Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 26 denounced U.S. President Joe Biden’s recognition of the Armenian genocide, saying the move would have a “destructive impact” on relations between the two countries.

In a televised address following a cabinet meeting, Erdogan told Biden to first “look in the mirror” before blaming the Turkish nation for committing genocide, pointing to the deaths of millions of Native Americans.

“You cannot get up and put the genocide label on the Turkish nation,” Erdogan said in his first major remarks on the issue.

Biden on April 24 became the first U.S. president to use the word genocide in a formal statement to describe the World War I-era massacre and deportation of Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The date commemorates the anniversary of when on April 24, 1915, thousands of Armenian intellectuals suspected of hostility toward Ottoman rule were rounded up in Istanbul.

Previous U.S. administrations have avoided using the term genocide for decades in order not to provoke Turkey, a NATO ally and important regional power.

But Biden felt an opportunity to make an "historical acknowledgement of what took place in 1915" based on a "deep respect for the importance of universal human rights," U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy said in an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service on April 26.

SEE ALSO:

'Terrible Vengeance': The History Of Turkish Atrocities Against Armenians And Why Biden Has Called Them Genocide

Describing Biden’s position as “unfounded and contrary to facts,” Erdogan repeated the Turkish position that the issue should be left to historians and not politicians. For years, Turkey has said it will open its archives to a joint history commission to address the issue.

"We believe that these comments were included in the declaration following pressure from radical Armenian groups and anti-Turkish circles. But this situation does not reduce the destructive impact of these comments,” Erdogan said.

He added that he will meet with Biden during a NATO summit in June to discuss “opening a new door” on relations.

“Now we need to look at how we will take steps toward the future. Otherwise, there will be no other choice but to put into effect the policies required by the new low to which our relations have sunk,” he said.

Tense U.S.-Turkish Relations

Biden's statement came at a time of already tense relations between Turkey and the United States over Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, U.S. ties with Kurdish forces in Syria that Turkey considers linked to its own Kurdish militants, and a host of other matters.

Erdogan also criticized the United States for having failed to find a solution in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh -- where the United States, Russia, and France were mediators -- and said Washington had stood by as massacres unfolded.

“Unfortunately, more than 1 million Azeri brothers were forced from Karabakh. All of Karabakh was burned and destroyed,” he said, referring to displacement that occurred nearly three decades ago.

Turkey backed Azerbaijan in the conflict last year, in which Azerbaijan took back swathes of lands in the Nagorno-Karabakh region it had lost to ethnic Armenian forces in the early 1990s.

Weaving through Turkey’s view of history, Erdogan went on to describe numerous “Armenian lies” and criticize the West for “double standards.”

During and immediately after World War I, Armenians and many historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed, in what Armenians call "The Great Crime." Armenians have documented mass murder, banditry, raping of women, pillaging of property, and other atrocities.

As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey objects to the use of the word genocide and says that hundreds of thousands of Muslims also died in Anatolia at the time due to combat, starvation, cold, and disease.

The official Turkish position is that Armenian revolutionaries constituted a fifth column allied with Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional. Turkey puts the number of Armenian dead at a couple of hundred thousand.

“You can find mass graves of Turks who were murdered in our country, but nowhere you can find an Armenian mass grave,” Erdogan claimed.

“A million Turks and Kurds are said to have been massacred by Armenian gangs. April 24 is the day when the leaders of Armenian gangs were arrested [in Istanbul]. In fact, nothing in the sense of human tragedy has happened on this day,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan also said that as many as 10 million ethnic Turks and Muslims were killed or expelled from the Balkans and Caucasus in the final decades and years of the Ottoman Empire due to Western-backed ethnic nationalism and Russian expansion.

“Half of our nation has its origins in being exiled,” he said. “As Turkey, we never seek to exploit our own pain.”

With reporting by AP, TRT Haber, Anadolu Ajansi, and Yeni Safak

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has increased from one minute to two hours the time allowed outside each day for three of the four editors of the student magazine Doxa, who are accused of "engaging minors in actions that might be dangerous" over a video related to unsanctioned rallies protesting opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's incarceration.

The Moscow City Court on April 26 upheld a lower court's decision to impose pretrial restrictions for Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, and Natalya Tyshkevich, but mitigated the restrictions, ruling that the trio is allowed outside for two hours daily from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

A decision on the appeal of the fourth editor in the case, Alla Gutnikova, is expected to be made by the court on April 28.

On April 14, the Basmanny district court in the Russian capital ordered the four editors not to leave their homes between midnight and 11:59 p.m. for two months, giving them only one minute to be outside each day.

The four were detained for questioning at the Investigation Committee after their homes and the magazine's offices were searched over the video, which the magazine posted online in January.

The video questioned teachers' moves to warn students about possible repercussions they could face for participating in unsanctioned rallies on January 23 and January 31 in protest of Navalny's arrest.

Doxa editors say the video was deleted from the magazine’s website following a demand from Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove it.

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 handed several-day jail terms. At least 90 were charged with criminal offenses and several have been fired by their employers.

Human rights groups have called on Moscow repeatedly to stop targeting journalists because they are covering the protests or express solidarity with protesters since both are protected under the right to freedom of expression.

"Instead of targeting journalists, the authorities should hold accountable police who attack journalists and interfere with their work," Human Rights Watch said in a statement on February 3.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning, 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.

In February, 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 the amount of time he had been held in detention.

The Czech government on April 26 reiterated that evidence linking Russian GRU military intelligence to arms depot explosions in 2014 is “very convincing,” after President Milos Zeman cast doubt over allegations that have sparked a deep diplomatic rift with Russia.

Zeman, who is known for being sympathetic toward Moscow, said during a televised address to the nation on April 25 that there are two theories about what caused the explosion of a munitions depot near the eastern Czech town of Vrbetice in 2014.

He said that one version of events is that Russian intelligence was involved in the deadly explosion.

The other version, he said, was that the blast was caused by inexpert handling of ammunition.

"I take both lines [of investigation] seriously and I wish that they are thoroughly investigated," Zeman said.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis on April 17 announced that investigators from the Czech intelligence and security services had provided "unequivocal evidence" that there was "reasonable suspicion regarding a role of members of Russian military intelligence GRU's unit 29155 in the explosion of the munition depot in Vrbetice in 2014."

In response, the Czech government announced the expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats it considered to be spies, setting off a string of tit-for-tat moves between Prague and Moscow.

GRU Involvement

Citing the report by the Czech Security Information Service, Zeman said that there was "neither proof nor evidence" that the two Russian GRU agents being sought regarding possible involvement in the explosion were at the arms depot.

"I hope that we will determine the truth and find out whether this suspicion [of Russian intelligence involvement] is justified," Zeman said. "If that is the case -- although I support fair relations with all important countries -- the Russian Federation would have to pay the price of this presumed terrorist act."

In response to Zeman’s comments, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek, who is also the interior minister, said information from intelligence, police, and investigators on the 2014 blasts was strong.

"As the Czech Republic we reacted very hard, so it is apparent the evidence was very convincing," Hamacek said at a April 26 news conference.

"As far as I know, only one line of investigation exists on the Vrbetice case and that is the one connected with movements of those members of the [GRU] unit 29155," Hamacek said.

"The president's speech was such that everybody found something in it to please them including the Russian Federation, unfortunately," he added.

Zeman, whose powers as president are largely ceremonial, has often expressed pro-Russian views and is seen as being friendly toward Moscow.

The explosion on October 16, 2014 in Vrbetice set off 50 tons of stored ammunition, killing two people. Two months later, another blast of 13 tons of ammunition occurred at the same site.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incident, which has triggered anti-Russia protests in the Czech Republic.

More protests are planned for April 29 in Prague and other cities, this time also taking aim at Zeman for his position on Russia.

Czech media has reported that the ammunition and weaponry destroyed in the first Vrbetice blast was intended for Ukrainian forces fighting against Russia-backed separatist troops in eastern Ukraine.

The two Russian intelligence officers sought in relation to the explosion are the same GRU officers accused of a nerve-agent poisoning in England in 2018 that targeted former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

With reporting by Reuters

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Tajik ambassador and handed him a note protesting the detainment of two Kyrgyz men by Tajik authorities near a disputed segment of the border between the two countries.

The ministry said on April 26 that Deputy Foreign Minister Nurlan Niyazaliev met with Tajik Ambassador Nazirmad Alizoda to express his concerns over the detainment of the two residents of Kyrgyzstan’s southern Batken region.

"The Kyrgyz side has called upon the Tajik side to undertake immediate measures to find out all of the circumstances of the incident, hold all individuals responsible for the situation accountable, and inform the Kyrgyz side about the results," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that Bishkek is ready to cooperate with Dushanbe in efforts to "form conditions in the areas close to the border to secure peace, safety, a friendly neighborhood, and stability."

The two Kyrgyz nationals disappeared in the Batken region's Leilek district on April 24 while constructing a house close to a disputed segment of border.

It later turned out that the missing men had been detained by Tajik law enforcement.

On April 25, the men were released and handed to Kyrgyzstan.

Earlier in April, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said during his visit to Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave within Kyrgyzstan that agreements on almost half of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border have been reached during more than 100 rounds of negotiations between Dushanbe and Bishkek since work on border delimitation started in 2002.

Many border areas in Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.

In recent years there have been numerous incidents along the border which in some cases involved deadly gunfire.

DUSHANBE -- A Tajik court has sentenced nine people for smuggling large amounts of gold and cash from Dushanbe to Dubai and Istanbul, in a case that has been closely watched in Tajikistan.

The Dushanbe City Court said the men -- all of them Tajik citizens -- were handed prison terms ranging from two to 5 1/2 years on April 20.

Five of the men -- whose occupations weren’t disclosed -- were convicted of smuggling cash and gold from the Tajik-Afghan border to Dushanbe and further to foreign countries.

Four others -- three border guards and a police officer -- were found guilty of aiding the smugglers.

The defendants’ lawyers did not immediately comment, but several family members told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity on April 24 that they were not planning to appeal the sentences.

Investigations revealed that the group smuggled nearly 1.4 tons of gold bars and more than $100 million in cash between early September and mid-November last year, the court said.

The men used forged documents to transfer the goods from Dushanbe to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, it said.

The probe began after Tajik authorities seized nearly 90 kilograms of gold bars and about $15 million in cash from smugglers at the Dushanbe airport on November 14.

According to the State Customs Service, the goods were discovered before they were loaded onto a Dubai-bound plane.

On February 27, an Afghan TV channel linked the smuggled gold and cash to Mohammad Mirza Katawazai, the deputy chairman of the Afghan parliament.

The report by the 1TV channel came on the same day as Katawazai arrived in Tajikistan as part of an Afghan parliamentary delegation.

Katawazai rejected the allegation. Upon his return to Kabul, he resigned from the deputy speaker’s post.

Tajik authorities have never publicly mentioned Katawazai’s name in connection with the smuggling case.

Authorities say the investigation continues.

Bulgaria's new antiestablishment party, There Is Such A People (TSN), says that it will not try to form a government, increasing the odds that the southeastern EU member will hold fresh elections.

The announcement on April 26 came after the center-right GERB party of longtime Prime Boyko Borisov recognized on April 23 that it had failed to form a government after coming first in parliamentary elections with just 26 percent of the vote.

TSN, led by television personality Slavi Trifonov, took second place in the elections with 18 percent of the vote by tapping into frustration with endemic corruption and poverty. Two other antiestablishment parties also made gains.

SEE ALSO:

A Bulgarian Showman Could Be The Country's Election Kingmaker

In a Facebook post, Trifonov said his party does not have the necessary number of deputies or partners to form a stable government and will not accept support from the traditional parties that it blames for Bulgaria’s problems.

"The support offered is from political entities that are harmful, greedy, and proven to be compromised. And this is not their support, but dependence," he said.

Former world chess champion Antoaneta Stefanova, who had been appointed by Trifonov for the post of prime minister, would immediately return the mandate to form a government to President Rumen Radev, Trifonov wrote.

Radev will now ask a third and final party to try to form a government, something analysts say is unlikely.

A third failure would lead the president to call new elections within two months.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

BISHKEK -- Thousands of people have paid their last respects to to Kyrgyz writer and journalist Beksultan Jakiev, who died at the age of 85 after a long unspecified illness on April 25.

Prime Minister Ulukbek Maripov, Parliament Speaker Talant Mamytov, former President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, and other officials attended the farewell ceremony on April 26 at Bishkek's Opera and Ballet Theater.

President Sadyr Japarov's letter of condolence to the late writer’s relatives, friends, and colleagues was read aloud at the ceremony.

Jakiev was known for his books and articles about Kyrgyz culture and history as well as about modern Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.

One of his most popular books was about the history of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, and its long-time Cold War-era director Azamat Altay.

Jakiev was the recipient of numerous national awards and titles, including Hero of Kyrgyzstan, for his contribution to the former Soviet republic's literature, culture, and journalism.

A journalist from Siberia who had to leave her native city of Kiselyovsk in the Siberian region of Kemerovo earlier this year after she was attacked says she has fled Russia fearing for her safety.

Natalya Zubkova, the chief editor of the News of Kiselyovsk website, told RFE/RL on April 26 that she moved to an unspecified country a week ago after police and an investigator from Kiselyovsk visited her at her new residence in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg to question her as "a witness" in a criminal case.

Zubkova said she refused to answer any questions and called her lawyer. According to her, the case might be an another move in ongoing attempts by Kiselyovsk authorities to take her daughter from her in retaliation for her articles criticizing authorities in the Kemerovo region for the "illegal widening of coal-mining territories" in the region.

In late February, Zubkova said an unknown attacker pushed her down with her face in snow as she was walking her dog. The man threatened the journalist and her daughters with further violence if "you open your mouth again."

Several days after the attack, Zubkova fled Kiselyovsk for Yekaterinburg, hoping that authorities in her native region will leave her alone.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on April 6 that it had sent an investigator to Yekaterinburg to question Zubkova in the case.

Zubkova told RFE/RL on April 26 that she will continue her journalistic activities, writing about the rights of Siberia's indigenous ethnic groups, environmental damage from mining activities in the region, and corruption among officials in Kiselyovsk.

Last August, lawyer Anton Reutov physically attacked her in a courtroom during a hearing based on Zubkova's report about alleged fraud involving Reutov that led to an elderly woman losing her apartment.

Zubkova said that following that incident she received several death threats.

In August 2019, Mayor Shkarabeinikov accused Zubkova of inciting social discord for interviewing Kiselyovsk residents who had asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to provide them with asylum after local authorities were unable to solve environmental problems they faced.

Police in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, have arrested a man suspected of stabbing the sister of a member of the Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, Artur Chilingarov.

The Investigative Committee said on April 26 that the 59-year-old suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, stabbed the 71-year-old woman, injuring her arm and head in the hall of an apartment block on April 20.

According to the statement, the woman was saved by a neighbor who scared off the attacker.

The suspect, who has a criminal record, was apprehended shortly after the attack. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Chilingarov, 81, is also a well-known Russian polar explorer.

Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee, has ordered an investigation into the incident.

The lawyer of British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she has been sentenced to another year in prison in Iran and given a one-year ban on leaving the country, in what London called a "totally inhumane" decision.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was found guilty of spreading “propaganda against the system” for participating in a 2009 protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in London, the lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, said on April 26.

The charity worker was previously sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran’s government, a charge that she, her supporters, and rights groups deny.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved from prison last year due to the coronavirus crisis and held under house arrest in Tehran until March, when her ankle tag was removed at the end of her five-year sentence.

"This is a totally inhumane and wholly unjustified decision," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted on April 26. “We continue to call on Iran to release Nazanin immediately so she can return to her family in the U.K.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also criticized the ruling, telling reporters that Britain was working with the United States on the issue of jailed dual-nationals in Iran.

A project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained at Tehran airport after a family visit in 2016.

Prior to her arrest, she lived in London with her husband and daughter.

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 the BBC, Reuters, and AP

BUCHAREST -- Romania says it is expelling a Russian diplomat, the latest European country to do so amid a diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Prague over Russia's alleged role in a deadly 2014 explosion at a Czech arms depot.

The Foreign Ministry decided to declare Aleksei Grichayev, the deputy military attaché at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, persona non grata “in view of his activities and actions contrary to the Convention of Vienna on diplomatic relations," it said in a statement on April 26.

The statement said that Russian Ambassador Valery Kuzmin was summoned to the ministry to inform him of the move.

Kuzmin later described Bucharest’s decision as "hostile," and said that Moscow reserves the right to "take relevant measures in response."

The was no immediate comment from Russian officials.

SEE ALSO:

Data Shows Alleged Russian Agents In Bulgaria Around Time Of Arms-Depot Blasts

Prague accuses the Russian secret services of being behind an explosion that killed two people at a Czech arms depot in October 2014.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the 2014 blast, with Kremlin spokesperson Dimitri Peskov telling reporters on April 26 that "any accusations of Russia in the context of the various events in the Czech Republic is completely unfounded."

After the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats over the allegations last week, Moscow retaliated by kicking out 20 Czech Embassy staff in what is considered to be the worst spat between the former Cold War allies since communist rule ended in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Seven other former Warsaw Pact countries in Central and Eastern Europe, all of them members of the European Union and the NATO security alliance, have expelled Russian diplomats in recent weeks, triggering reciprocal measures by Moscow.

SEE ALSO:

Coup Plots, Poison, Hacking, Sabotage: What Is The GRU’s Unit 29155?

In a joint statement on April 26, the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia expressed "full solidarity" with the Czech Republic, and condemned "this yet another deplorable act of aggression and breach of international law committed by Russia on European soil."

On April 23, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said the number of people allowed by the Czech Republic and Russia at their respective embassies would be limited to 32. The Czech Foreign Ministry has given Russia until the end of May to cut the number of its personnel at its embassy in Prague by 63 people.

The explosion on October 16, 2014, in the Czech town of Vrbetice set off 50 metric tons of stored ammunition. Two months later, another blast of 13 tons of ammunition occurred at the same site.

Czech media have reported that the ammunition and weaponry destroyed in the first explosion was intended for Ukrainian forces fighting against Russia-backed separatist troops in eastern Ukraine.

The two Russian intelligence officers sought by the Czechs in relation to the incident are the same alleged members of Russian military intelligence accused of a nerve-agent poisoning in England in 2018 that targeted former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.

Skripal and his daughter survived the attack, which was carried out with what British investigators determined was the Soviet-engineered nerve agent Novichok.

A British woman who accidentally came into contact with the substance died.

With reporting by TASS

AQTAU, Kazakhstan -- Two inmates in a prison in Kazakhstan’s western region of Manghystau have swallowed spoons to protest against prison conditions, prompting an inspection of the facility by representatives of the Public Monitoring Commission and the National Preventive Mechanism -- groups created to prevent torture and rights abuses in the Central Asian country's penitentiaries.

The regional State Penitentiary Service said on April 25 that the incident had taken place four days earlier, adding that the two inmates were provided with medical assistance and their "current health state is satisfactory."

"We visited the penitentiary at the invitation of the administration of the facility. We talked to the inmates in a group and individually. We listened to all sides. All the statements will be thoroughly investigated," the leader of the National Preventive Mechanism in the region, Aleksandr Mukha, said.

No more details were provided.

Inmates in Kazakhstan's penitentiaries often maim themselves to protest brutality from guards or abuses of their rights. They usually slit their wrists or cut their abdomens. Swallowing spoons or other objects is very rare.

With reporting by Lada.kz

Russia has expelled an Italian diplomat over what it said was an "unjustified" move by Rome to expel two Russian diplomats in March.

"The Italian Ambassador to Moscow Pasquale Terracniano was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where he was handed a note by the ministry saying that the aide to the defense attaché and naval attaché at the embassy in Moscow, C. Pacifici, is declared persona non grata in response to the unfriendly and unjustified actions of the Italian authorities against the defense attaché office of the Russian Embassy in Rome. The staffer is ordered to leave Russia within 24 hours," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 26.

Last month, Italy expelled two Russian diplomats after police said they had caught an Italian Navy captain passing secret documents to a Russian military official for money.

The Italian Foreign Ministry called Russia's move "unfounded and unjust."

"We consider the decision unfounded and unjust because it is in retaliation to a legitimate measure taken by the Italian authorities in defense of their own security," the Italian Foreign Ministry said in the response to Moscow's move.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the international community to work together to prevent a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster on the 35th anniversary of what is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.

"Our task is to do everything possible to bolster security and strengthen safety to avoid and never repeat a similar disaster in the future," Zelenskiy said in a televised address on April 26 during a visit to the Chernobyl exclusion zone to mark International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.

In the capital, Kyiv, dozens of people joined a ceremony and placed flowers at a Chernobyl memorial.

• RFE/RL

People across Ukraine, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have marked the 35th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst civilian nuclear accident.

Others gathered in the ghost town of Prypyat overnight and held a vigil with 35 candles in memory of those who lost their lives in the accident.

An explosion and fire caused by a reactor meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant, located 110 kilometers north of Kyiv on April 26, 1986, sent clouds of lethal nuclear material across much of Europe.

• RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
• Andriy Dubchak

It has been two years since a giant steel shelter was slid into position over Chernobyl's crumbling radioactive ruins. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service takes a rare look at operations inside of the containment.

Prypyat, home to some 50,000 people, was evacuated along with other communities in a 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the radioactive wreckage.

Dozens of people, particularly firefighters and other first responders, died as a direct result of the disaster, but radiation poisoning is believed to have killed thousands more across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and other countries in the years that followed.

In 2016, a crumbling "sarcophagus" used to contain radiation from the smoldering reactor was replaced with a $2.3 billion metal dome in a bid to stop future leaks. More than 200 tons of uranium remain buried inside.

The area has attracted tourists, with flora and fauna taking over deserted streets and buildings, and Kyiv wants to make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"Our goal today is to transform the exclusion zone...into an area of renaissance," Zelenskiy said in his address.

With reporting by AFP

Kazakhstan has rolled out its locally developed vaccine against COVID-19, with Health Minister Aleksei Tsoi receiving the first injection.

Tsoi said that 50,000 doses of the QazVac vaccine developed by the state-backed Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems have been distributed across the country of nearly 19 million people.

QazVac requires two doses three weeks apart and can be stored in a regular refrigerator.

The vaccine is currently in its third stage of clinical trials, which are expected to be completed in July. Its developers claim the vaccine had a 96 percent efficacy in the second stage.

Tsoi said that 1-in-20 Kazakhstanis have been vaccinated against the coronavirus since the Central Asian country’s vaccination drive kicked off in February.

The Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine is dominating the vaccination effort in Kazakhstan.

As of April 26, Kazakh health authorities have registered more than 309,000 coronavirus cases, including 3,570 deaths. A total of 755 more deaths were registered as caused by atypical pneumonia with COVID-19 symptoms.

The Moscow city prosecutor's office has suspended all activities at the offices of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's headquarters across the country and asked the Moscow City Court to do the same for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and the Citizens' Rights Defense Foundation (FZPG).

Vladimir Voronin, a lawyer for the FBK, said on April 26 that the prosecutor's office made the decision to suspend the activities of Navalny's headquarters on its own, but needed to ask the court to suspend the activities of the FBK and the FZPG because it didn't have the authority to do so. The court will decide on this motion on the same day, he added.*

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the FBK, said in a tweet that the ban will remain in effect until a decision is made by the court on an application by the Moscow prosecutor's office to classify the organizations as extremist.

"They are screaming out with this move: We are afraid of your activities, we are afraid of your rallies, we are afraid of smart voting," Zhdanov said in a tweet on April 26. The post also included a photo of the motion from the prosecutors.

In his April 26 requests to suspend the groups' activities, Moscow city prosecutor Denis Popov asked the court to ban Navalny's organizations from publishing the results of its investigative reports on the Internet, from holding rallies and demonstrations, and from taking part in elections and referendums.

"The 3 things that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin fears are very conveniently highlighted...1) Investigations 2) Rallies 3) Participation in elections," Georgy Alburov, a member of the FBK's investigations department, said on Twitter.

The move is part of a broader initiative by the Moscow prosecutor's office, which is seeking to have the Moscow City Court label Navalny's three organizations as "extremist" and shut them down as they are allegedly "engaged in creating conditions for destabilizing the social and sociopolitical situation under the guise of their liberal slogans."

SEE ALSO:

Prosecutor Seeking 'Extremist' Tag For Navalny Groups Was The Subject Of A Corruption Exposé By Navalny

That proposal has been condemned by international and domestic human rights groups who say that if Navalny's organizations are officially recognized as "extremist," all of the employees could face arrest and prison terms from six to 10 years.

Amnesty International called the move a "cynical attack" of an "unprecedented" amplitude.

"Dozens of employees of Navalny's headquarters working across 34 Russian regions and hundreds of thousands of Internet users who have shared Navalny's groups' materials on social networks, are potential targets for severe reprisals," Amnesty said in a statement on April 26.

"The audacity and scale of this cynical attack are unprecedented, effectively suppressing the rights to freedom of expression and association of thousands," Marie Struthers, Amnesty’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said.

"The objective is clear: to raze Aleksei Navalny’s movement to the ground while he languishes in prison. It is symbolic and particularly telling of the Russian authorities’ cowardice that the court proceedings have been pronounced 'secret' and will be closed to the public without sufficient safeguards of fairness."

The FBK tweeted earlier on April 26 that an official hearing into the case is scheduled for April 29.

The January arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Navalny on what are seen as trumped-up charges have worsened ties between Russia and the West, already strained by Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the fomenting of separatism across much of Ukraine that helped to ignite a war that has killed more than 13,000 people in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed forces hold parts of two provinces.

The FBK has rattled the Kremlin over the years with its video investigations exposing the unexplained wealth of top officials, including Putin.

Embed share

Pole Dancing And Fancy Toilet Brushes: Millions Watch Navalny Video On Alleged 'Putin Palace'

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:04:06 0:00

Last week, almost 2,000 supporters of Navalny were arrested in nationwide protests aimed at pressuring officials to allow Navalny access to proper medical treatment as fears for his life rose as he entered the third week of a hunger strike he started over the medical attention he was receiving in prison.

On April 23, Navalny ended the hunger strike, saying he had "achieved enough," though he continues to demand that he be examined by his personal doctors for acute pain in his back and legs.

However, in a video call with Putin on April 26, French President Emmanuel Macron told the Russian leader he was "deeply worried" about Navalny's health and also about "respect for his fundamental rights."

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Says He Will End Hunger Strike

Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had received life-saving treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia in August.

He has insisted that his poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent was ordered directly by Putin. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning.

In February, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated.

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

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Navalny affair and the government's crackdown on demonstrators earlier this year at rallies protesting Navalny's arrest.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said that the activities of the FBK had also been suspended.

Mexico's foreign minister has left for talks in Moscow on a plan to bottle Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Mexico after delays in the delivery of shipments from Russia.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard left Mexico City on April 25, his office said. Ebrard's visit to Moscow will last through April 28 and include a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Birmex, Mexico's state-run vaccine manufacturer, is working with Russia on a plan to bottle Sputnik V in Mexico, Ebrard said last week, adding that there had already been “significant progress” on the plan.

SEE ALSO:

Good Science, Bad Marketing? Russia's Sputnik Vaccine Is Plagued By Controversy, Missteps

A Health Ministry official said on April 25 that the government's aim is to ramp up distribution of Sputnik V in Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

Mexico's Health Ministry signed an agreement to acquire a total of 24 million doses of Sputnik V, but deliveries are running behind.

The government said in late February that it expected to receive 7.4 million doses of Sputnik V by April and an additional 16.6 million shots in May. Russia has shipped just 1.1 million doses to Mexico to date.

Delays in getting the Sputnik V vaccine and others have prompted Mexico to change its strategy and bottle vaccines domestically. It already has bottled 2.6 million shots of China's CanSino vaccine.

The government is aiming to quicken its vaccination drive, which so far as inoculated only about 4 percent of Mexico’s population of 126 million people.

Nearly 215,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Mexico. The country’s death toll is fourth-highest after the United States, Brazil, and India.

Based on reporting by Reuters

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has rejected additional EU sanctions against Russia over the situation of imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

Speaking to public broadcaster ARD on April 25, Maas said he had doubts whether fresh sanctions on Russia would improve the Kremlin critic’s situation.

"I think the opposite would be the case," Maas said.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny Says He Will End Hunger Strike

The EU already imposed sanctions on Russia over the poisoning and jailing of Navalny. The bloc also has sanctions on Russia for its forcible annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its role fueling the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

While all those sanctions will remain in place, Maas said it was important to maintain dialogue with Russia and avoid an escalatory cycle of provocations turning into serious confrontation.

Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the EU would hold President Vladimir Putin and Russian authorities directly responsible if Navalny died in prison amid concerns about his health.

But a day after the French foreign minister’s comments, Navalny announced on April 23 that he was ending a hunger strike he had launched more than three weeks before to protest his medical treatment in prison.

SEE ALSO:

'No One Is Leaving': Navalny's Backers Defiant As Threat Of 'Extremist' Label Looms

Navalny was arrested in January upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he received life-saving treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia in August.

He blames the poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent on Putin and the Russian security services. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning.

In February, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated. He is currently serving a 2 1/2-year sentence at a prison outside Moscow.

With reporting by dpa, BR 24, and Deutschlandfunk

The 39-year-old son of Turkmenistan's autocratic leader oversaw festivities surrounding a national holiday celebrating local horse and dog breeds, as speculation grows over potential hereditary succession in the secretive Central Asian state.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, 66, has appointed his son Serdar to a number of top positions this year, making him the second-most powerful figure in the country.

In a symbolic move earlier this month, Serdar replaced his father as head of the national horse association and was named "honored dog breeder of Turkmenistan."

The local Akhal-Teke horse and Alabai sheepdog play a prominent role in state propaganda, with monuments in the capital Ashgabat devoted to them and untold funds spent on promoting their breeding.

Earlier this year, Berdymukhammedov ordered a national holiday for the Alabai to be celebrated on the last Sunday in April when the country marks the day of the Akhal-Teke horse.

In the past, President Berdymukhammedov led events surrounding the holiday at an elaborate horse track in Ashgabat, in some years participating in races, showing off his horseback skills, and handing out awards to breeders.

For the first time on April 25, state television showed Serdar replace his father’s role in celebrating the Turkmen horse, which the media used in previous years to glorify the president.

It comes just days after Serdar topped the evening news for the first time as media showed him opening a state building housing associations that he heads promoting the Akhal-Teke horse and Alabai sheepdog.

Usually Turkmenistan's evening news is entirely devoted to the latest activities of the president.

It’s unclear why the elder Berdymukhammedov has been taking a back seat in recent days, but it comes as he is mourning the death of his 89-year-old father, a former policeman and educator. That has added an additional layer of speculation that the autocratic leader may be thinking more about his legacy and succession.

In February, the younger Berdymukhammedov received three promotions, becoming deputy premier, a member of the powerful security council, and the auditor general.

Turkmenistan does not have a prime minister, with the elder Berdymukhammedov already president, speaker of the upper house of parliament, and head of government of a state built around his cult of personality.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Turkmen Service and AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin may hold a summit with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in June, a top Kremlin aide said on April 25.

Biden earlier this month proposed a face-to-face meeting with the Russian leader amid spiraling tensions between the two countries.

The Kremlin has suggested it views the summit offer positively and initial discussions with Washington are under way.

Putin's top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said that a final decision on the meeting had not been made but it could happen in June.

"June is being named, there are even concrete dates," Ushakov said on state-run television channel Rossiya-1.

"We will take a decision depending on many factors," said Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to the United States.

Separately on April 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the summit proposal has been “positively perceived and is being considered now.”

A June meeting could potentially coincide with Biden’s planned trip that month to Britain for a G7 summit and the NATO and EU summits in Brussels. The White House has said any Biden-Putin summit would likely be held in a neutral country in Europe, with both Austria and Finland expressing interest in hosting the two leaders.

Tensions between Russia and the United States have continued to worsen over the conflict in Ukraine, new sanctions on Moscow over alleged cyberattacks and election interference, the status of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, and a host of other issues.

In March, Russia was enraged after Biden agreed when asked in an interview if he thought Putin was a "killer," prompting Moscow to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan returned to the United States this week for consultations after Moscow recommended that he temporarily leave.

That came as Russia this month declared 10 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to be personae non gratae in what it called a "mirror" response to Washington's expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and wide-ranging sanctions as it moved to hold the Kremlin accountable for actions against the United States and its interests.

Biden has repeatedly stated that while he will be tough on Russia over any hostile policies, he is also seeking to cooperate where the two sides have mutual interests. This includes on such issues as nuclear proliferation, climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, North Korea, and fostering peace and stability in Afghanistan.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS

Czech President Milos Zeman has said there are two theories about what caused the 2014 arms depot blast that has sparked a severe diplomatic rift with Russia, and that both must be investigated.

Speaking for the first time about the incident during a televised address to the nation on April 25, Zeman said that one version of events is that Russian intelligence was involved in the deadly explosion.

The other version, he said, was that the blast was caused by inexpert handling of ammunition.

"I take both lines [of investigation] seriously and I wish that they are thoroughly investigated," Zeman said.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis on April 17 announced that investigators from the Czech intelligence and security services had provided "unequivocal evidence" that there was "reasonable suspicion regarding a role of members of Russian military intelligence GRU's unit 29155 in the explosion of the munition depot in Vrbetice in 2014."

SEE ALSO:

Coup Plots, Poison, Hacking, Sabotage: What Is The GRU’s Unit 29155?

Citing the report by the Czech Security Information Service, Zeman said that there was "neither proof nor evidence" that the two Russian GRU agents being sought regarding possible involvement in the explosion were at the arms depot.

"I hope that we will determine the truth and find out whether this suspicion [of Russian intelligence involvement] is justified," Zeman said. "If that is the case -- although I support fair relations with all important countries -- the Russian Federation would have to pay the price of this presumed terrorist act."

Zeman suggested that eliminating the Russian company Rosatom from consideration in a bid to construct a new nuclear plant would be one possible punishment. However, he also said that if Russia were cleared of responsibility it "could bear serious consequences for our internal politics."

SEE ALSO:

Data Shows Alleged Russian Agents In Bulgaria Around Time Of Arms-Depot Blasts

Zeman, whose powers as president are largely ceremonial, has often expressed pro-Russian views and is seen as being friendly toward Moscow.

The blast in Vrbetice on October 16, 2014, set off 50 metric tons of stored ammunition. Two months later, another blast of 13 tons of ammunition occurred at the same site.

In response, the Czech government announced the expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats it considered to be spies, setting off a string of tit-for-tat moves between Prague and Moscow.

In what is considered to be the worst spat between the former Cold War allies since communist rule ended in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the two sides exchanged ultimatums and hiked the number of diplomatic expulsions.

On April 19, Russia announced that 20 employees at the Czech Embassy in Moscow would be expelled.

On April 23, Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said that the number of people allowed by the Czech Republic and Russia at their respective embassies would be limited to 32, including seven diplomats.

Embed share

'Act Of State Terrorism'? Czechs Link Skripal Suspects To Deadly 2014 Depot Blast

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:03:34 0:00

The Czech Foreign Ministry has given Russia until the end of May to cut the number of its personnel at its embassy in Prague by 63 people.

Russia, which has denied any involvement in the arms depot blast, has pledged to respond.

Czech media has reported that the ammunition and weaponry destroyed in the first Vrbetice blast, which killed two people, was intended for Ukrainian forces fighting against Russia-backed separatist troops in eastern Ukraine.

The two Russian intelligence officers sought in relation to the explosion are the same GRU officers accused of a nerve-agent poisoning in England in 2018 that targeted former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.

Skripal and his daughter survived the attack carried out with what British investigators determined was the Soviet-engineered nerve agent Novichok.

A British woman who accidentally came into contact with the substance died.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has tendered his resignation, formally freeing the way for parliamentary elections to be held in an effort to defuse a political crisis prompted by the country's war last year with Azerbaijan.

"According to an agreement with the president and political forces, today I’m stepping down in order to hold early parliamentary polls on June 20," Pashinian announced on Facebook on April 25.

Pashinian said he plans to continue to fulfill his duties as prime minister until the vote, and plans to take part in the elections.

"I will be a candidate for the prime minister," said Pashinian, who will run as a candidate for his Civil Contract party. "If people decide that I should resign as the prime minister, I will do their will and if they want me to continue my job as the prime minister, I will also do the people’s will."

The move follows recent changes made to Armenia's Electoral Code that the opposition has said are aimed at helping Pashinian win.

The changes worked out by Pashinian's My Step alliance revamp parts of the Electoral Code introduced in 2016 by the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), two years before Pashinian was swept into office after leading mass protests against the pro-Russia HHK of former President Serzh Sarkisian.

The amendments will switch the Caucasus country's electoral system to a fully proportional one.

To this point Armenians had voted for parties and alliances as well as individual candidates, whereas the next elections will be held only on a party-list basis.

Armenia has been embroiled in a political crisis since Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire in November 2020 to end the war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Following talks with the opposition, Pashinian agreed in March to hold the early vote in June.

Opinion polls show that public confidence in Pashinian's government has fallen sharply since then, with its approval rating falling from 60 percent to around 30 percent today.

With reporting by TASS and AFP

Armenian Americans celebrated President Joe Biden’s decision to formally recognize the massacre of Armenians during World War I as genocide, but the declaration infuriated Ankara, which accused the United States of trying to rewrite history.

Biden on April 24 became the first U.S. president to use the word genocide in a formal statement, and it was issued on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the start of the massacre in 1915 as the Ottoman Empire unraveled.

The American people honor "all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today," Biden said.

"Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history," Biden said. "We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated."

The White House had avoided using the term genocide for decades for fear of alienating Turkey, a NATO ally and important power in the Middle East. But Biden had promised during his presidential campaign that if elected he would take the largely symbolic step.

Hundreds of people streamed to a hilltop monument in Montebello, California, about 16 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles, a U.S. hub of the Armenian diaspora, to mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

They laid flowers at the monument and recalled relatives who died in the slaughter and deportation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians -- a Christian minority in the predominately Muslim empire.

Ankara insists the deaths were a result of civil strife rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to annihilate Armenians. Turkey also claims fewer Armenians died than has been reported.

SEE ALSO:

'Terrible Vengeance': The History Of Turkish Atrocities Against Armenians And Why Biden Has Called Them Genocide

Turkey's angry reaction put the government and most of the opposition in rare unity.

"Words cannot change or rewrite history," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted moments after Biden announced his decision. "We will not take lessons from anyone on our history."

Cavusoglu said Turkey "entirely rejects" the U.S. decision, which he said was based "solely on populism," while the opposition denounced it as a "major mistake."

A Foreign Ministry statement issued separately said: "It is clear that the said statement does not have a scholarly and legal basis, nor is it supported by any evidence."

The ministry later summoned U.S. Ambassador David Satterfield to express its displeasure, noting that Biden's decision caused "a wound in relations that is difficult to repair,” the Anadolu state news agency reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was less strident in his response, sending a message to the Armenian community and patriarch of the Armenian church calling on him not to allow “the culture of coexistence of Turks and Armenians...to be forgotten."

The issue has been “politicized by third parties and turned into a tool of intervention against our country,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan and Biden agreed during a phone call on April 23 to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June in Brussels. Biden placed the call -- his first as president to Erdogan -- in an apparent attempt to soften the blow of his decision.

Biden's message was met with "great enthusiasm" by the people of Armenia and Armenians worldwide, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian wrote in a letter to the U.S. president.

Pashinian in a post on Facebook thanked Biden for "the powerful step towards justice and invaluable support for the descendants of the Armenian genocide victims."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP