The European Parliament on April 29 passed a resolution threatening action against Russia over its treatment of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, its military buildup on Ukraine's border, and what lawmakers describe as "Russian attacks in the Czech Republic."

The nonbinding resolution, supported by the five mainstream political groups in the European Parliament, was adopted by 569 votes in favor, 67 against, and with 46 abstentions.

The text of the resolution said that Russia "poses not only an external threat to European security, but is also waging an internal war on its own people in the form of the systematic oppression of the opposition and arrests on the streets."

It stated that Navalny's poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 was "an assassination attempt" that was "perpetrated by agents of the Russian security services within the Russian Federation."

"The poisoning of Navalny fits in with a pattern of actions taken against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's opponents...leading to the death of several leading opposition figures, journalists, activists, and foreign leaders," it says.

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Russia Unveils A New Tactic To Deter Dissent: CCTV And A 'Knock On The Door,' Days Later

It also stated unequivocally that "the same GRU agents" from Russia's military intelligence service who were "involved in the explosion of the ammunition depot in the Czech Republic were also responsible for the attempted murder" in Salisbury, England, of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, using Novichok.

It noted that GRU agents have also been charged with the attempted murder of Emilian Gebrev, the Bulgarian owner of a weapons factory, and other people in Bulgaria in 2015, using a Novichok-like substance.

"Russia is noncooperative in investigating these crimes committed on European Union territory" and is "sheltering key suspects," it said.

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Sofia Looks At Links Between Czech Blast And Bulgarian Incidents, Summons Russian Envoy

The resolution called for Russia to immediately release Navalny and pull its military forces back from the border with Ukraine, saying the "scale and striking capabilities" of the Russian troops there "indicate intentions of an offensive."

It said that if those Russian forces are used to invade Ukraine, "imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU [should] be immediately stopped" and Russia should be "excluded from the SWIFT payment system" of international bank transfers.

It also said that "assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families" need to be frozen and their EU visas canceled if those Russian forces invade Ukraine.

On energy, the resolution called on the EU to reduce dependence on Russia by halting the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The resolution was welcomed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who called it robust. "These are signals Ukraine has asked for, clearly showing Russia possible costs of extending its aggression," he said on Twitter.

A German-Iranian human rights activist held in Iran on vague security-related charges has had her first hearing at a Revolutionary Court, her daughter and human rights groups said.

Nahid Taghavi, 66, was arrested in Tehran in October while on a family visit and spent nearly five months in solitary confinement in the capital's notorious Evin prison, in a case rights groups say amounts to politically motivated hostage taking.

"Today was the first hearing of #NahidTaghavi. Another trial day is scheduled, date unknown," her daughter Mariam Claren wrote on Twitter on April 28.

"My mother was allowed to see her brothers. They hugged her. Her first hug after almost 7 month," she wrote.

Taghavi, a trained architect who lived in the German city of Cologne for nearly four decades, was active supporting women's rights and freedom of expression in Iran, according to the rights group IGFM.

The dual national is charged with "endangering security," although up until now it is unclear what alleged crime she is accused of committing. For weeks, she had no contact with a lawyer or family and hasn't been granted access to German consular services, IGFM and Amnesty International said.

"It is extremely doubtful that these proceedings will follow the rule of law, because Nahid Taghavi's rights to a fair trial have also been systematically violated up to now," Amnesty said.

In the past several years, Iranian authorities have detained or jailed dozens of dual nationals, including journalists, academics, and human rights defenders.

"The noticeable accumulation of cases in which dual nationals are imprisoned without specific allegations of offenses indicates that the intent is to put pressure on the governments concerned," said Dieter Karg, an Iran expert at Amnesty International in Germany.

The European Union says that China and Russia have intensified "state-sponsored disinformation" campaigns denigrating Western-developed COVID-19 vaccines while promoting their own.

"The so-called 'vaccine diplomacy' follows a zero-sum game logic" that seeks to "undermine trust in Western-made vaccines, EU institutions, and Western/European vaccination strategies," a report from the strategic communications branch of the EU's external action service said on April 28.

It said that Russian media, authorities, and state companies had united behind pushing the Sputnik V vaccine while using "antagonistic messaging" to accuse the EU of "sabotaging" the Russian jab.

The report said that part of the campaign was to sow distrust in the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

"Pro-Kremlin media outlets, including the official Sputnik V Twitter account, have sought to undermine public trust in the [EMA] and cast doubt on its procedures and political impartiality."

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

State-backed media has been trying to "sow confusion" over an application for marketing approval by the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in a bid to fuel the narrative that the body had been deliberately delaying giving the green light, the report said.

"Pro-Kremlin outlets have also accused the EMA and the EU in general of political bias against the Russian-made vaccine," it said.

Meanwhile, China is promoting its vaccines as "more suitable for developing countries," including those in the Western Balkans, while deploying "misleading narratives" about the safety of Western vaccines and even on the origin of the coronavirus, the report said.

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Brazil Rejects Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine, Citing 'Inherent Risks'

EU member Hungary has broken ranks with the rest of the bloc and has been administering the Russian and Chinese jabs, while Austria and Germany say they are in talks to purchase Sputnik V.

The EMA launched a rolling review of Sputnik V in March. If it gets the regulator's approval it would be the first non-Western coronavirus vaccine authorized for use across the 27-member bloc.

Last month, EU member Slovakia's government collapsed after its former prime minister orchestrated a secret deal to buy 2 million Sputnik V doses, despite disagreements with his coalition partners.

With reporting by AP and AFP

President Maia Sandu has dissolved the Moldovan parliament and called snap elections for July 11, shortly after the Constitutional Court canceled a state of emergency that lawmakers had approved.

"The Constitutional Court has opened the way for Moldovan citizens to elect a new parliament," Sandu told a televised briefing.

The state of emergency, which was declared last month to help fight a surge in COVID-19 infections, had prevented Sandu from calling an election.

Sandu, who came to office in November on a pro-European Union ticket, has accused the pro-Moscow, Socialist-dominated parliament of sabotaging her reform agenda and repeatedly pushed for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe's poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with the European Union and, especially, neighboring EU member Romania.

Most of Moldova was part of Romania until World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and a majority of its population is ethnic Romanian.

With reporting by Reuters

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti says he will not attend a meeting meant to relaunch a dialogue with Serbia that was proposed by EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell during talks in Brussels with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The meeting was supposed to take place next week in Brussels.

"I will not be here in Brussels on May 11," Kurti told reporters in Brussels on April 28 after talks with EU officials.

Vucic on April 26 held talks with Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Kurti said he will attend a meeting organized by Borrell with regional leaders in mid-May instead.

"The future dialogue with Serbia must be well-prepared in advance and based on clear principles," Kurti said.

"Belgrade needs to face its past. We should not be obsessed with history, but we also cannot ignore history," he said, mentioning the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces during the 1998-99 conflict.

"Belgrade should distance itself from [former Serbian leader Slobodan] Milosevic's regime and not continue the old goals with new means," he told reporters.

Serbia was forced to cede control over Kosovo in 1999 after a U.S.-led NATO campaign ended Belgrade's crackdown against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian separatists. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 but Belgrade does not recognize it.

Most EU member states and the United States have recognized Kosovo's independence, but not Serbia's allies Russia and China.

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has increased from one minute to two hours per day the amount of time that can be spent outside by an editor of a student magazine, who along with three colleagues is accused of endangering minors over a video related to rallies against opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's incarceration.

Doxa magazine said on Telegram on April 28 that the Moscow City Court upheld a lower court decision to impose pretrial restrictions for Alla Gutnikova for two months, but mitigated the restrictions, ruling that she is allowed outside for two hours daily, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The court also allowed Gutnikova to move from her parents' apartment and stay at another address.

Two days earlier, the same court made similar rulings for Gutnikova's colleagues, Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, and Natalya Tyshkevich.

On April 14, a 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 Investigative Committee after their homes and the magazine's offices were searched over the video, which the magazine posted online in January.

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Editors At Moscow Student Magazine Detained Over Navalny Protest Video

The video questioned teachers warning 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 Navalny supporters 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.

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Russia Unveils A New Tactic To Deter Dissent: CCTV And A 'Knock On The Door,' Days Later

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 in Siberia in August 2020 that several European laboratories concluded was from a military-grade chemical nerve agent.

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 politically motivated.

His 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.

ASHGABAT -- Turkmen regional authorities have banned lines outside state stores that sell food at subsidized prices after Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Berdymukhammedov, the president's son, publicly said that "crowds near stores discredit" his father.

RFE/RL correspondents said that in the eastern city of Turkmenabat, an order was issued saying that lines at state stores could be no longer than four people long. Those who break the order will be removed from the line immediately and face possible arrest.

Government critics and human rights groups say President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the secretive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov.

Like his late predecessor, Berdymukhammedov has relied on subsidized prices for basic goods and utilities to help maintain his grip on power.

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The new ban was introduced amid an economic and food crisis and a dramatic increase in the number of people in need of subsidized food.

State grocery stores sell subsidized food from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. only. Each customer can buy a liter of cotton and sunflower oil, a kilogram of sugar, and a kilogram of rice per month in such shops. Sometimes the stores also sell eggs and chicken legs.

On April 13, in the southern city of Mary, about 1,000 people waited for hours to buy 2 kilograms of frozen meat each. One kilogram of the meat cost 36 manats, which is equal to $10 at the state-controlled rate and $1 on the black market.

Food shortages have been reported in the former Soviet republic for months. Customers are also forced to buy additional items at state stores, such as portraits of the president.

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Currency Collapse Mirrors Turkmenistan's Extreme Economic Woes

Turkmenistan has been caught up in an economic crisis over the past several years despite being home to the world's fourth-largest proven natural-gas resources.

The coronavirus pandemic has worsened the situation, though the government has denied both the economic crisis and the presence of COVID-19 in the country.

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

KYIV -- Ukraine's government has replaced the head of Naftogaz, the country's largest oil and gas company, after it posted a loss of nearly $700 million last year.

The government's press service said on April 28 that Andriy Kobolyev was dismissed from the post and acting Energy Minister Yuriy Vitrenko will take over the state-owned giant due to "unsatisfactory" results of the company's operations in 2020.

Deputy Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko will replace Vitrenko, the press service said.

Earlier in the day, a lawmaker representing the ruling Servant of the People party, Olha Vasylevska-Smahlyuk, wrote on Telegram that the government fired Kobolyev "at last."

Kobolyev, who led the energy giant for seven years, wrote on Facebook that he learned about his dismissal from the media and therefore could not comment on the situation.

Naftogaz, one of the country's largest companies by revenue, has long been the object of corrupt schemes by officials and oligarchs. The situation began to change after the 2014 upheaval that swept pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych from power.

Ukraine's Western backers tied financial aid to the country to concrete steps to clean up state companies such as Naftogaz, including calling for the creation of an independent supervisory board that would guard the company from political or oligarchic pressure.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- A giant mural of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny survived only a matter of hours before the authorities in Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown, St. Petersburg, painted over it.

In the work, Putin's most vocal critic is shown smiling and making the shape of a heart with his hands with the slogan "A hero of a new time" next to them.

The painting appeared overnight on a wall of a building in St. Petersburg's central Pushkarsky park. The artist of the mural is not known.

By early morning on April 28, police arrived at the scene, followed by a work crew, who quickly painted over the mural with mustard-colored paint.

"The beautiful St. Petersburg graffiti with Navalny was quickly painted over. This is how they transform everything 'alive' and beautiful into faceless and 'dead,'" Navalny lawyer Lyubov Sobol said on Twitter.

"We have Russia for happiness, they have it for despondency and stagnation."

Several people commented on Twitter that the police acted quicker in response to the picture than they do for violent crimes.

The incident comes a day before a court is expected to rule on a motion by prosecutors to label Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his regional offices as "extremist" organizations.

That proposal has been condemned by international and domestic human rights groups who say that if they're are labeled as "extremist," their employees and those passing on information about the groups could face arrest and lengthy prison terms.

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 2020.

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

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Navalny Groups Vow To Carry On After Moscow Court Suspends 'Certain Activities'

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 2 1/2-year sentence at a prison in the Vladimir region.

Navalny's incarceration sparked numerous protests across Russia, which were violently dispersed by police.

SOFIA -- The Russian envoy has been summoned to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry after the authorities launched an investigation into six citizens of Russia suspected of involvement in a series of blasts at four weapons and armament facilities in Bulgaria between 2011 and 2020.

"From the evidence gathered so far, it can be concluded with a high degree of reliability that the purpose of the actions of the Russian citizens was to cut off the supply of special products to Georgia and Ukraine," a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, Siika Mileva, said on April 28.

She also said that there was a "reasonable assumption" that these incidents are connected to the near-fatal poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in 2015 and an explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014.

"A reasonable assumption can be made about the relationship between the explosions on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, the poisoning of three Bulgarian citizens, and serious crimes committed on the territory of a foreign country," the spokeswoman said.

Following Mileva's announcement at a press conference, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry invited the Russian ambassador to the Balkan country to come to the ministry on April 29.

The Czech Republic earlier this month accused Russian GRU military intelligence of being behind an October 2014 explosion in the town of Vrbetice that set off 50 metric tons of stored ammunition and killed two people.

The Czech government later 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 solidarity, several NATO and EU members have followed by expelling Russian diplomats for alleged spying as well.

Russia has denied any involvement in the incidents in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

"Either the Bulgarian side knew nothing about this for the past 10 years and only now, after the Czech Republic announced the 2014 incident, decided to outshine the Czechs and look further back into history, or they knew about it for all this time but did not make it public for some reason," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on April 28.

During her press conference, which was also attended by Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev and the chairman of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), Dimitar Georgiev, Mileva said that "similarities" had been observed in the blasts that rocked the four warehouses and production facilities in Bulgaria.

In all four cases, in which no casualties were reported, the blasts were preceded by a fire while explosive devices were triggered remotely.

"In none of those cases has been identified any specific technical malfunction or any other cause of the fires. In all of the four cases, the destroyed goods were intended to be exported to Georgia and Ukraine."

In a statement, Gebrev's company, EMCO, denied that products destroyed in a November 2011 blast at its warehouse in Lovnodil were "intended for export anywhere, including Georgia."

"What has the Bulgarian prosecutor's office been doing all these years while investigating the explosions? Why is it trying to wash its hands with EMCO again, instead of looking for the real causes and culprits for these terrorist acts?" it asked.

Moscow recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states after Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August 2008 over the territory.

In eastern Ukraine, Russia backs separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.

According to Mileva, three Russians who are being sought over the murder attempt against Gebrev and two other Bulgarian citizens were "most likely" GRU agents.

The spokeswoman also said that the investigation had established that at least six Russians "identified as, or are believed to be GRU agents" were residing in Bulgaria around the dates of the blasts and the poisonings.

Russia has announced the expulsion of seven diplomats from Slovakia and the three Baltic states in a continuation of the diplomatic war sparked by Czech allegations that Russian spies were involved in a deadly arms depot explosion in 2014.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in statements on April 28 that the ambassadors of the four European nations had been informed that three officials at the Slovak Embassy in Moscow, two officials at the Lithuanian Embassy, and one official of each from the embassies of Latvia and Estonia had been ordered to leave Russia before May 5 for their "pseudo-solidarity" with the Czech Republic.

Earlier this month, the Czech Republic expelled scores of Russian diplomats over the accusations, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Moscow.

Last week, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia -- all former Soviet republics -- said they were expelling Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czechs, while Slovakia also told Russia three diplomats must leave the embassy in Bratislava over the allegations.

Lithuania said after the announcement that the two diplomats from its embassy "have never carried out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status."

"The Foreign Ministry also hopes that Russia will change its aggressive foreign policy, stop accusing other states of escalating the situation, and, finally, hear the messages sent to it by the Western community," it said in a statement.

All of the countries are members of the European Union and the NATO security alliance.

MINSK -- An associate of jailed Belarusian vlogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges he and his supporters have rejected as politically motivated.

The Lenin district court in the western city of Hrodna late on April 27 found 38-year-old Alyaksandr Aranovich guilty of plotting mass disorder and organizing activities that violate public order.

Judge Alena Pyatrova sentenced Aranovich the same day.

"The case is fabricated. No evidence was presented. I was not allowed to defend myself. Everything is being done to put me behind bars," Aranovich said in his final statement at the trial.

Aranovich was arrested in late May last year along with Tsikhanouski and several opposition politicians and activists after they campaigned across the country, demanding election officials allow independent candidates, including Tsikhanouski, to officially register to run in an August 9 presidential election.

The trials of Tsikhanouski and the others in the case are pending. Tsikhanouski has been charged with organizing mass disorder, incitement of social hatred, impeding the Central Election Commission's activities, and organizing activities that disrupt social order.

If convicted, Tsikhanouski may face up to 15 years in prison.

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.

Tsikhanouski was the owner of a popular YouTube channel called "The Country For Life," which challenges Belarusian authorities, when he announced his willingness to run against authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka early last year.

During the campaign, Tsikhanouski and his associates moved between towns and cities in a camper with a large inscription "The Country For Life" that was driven by Aranovich.

Before his arrest, Tsikhanouski's candidacy was rejected by election officials.

His wife Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya took over during the campaign and ran as a candidate in the presidential poll, rising to become the main challenger to Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994.

The European Union and the United States have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus after he claimed a landslide victory in the election that has been widely criticized as rigged.

The results have sparked months of mass protests and have been contested by Tsikhanouskaya, whose supporters claim she won the vote, as well as opposition figures across the country.

Lukashenka has overseen a violent crackdown on the protesters which has seen thousands -- including media members -- detained and scores injured.

Overall, more than 1,800 criminal cases have been launched over the protests against the official results of the presidential election.

Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus immediately after the vote fearing for her family's security. She currently lives in Lithuania with her children. Most leading opposition figures have been forced from the country, while many of those still in Belarus have been detained by law enforcement.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has said that the leak of a recording of the country’s foreign minister making frank comments about the limits of his power sought to “create divisions" during talks aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The Intelligence Ministry “must to do its best to find out how this tape was stolen,” Rohani said during a weekly cabinet meeting on April 28.

"We can only lift sanctions through unity," he added.

Ongoing talks in Vienna seek to return the United States to the 2015 agreement, and persuade Tehran to come back into compliance with the nuclear obligations set out in the accord.

The deal, hammered out during Rohani's first term following negotiations led by Zarif, lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. But the accord started to unravel in 2018 when former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of it and reimposed sanctions, followed by Iran beginning to ramp up nuclear activities in response a year later.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s comments in the three-hour-long audio clip -- in which he said the Iranian army and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were too influential in diplomacy -- have dominated the discussion in Iran since its publication by media outlets outside Iran on April 25, and sparked a furious reaction from conservative media and politicians.

Among other things, Zarif complained about the extent of influence that the late Major General Qasem Soleimani had over foreign policy, hinting that the top IRGC commander tried to spoil Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers by colluding with Russia. Solemani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, greatly intensifying tensions between the United States and Iran.

In his first public comments on the controversy, Zarif said on April 28 that the "main point" of his remarks was "the need for a smart adjustment of the military and diplomatic spheres."

In a post on Instagram, which included video of him at a Soleimani memorial in Baghdad, the minister said he also saw a need for "setting priorities through legal structures and under the great purview of the supreme leader."

Zarif said he deplored the fact that “a secret theoretical talk regarding the need for synergy between diplomacy and the [military] field...turns into domestic infighting."

"Honest and passionate" argument in a private setting had been misconstrued as "personal criticism," the minister wrote.

Rohani said the recording was part of a wider project of interviews with government officials for posterity as he steps down in June after two terms in office.

The previous day, a government spokesman called the leak “a conspiracy against the government, the system, the integrity of effective domestic institutions, and also against our national interests."

The Foreign Ministry had described the recording as “selectively” edited, and said it represented just a portion of a seven-hour interview that included "personal opinions."

Meanwhile, the Tehran prosecutor's office said it had opened a criminal case into the matter, Fars reported.

According to another semiofficial news agency, ISNA, the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has summoned Zarif.

With reporting by AFP and AP

A court in northwestern Russia is set to deliver its verdict on April 28 in the case against an activist accused of “distributing pornography” for sharing a video by the German rock band Rammstein in 2014.

Amnesty International called the case against Andrei Borovikov, who faces three years in prison if convicted, as “utterly absurd,” saying he was being “punished solely for his activism, not his musical taste.”

Borovikov was formerly the coordinator of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s Arkhangelsk regional headquarters.

Describing Borovikov’s prosecution as “a mockery of justice,” the London-based human rights group’s Moscow office director, Natalia Zviagina, called for all charges against him to be dropped.

“The Russian authorities should be focusing on turning around the spiraling human rights crisis they have created, not devising ludicrous new ways of prosecuting and silencing their critics,” Zviagina said in a statement ahead of the verdict.

In 2014, Borovikov shared a music video for Rammstein’s song titled Pussy on the Russian social network VKontakte.

More than six years later, in September 2020, the activist was charged with “production and distribution of pornography.”

Prosecutors have requested a three-year sentence in a high security penal colony if Borovikov is found guilty by the Lomonosovsky District Court in Arkhangelsk.

“This is not the first time the Russian authorities have used an overbroad definition of ‘pornography’ as a pretext for locking up their critics,” Zviagina said, citing the case of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT activist from Russia's Far East who stood trial earlier this month on pornography charges over her drawings of women’s bodies.

“It is astonishing that cases like this even make it to court,” Zviagina said.

The music video posted by Borovikov came to the authorities’ attention six months ago when a former volunteer at his office informed the police. Amnesty International said it suspected the volunteer was employed as an agent provocateur to help fabricate the case.

The prosecution said the video had been seen by “not fewer than two people” and ordered “a sexological and cultural examination” of the clip, before experts found it to be of “pornographic nature” and “not containing artistic value.”

Rammstein are no strangers to controversy.

In Belarus, the Council for Public Morals in 2010 protested against Rammstein's concerts in the country that year, saying the band's shows were "open propaganda of homosexuality, masochism, and other forms of perversions, violence, cruelty, and vulgarism."

In 2019, a man in Belarus was charged with producing and distributing pornographic materials for posting a clip in 2014 of the band's video Pussy, which showed graphic sex scenes.

That same year, a video for the group's song Deutschland showed band members dressed as concentration camp prisoners, sparking outrage, especially among Jewish groups.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince struck a softer tone toward Iran in a television interview broadcast late on April 27 in which he also said that Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration agreed on most issues of mutual concern.

"Iran is a neighboring country, and all we aspire for is a good and special relationship with Iran," Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman said.

"We do not want Iran's situation to be difficult. On the contrary, we want Iran to grow...and to push the region and the world towards prosperity."

Riyadh has been working with regional and global partners to find solutions to Tehran's "negative behavior," he added.

The two countries cut ties in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following the kingdom's execution of a revered Shi'ite cleric. They also back opposite sides in the war in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia is battling the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

Prince Salman’s comments were a change in tone from previous interviews in which he lashed out at Tehran, accusing it of fueling regional insecurity.

The prince did not mention any negotiations with Tehran, but there have been reports of secret direct talks taking place this month in Baghdad between the two countries.

Sources quoted by news agencies have confirmed the talks, but neither Saudi Arabia nor Iran have publicly confirmed or denied the talks.

The diplomacy comes amid an effort to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that the United States withdrew from in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.

The prince said Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration agree on 90 percent of issues of mutual concern and disagree on the rest, but he did not elaborate.

The prince's standing with Washington remains damaged by the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after the Saudi journalist grew critical of the crown prince.

U.S. intelligence concluded that the crown prince had approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, but Saudi officials had said his death was the result of a "rogue operation" and was not state sanctioned.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview in March that he had "made it clear" to the prince’s father, 85-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz, "that things were going to change" in the relationship, though he also reaffirmed the decades-old alliance of their two countries.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Human rights watchdog Freedom House is warning of an "antidemocratic turn" in Europe and Eurasia, saying that elected leaders in many countries are undermining democratic institutions in order to stay in power while they promote “alternative authoritarian governance.”

Nations In Transit 2021, the annual report on the state of democracy by the Washington-based group, singles out Hungary and Poland as the worst offenders in the European Union.

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It says both countries have seen “unparalleled democratic deterioration over the past decade.”

But the report also warns that the majority of countries Freedom House evaluated “are currently worse off than they were 10 years ago.”

Russia and Belarus are categorized as “consolidated authoritarian regimes” with intensifying repression during the past year.

Freedom House says: “The violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Belarus, the Kremlin’s attempted murder of anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and the Russian military’s recent show of force along the borders of Ukraine demonstrate the lengths to which these regimes are willing to go to stay in power.”

Armenia’s democratic rating regressed during the past year, marking “the first time its democracy has lost ground since the 2018 Velvet Revolution” in Yerevan, the report says.

Low Point

Georgia’s score returned to where it had been in 2011, “the last year before the current ruling party replaced an unpopular and increasingly repressive government,” it says.

The report says Kyrgyzstan had a “jarring return to strongman rule” under President Sadyr Japarov after previously making progress toward democratic governance -- leaving its score “slightly lower than in 2010, the year of its last revolution.”

“In Ukraine, the government’s reform efforts continued to meet with strong resistance from entrenched interests during 2020,” it says.

Freedom House said that “signs of hope” included Uzbekistan and North Macedonia, which “experienced the greatest democratic progress in 2020.”

It also noted that Bosnia-Herzegovina’s democracy score improved for the first time since 2006 as a result of “a major step forward for local democratic governance” -- the first municipal elections in the city of Mostar since 2008.

Nevertheless, Freedom House concludes that “the overall strength of democracy” across Europe and Eurasia has declined for 17 consecutive years.

“The number of countries classified as democracies has sunk to its lowest point since the report was first launched in 1995,” the report says.

Zselyke Csaky, Freedom House’s research director for Europe and Eurasia, says the region’s decline is especially troubling “in the context of 15 consecutive years of democratic deterioration at the global level.”

“Authoritarianism is not a purely national problem, but one that can spread to infect entire regions and even continents,” Csaky says. “European democracies and civil society groups must coordinate in support of pro-democracy movements in countries where authoritarianism in gaining ground.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the Ukrainian military to remain on alert despite Russia's drawdown of its troops from the country's borders, saying they could return "at any moment."

Kyiv has been battling Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

A Russian troop buildup in recent weeks near Ukraine's northern and eastern borders and in Crimea has raised concerns of a major escalation of the conflict in Kyiv and in the West.

But on April 23, Moscow announced that it had started withdrawing its armed forces.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Orders Troops Back To Permanent Bases After Drills In Annexed Crimea

"The fact the troops are withdrawing doesn't mean the army should not be ready for the possibility troops could return to our borders any moment," Zelenskiy said while visiting Ukrainian military positions near Crimea on April 27 .

In Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the troop pullback had nothing to do with Western pressure, adding that Moscow will continue doing what is necessary to protect itself.

Shoigu also voiced concern about the presence of NATO forces near Russia.

"Some even warned us that our activities on our own territory will have consequences," Shoigu said on April 27. "I would like to emphasize that we don't see such warnings as acceptable and will do everything that is necessary to ensure the security of our borders."

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said this week that Washington had registered movements of some Russian troops away from Ukraine's borders, but added that it was "too soon to tell" whether Russia was pulling back all forces.

A cease-fire that took hold in July has been unravelling recently, with clashes sharply increasing between Ukrainian forces and separatists.

Around 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the year compared with 50 in all of last year, while the separatists have reported at least 20 military deaths.

On April 27, the Ukrainian Army reported one soldier killed and three others wounded after their vehicle hit a mine.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

Ukraine's SBU security service says it has arrested a local resident suspected of planning a Russian-ordered cyberattack on Ukrainian state institutions.

"The attack targeted central and local governments, and the aim was to block the operation of information and critical infrastructure facilities," an SBU statement said.

STB operatives ”established that the special services of the Russian Federation acted through a resident of [the southeastern Ukrainian city of] Zaporizhzhya,” the statement said.

The SBU said the hacker was meant to send a disguised file containing spyware to Ukrainian officials.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, the SBU said it had prevented a large cyberattack by Russian hackers aimed at classified government data.

Ukraine has previously accused Russia of orchestrating cyberattacks as part of a "hybrid war" against Ukraine. Russia denies this.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been tense since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its involvement in a conflict in Ukraine's east.

Kyiv, its Western allies and NATO have accused Russia of a provocative troop buildup on Ukraine's eastern border and in Crimea.

With reporting by Reuters

The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the ambassadors of Slovakia and the three Baltic states on April 28, Russian news agencies said on April 27 without reporting a reason.

The prime ministers of Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary said on April 26 that they supported the Czech Republic's expulsion of Russian diplomats after Prague said it suspected two Russian spies were behind a 2014 explosion at a Czech arms depot that killed two people.

On April 22, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined a fast-growing list of NATO and EU members demanding the removal of Russian diplomats for alleged spying, while Romania on April 23 announced the expulsion of one Russian diplomat, the latest European country to do so amid the diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Prague.

Based on reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax

MINSK -- Belarusian authorities expect to hold a referendum early next year on the constitutional amendments promised by authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid mass protests after a presidential election last year that opposition leaders and the West say was rigged.

The chairwoman of Belarus's Central Election Commission, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, said in an interview with Russia's RIA Novosti news agency on April 27 that the referendum is likely to be held in January or February 2022 and not by the end of this year as some media reports have said.

She added that, if the referendum were to be held alongside local elections, the most likely date for the poll would be January 16.

Lukashenka's opponents have expressed doubts about the amendments, calling them a sham exercise to help him to cling to power after the opposition rejected his victory in an August 9 presidential election.

Earlier in February, at a Soviet-style "All-Belarusian People's Assembly," Lukashenka, 66, reiterated an idea he started pushing in December that the Belarusian Constitution needed unspecified amendments.

In mid-March, he signed a decree to create of a commission on constitutional amendments which will, by August 1, outline the amendments and present them to Lukashenka.

Opposition and public outrage over what they saw as a rigged vote in the presidential election has sparked continuous protests, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets with demands for Lukashenka to step down and new elections to be held.

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Belarusian Opposition Looks To Reenergize Protests Against Lukashenka

Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

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 of those detained.

Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.

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

With reporting by RIA Novosti

Ukraine has declared the Russian consul in the Black Sea port city of Odesa as 'persona non grata' after a second Ukrainian diplomat was kicked out of Russia in an ongoing diplomatic spat between the two countries.

The consul must leave the country by April 30 at the latest, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 27.

Amid already heightened tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, the latest diplomatic row was sparked by the arrest and subsequent expulsion of a Ukrainian consul earlier this month in St. Petersburg.

Russian authorities accused the diplomat of trying to acquire personal data from secret service agents.

In return, Kyiv expelled a Russian diplomat, prompting Moscow to respond by expelling a second Ukrainian on April 26.

"We completely reject the unsubstantiated allegations that the declared "persona non grata" Ukrainian diplomat allegedly engaged in activities incompatible with diplomatic status. The employee of the Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow did not carry out any actions that would go beyond his diplomatic and consular functions," the Ukrainian statement said.

"If the Russian side continues to provoke against employees of diplomatic missions of Ukraine in Russia, we reserve the right to take further action in response," it added.

Tense ties since Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 and Russia's backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine have been recently heightened by a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine and military drills in the annexed region.

For years, neither Russia nor Ukraine have had ambassadors in each other's capital.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AFP

A Russian government regulator has slapped a fine of more than $12 million on U.S. tech giant Apple for "abusing" its dominant market position by giving preference to its own applications.

"Apple was found to have abused its dominant position in the iOS distribution market through a series of sequential actions which resulted in a competitive advantage for its own products," the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) said in a statement on April 27.

"On April 26, 2021, the FAS of Russia imposed a turnover fine on Apple Inc of 906.3 million rubles ($12.1 million) for violating anti-monopoly legislation," the statement said.

FAS said the decision came after ruling in favor of a complaint brought against Apple by cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab.

Apple told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on April 27 that it "respects the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service of Russia, but does not agree with the decision" and is appealing the ruling.

The move by FAS comes after Moscow earlier this month enforced controversial legislation demanding that smartphones, tablets, and computers sold in the country come with pre-installed domestic software and apps in what was described by authorities as an effort to promote Russia's tech companies.

However, critics say the measure, which requires all devices with Internet access sold in the country to have pre-installed approved software produced by Russian firms, is the latest attempt to tighten state control over the Internet.

Failure to observe the new requirements will result in fines starting in July.

Western technology firms have been facing increasing scrutiny in Russia in recent months under the pretext of fighting extremism and protecting minors.

Twitter has been punitively slowed down over a failure to delete content authorities said is illegal, while Google, Facebook, and TikTok have all come under fire.

In 2019, Russia passed legislation on the development of a "sovereign Internet" network that would cut off the country's access to the World Wide Web, a move critics say is meant to muzzle free speech.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Prosecutors have asked the Moscow City Court to hand down prison terms ranging between 7 years and 16 years to five former police officers suspected in the illegal apprehension of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov in 2019.

One of the defendants' lawyers, Aleksei Gubkin, said on April 27 that the prosecutor in the high-profile case asked the court to sentence the former chief of the Moscow police's illegal drugs department, Igor Lyakhovets, to 16 years, his ex-subordinates Maksim Umbetbayev, Roman Feofanov, and Akbar Segaliyev to 12 years, and Denis Konovalov to 7 years in prison.

The trial is being held behind closed doors.

The five ex-police officers were arrested in late January 2020 and charged later with the abuse of service duties, the falsification of evidence, and the illegal handling of drugs.

In September, the suspects were additionally charged with "committing a crime in an organized group," which carries stricter penalties.

Golunov, 38, who works for the Latvia-based information outlet Meduza, was arrested in June 2019 in Moscow for allegedly attempting to sell illegal drugs.

He was released several days later after the charges were dropped following a public outcry.

SEE ALSO:

Kremlin Climbdown On Golunov An 'Isolated' Success For Civil Society

The case sparked an investigation into Golunov's detention and also into why he suffered bruises, cuts, a concussion, and a broken rib during the ordeal.

The police officers who detained Golunov were later fired along with their supervisor for violating the journalist's rights.

After Golunov’s release, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired Major General Yury Devyatkin, the head of the Moscow police department's drug control directorate, and Major General Andrei Puchkov, the police chief in Moscow's West administrative region, over the case.

SEE ALSO:

Putin Fires Two Moscow Police Generals Over Golunov Drug Case

Authorities announced in November 2019 that the case had been classified, a decision harshly criticized by Golunov's lawyers, who called the move an attempt to cover up the "wrongful arrest" of their client.

In a rare move, the Prosecutor's Office of Moscow's Western District apologized to Golunov in February 2020 for his illegal prosecution.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- An activist arrested in January in Kazakhstan’s southern city of Shymkent for alleged ties with two banned opposition groups has started a hunger strike.

Nurzhan Mukhammedov's wife, Baghila Tekebaeva, told RFE/RL that her husband started the hunger strike on April 27, demanding that the charges against him -- of being associated with the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and the Koshe (Street) party -- be dropped.

"My husband has insisted that he has no ties with the DVK and the Koshe party. He is angry that he has been kept under arrest for four months now," Tekebaeva said.

Separately on April 27, a court in Kazakhstan's southern town of Qapshaghai rejected a request for early release filed by the activist Almat Zhumaghulov, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after a court convicted him and two others of planning a "holy war" because they were spreading the ideas of DVK.

Several activists in the Central Asian nation have been handed prison sentences or parole-like sentences in recent years for their support or involvement in the activities of the DVK and its associate, Koshe party, as well as for taking part in unsanctioned rallies organized by the two groups.

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

Kazakh authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.

TBILISI -- Popular Georgian actor Kakhi Kavsadze, who was well-known in the former Soviet Union, has died at the age of 85 of complications caused by COVID-19.

Media reports cited Kavsadze's friends as saying that the actor died on April 27 at the First University Hospital in Tbilisi.

Kavsadze was initially hospitalized with the coronavirus in late November and released in December after his health improved.

But in February, he was hospitalized again with pneumonia symptoms and had been treated in the hospital since then.

Kavsadze was a leading actor at Tbilisi's Shota Rustaveli Theater. He had played roles in many theater performances and more than 80 films since 1957.

He gained prominence across the Soviet Union after he played the role of Black Abdulla in the extremely popular movie White Sun Of The Desert in 1970.

His other notable work included roles in movies such as Melodies Of Vera Quarter, The Wishing Tree, Repentance, Lives Of Don Quixote And Sancho, and A Chef In Love.