CHISINAU -- Moldova's Socialist-dominated parliament has failed for a second time to approve the candidate nominated by pro-Western President Maia Sandu to serve as prime minister, moving the country closer to snap elections.

Igor Grosu on March 25 failed to receive the votes needed due to a lack of a quorum in parliament after the Socialists and the parliamentary bloc For Moldova left the chamber.

Under the constitution, the president has the right to ask for the dissolution of parliament and organize snap elections after a second failure to approve a new prime minister within 45 days.

Lawmakers on February 11 rejected Sandu's previous choice for the post of prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita.

Last week, Sandu nominated Grosu, leader of the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), to form a new cabinet, but the Moscow-leaning Socialist Party later proposed its own candidate, Vladimir Golovatiuc, Moldova's ambassador to Russia.

The Constitutional Court on March 21 ruled that Grosu's nomination was lawful.

A U.S.-educated former adviser with the World Bank, Sandu defeated Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.

She has repeatedly said she wants to push for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate stronger links to Brussels and neighboring EU member Romania.

YEREVAN -- The separatist parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh has approved a proposal to make Russian the ethnic Armenian-populated region's second official language, along with Armenian.

The amendments to the region's language laws were passed 27-0 on March 25, with two abstentions.

The bill, which will become law upon being signed by the region's ethnic Armenian leader, Arayik Harutiunian, says that giving the Russian language an official status would deepen Nagorno-Karabakh's history of "cultural, military, and economic links" with Russia.

Three of the five political parties represented in the region's legislature proposed the measure last month, arguing that it would facilitate communication with Russian soldiers and aid workers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after last year's Armenian-Azerbaijani war over the separatist region.

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Tea, Cake, And Death Threats: Coexistence On The New Azerbaijan-Armenia Border

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Russia's presence in Nagorno-Karabakh increased dramatically after six weeks of fighting in and around the region ended in November 2020 with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire. More than 6,000 people were killed during the conflict.

Under the truce agreement, 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.

The agreement also led to the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers along frontline areas and a land corridor connecting the disputed territory with Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, which has condemned the region's plans to grant official status to the Russian language.

President Ilham Aliyev said on February 26 that "there can only be one official language in Azerbaijan" -- the Azerbaijani language.

The Kremlin earlier described the matter as "an internal affair" of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, according to TASS.

The ethnic Armenians who make up most of Nagorno-Karabakh's population reject Azerbaijani rule and 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.

Amid ongoing attempts to impose more control over the Internet, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has proposed users of social-media networks and messenger applications hand over passport data and other personal information for verification.

Roskomnadzor's proposal regarding the change was submitted for public discussion on its website on March 23.

It comes as the Russian government battles U.S. social media over what Moscow says is their failure to follow local regulations.

Roskomnadzor last week announced a slowing down, or throttling, of Twitter's speed across the country for its "failure" to remove what it said was banned content that encouraged suicide among children and information about drugs and child pornography.

The new proposal was drawn up following amendments to personal-data legislation requiring companies from July to receive consent from users to handle some kinds of data.

Under the new proposal, users would be able to submit their consent directly to the company or through Roskomnadzor's unified information system, whichever the user chooses.

During that process, users will be requested to reveal their full names, permanent residence addresses, personal telephone numbers, and electronic addresses.

The data will be verified through the Gosuslugi online state registry, which will be linked with Roskomnadzor.

One of the authors of Russia's new law on personal data, lawmaker Anton Gorelkin of the ruling United Russia party, told the daily Kommersant on March 25 that Roskomnadzor's initiative targeted mainly social networks and instant messengers.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Tretyak, the leader of Roskomsvoboda, an NGO that supports open, self-regulated networks and the protection of the digital rights of Internet users, expressed concerns over the move.

"Neither Roskomnadzor, nor social networks need that amount of data unless they plan to pass them over to law enforcement structures or monetize them via advertisement," Tretyak said, adding that law enforcement might easily misuse the data.

The new proposal also coincides with efforts to tighten control of social media and a clampdown on platforms that have been used to organize protests in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

Last month, a law came into force that says social networks must themselves find and delete content banned by Russian law. If a social network is unable to determine if content contains banned materials, it must send that content to Roskomnadzor for an evaluation.

The agency has said that, as of March 10, Twitter had 3,168 posts with banned content on its site, including more than 2,500 posts encouraging suicide among minors. It also referred to content on illegal drugs and pornography.

With reporting by Kommersant

The Memorial human rights organization says Russian authorities have rejected an asylum request filed by a Turkmen known for his public criticism of the regime in Ashgabat and deported him to Turkey.

Memorial said on March 24 that 27-year-old Rozgeldy Choliev, who spent three weeks in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after he arrived there from Istanbul waiting for a response, was deported to Turkey accompanied by Russian police officers the previous day.

According to the Moscow-based rights group, Choliev faces possible extradition from Turkey to Turkmenistan, where he most likely will be persecuted for his public criticism of the isolated Central Asian state's government.

After complications over the lack of a COVID test, Turkish authorities allowed Choliev to enter the country, Memorial says, adding that there had been no communication with him at this point.

"It is worth noting in this regard that during the three weeks of Choliev's stay at Sheremetyevo, none of the Russian government agencies, including those responsible for working with refugees, took any part in issues related to providing him with food, accommodation, or access to fresh air, " Memorial's statement said.

Choliev was detained by Russian immigration police on his arrival from Istanbul in Moscow on March 2, although he had a valid Russia visa in his passport. He remained at the airport's immigration section until being deported.

Russian authorities were reluctant to accept his request for asylum and did so only after Choliev issued a video statement on March 7 asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene in the situation.

"You are the president of Russia and there is law in Russia that works, while in Turkmenistan it doesn't," Choliev said in his address to Putin.

Choliev studied at a university in the Russian North Caucasus region of Karachai-Cherkessia, where he was admitted in 2018. In 2020, he was expelled after he published articles on the Internet criticizing the Turkmen government.

His relatives in Turkmenistan, which is tightly controlled by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, also faced pressure at the time.

Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the secretive country since he came to power after the death of his authoritarian predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, in 2006.

According to Human Rights Watch, Berdymukhammedov, "his relatives, and their associates control all aspects of public life and the authorities encroach on private life."

Choliev, whose wife and child are in Karachai-Cherkessia, tried to come to Russia in November, but Russian airline Aeroflot did not allow him to board the plane.

The United States continues to call for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus, site of nearly daily protests since a disputed presidential election last year handed Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term amid claims the vote was rigged.

"We stand with Belarusians in their struggle for freedom," State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Twitter on March 25, ahead of a planned opposition Freedom Day demonstrations in Belarus to coincide with the founding of the short-lived, independent Belarusian republic in 1918.

Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who supporters say actually won the August 9 election, has called on Belarusians to turn out in force on Freedom Day in a bid to reignite the pro-democracy protests, whose numbers dwindled over the winter amid a harsh government crackdown that led to more than 30,000 people being detained.

SEE ALSO:

Belarusian Opposition Looks To Reenergize Protests Against Lukashenka

Price noted that more than 290 Belarusians were political prisoners, while highlighting the plight of Ihar Losik and Marrya Kalesnikava.

Kalesnikava, who faces national-security charges that supporters say are absurd, had her pretrial detention extended on March 22.

Arrested in September, Kalesnikava, a key aide of Tsikhanouskaya and a senior member of the opposition Coordination Council, was remanded in custody until May 8.

Losik, a popular blogger and RFE/RL consultant, has been held since June on charges his supporters say are trumped up.

He had been charged initially with allegedly using his popular Telegram channel to "prepare to disrupt public order" ahead of the August 9 presidential election.

Losik, 28, tried to slit his wrists and launched a four-day hunger strike on March 11 after being informed he faced new unspecified charges.

The statement by Price comes a day after the top two members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee also called for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus and pledged their support for the pro-democracy movement in the country.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Lawmakers Call For Release Of All Political Prisoners In Belarus

"We will continue to support the Belarusian people's democratic aspirations until the illegitimate Lukashenka steps down, all political prisoners -- including RFE/RL consultant Ihar Losik -- are released and, new free and fair elections are held," Representatives Gregory Meeks (Democrat-New York) and Representative Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas) said in a statement.

The statement said that in the seven months since Lukashenka "rigged the presidential election" the Belarusian people have "courageously continued their struggle for democracy and freedom in the face of violent repression."

It also mentioned Freedom Day in Belarus, celebrated on March 25 to commemorate the anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.

"We stand in solidarity with all of those who, like their forebearers who sought to rid Belarus of authoritarianism in 1918, wave the white-and-red flag and demand a democratic future for their country," Meeks and McCaul said.

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.

Another member of the Polish community in Belarus has been detained by police amid rising tensions between Warsaw and Minsk.

Reports said Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and a member of the Association of Poles in Belarus, was detained in Hrodna early on March 25, two days after its leader, Andzelika Borys, was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

"This morning, Andrzej Poczobut...was detained in Hrodna; a righteous and principled man, who has been fighting for the rights of Poles in Belarus for many years and has been repeatedly repressed by the Lukashenka regime," the head of the prime minister's office, Michal Dworczyk, wrote on Twitter.

He added that Poland will raise the issue of repression against Poles in Belarus through international forums. "We simply cannot agree to what is happening to our compatriots abroad," Dworczyk said.

Warsaw has also called for coordinated action to help the protest movement in Belarus, where protesters have rallied almost daily since a presidential election in August 2020 handed authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term amid allegations the vote was fixed.

The news comes a day after Poland accused Belarus of persecuting its Polish minority, calling on its government to stop "taking hostages."

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would raise the matter during a videoconference of EU leaders on March 25, adding that he would propose limitations on the movement of goods across the Belarusian-EU border so that the authorities in Minsk would feel the economic consequences of their actions.

Poland, Belarus's neighbor to the west, has criticized Lukashenka, and has provided sanctuary for Belarusian opposition leaders and activists.

With most independent media shut down in Belarus, Poland has become an alternative work site for journalists. The independent Belarusian Belsat news website is based in Poland, as is Stsyapan Putsila, who runs the popular Nexta Telegram channel, which also offers uncensored news.

In a statement on March 25, EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell called on Belarus to release Borys and Poczobut "immediately and unconditionally, along with all political prisoners currently detained."

The EU "expects Belarus to uphold its international commitments to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms," he added.

In a worsening diplomatic standoff following tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions this month, the Polish Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires for discussions on March 23 but gave no further details.

Borys was arrested in the city of Hrodna in western Belarus near the border with Poland on March 23 and sentenced to 15 days in jail, Polish media said.

Belarusian media said Borys was being held on charges of violating mass gathering rules, citing the Interior Ministry. The Association of Poles in Belarus said it feared further "repressions" of the diaspora but would continue its work.

The Belarusian Interior Ministry was not available for comment and the government issued no statement on her arrest or on reports of several other Poles in Belarus being detained.

"I want to express my absolute condemnation of Andzelika Borys's arrest...we cannot condone taking hostages in this way. That's what you can call this sort of large-scale action that the Belarusian authorities are taking," Morawiecki said in a televised statement on March 24.

The prosecutor's office in the southwestern Belarusian city of Brest has also opened a criminal case into suspected glorification of war criminals, following a memorial evening in a Polish school in Belarus dedicated to Poles who fought against the Soviet Union.

The unofficial, commemorative event at the heart of the dispute took place on February 28 in 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.

As a result of the incident, three Polish diplomats, including the heads of the consulates in Brest and Hrodna, were expelled, triggering a symmetrical response from Warsaw.

With reporting by dpa

Austrian authorities have extradited Boris Mazo, a former employee of the Russian Culture Ministry who is suspected in Russia of fraud and embezzlement.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said on March 25 that Mazo is now on his way to Moscow.

"Thanks to a large amount of work organized with the cooperation of our Austrian colleagues, and due to the timely presentation by the Prosecutor-General's Office of the Russian Federation of additional data and materials requested by the Austrian side, it became possible to arrange Mazo's extradition," a statement from the Prosecutor-General's Office said.

Mazo is accused of embezzling 450 million rubles ($5.9 million) from the state budget.

Former Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov, who was arrested in 2018 and is currently under house arrest in Moscow, is also a suspect in the case.

Investigators say that Mazo, Pirumov and other former officials of the Culture Ministry also laundered up to 800 million rubles ($10.5 million) illegally obtained via fraudulent activities.

Russian investigators say Pirumov, Mazo, and others secured government funds with no intention of using the money designated for construction works for St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. Instead, they allegedly transferred the money to their own companies.

Austrian authorities detained Mazo in November at Spain's request.

Spanish investigators say Mazo might have laundered money he stole in Russia through the purchase of an expensive property in Spain's southern resort city of Marbella.

However, the Austrian court decided to extradite Mazo to Russia, not Spain.

In 2017, Mazo and Pirumov were convicted in Moscow of embezzling 164 million rubles ($2.1 million), but the judge ruled that the time spent by the two men in pretrial detention was a sufficient punishment.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

DUSHANBE -- Officials at Russia's Education Ministry say the return of Tajik students to universities in Russia remains on hold due to coronavirus restrictions despite others being allowed to come back.

Yelena Gorozhankina and Igor Burulko told journalists in Dushanbe on March 24 that the exact date of when Tajik students can come back to their universities in Russia remains unclear.

On March 20, Russian Education Minister issued a list of 25 countries whose citizens were allowed to return to Russia to continue their studies at universities. Tajikistan was not included to the list, even though Tajik officials have said that there have been no coronavirus cases registered in the country since January 1.

Gorozhankina said that the list had been made by Russia's health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, and "has nothing to do with neighborly ties between the countries."

SEE ALSO:

Stuck Tajik Foreign University Students Complain They're Unable To Study Online

There are about 26,000 Tajiks studying at Russian universities, many of whom have been stuck at home and forced to study online since borders were closed due to the pandemic last year.

Many of the students have complained that online studies are very difficult in Tajikistan due to the high costs and poor quality of Internet services available.

Burulko and Gorozhankina said that it remains unclear when exactly Tajik students will be allowed to go back to Russia. Representatives from Rospotrebnadzor, which will make the final decision, were in Tajikistan last week to research the situation at hospitals and medical labs.

DUSHANBE -- Once one of Tajikistan's most influential businessmen, Rajabali Odinaev, who is serving a 28-year prison term on embezzlement charges many consider to be politically motivated, has undergone stomach surgery after his health deteriorated.

The head of Tajikistan's Penitentiary Service, Mansurjon Umarov, told RFE/RL on March 25 that Odinaev was rushed from prison to a hospital in Dushanbe two weeks ago, where he underwent an operation on his stomach after developing an ulcer.

"Experienced doctors are monitoring his health condition now. He will be very likely transferred back to prison soon," Umarov said.

A physician at the Dushanbe Ambulance Center confirmed to RFE/RL that Odinaev had been taken to a hospital in the Tajik capital.

Odinaev's Umed-88 company, established in 1997, dominated the Central Asian nation's energy market for almost a decade until its closure in 2017 following the arrest of the businessman.

In September 2018, Odinaev was found guilty of embezzlement, abuse of office, and financial mishandling. He was then sentenced to 24 years in prison. Last year, a court in Dushanbe added four more years to his prison term.

Odinaev's relatives have insisted that the case against him is baseless.

Many in Tajikistan believe that Odinaev was imprisoned in order to remove his company from the market as it was a serious competitor to the local energy giant Faroz and Russia's Gazprom.

Lawyers for jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny say their client is in great pain and fears for his life, contradicting a statement from Russian prison authorities that said the Kremlin critic was in "satisfactory" condition.

Speaking to the TV Dozhd after visiting Navalny in prison on March 25, lawyer Olga Mikhailova said appeals by his legal team for the 44-year-old to be given the necessary treatment for his ailments have been ignored for four weeks.

Mikhailova said Navalny was in an "extremely unfavorable" condition, suffering from severe back pain and issues with his right leg that has made it "practically nonfunctional."

Navalny's condition and his whereabouts became an issue on March 24 after his allies said they were concerned over his deteriorating health and his failure to attend a scheduled visit with his lawyers in prison.

The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) told the Interfax news agency on March 25 that a routine medical checkup of inmates at the Correctional Colony No. 2 where Navalny is being held was conducted the previous day.

"According to the results of the examination, [Navalny's] health state was determined as stable, satisfactory," the FSIN's press service said to the agency.

The statement, however, did little to ease concerns among Navalny's wife and allies.

In an Instagram post, Yulia Navalnaya called for her husband to be immediately released so that he could be treated by doctors "he trusts."

She described what was happening to her husband as "personal revenge" for his opposition activities and added, "This should stop immediately."

"Now we are really worried," Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation wrote on Twitter. "Even the Federal Penitentiary Service can't call Navalny's condition good. This isn't a surprise since they put in prison a man who was recently poisoned with a nerve agent."

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Allies Say His Health Is 'Deteriorating,' Believe He's 'In Danger'

Another of Navalny's lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, said that after "finally" getting to see Navalny, it quickly became clear that he was not only not being treated properly, "but a deliberate strategy is under way to undermine his health."

"In recent days, Navalny has been given 2 tablets of Ibuprofen a day, which, of course, is a clear mockery of the situation. All of this is greatly complicated by the fact that he is actually being tortured with sleep deprivation: 8 times a night he is woken up for 'preventive accounting,' although the video camera is already hanging right above his bed," Kobzev said on Twitter.

"Navalny himself forbade us to tell this story publicly, but after we were not allowed to see him yesterday against the background of a sharp deterioration in his health, we decided to make everything public," he added.

A statement on Navalny's website demanded proper care be "immediately ensured."

"We remind you that Aleksei Navalny is in the colony IK-2 in Pokrov absolutely illegally, on the basis of an invalid verdict, on the personal order of Vladimir Putin, and Putin is directly responsible for his state of health," it added.

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

Navalny has said the assassination attempt was ordered by President Vladimir Putin -- an allegation rejected by the Kremlin.

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 to be 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.

On March 25, more than 150 journalists, film directors, lawyers, rights defenders, scholars, and public figures published an open letter on the news website MBKh Media demanding lawyers get immediate access to Navalny and that prison officials remove his status of "inmate inclined to escape," which entails the strict control of inmates.

The authors of the letter reminded FSIN Director Aleksandr Kalashnikov, Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov, and Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova that Navalny was in a coma for 18 days after being poisoned last year and demanded an end to Navalny's "heavy psychological and physical torture."

"By Navalny's return to Russia, the rehabilitation of his health has not been completed. It is obvious that because he is in custody, he has not received any rehabilitation or serious pharmacological rehabilitation. At this point, due to the information we have received, we have serious reasons to be concerned for his health and his life," the letter said.

Navalny's incarceration set off a wave of national protests and a crackdown against his supporters.

The European Union, the United States, and Canada imposed a series of sanctions against Russia over the Navalny case.

With reporting by Interfax

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has come under criticism for what the opposition says are lies and contradictory statements about why the Armenian military did not deploy fighter jets purchased from Russia during last year’s war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinian told parliament on March 24 that he saw no contradiction between his comments about why Armenia did not purchase missiles for its Russian Su-30SM fighter jets and his prewar statement on social media about the aircraft “successfully testing missiles.”

Pashinian said at a weekend rally that Yerevan purchased Russian Su-30SM fighters in May 2020 but did not manage to purchase missiles for them before the start of the 44-day war.

The prime minister’s press service and the Ministry of Defense announced in December 2019 that the Armenian Armed Forces had been “equipped with Su-30SM multifunctional fighters” and in July 2020 Pashinian wrote on Facebook that the Su-30SMs had “successfully tested missiles.”

Pashinian denied any contradictions between his answer to a question related to the purchase of the fighter jets and the test of missiles asked by a pro-government lawmaker in parliament on March 24.

He explained that since fighter aircraft are ultramodern and powerful, “it is obvious that manufacturers of aircraft and missiles of different modifications are not the same entities.”

“In other words, they are not produced in one place, and, therefore, are not purchased in one place,” he said.

“Unfortunately, during the war we did not have time to purchase all those necessary accessories...that would make it possible to use the ultramodern Su-30SMs for their intended purpose and in accordance with their power,” Pashinian said.

He said training flights were carried out after the Su-30SM fighter jets arrived in Armenia in May 2020 and missiles that were already in the Armenian military’s arsenal were used for the tests.

Specific military situation decisions on their use were made during the war in accordance with the extent to which the available ammunition allowed the aircraft to fulfill combat missions, he said.

Pashinian did not explain the discrepancy between the December 2019 press statement from his office showing photographs of him and then-Defense Minister David Tonoian at an airfield watching demonstration flights of Su-30SM fighters and boarding the cockpit of one of the aircraft, and his statement that the Su-30SM fighter jets had arrived in Armenia in May 2020.

Opposition Bright Armenia lawmaker Ani Samsonian seized on that, accusing Pashinian of lying.

“When will the government stop lying, manipulating, and misleading the public?” she asked.

The prime minister did not answer the opposition lawmaker’s question. His deputy, Tigran Avinian, said: “A full answer on Su-30SM aircraft was given. There is nothing to add.”

Earlier this month, Pashinian effectively retracted his claim that the Armenian Army’s most advanced Russian-made Iskander missiles seriously malfunctioned during the war. The retraction came after a storm of criticism from Russian pro-government lawmakers and pundits, who accused him of incompetence and deceit.

Belarusian authorities say they detained more than 200 people as citizens took to the streets of Minsk and other cities, heeding a call by opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya to start a new wave of protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka to coincide with the anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic.

Tsikhanouskaya urged Belarusians to use the annual Freedom Day celebration to hold street rallies across the country to pressure the authoritarian leader and declare their unity against the political crisis that has enveloped Belarus since Lukashenka was declared the winner of a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition says was rigged.

But the event in Minsk faced challenges from police, who refused to agree to provide security for the activists, and Amnesty International expressed concern about how authorities would respond.

Security forces, including police and Interior Ministry troops, military vehicles, and police vans were positioned across Minsk ahead of the planned action.

By late afternoon, Belarusians, many of them holding the red-white flag of the first republic, made their way to the center of Minsk, with some gathering on October Square, while cars honked their horns in solidarity.

The Interior Ministry said in the evening that more than 200 people had been detained in connection with unauthorized gatherings throughout the country.

The Belarusian human rights monitor Vyasna (Spring) reported 126 detentions in the capital alone.

The Nexta Telegram channel, which has mobilized and coordinated demonstrations, urged protesters to march through courtyards and organize flash mobs.

Nexta has also called for mass protests on March 27, casting it as "the day we start the second wave of street protests."

Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Tsikhanouskaya, predicted the large protests the country witnessed in the wake of the election would return.

"People need to be shoulder to shoulder with one another, to see again that they are the majority, to feel that energy they got from those large marches," Viacorka told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

One woman appeared to be grabbed off the street by police in Minsk in a video interview with a marching Nina Bahinskaya, a frail yet fiery veteran of protests in Belarus for decades.

Detentions were also reported at Independence Square, with the independent news website Tut.by posting video on Telegram of police chasing one protester down the street.

Lukashenka's victory declaration sparked protests that have continued since the election on an almost daily basis. Some of the largest ones drew tens of thousands of people to the streets to demand that Lukashenka step down, that fresh elections are held, and that political prisoners are released.

Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands. Several protesters have been killed in the violence, some were handed prison terms, while rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.

Ahead of the planned action, the commander of Interior Ministry troops, Mikalay Karpyankou, described Belarusian protesters as "enemies of our state," before vowing to "deal with them quickly," and harshly as in the past "with pleasure."

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Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing and refuses to negotiate his departure from office and new elections.

The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.

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.

In turn, Lukashenka's government has justified its actions by casting protesters as pawns of foreign forces and being bent on causing havoc.

KGB chief Ivan Tertel told Lukashenka on March 9 that foreign actors were applying "unprecedented pressure on our state," claiming -- without providing evidence -- that plans had been discovered to "destabilize the situation" in Belarus on March 25-27.

March 25 is the 103rd anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918. The day has been celebrated annually in Belarus since 1989.

Amnesty International warned that Belarusian authorities have indicated that they are prepared to turn Freedom Day rallies into “yet another scene of appalling violence.”

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said the police response to demonstrations planned for March 25 "will yet again be marked by severe violence" and called for international action to protect the rights of peaceful protesters.

"The world cannot stand by in the face of these threats," Struthers said, calling on diplomatic representatives in Belarus to monitor the March 25 protests, livestream events, and use their diplomatic immunity to expose police violence.

Tsikhanouskaya is currently in Lithuania, where she relocated for security reasons after the August 9 presidential election that she and her supporters say she won.

On March 25, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania imposed travel bans on another 118 Belarusian officials.

The first round of bans since November expands the list of the sanctioned, already including Lukashenka, to a total of 274, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.

"If the situation in Belarus keeps deteriorating, and the illegal Lukashenka regime keeps its violence and repressions against peaceful protesters, opposition, civil society and independent media -- the national and European Union sanctions lists will be expanded further," the ministry said in a statement.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

The top two members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 24 called for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus, including blogger and RFE/RL consultant Ihar Losik, and pledged their support for the pro-democracy movement in the country.

“We will continue to support the Belarusian people’s democratic aspirations until the illegitimate [Alyaksandr] Lukashenka steps down, all political prisoners -- including RFE/RL consultant Ihar Losik -- are released and new free and fair elections are held,” Representatives Gregory Meeks (Democrat-New York) and Representative Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas) said in a statement.

The statement said that in the seven months since Lukashenka “rigged the presidential election” the Belarusian people have “courageously continued their struggle for democracy and freedom in the face of violent repression.”

SEE ALSO:

Scores Detained As Belarusians Take To Streets In New Wave Of Protests Against Lukashenka

It also mentioned Freedom Day in Belarus, celebrated on March 25 to commemorate the anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.

“We stand in solidarity with all of those who, like their forebearers who sought to rid Belarus of authoritarianism in 1918, wave the white-and-red flag and demand a democratic future for their country,” Meeks and McCaul said in the statement.

Losik, 28, has been jailed in Belarus since June on charges his supporters say are trumped up.

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The blogger's wife, Darya Losik, told RFE/RL on March 22 that her husband's pretrial detention had been prolonged until May 25. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has condemned the extension and called for his release.

Losik works for RFE/RL as a consultant on new-media technologies.

He had been charged initially with allegedly using his popular Telegram channel to "prepare to disrupt public order" ahead of the August 9 presidential election.

On March 11, Losik was informed of additional unspecified charges that have never been made public. After hearing of the charges, he slit his wrists and launched a four-day hunger strike.

The U.S. and EU top diplomats say they have agreed to coordinate their response to Moscow’s “challenging” behavior such as its “ongoing aggression” against Ukraine and Georgia, as well as the “dwindling respect” in Russia for human rights and the rule of law.

In a joint statement issued on March 24 following talks in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EU high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, said they were determined to address, in a coordinated manner, Russia's “hybrid threats, such as disinformation; interference in electoral processes; malicious cyber activities; and military posturing.”

The two also “decided to coordinate their response to the shrinking space in Russia for independent political voices, civil society, and media freedom.”

Blinken and Borrell agreed to relaunch a bilateral dialogue on China, acknowledging that relations with Beijing comprise “elements of cooperation, competition, and systemic rivalry."

Among other issues the two officials discussed were Iran’s nuclear program, reforms across the Western Balkans region, the global climate crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Blinken was in the Belgian capital to attend a two-day NATO foreign ministers’ meeting and hold talks with EU leaders as part of U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to repair transatlantic ties after his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, pursued an "America first" policy that tended to treat traditional allies more as rivals than partners.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling on French authorities to protect an exiled Azerbaijani video blogger who was stabbed more than 10 times in an attack in France 10 days ago and later received a threatening text message on his phone.

A refugee in France since 2016, Mahammad Mirzali was beaten and stabbed on March 14 by a group of men while walking in the western city of Nantes -- the latest incident targeting the blogger or his family in what the Paris-based media freedom watchdog on March 24 called attempts to “silence” the blogger.

Mirzali had to undergo an operation that lasted “more than six hours,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement, adding that “the Azerbaijani regime is exporting its persecution of freedom of expression to France and to Europe.”

French police have not commented on their investigation.

“This is the last warning,” said the text in Azerbaijani that the blogger received on March 21, RSF said.

“We can kill you without any problem. You’ve seen that we’re not afraid of anyone.... If you continue to insult our sisters, we’ll have you killed with a bullet to the head fired by a sniper,” read the text, which was signed “Andres Gragmel.”

YouTube Channel

According to RSF, Mirzali is “often targeted” because of the videos he posts on his YouTube channel, Made In Azerbaijan, in which he criticizes Azerbaijan’s authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev, his wife, Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, and other members of their family.

In October 2020, several shots were fired at the blogger in Nantes.

His father and brother-in-law were detained in 2017. Police reportedly told the two men to pressure Mirzali to stop his criticism of the government.

“The regime also resorted to sex-tape blackmail,” RSF said, sending intimate images of one of his sisters to the entire family in early March and then circulating them via a Telegram channel.

Azerbaijan is ranked 168th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

“Most critical media outlets have been silenced or have had to relocate abroad, the main independent websites are blocked, and at least two journalists are currently in prison,” RSF said.

BUCHAREST -- Romania’s lawmakers have voted to scrap a special court established in 2018 to investigate magistrates and prosecutors suspected of corruption.

The Chamber of Deputies adopted the bill dismantling the court on March 24, with 171 votes in favor and 136 against.

The bill, which was pushed forward by the ruling coalition led by the National Liberal Party (PNL), will now go to the Senate where the ruling coalition also has a majority.

The special court was criticized by civil society organizations, the United States, and the European Commission as a means to intimidate judges.

The tribunal was established under the government of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which ended in a vote of no-confidence in 2019 while its former leader, Liviu Dragnea, was imprisoned on corruption charges.

Now in opposition, the PSD said it would appeal the dismantling of the tribunal before the Constitutional Court.

The March 24 vote did not fully satisfy critics of the court either.

A provision of the proposed law says that the Superior Council of the Magistrature, composed of representatives of the judges, must give a green light before a magistrate is sent to trial.

In an open letter published this week, hundreds of Romanian judges warned that the provision in question could “sabotage the fight against corruption as much as the existence” of the court itself.

With reporting by Balkan Insight

А British coroner has concluded that Aisultan Nazarbaev, a grandson of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, died of natural causes last year, as a result of a cocaine addiction.

The finding, announced March 24, was expected to tamp down persistent suspicions about the circumstances leading up to his death. He was found unconscious in a London park on August 16, 2020.

Aisultan, 29, had battled addiction for some years. He had also made several public accusations of corruption against his family, which had raised suspicions that his death might be the result of foul play.

But during the inquest, senior coroner Fiona Wilcox agreed with the testimony of witnesses, police inspectors, and a psychiatrist who portrayed the circumstances as not suspicious, and drug-related.

“I find that Aisultan died as the result of natural cause; he died as a result of his addiction to cocaine,” she said at the conclusion of the hearing. “I was totally able to exclude suspicious circumstances in this death.”

He was the second son of Darigha Nazarbaeva -- the former Kazakh leader’s elder daughter -- and her late ex-husband, Rakhat Aliyev, who died in 2015 in an Austrian prison while under investigation for murder.

Aisultan once served as vice president of Kazakhstan's national soccer federation, but in recent years he made news for criticizing the authorities and members of his powerful family.

SEE ALSO:

Death Of Kazakh Ex-President's Grandson Latest Dark Cloud Over Nazarbaev Family

He had spoken publicly about his drug addiction. Testimony provided to the inquest showed he had extremely high levels of cocaine in his blood at the time of his death.

In October 2019, he received a suspended sentence from a British court after he was found guilty of assaulting a London police officer earlier that year.

In February 2020, Aisultan said that he was seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. A police inspector who spoke at the inquest, Chris Everett, said Aisultan had a diplomatic passport with a business visa at the time of his death, and there was no record that he had applied for political asylum.

“We are devastated at the loss of our beloved Aisultan. His death has left us with an unimaginable sorrow from which we will never recover,” a statement released by the Nazarbaev family’s spokeswoman after the inquest said. “We ask for privacy at this very difficult time.”

YEREVAN -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has said his parliamentary bloc plans to pass amendments that would switch the electoral system to a fully proportional one before snap parliamentary elections scheduled for June.

During a question-and-answer session in parliament on March 24, Pashinian called for “simple changes” to the electoral laws under which the next parliament will be elected.

The prime minister, whose My Step faction dominates the National Assembly, said the main proposed change should concern the mixed electoral system under which parliament members are picked through party lists and individual races.

Representatives of the opposition Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia parties have recently said they did not favor changes to the electoral code before the June 20 elections.

However, they have indicated that their parties would participate in the polls in any case.

Pashinian and opposition factions agreed to hold early general elections in an effort to defuse a political crisis sparked by the war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny say his health is "deteriorating" and believe his life "in danger" in prison after he complained about severe back pain and leg numbness.

They also said that Navalny's current whereabouts are "unknown" and that his lawyers were not allowed to see him on March 24 despite having a scheduled meeting with him at the prison.

"The rapid deterioration of his health condition raises our extreme concerns,” Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, tweeted on March 24.

Navalny has been complaining about “severe back pains and numbness in his leg” since the end of last week, Pevchikh wrote, adding that the only medication he has received were “two ibuprofen pills.”

Earlier this month, Navalny confirmed for the first time that he had arrived at a prison colony in Pokrov in the Vladimir region, 85 kilometers east of Moscow, one of Russia's most notorious penitentiary facilities with a very strict regime.

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“We suppose that Navalny has possibly been transferred to the prison hospital, and the colony administration are trying to cover it up. We believe that Navalny's life is in danger and demand immediate access to him for his lawyers,” she said in a separate tweet.

Navalny's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said she doesn't know "what's wrong" with her client and that "he should be seen by a proper doctor," according to Pevchikh.

Leonid Volkov, the coordinator of Navalny's network of teams, said it was possible he had been moved to the prison hospital and that the facility's administration was trying to hide that fact.

"Given all of the circumstances known to us, the sharp deterioration of his health can only cause extreme concern," said Volkov in a posting on Telegram.

'Friendly Concentration Camp'

Navalny described the prison, IK-2, as a “friendly concentration camp.” He said that he hasn't seen “even a hint at violence” there but faced overwhelming controls that he compared to George Orwell's “Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Navalny, whom prison authorities marked as a flight risk, said he's subject to particularly close oversight that includes a guard waking him up every hour at night and filming him to report that he's in place.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport in January immediately upon returning from Berlin, where he was 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 President Vladimir Putin -- an allegation rejected by the Kremlin.

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 to be 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 incarceration set off a wave of national protests and a crackdown against his supporters.

Canada followed suit on March 24, imposing new sanctions on nine Russian officials over "gross and systematic violations of human rights" in the country.

The Foreign Ministry said the sanctions were part of "a concerted diplomatic effort to bring pressure on senior figures in Russia’s administration involved in the attempted murder of [Navalny], his subsequent prosecution, and the silencing of Russian citizens who protested his treatment with heavy-handed and often violent methods."

Canada and its allies will continue to increase pressure on Moscow to release Nalvany and his supporters "who have been unlawfully detained," Foreign Minister Marc Garneau in a statement.

"The principle of reciprocity will be observed with regard to Canada," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after Ottawa's announcement.

The new round of Canada’s sanctions target the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Aleksandr Bortnikov; federal prisons administrator Aleksandr Kalashnikov; first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko; Investigative Committee head Igor Krasnov; Aleksei Krivoruchko, deputy defense minister responsible for armaments; Pavel Popov, deputy defense minister responsible for research activities; Andrei Yarin, chief of the Kremlin’s domestic policy directorate; Viktor Zolotov, director of the National Guard; and Sergei Menyailo, Putin’s envoy to the Siberian Federal District.

Seven of them already faced U.S. sanctions.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa

MOSCOW -- The Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, has approved the third and final reading of a bill aligning election laws with recent changes to the constitution that among other things allow for the possibility of President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.

The bill, approved on March 24, still requires the approval of parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, as well as Putin's signature.

The constitutional amendments initiated in January 2020 by the 68-year-old Putin, who has been running the country as prime minister or president since late-1999, were approved in March 2020 by the State Duma. One clause in the amendments reset Putin's term-limit clock to zero, allowing him to seek reelection when his current term expires in 2024, and again in 2030 if he wishes.

Under the current election laws, the president is forbidden from seeking a third consecutive six-year term.

The controversial amendments that were finally adopted via the nationwide referendum last summer sparked protests in Moscow that were dispersed by law enforcement.

According to the results of a poll by the independent Levada Center last month, 41 percent of Russians do not want Putin to stay in power after his current term expires in 2024.

TASHKENT -- Uzbek authorities have arrested a man suspected of setting up a fake Facebook account under the guise of President Shavkat Mirziyoev, through which he allegedly illegally collected money from citizens.

The Interior Ministry said on March 24 that a 39-year-old resident of the city of Chirchiq, near the capital Tashkent, was arrested last month and charged with fraud.

According to the ministry, the suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, had presented himself via the fake Facebook account as the chief of the presidential administration and promised Uzbek citizens assistance in solving housing issues or obtaining loans from banks. For his "services" the man allegedly received "fees" from his victims, who transferred the cash to his account.

The sums varied between 50,000-1,500,000 soms ($5-$145), which are significant amounts of money in the post-Soviet republic.

The Uzbek Criminal Code calls for a punishment of up to five years in prison for fraud with the use of computer equipment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Turkey to abandon Russia's S-400 missile defense system, the U.S. State Department said in a statement issued after Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Brussels.

"Secretary Blinken urged Turkey not to retain the Russian S-400 air defense system," the statement said.

The two NATO allies have long been at odds over the S-400. Washington suspended Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter jet program last year after its purchase of the missile defense system.

Ankara signed the S-400 deal with Moscow in 2017, pointing to its security needs for purchasing the Russian system.

Blinken and Cavusoglu also touched upon efforts to improve tense relations between alliance members Turkey and Greece.

"The secretary voiced support for ongoing exploratory talks between NATO allies Turkey and Greece," it said.

Blinken "expressed concern over Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, and emphasized the importance of democratic institutions and respect for human rights," the statement said.

It added that the two also discussed shared interests in Syria and Afghanistan.

For his part, Cavusoglu said his talks with Blinken were held in a constructive atmosphere and that they agreed to hold a more comprehensive meeting in Turkey or the United States.

But Cavusoglu added that he told Blinken that Ankara's purchase of S-400 systems was "a done deal."

Turkish officials have said the systems will not be integrated into NATO's defense infrastructure.

Deliveries of the first four missile batteries began in July 2019.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

YEREVAN -- The Armenian parliament has adopted amendments to the Civil Code dramatically raising the maximum penalties for defamation and insult offenses -- a move that local media organizations said would “significantly damage” freedom of speech and expression.

A total of 76 lawmakers on March 24 voted in the second and final reading in favor of the bill setting the damages for defamation at up to 6 million drams ($11,400), and for insults at up to 3 million drams.

Forty members of the National Assembly voted against the changes, with three abstentions.

Earlier, the damages for defamation and insult offenses were set at up to 2 million and 1 million drams, respectively.

The amendments passed in the first reading set higher punishments -- up to 10 million drams -- but they were lowered at the suggestion of the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

A number of media organizations in Armenia have called on President Armen Sarkisian not to sign the adopted bill into law, and send it to the Constitutional Court to check its constitutionality.

"This change is extremely dangerous, especially if we take into account the tendency of government officials, politicians, other famous people to perceive even objective criticism as insult and slander and take the matter to court,” the organizations said in a joint statement.

Armenia decriminalized defamation and insults in 2010 following an appeal of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly to member states.

Also on March 24, the National Assembly adopted in the second and final reading a package of amendments to the Law On Higher Education and Science.

Among other things, the amendments envisage that five out of nine members of universities’ boards will be appointed by the Education Ministry, a proposal that has raised concerns among universities that this may be a way for the government to reduce their autonomy.

The package was passed by 79 votes to 36, with two abstentions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, that U.S. sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are a real possibility.

Blinken, speaking in Brussels on March 24 after private talks with Maas the previous day, reiterated U.S. President Joe Biden's concerns about the pipeline from Russia to Germany.

He said he told Maas that companies involved in the project risked U.S. sanctions.

U.S. officials argue that the pipeline, which would transport 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually directly from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea, will make Europe too dependent on Russian energy supplies.

It will also bypass Ukraine, a Western ally, potentially depriving it of valuable transit fees.

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Blinken declined to give more details about his meeting with Maas but said the United States was closely monitoring construction on the pipeline under the Baltic Sea, which is about 95 percent completed, and could be finished by September, according to experts.

Germany is pushing for the pipeline's completion despite sustained U.S. opposition over more than a decade.

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 his term in January.

Blinken last week denounced the pipeline as a "Russian geopolitical project intended to divide Europe and weaken European energy security."

Supporters of the pipeline have long accused the United States of undermining the project in order to increase sales of its liquefied gas in Europe.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has approved a resolution to create a team to investigate Belarus's violent crackdown on demonstrators protesting against presidential elections last year that authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka claims to have won.

The move came as Amnesty International called for international action to protect the rights of peaceful protesters in Belarus, raising “serious concerns” that the police response to demonstrations planned for March 25 “will yet again be marked by severe violence.”

UNHRC members in Geneva voted 20 to 7 on March 24 to create the investigative team, with 20 abstentions. Russia, a staunch ally of Belarus, was one of the countries to vote against the measure.

"We must show our support to the people of Belarus and hold perpetrators of grave human rights violations accountable to end the vicious cycle of impunity," Portugal's ambassador, Rui Macieira, speaking for the EU, told the Human Rights Council.

Portugal currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency and the resolution was put forward by the 27-member group.

Lukashenka was declared president for a sixth straight term after the August 9 election despite the opposition's belief that its candidate, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was the rightful winner.

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 brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations has included tens of thousands of detentions and thousands of criminal cases.

About 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs, 290 people are currently being held as political prisoners, and at least eight protesters have been killed, according to Tsikhanouskaya.

The text of the UN resolution approved on March 24 "condemns the ongoing grave violations of human rights in Belarus in connection with the 2020 presidential election, including the systematic denial of human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The Belarusian ambassador to the council characterized the resolution as a "destructive signal" and "another example of the manipulation of the UN by Western states in their own political interests."

Lukashenka, who is not recognized by many Western governments, has refused to meet with opposition leaders to discuss their demands for his exit and a fresh election.

The opposition has said it is looking to reinvigorate the pro-democracy protests on March 25, the anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.

In a statement on the eve of the planned demonstrations, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, warned that Belarusian authorities have indicated that they are prepared to turn Freedom Day rallies into “yet another scene of appalling violence.”

“The world cannot stand by in the face of these threats,” Struthers said, calling on diplomatic representatives in Belarus to monitor the March 25 protests, live-stream events, and use their diplomatic immunity to expose police violence.

The London-based human rights organization also called on international businesses to “ensure they do not become involved in any future human rights violations by the Belarusian authorities, by taking concrete action to mitigate any risks.”

“If telecom companies are unable to prevent Internet or mobile coverage shutdown, they should mitigate adverse impacts to the extent possible,” Struthers said.

With reporting by Reuters and AP