Kosovo became the last European country to kick off a COVID-19 inoculation campaign when Prime Minister Albin Kurti was vaccinated live on television on March 29 after the country received a batch of 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX sharing scheme.

Kurti said he wanted to set an example that would encourage people to take part in the campaign as health workers lined up after him in a sports hall in the capital Pristina to get the jab.

With the first batch, Kosovo aims to vaccinate around 11,000 doctors and nurses and people aged 80 years and older.

"With my example here I want to say and encourage all the citizens to get vaccinated and get rid of the dilemmas on the benefits of the vaccine," Kurti told reporters. "Vaccines are necessary because we are facing a difficult pandemic.”

WATCH: Kosovo PM Receives COVID-19 Vaccine

Embed share

Kosovo PM Becomes Nation's First Person To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:00:43 0:00

Kosovo, one of Europe’s poorest countries, registered 88,754 cases of coronavirus infection and 1,844 deaths since the start of the pandemic. In the past 24 hours it reported four deaths and 774 new infections.

The Balkan nation of 1.8 million people will receive a total of 100,800 doses of the vaccine through the COVAX scheme.

Washington and Brussels are the main contributors to the COVAX program.

A few hundred Kosovar health workers were vaccinated last week in Albania.

Kosovo is in negotiations with Pfizer to acquire doses of its drug against COVID-19, but no agreement has been reached.

The European Union announced on March 27 that the Western Balkans will receive 650,000 dosages of the Pfizer vaccine from the European Union.

With reporting by Reuters

Chinese companies have been sending more goods by rail through Russia and Central Asia in recent months as the cost of shipping by sea increases.

Subscribe To Our New China Newsletter

It's impossible to tell the biggest stories shaping Eurasia without considering China’s resurgent influence.

China In Eurasia is a newsletter by correspondent Reid Standish in which he builds on local reporting from RFE/RL’s journalists to give you unique insights into Beijing’s ambitions. It's sent on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

To subscribe, click here.

China sent more than 2,000 freight trains to Europe during the first two months of 2021, double the rate a year earlier when the coronavirus first hit, the Financial Times reported.

An equipment manufacturer in the Yiwu in eastern China told the paper that prices for sea transport have "skyrocketed" since last year as the coronavirus spurred demand in Europe for electronics and other home appliances.

Meanwhile, sea transportation times have doubled, the manufacturer said.

An agent providing export services in Shenzhen said that between 20 and 30 percent of her clients had switched from sea to rail.

Sea transport has become the focus of international attention after a ship became stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking all traffic. The Suez Canal offers the shortest route by sea from Asia to Europe.

Despite the jump in the use of rail transport, it still accounts for a small fraction of total goods exported from China to Europe. And it may not last.

The Shenzhen agent said she expected clients to return to shipping routes when the pandemic eased.

Based on reporting by the Financial Times

Turkmenistan held its first elections to a newly created senate on March 28 with 112 candidates contesting 48 senate seats.

There were no opposition candidates on the ballot in the Central Asian former Soviet republic, which is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world.

With a cult of personality around the 63-year-old authoritarian ruler, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, dissent is not tolerated in Turkmenistan and all media is under strict state control.

Voters on March 28 had only two hours to cast ballots, between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon local time, at one of six polling stations across the country -- one in the capital Ashgabat and five in other regions.

Turkmen authorities declared within hours of the vote that turnout in the country of 5.8 million people was 98.7 percent of eligible voters.

Foreign observers were not allowed to monitor the polling stations.

Profiles of candidates published by the government newspaper, Netralny Turkmenistan, indicated that most of the candidates in the March 28 vote were civil servants.

Turkmenistan's new two-chamber parliament, known as the Milli Genes, or National Council, will be made up of 56 senators and 125 deputies.

In addition to the 48 candidates to be declared as the winners of senate seats during the next week, Berdymukhammedov also will designate his own choices for eight other senate seats.

With reporting by AFP

Members of the Public Oversight Commission in the Vladimir Region have met with jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny following his complaints about his declining health and poor medical treatment in Correctional Colony No. 2.

The commission's chairman Vyacheslav Kulikov said in a statement on March 28 that the team "visited the colony and met with Aleksei Navalny in order to learn about problems with his health and the provision of medical treatment."

"During the discussion, Navalny complained about pain in his leg and asked for assistance in getting injections to treat this pain," Kulikov said.

Kulikov also said Navalny was able to walk and did not voice any other complaints. He said Navalny's request for injections had been officially registered.

"We asked doctors to pay attention to this and, in case it is necessary, to carry out an additional medical checkup," Kulikov said.

Meanwhile, a statement issued on Navalny's Twitter page on March 28 said the visit by the team from the Public Oversight Commission had taken place on the morning of March 26.

"What prevented them from telling about this immediately after the visit, and not being silent for two days?" the Twitter statement on Navalny's page said.

The United States and the European Union have called for Russia to immediately release Navalny after he said he was suffering from severe back pains and that "nothing" was being done by prison authorities to solve the problem.

In a message posted on his Instagram account on March 26, Navalny also said he had been warned by prominent past prisoners that getting sick in prison was potentially fatal.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny's Prison Ordeal Revives Grim Memories Of Magnitsky's Death In 2009

Correctional Colony No. 2, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Moscow, is known as one of the toughest penitentiaries in Russia.

"We have seen the disturbing reports about Aleksei Navalny's worsening health in prison. We urge continued access for his lawyers and that he receive medical care," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted on March 26, adding: "We reiterate our call for Russia to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny."

'Personal Revenge'

Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, has issued a similar call, saying Russian authorities "must give @navalny access to medical care & give his lawyers access to him."

Navalny's health became an issue on March 24 after his allies said they were concerned about his deteriorating condition and called on prison authorities to clarify the situation.

On March 25, Navalny’s wife issued a plea to the Kremlin to free her husband so that he could be treated by doctors "he trusts" and called his imprisonment the "personal revenge" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The same day Navalny's lawyers were finally able to see him and reported that the anti-corruption campaigner was in an "extremely unfavorable" condition, suffering from back pains and issues with his right leg that has made it "practically nonfunctional."

The message on Instagram said that "getting out of bed is hard and very painful" but that "a week ago, the prison doctor examined me and prescribed two tablets of ibuprofen [a day], but I still don't know the diagnosis."

"Apparently a nerve was pinched from constantly sitting in police wagons and in 'pencil cases' crookedly," he said in reference to the cramped cages defendants are placed in during court hearings.

'Deliberate Strategy'

Putin’s spokesman has said the Kremlin would not react to appeals for Navalny's release because the Kremlin "has no role in the matter."

"At the moment, in a situation when a citizen is a convict incarcerated in a penal colony, the address for such appeals is the FSIN (Federal Penitentiary Service)," Dmitry Peskov said.

Lawyer Vadim Kobzev said that, after "finally" getting to see Navalny, the situation quickly became clear that he was not only not being treated properly, "but a deliberate strategy is under way to undermine his health."

In a statement on his website, Navalny also accused the prison of torturing him through sleep deprivation.

Peskov rejected the allegation saying Navalny, like other prisoners, is woken up every hour as a way "of maintaining order and discipline in penitentiaries" and that stricter measures are often used in prisons abroad.

Such comments show "these people are the enemies of our own country," Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) said on Twitter in response to Peskov's statements.

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 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, which 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.

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

With reporting by AFP, Interfax, and TASS

Beijing has announced sanctions against two Americans, a Canadian, and a rights advocacy group over their criticism of China's treatment of Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China's tit-for-tat measure would only focus more attention on "genocide" and rights abuses against ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang.

"Beijing's attempts to intimidate and silence those speaking out for human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang," Blinken said.

China's action comes after the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States sanctioned several members of Xinjiang's political and economic hierarchy last week over rights abuses in the region.

China has retaliated in recent days by announcing its own sanctions against public officials and citizens of the EU, Britain, Canada, and the United States who have been critical of Beijing's policies.

China's Foreign Ministry has accused the United States and Canada of imposing sanctions "based on rumors and disinformation."

Those named on March 27 as the latest targets of Chinese sanctions include two members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, Canadian member of parliament Michael Chong, and a Canadian parliamentary committee on human rights.

They are prohibited from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Chinese-administered Macau.

'Badge Of Honor'

Chong said being sanctioned by Beijing was a "badge of honor."

"We've got a duty to call out China for its crackdown in #HongKong & its genocide of #Uyghurs," Chong tweeted.

"We who live freely in democracies under the rule of law must speak for the voiceless."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the measures as "an attack on transparency and freedom of expression."

International human rights groups says at least one million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in Xinjiang.

Rights groups also accuse Chinese authorities of forcibly sterilizing women and imposing forced labor.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed two judges from the Constitutional Court, deepening a feud with the top court over anti-graft reform.

In a March 27 decree, Zelenskiy removed Constitutional Court Chairman Oleksandr Tupytskiy and another judge, Oleksandr Kasminin, for continuing to “threaten Ukraine’s independence and national security.”

Both judges were appointed by pro-Russia former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in 2014 following the Euromaidan protests.

The decree comes after the Constitutional Court in October struck down some anti-corruption legislation and curbed the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NAZK). The court decision dealt a blow to reforms demanded by the West and threatened to impact lending from the International Monetary Fund.

SEE ALSO:

Ukraine's Top Court Deals Critical Blow To Anti-Corruption Agency

In response to the court ruling, Zelenskiy vowed to reverse its decision and continue with his anti-graft reform agenda.

In the decree, Zelenskiy invoked a parliamentary decision calling Yanukovych’s rule from 2010 to 2014 a “usurpation of power.”

“Certain judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine appointed by Viktor Yanukovych, by continuing to exercise their powers, threaten Ukraine’s independence and national security, which violates the constitution, human and civil rights, and freedoms,” the decree states.

It’s unclear if Zelenskiy’s decree is valid, potentially setting off a fresh dispute with the powerful court.

In December, Zelenskiy issued a decree suspending Tupytskiy, who is facing a preliminary investigation over suspected witness tampering and bribery.

The Constitutional Court then ruled that the president had exceeded his powers, in what Tupytskiy called an attempted “constitutional coup” against the judges.

According to Ukraine’s constitution, constitutional judges can only be dismissed by a vote of two-thirds of its 18 members.

With reporting by AFP, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, and the Kyiv Post

Police in Belarus detained more than 200 people and cordoned off streets in the capital, Minsk, to prevent fresh protests on March 27, as the opposition vowed to breathe new life into the pro-democracy movement after braving months of repression.

Belarus was rocked by massive protests in the wake of an August election that authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed extended his iron-fisted rule for a sixth term, despite the opposition and West saying the vote was rigged.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets for weeks to protest the election, but harsh winter weather and a brutal crackdown slowed the protest movement’s momentum in recent months.

The opposition Telegram channel Nexta, which helps mobilize and coordinate protests, told its 1.4 million followers that the events on March 27 would be the “first mass exit” of Belarusians this year.

“We’re back to the streets,” Nexta wrote, signaling that the opposition is prepared for a new wave of protests in the form of scattered rallies across the country. “We have prepared a new scenario. This tactic is designed to exhaust and disorient the security forces. It is also important for us to protect people."

The Viasna human rights center reported police had detained at least 240 people, including five journalists. Nearly all the detentions were in Minsk.

Protest organizers had planned for protests in the city center, but due to a heavy security presence and cordoned off streets they called for supporters to gather in courtyards and adjacent streets near Yakub Kolas Square.

Photos and video from central Minsk showed military vehicles, police vans, and blocked off streets, with security forces reportedly randomly detaining people and throwing them into minivans. Pro-government protesters waving flags from cars were also observed.

The Interior Ministry said that, across the country, “not a single unauthorized mass event was recorded.”

“Small groups with unregistered symbols were seen in Minsk. Some protesters were taken in for investigation,” the Interior Ministry said.

Viasna reported that police were carrying out “spot detentions” and looking at people’s phones in central parts of the city and in side streets near to where protesters were to gather.

SEE ALSO:

Freedom Day March Highlights Challenges Facing Belarusian Opposition

Among those detained were two editors of the independent Tut.by news website, Galina Ulasik and her colleague Anna Kaltygina.

Another outlet, Nasha Niva, with 90,000 Telegram followers, said its editor in chief, Yahor Martsinovich, a photographer, and a reporter were detained.

By evening, all five journalists had been released.

The relatively muted protests came days after scattered demonstrations in Minsk on March 25 to mark Freedom Day, commemorating the founding of a short-lived democratic Belarusian republic more than 100 years ago. Viasna reported police detained at least 176 people on that day.

Since protests erupted last summer, more than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and there have been widespread reports of torture.

Most the opposition leadership has been arrested or forced into exile, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been rallying international support for the pro-democracy movement since relocating to Lithuania.

In response to the repression, the West has slapped sanctions on top officials and refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of the former Soviet republic.

Kazakh authorities detained at least 20 people as demonstrators staged anti-China protests in towns and cities across the Central Asian nation on March 27.

The protesters rallied against China’s increasing influence and economic power in the former Soviet republic.

Activists also denounced the mass incarceration of members of indigenous Turkic-speaking communities in China’s Xinjiang region, including ethnic Kazakhs and Uyghurs.

Protests were held in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, and in the capital, Nur-Sultan, as well as Oral, Shymkent, and Aqtobe.

In Almaty, several hundred people gathered in a square to denounce what they said was “Chinese expansion” in Kazakhstan. At least seven protesters were detained on their way to the rally.

In Nur-Sultan, several people were detained on their way to a rally. Police cordoned off a square where protesters were expected to gather.

The protests were called by the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and the unregistered Democratic Party of Kazakhstan (DPK).

In recent months, many activists across Kazakhstan have been handed parole-like sentences for their involvement in the activities of the DVK, as well as for taking part in rallies organized by the group.

The DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government.

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.

Iran and China signed a controversial long-term bilateral deal during a ceremony in Tehran on March 27.

Subscribe To Our New Newsletter

It's impossible to tell the biggest stories shaping Eurasia without considering China’s resurgent influence.

China In Eurasia is a newsletter by correspondent Reid Standish in which he builds on local reporting from RFE/RL’s journalists to give you unique insights into Beijing’s ambitions. It's sent on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

To subscribe, click here.

The details of the agreement have not been disclosed, but it is believed to include Chinese investments in Iran’s energy and infrastructure sectors.

China is Iran's top trading partner and a key market for Iranian crude exports, which have been severely curtailed by U.S. sanctions.

The deal was signed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who arrived in Tehran a day earlier.

State television described the agreement as a "25-year strategic cooperation pact."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Said Khatibzadeh said earlier on March 27 that the pact includes "political, strategic, and economic" components.

The deal also includes increased military and security cooperation between the two countries, according to a leaked draft of the deal.

Iranian officials have said that the pact was proposed in a January 2016 trip to Iran by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly backed the deal.

Iranians have accused officials of hiding details of the deal amid fears that Tehran may be giving too much away to Beijing.

Iran has in recent years increasingly reached out to China in the face of growing U.S. pressure to isolate Tehran.

The United States unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in 2018 under former President Donald Trump.

Trump pursued a policy of "maximum pressure" on Tehran over its nuclear and missile programs, as well as its support for regional proxies.

SEE ALSO:

Explainer: Why Are Iranians Angry Over A Long-Term Deal With China?

The deal was meant to provide relief for Iran from international sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program, which Iran says is strictly for civilian energy purposes.

U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled his readiness to revive the deal.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress has condemned the “unjust and illegitimate detainment” of Ihar Losik, a popular blogger and RFE/RL consultant jailed in Belarus, calling for his immediate release in the latest show of support from the highest echelons of government.

In a letter addressed to Losik on March 26, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said they stand “shoulder to shoulder” with him, his family, and all other Belarusians struggling in the country’s pro-democracy movement amid a violent government crackdown following a presidential election last August that authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed to win and which the opposition says was rigged.

“We join the international community in strongly condemning your unjust and illegitimate detainment by the Belarusian authorities,” the seven lawmakers said in the letter. “We stand ready to hold those complicit in your illegitimate detention to account through targeted sanctions working with our friends and allies in the European Union.”

Embed share

Wife Of Jailed Belarusian Blogger Speaks Out In Video Statement

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:09 0:00

The letter was signed by Representatives Marcy Kaptur (Democrat-Ohio), Bill Keating (Democrat-Massachusetts), David Cicilline (Democrat-Rhode Island), Tom Malinowski (Democrat-New Jersey), James McGovern (Democrat-Massachusetts), Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican-Pennsylvania), and Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey).

Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994, has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and the media targeted.

Losik is among nearly 300 political prisoners caught up in the crackdown.

In response to the suppression of protesters, the West has slapped sanctions on top officials and refuses to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of the former Soviet republic.

The 28-year-old Losik has been in pretrial detention since June 2020 on charges widely considered trumped up.

He was initially charged with allegedly using his popular Telegram channel to "prepare to disrupt public order" ahead of a presidential election last August.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Calls For Release Of All Political Prisoners in Belarus

Earlier this month, he tried to slit his wrists and launched a four-day hunger strike after being informed of new, unspecified charges. He had previously launched a six-week hunger strike to protest the original charges.

On March 22, 11 days after he was informed of the new charges, a court extended Losik's pretrial detention to May 25.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly condemned the move and the new charges, saying the father of a 2-year-old daughter should be released immediately so he can be reunited with his family.

“Journalism is not a crime and Ihar has been unjustly detained for far too long. Ihar and his family should not be tortured in this way,” Fly wrote, adding that RFE/RL was "deeply distressed" by the new charges and Losik's deteriorating health situation.

The oversight agency for RFE/RL and other U.S. international broadcasters has also condemned the Belarusian authorities' decision to heap further charges on Losik and has demanded his release.

The U.S. State Department and other members of Congress have previously condemned the wrongful detention of Losik and other political prisoners.

Belarus has been excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest after failing to submit an entry that complies with the nonpolitical nature of the competition, with Minsk denouncing the decision as "politically motivated."

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a March 26 statement that a second entry submitted by the Belarus state broadcasting authority “was in breach of the rules that ensure the contest is not instrumentalized or brought into disrepute.”

The first song submitted by the band Galasy ZMesta was rejected earlier this month. That entry -- titled I’ll Teach You -- had lyrics such as, "I'll teach you how to dance to the tune.”

There had been complaints that the lyrics mocked the mass protest movement against authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The EBU extended the deadline to give Belarus's national broadcaster, BTRC, a chance to submit another entry.

The EBU’s statement on March 26 said the BTRC had now missed the deadline to submit an eligible entry and “regrettably, Belarus will not be participating in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in May.”

It did not provide details about the second entry but said that the EBU and the Eurovision Song Contest's governing board had "carefully scrutinized the new entry submitted by BTRC to assess its eligibility to compete."

Galasy ZMesta band leader Dmitry Butakov told Belarusian state television in an interview broadcast on March 21 that the band had prepared two new songs for the contest, including one about bunnies.

SEE ALSO:

Eurovision Disqualifies Belarus's Pro-Lukashenka Entry

The band’s repertoire includes songs that ridicule the European Union and distort the Belarusian language. Members of the band are known for their participation in pro-government rallies, RFE/RL's Belarus Service report, and on their website state: "We cannot remain indifferent" when "under the guise of" political struggle "they try to destroy the country we love and live in."

Belarus's national broadcaster criticized Eurovision on its Telegram channel late on March 26.

"For Europe to be scared to allow a song on stage about rabbits -- this is the final and absolute disgrace," it wrote.

"The decision to disqualify us is politically motivated," Ivan Eismont, who heads Belarus’s Eurovision selection committee, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

It is not the first time that politics has mixed in to affect performers or their songs.

After Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2009, the Georgian band Stephane & 3G was to compete with the song We Don't Wanna Put In. The EBU objected to the lyrics and gave the band a chance to replace them, but both the band and the Georgian broadcaster GPB refused to participate in the contest.

Armenia’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 had to change its title after it was seen as referring to the World War I-era mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turkey.

In 2017, when the contest was held in Kyiv, controversy swirled around Russia’s contestant, Yulia Samoilova, who was barred from entering Ukraine because she had performed in the Russia-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2015. Russia, in response, decided not to allow her to participate by video or to send another contestant.

The Eurovision Song Contest is to take place May 18-22 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

With reporting by dpa and AFP

The leader of Burma's ruling junta called Russia a "true friend" during a speech marking Armed Forces Day, as security forces in the Southeast Asian country reportedly killed scores of people in the bloodiest day of protests since last month’s coup.

The lethal crackdown, which took place on March 27 as Russia's deputy defense minister visited the country to improve relations, drew swift international condemnation.

The United Nations said it had received reports of “scores killed,” including children, in what it described as “shocking violence.” It said there were mass arrests and hundreds were also injured in at least 40 towns and cities. The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, which documents deaths and arrests, put the number of deaths by late evening at 91, spread over many cities and towns.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda in a statement said "security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children.”

“This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force," he said.

“Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule,” he said, using another name for Burma.

The European Union’s delegation to the Southeast Asian country described the day as one of “terror and dishonor.”

The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Burmese officials linked to the coup and the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

The bloodletting came as Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin attended the Armed Forces Day military parade after meeting the junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the day before.

During a March 26 meeting, Russia offered support for the military regime, according to Interfax.

Defense ties between Russia and Burma have grown in recent years, with Moscow providing training and selling arms.

Fomin called Burma a reliable ally and strategic partner of Russia in Asia, Interfax said.

"The Russian Federation is committed to a strategy aimed at bolstering relations between the two countries," the Defense Ministry quoted Fomin as saying, according to Interfax.

Fomin said his visit to Burma was reciprocal after Min Aung Hlaing attended Russia’s parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of victory in the World War II last year.

Armed Forces Day in Burma commemorates the start of the military's resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945.

Diplomats said eight countries -- Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand -- sent representatives, but Russia was the only one to send a minister to the parade.

Burma’s military seized power on February 1 in a coup that ousted the elected government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained along with other figures from her National League for Democracy party. The coup reversed years of the country gradually emerging from a half-century of military rule.

The junta leaders say last November’s elections, won by Suu Kyi’s party in a landslide, were fraudulent.

Widespread protests against the junta have been met with a harsh crackdown, with more than 2,600 people arrested and the latest violence set to bring the number of deaths to over 400 since the coup.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, Interfax, and Reuters

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says it fears that a detained Crimean journalist’s televised “confession” to spying on behalf of Ukraine was obtained under torture and has called for his immediate release and the withdrawal of the charges against him.

In a statement on March 26, Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, expressed concern about “the psychological and physical pressure” Vladislav Yesypenko has been subjected to.

Cavelier also condemned the ban on access to his lawyer.

Yesypenko, a freelance contributor to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was “visibly pale and had difficulty talking when he made his confession -- one almost certainly obtained under duress -- in an interview for local Russian TV channel Krym24 that seemed more like a police interrogation,” the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said.

The interview was broadcast on March 18, eight days after Yesypenko, who has Ukrainian and Russian dual nationality, was arrested in Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Crimea region.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Yesypenko was suspected of collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence and claimed that an object "looking like an explosive device" was found in his automobile during his apprehension.

The journalist was charged with “making firearms,” which is punishable by up to six years in prison.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has called for Yesypenko’s immediate release and also has questioned the circumstances under which Yesypenko made his confession.

"We question the circumstances surrounding this purported confession, which appears to be forced and made without access to legal counsel," Fly said in a statement.

"The Russian authorities have similarly smeared RFE/RL Ukrainian Service contributors with false charges in the past. Vladislav is a freelance contributor with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, not a spy, and he should be released."

Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service described the arrest as “a convenient attempt to distract the attention of the population away from the numerous internal problems of the peninsula" ahead of the seventh anniversary of its forcible annexation, which was marked on March 18.

The U.S. State Department called Yesypenko's arrest “another attempt to repress those who speak the truth about Russia's aggression in Ukraine.”

Graty, a Ukrainian media outlet specializing in police and judicial abuses, quoted a source at Yesypenko’s place of detention as saying he had been tortured, while the lawyer chosen by the journalist’s family has not been allowed to see him, according to the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG).

This suggests that the authorities are trying to cover up evidence that Yesypenko has been “subjected to illegal methods of investigation, including physical and psychological violence,” the CHRG said.

Yesypenko was detained along with a resident of the Crimean city of Alushta, Yelizaveta Pavlenko, after the two took part in an event marking the 207th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian poet and thinker Taras Shevchenko the day before in Crimea.

Pavlenko was later released.

Russia forcibly 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. President Joe Biden has invited the leaders of China and Russia to a climate summit he is hosting in April, despite deep differences with the two countries on a host of other issues.

Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia are among 40 world leaders invited to the two-day virtual summit, meant to highlight the United States’ renewed commitment to stemming climate change, the White House said on March 26.

The start of the summit on April 22 coincides with Earth Day and will "underscore the urgency -- and the economic benefits -- of stronger climate action,” the White House said.

The gathering is expected to build towards the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow, Scotland.

Biden rejoined the Paris climate agreement on his first day in the White House, reversing former President Donald Trump's exit from the landmark accord.

The White House has said that climate change is one area where it may be possible to cooperate with China and Russia, even as ties are strained over many other issues.

The United States is the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide after China.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

KALININGRAD, Russia -- A Russian woman serving a prison sentence on high treason charges has started a hunger strike to protest against being put in solitary confinement for complaining about beatings, her lawyer says.

Antonina Zimina's lawyer told RFE/RL on March 26 that her client has been on hunger strike for four days in a detention center in Kaliningrad, the capital of Russia's far western exclave of the same name.

In late December 2020, Zimina and her husband, Konstantin Antonets, were found guilty of spying for Latvia.

Antonets was handed a 12 1/2-year prison sentence. The couple has denied any wrongdoing ever since they were first arrested in July 2018.

Zimina’s lawyer, Maria Bontsler, said she was sent to seven days of solitary confinement on March 22 for "covering the observation hole on the door of her cell from inside and refusing to sign a registry of cleaning shifts," a routine procedure for inmates who are required to clean the premises.

Zimina covered the observation hole while she was changing her clothes and refused to sign the registry because a guard who beat her in the past brought it for signing, according to Bontsler.

The lawyer added that the real reason behind Zimina’s placement in solitary confinement is most likely the complaints she voiced to officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) last week about her beatings by guards.

"The next day, she was called to the detention center's operative department and instructed to sign documents retracting her statements. Now they are threatening to sue her for libel," Bontsler said.

Zimina's father, Konstantin Zimin, told RFE/RL that he was not allowed to see his daughter when he came to the detention center on March 26.

The Ukrainian military says four of its soldiers have been killed in shelling in the country’s east, where fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.

"Today, March 26, the armed forces of the Russian Federation once again violated the cease-fire” agreed in July 2020 and targeted the positions of Ukrainian forces with “82-mm mortars, automatic grenade launchers, and large-caliber machine guns prohibited by the Minsk agreements” aimed at putting an end to the conflict, the military said in a statement.

It said two soldiers were also injured in the attack, which occurred near the settlement of Shumy, north of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.

The skirmish brings the total number of Ukrainian servicemen reported killed since the beginning of the year to 16, according to AFP.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the leaders of the so-called Normandy Format, a diplomatic process involving Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France aimed at resolving the conflict, to “do their utmost to preserve a full and comprehensive" cease-fire.

In a joint statement on March 18, the G7 group of nations noted that the cease-fire implemented last year has “significantly reduced violence” in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk while also deploring “recent military escalations by Russian-backed armed formations at the line of contact.”

The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, as well as the EU foreign policy chief, called on Moscow to implement its commitments to the Minsk agreements, and “stop fueling the conflict” by providing “financial and military support to the separatists.

Moscow claims it only provides political and humanitarian support to the separatists holding parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, and says Russians fighting there are volunteers.

With reporting by AFP

YEREVAN -- Armenia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a criminal case against former President Robert Kocharian must be dropped, ending a legal saga over a deadly crackdown on protesters more than a decade ago.

The high court on March 26 found “invalid” an article of the Criminal Code under which Armenia’s second president was being prosecuted.

Court Chairman Arman Dilanian said Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code regarding “overthrowing the constitutional order” runs counter to two articles of the constitution. The decision is final.

The ruling means Kocharian’s case must be terminated, according to the ex-president’s lawyer Aram Vardevanian.

Prosecutors did not immediately comment.

Kocharian, who served as the South Caucasus country's president from 1998 to 2008, was accused of violating the constitutional order by sending police to disperse postelection protests in Yerevan in 2008. Eight demonstrators and two police officers died in the clashes.

The ex-president, who is also accused of taking bribes in a separate case, has rejected the allegations against him as political retaliation by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Kocharian was released from detention in June 2020 after paying a record $4.1 million bail.

Pashinian was one of the organizers of the 2008 protest and was ultimately jailed until being released in 2011 under a government amnesty.

Pashinian came to power in 2018 after leading massive demonstrations that ousted his predecessor.

The high court verdict comes as Armenia prepares for early parliamentary elections in June, triggered by opposition demands Pashinian step down over his leadership during a six-week war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which ended in what many Armenians felt was a humiliating defeat.

Kocharian, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, was one of the leaders of the region's separatist forces and was Nagorno-Karabakh’s first de facto president between December 1994 and March 1997.

In January, Kocharian said he would participate in any early elections.

Suspected Russian state-backed hackers with a history of running disinformation campaigns against NATO have targeted dozens of German lawmakers, German media reported on March 26.

The hackers used spear-phishing e-mails to target the private e-mail accounts of members of the German parliament and regional state assemblies, in the latest suspected Russian-backed effort against lawmakers in the country.

Public broadcaster WDR and news website Der Spiegel reported that the attacks occurred in recent days and were noticed by the BfV domestic intelligence agency and the country’s information security agency.

It was unclear what, if any data, was stolen. WDR reported at least some e-mail accounts were compromised. Der Spiegel reported at least seven members of parliament were targeted and 31 lawmakers in state assemblies.

German security officials believe the cyberattack was carried out by a group known as Ghostwriter, long suspected of ties to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

WDR said officials are now warning of possible disinformation campaigns stemming from the cyberattack.

According to the U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye, since at least 2017 Ghostwriter has run information operations as part of a Russian influence campaign. The operations have primarily targeted the Baltic states and Poland, with a focus on producing disinformation about NATO.

The Ghostwriter campaign has “leveraged website compromises or spoofed e-mail accounts to disseminate fabricated content, including falsified news articles, quotes, correspondence, and other documents designed to appear as coming from military officials and political figures in the target countries,” FireEye said in an analysis last year.

For example, Ghostwriter is believed to be behind spreading fake news in 2018 about German soldiers participating in the NATO mission in Lithuania desecrating a Jewish graveyard and running over a child with a tank.

In 2015, suspected Russian hackers tied to the GRU carried out a massive cyberattack on the German parliament, disrupting IT systems and stealing troves of data. The e-mail accounts of several members of parliament, including in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, were affected.

With reporting by Der Spiegel and WDR

The United States is calling for Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Shahla Humbatova to be reinstated into the country’s bar association after she lost her membership earlier this month in what she claimed was a politically motivated act.

Humbatova’s “work, and the work of other human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, should be celebrated, not punished, and we call on those responsible to expedite her reinstatement to the Azerbaijani bar,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a March 26 statement.

The prominent lawyer was disbarred on March 5 for failing to pay membership fees of $260 to the Azerbaijani Bar Association.

The lawyer said at the time that the board did not inform her about the debt and she found about her disbarment from the media. She then paid her membership fee immediately.

Humbatova is one of several human rights lawyers to have been disbarred in recent years, leaving few advocates to take on cases in a country renown for cracking down on the media and critical voices.

“We encourage all steps toward systemic reforms in Azerbaijan, especially those regarding the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms -- areas that will benefit the Azerbaijani people and create opportunities to deepen our cooperation,” Blinken said in the statement.

Last year, the United States honored Humbatova with the secretary of state’s International Women of Courage Award.

Earlier this month, Freedom House published its 2021 report on global democracy, saying Azerbaijan's judiciary "is corrupt and subservient to the executive."

"Although nominally independent, the Azerbaijani Bar Association acts on the orders of the Ministry of Justice and is complicit in the harassment of human rights lawyers," the report said.

The United States and the European Union have reiterated their calls for Russia to immediately release Aleksei Navalny after the jailed opposition politician said he was suffering from severe back pains and that “nothing” was being done by prison authorities to solve the problem.

In a message posted on his Instagram account on March 26, Navalny also said he had been warned by past prominent prisoners that getting sick in prison was potentially fatal.

"Once Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who served 10 years in prison, told me: The main thing is not to get sick there," the post said, referring to the owner of the former oil giant Yukos who spent a decade behind bars after being convicted in two controversial cases.

"Nobody will treat you. If you get seriously ill, you will die," he quoted Khodorkovsky as telling him.

Navalny, 44, is currently incarcerated in Correctional Colony No. 2, about 100 kilometers from Moscow. The prison is known as one of the toughest penitentiaries in Russia.

“We have seen the disturbing reports about Aleksei Navalny's worsening health in prison. We urge continued access for his lawyers and that he receive medical care,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted on March 26.

"We reiterate our call for Russia to immediately and unconditionally release" Navalny, he added.

Earlier, Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, issued a similar call, saying Russian authorities "must give @navalny access to medical care & give his lawyers access to him."

The Kremlin foe’s condition became an issue on March 24 after his allies said they were concerned over his deteriorating health and called on prison authorities to clarify his condition.

On March 25, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, issued a plea to the Kremlin to free her husband so that he could be treated by doctors “he trusts” and called his imprisonment the president’s "personal revenge."

The same day, Navalny's lawyers were finally able to see him and reported the anti-corruption campaigner was in an "extremely unfavorable" condition, suffering from back pain and issues with his right leg that has made it "practically nonfunctional."

The message on Instagram said that “getting out of bed is hard and very painful" but that "a week ago, the prison doctor examined me and prescribed two tablets of ibuprofen [a day], but I still don't know the diagnosis.”

"Apparently a nerve was pinched from constantly sitting in police wagons and in 'pencil cases' crookedly," he said in reference to the cramped cages defendants are placed in during court hearings.

President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic joked that he did not want to "part with" his right leg and quipped about becoming a one-legged pirate.

'Sleep Deprivation'

Talking to journalists in Moscow, Putin’s spokesman said Navalnaya "should not have turned to the Kremlin as it has no role in the matter."

"We will not react to such an appeal.... At the moment, in a situation when a citizen is a convict incarcerated in a penal colony, the address for such appeals is the FSIN," Dmitry Peskov said, referring to the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Lawyer 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 a statement on his website, Navalny also accused the prison of torturing him through sleep deprivation.

Peskov rejected that allegation, saying Navalny, like other prisoners, is woken up every hour as a way "of maintaining order and discipline in penitentiaries" and that stricter measures are often used in prisons abroad.

Peskov, however, failed to address the allegation that such measures weren't needed since there is a closed-circuit television camera in Navalny's cell allowing guards to monitor him at all times.

Such comments show "these people are the enemies of our own country," Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) said on Twitter in response to Peskov's statements.

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 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 nationwide protests and a crackdown against his supporters.

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

With reporting by Interfax, TASS, and AFP

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- A university professor in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg is under investigation for publicly denying the Holocaust.

The Leningrad regional prosecutor's office said in a statement on March 25 that the probe was launched after preliminary investigations revealed a lecturer at a webinar for teachers on January 21 stated that the Holocaust during the World War II was "a myth" and "fiction."

The statement does not identify the professor, but the chief editor of Ekho Moskvy radio in St. Petersburg, Valery Nechai, said earlier in January that the webinar in question was held by professor Vladimir Matveyev of the St. Petersburg State University of Economy and the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

Nechai, referring to video taken from the webinar by correspondents of the online media outlet Novye Koltushi, said at the time that Matveyev stated that the number of Jews killed during the war was "exaggerated," making a conclusion that the "genocide of Jews" cannot be called a Holocaust.

The lecture's aim was to prepare teachers for lessons on the history of the Holocaust and the Red Army's liberation of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.

Matveyev was fired from the universities after the scandal erupted in January and is being investigated under a 2014 law against rehabilitating Nazism. He faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.

An Istanbul court has handed life sentences to two former Turkish police commanders and two top ex-security officers over the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink 14 years ago.

Dink was gunned down in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, outside the Istanbul offices of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, where he was the editor. He was 53.

Dink had been an arduous proponent of reconciliation between Armenians and Turks and was repeatedly prosecuted for insulting "Turkishness" over his comments on Armenian identity and the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

After his killing, tens of thousands of people gathered in central Istanbul to mourn.

Seventy-six suspects were facing charges including failing to uncover the plot to kill Dink.

Istanbul's main court on March 26 sentenced the city's former police intelligence chief, Ramazan Akyurek, and his former deputy, Ali Fuat Yilmazer, to life in prison for "premeditated murder," Agos reported.

Former top Interior Ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also sentenced to life in prison.

In 2012, ultranationalist sympathizer Ogun Samast, who was 17 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for Dink's killing.

Ali Oz, a former Interior Ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon where Samast came from, was sentenced to 28 years in prison on March 26.

Charges against another top Istanbul police chief were dropped due to the statute of limitation.

However, Dink's supporters and human rights activists say the most senior police officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to continue.

"Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted," said Erol Onderoglu, the representative in Turkey for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial.

"This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should not mark the end of the search for the truth."

The accused in the protracted trial included U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016. Gulen has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies any involvement in the failed coup.

The Istanbul court on March 26 ruled that Dink's murder was committed "in line with the objectives of Feto" -- an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen's banned movement, Turkey's NTV reported.

Turkey claims Gulen's network had widely infiltrated the country's police and other state institutions over decades.

The court did not rule on the case of Gulen and 12 other fugitives and instead separated their cases.

Dink had pushed for reconciliation between Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks and had been prosecuted repeatedly for insulting "Turkishness" with his comments on Armenian identity and the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

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

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

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

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa