.

With reporting by Reuters

NUR-SULTAN -- Five children from the same family have died in a fire that swept through an apartment in Kazakhstan's southern region of Zhambyl.

Kazakhstan’s Emergency Situations Ministry said on February 19 that the youngest of the deceased children was born last year, while the eldest was born in 2015.

The fire raced through an apartment on the third floor of a five-story residential building in the town of Zhanatas. The children's father was at work and the mother had left the house to visit a shop when the blaze broke out.

A special commission has been established to investigate the deadly fire, which occurred a day after another fire killed a toddler in the southern region of Qyzylorda.

In early February 2019, a fire in a small house near the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, killed five children from the same family when both parents were at work on night shifts.

That deadly fire sparked waves of protests across the Central Asian nation, with people demanding increased social support and financial allowances for families with several children and low incomes.

A French-Iranian dual citizen and a German national were arrested in Iran more than two weeks ago, a French newspaper reported on February 19.

Without citing its sources, the Le Figaro daily said the two individuals were detained before February 4 as leverage in anticipation of the sentencing of Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi by a Belgian court that day.

Assadi was handed 20 years in prison for planning to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in France in 2018, a sentence that was "strongly" condemned by the Iranian government.

Le Figaro did not name the two individuals or their places of detention, but said the French-Iranian national was arrested while flying a small drone in the desert.

French, German, or Iranian officials have not commented on the report yet.

In recent years, Iran has imprisoned a number of dual nationals, mostly on espionage charges.

Critics say Iran arbitrarily detains dual nationals as part of hostage diplomacy to extract political concessions from Western countries, which Tehran denies.

If confirmed, the arrests of the French and German nationals would come at a sensitive time.

The new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled it was ready to talk with Iran about how both nations could return to a 2015 agreement that called for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

With reporting by Le Figaro and Reuters

Belarus's Investigative Committee has ruled out launching a probe into the killing of 34-year-old Alyaksandr Taraykouski, who was shot by riot police in Minsk in August 2020, becoming the first fatality in a postelection crackdown and a rallying cry for the protest movement.

Taraykouski died on August 10 in protests against the results of a presidential election a day earlier that claimed incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka was the winner in a landslide. Opposition figures and many Belarusians immediately questioned the results, saying the vote was rigged.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement on February 19 that Taraykouski was "very drunk" and "provoked" riot police to use "nonlethal weapons" against him.

"Due to the confluence of a number of tragic circumstances, one of the wounds turned out to be penetrating, causing Taraykouski's death at the site," the statement said.

WATCH: Video Of Belarusian Protester Dying Contradicts Official Claims

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Initially, officials said Taraykouski was killed by an improvised explosive device he was trying to throw at riot police. However, graphic footage of his death appeared to contradict official claims.

The site of Taraykouski's death near the Pushkin subway station in Minsk turned into a makeshift memorial where protesters gathered regularly for some time, bringing flowers and inscribing "We Will Not Forget" on the sidewalk.

Several protesters have been killed and thousands of people arrested during the ongoing demonstrations.

There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.

Most of the country's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, including opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who says she won the presidential poll.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge the election results and Lukashenka as the country's leader.