Bulgaria is heading for fresh elections after the Socialists became the third party to fail to form a government following parliamentary elections on April 4.

The Socialists, who came in third place in the election, said on May 1 that they would return the mandate to form a government to President Rumen Radev on May 5.

The announcement came after both the center-right GERB party of outgoing, three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the new anti-establishment party, There Is Such a People (TSN), led by television personality Slavi Trifonov, also gave up trying to form a government.

Under the constitution, if the national assembly fails to form a cabinet after three attempts, the president should dissolve parliament, appoint a caretaker government, and schedule an early election within two months.

The most likely date for a new election is July 11.

While Borisov's GERB came in first in the election, frustration over endemic corruption and poverty cut support for the party to 26 percent.

The TSN, which came in second with 18 percent of the vote, and two other anti-establishment parties made inroads, although the three together lack a majority in the chamber.

The political uncertainty comes as Bulgaria prepares to spend billions of euros from the EU's coronavirus recovery fund and chart a path out of the pandemic.

Parties to the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran wrapped up a third round of talks on May 1 focused on bringing the United States and Iran back into full compliance with the deal, with negotiators in Vienna giving contrasting accounts of the tasks ahead.

Senior officials from China, Germany, France, Russia, Britain, and Iran said they would adjourn until May 7.

European diplomats from the so-called E3 -- France, Britain, and Germany -- said the talks had moved slowly.

"We have much work, and little time, left. Against that background, we would have hoped for more progress this week," E3 diplomats said in a statement.

Officials have said they hope to reach a deal by May 21, when an agreement between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog on continued monitoring of some Iranian nuclear activities is due to expire.

"We have yet to come to an understanding on the most critical points. Success is by no means guaranteed, but not impossible," they added.

The talks are focused on creating a road map for Washington to lift its sanctions on Iran and Tehran to reinstate restrictions on its nuclear program.

Iran's delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, reiterated that Tehran expects the United States to lift sanctions across a range of sectors, including oil, banks, and most individuals and institutions.

"There are differences, big ones in fact, but since there has also been progress, we will continue negotiations next week," Araqchi told Iranian media. "We will negotiate until the two sides' positions come closer and our demands are met," he said.

"If they are met there will be an agreement, if not there will naturally be no agreement," he added.

Earlier, U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said the talks were in "an unclear place.”

"We've seen willingness of all sides, including the Iranians, to talk seriously about sanctions relief restrictions and a pathway back into the JCPOA," Sullivan said at an April 30 security event, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the nuclear deal.

SEE ALSO:

Progress Made At Iran Nuclear Talks, But More 'Hard Work' Needed, EU Envoy Says

Russia's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters a breakthrough would require more diplomacy.

"We need simply to continue diplomatic, day-to-day work, and we have all the reasons to expect that the outcome, [the] final outcome, will be successful and it will come quite soon, in a few weeks," said Ulyanov, who is one of the more optimistic voices at the talks.

The talks began last month in Vienna with the remaining parties to the deal. The United States does not have a representative at the table because it left the deal, but European diplomats are acting as intermediaries between the Iranian and U.S. delegations.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he wants to rejoin the deal his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, reimposing sanctions against Tehran. Iran responded as of 2019 by breaching many of the deal's limits on its nuclear activities.

The Biden administration is considering a rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions in a bid to get Iran to come back into compliance with the nuclear agreement, according to information from current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

Outside the talks in Vienna, other challenges remain.

Sabotage suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck Iran's Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage. Tehran retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60 percent purity, the highest level that Iran has reached.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

Ukraine's capital has eased tough lockdown measures imposed in March to prevent the rapid spread of the new coronavirus.

Starting on May 1, Kyiv authorities have allowed cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, and sports clubs to reopen, and they have also permitted the operation of transport services without restrictions, although the numbers of passengers and customers will be limited.

Wearing masks remains mandatory in transport and public places.

Schools and kindergartens are to open their doors from May 5, officials said.

In March, city authorities closed schools and kindergartens, theaters, and shopping centers, while cafes and restaurants were only allowed to provide takeaway food.

Kyiv public transport is now operating on special passenger passes for those working for critical infrastructure enterprises.

Despite the measures, Kyiv recorded some of highest numbers of new infections among Ukrainian regions in April, but new cases have dropped significantly over the past week.

Ukraine has registered more than 2 million infections and over 44,400 deaths since the pandemic started last year.

Based on reporting by Reuters and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

The supervisory board of Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz is resigning following the government's decision to replace the firm's CEO – a move that has raised concerns among Kyiv’s Western backers.

On April 28, the government announced the dismissal of Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogaz’s chief since 2014, citing the "unsatisfactory" results of the company’s operations last year, when it posted a loss of nearly $700 million.

The supervisory board, which was temporarily suspended in order to dismiss Kobolyev, issued a statement on April 30 saying that all its members were submitting notice of their resignations, effective from May 14.

"The Supervisory Board will use the coming two weeks of its notice period to help the Company as much as it can to deliver an orderly transition and will inform the Shareholder in detail early next week," the statement said.

The unexpected move to fire Kobolyev threatens to complicate talks to access a $5-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, with Ukraine’s international partners warning that integrity and transparency in such decisions were key to maintaining confidence in the country’s commitment to reform.

SEE ALSO:

Head Of Ukrainian Energy Giant Naftogaz Replaced

The European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation said in a joint statement on April 30 that they were "seriously concerned" about recent events at Naftogaz.

"We call upon the leadership of Ukraine to ensure that crucial management decisions at state-owned enterprises are taken in full accordance with the basic tenets of recognised corporate governance standards," they said.

The U.S. State Department earlier said that the "calculated move" showed "disregard for fair and transparent corporate governance practices."

The matter is set to be on the agenda when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Ukraine on May 5-6.

SEE ALSO:

Blinken To Visit Ukraine Amid Russia's 'Ongoing Aggression'

Ukraine’s western backers tied financial aid for the country to concrete steps to clean up state enterprises such as Naftogaz, one of the country's largest companies by revenue.

Naftogaz has long been the object of corruption schemes by officials and oligarchs, but the situation began to change after the 2014 upheaval that swept pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych from power.

Naftogaz’s new CEO, Yuriy Vitrenko, told reporters on April 30 that the concerns of international partners were "understandable" and "a number of problems needed to be resolved."

The company needed to return to profit, said Vitrenko, who was serving as acting energy minister before his appointment.

Naftogaz has said the 2020 loss reflected lower demand, lower gas prices, and provisions for bad debts.

Kobolyev's moves toward transparency won him support among Western investors and donors.

He was credited with overseeing an energy overhaul that helped Ukraine to narrow its budget deficit, and leading the former Soviet republic to a multibillion-dollar win in a legal dispute with Russian energy giant Gazprom in 2018.

He also faced criticism for increases in heating costs.

With reporting by Reuters

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have agreed to a troop pullback and what they termed a complete cease-fire following some of the worst clashes in decades along a section of disputed border that left more than 40 people dead, including civilians, and dozens wounded.

The heads of national security for the two neighboring Central Asian countries agreed to the pullback during a meeting on May 1.

"The tragedy that happened in the border area must never happen again," Saimumin Yatimov, the head of Tajikistan's State National Security Committee, said as he stood next to his Kyrgyz counterpart, Kamchybek Tashiev.

The announcement came after delegations from both countries met in the Batken region following a telephone conversation between Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with his counterparts in both countries, urging them to stick to the cease-fire agreement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan both host Russian military bases.

Meanwhile, tensions reportedly remain high in the area.

SEE ALSO:

Conflict On The Kyrgyz-Tajik Border Moves From Sticks And Stones To Bullets And Bombs

On May 1, RFE/RL reporters on the Kyrgyz side of the border said that they heard occasional shooting and saw Tajik forces blocking a road connecting Kyrgyzstan's Batken and Leilek districts.

The Kyrgyz Border Service said it had registered Tajik military equipment moving in the direction of the border, after a cease-fire announced late on April 29 appeared to have put an end to some 24 hours of fighting.

The Kyrgyz Border Service also accused Tajik troops of firing on homes that had been evacuated in the Leilek district. It said this occurred as Kyrgyz border troops took up defensive positions.

However, a top official in the Tajik district of Bobojon Gafurov, which borders the Leilek district, denied that Tajik troops had opened fire in the area. He also denied that any roads had been blocked.

"The roads are all open, there are no obstacles to movement," Akbar Yusufi told RFE/RL.

The violence, the worst and most widespread fighting the region has seen since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, began on April 28 after a violent dispute between residents on both sides of the border over the installation of surveillance cameras at a water-distribution point near Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave drew in security forces from both countries.

Kyrgyzstan says 34 of its citizens were killed, including a girl born in 2008, and 163 were injured. Authorities said some 20,000 people, mainly women and children, were evacuated from villages near the border.

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Tajikistan, an authoritarian state with tight control over the flow of information, said that nine of its citizens were wounded. Two of them were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, officials said.

However, an RFE/RL correspondent based in the area identified 15 Tajik citizens killed in the clashes, including seven servicemen.

Both sides blamed each other for the escalation.

Earlier on May 1, Japarov signed a decree declaring a two-day period of national mourning for victims of the violence, during which national flags will fly at half-mast across the country and at its diplomatic missions abroad.

Cultural institutions, as well as television and radio channels were asked to cancel entertainment events and programs.

In Tajikistan, a prayer for peace was read in mosques across the country during the previous evening.

Mahmud Sangaliev, a representative of Tajikistan's Council of Ulema, told RFE/RL that the prayer called for the preservation of calm in the border areas and "mutual understanding with neighbors."

Like many other border areas in Central Asia, almost half of the 970-kilometer long Kyrgyz-Tajik border has not been demarcated, leading to tensions for the past 30 years.

The European Union and the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) urged Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on April 30 to respect the cease-fire.

Peter Stano, the lead spokesman for the European Union's foreign affairs and security policy, said that both sides should "undertake all the necessary steps to avoid any conflict in the future."

"The EU stands ready to provide, if needed, technical assistance through its regional programs dealing with border management and water management, as well as continued political support for a stability and prosperity in the region," Stano said in a statement.

Calling the situation along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border "alarming," Helga Maria Schmid, the secretary-general of the OSCE, said the cease-fire agreement between Dushanbe and Bishkek was "a step in the right direction."

"I encourage adherence to #OSCE commitments through continued efforts and negotiations to further de-escalate the situation," she tweeted.

Human Rights Watch said that the burning of "scores of houses" and the reported use of "explosive weapons with wide-area effects" during the fighting should prompt Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to "immediately investigate civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian property, with a view to holding those responsible for serious laws-of-war violations to account, and provide appropriate remedies to civilians."

North Macedonia will expand its COVID-19 immunization program next week after the small Balkan nation received a first shipment of 200,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine on April 30.

Health Minister Venko Filipce said the new vaccine push would start on May 4 and aim to deliver about 15,000 shots daily.

North Macedonia has struggled to get its vaccination program off the ground since it began in February, with only 60,000 people in the country of 2 million having received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines.

The 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines arrived by trucks from neighboring Serbia and would be followed by another 100,000 doses donated by China, Filipce said.

About 500,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac shot and 26,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses are also expected to arrive in May.

Filipce said that by the beginning of the summer a high percentage of the population should be vaccinated, which would help change the trajectory of the pandemic in the country.

China has used millions of doses of both its main vaccines domestically and has exported them to many countries, particularly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on April 30 that it expects to release its assessments for emergency-use listing of the two main Chinese vaccines for COVID-19 by next week.

If approved, China's two vaccines would be the first developed in a non-Western country to receive the WHO's backing. So far, the WHO has given emergency approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

A court in Belarus has sentenced 14 people to stiff prison terms for taking part in "mass disorder" amid nationwide protests against the disputed results of last year’s election.

A court in the western city of Brest on April 30 sentenced the defendants to between 5 ½ and 6 ½ years in prison in a widely watched case over their participation in rallies in the city of Pinsk. Most of those sentenced in the Pinsk case were accused of throwing objects at police and destroying property.

The Vyasna human rights monitor categorizes the 14 as political prisoners.

The rallies in Pinsk were part of mass demonstrations that swept across Belarus in the wake of an August election that gave authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.

Tens of thousands have since been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and media quashed in a crackdown that has forced most leading opposition figures into exile.

The Belarusian opposition, the EU, and the United States consider the election fraudulent and don’t recognize the results.

With reporting by Current Time

Russia has barred eight officials from European Union countries from entering the country in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russian citizens by Brussels -- a move to which the bloc said it "reserves the right" to respond.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 30 that those banned included European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova, and David Sassoli, the president of the European parliament.

The EU imposed sanctions last month on two Russians accused of persecuting gay and lesbian people in the southern Russian region of Chechnya.

The EU also imposed sanctions on four senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin the same month.

Russia once again criticized the bloc's punitive measures and accused it of fomenting anti-Russian "hysteria."

"The EU continues the policy of illegitimate unilateral sanctions against Russian citizens and organizations," the statement said.

"In March 2021, six Russians were subjected to unlawful EU restrictions. This practice contradicts the UN charter and the basic norms of international law. It is accompanied by anti-Russian hysteria, deliberately spread by the Western media," it said.

Berlin's chief state prosecutor Joerg Raupach is also on the list, an apparent tit-for-tat response to the bloc's decision last month to slap entry bans on high-ranking Russian officials for their role in the jailing of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

The other five Europeans on the list are Ivars Abolins, the head of Latvia's national council for electronic media; Maris Baltins, the director of Latvia's state language center; Jacques Maire, a member of the French delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE); Asa Scott, the head of the chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear safety lab at the Swedish Total Defense Research Institute; and Ilmar Tomusk, the chief of the Language Department of Estonia.

The statement says that the actions of the bloc "leave no doubt that their true goal is to restrain the development of our country at any cost."

In response, the EU called the Russian move "unacceptable" and "entirely groundless" and condemned it "in the strongest possible terms" in a statement on April 30.

"This decision is the latest, striking demonstration of how the Russian Federation has chosen confrontation with the EU instead of agreeing to redress the negative trajectory of our bilateral relations," the statement said.

"The EU reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response to the Russian authorities' decision."

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

TASHKENT -- Uzbek blogger and rights activist Miraziz Bazarov, who was severely beaten by unknown attackers in March, has been put under house arrest after being released from the hospital.

Bazarov's lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, told RFE/RL that his client was immediately taken to the Tashkent City Main Directorate of Interior Affairs after he was released from hospital on April 29.

According to Mayorov, Bazarov is under house arrest on charges of libel and public insult. The case against Bazarov was launched last week after teachers at Tashkent school No. 110 filed a lawsuit against him over a video placed by the blogger on the Internet last October.

"In the video, Bazarov says 'school is a place where slaves and losers teach children to become slaves and losers' and that became the basis of the lawsuit," Mayorov said.

Representatives from the school's administration were not available for immediate comment.

The school was renovated by a well-known Russian tycoon of Uzbek origin, Alisher Usmanov. Earlier in April, it was at the center of a scandal after Shahnoza Soatova, an adviser to the justice minister, said that the school administration measured the height of students' socks as part of the "struggle against LGBT ideas."

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Bazarov. 29, was hospitalized in late March after he was severely attacked by unknown men hours after a public event he organized was disrupted by dozens of aggressive men in the Uzbek capital.

Bazarov is known for his criticism of the Uzbek government on his Telegram channel.

Among other issues, Bazarov has also publicly urged the government to decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct, which is still legally considered a crime in Uzbekistan.

Bazarov has openly said he is not an LGBT activist, but believes that being gay is a personal issue and therefore there should be no laws against it.

Bazarov has also criticized President Shavkat Mirziyoev for insufficient anti-corruption efforts, and has questioned the efficiency of ongoing restrictions to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Last summer, Bazarov was questioned by State Security Service investigators after he called on the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank on Facebook not to provide loans to Uzbekistan without strict control over how the funds are used.

Bazarov had told RFE/RL that he had received many online threats before the attack. He said had informed the police of this, but law enforcement did not take any action.

Kyiv’s Western backers have raised deep concerns over the Ukrainian government's unexpected decision to replace the head of state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz.

The government said on April 28 that Andriy Kobolyev, Naftogaz’s chief since 2014, was dismissed from the post due to "unsatisfactory" results of the company’s operations last year, when it posted a loss of nearly $700 million.

The move threatens to complicate talks to access a $5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Peter Stano, the lead spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said Brussels had "serious concerns" over the decision, and called on “the leadership of Ukraine to ensure that the management decisions at state-owned enterprises are taken in full accordance with basic tenets of recognized corporate governance standards.”

The U.S. State Department earlier said the "calculated move" showed "disregard for fair and transparent corporate governance practices."

"Unfortunately, these actions are just the latest example of ignoring best practices and putting Ukraine's hard-fought economic progress at risk," spokesman Ned Price told reporters on April 29.

He added that the United States “will continue to support Ukraine in strengthening its institutions, including advancing democratic institutions and corporate governance reforms, but Ukraine's leaders must do their part."

Ambassadors from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations said in a tweet that “effective management and governance of state-owned enterprises, free from political interference, is crucial to Ukraine’s competitiveness, prosperity, and Ukraine fulfilling its international commitments.”

Kobolyev’s moves toward transparency won him support among Western investors and donors.

He was credited for overseeing an energy overhaul that helped Ukraine to narrow its budget deficit, and leading the former Soviet republic to a multibillion-dollar win in a legal dispute with Russian energy giant Gazprom in 2018.

He also faced criticism for increases of heating costs.

His successor, Yuriy Vitrenko, said on April 30 that Naftogaz will continue to cooperate with international partners and that the company needed to return to profit.

Vitrenko was serving as acting energy minister before his appointment as CEO.

Ukraine’s Western backers tied financial aid to the country to concrete steps to clean up state companies such as Naftogaz, one of the country's largest companies by revenue.

Naftogaz has long been the object of corruption schemes by officials and oligarchs, but the situation began to change after the 2014 upheaval that swept pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych from power.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and Bloomberg

BUDAPEST -- Hungary will loosen coronavirus restrictions for holders of a government-issued immunity card as Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the country is about to reach 4 million first-dose vaccinations, representing about 40 percent of the population.

“In the past, we defended ourselves by closing, thereby slowing the spread of the virus. But now we are on the attack,” Orban told public radio on April 30, saying the country had enough vaccine doses to inoculate everyone who has registered for them.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

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

“The vaccine is like a bulletproof vest. The virus bounces off of it,” he said. "We now have one for everybody. Please come and suit up so the virus has no one to attack."

In the latest round of reopening, card holders may access indoor restaurants, hotels, theaters, cinemas, spas, gyms, libraries, museums, zoos, and other recreational venues from May 1.

Opening hours for businesses will also be extended to 11 p.m.

Hungary is mainly relying on vaccines from China and Russia that have not been approved by the European Medicines Agency, alongside Western vaccines.

The country has the second-highest vaccination rate in the European Union, but a pandemic surge in the spring has given it the highest total death rate in the world.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Reuters

Richard Kruspe, the guitarist for the German rock group Rammstein, has expressed his support for a former associate of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny after he was handed a prison sentence for sharing the band's video online in 2014.

Kruspe wrote on Instagram late on April 29 that he is aware of the case of Andrei Borovikov from Russia's northwestern city of Arkhangelsk, who was sentenced earlier that day to 2 1/2 years in prison for reposting the music video to Rammstein's song Pussy on VKontakte, a popular Russian social network similar to Facebook..

“I very much regret that Borovikov has been sentenced to imprisonment for this. The harshness of this sentence is shocking. Rammstein have always stood up for freedom as a guaranteed basic right of all people," Kruspe's Instagram statement said.

A court in Arkhangelsk on April 29 found Borovikov guilty of "distributing pornography” by sharing the video in question in 2014.

Amnesty International said Borovikov -- a former coordinator of Navalny's Arkhangelsk regional headquarters -- was being “punished solely for his activism, not his musical taste.”

SEE ALSO:

Russian Man Gets Prison Sentence For Sharing Rammstein Video

The music video posted by Borovikov came to the attention of authorities 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 ordered “a sexological and cultural examination” of the clip, before experts found it to be of “pornographic nature” and “not containing artistic value.”

The regional campaign offices of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny have been placed on the Russian financial regulator's list of organizations involved in "terrorism and extremism."

The network appeared on an updated list maintained by Russia's financial monitoring service, Rosfinmonitoring, on April 30, a day after the network of Navalny's regional offices was disbanded.

SEE ALSO:

'Extremism' As A Blunt Tool: Behind The Russian Law Being Used To Shut Navalny Up

Leonid Volkov, the head of the network, said that a crackdown on the group had made it "impossible" to continue operating.

This is a developing story.

More to follow.

A court in Moscow has extended the pretrial detention of former journalist Ivan Safronov, who is charged with high treason, an accusation he and his supporters have rejected.

The Lefortovo district court on April 30 ruled that Safronov can be held at least until July 7. The hearing was held behind closed doors as the case has been designated as classified.

The 30-year-old Safronov, who has worked since May 2020 as an adviser to Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, was previously a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.

SEE ALSO:

A 'Hard Rain': Five Takeaways From A Treason Charge In Russia

He was arrested on July 7 2020 amid allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.

Safronov has repeatedly denied the accusations. Many of his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities demanding his release.

Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronov’s release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow says it is reducing the number of consular services it will provide because of restrictions Russia has imposed over the hiring of local staff.

"Effective May 12, U.S. Embassy Moscow will reduce consular services offered to include only emergency U.S. citizen services and a very limited number of age-out and life or death emergency immigrant visas," the embassy said in a statement on April 30.

"These service reductions are necessary due to the Russian government’s April 23 notification of its intention to prohibit U.S. Mission Russia from employing foreign nationals in any capacity. Non-immigrant visa processing for non-diplomatic travel will cease."

President Vladimir Putin last week signed a law to limit the number of local staff working at foreign diplomatic missions and other agencies and ordered the Russian government to draw up a list of "unfriendly" states that will be subject to the restrictions.

Washington and Moscow have entered a new phase of heightened tensions, with the White House announcing punishing sanctions over cyberattacks, election interference, and threats against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Further souring the mood has been the issue of the health and jailing of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, Russia's backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine and its forcible annexation of Crimea, and allegations of Russian involvement in a deadly explosion at a munitions depot in the Czech Republic in 2014.

"We regret that the actions of the Russian government have forced us to reduce our consular work force by 75 percent, and will endeavor to offer to U.S. citizens as many services as possible," the U.S. Embassy statement said, adding that the provision of emergency services in Russia may be "delayed or limited" because the ability of staff to travel outside Russia had been constrained.

It also urged U.S. citizens in Russia to heed a June 15 deadline set by the Russian government when a temporary extension to visas, residence permits, and immigration documents expires.

YAKUTSK, Russia -- A court hearing has started in Russia's Siberian region of Yakutia to decide on the forced "treatment" in a closed psychiatric institution of a shaman who has been stopped by authorities several times in his attempts to march to Moscow by foot “to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin.”

Aleksandr Gabyshev's sister, Kyaiyylana Zakharova, told RFE/RL that the hearing started on April 30. Gabyshev’s lawyer, Olga Timofeyeva, said that the hearing may last several days.

Timofeyeva added that state experts said at the hearing that her client poses an "extreme danger" to society and "needs to be forcibly treated in a specialized hospital under permanent supervision."

About two dozen supporters of Gabyshev gathered in front of the courthouse in the regional capital, Yakutia. They were not allowed to attend the hearing as it is being held behind closed doors.

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In March, the court found Gabyshev "mentally unfit" and said he should be placed in a psychiatric clinic. The ruling was challenged by Gabyshev's lawyers and supporters, who say it is an attempt to silence dissent.

In February, police launched a probe against Gabyshev, accusing him of a "violent act against a police officer" when he was forcibly taken from his home to a psychiatric clinic in late January.

Police said at the time that the incident between Gabyshev and a law enforcement officer took place on January 27, less than three weeks after the shaman had announced his plan to resume his trek to the Russian capital to drive Putin out of the Kremlin.

In April, Zakharova told RFE/RL that her brother’s health had dramatically deteriorated, most likely, she said, due to unspecified injections he had received while in the psychiatric clinic.

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Gabyshev first made headlines in March 2019 when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he had started a march to Moscow to drive the Russian president out of office.

He then walked more than 2,000 kilometers, speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way.

As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views.

In July 2019, when Gabyshev reached the city of Chita, he led a 700-strong rally under the slogan "Russia without Putin!"

At the time, Gabyshev said, "God told me that Putin is not human but a demon and has ordered me to drive him out."

His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia later in September 2019 and placed in psychiatric clinic in Yakutia for several months against his will.

His forced stay in a clinic was equated by many with a Soviet-era practice used to muzzle dissent.

Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed, but in isolated parts of Siberia they are now regaining prominence.

A Kazakh court has sentenced a blogger and journalist to one year of “restricted freedom” -- a parole-like limitation -- and 100 hours of forced labor on what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called “trumped-up charges.”

The court in the capital, Nur-Sultan, also banned Aigul Otepova on April 29 from conducting “public and political activities” for three years, including working in the media, after convicting her of participating in banned political groups.

Otepova, who has denied the charges, said she plans to appeal the ruling.

She and her lawyer said they believe the case is an attempt to silence her reporting that is critical of state authorities.

The conviction “once again demonstrates how the country’s laws banning so-called extremist groups are routinely used to stifle political dissent,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.

Said urged the authorities to “overturn this baseless sentence on appeal” and ensure that Otepova’s “rights to conduct investigative journalism and express critical opinions are fully respected.”

Otepova was detained in mid-September and put under house arrest after she placed a post on Facebook criticizing official efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

In November, she was placed in a psychiatric clinic for 18 days for a mandatory mental-health evaluation. The journalist was released on December 11 and remained under house arrest.

Human rights groups have criticized the Kazakh government for years for persecuting independent and opposition journalists.

Rights activists in Kazakhstan have criticized authorities for using Soviet-era methods of stifling dissent by placing opponents in psychiatric clinics.

MOSCOW -- Ivan Pavlov, one of Russia’s top human rights lawyers who is representing jailed Kremlin-critic Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has been detained for allegedly disclosing classified information relating to an ongoing investigation.

The 50-year-old Pavlov told reporters that he was briefly detained early on April 30 by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents while his hotel room in Moscow was searched.

"I was interrogated as a suspect," he said before he was brought back in for further questioning with Russia's Investigative Committee.

According to the press service from a Moscow court, the authorities are seeking to bar Pavlov from using the Internet and communicating with witnesses in his criminal case.

Amnesty International called on Russian authorities to "immediately and unconditionally" release Pavlov.

"Lawyers are the last line of defense against the government's growing crackdown on human rights, and now the authorities are going after one of the country's most courageous lawyers. They accused him of disclosing information about cases they are arbitrarily treating as a state secret. This is a travesty of justice," said Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow office director.

Pavlov has made a name for himself in Russia for taking on often politically sensitive cases ranging from treason to espionage.

The investigation comes amid mounting pressure from officials on Navalny and his organizations, which have produced a series of high-profile and sometimes embarrassing investigations into official corruption, especially in cases surrounding President Vladimir Putin.

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The Team 29 lawyers' group that Pavlov leads said on Telegram that officers also searched the St. Petersburg home of the group's IT-specialist, Igor Dorfman, the group's offices, and Pavlov's wife's apartment.

While officials have yet to comment on Pavlov’s detention, he said he has been accused of disclosing classified information relating to an ongoing investigation against one of his clients, former journalist Ivan Safronov. He disclosed information in a media interview. The offence is punishable by up to three months in jail.

Safronov, who was charged with treason, and his supporters have rejected the allegations saying they are politically motivated.

Because of the detention, Pavlov was unable to attend a court hearing in Moscow on April 30 where a judge prolonged Safronov's pretrial detention until at least July 7, the one-year anniversary of his arrest.

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Pretrial Detention Extended For Russian Journalist Charged With High Treason

The 30-year-old Safronov, who has worked since May 2020 as an adviser to Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, was previously a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.

He was arrested on July 7 2020 amid allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.

Safronov has repeatedly denied the accusations. Many of his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities demanding his release.

Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronov’s release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.

On April 29, Pavlov represented Navalny's FBK at a Moscow court hearing over a prosecutor's request to label the group an extremist organization.

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Russia's Financial Watchdog Puts Navalny's Regional Campaign Offices On 'Terrorism, Extremism' List

On April 30, Russia's financial regulator, Rosfinmonitoring, added the network of Navalny's regional campaign offices to the register of organizations involved in "terrorism and extremism."

The previous day, Leonid Volkov, the head of the network, said that a crackdown on the group had made it "impossible" to continue operating and announced the closure of the network's operation.

Pavlov also defended physicist Viktor Kudryavtsev, who was charged with high treason. Kudryavtsev died of cancer on April 29 at the age of 78 as his trial was pending.

A day before his detainment, Pavlov accused the FSB of causing Kudryavtsev's death, saying that the 14 months spent by Kudryavtsev in pretrial detention "completely damaged his health." He added that Kudryavtsev's case is "an example of how secret services are literally killing Russian science in general."

A cease-fire appeared to be holding in the restive border area between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan after Kyrgyz officials said 31 of the country's citizens were killed in clashes with Tajiks, who appear to have recorded fewer casualties.

Kyrgyz Deputy Health Minister Aliza Soltonbekova told RFE/RL on April 30 that 154 of her country's citizens, including 23 law enforcement, security, and military personnel, were injured during April 28-29 clashes.

Kyrgyz authorities said earlier that some 20,000 people, mainly women and children, had been evacuated from villages near the border since April 29.

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Conflict On The Kyrgyz-Tajik Border Moves From Sticks And Stones To Bullets And Bombs

Tajikistan, an authoritarian state with tight control over the flow of information, has been more quiet on the extent of causalities, saying only that two Tajik citizens sustained gunshot wounds and were taken to the hospital on April 29 and that another seven locals were injured in clashes.

Correspondents for RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported from the area that at least 12 Tajik citizens, including four military personnel, were killed and dozens of others injured in the clashes, which broke out on April 28 after residents on both sides of the border started throwing stones at each other.

Officials in the southwestern region of Batken said earlier in the day that 13,500 Kyrgyz, mainly women and children, were evacuated from the area, while two individuals were missing.

The situation rapidly escalated, leading to Kyrgyz and Tajik forces exchanging gunfire in the Batken region's Leilek district.

Late on April 29, the two countries' foreign ministries announced they had agreed to a cease-fire and would pull back troops while resolving the conflict through diplomacy.

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Tajikistan's Khovar state news agency said on April 30 that President Emomali Rahmon held talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Japarov, to discuss the situation along the border.

According to the report, the two presidents agreed to continue joint efforts to stabilize the ongoing situation and resolve the demarcation of the border between the two Central Asian nations in the future.

Rahmon invited Japarov to Dushanbe to further discuss border-demarcation plans and Japarov accepted the invitation, the Khovar report said, adding that the visit's date was yet to be determined.

The agency also said that delegations from both nations will convene in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region on May 1 to discuss the demarcation and delimitation of the borders.

Later on April 30, delegations from both countries met on neutral territory, at the Kyzyl-Bel checkpoint, and agreed to withdraw all troops from the state border line, they said in a joint statement.

The statement said the delegations were headed by the two countries' national security committees -- Tajik Saimumin Yatimov and Kyrgyz Kamchybek Tashiev.

“The meeting was held in the spirit of mutual understanding and good neighborly relations. The parties expressed their desire and readiness to resolve all issues through negotiations,” the statement said.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev on April 30 hailed the cease-fire and expressed hope that Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities "will be able to settle all disputed issues exclusively through peaceful means."

"For my part, I am ready to make efforts to find mutually acceptable solutions and restore mutual trust," Toqaev's statement said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called on Bishkek and Dushanbe to reach further long-term agreements on normalizing the situation along the border.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on April 30 that Moscow was following "with concern" the abrupt escalation of tensions on the disputed segment of the border, adding that Russia "was ready to assist in resolving the situation by political and diplomatic means."

Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for the European Union's Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to implement the cease-fire agreement "without delay for a lasting and peaceful solution."

"Both sides will need to undertake all the necessary steps to avoid any conflict in the future. The EU stands ready to provide, if needed, technical assistance through its regional programs dealing with border management and water management, as well as continued political support for a stability and prosperity in the region, which are key priorities of the EU Strategy on Central Asia," Stano said in the statement.

Kyrgyz police in the Batken region blamed Tajik citizens for the escalation, saying they started shooting at a military unit located in the village of Kok-Tash, while gunfire was also reported from the Tajik side near the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai.

Tajikistan's Border Guard Service rejected the Kyrgyz account, saying that Kyrgyz military personnel were the first to shoot when they opened fire at Tajik border units near the Golovnoi water distribution center, located in territory that Tajik authorities claim jurisdiction over.

Like many other border areas in Central Asia, almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has not been demarcated 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.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department says press freedom in Russia is under growing threat as authorities slap RFE/RL and other media organizations with restrictive “foreign agent” labels and fines.

Speaking at a press briefing on April 29, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Russian government is increasingly “intolerant of outside perspectives” as it moves to quash any dissent in the country.

The comments come as Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has hit RFE/RL’s Russian-language services with fines of nearly $1 million in recent months for hundreds of violations of the “foreign agent” law.

In its latest salvo against independent media, the Russian government designated the Latvia-based Meduza as a “foreign agent,” taking aim at a top Russian news source.

“We’ve made clear that Russia’s actions against RFE/RL and other media organizations labeled as so-called 'foreign agents' reflect significant intolerance and oppressive restrictions,” Price said.

First passed in 2012 and expanded several times since, the “foreign agent” law gives authorities the power to brand nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, and news media deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as “foreign agents.”

Among other things, the law requires news organizations that receive foreign funding to label content within Russia as being produced by a “foreign agent.” The mandatory 24-word announcement must be twice as large as the font size used for the headline of the article. For video materials, the text must occupy at least 20 percent of the screen and be shown for at least 15 seconds.

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The targeting of RFE/RL has raised concerns the Russian government may be moving to shutter RFE/RL’s operations inside Russia and force its Russian-language services and Current Time, the network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, out of the country.

“Should the Russian government continue to move to forcibly shut down RFE/RL, we will respond,” Price said, without specifying what action could be taken.

An independent nonprofit corporation that receives funding from the U.S. Congress, RFE/RL refuses to comply with the "foreign agent" law.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said, “RFE/RL will not be put in a position of undermining freedom of speech and journalistic integrity. We will not allow Roskomnadzor and the Kremlin to make editorial decisions about how we engage our audiences in Russia.”

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In recent weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised the issue of RFE/RL with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

“We’ve been very seized with the RFE/RL situation with Russia,” Blinken said on April 28 at a roundtable discussion on world press freedom.

“We’re doing everything we can to be supportive and to find a good way forward. Ultimately, Moscow is doing what Moscow will do, but we’re trying to make sure that at least in some ways we can be supportive and helpful, even if our advocacy falls on deaf ears in Moscow itself,” Blinken said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Ukraine next week to reiterate Washington’s support for the country amid Russia’s "aggression" and to push for further reforms in the former Soviet republic.

Blinken will visit Kyiv on May 5-6 after attending a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations in London, the State Department said in a statement on April 30.

During his trip, the U.S. top diplomat is to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, as well as representatives of Ukrainian civil society “to reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression."

He will also "encourage continued progress on Ukraine’s institutional reform agenda, particularly anti-corruption action, which is key to securing Ukraine’s democratic institutions, economic prosperity, and Euro-Atlantic future."

The announcement comes amid a surge in fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of this year in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.

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Around 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed over the past four months despite a cease-fire that took hold in July 2020, compared with 50 in all of last year.

A Russian troop buildup in recent weeks near Ukraine's borders and in occupied Crimea has also raised concerns of an escalation of the conflict in Kyiv and in the West.

The United States and NATO have described the buildup as the largest since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and threw its military, political, and economic support behind separatists in parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The United States does not know Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions, Blinken said in an excerpt of an interview to be aired on CBS News’s 60 Minutes program on May 2.

"There are any number of things that he could do or choose not to do. What we have seen in the last few days is apparently a decision to pull back some of those forces and we’ve seen some of them, in fact, start to pull back," he said.

The Russian military claimed on April 29 that almost all its troops had now returned to their permanent bases after participating in massive drills.

The Kremlin has dismissed Western concerns as involvement in a sovereign manner.

PRAGUE -- Thousands of Czechs have rallied in Prague against President Milos Zeman, calling for his removal from office and condemning what opponents say are his pro-Russia views.

The rally in Wenceslas Square on April 29 came as the Czech government has accused Russia’s GRU military intelligence of being behind a fatal ammunition depot explosion in 2014.

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

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Zeman, whose role is largely ceremonial, appeared to contradict the government in a televised address to the nation on April 25, saying that 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 the inexpert handling of ammunition.

Zeman is circulating "the same fairy tales as the Russian disinformation pages and Russian propaganda," said Benjamin Roll, head of the group A Million Moments for Democracy that organized the protest, which police estimated at 10,000 people.

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The protesters demand the Senate bring treason charges against Zeman.

Slovakia, Romania, and the Baltic states have also ejected Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czech Republic, while Bulgaria leveled its own accusations at Russia over a series of blasts at its weapons and armament facilities over the past 10 years.

Sofia is also linking Russia to a murder attempt against an arms dealer and two other Bulgarian citizens.

Russia has denied any involvement in the blasts.

Judo's governing body has suspended Iran as punishment for refusing to allow its athletes to compete against opponents from Israel.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) imposed a four-year ban on April 29 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport said a previous indefinite ban was not allowed.

The IJF disciplinary committee said the start of the suspension is backdated to September 18, 2019, and runs until September 17, 2023.

The case began when former world champion Saeid Mollaei left the Iranian team in August 2019, claiming he was ordered to throw matches rather than risk facing an Israeli opponent.

The IJF said the case was not an isolated event but a policy whereby Mollaei was ordered to lose before even getting to the point where he had to face an Israeli athlete.

It said the matter “clearly reveals an institutionalized scheme” involving Iran’s National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Sports, and National Judo Federation.

The IJF “continues to defend the fundamental human values and rights of all its members, with a special emphasis on the rights of athletes and reiterates its commitment to fight against any form of discrimination in the sport of judo,” the governing body said in a statement.

Until the Iranian policy toward Israeli athletes changes, its judokas cannot compete at IJF events, including world championships, and officials cannot take part in the world governing body’s work.

Iran was originally suspended in October 2019.

The IJF has said any action taken against Iran would not apply directly to the Tokyo Olympics, because athletes are technically entered by the Iranian Olympic Committee and not the national judo body.

Mollaei fled to Germany in 2019 and the International Olympic Committee last year approved his switch to compete for Mongolia.

The IOC said the change did not need permission from Iranian Olympic officials because he was technically a refugee.

With reporting by AP and dpa

A court in northwestern Russia has sentenced a former associate of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny to 2 1/2 years in prison for “distributing pornography” after he shared a video by the German rock band Rammstein in 2014, in a case Amnesty International described as “utterly absurd.”

The Lomonosovsky District Court in Arkhangelsk handed down its verdict against Andrei Borovikov, his lawyer told Russian independent media on April 29.

Amnesty International said Borovikov -- a former coordinator of Navalny's Arkhangelsk regional headquarters -- was being “punished solely for his activism, not his musical taste.”

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.

“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.

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“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 is no stranger 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.

With reporting by Dozhd and Mediazona