YEREVAN -- Thousands of Armenian opposition supporters have blockaded the parliament building in Yerevan to press a demand for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.

The demonstrators surrounded the building on March 9 and engaged in occasional scuffles with police, as several opposition lawmakers stood between the two sides to prevent violent clashes.

Police officers clad in riot gear did not attempt to disperse the crowd.

"Do not succumb to provocations," opposition activist Ishkhan Saghatelian told the protesters. "None of us is going to break through the National Assembly gate."

"This is our civil disobedience action against this parliament," he said.

Pashinian has faced mounting protests and calls from the opposition for his resignation following a six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

At the heart of the turmoil is the Russian-brokered deal Pashinian signed in November that brought an end to the fighting after Armenian forces suffered territorial and battlefield losses from Azerbaijan's Turkish-backed military.

Under the deal, Armenia ceded control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan that had been occupied by Armenian forces since the early 1990s.

Political tensions escalated last month when Pashinian dismissed the chief of the General Staff, Onik Gasparian, after the prime minister accused high-ranking military officers of attempting a coup by calling on him to resign.

Supporters of Pashinian and the opposition have been staging competing rallies in the capital amid the crisis.

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, Pashinian has offered to hold snap parliamentary elections later this year but rejected the opposition’s demand to step down before the vote.

Pashinian has defended the November deal as the only way to prevent the Azerbaijani Army from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the agreement.

With reporting by AP

The United States is calling on the Iranian government to provide "credible answers" to what happened to a former FBI agent who was "abducted" while traveling in Iran in 2007.

"The United States will never forget Bob Levinson," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a March 9 statement marking the 14th anniversary of his disappearance.

Blinken also called on Iran to "immediately and safely release" all U.S. nationals "unjustly held captive" in the country, saying: "The abhorrent act of unjust detentions for political gain must cease immediately."

Levinson, who was born in March 1948, disappeared when he traveled to the Iranian Kish Island resort in March 2007. He was reportedly working for the CIA as a contractor at the time.

The United States has repeatedly called on Iran to help locate Levinson and bring him home, but Iranian officials said they have no information about his fate.

However, when he disappeared, an Iranian government-linked media outlet broadcast a story saying he was "in the hands of Iranian security forces."

In December 2020, the previous U.S. administration imposed sanctions on two Iranian intelligence agents believed to be "involved in the abduction, detention, and probable death" of the former agent.

Two Iranian Officials Sanctioned

Separately, the United States on March 9 blacklisted two officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) accused of involvement in “gross” violations of human rights committed during 2019 and 2020 protests in Iran.

IRGC interrogators Ali Hemmatian and Masud Safdari and their immediate family members are now ineligible for entry into the United States, Blinken said in a statement, adding that the two men were involved in "the torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP) of political prisoners and persons detained" during the protests.

The United States "will continue to consider all appropriate tools to impose costs on those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Iran," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.

PRISTINA -- Kosovo's foreign minister has resigned amid allegations that her husband bribed election officials to help her win a parliamentary seat.

Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla announced on March 9 that she was stepping down from her position in the government and resigning from her political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK).

In a Facebook post, the 37-year-old politician described her decision as a necessary step that would allow her to focus on her legal defense -- not an acknowledgement of any guilt.

According to local media reports, her husband, Dardan Stublla, bribed election commissioners to help her win a seat in the Kosovo Assembly at last month’s snap parliamentary elections.

Haradinaj-Stublla belonged to a caretaker cabinet operating until the new parliament convenes and elects the government.

The AAK -- a junior coalition partner in the government of Avdullah Hoti, which took office in June -- is not expected to be part of the next government to be headed by Prime Minister-designate Albin Kurti.

It received eight parliamentary seats in the February 14 election, which was won by Kurti’s leftist-nationalist Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party.

With reporting by Balkan Insight, dpa, and AP

A British-Australian woman jailed in Iran for more than two years on widely criticized espionage charges has said in a television interview broadcast on March 9 that she was subjected to "psychological torture."

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University, returned to Australia in November after serving 804 days of a 10-year sentence.

SEE ALSO:

Australia Welcomes Release Of Academic In Exchange For Three Iranians

Moore-Gilbert, 33, who was freed in exchange for the release of three Iranians held in Thailand, told Sky News that she was held in solitary confinement.

"It's [an] extreme solitary confinement room designed to break you. It's psychological torture. You go completely insane. It is so damaging. I would say I felt physical pain from the psychological trauma I had in that room. It's [a] 2-meter by 2-meter box,” she said.

"There were a few times in that early period that I felt broken. I felt if I had to endure another day of this, you know, if I could I’d just kill myself. But of course, I never tried and I never took that step," Moore-Gilbert added.

She also confirmed that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had attempted to recruit her as a spy “many times.”

Moore-Gilbert had written about the attempts in letters smuggled out of prison and published in British media in January 2020.

Iran has arrested dozens of foreign and dual nationals in recent years on espionage charges that they and their governments say are groundless.

Critics say Iran uses such arbitrary detentions as part of hostage diplomacy to extract concessions from Western countries, which Tehran denies.

With reporting by AP and The Guardian

TASHKENT -- A Russian production company that made a documentary glorifying Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015 has been hired to shoot a film about Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev ahead of an October presidential poll.

An employee of the Uzbekkino Film Company told RFE/RL on March 8 on condition of anonymity that the chief of the presidential administration, Zainilobiddin Nizomiddinov, is coordinating the project with the Masterskaya film production company from Russia.

Masterskaya's founder and producer, Saida Medvedeva, a native of neighboring Kazakhstan, arrived in the Uzbek capital last week.

Before leaving Moscow for Tashkent, she told Russian media that her trip's goal was to shoot a documentary about the leader of Uzbekistan, which she called “a country that is going through its third Renaissance.”

Medvedeva said her documentary would premiere on September 1, the 30th Independence Day of the Central Asian nation, and less than two months before the presidential elections scheduled for October 24.

Uzbek cinema expert Akmal Rizaev told RFE/RL on March 8 that he had a chance to get acquainted with the documentary's materials, and that he expects the documentary will be very similar to one that promoted Putin in 2015 to mark the 15th year of his rule.

Masterskaya was also behind a series of films that supported Putin's successful bid for a third term as president in 2012. They included Crisis 2008: Saving Russia, which portrayed him as shielding the country from the worst of the global economic slump.

"The documentary’s main idea is to sacralize Mirziyoev’s ruling, meaning to exclude any doubts among people about his unconditional and limitless leadership," Rizaev said.

"The film will depict Mirzoyev as a charismatic leader who brings innovations to society and takes care of ordinary people. Mirziyoev’s monologues will be used by the filmmakers. The documentary will not focus on other Uzbek politicians; its main idea is to show the "people" and their unchangeable leader Mirziyoev."

Mirziyoev took over the most-populous nation of the Central Asian region of 32 million after his authoritarian predecessor Islam Karimov's death was announced on September 1, 2016.

Since then, Mirziyoev has positioned himself as a reformer, releasing political prisoners and opening his country to its neighbors and outer world, though many activists have cautioned that the reforms have not gone far enough.

MOSCOW -- A well-known Russian rights activist, Marina Litvinovich, says last week's decision by the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission (ONK) to exclude her from the group was politically motivated.

The commission on March 5 voted to leave Litvinovich off the panel saying that, in a televised interview earlier, she had disclosed information related to a probe launched into Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation. Sobol is currently under detention on charges of breaking coronavirus restrictions by publicly calling on Moscow residents to take part in unsanctioned rallies to support Navalny.

Members of the ONK monitor the rights of inmates in Russian penitentiaries and have a right to visit detention centers and correctional facilities to hear complaints from inmates.

Litvinovich told Current Time in an interview on March 9 that the allegations against her were false and that the decision to exclude her from the group she had served on since 2019 was made due to her activism.

"The fact is, what I said has nothing to do with the materials of the investigation. I cited the actions of investigators that had been already implemented. I did not say anything about their results or conclusions," Litvinovich said.

She emphasized that, in accordance with the law, even if she unintentionally revealed any data related to Sobol's case, protocol dictates that she would be warned by investigators and sign corresponding papers, which never happened.

"I think it is... about the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB), who are concerned [about my activities.] Because I frequently visit Lefortovo detention center [in Moscow] which is controlled by the FSB, talk about people kept there, defend their rights, assist them, constantly keep in touch with their relatives, do all I can to secure medical assistance for those people as well," Litvinovich said, adding that she was aware that the ONK's decision to expel her was based on at least two complaints filed by the Lefortovo detention center.

According to Litvinovich, she has also been targeted by the Interior Ministry because she constantly was at the Sakharovo detention center talking to hundreds who were detained during the mass arrests of demonstrators protesting in January and early February against Navalny's incarceration.

The selection of the members of the ONK has been marred in recent years by the exclusion of many well-known human rights activists critical of the authorities.

The decision to expel her from the staff must still be approved by the ONK's Council to become valid.

Litvinovich said she will turn to the courts if the move is approved.

AQTOBE, Kazakhstan -- Dozens of people gathered in front a detention center in Kazakhstan’s northwestern city of Aqtobe on March 9 to demand answers after one of the institution's inmates was found dead there last month.

The crowd, mainly comprised of relatives of the inmates, were seeking information about the death of Talant Aliev, who was found hanged in a cell of the UK163/1 detention center on February 12.

His death was officially ruled as a suicide, but Aliev's mother, who was among the protesting relatives, said she believed there was more behind her son's death after other inmates told her he had left a letter blaming guards.

"The inmates managed to read the letter found in my son's pocket after his death, but a guard took that letter from them," the woman said.

The protesters said that after Aliev's death, other inmates who were close to him have faced pressure from the guards.

Kazakh authorities have been criticized for what human rights organizations called terrible conditions, including torture cases, in the Central Asian nation's penitentiaries. Often, to protest the conditions and attract public attention to the situation, inmates in the prison system maim themselves or organize riots.

The chief of the Aqtobe regional penitentiary department, Almas Shamshiev, met with the protesters and told them that an investigation into Aliev's death was under way, stressing though that the official cause of death remained suicide.

Shamshiev, however, agreed that the number of suicides in the detention center has increased in recent years.

"The suicides have been committed under stress, not because of pressure from the guards. We have a cast-iron discipline here," Shamshiev said.

In December, Kazakh authorities said there were no torture cases in the country's penitentiaries in 2020.

A court in Russia's northwestern region of Vologda has denied the early release of a man known as 'the last maniac of the U.S.S.R." who has been serving a life term for killing and dismembering three young women in 1989.

The press service of the regional court in Vologda said the Belozyorsk district court ruled on March 9 that Dmitry Gridin could not be released because he violated internal orders in detention centers and penitentiaries 24 times over the course of his prison time.

Gridin was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to death in 1990 after a court found him guilty of killing and dismembering three young women in residential buildings' elevators in the city of Magnitogorsk. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of four other women. His death sentence was later changed to life in prison.

The case, the last serial killing brought to trial in the Soviet Union before it disintegrated in 1991, sparked a furious public reaction with many in Magnitogorsk demanding that Gridin be publicly executed.

In his request for early release, the 53-year-old Gridin wrote that he had spent 31 years in prison and did not commit any major violations while in custody. He also wrote that he was not guilty and was forced to testify against himself during the investigation.

He said he planned to live with his parents if his request for early release was approved by the court.

A Turkish court has sentenced five people to life in prison over the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Ankara more than four years ago, state media reported on March 9.

Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by an off-duty police officer at the opening of a photography exhibition in the Turkish capital in December 2016.

The 22-year-old gunman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and "Don't forget Aleppo!" as he opened fire, apparently referring to Russia's involvement in Syria's civil war.

He was shot dead by police shortly after the diplomat was slain.

The Ankara court also handed prison terms to eight defendants in the case, while six others were acquitted of all charges.

The court delayed the trial of nine fugitives, including a U.S.-based Muslim cleric named Fethullah Gulen.

The Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed "the Turkish judiciary’s resolute condemnation of this terrorist attack," which it said "left a deep scar on the history of modern Russian-Turkish relations."

In 2018, Turkish authorities indicted a total of 28 suspects on charges of attempting to "overthrow the constitutional order," membership of a terrorist organization, and premeditated murder.

They have alleged that the gunman belonged to a network led by Gulen, whose movement is also accused of masterminding a failed coup earlier in 2016 -- which the cleric denies.

Turkey has repeatedly sought Gulen's extradition from the United States, but Washington has resisted the pleas.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Anadolu

Kosovo has sent an army platoon to Kuwait to take part in young country's first-ever international peacekeeping mission.

A ceremony was held on March 9 at the military barracks in the capital, Pristina, in the presence of top leaders and Western military attaches.

The unit will be deployed following a request from the U.S. Central Command.

Kosovo’s lightly armed military is expected to have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists. They are heavily supported by the United States.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The move followed a bloody war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces that ended in 1999 after a 78-day NATO air campaign to drive Serb troops out and allow a peacekeeping force to move in.

The country is recognized by most Western nations, but not by Belgrade and its allies Russia and China.

“It’s extremely important because 22 years after the war, we’re not just importing peacekeeping troops, we’re also exporting them,” Kosovo's acting President Vjosa Osmani said.

The peacekeeping platoon from Kosovo will be under the command of the National Guard of Iowa.

No precise details were given on their expected location in Kuwait, or the actual number of peacekeepers to be deployed. However, a platoon of 32 soldiers was seen lined up during the ceremony.

The 3,400-troop Kosovo Security Force was turned into a regular army two years ago, although its name has not been changed to armed forces as planned.

Tensions over Kosovo remain a source of volatility in the Balkans.

With reporting by AP

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team has announced plans to open offices in 10 cities where it believes the ruling United Russia party is most vulnerable in elections that must be held by September 19.

Leonid Volkov, the coordinator of Navalny's network of teams, said in a statement on March 9 that expanding into the cities "is most likely to help take away mandates" from United Russia in the vote.

"A friendly young team, an opportunity to make Russia better, parcels [with food and other items] to preliminary detention centers [in case of incarceration] are included in the social package - in short, we have a dream job for you," he wryly added in the statement.

The 10 cities are Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Kirov, Vladimir, Ulan-Ude, Kursk, Chita, Petrozavodsk, Abakan.

"If you live in one of these 10 cities, understand all the risks and soberly calculate the strength of your resolve, understand Russian politics and want to become a part of Navalny's team...send a resume," Volkov said.

Navalny and his supporters have developed a "smart voting" system, which is aimed at undoing United Russia’s stranglehold on political power.

Under the system, voters can enter their address into a special app, which will then give them a list of the candidates deemed most likely to defeat their United Russia rivals regardless of their party affiliation.

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Volkov also said it was important to set up headquarters for a Navalny team in Makhachkala, the capital of the North Caucasus region of Daghestan, despite the fact that his colleague Ruslan Ablyakimov, who travelled to that city from Moscow to establish the headquarters last month was beaten by unknown individuals.

Volkov, who is currently residing in Lithuania for security reasons, also announced new vacancies for headquarters of Navalny's team in Moscow and several other cities.

Volkov's announcement comes while Navalny is incarcerated in a detention center in the Vladimir region.

He was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack by what several European laboratories concluded was a military-grade chemical nerve agent in Siberia in August.

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, which is widely considered to be politically motivated.

Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a jail term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison given time already served in detention.

More than 10,000 supporters of Navalny were detained across Russia during and after the January rallies. Many of the detained men and women were either fined or sent to jail for several days.

At least 90 were charged with criminal misdeeds and several have been fired by their employers.

The Kremlin has voiced "alarm" at a report in The New York Times that said the United States was preparing a series of covert counter cyberstrikes on Russian networks.

U.S. intelligence officials have said that Russia was probably behind the massive hack known as SolarWinds that hit large swaths of the public and private sectors last year, and which experts say may constitute an ongoing threat. Russia has denied the accusations.

White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said last month that Washington would respond to SolarWinds in "weeks, not months."

The March 7 report in the U.S. newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying that Washington was planning a series of covert counterstrikes on Russian networks in retaliation to the SolarWinds hack, with the first major move expected in three weeks' time.

It said the clandestine actions would be intended to be obvious to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military intelligence, but not to the rest of the world.

"This is alarming information," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "This would be pure international cybercrime."

"The fact that the newspaper doesn't rule out that the American state could be involved in cybercrime definitely causes us concern," Peskov added.

The report came as the U.S. government warned of a major new cyberattack targeting Microsoft servers that has been linked to China.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an urgent notice on March 6, calling on companies and government agencies to install critical software updates that were described as an "emergency patch release."

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the alleged Chinese hack an "active threat."

The article in the U.S. newspaper said that the scope of the Chinese attack prompted U.S. officials to consider potential retaliation against Beijing as well.

It noted that such a move would put the United States in the position of engaging in a dual cyberconflict with the two countries that are its biggest nuclear-armed adversaries.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax

A prominent liberal lawmaker has called on Russian authorities to properly investigate the two sudden near-fatal illnesses suffered by opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza while traveling in Russia.

The call by Lev Shlosberg, made in an interview with RFE/RL, wasn't expected to yield an immediate U-turn from Russian law enforcement, which has ignored at least two requests from Kara-Murza to open an investigation into the circumstances of his illnesses, in 2015 and 2017.

But it does keep the spotlight on the question of whether Russian security agencies have been utilizing toxins -- possibly created as part of a secret chemical-weapons program -- to target dissidents, activists, journalists, or even former intelligence agents.

Kara-Murza and his lawyer submitted a formal request to the federal Investigative Committee to open an investigation in the wake of a bombshell report that asserted a secret hit squad from the Federal Security Service (FSB) had followed and surveilled Kara-Murza while he was traveling in Russia in May 2015 and February 2017.

The report, published by investigative outfit Bellingcat, alleged that among the security agents was one linked to the poisoning of Aleksei Navalny, the opposition activist who nearly died in August 2020 in Siberia after being targeted with a substance identified by German doctors and other labs as a powerful nerve agent.

Previous reporting by RFE/RL documented declassified documents that showed the FBI considering the Kara-Murza investigation to be one of "intentional poisoning" but do not reveal whether U.S. authorities have identified the substances used to target him.

RFE/RL's reporting has also showed how Kara-Murza's mysterious illnesses have been discussed at the top levels of the White House, the State Department, and the U.S. intelligence community, including involvement on the part of FBI Director Christopher Wray.

SEE ALSO:

'Intentional Poisoning': New FBI Records, New Clues To Kremlin Critic's Sudden Illnesses

In the interview with RFE/RL's North.Realities, Shlosberg, a lawmaker in the Pskov region and one of the best-known figures in the liberal Yabloko party, said that Russian law obligated the Investigative Committee to do one of three things: decline to initiate a criminal case; decide to conduct a pre-investigation check; or open a full-blown criminal case.

"Let them read the law. They must answer to a citizen, must answer to the lawmakers," he said in the interview published on March 5.

"This is the state machine. I am a person of the state, working for the rights and freedoms of people and citizens. If I do not receive an answer, I will inform the prosecutor's office that such and such department did not bother to give an answer to the deputy of the Legislative Assembly. Let them figure it out. For this they receive budget money, taxpayers' money," Shlosberg said.

Kara-Murza, who could not be immediately reached for comment, believes he was twice poisoned deliberately in Moscow due to his lobbying for U.S. sanctions against Russian officials allegedly involved in rights abuses.

In both of his illnesses, his Russian doctors indicated he suffered toxic effects of an "unidentified substance."

Kara-Murza sued the U.S. Justice Department and FBI seeking access to his investigative records under the Freedom of Information Act. An initial release reviewed by RFE/RL showed that the FBI sought -- and received -- permission from Kara-Murza to send blood samples to a leading U.S. government weapons-research laboratory for testing.

Those records also indicated that Wray was directly involved in the overall investigation, possibly at the behest of congressional lawmakers.

But the Justice Department continues to withhold hundreds of pages of records -- despite an agreement to give them to him amid his federal lawsuit. As reasons for this, it has variously cited national-security exemptions and an interagency review process.

And while the documents released so far suggest that U.S. authorities tested Kara-Murza's blood and urine for sophisticated poisons, to date they have provided no records or summaries related to the results of such tests.

"The demand to initiate a criminal case on the attempted murder of Kara-Murza and the attempt on Navalny's life is a struggle for the country," Shlosberg said. "Not only the search for the truth and the establishment of justice and legality in specific cases...but also the struggle for those who are now alive and may die if state violence remains unchecked."

Written by Mike Eckel based on reporting by Svetlana Prokopyeva

One of Russia's leading organizations addressing domestic violence and LGBT rights, Nasiliyu.Net, is facing eviction from its Moscow office three months after being placed on Moscow's controversial "foreign agent" list.

Anna Rivina, the head of the NGO, wrote on Facebook on March 8 that the landlord had requested the group to vacate the premises within a month.

Rivina said her team moved last summer into the premises, where they speak with domestic-violence victims and hold support sessions and educational events.

The landlord initially requested the group to vacate the office in 10 days in early February, she said, before then giving the NGO to the end of March to leave.

In late December 2020, Russia's Justice Ministry added the group to its controversial list of organizations fulfilling the functions of a "foreign agent," saying that the NGO had received foreign funding and was engaged in political activity.

Lawyer Pavel Chikov of the Agora legal defense organization said on March 2 that the government had filed a complaint against Nasilyu.net, saying the group's activity in "publicizing the problem of domestic violence," "creating conditions so that victims know where to turn for help," and "participating in promoting and conducting campaigns aimed at adopting a law against family and domestic violence" must be considered "political activity" under the "foreign agent" laws.

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

"We were directly told [by the landlord] that our activities do not suit them and therefore we have a month to vacate the premises," Rivina said, adding the organization currently didn't have an alternate location.

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

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

Chikov said the government also listed as "political activity" the NGO's participation in a 2019 sanctioned demonstration against gender discrimination and domestic violence held to mark International Women's Day on March 8, although the Justice Department's complaint notes the event "took place without any disturbance to public order."

Rivina wrote on Facebook that when Nasiliyu.net was included on the list, "95 percent" of the reason why the organization was targeted was "because of our draft law on domestic violence and 5 percent because of our support for LGBT rights."

The ministry has asked a court to fine Nasiliyu.net from 300,000 to 500,000 rubles ($4,000 to $6,800). In addition, it is seeking a fine of up to 300,000 rubles against Rivina.

Nasiliyu.net was founded in 2015 and was registered as an NGO in 2018.

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

Russia's Foreign Ministry plans to hold a conference in Moscow on March 18 to discuss Afghanistan, the TASS news agency reported, without providing any details on participants.

The March 9 announcement came amid Western media reports of a U.S.-drafted peace plan for the war-wracked country that calls for the current government in Kabul to be replaced with an interim administration until a new constitution is created and elections held. A joint commission would monitor a cease-fire, Reuters reported.

The Associated Press said the plan outlines the terms of the cease-fire and its enforcement, calls for the protection of the rights of women, children, and minorities, and envisions a truth and reconciliation commission aimed at healing decades of conflict.

The State Department did not confirm the contents of any plan as reported by Reuters and the Associated Press. Spokesman Ned Price said it is too early to say how Afghan peace talks were going but that Washington believes progress is possible.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and TASS

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has refused to recognize Viktar Lukashenka, the eldest son of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, as the new chairman of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus.

In a statement on March 8, the IOC said that it also refused to recognize the head of Belarus’s ice hockey federation, Dzmitry Baskau, as a member of the NOC Executive Board, adding that it also decided to maintain the exclusion of the two men from all IOC events and activities, including the Olympic Games.

The Belarusian NOC was led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka from 1997 until last month. Lukashenka's son, Viktar, was named the new NOC chairman late last month after leaving the post of presidential aide on national security.

Viktar Lukashenka and Baskau were among Belarusian officials targeted by EU sanctions last year over ongoing violence and police brutality against peaceful demonstrators, who have protested against official results of the presidential election last August that pronounced Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner for the sixth time since 1994.

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.

Baskau, who is known as a close ally of Lukashenka, has been implicated in the killing of an anti-Lukashenka protester, Raman Bandarenka, in November 2020.

The IOC also said in its statement that it decided to "suspend all financial payments to the NOC of Belarus," with several exceptions, and to "suspend any discussions with the NOC of Belarus regarding the hosting of future IOC events."

The IOC also urged the NOC and its member federations "to ensure that there is no political discrimination in the participation of the Belarusian athletes in qualification events, and in the final selection of the team of the NOC of Belarus, for all Olympic Games."

Several prominent Belarusian athletes have been handed jail terms of 10 to 15 days for their open support of the ongoing protests, demanding Lukashenka's resignation.

In January, nearly 350 Belarusian athletes and other members of the sports community signed an open letter calling for the presidential election to be annulled and for all "political prisoners" and those detained during mass demonstrations that followed to be released.

Thousands of protesters in Belarus, 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 Polish-based Belarusian opposition news outlet Nexta has published an investigative film about Alyaksandr Lukashenka's "luxurious life."

The film -- titled Lukashenka. Goldmine. -- was published on YouTube on March 8.

The investigative material focuses on Lukashenka's personal expenses and what it describes as Lukashenka's villas, expensive cars, and gifts he allegedly uses for his own personal needs.

The report says Lukashenka has been offering "protection" to corrupt Belarusian and foreign business people. It mentions, in particular, a luxurious residential compound in Krasnoselskoye near Minsk, which Nexta says is a gift from Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev to Lukashenka in exchange for "protection."

According to the moderator, the film was based on the testimony of several anonymous sources, including a man presented in the film as a former employee of Lukashenka’s administration. Nexta also obtained documents it says back up the claims.

Stsyapan Putsila, the founder of Nexta, told Current Time on March 9 that the documents were not presented in the film at the request of those who provided them. Putsila said that Lukashenka's name was not in any of the obtained documents, adding that Lukashenka’s automobiles, which alone are worth more than 4 million euros ($4.75 million) and include a Maybach and a Rolls-Royce, are officially registered in other names.

Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994, has said that his "only palace" is a tiny house of less than 60 square meters where he was raised by his mother.

"I did not steal anything from my state, did not take anything," Lukashenka said last week after reports of the film's imminent release were published.

Lukashenka has amended the constitution several times during his authoritarian rule that brought Belarus the unwanted moniker "Europe's last dictatorship."

Crisis In Belarus

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

In August 2020, he was officially pronounced the winner of a presidential election for the sixth time, a development that triggered unprecedented mass protests across the country.

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

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

On September 23, 2020, Lukashenka held an inauguration ceremony behind closed doors amid public protests, but many EU countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada refused to recognize him as Belarus's legitimate president.

The European Union imposed three sets of sanctions against Belarusian authorities, including Lukashenka, over the rigged presidential poll and ongoing violence and police brutality against peaceful protesters.

Russia has targeted Germany more than any other country in the European Union in its disinformation efforts, a new report by the 27-member bloc shows.

"No other EU member state is being attacked more violently than Germany," says the report published on March 9 by the EU diplomatic service in Brussels.

The report says "systematic campaigns" have been launched at the political level and through media close to the Kremlin.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected the claims as "ridiculous

The report comes as the United States has accused Russia of a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to undermine faith in U.S.- and Western-developed coronavirus vaccines.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Condemns Russia For Vaccine 'Disinformation,' Vows To Fight Back

The EU says that since late 2015, more than 700 cases have been collected on Germany in the EUvsDisinfo database.

France was the target more than 300 times, with Italy around 170 times, it adds.

"The Kremlin creates an intellectual image of Germany in which there are a few sensible voices in a chorus of irrational 'Russophobia'" the report says.

Describing the findings of the report as "not surprising," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that developing ties between civil society in Germany and Russia would help make false information about his country fell on deaf ears.

Based on reporting by dpa

The United States publicly blasted what it called a Russian disinformation campaign designed to undermine confidence in U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccines and vowed to fight back "with every tool we have."

"It is very clear that Russia is up to its old tricks, and in doing so is potentially putting people at risk by spreading disinformation about vaccines that we know to be saving lives every day," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on March 8.

The Kremlin rebuffed the allegation as "absurd."

The Wall Street Journal on March 7 reported on the findings of the Global Engagement Center -- an arm of the State Department -- that said Russian intelligence was behind four online platforms involved in a coordinated campaign.

The Wall Street Journal said the websites played up risks of the U.S.-made Pfizer vaccine in an apparent bid to boost Russia's homegrown Sputnik V vaccine.

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 Wall Street Journal reported.

Price said the sites have "included disinformation about two of the vaccines that have now been approved” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a news briefing that “we will fight [the disinformation] with every tool we have.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on March 9 said the U.S. allegations "are absurd, have no basis in fact."

"Russia has never participated and does not intend to participate in such campaigns against other vaccines," he said.

Western vaccines were approved after stringent trials that demonstrated efficacy of more than 90 percent with two of the most used vaccines. The Western vaccines compete with Sputnik V, which also recently showed efficacy of greater than 90 percent in a mass trial.

SEE ALSO:

Sputnik V: The Story Of Russia's Controversial COVID-19 Vaccine

The websites identified by the Global Engagement Center include New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review, which it says are controlled by 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.

Pfizer's vaccine has been the main target of the Russian campaign, according to a report on March 8 by the Alliance for Security Democracy, a nonpartisan initiative that studies disinformation by autocratic governments.

“The emphasis on denigrating Pfizer is likely due in part to its status as the first vaccine besides Sputnik V to see mass use, resulting in a greater potential threat to Sputnik’s market dominance,” the alliance’s report says.

AFP reported that in an assessment provided to it last year, the Global Engagement Center said that thousands of Russian-linked social-media accounts have run a coordinated campaign to undermine official narratives on COVID-19.

Following The Wall Street Journal report, 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 State Department center found that China made a similar effort for a short time but ultimately decided it was more beneficial to highlight its own vaccine efforts rather than to disparage other versions.

With reporting by AFP, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal

Tajik-born singer and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Manizha has been chosen to represent Russia at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Program host Yana Churikova said during a selection competition broadcast on March 8 that the 29-year-old Manizha was chosen through a nationwide popular vote to represent Russia in the annual song contest watched by millions throughout the world.

Churikova said the singer, whose full name is Manizha Sangin, will perform the song Russian Woman in the finals competition.

The singer-songwriter has become a public figure through her work as a musician, music video director, and as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in 2020.

She was born in Tajikistan in 1991. Her family moved to Russia during the Central Asian country’s 1992-97 civil war.

The 65th Eurovision contest is to be held in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on May 18-22 after last year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The site of the 2022 contest will be based on the winner of this year’s competition.

With reporting by TASS

BISHKEK -- A ballet performance in Kyrgyzstan with the participation of two prominent Russian ballet dancers, Sergei Manuilov and Yekaterina Pervushina, has been canceled after local dancers refused to take part.

The Swan Lake performance was due to take place in Bishkek over the weekend, but a group of dancers from the Abdylas Maldybaev National Opera and Ballet Theater refused to perform at the last moment.

A member of the Kyrgyz ballet troupe, Dosmat Sadyrkulov, told RFE/RL on March 8 that the dancers refused to participate because they hadn't been paid.

Sagida Jumabekova of the Rainbow Foundation, the organizer of the event, said that it had been agreed that the foundation would pay the Russian dancers while the local artists would receive money from the Bishkek ballet theater.

"The local [dancers] started asking for money from us. We agreed to do so, although [we were not legally bound to do so], just to try to save the performance. But even when we brought the cash to pay them, they still refused to perform," Jumabekova told RFE/RL.

Sadyrkulov explained that the March 6 scheduled performance was "a commercial project with commercial ticket prices."

Ticket prices ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 soms (between $12 and $24) -- a significant sum of money in the former Soviet republic.

"The prices are very high for Bishkek, but our dancers do not receive anything for their performance. This is a long-standing issue. Our performers have asked both the theater's administration and the Culture Ministry to solve the problem," Sadyrkulov said.

According to him, the theater received a double rental fee for the one-day Swan Lake performance, but refused to pay the Kyrgyz dancers, arguing that they already received monthly salaries.

"When [the Kyrgyz dancers] refused to put on the costumes 30 minutes before the performance, they started promising money...and then they threatened to fire them or sue them," Sadyrkulov said.

In a further move away from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran has started enriching uranium with a third cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, Reuters reported on March 8, citing a report by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 7 verified that Iran began feeding uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for centrifuges, into the third cascade, the Vienna-based agency said in the report to its member states that was obtained by Reuters.

The report said a fourth cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges had been "installed but had yet to be fed with natural UF6," adding that a fifth cascade of IR-2m centrifuges "was ongoing."

Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, which aimed to restrict Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions, Tehran can only use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, which refine uranium much more slowly, at Natanz.

Tehran has gradually rolled back its commitment under the accord in response to a 2018 decision by former U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the pact and reimpose sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy.

Iran has in past weeks accelerated its nuclear activities in what could be an attempt to pressure the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which has signaled its readiness to revive the deal but insists Iran first return to all its nuclear commitments.

Meanwhile, Tehran says it first wants sanctions to be lifted.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Women have marched across Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and Central Asia demanding governments do more to respect their rights as the world marks International Women's Day.

Thousands of activists in Kyiv marched through the city center on March 8 from the Mykhaylivska Square to the Poshtova Square holding posters with slogans like, "My Body-My Business," "Human Rights-Women's Rights," and "Join Istanbul Convention Against Domestic Violence Now." Many also held LGBT rainbow flags.

A group of feminist activists from Belarus were among the marchers in Kyiv, holding Belarusian flags and portraits of jailed Belarusian opposition politician Maryya Kalesnikava.

Hundreds of police marched along with the demonstrators to prevent possible brawls with activists of a far-right radical group called Tradition and Order, members of which, known for opposing feminist groups, held a parallel march.

Dozens of activists joined a march in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, under the slogan, “We March, We Don’t Celebrate-Against The Patriarchy That Kills."

WATCH: Kazakh Women Mark International Women's Day With Demand For Equality

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The participants demanded the investigation of domestic abuse cases and greater commitment to institutions working for women's empowerment.

According to Kosovo's police, 1,362 cases of domestic violence, mainly against women, were reported across the Balkan country last year.

In Almaty, Kazakhstan, hundreds of activists set out from the Mahatma Gandhi Park and headed across the city to the building of the Shoqan Valikhanov Science Academy, where they demonstrated holding posters saying, "Stop Domestic Violence," and "Women Want To Be Safe." They also demanded tolerance towards the LGBT community in the Central Asian nation.

One of the activists, Arina Osinovskaya, said at the rally that many feminist activists faced trials and were either fined or jailed for several days in similar rallies across Kazakhstan in the past.

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"Being a feminist activist means to fight for the lives of the victims of domestic violence, for the women convicted for defending themselves, for women who decided to stop being silent," Osinovskaya said, adding that she hopes more women and their supporters will take part in similar rallies in the future.

In Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, dozens of women marched across the city and rallied in the city center, demanding equal rights.

The activists held posters saying, "An Educated Girl Will Find Her Place," "Girls Will Win in The End," "Real Men Aren't Scared Of Equality," and "Safety For Women."

At a similar rally a year ago, feminists were attacked by a group of unknown men. Instead of protecting the women, police violently dispersed them while detaining several activists.

Six of those detained were later fined 3,000 soms ($35) each for violating the law on mass gatherings.

The women refused to pay the penalties and in November 2020, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ruled that the police crackdown was illegal and annulled the fines.

According to official statistics, since January 1 there have been 727 cases of domestic violence against women registered in Kyrgyzstan. The National Statistics Committee said that in 2020, as restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic locked down the country, domestic violence cases increased 65 percent. Most of the victims in such cases were women.

With contributions by RFE/RL's Ukrainian, Belarusian, Balkan, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz services

The last native speaker of the so-called Bering dialect of the Aleut language, Vera Timoshenko, has died at the age of 93 in Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka region.

Yevgeny Golovko, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Linguistic Studies, said on March 7 that Timoshenko died in her native village of Nikolskoye on Bering Island.

"A very close variant of the Aleut language is preserved on the (U.S.) Aleutian Islands. There are several speakers living on the island of Atka, but in Russia, as far as we know, there is nobody now who can speak this language. And the dialect on the American side very much differs" from the Bering dialect, Golovko said.

Timoshenko was an expert of the Aleut language, culture, and history who until recently advised Russian and foreign researchers.

Aleut, the sole language in the Aleut branch of the Eskimo-Aleut linguistic stem, used to be widely spoken by the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, Commander Islands, and the Alaska Peninsula.

According to experts, there are fewer than 100 to 150 remaining active Aleut speakers.

With reporting by Kam24

A senior Russian lawmaker has blasted Facebook after the social-media giant said it had blocked articles by Russian news agencies claiming police last month arrested Ukrainian nationalists after experts concluded the radicals were Russian.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, said on March 8 that Facebook had violated the rights of Russian citizens through a move that was tantamount to "digital lawlessness."

Volodin was responding to news that Facebook blocked articles by RBK and Kommersant in February 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.

Russia has tried to play up the actions of Ukrainian nationalist groups to justify its hostile actions toward its neighbor. Russia annexed Crimea seven years ago and continues to back separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

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.

Russia's media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has already accused Facebook of censorship and threatened the U.S. company with a minimum 1 million-ruble ($13,440) fine for its actions. It also demanded the company restore access to content posted by TASS, RBK and Vzglyad.

"Instagram and Twitter have done the same in the past. I think this is unacceptable. It violates our national legislation. We will propose legislative solution that would prevent anything like that against Russian media," Volodin said on March 8.

With reporting by RBC, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax