News
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Warns Entities Involved In Nord Stream 2 They Face More Sanctions
The United States has called for "any entity involved" in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany to disengage "immediately" or face U.S. sanctions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged those entities to pull out of construction on the German-Russian gas project, saying on March 18 that President Joe Biden's administration was "committed to complying" with the law passed in 2019 and extended in 2020 by the U.S. Congress that provides for sanctions.
"Nord Stream 2 is a bad deal -- for Germany, for Ukraine, and for our Central and Eastern European allies and partners," Blinken said in a statement, reiterating Washington's long-standing opposition to the $11 billion gas pipeline running under the Baltic Sea.
U.S. officials argue that the pipeline, which is supposed to transport 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany once a year, will make Europe too dependent on Russian energy supplies.
Blinken denounced it as a "Russian geopolitical project intended to divide Europe and weaken European energy security."
The State Department "is tracking efforts to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and is evaluating information regarding entities that appear to be involved," he added.
So far, Washington has only imposed sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS, which operates the pipe-laying vessel Fortuna. These measures were announced by the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump shortly before the end of its term in January.
Supporters of the gas pipeline have long accused the US of undermining the project in order to increase sales of their liquid gas in Europe.
With reporting by AP and dpa
- By RFE/RL
U.S., EU Tell OSCE That Russian Media Curbs Are Aimed At Independent Press, RFE/RL
The United States and European Union have reiterated their condemnation of Russia's increasing repression of independent media, including RFE/RL.
Courtney Austrian, the U.S. charge d' affaires to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on March 18 that Russia's new requirements for outlets branded "foreign media agents" were in some cases technically impossible and were being "used against entities and individuals associated, sometimes only tangentially, with U.S. Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, funded programming in Russia."
The assault on USAGM outlets, including RFE/RL, "reflects a broader crackdown on independent voices and civil society," Austrian said during a meeting of the Permanent Council on behalf of the United States and Canada. "The new regulations are aimed at impeding RFE/RL's media operations in Russia and reducing its growing audience share."
Austrian added that, while USAGM outlets were the first foreign media to be targeted by Russia, media from any OSCE state could be next.
The new regulations include requirements that entities and individuals designated by Moscow as "media foreign agents" must note the designation in material published in Russia with a prominent, state-mandated disclaimer.
In some cases, such as tweets, the requirement was technically impossible because the disclaimer had more characters than allowed by Twitter, Austrian noted.
Austrian noted that Russia's media regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, has opened 260 cases against RFE/RL for violations of the regulations, with potential fines of $980,000, since January 14.
"We reiterate our call on the Russian government to end its repression of independent journalists and outlets, including RFE/RL and its affiliates," Austrian wrote. "The people of Russia deserve access to a wide range of information and opinion and a government that respects freedom of expression in keeping with Russia's international obligations and OSCE commitments."
False Equivalence
In a later "right of reply" statement delivered to the Permanent Council in Vienna, Austrian said that the Russian delegation to the intergovernmental organization "has repeatedly tried to create a false equivalence between the draconian measures taken against RFE/RL in Russia and the legal framework within which RT and Sputnik operate in the United States."
Those Russian outlets are required to register with the U.S. Justice Ministry as "foreign agents" under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
However, Austrian said, "we will repeat what we have stated before: there is no equivalence between U.S. FARA legislation and Russia’s 'foreign agent' law."
Austrian noted that while the U.S. law does not impose restrictions on how foreign outlets print and broadcast their stories and opinions, "Russia uses its 'foreign agent' law to restrict, intimidate, prosecute, and shut down civil society organizations and independent media."
The European Union on March 18 also issued a statement to the OSCE Permanent Council expressing "our serious concern about the worsening situation of media freedom in Russia."
In its two-page statement, the 27-member bloc said that Russia's adoption in December of stricter measures under its "foreign agents" and other legislation had "enabled the authorities to exercise online censorship."
"The EU reiterates its longstanding position that the so-called 'foreign agent' law contributes to a systematic infringement of basic freedoms, and restricts civil society, independent media, and the rights of political opposition in Russia," the statement read. "It goes against Russia's international obligations and human rights commitments."
The EU statement also described the opening of cases against RFE/RL regarding alleged violations of the labeling requirement as "systematic targeting" and "a blatant attempt to silence independent media and to eventually cease RFE/RL's activities in Russia."
'Orders To Intimidate'
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.
Later modifications targeted foreign-funded media.
In 2017, the Russian government placed RFE/RL's Russian Service on the list, along with six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, a network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to add individuals, including foreign journalists, to its "foreign agent" list and to impose restrictions on them.
In December 2020, authorities added five individuals to its "foreign agent" list, including three contributors to RFE/RL's Russian Service. All five are appealing their inclusion on the list.
Roskomnadzor last year adopted rules requiring listed media to mark all written materials with a lengthy notice in large text, all radio materials with an audio statement, and all video materials with a 15-second text declaration.
RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has called the regulations "orders to deface our content platforms and intimidate our audiences" and says RFE/RL will continue "to object, protest, and appeal these requirements."
Hungary's Ruling Fidesz Party Quits European Center-Right Bloc
Hungary's ruling nationalist Fidesz party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has quit the main pan-European center-right bloc, two weeks after leaving its grouping in the European Parliament.
"It's time to say goodbye," Fidesz Vice Chairwoman Katalin Novak wrote on Twitter, posting a brief letter signed by the party's leaders which said it "no longer wishes to maintain its membership in the European People's Party (EPP), thus resigns."
The move marks Fidesz's definitive break with the EPP, which brings together Europe's main center-right parties and is the biggest single voting bloc in the European Parliament.
It is the party of both Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Fidesz's decision to quit the parliament grouping earlier this month came immediately after the conservative bloc voted for a change of rules that allows it to suspend Fidesz over its alleged repeated democratic backsliding.
EPP President Donald Tusk reacted with relief to the news on March 18, but added that he would have liked to have seen this step by Fidesz much earlier.
"Fidesz has left Christian Democracy. In truth, it left many years ago," he tweeted.
Orban has called for the creation of a new European right-wing force for "our type of people."
Orban's nationalist policies have been seen as a better fit with smaller European blocs to the right of the EPP, such as the Euroskeptic ECR, which includes Poland's ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS), or the right-wing ID, which includes France's National Rally and Italy's far-right League.
Orban has said he was in talks with "the Poles," referring to PiS, as well as Italian right-wing politicians.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Political Prisoners Among Individuals Pardoned By Azerbaijani President
BAKU -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has issued pardons for hundreds of people, including almost 40 who have been identified by rights groups as being behind bars for political reasons.
In total, 625 individuals were pardoned on March 18, of which 38 have been recognized as political prisoners.
Among that group were four members of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, 28 imprisoned in the high-profile case of deadly clashes with police in the village of Nardaran in 2015, one person convicted over deadly clashes in the city of Ganca, one member of the Islamic party sentenced for protesting against the banning of hijabs at schools, and one person believed to have been sentenced for being a relative of a political activist living abroad.
According to the clemency decree, 475 inmates will be released from penitentiaries, while the prison terms of 98 convicts will be cut by half and three life terms will be shortened to 25 years.
Rights activists say there are some 150 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, while the oil-rich South Caucasus nation's government has insisted that there are no such inmates in the country.
Uzbek Court Sentences Suspects Involved In Violent Clashes In Sokh Exclave
FERGHANA, Uzbekistan -- A court in Uzbekistan has handed down verdicts and sentences to 22 people in a high-profile case for their roles in disturbances in the country's volatile Sokh exclave within neighboring Kyrgyzstan last year.
The Ferghana regional court in the country's east sentenced two defendants -- Nazirjon Juraev and Mahsimjon Ahmedov -- to five years in prison on March 18 after finding them guilty of taking part in the disturbances.
The other defendants were handed parole-like "freedom limitation" sentences for terms of between two and five years.
The probe against the defendants was launched after altercations erupted last May between residents of Sokh and Kyrgyzstan's Kadamjai district. Thousands of people were involved in the incidents and several houses were burned down on both sides.
In total, 187 Uzbek nationals were hospitalized during the incidents with various injuries, including three people with gunshot wounds.
Kyrgyz authorities said at the time that 25 Kyrgyz nationals had been injured in the clashes, four of whom needed hospitalization due to the severity of their injuries.
The incidents started after locals from the Kyrgyz village of Chechme and residents of the Uzbek village of Chashma argued about the ownership of a spring in the area.
When Ferghana regional Governor Shuhrat Ganiev arrived at the site, he was attacked and pelted with stones.
Many border areas in Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan meet.
Last week, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev said after talks in Tashkent with his visiting Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Japarov, that they had agreed to solve all border issues between the two nations "in three months."
Chechen Police Regiment Urges Putin To 'Protect' It From Newspaper's 'Defamation'
A special police regiment in Russia's North Caucasus region has urged President Vladimir Putin "to protect" them from "defamation" by the Moscow-based independent investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta after it published a report about alleged extrajudicial killings and torture by law enforcement in the region.
The regiment's personnel issued a video statement on Instagram on March 17, in which its representatives called Novaya Gazeta, which was co-founded by former President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993 and is one of the few Russian media outlets critical of the country's leadership, "a fake periodical," and its reports 'defamatory attacks."
The statement also said that the regiment's members were "ready to carry our any order of the Supreme Commander."
One officer says on the video that the regiment feels "compelled to have one of us take responsibility to stop the insults targeting" 16,000 law enforcement officers in Chechnya.
The statement came two days after Novaya Gazeta published an interview with a former police officer of the regiment, Suleiman Gezmakhmayev, who confirmed the torture and killing by police of at least 13 Chechen men in January 2017.
Earlier reports from Novaya Gazeta alleged that police in Chechnya illegally detained, tortured and killed 27 men.
After Novaya Gazeta's March 15 article, Chechen Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev and Regional Information and Press Minister Akhmed Dudayev publicly called the report "a lie."
On March 18, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Chechen police regiment's statement addressed to Putin was wrong as such complaints must be adjudicated by the legal system.
"The president of the Russian Federation is not a judicial organ, cannot make judicial decisions, and cannot accept complaints against the newspaper's editors," Peskov said.
Rights groups and critics have long accused the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his paramilitary forces of serious rights abuses, including the widespread use of kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial murders.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Bulgaria Announces Coronavirus Lockdown Ahead Of Elections
SOFIA -- Bulgaria has announced it will close kindergartens, schools, restaurants, and shopping malls for 10 days as the country battles a surge in COVID-19 infections that have stretched its hospitals.
RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive
Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.
Health Minister Kostadin Angelov told reporters on March 18 that theaters, cinemas, and gyms will also be closed from March 22, while indoor gatherings of more than 15 people will be banned.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was taking all necessary health safety measures for national elections to be held on April 4, he said.
Earlier in the day, Bulgaria reported 4,201 new coronavirus cases, with 7,804 people in hospitals, including 609 in intensive care.
Overall, health authorities have reported more than 290,000 infections and over 11,000 related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Bulgaria, with a population of 7 million, holds the poorest inoculation record in the European Union, with only about 350,000 people vaccinated so far with a first dose.
With reporting by Reuters
Belarus Opposition Leader Renews Battle Against Lukashenka
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has made good on promises to reignite the effort to topple Alyaksandr Lukashenka, calling for renewed protests over a disputed presidential election, announcing a nationwide online vote on possible mediated negotiations to end the crisis, and more sanctions from the United States to pressure the authorities.
In a video statement released on March 18, Tsikhanouskaya called on Belarusians to initiate a "second wave of protests" next week against Lukashenka, the authoritarian leader who was declared president for a sixth-straight term despite the opposition's belief that Tsikhanouskaya was the rightful winner.
Tsikhanouskaya also said that the online vote, launched on March 18, would encourage the international community to act as mediators in the crisis, which erupted after peaceful protests were met with brute force by the authorities.
"We launch this voting to start talks with representatives of [Lukashenka's] regime who are ready to think about the future and make mature decisions instead of prolonging the crisis until a full catastrophe. And there are such people," Tsikhanouskaya, who is currently in Lithuania where she relocated for security reasons after she was detained while attempting to register a complaint with elections officials, said in the video.
Participation in the online vote, she said, would "help get decisive steps" from international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The independent platform Golos, which launched in Belarus last year to monitor the disputed presidential election, is overseeing the online vote. Golos announced that more than 200,000 people had voted already for talks between the authorities and the opposition.
Mobilization Efforts
Political scientist Pyotr Rudkouski told RFE/RL's Belarus Service that the online initiative appeared intended to mobilize Belarusian society and to affect the decision-making of international partners.
Calling herself "the leader elected by the Belarusian people," Tsikhanouskaya also set March 25 as the date for the start of renewed pro-democracy protests against Lukashenka. The day marks the anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.
Tsikhanouskaya has recently acknowledged that cold weather and the harsh government crackdown against protesters had taken some momentum from the movement to oust Lukashenka. But she promised renewed efforts come spring and has reached out to countries around the globe -- she recently went on a three-country tour of Europe -- in an effort to boost support.
Addressing the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee by videoconference on March 17, Tsikhanouskaya called on the United States to put more pressure on Lukashenka by expanding sanctions.
Tsikhanouskaya said the additional sanctions should target judges, state-owned enterprises, security officers, oligarchs, and educational and sports officials.
"You have to put sanctions on those…'wallets' of Lukashenka that support the regime," Tsikhanouskaya said.
This includes oil and gas enterprises, she said, urging the U.S. Congress to "strike at the regime's most important benefactors and primary sources of resilience."
According to Tsikhanouskaya, 32,000 people have been detained, 2,500 criminal cases have been initiated, 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs, and 290 people are currently being held as political prisoners. At least eight protesters have been killed, she said, and no government officials have been held accountable for any of the violence.
Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has resisted international calls to step down and refuses to negotiate with the opposition. Tsikhanouskaya has described his recent public threat to use the army against protesters "an act of fear and despair."
Seeking 'Genuine Dialogue'
Tsikhanouskaya, 38, ran after her husband was jailed while trying to mount his own campaign and attracted a wide following, while most Western countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as president.
Many governments have imposed sanctions on Lukashenka and senior Belarusian officials over the election process and the ensuing crackdown on protesters. In February, the U.S. State Department imposed visa restrictions targeting Belarus's justice sector, law enforcement leaders, and officers in the country's security forces.
Tsikhanouskaya, however, told U.S. lawmakers that the efforts to date have not been enough to oust the long-serving Belarusian leader.
"Lukashenka still has the resources to retain power," Tsikhanouskaya said. "So, the United States should insist on stopping the violence, releasing the political prisoners, restoring the rule of law, and launching a genuine dialogue between the legitimate representatives of Belarusians and the regime."
The people of Belarus need the help immediately "because people are suffering now in this very moment in jails and on the ground," she said. "This is urgent help."
She urged Congress to increase sanctions on judges, in particular, because this will cause them to "think twice before making a judgment against a peaceful demonstration."
With reporting by AP and the BBC
Embattled Armenian PM Announces Early Parliamentary Elections In June
YEREVAN -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has agreed to hold early general elections in June in an effort to defuse a political crisis sparked by the war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Pashinian said in a post on Facebook on March 18 that following talks with the leader of the opposition parliamentary faction Prosperous Armenia, Gagik Tsarukian, it was agreed that early elections will be held on June 20.
During their meeting, Pashinian and Tsarukian agreed that the snap elections were "the best way out of the current internal political situation," the prime minister wrote.
"Taking into account my discussions with President [Armen Sarkisian], the My Step faction, the leader of the Bright Armenia faction Edmon Marukian, early parliamentary elections will be held in the Republic of Armenia on June 20," he added.
Armenia has been in the grip of political upheaval since November, when Pashinian signed a Moscow-brokered cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan that ended six weeks of fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
Under the deal, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.
A coalition of 16 opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to step down over his handling of the war, during which more than 6,000 people were killed.
But the prime minister, whose My Step faction dominates parliament, has refused to resign, defending the Russia-mediated agreement as the only way to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning Nagorno-Karabakh, while his supporters rallied in his support to counter the pressure for his resignation.
The region 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.
Moscow Court Upholds Extension Of Journalist's Detention In High Treason Case
The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court decision to extend the pretrial detention of former journalist Ivan Safronov, who is charged with high treason, until May 7.
The appeal of a March 2 ruling by Moscow's Lefortovo district court to extend Safronov's detention was held on March 18 behind closed doors, as the case is classified.
The 30-year-old Safronov, who has worked since May as an adviser to the head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, is a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.
He was arrested on July 7, 2020, amid allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.
Safronov has rejected the accusations. Many of his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities demanding his release.
Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronov’s release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
- By RFE/RL
Moscow Court Prolongs House Arrests Of Four Navalny Supporters
A Moscow court has extended the house arrest of Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
The Basmanny district court on March 18 ruled that the house arrest of Yarmysh and three other Navalny supporters will be prolonged until June 23.
No reason was given for the decision. The current house arrest period had been set to end on March 23.
Yarmysh, along with nine other associates and supporters of Navalny, have been charged with publicly calling for Moscow residents to violate sanitary and epidemiological safety precautions.
The group was detained in late January on the eve of unsanctioned mass rallies against Navalny’s arrest. Most of them have since been placed under house arrest.
If found guilty of the charges against them, they face up to two years in prison.
On February 8, the Memorial human rights center in Moscow recognized the group as political prisoners.
The 44-year-old Navalny was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany where he was treated for a nerve-agent poisoning that he says was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has denied.
More than 10,000 people were rounded up by police during nationwide rallies protesting Navalny's arrest in more than 100 Russian towns and cities on January 23 and January 31.
On February 2, Navalny was found guilty of violating the terms of a suspended sentence relating to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated. The court converted the sentence to 3 1/2 years in prison. Given credit for time already spent in detention, the court said the Kremlin critic would have to serve just over 2 1/2 years behind bars.
The court's ruling sparked new mass protests across the country that were also violently dispersed by police.
More than 1,400 people were detained by police in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities on that day.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Kazakh Rights Defenders Add Five Men To Growing List Of Political Prisoners
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh human rights organizations have added five people to a list of political prisoners, bringing the total number to 29 in the oil-rich Central Asian nation.
The five individuals from different parts of the country added to the list on March 17 are Maqsut Appasov, Medet Eseneev, Abzal Qanaliev, Merei Qurbaqov, and Aidar Syzdyqov.
According to the human rights organizations' group of experts, they either were convicted or are currently under investigation on politically motivated charges, namely for supporting or taking part in the activities of opposition groups -- the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and Koshe (Street) Party. Both parties have been labeled as extremist organizations and banned in Kazakhstan.
Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina of the Almaty-based Ar, Rukh, Khaq (Dignity, Spirit, Truth) rights group, told RFE/RL on March 18 that the group of experts representing human rights organizations was established in 2013. Since then, the number of political prisoners in the country has risen dramatically.
In recent months, many activists across Kazakhstan have been handed parole-like sentences for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and the Koshe Party, as well as for taking part in rallies organized by the two groups.
DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.
Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings violates international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.
Kazakh authorities have insisted that there are no political prisoners in the country.
- By RFE/RL
Russia Reacts Sharply To Biden's 'Unprecedented' Comment About Putin Being A Killer
The Kremlin has accused U.S. President Joe Biden of not wanting to improve bilateral ties after “unprecedented” comments in which he said believed Vladimir Putin is a killer.
Already tense relations between Moscow and Washington were strained further after Biden, who has spent more than four decades in politics, said "I do" when asked by ABC News on March 17 if he believed the Russian president was a killer.
In the Kremlin's first comments since Biden made the remarks, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such statements are “unprecedented” in the history of Russian-U.S. relations and he warned that Russia's response to these remarks would be "absolutely clear."
"These statements from the president of the United States are very bad. It is clear that he does not want to get the relationship with our country back on track, and we will proceed from that," Peskov told reporters.
Putin, however, appeared to be more sanguine over the comments.
When asked about them at a news conference on March 18, he said he wished Biden "good health" and that people tend to see others as they really see themselves. He added that Moscow will continue working with the United States if the conditions benefit Russia.
Washington's relations with Moscow are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues including Russia's alleged meddling in elections in the United States and other democracies, the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, cyberattacks from Russian hackers, and the poisoning and jailing of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.
The Biden interview came on the heels of a report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence that assessed that Putin had “authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President [Donald] Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States.”
The Kremlin immediately denied the findings of the report, saying they were “absolutely unfounded.”
Biden also said he had come to know Putin "relatively well" over the years and that he doesn't believe Putin has a soul. He also sent a warning that Putin will soon "pay a price" for trying to interfere in November's presidential election.
Within hours of the comments, Russia summoned its ambassador to the United States back to Moscow for consultations. The reverberations continued the next day when a senior Russian lawmaker and Kremlin ally said Biden owes the country an apology.
“This is a watershed moment. This gross statement sends any expectations from the new U.S. administration's new policy toward Russia down the drain," Konstantin Kosachyov, the deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house, wrote in a Facebook post on March 18.
"Recalling the Russian ambassador from Washington to Moscow for consultations is a prompt and adequate reaction, the only right one in this situation. I suspect that it will not be the last [step] if the American side does not offer its explanation and apology," he added.
Despite strained relations, Biden noted that it was possible to "walk and chew gum at the same time for places where it's in our mutual interest to work together."
Russia has dismissed U.S. comments on Navalny and Ukraine as unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs.
With reporting by Interfax, Reuters, and TASS
- By RFE/RL
G7 Blasts Russia's 'Temporary Occupation' Of Crimea On Annexation's Seventh Anniversary
The G7 group of nations has marked the seventh anniversary of Russia’s forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by reaffirming their “unwavering support” for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
In a joint statement on March 18, the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, as well as the EU's foreign policy chief, “unequivocally denounce Russia’s temporary occupation” of Crimea and its “violations of human rights on the peninsula, particularly of Crimean Tatars.”
They said they also “firmly oppose Russia’s continued destabilization of Ukraine,” especially in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted amid a wave of public protests.
Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula and Moscow’s involvement in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has prompted the EU, the United States, and other countries to impose a variety of sanctions on Russian entities and individuals.
In their statement, the G7 and EU called on Russia to immediately release all those who have been “unjustly detained” during what rights groups and Western governments call a campaign of oppression targeting activists, journalists, members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority, and others who questioned the annexation.
On March 17, the U.S. State Department denounced the recent arrest in Crimea of Vladislav Yesypenko, a freelance contributor to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, for allegedly spying on behalf of Kyiv as “another attempt to repress those who speak the truth about Russia's aggression in Ukraine.”
The G7 statement called on Moscow to implement its commitments to the Minsk peace agreements aimed at putting an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, insisting that “Russia is a party to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, not a mediator.”
It said Moscow should “stop fueling the conflict” by providing financial and military support to the separatists and by granting Russian citizenship to “hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens.”
The statement noted that a cease-fire implemented in July 2020 has “significantly reduced violence,” while also deploring “recent military escalations by Russian-backed armed formations at the line of contact.”
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Denounces Repression In Russian-Controlled Crimea After Journalist Arrested On Spying Charge
The United States has called the arrest of a journalist in Russian-annexed Crimea for allegedly spying on behalf of Kyiv "another attempt to repress those who speak the truth about Russia's aggression in Ukraine."
"Russia continues to prosecute Ukrainian activists and target independent voices on the peninsula," State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted late on March 17.
The tweet came one day after Vladislav Yesypenko, who holds dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship and is a freelance contributor to RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was arrested on suspicion of collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence.
The Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service has described the move as "propaganda" ahead of the seventh anniversary of Moscow's forcible annexation of the region on March 18.
According to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), an object "looking like an explosive device" was found in Yesypenko's vehicle during his arrest. The FSB also claimed he had confessed to collecting data for the Ukrainian Security Service.
Yesypenko, along with a resident of the Crimean city of Alushta, Yelizaveta Pavlenko, was detained on March 10 after the two took part in an event marking the 207th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko a day earlier in Crimea.
Pavlenko was later released.
RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has called Yesypenko's detention "deeply troubling," noting that it comes at a time "when the Kremlin is employing harassment and intimidation against any possible alternative voice in Russia-annexed Crimea."
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted amid a wave of public protests.
Rights groups say that, since then, Russia has moved aggressively to prosecute Ukrainian activists and anyone who questions the annexation.
Moscow also backs separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 13,000 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
U.S., Russia, China, And Pakistan Urge Afghan Cease-Fire
The United States, Russia, China, and Pakistan have jointly called on Afghanistan's warring sides to reach an immediate cease-fire just six weeks before a deadline for the United States to pull out troops who have been in the country for nearly 20 years.
"At this turning point, our four countries call on the sides to hold talks and reach a peace agreement that will end more than four decades of war in Afghanistan," read a joint statement issued after the conclusion of talks in Moscow on March 18.
The statement called on the Taliban and government forces to curb violence and urged the militants not to declare offensives in the spring and summer. It also said the four countries were committed to mobilizing political and economic support for Afghanistan once a peace settlement had been reached.
The Moscow talks were meant to breathe life into negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban that opened in Qatar in September but have stalled over government accusations that the insurgents have done too little to halt violence.
The meeting included members of the Afghan government, the country's negotiation team, Taliban officials, as well representatives of Russia, China, Pakistan, and the United States.
It marked the first time Washington has sent a senior official to participate in Afghan peace negotiations convened by Russia.
U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad's presence was seen as a sign of Washington's increasing effort to attract support among regional powers -- including China and Russia -- for its plans for Afghanistan.
Khalilzad has recently tried to gain support for the U.S. administration's road map to peace, including inviting more parties to the negotiations, the establishment of an interim government including the Taliban during the transition to peace, and the signing of a power-sharing agreement between Afghan political factions and the Afghan government.
The U.S. envoy said earlier that he saw the Moscow meeting as a "complement" to international efforts to support the Afghan peace process.
Moscow, which fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, has given its support to the Washington initiative and pushed for a quick resolution, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying while opening the talks in Russia that "in a degrading military-political situation, further delays are unacceptable."
"The situation is becoming an increasingly bigger concern, especially with the approaching spring and summer season traditionally accompanied with intensified combat activity," Lavrov said.
Moscow has hosted talks among Afghan sides and regional powers since 2017. However, Washington had focused on its own direct talks with the Taliban and talks between the Afghan parties themselves. On March 18, Russia's special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said that Moscow now plans to host intra-Afghan talks.
The Afghan delegation included members of the current negotiation team in Qatar, warlords accused of war crimes, and no women.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is opposed to an interim government, while the Taliban has indicated it would not join.
Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan's High Council For National Reconciliation, said after the Moscow talks that the state negotiation team was ready to discuss any topic with the Taliban.
"We called for an end to targeted killings and a comprehensive ceasefire to begin the next rounds of the talks in a peaceful environment," Abdullah wrote on Twitter.
The Moscow gathering was seen as a curtain-raiser for a larger meeting of regional players in Turkey in April, as well as a summit that Khalilzad has asked the United Nations to organize.
With reporting by AP, TASS, and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Tsikhanouskaya Asks U.S. To Widen Belarus Sanctions To Include Lukashenka's 'Wallets'
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has called on the United States to put more pressure on authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka by expanding sanctions to bring maximum pressure on the Belarusian regime and force it to answer the opposition’s calls for dialogue.
Tsikhanouskaya, speaking on March 17 to the U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, said the additional sanctions should target judges, state-owned enterprises, security officers, oligarchs, and educational and sports officials.
“You have to put sanctions on those…'wallets' of Lukashenka that support the regime,” Tsikhanouskaya said during the videoconference hearing.
This includes oil and gas enterprises, she said, urging Congress to “strike at the regime’s most important benefactors and primary sources of resilience.”
Tsikhanouskaya was invited to testify about the pro-democracy movement in Belarus and in particular the role women have played.
She recounted some of the stories of the “brave women of Belarus” who have stood up to the regime – sometimes standing in front of men to guard them from security forces – in almost daily protests since the August 9 presidential election in which Tsikhanouskaya ran after her husband was jailed while trying to mount his own campaign.
She and her supporters say she was the rightful winner, but Lukashenka claimed a landslide victory. The protests that began immediately afterward have demanded new elections, the release of people detained during protests, and a dialogue with the government.
But Tsikhanouskaya said they have not been enough.
“Lukashenka still has the resources to retain power,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “So, the United States should insist on stopping the violence, releasing the political prisoners, restoring the rule of law, and launching a genuine dialogue between the legitimate representatives of Belarusians and the regime.”
The people of Belarus need the help immediately “because people are suffering now in this very moment in jails and on the ground,” she said. “This is urgent help.”
According to Tsikhanouskaya, 32,000 people have been detained, 2,500 criminal cases have been initiated, 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs, and 290 people currently are held as political prisoners. At least eight protesters have been killed, she said, and no government officials have been held accountable for any of the violence.
Western countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
The U.S. State Department in February imposed visa restrictions on 43 other Belarusian individuals, including people in the justice sector, law enforcement leaders and officers who detained and abused peaceful demonstrators, and judges and prosecutors involved in sentencing protesters and journalists.
But Tsikhanouskaya said those sanctions have not been effective because the individuals know how to avoid the sanctions” and don’t have the kind of assets targeted, such as U.S. bank accounts.
She urged Congress to increase sanctions on judges in particular because this will cause them to “think twice before making a judgment against peaceful demonstration.”
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.
Members of the committee commended Tsikhanouskaya, who delivered her testimony from Lithuania, where she relocated for security reasons, and other women for their courage in standing up to the regime.
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican-Pennsylvania) said Tsikhanouskaya and other protesters had “stared down overwhelming odds and lit a fire to a renewed democratic spirit” in Belarus. He said Tsikhanouskaya and thousands of women like her had proved to their country and the world that “the future is in their able hands.”
Tsikhanouskaya also noted that a new wave of protests is planned to start on March 25, the day unofficially marked each year as Dzen Voli (Freedom Day) to honor the anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.
She urged members of the committee to raise awareness of the protests through social media and any other means.
“International support is extremely important,” she said. “We have to know that the whole world is watching us and that we are not alone.”
- By RFE/RL
Russia, Kyrgyzstan Launch Gold Project In Central Asian Nation
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Japarov, opened operations at Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest gold deposit, pledging it would fuel investment in the economy and pad the state budget.
The two leaders launched the Jerooy gold refining plant, a mine operated by Russia's Alliance Group, on March 17 via a video-link ceremony.
Putin said the project would see "record volumes" of investment totaling $600 million over its lifetime and provide Kyrgyzstan’s budget with about $70 million annually from the project.
According to estimates, the mine holds nearly 90 tons of gold and 25 tons of silver, with annual gold output eventually reaching 5.5 tons.
The plant at Jerooy was scheduled to begin operations late last year, but was attacked in postelection unrest that led to Japarov emerging as leader after the government was toppled.
On his way to the mine in the province of Talas, Japarov met with locals who have protested against the Jerooy project over environmental concerns and demands their communities benefit from the deposit.
At the ceremony, Japarov called for stability and highlighted the project's importance to the state budget.
"We have great goals and common intentions. They are a bright future for our country and the well-being of our people," said Japarov.
Gold and other natural resources are a lynchpin of the Central Asian nation’s weak economy, which sends hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to Russia each year.
But mining projects, including the country’s largest gold deposit at Kumtor, have attracted protests and been a source of political grappling for resources in recent years.
With reporting by AFP, TASS, and RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
- By RFE/RL
Iranian Aviation Body Says Air-Defense Mistake Caused Deadly Downing Of Ukrainian Airliner
Iran’s civil aviation body has blamed a mistake by an air-defense operator for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner last year that killed all 176 people on board.
"The plane was identified as a hostile target due to a mistake by the air defense operator...near Tehran and two missiles were fired at it," the Civil Aviation Organization said in its final report into the incident released on March 17.
The flight operation of the Ukrainian plane did not play a role in the crash, the report said.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight was downed by surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020.
After days of official denials following the crash, Iran admitted that its forces had inadvertently shot down the Kyiv-bound plane amid heightened tensions with the United States.
The flight was downed the same night that Iran launched ballistic-missile attacks at bases housing U.S. soldiers in Iraq in response to a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani.
In the final report, the Civil Aviation Organization described a "chain of errors," including a communication lapse between the air defense system and its command center that led the unit to fire on the plane without receiving an order. It does not directly mention the IRGC’s role in shooting down the Ukrainian airliner.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has repeatedly promised that those responsible for the tragedy would face trial, but it is unclear what, if any, action the judiciary has taken. Iran has also allocated $150,000 for the families of each of the victims.
The majority of the victims were Iranians and Canadians, but Afghans, Britons, Swedes, and Ukrainians were also among the dead.
The Ukrainian and Canadian governments have questioned Iran’s claims that the jet downing was accidental and criticized a lack of transparency.
In response to the report, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it a cynical attempt by the Iranian authorities to cover up the incident.
"What we saw in the published report today is nothing more than a cynical attempt to hide the true reasons for the downing of our plane," Kuleba wrote on Facebook. "We will not allow Iran to hide the truth, we will not allow it to avoid responsibility for this crime."
In February, a UN special rapporteur accused Iran of misleading denials and inadequate investigations into the tragedy.
"The inconsistencies in the official explanations seem designed to create a maximum of confusion and a minimum of clarity," Agnes Callamard, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said in a report following an inquiry into the issue. "They seem contrived to mislead and bewilder."
With reporting by Radio Farda and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Russia Recalls Washington Ambassador For Consultations
Russia said on March 17 that it had summoned its envoy to the United States back to Moscow for consultations on its ties with Washington but stressed it wanted to prevent an "irreversible deterioration" in relations.
"The Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has been invited to come to Moscow for consultations conducted with the aim of analyzing what should be done and where to go in the context of ties with the United States," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The announcement came after U.S. President Joe Biden said Russia will "pay a price" for meddling in U.S. elections and he agrees with the assessment that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a "killer."
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Expands Russia Restrictions Over Poisoning Of Kremlin Critic Navalny
The United States has expanded restrictions imposed on Russian experts that were imposed earlier this month as punishment for the poisoning of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
The U.S. Commerce Department said that the new measures which come into effect on March 18 will prevent the sale to Russia of more items controlled for national-security reasons. Such items will include technology, software, and parts.
“By deploying illegal nerve agents against dissidents, both inside and outside its borders, the Russian government has acted in flagrant violation of its commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention and has directly put its own citizens and those of other countries at mortal risk,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.
"The Department of Commerce is committed to preventing Russia from accessing sensitive U.S .technologies that might be diverted to its malign chemical weapons activities," it said.
The statement did not give details of the goods covered by the expansion of the measure, first announced on March 2, when the United States also froze assets in the United States of seven senior Russian officials, including Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Aleksandr Bortnikov.
Those sanctions blocked any property owned by the officials that comes into U.S. possession, such as dollar bank accounts, and also prevent U.S. individuals from conducting business with them.
Washington had also blacklisted 14 companies or entities to prevent their helping Russia develop chemical weapons.
Navalny was detained in Moscow in January immediately upon returning from Germany, where he had recovered from what several Western labs determined was poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that saw him fall ill on a flight in Siberia in August 2020.
A Moscow court last month ruled that while in Germany, he had violated the terms of parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered politically motivated. He was ultimately ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.
Russia has denied involvement in the poisoning but Navalny claims the assassination attempt was ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
With reporting by AFP and dpa
Iran Begins Uranium Enrichment With More Advanced Centrifuges
Iran has begun enriching uranium at its underground Natanz plant using a cascade of advanced centrifuges, the latest breach of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on March 17 that two days earlier, Director General Rafael Grossi informed member states that Iran is now using faster IR-4 centrifuges to enrich uranium hexafluoride up to 5 percent purity.
The use of the advanced centrifuges is the latest violation of the nuclear accord, which only allows slower first-generation IR-1 centrifuges for enrichment.
After an explosion at the Natanz nuclear site in July that Iran blamed on sabotage, the country started moving different advanced models of the centrifuge to a below-ground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP).
Grossi said Iran plans to install a second cascade of IR-4 centrifuges at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, but installation has yet to begin.
Since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018 under former President Donald Trump, Iran has gradually breached restrictions in the deal.
Iran says the breaches can be reversed if the United States returns to the accord or the other remaining signatories -- China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain -- comply with their commitments and offset U.S. sanctions with economic incentives.
In one of the more serious violations, Iran in February began restricting IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities, although some access remains.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s new administration, which took over from Trump in January, has indicated it is open to possible negotiations on a U.S. return to the agreement, but demands Iran act first to return to its commitment.
Tehran demands the United States return to the deal first and lift sanctions before it scales down its nuclear program.
Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and Reuters
Russian News Site Says Watchdog Wants Its Twitter Account Deleted
MOSCOW -- MBK Media says Russia’s state media-monitoring agency, Roskomnadzor, has demanded Twitter delete the news outlet's account for alleged violations of Russian law.
MBK Media, a news website critical of the Kremlin, on March 17 quoted a message it says came from Roskomnadzor as saying the social-network operator had received an official request regarding content on the @MBKhMedia account.
Twitter has not commented on the report.
MBK Media said Roskomnadzor claimed its Twitter account contained materials from an organization deemed "undesirable" by Russian authorities, an allegation the news website denied.
Roskomnadzor referred to content from the London-based Open Russia foundation funded by long-imprisoned former oil tycoon-turned-Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, it said.
MBK Media Editor in Chief Veronika Kutsyllo said the agency had not previously received any warnings from Russia’s media-monitoring agency.
She also said that MBK Media “has nothing to do with any organization, desirable or undesirable” and does not publish “anyone's materials, except our own.”
Russian authorities blocked the website of MBK Media in 2018.
Russian authorities consider Open Russia an “undesirable” organization and have repeatedly targeted the organization and its leadership. The organization’s website is also blocked in Russia.
Roskomnadzor last week announced a slowing down, or throttling, of Twitter's speed across Russia for its "failure" to remove what it said was banned content that encouraged suicide among children and information about drugs and child pornography.
On March 16, the agency’s deputy head, Vadim Subbotin, said the U.S. company still wasn't complying with the demands of the Russian authorities.
“If things go on like this, then in a month it will be blocked, on an out-of-court basis,” Subbotin said, according to Interfax.
Roskomnadzor’s actions come amid Russian efforts to tighten control on social media and a clampdown on platforms that have been used to organize protests in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
With reporting by Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Tensions With Russia Flare As Biden Says Putin Will 'Pay A Price' For Election Meddling
Already tense relations between Russia and the United States are fraying further as U.S. President Joe Biden suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon “pay a price” for alleged meddling in U.S. elections and Russia summoned its ambassador to the United States back to Moscow for consultations.
In an interview on ABC News aired on March 17, Biden said he believes Putin is a killer who has no soul and will soon "pay a price" for trying to interfere in last November's presidential election. When asked by interviewer George Stephanopoulos what the consequences for the interference in the vote will be, Biden replied: "You'll see shortly."
The wide-ranging interview aired just hours after a report published by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that Putin had “authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President [Donald] Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States.”
Biden, who has spent more than four decades in politics, said he had come to know Putin "relatively well" over the years and he doesn't believe he has a soul.
Asked if he thought Putin was a killer, Biden told ABC: "Mmm hmm, I do."
The Kremlin on March 17 denied the findings of the report, saying they were “absolutely unfounded.”
Russia “did not interfere” in the election and “was not involved in campaigns against any of the candidates," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Hours later, Russia announced it had summoned its ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, to Moscow for consultations.
"The main thing for us is to determine the ways in which the difficult Russian-American relations that Washington has led into a dead end in recent years could be rectified," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. "We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation if the Americans recognize the risks involved."
Washington's relations with Moscow are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues including Russia's alleged meddling in elections in the United States and other democracies, the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, and the poisoning and jailing of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.
The U.S. Commerce Department said on March 17 it was expanding restrictions imposed on Russian experts that were imposed earlier this month as punishment for the Navalny affair.
Despite strained relations, Biden noted that it was possible to "walk and chew gum at the same time for places where it's in our mutual interest to work together."
One area where Russia and the United States could cooperate would be the renewal of the New START nuclear agreement, Biden said.
Afghan Withdrawal
The interview also touched on several foreign policy topics besides Russia.
Biden warned that a deadline set out in a deal the Trump administration made with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1 "could happen, but it is tough."
"I'm in the process of making that decision now as to when they'll leave," Biden said.
"The fact is...that was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the president -- the former president -- worked out. And so we're in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decision's going to be -- it's in process now," Biden said.
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.
Russia will host a conference on March 18 to advance the peace process. Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad will participate in the event, as will the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
On relations with the Middle East, Biden said he had "made it clear" to Saudi Arabia's king "that things were going to change" after U.S. intelligence concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved an operation to capture or kill Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, who had grown increasingly critical of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Saudi officials had said his death was the result of a "rogue operation" and was not state sanctioned.
"We held accountable all the people in that organization -- but not the crown prince, because we have never that I'm aware of, when we have an alliance with a country, gone to the acting head of state and punished that person and ostracized him," Biden said.
With reporting by ABC News
Russian Duma Passes Bill Introducing Five-Year Prison Sentences For Insulting WWII Veterans
MOSCOW -- The lower house of Russia’s parliament has adopted legislation that would introduce sentences of up to five years in prison for insulting World War II veterans.
The proposed amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Codes, which were passed in the State Duma on March 17, also envisage fines of up to 5 million rubles ($68,000) for entities or individuals convicted of the "public dissemination of knowingly false information" about WWII veterans.
The chamber said that publicly humiliating the dignity or honor of veterans would be "equated with the rehabilitation of Nazism," which would also carry a punishment of up to five years in prison.
The proposed legislation needs to be approved by the upper house, the Federation Council, and signed by President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law.
"It is unacceptable to insult those who defended the motherland," State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement, adding: "It is our duty to protect the memory of our grandfathers and great grandfathers, thanks to whom we are alive today."
The changes were proposed after a Russian judge last month fined jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny 850,000 rubles ($11,500) for slandering a 94-year-old WWII veteran who had participated in a Kremlin-organized promotional video.
Navalny mocked the people in the clip, calling them "corrupt lackeys and traitors." His allies called the trial a politically motivated sham, while Navalny accused Russian officials of "fabricating" the case against him.
RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.
If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.
To find out more, click here.
Editors' Picks
Top Trending
'The Best' For Putin: How The Kremlin Stands To Gain From Iran's Attack On Israel
2Explainer: The 'Kamikaze' Drones Iran Used To Attack Israel
3Apparent Israeli Air Attack Strikes Near Iranian City Of Isfahan
4Wider Europe Briefing: Kosovo Could Finally Get In The Council Of Europe
5Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
6Iran's Unprecedented But Choreographed Attack On Israel Underlines Tehran's Limits
7At Least 17 Dead In Ukraine As Zelenskiy Laments Lack Of Air Defenses
8Armenia, Azerbaijan To Clash At UN Top Court
9Ukraine Will Become NATO Member, Predicts Former Deputy Secretary-General
10John Bolton Says Strong Israeli Response To Iran Attack Would Be Justified
Subscribe
