An Iranian state-owned company says one of its cargo vessels was targeted this week by what it called a "terrorist" attack in the Mediterranean Sea, state television reported on March 12.

The report quoted Ali Ghiasian, spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines group (IRISL), as saying that the ship was en route from Iran to Europe when its hull was hit with an "explosive device" on March 10.

Ghiasian said the blast set off a small fire that was quickly extinguished and that the ship, named Shahr-e Kord, would continue on its journey after assessing and repairing the damage.

The report said there were no casualties in the blast. It did not blame anyone for the incident, which Ghiasian called a "terrorist action and an example of maritime piracy.”

Reuters quoted two maritime security sources as saying that initial indications were that the container ship had been intentionally targeted by an unknown source.

The incident comes less than two weeks after Israel accused arch enemy Iran of being behind an attack on an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman on February 25 -- a charge denied by Tehran.

In a March 12 report quoting U.S. and regional officials, The Wall Street Journal said Israel had targeted at least a dozen vessels bound for Syria that were mostly carrying Iranian oil since late 2019.

It said Israel had used weapons including "water mines" to target the ships.

Israeli officials have not commented on the report, but Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the country “will continue to fight against terrorism and everything that helps terrorism, including its sources of revenue.”

IRISL was blacklisted by the United States last year over what the State Department described as the transportation of items related to Iran's missile and nuclear programs.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Poland has expelled two Belarusian diplomats in what a deputy minister called an act of "reciprocity" as the two sides fight over a recent World War II commemoration and Warsaw's support of pro-democracy activists in Belarus.

Poland's government has repeatedly condemned Alyaksandr Lukashenka and called for increased sanctions against Minsk. Belarus has been the site of nearly daily protests since last August when Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared winner of a presidential election that the West and tens of thousands of Belarusians say was rigged.

Poland has also sheltered Belarusian activists who have fled across the border to escape the crackdown on Belarus’s pro-democracy supporters. More than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten, and several killed, in the Belarusian government crackdown, triggering Western sanctions and refusals to recognize Lukasehnka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

"Due to the ongoing unfriendly gestures from Minsk towards Polish diplomats, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to expel Belarus' General Consul in Bialystok as well as the consul from Warsaw according to the principles of reciprocity," Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz wrote in a tweet on March 12.

The move comes a day after the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said it had expelled the two diplomats "in connection with the excessive, asymmetric, and destructive response of Poland."

The two senior staff members of the Polish Consulate in the city of Hrodna were given 48 hours to leave the country, the ministry said.

The unofficial, commemorative event at the heart of the dispute took place on February 28 in the southwestern Belarusian city of Brest in honor of so-called "cursed soldiers," Polish fighters who initially fought against Nazi occupation and later turned against Soviet occupiers. The soldiers often acted violently against non-Poles, especially Belarusians.

On March 9, Minsk announced it was expelling the Polish consul, Jerzy Timofejuk, saying he had taken part in the ceremony, prompting Warsaw to also declare a Belarusian diplomat "persona non grata" the next day.

Belarus then responded with the expulsion of the two Polish diplomats on March 11.

Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said that Warsaw reserved its right to an "adequate response" to the move.

Belarusian prosecutors said on March 10 that they had opened a criminal case into the Brest event for actions aimed at inciting national, religious enmity, and hate based on nationality, religion, language, as well as actions aimed at glorifying Nazism.

The Foreign Ministry in Minsk said celebrating "war criminals and the justification of genocide against the Belarusian people" was unacceptable.

The Day of Cursed Soldiers has been commemorated in Poland every March 1 since 2011.

TASHKENT -- Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev says he has agreed with visiting Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on how to proceed to resolve border issues between the two Central Asian countries within three months.

"For the first time in relations between our two nations we have agreed who should do what and when at the border because this is a serious problem that our people are waiting to be fixed" Mirziyoev said on March 12 after holding talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart in Tashkent.

"If everything goes according to the plan, [the issue will be resolved in] three months, which we agreed to be the longest possible time," he added.

The border between the two Central Asian neighbors has been a major bone of contention in bilateral ties since 1991, when they gained independence from the Soviet Union.

Over the past decades, there have been numerous incidents along the border that in some cases involved gunfire.

The situation began to improve following the 2016 death of Uzbekistan's longtime authoritarian president, Islam Karimov.

His successor, Mirziyoev, has said that improving ties with Uzbekistan's neighbors is a major priority of his foreign policy.

Border sections still have an undefined status around the Uzbek exclaves of Sokh and Shahimardan in Kyrgyzstan, as well as around the Kyrgyz exclave of Barak in Uzbekistan.

This is Japarov's third foreign trip since he was elected president on January 10. His first and second trips were made in February and early-March to Russia and Kazakhstan, respectively.

BELGRADE – Serbian authorities have ordered all nonessential shops, as well as bars and restaurants to close this weekend amid a surge in coronavirus infections in the Balkan country.

The restrictions will take effect at 9 p.m. local time on March 12 and will last until March 15, according to the government-appointed crisis body.

All shops and other facilities are to remain closed during the weekend, except food stores, pharmacies, health facilities, and gas stations. All public events will also be suspended.

Pupils in higher primary school grades will switch to online classes next week, senior health official Zoran Gojkovic said.

The Health Ministry has recorded more than 4,500 new coronavirus infections over the past day, and 24 more deaths caused by COVID-19.

Overall, the authorities have recorded more than 507,000 cases and over 4,600 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

More than 1.5 million of Serbia's 7-million-strong population have received at least one shot from China’s Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, Russia's Sputnik V, or AstraZeneca vaccines -- meaning the country has one of the highest rates of inoculation in Europe.

YEREVAN -- Armenian President Armen Sarkisian returned to a "working regime" after a medical checkup, his office said late on March 12.

Earlier in the day the presidential administration said Sarkisian had undergone testing at a medical clinic in Yerevan for unspecified complications apparently linked to COVID-19.

"Some complications have appeared in connection with the coronavirus infection sustained by the president of Armenia," his office said. "He is undergoing tests."

In January, while having surgery in London, Sarkisian tested positive for the coronavirus and was treated there before he returned to Armenia the following month.

Sarkisian planned to host talks this weekend with the country's opposition and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on finding a solution to the ongoing political crisis the country has faced after six-week war with Azerbaijan last fall.

That conflict ended with Armenia's losing control over some parts of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region and several adjacent districts of Azerbaijan.

Pashinian has not said yet if he plans to attend the talks.

With reporting by Interfax

The chief of Russia's Federal Penitentiary System (FSIN) may use convicts to help clean a contaminated zone of the Arctic following a massive diesel spill.

"I have asked leaders of [FSIN] branches in the regions located in the Arctic zone to continue working [on the issue of using inmates in clean-up operations]," FSIN head Aleksandr Kalashnikov said in Moscow on March 12, adding that the matter had been agreed upon with the authorities of the Krasnoyarsk Krai region and the city of Norilsk.

Last May, more than 21,000 tons of diesel leaked into the Norilsk environment from the tank of a thermal power plant belonging to a subsidiary of Russian metallurgical giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), owned by Russia's richest man, Vladimir Potanin.

The spill sparked an outcry and led to the dismissal in October of Norilsk Mayor Rinat Akhmetchin, who was also sentenced to six months of correctional work for negligence

In the wake of the disaster, President Vladimir Putin ordered a state of emergency after the extent of the spill became known.

On March 10, Nornickel said it had fully paid off more than 146 billion rubles ($1.97 billion) in damages for the spill.

The use of inmate labor in major state projects used to be a regular practice in Soviet times in the former Soviet Union.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

Russia says the Taliban should be included in any interim Afghan government as Moscow prepares to host a conference next week that is meant to move forward the peace process in the conflict-wracked country.

The statement by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova came on March 12, hours after Turkey also announced its intention to host Afghan peace talks in Istanbul next month.

Moscow has invited several regional players, including representatives of the militants for the March 18 conference, which it said is meant to bring new life into stuttering peace talks held in Qatar between the Taliban and Kabul. However, it was unclear if the United States would attend.

"The formation of an interim coalition government should be decided by the Afghans themselves during national reconciliation talks," Zakharova told a news briefing.

"At the same time we have noted that the formation of an interim, inclusive administration would be a logical solution to the problem of integrating the Taliban into Afghanistan's peaceful political life."

Meanwhile, in Ankara, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey had decided to hold the conference in Istanbul at the request of both the Taliban and the Kabul government.

"Both the Taliban and the negotiation delegation, meaning the government side, has asked us to host such a meeting before," Cavusoglu said, without giving a specific date for the meeting.

He added that Turkey considers itself "one of the most-important actors in Afghanistan" and intends to appoint a special envoy to the peace process.

Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government resumed last month in Qatar after a delay of more than a month amid escalating violence in the war-torn country.

The diplomatic push comes as U.S. President Joe Biden is completing a review of an agreement with the Taliban negotiated by former president Donald Trump's administration to remove the final U.S. troops from the country by May.

Under the latest U.S.-drafted peace plan, the current Afghan government should be replaced with an interim administration until a new constitution is agreed and elections held, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to step down in favor of a transitional government.

The U.S. proposal suggests that, under an interim government, the Afghan parliament could either be expanded to include members of the Taliban or suspended until after an election.

Reuters has quoted an anonymous source close to the Taliban as saying that the militants will send a delegation of four or five members to Moscow from its political office in Qatar.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry says it has asked Chinese authorities to "help resolve issues" raised by ethnic Kazakhs in China, who have been demanding their relatives' release from custody in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Mukhtar Karibai told reporters in Nur-Sultan on March 12 that the decision "to ask China for help" was made after it became obvious that dozens of ethnic Kazakhs from China, who have been picketing the Chinese Consulate in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, for more than a month "have not been following sanitary regulations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus."

"We have asked the Chinese side to meet with those people and make certain decisions regarding their complaints so that [the protesters] stop gathering [in front of the Chinese consulate] every day," Karibai said.

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Karibai confirmed that some naturalized Kazakh citizens and ethnic-Kazakh Chinese citizens, whose relatives reside in Kazakhstan, have not been able to leave Xinjiang to come to Kazakhstan for some time, adding though that "more than 90 percent of such people have returned to Kazakhstan" by now.

"We are sticking to the international norm, according to which, one country cannot interfere in the internal affairs of another country...But because there is another norm which does not allow the separation of close relatives, we are trying to do what we can to resolve the issue," Karibai said.

"At this point there are 5 to 6 ethnic Kazakhs stuck in Xinjiang who are not able to join their families [in Kazakhstan]. All of them are Chinese citizens. Some media reports say they broke the law in China, and that is why very likely they are being kept in custody there. It might take longer time to solve their issues," Karibai added.

When asked by an RFE/RL correspondent about reports saying that the number of ethnic Kazakhs held in custody in Xinjiang is much higher, Karibai said he could not comment on "unofficial information."

Karibai's statement came one day after the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan posted an interview on Facebook with Sairagul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang, who was one of the first individuals to speak publicly about so-called reeducation camps for Xinjiang's indigenous, mostly Muslim ethnic groups.

Sauytbay, who fled China in April 2018 and is currently living in Sweden, repeated that thousands of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other Muslims in Xinjiang were undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of "reeducation camps," facing "torture and humiliation" there.

On March 10, U.S. Embassy officials met with other ethnic Kazakhs who fled Xinjiang and are currently in Kazakhstan, and discussed their ordeals in China.

The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps.

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.

Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.

Lawyers for Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny say he has been moved from a detention center in the Vladimir region, northeast of the Russian capital, to an undisclosed location amid a call from Western countries for his immediate release.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was sent to prison last month to serve 2 1/2 years over alleged parole violations related to an embezzlement case he and rights activists say was trumped up for political reasons, something the authorities deny.

Navalny's lawyers said in a tweet on March 12 that they showed up at Detention Center No. 3 in Kolchugino at the start of the work day, only to be run around and deceived before being informed several hours later "that Aleksei had left."

The TASS news agency quoted on unnamed source in law enforcement as saying he had been moved to a penitentiary in nearby Pokrov, but was in quarantine, which can last as long as 15 days under Russian law.

Russian authorities typically do not provide information about the transfer of prisoners until after they reach their destination and by late afternoon Navalny's lawyers reiterated that they still did know his whereabouts.

"Aleksei's lawyers went to IK-2 in Pokrov. There they were told that there was no information about the delivery of Navalny, and in general the institution had 'a short day.' It was 15:30 local time. Where Aleksei is is still unknown and the FSIN [Federal Penitentiary Service] is clearly going to hide it as long as possible," a tweet from Navalny's certified Twitter account said.

On March 3, Navalny said that he had been moved to Detention Center No. 3 in the town of Kolchugino, though it was expected that eventually he would be moved to a penal colony in the nearby city of Pokrov, 100 kilometers east of Moscow. The colony is known as one of the toughest in the European part of the Russian Federation.

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As news of his transfer broke, dozens of countries, including the United States, called for his immediate release and an investigation into his poisoning last year with a military-grade nerve agent.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport in January immediately upon returning from Berlin, where he had been recovering from what several Western labs determined was a poisoning attempt using a Novichok-type nerve agent that saw him fall ill on a flight in Siberia in August 2020.

Russia has denied involvement, but Navalny has said the assassination attempt was ordered by Putin.

A Moscow court in February ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered politically motivated.

His suspended 3 1/2-year sentence was converted into jail time, though the court reduced that amount to 2 1/2 years for time already served in detention.

Navalny’s detention set off a wave of national protests and a crackdown against his supporters.

The European Union and the United States imposed fresh sanctions against Russia over the Navalny case.

On March 12, the representative for Poland read out a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council that said the actions against Navalny by Russian authorities were "unacceptable and politically motivated."

"We call on the Russian Federation for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Navalny and of all those unlawfully or arbitrarily detained, including for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of religion or belief," the joint statement said.

It was signed by 45 countries, most of which were European but also included Australia, Canada, and Japan, along with the United States.

With reporting by Reuters

TASHKENT -- Uzbek blogger Otabek Sattoriy has pleaded not guilty to all charges at a preliminary hearing in a high-profile extortion and slander case that sparked harsh criticism of Uzbek authorities by domestic and international human rights groups earlier this year.

After Sattoriy, investigators, and witnesses gave statements on March 11, the Muzrabot district court in the southern Surxondaryo region set March 17 as the trial's start date.

Before entering the courtroom, Sattoriy told journalists that his case was fabricated in a country known for its poor treatment of a free press.

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"I reject all the charges. The whole case has been fabricated, based on lies. I did not take any money from anyone. Because I have always raised the problems faced by ordinary people, the case has become high-profile," Sattoriy said.

The 40-year-old blogger was charged with extortion, slander, and insult, which his supporters and rights defenders have characterized as retaliation by the authorities for his critical reporting.

Sattoriy is known to be a harsh critic of the regional governor, Tora Bobolov. In one of his latest posts in his Halq Fikiri (People's Opinion) video blog, 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."

Since his arrest in late January, Sattoriy has 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.

The Prosecutor-General's Office also rejected criticism by human rights organizations, saying that Sattoriy’s arrest was lawful.

Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

Bulgaria has temporarily halted inoculations with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid growing concerns over its safety.

The Bulgarian government said in a statement on March 12 that the rollout of the vaccine is suspended until the European Medicines Agency sends a written statement dispelling all doubts about its safety.

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"Until an accurate and clearly confirmed diagnosis comes in writing from the European Medicines Agency that the AstraZeneca vaccine may or may not be given, [health officials] will stop it," Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was quoted as saying by the government's information service.

The World Health Organization said on March 12 that it is assessing reports of blood coagulation problems faced by some people in the European Union who received doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from a particular batch.

AstraZeneca said on March 11 that it had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis -- marked by the formation of blood clots -- in safety data of more than 10 million records, even when considering subgroups based on age, gender, production batch, or country of use.

Nonetheless, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Italy, and Romania have postponed or limited the rollout of their quota of AstraZeneca vaccines after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.

Thailand followed suit on March 12, an abrupt decision that led to the embarrassing spectacle of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha abruptly canceling his own televised inoculation.

Australia, Mexico, and the Philippines said they would continue their rollouts as they had found no reason to alter course. Canada said there was no evidence the vaccine causes adverse reactions.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

YEREVAN -- Armenia has announced it will hold military drills next week that will coincide with similar maneuvers by rival and neighbor Azerbaijan.

Last fall, the two nations fought over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts that had been occupied by ethnic Armenian forces for almost three decades. The conflict ended with a peace deal that allowed Baku to reinstate its control over the districts and some parts of the breakaway region.

"According to the plan of the first half of 2021, the armed forces of Armenia will hold tactical and professional maneuvers on all operative directions with the involvement of combined armed groups and special troops," the Armenian Defense Ministry said on March 12.

The ministry added that 7,500 troops, 200 missile and artillery units, some 100 armored vehicles, more than 90 anti-aircraft units, and various aircraft would be involved in the exercises.

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On March 10, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced plans for military maneuvers from March 15 -18.

According to the ministry, the drills would include up to 10,000 troops, about 100 tanks and other armored vehicles, up to 200 missile and artillery units, up to 30 aircraft units, and drones of different types.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on March 12 that the planned exercises do not pose a threat to the South Caucasus region.

"According to the data we have, the maneuvers... have been planned beforehand with a purpose to polish the military preparedness of the troops, and they do not impose any risks for stability and security in the region," Zakharova said.

The six-week war last year ended with a Russia-brokered agreement on November 10, resulting in the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeeping forces to the conflict zone.

Many Armenians have seen the accord as a humiliation and have taken to the streets to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian step down. He has refused to resign.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) has urged Kazakh authorities to review the conviction of activist Alnur Ilyashev, who was handed a parole-like three-year sentence and banned from social or political activism for five years for openly criticizing the Kazakh government's response to the coronavirus.

"[Ilyashev's] conviction is an example of how Kazakhstan is using COVID-19 as a pretextual ground to clamp down on speech, in particular on the Internet -- often the only space left for dissent during the pandemic," CFJ's TrialWatch Fairness Report, released on March 11, said.

The CFJ is a human rights watchdog founded by Hollywood star George Clooney and his wife, Lebanese-British lawyer Amal Clooney.

Ilyashev, who used social media to criticize Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur-Otan party, led by former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was convicted of spreading “false information” about the coronavirus in June 2020.

An Almaty court found Ilyashev guilty of the “dissemination of knowingly false information that threatens public order during the state of emergency” implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic. The trial was held online due to coronavirus precautions.

Ilyashev was detained on April 17, 2020, after he wrote on Facebook that authorities in Kazakhstan, including Nur-Otan, were corrupt and had been incompetent in their response to the coronavirus.

“This case shows the pitfalls of virtual trials. The defendant’s rights were repeatedly violated as a result of poor connectivity and the authorities’ failure to provide a way for him to consult with his lawyers. Kazakhstan needs to take immediate steps to ensure that virtual proceedings protect the rights of defendants,” said Vania Costa Ramos, the TrialWatch expert who authored the report along with staff at the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights.

The report also concluded that Ilyashev "was kept in arbitrary pretrial detention and denied medical care while in custody, in violation of his right to humane treatment."

The CFJ's report says that Ilyashev has exhausted all possibilities to appeal his sentence in Kazakhstan, adding that if Kazakhstan’s prosecutor-general does not take action, the "CFJ will work with Mr. Ilyashev and his counsel to submit a communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee."

Ilyashev had been helping to organize protests against the government since 2019 and took the Almaty mayor's office to court, unsuccessfully, after his requests to hold peaceful public meetings were rejected dozens of times.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who was handpicked by Nazarbaev in March 2019 following almost three decades of his rule, has pledged reforms in the energy-rich Central Asian country.

In May 2020, Kazakhstan reformed laws on protests that define how many people can attend a demonstration, what venues are available for rallies, and what permission is needed to conduct such public events.

Critics say the law falls short of international human rights standards and is replete with numerous restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles to prevent protests.

Nazarbaev still maintains key positions of power, including head of Nur-Otan and the country’s influential Security Council.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Authorities in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, have withdrawn permission given to local lawyers to hold a protest rally on March 13, citing precautions over the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 12, one day before the scheduled rally, Almaty's sanitary and epidemiology control department announced that the rally had been canceled over fears it could become a "super-spreader" event.

"Almaty has been included into 'the red zone' level of the epidemiology situation and holding any mass events in the city may lead to an abrupt increase of COVID-19 patients among residents," Saduaqas Baighabylov, the deputy chief of the department, said.

The lawyers planned to protest a government-proposed bill amending the law on their activities and judicial assistance. They said they had yet to be notified officially about the plan to withdraw permission for the rally, which was granted to them on March 9.

"[On March 10] we met with city officials, police, and the mayor of Almaty's Medeu district. There was no word about the cancelation. On the contrary, they offered us their assistance in preparations for the rally. We have an official document from city authorities saying that the rally is allowed. We do not have any other documents at this point and, therefore, legally we have the full right to hold the rally," one of the lawyers, Gulnara Zhuaspaeva, told RFE/RL on March 11.

The lawyers say the bill outlined by the Justice Ministry would "kill the independent practice of law," as its statutes do not correspond to "the standards of self-regulation of judicial consultants' groups." If adopted, the amendments "would force independent lawyers to join state-controlled bodies and pay significant fees," they said.

The decision to include Almaty in the "red zone" -- which designates areas that are reporting high coronavirus caseloads -- was made on March 10.

Public demonstrations used to be rare in the Central Asian nation but have become a bit more frequent in recent months, though most are held without permits.

As of March 12, the number of registered coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan was officially reported as 221,669, including 2,837 deaths.

A German journalist who used to work for Russia's state-controlled television channel RT says he was asked by his employer to spy on Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny while he was undergoing treatment in Germany after being poisoned in Siberia.

Daniel Lange has described to German media how he was instructed to use his journalistic credentials to test how close he could get to the ward where Navalny was recovering in Berlin's Charite hospital and "carefully take photos of the extensive military presence" at the medical facility.

Lange told RFE/RL on March 11 that his assignment "made no [journalistic] sense" and eventually prompted him to break his contract with RT Deutsch -- the German branch of the state-controlled outlet.

Lange has said that he and a colleague were tasked with testing how far they could get inside the Charite building, how many “checkpoints” they could cross undetected, and how close they could get to Navalny in the intensive care unit without being noticed.

“I stated several times that I was not a secret agent and asked what they would do with me in Russia if I secretly photographed soldiers in front of a military hospital. Then there was always no answer or reaction and a new assignment followed," Lange told RFE/RL.

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Lange says that he deliberately drew attention to himself while at the hospital, telling the police there that he was a journalist with "RT from Russia." He says he was then given another assignment: keeping an eye on Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov and Navalny's head of investigations, Maria Pevchikh.

"Finding the whereabouts of Volkov based on a photo from an apartment was not only ridiculous...it also made no journalistic sense," Lange told RFE/RL. “Volkov was not hidden in Berlin and gave interviews. If you had wanted an interview with him, you would have made an official request or bought video material from an agency."

Lange also told RFE/RL that he and his cameraman were instructed by the outlet's new management to "show all the filth of Germany," not in reports but in short clips.

"I was now commissioned directly to show only those pictures that show a negative image of Germany," he said. "Not an extensive report on the heroin scene in Berlin, but a clip that shows junkies and misery and does not explain anything or inform the viewer. That's when I made the decision to go, and also to report on how it goes behind the scenes."

RT said on March 10 that it intends to sue the German tabloid Bild, where Lange first made his allegations.

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Announcing its lawsuit against Bild, RT hinted that the allegations could be part of a campaign against the Russian television network in Germany.

Lange this week published a book -- titled Inside RT Deutsch: Putin’s Media Army In Germany -- in which he recalls his two years of working for the outlet. The book includes the story about RT’s alleged attempt to spy on Navalny.

The Kremlin critic was arrested on January 17 upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he received life-saving treatment from a nerve-agent poisoning while traveling in Siberia in August.

Navalny has insisted that his poisoning was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The FSB security service and the Kremlin have denied any role in the poisoning.

Last month, a Moscow court ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated. Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a jail term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison given time already served in detention.

With reporting by bild.de and Meduza.io

CLARIFICATION: This story has been amended so that quotations correspond with the original interview, which was conducted in English.

An Armenian man in a California prison for the 1982 assassination of the Turkish consul general to Los Angeles will be released on parole, in a decision that drew a rebuke from the U.S. State Department and the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Hampig “Harry” Sassounian, an ethnic Armenian immigrant to the United States, was convicted in 1984 for shooting dead Turkish diplomat Kemal Arikan when he had stopped at a traffic light in Los Angeles.

A member of an Armenian militant organization that carried out a string of attacks on Turkish interests across the globe, Sassounian was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but an appeals court later overruled that judgment.

In 2002, prosecutors cut a deal that made Sassounian, who is now 58, eligible for parole in exchange for a declaration renouncing terrorism and admitting guilt.

He had applied for parole on several occasions but was unsuccessful until a judge recently granted it.

A spokeswoman for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had previously opposed granting parole, told AFP he had decided not to challenge the ruling.

"The governor has carefully weighed the factors in this case and will not pursue an appeal," the spokeswoman said.

The decision drew a sharp response from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which has had its diplomats killed in the 1970s and '80s by Armenian militants seeking revenge for the World War I-era massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

“This grave decision, that could not be reversed despite all attempts of the U.S. administration, is in conflict with the universal principles of law and the understanding of justice,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that 58 Turkish citizens, including 31 diplomats, have lost their lives as a result of attacks carried out by “Armenian terrorist organizations.”

The State Department issued a statement saying it was “deeply disappointed” by the parole decision.

"Attacking a diplomat is not only a grave crime against a particular individual, it is also an attack on diplomacy itself. To ensure the safety of the dedicated U.S. diplomats serving around the world, it has been the long-standing position of the United States to advocate that those who assassinate diplomats receive the maximum sentence possible, and that they serve those sentences without parole or early release,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

During and immediately after World War I, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed or deported from Anatolia. Many historians, Armenia, and more than 30 countries consider the killings genocide.

As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey objects to the use of the word genocide.

Ankara says that about 500,000 Armenians died as a result of civil strife, disease, and starvation rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to annihilate them. Turkey also asserts that hundreds of thousands of Muslims died in Anatolia at the time due to combat, starvation, cold, and disease.

With reporting by AFP

Ukraine plans to nationalize Motor Sich, an aerospace manufacturer that is majority-owned by Chinese companies, due to its strategic importance to national defense.

"The decision has been taken to return Motor Sich to the Ukrainian people," Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, said following a meeting of the body on March 11.

The nationalization will proceed in “a legal, constitutional way” and investors will be compensated, he added.

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The nationalization of the jet engine manufacturer is likely to irk China but please the United States, Ukraine’s chief foreign backer against Russian aggression.

Washington has opposed Chinese investment in Motor Sich in recent years out of concern it would help transfer its advanced technology to Beijing.

In January, the United States blacklisted Chinese aviation firm Skyrizon, which has sought to acquire control of Motor Sich, and said the firm's "predatory investments and technology acquisitions in Ukraine represent an unacceptable risk of diversion to military end use” in China.

Two weeks later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree imposing sanctions on four Chinese companies including Skyrizon that were seeking to gain control of the aerospace firm.

In December, the Chinese investors behind Skyrizon filed a $3.5 billion arbitration case against Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of expropriating its investment in Motor Sich after the government froze its shares in the company in 2018.

Motor Sich makes engines for helicopters and aircraft. It also makes engines that can be used for cruise missiles and drones.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Belarus expelled two more Polish diplomats on March 11 after Poland expelled a Belarusian diplomat in a tit-for-tat spat that erupted after a World War II commemoration.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had expelled the two diplomats "in connection with the excessive, asymmetric, and destructive response of Poland."

The two senior staff members of the Polish Consulate in the city of Hrodno were given 48 hours to leave the country, the ministry said.

The unofficial commemorative event at the heart of the dispute took place February 28 in the southwestern Belarusian city of Brest in honor of so-called “cursed soldiers,” Polish fighters who initially fought against Nazi occupation and later turned against Soviet occupiers. The soldiers often acted violently against non-Poles, especially Belarusians.

Minsk on March 9 announced it was expelling the Polish consul, Jerzy Timofejuk, saying he had taken part in the ceremony, prompting Warsaw to also declare a Belarusian diplomat persona non grata the next day.

Belarus then responded with the expulsion of the two Polish diplomats on March 11.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said that Warsaw reserved its right to an "adequate response" to the move.

Belarusian prosecutors said on March 10 that they had opened a criminal case into the Brest event for actions aimed at inciting national and religious enmity, and hate based on nationality, religion, and language, as well as actions aimed at glorifying Nazism.

The Foreign Ministry in Minsk said celebrating "war criminals and the justification of genocide against the Belarusian people" was unacceptable.

The Day of Cursed Soldiers has been commemorated in Poland every March 1 since 2011.

Relations between Belarus and Poland have been strained recently after protests broke out against the disputed reelection in August of Belarus strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Poland has sheltered Belarusian activists who have fled across the border to escape a crackdown on the opposition.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, BelTA, AFP, and dpa

MINSK -- New criminal charges have been filed against jailed Belarusian blogger Ihar Losik, his wife says, adding that upon hearing the charges he restarted a hunger strike.

Losik, a consultant for RFE/RL on new-media technologies, also tried to slit his wrists in front of an investigator and a lawyer, his wife, Darya, told RFE/RL on March 11, citing his lawyer.

She said the precise wording of the new charges is unknown and demanded that Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka tell her why her husband has been in prison for nine months.

This comes less than two months after Losik ended a six-week hunger strike to protest charges that he allegedly helped organize riots over last year’s disputed presidential election in Belarus.

News of the new charges against the 28-year-old father of a 2-year-old daughter prompted a response from RFE/RL President Jamie Fly, who urged Lukashenka to release him immediately so he can be reunited with his family.

“All of us at RFE/RL are deeply distressed by today’s new charges against Ihar, and his deteriorating health situation," Fly said in a statement, adding: "Journalism is not a crime and Ihar has been unjustly detained for far too long. Ihar and his family should not be tortured in this way.”

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Losik was arrested on June 25, 2020, and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to “prepare to disrupt public order” and “preparation for participation in riots” ahead of the presidential election on August 9.

Losik on December 15 was slapped with charges that could result in an eight-year prison term if he is convicted.

In protest, Losik, who has been recognized as a political prisoner by rights activists, launched his hunger strike.

Losik announced the end of that hunger strike on January 25, saying he did so “on my own volition.” A statement issued by his lawyer at the time said he was “simply moved by the unbelievable wave of solidarity."

But the blogger’s state of mind apparently declined soon afterward based on a handwritten letter that he wrote on February 18 and published on social media after the news of a two-year jail sentence given to two journalists of Belsat.

“I have no illusion. I think it’ll be about five more years, and by that time I will have died. I no longer have any desire to do anything,” Losik wrote. “So much has already been done, and all for naught: Nothing influences anybody. I’ll say it honestly: I doubt anything will change.”

Since the presidential election, Belarus has witnessed regular demonstrations whose size and scope are unparalleled in the country’s post-Soviet history.

Western governments have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote, and imposed sanctions on him and his allies, citing election rigging and the police crackdown.

Lukashenka has refused to step down and says he will not negotiate with the opposition.

In his letter, Losik said he believed everyone who has protested against the government will be jailed and those who aren’t will leave or be silenced.

“Russia will assist with money, and that’s how it will remain for several years to come. That’s why I’m thinking I have to somehow prepare myself. Because I’ve grown tired of waiting and hoping for something good while, each week for the past eight months, things only deteriorate,” he said.

Losik wrote of a sense of helplessness, saying it was sad, but he saw no reason to believe otherwise, and said he didn’t want his wife to witness a trial.

“Better they should just quickly shoot me, so as not to have to witness all that,” he said.

Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest on March 11 rejected the entry submitted by Belarus and threatened the country with disqualification if it did not submit a modified version of the song or a new entry.

The song I'll Teach You by the band Galasy ZMesta has sparked a backlash for singing the praises of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka with lyrics such as, "I'll teach you how to dance to the tune, I'll teach you to take the bait, I'll teach you to walk the line."

In announcing its decision to reject Belarus’s entry, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said the song would put the “nonpolitical nature” of the contest in question, and that “recent reactions to the proposed entry risk bringing the reputation of the ESC into disrepute.”

Lukashenka has faced nearly daily protests to step down since the country's presidential election on August 9 handed him another term despite charges the election was rigged.

More than 30,000 people have been arrested, hundreds beaten, and several people killed in the government crackdown on protesters.

Calls to kick out Belarus's entry to the annual Eurovision Song Contest had been growing in the run-up to the event in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on May 18-22.

Belarus's national broadcaster, BTRC, on February 9 announced it had selected Galasy ZMesta to represent the country at the contest.

Galasy ZMesta has slammed the country's pro-democracy movement, writing on its website that the group could not stay "indifferent" while "political battles try to break the country we love and in which we are living."

The five-member group has backed Lukashenka, and its front man, Dzmitry Butakou, openly laments the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Butakov denied the song breached the competition's rules and said the EBU's decision was expected.

"They took the hockey world cup from us, and Eurovision is peanuts compared to that," Butakov told Reuters, referring to Belarus earlier being stripped as host of this year's world ice hockey championships.

Crisis In Belarus

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

The BTRC had already caused a controversy when it chose Galasy ZMesta over the Belarusian duet VAL, which had been selected to represent Belarus last year before the 2020 competition was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

VAL were expected to represent Belarus this year, but the BTRC decided differently, announcing the two “lacked a conscience" after giving an interview critical of the state broadcaster and life in Belarus under Lukashenka's rule.

The Eurovoix News Service, a music news service with a focus on Eurovision, had also voiced shock over the choice of Galasy ZMesta, and stated it would limit its coverage of Belarus's participation at this year's event.

"The lyrics of the song support a government agenda that silences its citizens and imprisons its journalists for speaking out over basic human rights issues," it said in a statement issued on its website.

An online petition demanding Belarus be pulled from the competition had gathered more than 2,000 signatures.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, Current Time, and Reuters

BUDAPEST -- Hungary's media regulator on March 11 rejected an application from one of the country's last independent news radio stations to regain its broadcasting frequency in what the International Press Institute (IPI) called “yet another afront” to press freedom in the European Union member state.

Klubradio, whose news and talk content is often critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, has been broadcasting online since mid-February after a court upheld a previous decision by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) not to extend its broadcasting license.

The radio station applied on an open tender to regain a frequency it lost last month, but the NMHH denied its request -- despite it being the only applicant -- arguing that the application contained errors and did not meet basic requirements for radio broadcasting.

Klubradio has 15 days to appeal the decision.

The radio station called it “unlawful” and vowed to continue broadcasting online.

Critics accuse the NMHH -- whose members are all Orban's supporters -- of exercising political bias in its decision making. The government denies interfering in media issues.

Scott Griffen, deputy director of the Austrian-based IPI, said in a statement that the “latest arbitrary decision” by the “captured” media regulator “shows the lengths to which the Hungarian authorities will go” to ensure Klubradio is blocked from returning to the airwaves before next year’s parliamentary elections.

Griffen urged the European Commission to “immediately intensify its engagement with the Hungarian authorities and investigate whether the decisions by the Media Council in this and other cases contravene EU law.”

The European Commission has urged the country to take action to allow Klubradio to continue broadcasting, saying the loss of the station's frequency had occurred “on the basis of highly questionable legal grounds.”

On March 10, the European Parliament debated the erosion of media freedom in Hungary -- as well as in Poland and Slovenia.

Hungary is under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and risks losing access to tens of billions of euros in funds from the bloc.

The country is ranked 89th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Only Bulgaria, 111th, is ranked lower among the EU's 27 member nations.

With reporting by AP

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has refused to remove Nasiliyu.net, a leading organization that addresses domestic violence and LGBT rights, from the registry of "foreign agents."

Lawyer Pavel Chikov of the Agora legal defense organization said on March 11 that the Zamoskvoretsky district court rejected Nasiliyu.net's request to annul a Justice Ministry decision to add the group to its controversial list of organizations fulfilling the functions of a "foreign agent."

The ministry justified its move, made in December, by saying that the NGO had received foreign funding and was engaged in political activity. The NGO has denied it is politically active.

Chikov said earlier this month that the government's complaint against Nasilyu.net said the group's activity in "publicizing the problem of domestic violence," "creating conditions so that victims know where to turn for help," and "participating in promoting and conducting campaigns aimed at adopting a law against family and domestic violence" must be considered "political activity" under the "foreign-agent" laws.

The government also deemed the NGO's public calls for government agencies "to take measures to protect victims of domestic violence" during the coronavirus pandemic to be "political activity."

The NGO's leader, Anna Rivina, said on March 8 that her organization had been ordered to vacate their Moscow offices by the end of March for unclear reasons.

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

Human Rights Watch has described the foreign-agent legislation as "restrictive" and intended "to demonize independent groups."

Later modifications to the foreign-agent law have targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.

YAKUTSK, Russia -- The Supreme Court of Russia's Yakutia region has ruled that the forced confinement to a psychiatric clinic of a shaman who tried several times to march to Moscow on foot "to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin" was legal.

Olga Timofeyeva, a lawyer for Aleksandr Gabyshev, told RFE/RL on March 11 that the court rejected her client's request for an independent expert to be present at the hearing to assess the medical conclusion on his placement in the clinic.

Timofeyeva also said that the court rejected a motion to evaluate Gabyshev by medical and psychiatric experts in any other region of Russia.

Gabyshev was accused by law enforcement of attacking a police officer when he was forcibly taken from his home to a psychiatric clinic in late January.

Police confined him to a psychiatric clinic on January 27, less than three weeks after the shaman had announced plans to resume his trek to the Russian capital to drive Putin out of the Kremlin.

Gabyshev first made headlines in March 2019 when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he had started a march to Moscow to drive the Russian president out of office.

He then walked more than 2,000 kilometers, speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way.

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As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views.

In July that year, when Gabyshev reached the city of Chita, he led a 700-strong rally under the slogan "Russia without Putin!"

At the time, Gabyshev said, "God told me that Putin is not human but a demon, and has ordered me to drive him out."

His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia later in September and placed in psychiatric clinic in Yakutia against his will.

His forced confinement in a clinic was equated by many with a Soviet-era practice to muzzle dissent.

Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed. But in isolated parts of Siberia, they are now regaining prominence.

With reporting by MBKh Media

MOSCOW -- The Moscow City Court has upheld the two-year suspended sentence for an opposition politician who was convicted in December over her involvement in anti-Kremlin protest rallies.

After the court handed down the ruling on March 11, municipal lawmaker Yulia Galyamina said that it was very likely now that Moscow's city council would remove her of status as a lawmaker.

On December 28, before the Tver district court judge found her guilty of repeatedly violating the law on mass gatherings and pronounced her sentence, the outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin said at the trial that the proceedings against her had proven that Putin, investigators, security officials, and police saw her as a "real threat."

"I am a teacher, a municipal lawmaker, a politician who calls for nonviolent change, for honest political struggle, for a decent life for people. I'm a woman who is a threat to a man, who seems to have all possible powers. However, that man is just a little man who is scared of a woman's soft power," Galyamina said.

Amnesty International has called the charges against Galyamina "appalling and reprehensible," and says they are aimed at "silencing a major dissenting voice and threatening to ban her political activities."

Galyamina was involved in a campaign against what she says are "illegal plans" by Putin to remain in power beyond term limits.

Her team organized a peaceful rally in central Moscow in July against constitutional reforms introduced in 2020 that give Putin an option to remain in power for as many as 16 more years if he wins two more elections after his current term expires in 2024.

Dozens of people were detained by police during the protest.

MINSK -- Belarusian video blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, who has been in pretrial detention since May, has been served with final charges that could see him imprisoned for up to 15 years after he expressed his willingness to take part in an August presidential election against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus said on March 11 that the investigations against Tsikhanouski, opposition politician Mikalay Statkevich, and their associates had been completed.

According to the final charges, Tsikhanouski is accused of organizing mass disorder, incitement of social hatred, impeding the Central Election Commission's activities, and organizing activities that disrupt social order.

Tsikhanouski was the owner of a popular YouTube channel called The Country For Life, which challenges Belarusian authorities, when he announced his willingness to run against Lukashenka early last year.

Shortly after Tsikhanouski’s candidacy was rejected by election officials, he was arrested in May 2020 and has been held in jail since as he awaited charges.

His wife, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, took over during the campaign and ran as a candidate in the presidential poll. She has turned into the main challenger to Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994.

The European Union and the United States have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus after he claimed a landslide victory in the August 9 election that has been widely criticized as fraudulent.

The results have sparked months of mass protests and have been contested by Tsikhanouskaya, whose supporters claim she won the vote, as well as opposition figures across the country.

Lukashenka has overseen a violent crackdown on the protesters, which has seen thousands -- including media members -- detained and scores injured.

Overall, more than 1,800 criminal cases have been launched over the protests against the official results of the presidential election.

Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus immediately after the vote fearing for her family's security. She currently lives in Lithuania with her children.

Most leading opposition figures have been forced from the country, while many of those still in Belarus have been detained by law enforcement.