Facebook has blocked articles by Russian news agencies claiming police last month arrested alleged Ukrainian nationalists after experts concluded the radicals were Russian.

RBK and Kommersant published articles in February reporting that Russian law enforcement had arrested alleged members of MKU, a Ukrainian nationalistic youth organization, in the southwestern city of Voronezh.

Police reportedly discovered extremist literature, symbols of nationalist organizations, knives, and an object resembling on old military mine inside their apartments.

Citing Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) press service, the news agencies reported their connection to a Ukrainian extremist organization.

However, Russia's Investigative Committee published a release at the time saying simply that three individuals aged 18, 19, and 33 had been arrested for stirring up racial animosity in Voronezh, which lies near the border with Ukraine.

It made no claim that they were members of a Ukrainian nationalist group.

StopFake, a Ukrainian agency that works with Facebook to find and block Russian disinformation on its platform, said its research concluded the three people arrested in Voronezh all belong to a Russian nationalist organization.

StopFake said it contacted Ilya Bichyov, the lead investigator on the case in Voronezh, who declined to comment on whether the three individuals had any connection to Ukraine on the grounds the investigation is continuing.

StopFake, which was created in 2014 by journalism students and faculty members, has itself been accused of ties to Ukrainian far-right groups, something it vehemently denies.

Russia's media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, on March 7 demanded that Facebook unblock the links to the article on its platform, accusing the U.S. social-media company of censorship.

Russia has tried to play up the actions of Ukrainian nationalist groups in an effort to justify its hostile actions toward its neighbor.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and continues to back separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war that has killed more than 13,000 people.

With reporting by RBK

The United States has accused Russian intelligence agencies of spreading disinformation about Western vaccines against the coronavirus in an attempt to undermine global confidence in their safety, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The State Department's Global Engagement Center, which monitors foreign disinformation efforts, told the newspaper that four websites it claims are associated with Russian intelligence have been publishing articles questioning the efficacy of the vaccines and raising questions about their side effects.

The websites accentuate actual international news reports that cast a negative view of the vaccines without providing contradictory information about their safety and efficacy, the newspaper reported.

Western vaccines were approved after stringent trials that demonstrated more than 60 percent efficacy, and in two of the three cases, more than 90 percent. The Western vaccines compete with Russia's Sputnik V, which also recently showed efficacy of greater than 90 percent in a mass trial.

The websites identified by the Global Engagement Center include New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review, which it says are Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and News Front, which it claims is run by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). News Front is based in Russian-occupied Crimea.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

The fourth website, Rebel Inside, is controlled by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, according to the Global Engagement Center. However, it did not provide specific evidence linking the publications to Russian intelligence.

The websites are niche, without a large following. New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review focus on an audience based in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Rebel Inside appears to be dormant, the center said.

U.S. social-media companies have removed the accounts affiliated with the four websites, though some non-English-language accounts remained active earlier this year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Russian intelligence agencies were spreading disinformation about Western vaccines and said the United States was trying to blame Russia for the resulting international debate on coronavirus remedies.

The United States has long accused Russia of spreading disinformation on medical issues, going back to Soviet times, experts told The Wall Street Journal.

A Soviet KGB campaign claimed that U.S. military biological labs unleashed the AIDS epidemic.

With reporting by The Wall Street Journal

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) says he is holding up the confirmation of the next Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief in order to pressure President Joe Biden to stop Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

"I'll release my hold when the Biden admin meets its legal obligation to report and sanction the ships and companies building [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's pipeline," Cruz said in a tweet on March 6 as he confirmed an earlier Bloomberg story.

Biden in January picked William Burns, a career Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Russia in the 2000s, to be the next head of the CIA.

The 64-year-old was approved by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on March 2 following a confirmation hearing last month.

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Senate Republicans have been pressuring the Biden administration to impose sanctions on more companies reportedly involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2.

The pipeline, which is more than 90 percent complete, is designed to reroute Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Ukraine.

Congress opposes the pipeline on the grounds that it strengthens the Kremlin hold on Europe's energy industry and hurts Ukraine, which stands to lose billions of dollars in annual transit fees.

Legislation passed in 2019 to place sanctions on vessels laying the pipeline halted the project for more than a year.

However, Russia has resumed completion of the project with its own ships, pushing Congress late last year to pass new legislation widening the sanctions beyond vessels to include companies engaging generally in Nord Stream 2 activities, including insuring and certifying the project.

The legislation required the administration to update Congress in February on the status of the project and impose sanctions on any companies in violation. The Biden administration identified one vessel and its owner, which were already put under sanctions.

However, some media reports have identified at least a dozen companies involved in the construction.

In a March 3 letter addressed to Biden, 40 Senate Republicans, including Cruz, called the February update "completely inadequate" and demanded the Biden administration impose sanctions on the additional companies "without delay."

While Biden has called the pipeline a "bad deal for Europe," his administration is reportedly concerned about the impact additional sanctions would have on its relationship with Germany.

TBILISI -- Opposition parties have called for Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili to step down amid fresh allegations he is beholden to the ruling party's billionaire founder.

TV Pirveli, an opposition station, on March 7 published an alleged audio recording of Bera Ivanishvili, the son of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, demanding Gharibashvili punish his critics on social media.

Some of the critics later apologized, reportedly under pressure from the billionaire's former bodyguards, including Anzor Chubinidze, who is now the chief of Georgia's special service for state guards.

A member of Georgian Dream dismissed the recording as a fake, saying it was compiled from various recordings over the years.

The publication of the alleged recording comes amid an intensifying political crisis sparked by last year's general elections and exacerbated by the recent arrest of a top opposition leader.

Georgia's opposition parties have refused to enter the new parliament to protest what they call the rigging of the October 31 parliamentary elections.

The crisis deepened after a court ruled last month to send Nika Melia, the leader of the United National Movement (ENM) party, to pretrial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee in a case denounced by the opposition as a political witch-hunt.

Melia's arrest on February 23, along with several opposition activists, has sparked mass anti-government protests in Tbilisi demanding their release and snap parliamentary elections.

Melia is accused of organizing "mass violence" during 2019 anti-government protests, a charge he rejects as politically motivated. The ruling Georgian Dream party denies that.

The 41-year-old politician faces up to nine years behind bars if convicted.

During a visit to Georgia on March 1, European Council President Charles Michel called on the country's political parties to engage in dialogue to defuse the "worsening crisis."

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had her ankle tag removed after her five-year prison sentence expired, but it remains unclear if she can leave Iran.

Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been summoned to court again on March 13, dashing hopes for her immediate return home.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement that Zaghari-Ratcliffe must be released immediately so she can return to her family in Britain.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained at Tehran airport after a family visit in 2016 and subsequently given a five-year sentence for plotting to overthrow Iran's government.

Her family and the foundation deny the charge while Amnesty International denounced the proceedings as a "deeply unfair trial."

Britain has demanded Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.

In November, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was notified in court of a fresh indictment of "spreading propaganda against the regime."

She was temporarily released from the capital's notorious Evin prison and placed under house arrest in March 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Iran says its prepared to take steps to live up to measures in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as soon as the United States lifts economic sanctions on the country.

"Iran is ready to immediately take compensatory measures based on the nuclear deal and fulfill its commitments just after the U.S. illegal sanctions are lifted and it abandons its policy of threats and pressure," Iranian President Hassan Rohani said on March 7.

Rohani made the remarks as he received Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney amid diplomatic efforts to revive the landmark nuclear deal. Ireland is not party to the deal, but Dublin has the role of facilitator in the implementation of the nuclear agreement.

Rohani criticized the European signatories of the deal - Britain, France, and Germany -- for what he said was their inaction on their commitments to the agreement. He said Iran "is the only party that has paid a price for it."

U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled his readiness to revive the deal, but insists Iran first return to all its nuclear commitments.

Former U.S President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from the agreement that aimed to restrict Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.

The Trump administration argued that the agreement failed to address Iran's ballistic-missile program or its support for regional groups that Washington considers terrorists.

After withdrawing in 2018, the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

Police in authoritarian Turkmenistan are reportedly further tightening controls over information as the secretive country downplays the coronavirus pandemic and clamps down on brewing discontent over years of economic turmoil.

RFE/RL's correspondents report that police have been searching the smartphones of medical professionals at hospitals and tracking down young people who use VPNs that allow Internet users to skirt restrictions.

In the eastern city of Turkmenabat, police have reportedly been checking the phones of health-care workers to find out who has been speaking to RFE/RL and other media about the pandemic situation in the tightly controlled country.

RFE/RL and other independent publications have reported that the country's population is suffering from coronavirus, hospitals are strained, and deaths are rising.

Meanwhile, Turkmen authorities continue to pretend there is no coronavirus in the country, which hasn't registered any official cases.

State media does not cover the situation either, even as the country enforces multiple health-related restrictions.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

Turkmenistan began vaccinations against coronavirus in early February using the Russian-produced Sputnik V shot. But the authorities have not officially announced the start of a vaccination campaign.

Turkmenistan's security services regularly check the personal information of people and use Internet blocking methods and surveillance of virtual private network (VPN) users to limit the availability of independent information.

The authorities in the city of Mary have stepped up their search for those using VPNs by stopping people on the streets to inspect mobile phones, calling suspects in for questioning, and detaining alleged violators for up to 15 days.

The crackdown comes as the authorities are on edge over a growing protest movement in the country and in the diaspora spurred by the oppressive political environment and deteriorating economic conditions.

According to a joint statement issued by the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center and the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation on March 4, there are also increasing reports of new pressure on citizens of Turkmenistan living abroad and active on the Internet.

A pipeline rupture that caused fuel to spill into and catch fire on the Ob River in western Siberia poses "no risk to the population and environment," according to a spokesperson for SiburTyumenGas.

The spokesperson told Interfax on March 6 that the rupture of the underwater pipeline in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug sent "light hydrocarbons" -- highly flammable fuels that include propane and butane -- into the river.

The fuel then ignited on the surface and was burning over an area of about 1,000 square meters.

The pipeline between two processing plants was reportedly shut down and being emptied.

The nearest population is about 45 kilometers from the scene of the fire, and Russia's environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, is reportedly monitoring the situation.

In February, a court in Siberia ordered the Russian metallurgical giant Norilsk Nickel to pay more than 146 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) for a spill that dumped thousands of tons of diesel fuel into the Russian Arctic last year.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's five-year jail term in Iran expires on March 7, but her husband has said her release may be in doubt.

Richard Ratcliffe told the BBC on March 6 that his wife's detention has "the potential to drag on and on" and said that "it's perfectly possible that Nazanin gets a new court case thrown at her."

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation who is now 42, was detained at Tehran airport after a family visit in 2016 and subsequently given a five-year sentence for plotting to overthrow Iran's government.

Her family and the foundation deny the charge while Amnesty International denounced the proceedings as a “deeply unfair trial.”

Britain has demanded Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.

In November 2020, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was notified in court of a fresh indictment of "spreading propaganda against the regime."

Ratcliffe told the BBC that the family has "never seen a copy of the charges on which she was sentenced" originally, and accused Iran of preserving "the space to make it up as they go along at every stage."

Nazanin was temporarily released from the capital's notorious Evin prison and placed under house arrest in March owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Media have connected Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release to the outcome of negotiations between Iran and the United Kingdom over the release of hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian funds frozen by London more than 40 years ago.

Officials in both London and Tehran have denied that Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case is linked to a repayment deal.

Based on reporting by the BBC and AFP

Representatives of an umbrella alliance of Armenian opposition groups demanding early parliamentary elections and the resignation of the country's prime minister have announced plans to meet with President Armen Sarkisian to discuss the ongoing political crisis on March 7.

The Homeland Salvation Movement, an alliance of more than a dozen opposition groups, is calling on Sarkisian to send Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's decision to dismiss the chief of the General Staff to the Constitutional Court for review.

"We have very clearly presented our demands to the president, we have received assurances that, yes, the issue will be submitted to the Constitutional Court," opposition leader Ishkhan Sagatelian said at a rally in Yerevan on March 6, setting a March 9 deadline for opposition demands to be met and declaring that the fate of the country was in the president's hands.

"You must stand by the constitution until the Constitutional Court declares the dismissal of the chief of General Staff unconstitutional...otherwise you are personally responsible for the situation in the country and its future outcome," Sagatelian said in a message directed at Sarkisian.

Political tensions in Armenia are high, with Pashinian dismissing General Staff chief Onik Gasparian after the prime minister accused high-ranking military officers of attempting a coup by calling on him to resign over his handling of the country's recent war with Azerbaijan.

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

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Supporters of Pashinian and the opposition have been staging competing rallies in the capital amid the crisis, and the opposition has met twice with Sarkisian to urge him to allow the country's top court to determine whether Gasparian's firing was constitutional.

Sarkisian, whose position as president is largely ceremonial, refused to approve Pashinian's order dismissing Gasparian for a second time on March 2. However, legal experts believe that the order will take effect automatically unless Sarkisian appeals to the Constitutional Court.

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

A Ukrainian official said a bus carrying dozens of Ukrainians crashed into a ditch in Poland, killing at least six and injuring 41.

The accident occurred early on March 6 near Jaroslaw, a town in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine.

The private Polish TV station TNV24 said the bus had a Ukrainian license plate and was traveling with 57 Ukrainian citizens, including two drivers

Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said six Ukrainian citizens were killed.

No immediate cause was given for the accident. Dozens of firefighters, paramedics, and helicopters were seen at the site later in the day.

Poland is a major destination for Ukrainian laborers, who make up a sizable portion of the country's workforce amid Poland's strong economic growth.

Belarusian authorities have opened a criminal investigation against one of the country’s most prominent human rights organizations and detained several of its members, in the latest crackdown on dissent against authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The Vyasna human rights center said March 5 that the Investigative Committee opened a case alleging the organization provides financing and other material support for unsanctioned mass protests and violating public order.

Four members of the center were also taken into custody.

Belarus has experienced near-daily protests since last August’s presidential election gave Lukashenka a sixth-term in a vote the opposition and West says was fraudulent and illegitimate.

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.

Vyasna has been one of the main independent organizations keeping track of human rights abuses including torture, thousands of arrests, and political prisoners.

Security forces previously searched the group’s branches and detained and interrogated its members under separate investigations.

In a statement, Vyasna denied any wrongdoing and vowed to continue its work helping “victims of political repression and massive violations of human rights.”

“Vyasna has never been the organizer of any violent actions and has always supported the peaceful implementation of civil and political freedoms,” it said.

Vyasna has been defending human rights in Belarus for nearly 25 years, during which time it said it had been repeatedly pressured, intimidated, and persecuted by authorities.

A court in the Russian city of Vladimir has sentenced a man to three years in prison on a criminal charge of attacking a police officer during January 23 rallies in support of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

The Lenin district court in Vladimir, 200 kilometers east of Moscow, on March 5 found Vitaly Timofeyenko guilty of using pepper spray against a police officer during the dispersal of the demonstrators.

Timofeyenko admitted to using the spray, but said he did so to help another protester who was being held on the ground by the police.

Prosecutors had sought a prison term of five years for the defendant, in what is the second known criminal conviction for a participant in the January 23 pro-Navalny rallies across Russia.

On March 2, a 26-year-old resident of the Volga River city of Kostroma was sentenced to 18 months of forced labor for attacking a police officer in a similar rally on January 23.

The nationwide demonstrations held on January 23 and January 31 were against the arrest of the Kremlin critic, who was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack, which several European laboratories concluded was a military-grade chemical nerve agent, in Siberia in August 2020.

Navalny has insisted that his poisoning was ordered directly by President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has denied.

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

More than 10,000 supporters of Navalny have been detained across Russia during and after the January rallies. Many of the detained men and women were either fined or handed several-day jail terms At least 90 were charged with criminal misdeeds and several have been fired by their employers.

With reporting by MBKh Media and Mediazona

ARMYANSK, Ukraine -- Russia has barred long-time Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev from entering Crimea for the next 13 years.

Russian authorities initially barred Dzhemilev from entering Crimea for five years in March 2014 after Moscow illegally annexed Crimea.

However, a decision by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2019 to extend the ban became public on March 5 during Dzhemilev's ongoing trial -- being held in absentia -- in Russian-controlled Crimea.

Prosecutors at the ongoing trial in the Crimean city of Armyansk have accused Dzhemilev of attempting to illegally enter Crimea, negligent possession of a firearm, and the illegal possession of ammunition.

The 77-year-old Ukrainian lawmaker has rejected all of the charges, calling them politically motivated and linked to his official rejection of Russia's control over Crimea.

Dzhemilev was the chairman of the Crimean Tatar's self-governing assembly -- the Mejlis -- which was banned by pro-Moscow representatives in Crimea after the annexation.

Dzhemilev was a leading human rights activist during the Soviet era and served six jail sentences in Soviet prison camps from 1966 to 1986.

He is also known for going on a 303-day hunger strike -- the longest in the history of the Soviet human rights movement.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's rule.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland.

The United States says it has banned powerful Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskiy from entering the country in another sign that President Joe Biden's new administration is taking a tougher stance on endemic corruption in Ukraine.

In a March 5 statement announcing the travel ban, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed "concern about [Kolomoyskiy's] current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine's democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future."

Kolomoyskiy's critics in Ukraine accuse the tycoon of undermining efforts to implement political and economic changes -- including judicial, banking, and graft reform backed by Washington and Brussels -- with the help of dozens of loyalists in the parliament.

Lawmakers close to the tycoon are seeking to remove Artyom Sytnyk as the head of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which has been investigating cases tied to Kolomoyskiy. The magnate's media empire has also been critical of the work of NABU.

The State Department ban "is clearly a message to all these parliamentarians trying to protect Kolomoyskiy," Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, told RFE/RL.

The United States has already gone after at least one member of parliament close to Kolomoyskiy. In January, the Treasury Department sanctioned Oleksandr Dubinskiy for meddling in the 2020 U.S. elections. The move blocks any U.S. assets he possesses, including dollar-denominated accounts. Dubinskiy was subsequently kicked out of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party.

In a tweet, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk called the travel ban an "intermediate result," adding that Kolomoyskiy's "partners and minions will not escape responsibility" either.

The actions from the State Department make official what had been a years-long rumor that Kolomoyskiy was banned from traveling to the United States.

The magnate in 2017 even hired the Washington-based lobby firm Arent Fox for $50,000 to help him get an E-2 investor visa, a sign he was facing difficulties.

In addition to Kolomoyskiy, Blinken designated his wife, Iryna Kolomoyska; his daughter, Angelika Kolomoyska; and his son, Israel Zvi Kolomoyskiy, making them also ineligible for entry into the United States.

The State Department actions do not impose any financial sanctions on Kolomoyskiy, which is the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department. However, large U.S. banks are likely to avoid working with him, Sarah Felix, an anti-money-laundering expert and founder of Palerma Consulting, told RFE/RL.

Energy, Metals, Media

Kolomoyskiy is one of the most influential tycoons in Ukraine, owning assets ranging from media and airlines to energy and metals. He also briefly served as governor of Dnipropetrovsk, where many of his businesses are based, from 2014 to 2015.

Kolomoyskiy's media assets are credited with helping Zelenskiy, a former comic with no political experience, win the April 2019 presidential election in a landslide.

SEE ALSO:

Ukrainian Tycoons Lost Their Expansive U.S. Steel Business To Bankruptcy. What Role Did Washington Play? 

The tycoon is rumored to have influence in the administration while activists say he controls at least 30 parliament deputies in the president's party.

In his statement, Blinken accused Kolomoyskiy of being "involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes" while serving as governor. Kolomoyskiy used "his political influence and official power for his personal benefit," Blinken’s statement said.

Separately, the FBI is investigating Kolomoyskiy and business partner Hennadiy Boholyubov in connection with the $5.5 billion bailout of PrivatBank, once Ukraine's largest lender.

The tycoons are accused of embezzling billions of dollars from the bank through fraudulent loans and using some of the proceeds to buy assets in the United States, including real estate and metals plants.

The United States is seeking the seizure of three commercial real estate properties owned by the tycoons and allegedly purchased with the embezzled funds. Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov deny the accusations and last month filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Ukraine's Reform Struggles

The United States and Europe have been supporting Kyiv with aid and political backing ever since Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backed separatists in two provinces in eastern Ukraine.

However, Washington and Brussels attached strings to the aid, including demanding Ukraine carry out tough economic and political reforms that would weaken the enormous influence of a small group of tycoons like Kolomoyskiy who have impeded the nation’s development.

One of the bills demanded by the West was the so-called "Anti-Kolomoyskiy" bill designed to clean up the banking sector and prevent owners of nationalized lenders from regaining control.

While Ukraine has made much progress on economic and political reforms since 2014, the country has failed to live up to Washington's expectations, with some achievements like anti-corruption reform being partially rolled back.

The Biden administration has said it will make battling corruption and strengthening democratic institutions a key component of its foreign policy agenda.

In a move many viewed as a message by the new Biden administration to Kyiv about the centrality of reform to the bilateral relationship, Blinken last month named Zelenskiy's ousted prosecutor-general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, an "anti-corruption champion."

Ryaboshapka, who briefly served from 2019 to 2020, reportedly angered tycoons with his investigations.

Blinken in January told the Senate during his confirmation hearing that even if the United States helped Ukraine contain Russian aggression, the country would fail to build a durable democracy if it did not tackle corruption.

With reporting by Liubomyra Remazhevsika in Kyiv

Belarusian authorities have officially requested that Lithuania extradite opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been living in the Baltic country since leaving amid safety fears following a disputed presidential election that sparked mass protests that have been put down violently by authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The Prosecutor-General's Office of Belarus said on March 5 that Tsikhanouskaya is wanted by Minsk for "crimes committed against public order, public safety, and the state."

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis issued a statement soon after the request was made public, saying Vilnius will ignore it.

"Lithuania was, is, and will be a stone wall behind which all democratic forces persecuted by regimes can find asylum. Therefore, all those who obtained asylum in Lithuania can feel themselves safe -- they will not be handed to regimes for being persecuted for their fight for democracy, freedom of speech or religion. Our answer to the Belarusian regime is -- We will not look into your request," Lansdbergis said in the statement.

Tsikhanouskaya, who along with her supporters say she won the presidential poll, took part in the August 2020 election as a candidate after her husband was jailed while trying to mount a candidacy of his own.

She left the country along with her children for Lithuania due to security concerns shortly after the vote, which election officials said Lukashenka won by a landslide.

Thousands of Belarusians, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained by authorities, some handed prison terms, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.

Several protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.

The latest sentence against a protester was pronounced by a Minsk court on March 5. Alyaksandr Trotski, a 45-year-old businessman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. He denies the charge and many activists say the case was politically motivated.

The 66-year-old Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and has refused to negotiate with the opposition over stepping down and holding new elections.

The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka 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 postelection crackdown.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service and BelTA

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claims to have prevented the hijacking of a passenger plane, but has offered few details on what allegedly happened.

The elite paramilitary force said on its website on March 5 that the purported hijacking targeted an Iran Air Fokker 100 jet heading from the southwestern city of Ahvaz to the northwestern city of Mashhad on the evening of March 4.

The aircraft made an emergency landing in the central city of Isfahan, the statement said, adding that the alleged hijacker was "neutralized.” It not clear if that means arrested or killed.

No one was reported injured in the incident.

The IRGC said the hijacker, who was not identified, had sought to divert the flight to a Persian Gulf state.

A Fokker 100 was scheduled to take off from Ahvaz for Mashhad at 7:15 p.m. on March 4, according to the plane-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.

Iranian domestic flights reportedly carry armed air marshals from the IRGC to disrupt any attempted attack or hijacking.

With reporting by dpa and AP

Romanian director Radu Jude's comedy about a woman in damage control after a porn clip of her is posted on the Internet has won the Berlin Film Festival's top prize.

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn was awarded the Berlinale's Golden Bear, the jury said in statement on March 5, saying the movie has a “rare and essential quality of a lasting artwork.”

The sexually explicit dark comedy “captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence,” the judges said.

The film stars Katia Pascariu as a teacher whose private sex tape is leaked, triggering a witch hunt by the parents of the children at her school in contemporary Bucharest.

Shot during the coronavirus pandemic, it shows almost every character wearing a mask.

Jude has said he did not want to give a sermon with his film but denounce social hypocrisy and frustrations surrounding sexuality.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters

Moscow says it plans a retaliatory "stop list" on U.S. citizens in response to Washington's decision to impose new sanctions against several senior Russian officials over the poisoning of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

"Taking into account how [the United States is] behaving now, how they published all the [sanction] lists, I think we will surprise them soon, as well. We are working on it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a televised interview on March 5.

Washington announced on March 2 that it was sanctioning seven senior Russian officials, including Putin’s deputy chief of staff, after a U.S. intelligence assessment concluded with "high confidence" that officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) were behind the August poisoning of Navalny.

The Kremlin critic was detained in Moscow in January immediately upon returning from Germany, where he had been recovering from the attack, which several Western laboratories determined was done with a Novichok-type chemical nerve agent.

SEE ALSO:

Kremlin Huffs, Navalny Allies Fret: How Biden's New Russia Sanctions Are Going Down In Moscow 

Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind the attempted assassination attack, which the Kremlin has denied.

The U.S. announcement came on the heels of European Union sanctions against four senior Russian officials -- Aleksandr Kalashnikov, the federal prisons administrator; Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee; Igor Krasnov, Russia's prosecutor-general; and Viktor Zolotov, tghe director of the National Guard.

The United States also sanctioned Kalashnikov and Krasnov, as well as Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff; Andrei Yarin, the chief of the Kremlin’s domestic policy directorate; FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov; Aleksei Krivoruchko, deputy minister of defense responsible for armaments; and Pavel Popov, deputy minister of defense responsible for research activities.

Washington also imposed export restrictions on 14 parties involved in biological and chemical production, including nine commercial entities in Russia.

Earlier this week, some international and Russian media reports said that the United States might impose additional sanctions against Russian businessmen and the country's foreign debt over Russia's possession of chemical weapons.

Commenting on those reports on March 5, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the potential new sanctions "crazy."

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Isolation And Sleep Deprivation: Life In Prison Where Navalny Is Reportedly Being Held

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"Nobody has imposed sanctions against Russian businessmen yet. And we, of course, hope that, let's say, such crazy calls will stay on the media pages and will not find, let's say, a fertile ground in the U.S. official establishment," Peskov said.

Peskov did not elaborate on possible Russian moves if new sanctions are imposed.

"Hypothetical assumptions of any kind are barely appropriate here. Let's wait and see what actually happens," Peskov said.

Navalny is currently in a prison near Moscow after a court in February ruled that, while in Germany, he violated the terms of parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered politically motivated. He was ultimately ordered to serve around 2 1/2 years in prison.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Dozens of mothers, some of whom have children with medical conditions, have gathered at Almaty's city hall days before International Women's Day to demand city officials increase support to families.

The women entered the building of the city administration on March 5, demanding that Mayor Baqytzhan Saghyntaev meet with them and chanting, "Saghyntaev, come out!"

The women complained that they had been added to the city administration's list for distribution of free apartments to families in need, but had failed to move up despite being on it for years.

The women also demanded more financial and social support for handicapped children.

Saghyntaev did not meet with the women, sending the chairwoman of the city administration's directorate on social issues, Nazira Toghyzbaeva, and the deputy chief of the housing directorate, Ermek Amirov, to talk to the women.

The two officials explained that the state program on the distribution of free apartments to families with lower incomes is being implemented and that all families included on the list can follow the process online. They added, however, that special programs for supporting families with several children, as well as those with handicapped children, have yet to be worked out.

In the capital, Nur-Sultan, dozens of mothers have been demanding increased social allowances since late February. Many have spent several nights camped inside the building of the city administration.

Earlier this week, 32 mothers in Nur-Sultan officially filed their demands with the Ministry of Social Support, which informed them that they will receive an official response in mid-April.

The women answered that they will not leave the city administration building until they receive the responses.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging Kyrgyzstan to withdraw a draft constitution submitted to lawmakers last month, saying it undermines human rights norms and weakens the checks and balances necessary to prevent abuses of power.

“The current draft constitution does not reflect the high human rights standards Kyrgyzstan says it aspires to,” Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at the New York-based human rights watchdog, said in a statement on March 5.

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

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

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Sadyr Japarov: From Convicted Kidnapper To Kyrgyz President?

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Since winning a presidential election in January, Japarov has advanced the draft constitution.

Votes of at least 80 members of the caretaker parliament, or a two-thirds majority, are required to adopt the proposed constitution before it is put to a national referendum.

HRW said the legislature should postpone consideration of the text until after a new parliament has been elected to “allow for a full deliberative and consultative constitutional reform process.”

The government should also refer the draft to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission of constitutional experts.

“President Japarov has pledged to uphold and respect human rights,” Sultanalieva said, adding: “A new constitution lays the foundation for these actions, so it is vitally important for this document, and the process of preparing it, to uphold beyond all doubt the highest standards of human rights and the rule of law.”

In its annual report released earlier this week, the Washington-based human rights watchdog Freedom House said the draft constitution “could reshape Kyrgyzstan’s political system in the mold of its authoritarian neighbors.”

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HRW said provisions in the draft regarding the role of the executive and parliament “erode the constitution’s current system of checks and balances.” It cited a proposed article providing the president with powers previously exclusive to the parliament, such as initiating new laws and referendums, in addition to the existing power of veto.

The group said two other articles would allow the president to indirectly recall the mandates of members of parliament. If the president obtains the support of a majority of lawmakers, the head of state can strip a parliament member’s immunity from criminal prosecution, which HRW said would create “the conditions for political pressure on members who are critical of the ruling party or the president.”

Other “problematic” provisions would transfer power from the parliament to the president to appoint members of the cabinet, and appoint and dismiss judges, the prosecutor-general, the chairman of the central bank, as well as nominate and dismiss half of the Central Election Committee.

HRW noted that several proposed articles “directly violate” international human rights standards, including one that would prohibit activities, public events, and dissemination of information contrary to the “moral values and the public consciousness of the people of Kyrgyzstan.”

The draft constitution also excludes an article guaranteeing freedom of identification of ethnic identity, a move that would create “a dangerous potential for ethnic profiling and discrimination against ethnic minorities.”

The draft also includes a provision imposing “unnecessary, burdensome” financial reporting requirements on nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, and political parties.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu says her country has received a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines under the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries, a first for Europe.

"These 14,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will help us continue to immunize health-care staff and curb the spread of the virus. We are doing all we can to allow citizens of Moldova to gain access to more free-of-charge COVID-19 vaccines as fast as possible," Sandu said on Facebook.

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The pro-Western president thanked Germany and other EU member states, as well as the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, and the European Commission for showing “solidarity.”

In a statement on March 4, the World Health Organization said the country had secured enough doses of vaccines through COVAX to cover about 1.7 million people, roughly half of its population.

Moldova has struggled in the global scramble to gain access to vaccines and welcomed donations.

The Moldovan drug regulator last month registered three vaccines -- Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and the Russian-made Sputnik V -- for use in Moldova.

Moldova's vaccine procurement has stirred a domestic political row as former President Igor Dodon, a Moscow-backed politician who lost to Sandu in November 2020, accused her of trying to block the entry of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Sandu's office denied doing so.

Last week, Romania donated 21,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Moldova, enabling one of Europe's poorest countries to begin its vaccination campaign.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in December pledged Moldova 200,000 vaccine doses from its quota allotted by the European Union.

Moldova has registered more than 191,000 coronavirus infections and over 4,000 fatalities.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service

The U.S. State Department will honor 14 “extraordinary” women from Belarus, Iran, and other countries who have demonstrated leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and a willingness to sacrifice for others.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) awards in a virtual ceremony on March 8 -- International Women's Day -- to honor jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava, as well as Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess arbiter who went into exile after violating her country’s strict Islamic dress code, the State Department said in a statement on March 4.

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It said a group of seven other “extraordinary” women leaders and activists from Afghanistan who were assassinated while serving their communities will also receive an honorary award.

The IWOC award, now in its 15th year, is presented annually to women from around the world who have “demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment -- often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”

This year’s recipients include Kalesnikava, a ranking member of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus's disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.

The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept the results. Thousands of Belarusians have been jailed during months of crackdowns on the street demonstrations against strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Kalesnikava was arrested in September and charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country's national security, conspiracy to seize state power, and organizing extremism.

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Harsher Charges Revealed Against Jailed Belarusian Opposition Figures Kalesnikava, Znak

Ahead of the presidential election, “Belarusian women emerged as a dominant political force and driver of societal change in Belarus due in no small part to” Kalesnikava, according to the State Department.

The opposition figure “continues to be the face of the opposition inside Belarus, courageously facing imprisonment, it said, adding that she “serves as a source of inspiration for all those seeking to win freedom for themselves and their countries.”

The State Department said Bayat will be honored for choosing “to be a champion for women’s rights rather than be cowed by the Iranian government’s threats.”

Bayat, the first female Category A international chess arbiter in Asia, sought refuge in Britain after she was photographed at the 2020 Women’s Chess World Championship in Shanghai without her head scarf, or hijab, as her country mandates.

“Within 24 hours, the Iranian Chess Federation -- which Shohreh had previously led -- refused to guarantee Shohreh’s safety if she returned to Iran without first apologizing,” the State Department said.

“Fearing for her safety and unwilling to apologize for the incident, Shohreh made the heart-wrenching decision to seek refuge in the U.K., leaving her husband -- who lacked a U.K. visa -- in Iran.”

In addition to the individual IWOC awards, Blinken will also present an honorary award to seven Afghan women whose “tragic murders" in 2020 underscored the “alarming trend of increased targeting of women in Afghanistan.”

The women include Fatema Natasha Khalil, an official with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; General Sharmila Frough, the head of the Gender Unit in the National Directorate of Security; journalist Malalai Maiwand; women’s rights and democracy activist Freshta Kohistani; and midwife Maryam Noorzad.