The World Bank has approved a $90 million project to help Ukraine’s health sector respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The international financial institution announced the loan on May 11, saying the project will help Ukraine buy COVID-19 vaccines and improve infrastructure for vaccine storage and logistics.

“This new loan will help Ukraine with purchasing and deployment of vaccines, including through, but not limited to, the COVAX global initiative,” said Arup Banerji, World Bank regional country director for Eastern Europe.

The World Bank has already provided $57 million in lending to support Ukraine’s COVID-19 response.

Earlier on May 11, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that Ukraine had contracted to purchase 42 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from several producers to be received by the end of this year.

He said that with previous batches of vaccine doses, the new shots would be enough to inoculate a majority of adults in the country of 44 million people by the end of 2021.

Last month, Ukraine recorded the highest number of new infections as a second wave smashed the country, but new cases have dropped significantly in the past two weeks.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) forces on May 11 killed seven militants and dismantled their cell in the country's northwest near the border with Turkey, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Two members of the IRGC were also reportedly killed in the shoot-out.

IRNA reported that the “group of terrorists” had entered Iran illegally from Turkey.

The clash took place around noon in the city of Salmas in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province, according to the report. The city is located about 650 kilometers northwest of the capital Tehran.

There was no independent confirmation of the clash.

The area has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists as well as militants linked to the extremist Islamic State group.

In November 2020, unidentified gunmen killed three and wounded two Iranian border guards in the province.

Based on reporting by AP and IRNA

Russia has announced the expulsion of the Romanian Embassy's deputy military attache in response to Bucharest's decision to expel a Russian diplomat.

Romania's ambassador to Russia, Cristian Istrate, was summoned on May 11 to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow where he "was given a note from the ministry declaring Captain G. Iliescu, aide to the military attache at the Romanian Embassy, persona non grata," the ministry said in a statement.

Iliescu has 72 hours to leave Russia, the statement said, adding that the decision was made "in response to the unfounded declaration of an aide to the military attache at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest persona non grata on April 26."

Romania late last month expelled the deputy military attache at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest for activities incompatible with his diplomatic status. It gave no further reason for the order.

Several other former Soviet bloc countries in Central and Eastern Europe, all of them members of the European Union and NATO, have expelled Russian diplomats last month, triggering reciprocal measures by Moscow.

The series of tit-for-tat expulsions began last month when the Czech Republic expelled scores of Russian diplomats over the accusations that Russian spies were involved in a deadly ammunition depot explosion in 2014, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Moscow.

Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia -- all former Soviet republics -- followed in Prague's steps, expelling Russian diplomats in solidarity with the Czechs. Slovakia and Bulgaria also followed suit.

With reporting by digi24.ro, hotnrews.ro, Reuters, and TASS

KYIV -- Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has searched the Kyiv home of Kremlin-friendly tycoon and politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who along with another pro-Russian lawmaker is under suspicion of treason.

SBU officials told RFE/RL that the search was conducted on May 11, adding that detailed information on the case will be made public later.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venedyktova said the same day that she had signed notices of suspicion to be handed to two lawmakers, whom she identified as M. and K, as suspects for alleged high treason and the illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea.

Local media identified M. as Medvedchuk and K. as another pro-Russian lawmaker Taras Kozak.

Medvedchuk's political party said the treason investigation and house search were acts of "revenge and reprisals" by the government.

"Such actions by the authorities are an open and cynical political reprisal against the opposition politician," the pro-Russian Opposition Platform - For Life party added in a statement on its website.

Medvedchuk is the head of the political council of Opposition Platform - For Life, which is the largest opposition group in Ukraine's parliament. He is one of the party’s 44 deputies in the 450-seat legislature.

In February, Ukraine’s National Security Council announced sanctions against Medvedchuk, his wife Oksana Marchenko, and several other individuals and entities.

The sanctions froze the couple’s assets for three years and prevented them from doing business in the country.

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Ratings, Russia, Reforms: What Is Driving The Ukrainian President's Moves Against Medvedchuk?

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government in February also sanctioned three television stations believed to be owned by Medvedchuk. The move came shortly after talks between the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Medvedchuk has a deep personal relationship with Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.

He was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 for undermining democracy in Ukraine.

The sanctions were tied to an investigation into exports of coal to Russia from a separatist-held region in eastern Ukraine.

Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the Russian-backed separatists who control parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 and instigated separatist clashes in Ukraine’s east after anti-government protests toppled Ukraine's Russian-friendly former president, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014.

Kyiv says it does not expect that next month's NATO summit will produce a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine because some members of the military alliance worry that such a move would provoke Russia.

"Regarding the obstacles, unfortunately, there are still several countries among the allies who are guided by the logic of not provoking Russia and believe that sitting and doing nothing is the best way to keep Russia calm," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Ukraine 24 channel on May 11.

Ukraine joining the alliance, which Moscow has fiercely opposed, "is historically inevitable," Kuleba said. "It will happen. I am absolutely convinced of that."

The MAP is a program of "advice, assistance, and practical support tailored to the individual needs of countries wishing to join" NATO, according to the alliance's website.

Participation in the MAP "does not prejudge any decision by the Alliance on future membership," it adds.

Kuleba's comments come after Russia earlier this year deployed more than 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea -- the biggest mobilization since Moscow seized the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014 and war broke out in eastern Ukraine.

The buildup prompted alarm in Western capitals over Moscow's intentions amid an uptick in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in the country's east. The conflict has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.

Russia says its troops have returned to their permanent bases after participating in massive drills, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on May 11 that Russia had not withdrawn military hardware.

Zelenskiy told Ukraine 24 he believed Russia won't resort to a "powerful escalation" because it could lead to "a world war."

During a visit to Kyiv last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "strongly" reaffirmed Washington's "commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence," and called on Russia to cease its "reckless and aggressive actions" against its neighbor.

With reporting by Reuters, UNIAN, and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

QAPSHAGHAI, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan has again rejected an early-release request for ailing activist Kenzhebek Abishev, who has been recognized by domestic human rights organizations as a political prisoner.

Abishev's lawyer, Gulnar Zhuaspaeva, told RFE/RL that the court ruled on May 11 that Abishev cannot be granted early release, again rejecting his argument for time off due to good behavior and concerns over his health.

Last week, the chairwoman of the Aman-Saulyq Human Rights Foundation, Bakhyt Tumenova, said that Abishev's condition was worrisome, as he suffers from multiple medical conditions and should be released as soon as possible.

In mid-April, Abishev was rushed from prison to the hospital in Qapshaghai as his condition word due to a hunger strike that he started to protest the cancellation of his release in February on parole and prison conditions.

Physicians then diagnosed Abishev with coronary heart disease. It is not clear at the moment if Abishev is still on his hunger strike.

On February 1, the Qapshaghai court ruled that Abishev could be released on February 16, more than three years early, for good behavior while in prison, a procedure allowed by Kazakh law.

However, the Almaty regional prosecutor's office appealed the ruling at the very last moment, arguing that the 53-year-old activist's good behavior in custody was not enough to secure his early release, since he still had more than three years to serve.

The court then scrapped the move, leaving Abishev in prison.

Abishev was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other activists were found guilty of planning a "holy war" because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement. His prison term was later cut by eight months.

Abishev pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him politically motivated.

The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been living in France for several years.

Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet in recent years.

SOFIA -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has called snap parliamentary elections for July 11 after a vote last month resulted in a fragmented parliament that failed to produce a government.

In a separate decree signed on May 11, Radev appointed a close ally, his Security and Defense Secretary Stefan Yanev, as caretaker prime minister to lead the government until a cabinet is formed following the upcoming elections.

The 61-year-old Yanev also served as a deputy prime minister and defense minister in a caretaker government Radev appointed in 2017.

The caretaker cabinet's main tasks will be to ensure a fair election and manage the coronavirus pandemic as the European Union's poorest member state prepares to spend billions of euros from the bloc's recovery fund.

Radev's moves come after three failed attempts by the country's main parties to form a government following elections on April 4.

The center-right GERB party of outgoing, three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borisov came in first in the elections, but with only 26 percent of the vote amid frustration over endemic corruption and poverty.

A new anti-establishment party, There Is Such a People (TSN), led by television personality Slavi Trifonov, was second with 18 percent, while two other anti-establishment parties made inroads.

The Socialists were the third-place finishers.

With reporting by Reuters

Uzbekistan's Supreme Court has sentenced 17 people to prison terms of between four and 10 years for corruption and misconduct over a deadly dam burst last year.

The Supreme Court said that the verdicts and sentences of the defendants, including energy officials, top officials of the state railways company, and leaders of construction companies that were involved into the construction of the dam, were pronounced on May 10.

The defendants were found guilty of embezzlement, forgery, violating safety rules, negligence, and abuse of office.

The dam at the Sardoba Reservoir in the eastern Uzbek region of Sirdaryo burst early on May 1, 2020, resulting in the deaths of six people and forcing at least 70,000 out of their homes.

SEE ALSO:

Uzbek Dam Bursts, Forcing Evacuation Of Thousands Of Villagers

Over 600 homes in neighboring Kazakhstan were also flooded in the accident.

The Sardoba Reservoir was completed in 2017 after seven years of construction work.

Kazakh officials said after the dam burst that flooding caused crop damage worth more than $400,000 -- mostly to cotton, which is grown in the southern Turkistan region.

The U.S. ambassador for disarmament says preparations for a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden are under way.

The two presidents "have agreed to explore strategic stability discussions on a range of arms-control and emerging security issues," Robert Wood told a United Nations conference on May 11.

"They are in the process of preparing for these discussions."

Speaking during a visit to Baku, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed up Wood's comments, saying that Moscow had proposed discussing arms control and security matters if the bilateral summit were to take place.

He also said that Moscow was still waiting for answers from Washington on details for any proposed meeting.

Biden has said he hoped to meet with his Russian counterpart during a planned trip to Europe in June.

The U.S. president in April offered to meet in a third country to discuss rising tensions over issues including military threats to Ukraine, cyberattacks allegedly by Russian hackers, and Russia's treatment of jailed opposition activist Aleksei Navalny.

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

In February, Russia and the United States formally extended the New START nuclear arms-control treaty for another five years, just days before it was set to expire.

New START, the last remaining arms-control pact between Washington and Moscow, limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550, deployed strategic delivery systems at 700, and provides for a verification regime.

With reporting by Reuters

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is accusing a U.S. Coast Guard vessel of "provocation" after Washington said the ship fired warning shots against approaching Iranian military boats in the Persian Gulf.

The IRGC said on May 11 its boats had encountered the U.S. ships the previous day, and accused them of "unprofessional behavior, such as flying helicopters, firing flares, and aimless and provocative shooting."

According to the Pentagon, the U.S. Coast Guard ship Maui fired about 30 warning shots after 13 fast boats from the IRGC's navy came close to it and other U.S. vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Spokesman John Kirby said the warning shots were fired after the fast boats came as close as 150 meters from six U.S. military vessels that were escorting the guided-missile submarine Georgia.

The Iranian boats had been acting "very aggressively," Kirby said.

It was the second time over the past month that U.S. military vessels had to fire warning shots because of what they said was unsafe behavior by Iranian vessels in the region, after a relative lull in such interactions over the past year.

The latest incident came as world powers and Iran seek to speed up efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.

Four rounds of indirect talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Vienna on reviving the agreement have yet to make major progress.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has handed parole-like sentences to three young pro-democracy activists for splashing paint on a booth at the entrance to the Prosecutor-General's Office last year to protest against a crackdown on activists.

The court on May 11 found the trio guilty of vandalism and sentenced both Igor Basharimov and Ivan Vorobyovsky to 21 months of "freedom limitation," while Olga Misik was sentenced to two years of "freedom limitation."

Basharimov and Vorobyovsky were also banned from leaving their homes between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., while Misik was banned from leaving her home between 10 p.m and 6 a.m. The defendants were also ordered not to change their permanent addresses during the terms of their sentences.

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The three activists admitted they splashed paint on the booth, but insisted the action cannot be defined as vandalism as the booth was not damaged.

The activists launched the protest during the high-profile extremism case against members of the New Greatness youth group. Many in Russia consider the New Greatness case to be trumped-up by Russian's Federal Security Service (FSB).

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence the three activists to two years and nine months of freedom limitation.

In her final statement during testimony at the trial last month, Misik said that democracy will win in Russia sooner or later.

"I cannot promise that we will win tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in one or 10 years. But one day, we will win, because love and youth always win," she said.

Misik became well-known after she read the Russian Constitution to riot police during protest rallies in Moscow in 2019. She was 17 at the time.

SEE ALSO:

'I Was Never Afraid': In The Face Of Criminal Charges, Russian Teen Protester Stands Defiant

Misik told Current Time on May 10 that the case was filed against her and the other two activists "because in our country, it is forbidden to protest against the authorities."

The case "is punishment for your thoughts," Olga Misik said.

Her mother told Current Time that she understood the possible repercussions her daughter could face when she started her pro-democracy activism at the age of 16, but could not stop her.

"She chose this path and it is necessary to support her," Guzel Misik said.

International media-freedom watchdogs are urging an Uzbek court to overturn the conviction of a blogger who was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on "trumped-up" extortion and slander charges.

A court in the southern Surxondaryo region handed down the sentence against Otabek Sattoriy on May 10 in a case denounced by rights defenders as retaliation by the authorities for his critical reporting.

The 40-year-old Sattoriy has insisted that the case against him was "based on lies."

Sattoriy's lawyer said he intended to appeal the conviction.

The authorities should "immediately release Otabek Sattoriy, not contest his appeal, and allow all journalists to work freely and without fear of reprisal," according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Sattoriy's conviction "is a clear attempt to frighten the press away from covering sensitive issues" ahead of a presidential election in October, Gulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the "fabricated" accusations against the blogger "testify to a desire to quell local corruption scandals and intimidate critical voices."

The Paris-based group noted that since his arrest in late January, Sattoriy had been ordered to pay a fine of 9.8 million soms ($931) for "slander" and "insult" in a separate case.

The Prosecutor-General's Office has rejected criticism by human rights organizations, saying that Sattoriy's arrest was lawful.

The blogger is known to be a harsh critic of the regional governor, Tora Bobolov. In one post on his Halq Fikiri (People's Opinion) video blog, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the "crackdown."

RSF said criminal proceedings were also brought against two journalists from the independent Effect.uz website in early April after they approached the judge to attend the blogger's trial. Elyor Tojiboev and Aqbar Nurumbetov were charged with "resisting a representative of the authorities" and "interfering with the investigation."

Another blogger, Behruz Nematov, was kidnapped in broad daylight on April 2 by unknown individuals who kept him for four hours and beat him with a baton, demanding that he stop covering the trial.

Uzbekistan is ranked 157th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

KAZAN, Russia -- A teenage gunman set off an explosion and opened fire at a school in the regional capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, killing nine people as hundreds fled the smoke-filled building, prompting President Vladimir Putin to order a clampdown on weapons.

Rustam Minnikhanov, the republic's president, said seven students, a teacher, and another female employee at the school were killed in the attack at School No. 175 on May 11, calling the crime "an enormous tragedy for our republic, for our country."

According to the Interior Ministry for the republic, 21 people were wounded in the incident, 18 of whom were students, including six children who were taken to intensive care units.

Video from the scene showed students scurrying from the school as smoke poured from its windows and loud noises resembling gunshots rang out. Afterward, dozens of ambulances lined up at the school's entrance.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry sent a plane with doctors and medical equipment to Kazan, a city 700 kilometers east of Moscow, while the health and education ministers, Mikhail Murashko and Sergei Kravtsov, also were dispatched to the region.

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Within hours of the incident, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that Putin had handed down a special order to the head of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, "to hammer out new regulations on the types of weapons which are designated for civilian use, and which weapons may be in the possession of citizens, including the types of small arms the gunman used in this shooting."

"The fact is that sometimes hunting weapons are registered as small arms, which in some countries are used as assault rifles, and so on. This too will be swiftly hammered out by the National Guard," Peskov said.

Putin also ordered the government to assist the victims and their families. Russian officials promised to pay victims' families 1 million rubles (roughly $13,500) each and give 200,000-400,000 rubles to the wounded.

Teachers and students told RFE/RL that they heard a powerful explosion in the building before they heard gunshots. They said they fled the building after that, while some students jumped from third-floor windows to escape the scene.

The area was cordoned off by law enforcement and students and teachers at one point were seen being evacuated through the windows.

The region’s interior minister said that the assault was carried out by a 19-year-old shooter, who was apprehended. Earlier reports said there were at least two attackers.

• RFE/RL

At least nine people, including a teacher and seven students, have been killed in a shooting spree that followed an explosion at a school in Kazan, the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan.

Media reports identified the suspect as Ilnaz Galyaviyev.

According to Interfax, Galyaviyev was enrolled at a nearby business school, the Tatarstan University of Management, but was expelled one month ago for poor academic performance.

A seemingly shaken President Minnikhanov, who arrived at the school shortly after the attack, told reporters that the firearm used by the attacker was officially registered in his name.

A student at the school described what she saw to RFE/RL.

"We were having a Russian-language class when there was an explosion on the first floor. We ignored it. Then there were more and more explosions. The boys ran up to the windows and looked at the first floor. All the windows, doors, and desks were smashed," she recounted.

“We dragged all the desks to the door and shut it. Children on the second floor started jumping straight out of the windows,” one teacher told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

"We heard the sounds of explosions at the beginning of the second lesson. All the teachers locked the children in the classrooms. The shooting was on the third floor," said another teacher quoted by Tatar Inform, a local media outlet.

A corridor inside the school was shown strewn with debris, including smashed glass and broken doors, in unconfirmed video circulated by the Baza media outlet. Another still image showed a body on the floor of a blood-stained classroom.

Other footage showed emergency service vehicles parked outside the school, with people running towards the building.

The alleged gunman was issued a permit for a Hatsan Escort PS shotgun on April 28, Aleksandr Khinshtein, a lawmaker in the lower house of parliament, wrote on social media.

Authorities in Tatarstan ordered checks on all gun owners in the region.

The spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, said a criminal case had been launched into the attack.

The government of Tatarstan declared May 12 as a day of mourning.

The school has more than 1,000 students.

Historically, attacks at schools in Russia and other former Soviet republics are uncommon. However, in recent years they have been on the rise.

In November 2019, a student was killed before the shooter later took his own life at a college in the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk.

In October 2018, an 18-year-old student killed 20 people in a gun-and-bomb attack in a college in the city of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea before fatally shooting himself.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has also reported several instances where it prevented school attacks across the country in recent years.

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, RIA Novosti, and Reuters

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging the Iranian parliament to reject a bill that it says would "help further erode Iran's increasingly vulnerable press freedom" ahead of next month's presidential election.

In a statement on May 10, the Paris-based media-freedom watchdog says the proposed law would ban U.S. and British journalists from entering Iran and would ban the Iranian media from reporting anything published by the U.S. and British media.

Violations of the proposed law would be punishable by five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 360 million rials ($16,340).

"This proposed law is ridiculous as well as lacking any legitimacy," said Reza Moini, the head of RSF's Iran-Afghanistan desk.

"The media it targets are an integral part of the world in which we live and of which the Islamic republic is part, regardless of what it says," he added.

"Furthermore, the Persian-language sections of certain international media are the main sources of freely and independently reported news and information for Iranians."

The proposed law, submitted by 41 parliament members on April 18, says the two prohibitions are justified because the U.S. and British media and their journalists are responsible for "many actions against national interests and against the Islamic republic," according to RSF.

The group notes that the international media coverage of the June presidential poll "is unlikely to please the regime because it is clear that the electoral process is just a smokescreen for the future president's designation" by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran is ranked 174th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Upon arrival in Iran, foreign journalists are currently placed under "close surveillance" by the authorities and "their journalism is subjected to a form of censorship in which, if they fail to toe the official line, they can end up having to leave," RSF says.

Meanwhile, "Iranian journalists -- and sometimes their family members as well -- have for years been subjected to harassment, arrest, and long prisons sentences."

SEE ALSO:

Three Jailed Iranian Journalists 'Denied Appropriate Treatment' For COVID

Iran has opened registration for potential candidates in next month's presidential election amid continued high tensions with the West and uncertainty over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

The registration process kicked off on May 11 and will last five days, after which entrants will be screened for their qualifications by the Guardians Council, a hard-line constitutional watchdog that has in the past disqualified many moderate would-be candidates.

The council is to announce a final list of candidates by May 27, triggering a 20-day campaign season ahead of the June 18 vote.

President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate whose government is taking part in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, cannot seek reelection after having served two consecutive four-year terms.

Turnout could be hit by rising discontent over steep rises in consumer prices and high unemployment as the Iranian economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. economic sanctions reimposed after Washington in 2018 pulled out of the nuclear accord, which lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Iran responded to the U.S. moves by stepping up its violations of the accord by enriching uranium to a greater purity, stockpiling more than allowed, and introducing more advanced centrifuges.

Several rounds of talks with world powers in Vienna on reviving the nuclear accord have yet to make major progress.

Iranian hard-liners took control of parliament last year in polls that saw 42.5 percent turnout, the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought a clerical regime to power.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

A U.S. Coast Guard ship fired some 30 warning shots after 13 boats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) came close to it and other U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said on May 10.

It was the second time over the past month that U.S. military vessels had to fire warning shots because of what they said was unsafe behavior by Iranian vessels in the region, after a relative lull in such interactions over the past year.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the warning shots were fired after the Iranian fast boats came to within 150 meters of six U.S. military vessels, including the USS Monterey, which were escorting the guided-missile submarine Georgia.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Maui fired the warning shots from a .50-caliber machine gun before the Iranian vessels left, Kirby said.

"It's significant...and they were acting very aggressively," he said, adding that there had been more Iranian vessels involved this time than in other incidents in the recent past.

Last month, a U.S. military ship fired warning shots after three Iranian vessels came close to it and another U.S. patrol boat in the Persian Gulf.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Armenia's parliament failed to elect a prime minister for the second time on May 10, triggering its own dissolution in a final move toward early elections next month.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who was swept to power in pro-democracy protests in 2018, resigned last month to run in an early election after facing criticism over his handling of last year’s conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

This was the second time lawmakers rejected Pashinian's candidacy, as part of a political deal made earlier between the parliament majority represented by Pashinian's My Step Alliance and two opposition factions -- Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia.

SEE ALSO:

Armenian PM Steps Down, Sets Stage For Early Parliamentary Vote

Only one lawmaker voted for Pashinian's candidacy, one voted against, with 76 abstaining.

Under Armenia’s constitution, the parliament must fail to elect a prime minister twice in order to be dissolved.

Both times Pashinian was nominated by My Step as a candidate to maintain the procedure for the parliament’s dissolution.

In the meantime, Pashinian has continued as caretaker prime minister.

Political Crisis

Armenia has been embroiled in a political crisis since Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire on November 9, 2020, to end a 44-day war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinian agreed in March to hold the early vote next month. He has indicated that he favors June 20 as the date for the elections.

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

Pashinian has come under fire since agreeing to the Moscow-brokered deal with Azerbaijan, which took effect on November 10, ending six weeks of fierce fighting in and around the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh that saw ethnic Armenian forces suffer battlefield defeat.

Under the cease-fire, a part of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by Armenians.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the region's population reject Azerbaijani rule.

Observers expect Armenian ex-President Robert Kocharian -- who signed a deal with two opposition parties to run as leader of their alliance on May 9 -- to become Pashinian’s main challenger in the elections.

Addressing thousands of his supporters at a rally in central Yerevan on May 9, Kocharian said that losing power was the price the Pashinian government should pay for the defeat in the war.

With reporting by Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden has said that Russia has "some responsibility" to address a ransomware attack that has paralyzed the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, although he refrained from directly blaming the Kremlin.

Biden said there was "no evidence" the Russian government was involved in the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, but that "there is evidence" the hackers or the ransomware software they used are "in Russia."

"They have some responsibility to deal with this," Biden said, adding that he will likely be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for bilateral talks in June.

Responding to Biden's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency that "Russia has nothing to do with this."

Earlier, the FBI identified the group behind the attack on Colonial Pipeline as a criminal gang known as DarkSide, a hacker network that emerged last year using ransomware to extort money from victims.

Cyberexperts say the network is based in Russia or former Soviet states, where local security services may tolerate and sometimes even employ these cybercriminals.

Asked at a White House press briefing whether Russia was involved, Anne Neuberger, deputy national-security adviser for cyber- and emerging technology, said on May 10 that it was "certainly something our intelligence community is looking into."

Neuberger said the White House was not offering advice on whether Colonial Pipeline should pay the ransom. She said the cybercriminals used a known variant of ransomware software and advised other companies to take action to protect themselves.

In a ransomware attack, hackers break into computer systems and scramble a victim's data, making it unusable. The criminals then demand money in exchange for software decryption keys.

DarkSide, which cybersecurity experts say avoids targets in Russian-speaking countries, said in a statement posted online that their goal was to "make money, and not creating problems for society."

DarkSide described itself as "apolitical," adding that "we do not participate in geopolitics."

The statement said DarkSide intended to donate a portion of its profits to charities and had already sent its first donation.

The statement, quoted by CNBC and other U.S. media outlets, did not say how much ransom the hackers seek. Colonial Pipeline has not commented on the hackers' statement.

DarkSide began attacking companies mostly in Western Europe, Canada, and the United States last year, asking ransom to be paid in Bitcoin.

In return, DarkSide supplies the company with a program that will unlock its computing systems.

The criminals also steal data from the victims, threatening to release it publicly if the company does not pay up.

Colonial Pipeline announced on May 8 that it was the victim of a ransomware attack the previous day and in response "proactively" took systems offline to contain the threat, which halted all pipeline operations and affected some IT systems.

The privately held company said on May 10 that it expected to "substantially" restore operational service by the end of the week.

The company's pipeline transports about 45 percent of the U.S. East Coast's fuel supplies -- including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and home heating oil-- from Gulf of Mexico refineries in Texas all the way to New York.

Experts said the shutdown was unlikely to have a major impact on fuel prices unless it were to last more than a week.

The situation nevertheless raised concerns about energy supplies, and U.S. government issued a regional state of emergency loosening regulations for the transport of fuel products on highways across 17 states and the District of Columbia.

The attack presents a new challenge for the Biden administration after two major cybersecurity breaches -- the SolarWinds hack that compromised U.S. government agencies and private-sector computer networks, and another penetration of some Microsoft e-mail servers.

The SolarWinds hack was blamed on Russian state-backed hackers while the Microsoft breach was attributed to a Chinese cyberespionage campaign.

Washington imposed sanctions on the Kremlin in April for the SolarWinds hack, which U.S. officials have linked to a military intelligence unit and described as an intelligence-gathering operation.

With reporting by AFP, AP, CBS, CNBC, and Reuters

XALQOBOD, Uzbekistan -- A court in Uzbekistan's southern Surxondaryo region has sentenced blogger Otabek Sattoriy to 6 1/2 years in prison in a high-profile extortion and slander case that has sparked harsh criticism of the country by domestic and international human rights groups.

The Muzrabot district court pronounced the ruling on May 10. Last week, a prosecutor asked the court to sentence the blogger to 11 years in prison.

The 40-year-old blogger faced a number of charges, including extortion and slander, which his supporters and rights defenders have characterized as retaliation by the authorities for his critical reporting.

Sattoriy, whose trial started in March, has insisted that the case against him was "based on lies."

Sattoriy is known to be a harsh critic of the regional governor, Tora Bobolov. In one post on his Halq Fikiri (People's Opinion) video blog, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the "crackdown."

Since his arrest in late-January, Sattoriy has been tried in a separate case and found guilty of defamation and distributing false information. According to the Prosecutor-General's Office, the blogger was ordered to pay a fine for the offenses.

The Prosecutor-General's Office has also rejected criticism by human rights organizations, saying that Sattoriy’s arrest was lawful.

Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders organization's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged Uzbekistan to repeal recent legal amendments that the group says "deepen restrictions" on online speech ahead of a planned presidential election in October.

The changes introduce prison sentences for crimes such as insulting or defaming the president online and making online calls for "mass disturbances." They also make it an offense to publish statements online calling on people to violate the law and threaten public order, or show "disrespect" to the state.

President Shavkat Mirziyoev took over as the head of Central Asia's most-populous state after authoritarian leader Islam Karimov's death was announced in September 2016.

Mirziyoev has since positioned himself as a reformer, releasing political prisoners and opening his country to its neighbors and the outside world, although many activists say the changes have not gone nearly far enough.

NATO members from Eastern Europe have pushed for a larger allied military presence on the bloc's eastern flank, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on May 10 after a virtual summit of those states that was also joined by U.S. President Joe Biden.

"The worrying situation in the Black Sea, which we discussed in detail, proved that we have to keep being vigilant," Iohannis said in Bucharest.

The summit of the Bucharest Nine (B9), a group of European countries on the eastern edge of NATO, was jointly hosted by Iohannis and Polish President Andrzej Duda, who traveled to Bucharest in person.

It came after Russia last month amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's borders as well as in Crimea, the biggest mobilization since Moscow seized the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in 2014 and war broke out in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is backing separatists.

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"NATO must continue to beef up its defense and deterrence posture especially on the eastern flank from the Baltic to the Black Sea. That's why, including during our discussion with President Biden, I advocated a bigger presence of the alliance and the United States in Romania and in the south of the eastern flank," Iohannis said.

"The talks were very substantive, a fact reflected in the Joint Statement adopted at the end of this meeting," Iohannis added.

"I've also highlighted during the talks with my counterparts that Russia's destabilizing actions in the region have sparked concern and contributed to maintaining a climate of insecurity."

Ahead of the summit, the White House said Biden would “convey his desire for closer cooperation with our Allies in Central Europe and the Baltic and Black Sea regions on the full range of global challenges."

The members of the B9 are Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Most share concerns about Moscow's attempts to reassert its influence over their region since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and threw its military, political, and economic support behind separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who also attended via video link, told the conference that Biden's attendance proved Washington's determination to rebuild and strengthen NATO.

Duda said at a news briefing before the meeting that the political situation in Belarus was a matter of concern for the B9 countries and Ukraine was also on the agenda.

He said he was relieved that Russia had pulled back many of the forces it had recently built up near the Ukrainian border, saying he believed it reduced the risk of another Russian invasion.

"But there is no doubt that the situation there is very difficult, that Ukrainian territory is occupied," Duda said at the briefing alongside Iohannis.

"Neither Europe nor the world can take their eyes off this part of our continent," Duda said. "We must all absolutely support Ukraine on the one hand, but on the other hand, we must also guard our security because this is our eastern flank, both for Romania and for Poland."

Iohannis and Duda will attend a military exercise on May 11 involving Polish and Romanian troops called Justice Sword 21. It is to take place in Smardan, a village in eastern Romania.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service and AP

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has pardoned hundreds of inmates on the occasion of a religious holiday, including jailed Jehovah's Witnesses.

Berdymukhammedov was quoted on May 9 as saying that the pardons marked the Night of Revelation, an important stage during the holy month of Ramadan which is currently being observed by Muslims around the world.

State media outlets reported that 1,035 inmates were released from prisons around the country on May 9, including 982 Turkmen nationals and 53 foreigners.

A spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses, Jarrod Lopes, told RFE/RL that 16 followers of the denomination, who had been sentenced to prison terms for refusing to serve in the Turkmen armed forces due to their faith, were among the released inmates.

Turkmenistan's laws oblige all men between 18 and 27 years of age to serve in the armed forces for two years. Failing to serve is punishable by up to two years in prison.

Berdymukhammedov’s predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, issued similar amnesty decrees once a year during Ramadan.

Berdymukhammedov, an authoritarian ruler who controls all aspects of Turkmen society, has issued such decrees several times a year, usually on the eve of state holidays.

Such acts usually do not cover political prisoners.

TBILISI -- The leader of Georgia's opposition United National Movement (ENM) was freed from prison on May 10 after the European Union posted his bail to help end the country's protracted political crisis.

Nika Melia left Rustavi prison after the Tbilisi City Court ruled to release him from pretrial detention after nearly three months.

The EU said over the weekend that it had posted bail of 40,000 laris (more than $11,600) for Melia, allowing for a court in the capital Tbilisi on May 10 to "order the release," his lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili said.

Supporters and party members waiting for Melia to exit the central gate chanted his name and applauded and waved posters saying “Nika’s time has come!” and “Nika is a strong man,” RFE/RL's Georgian Service reported.

When prison administrators let him walk free through a different gate, journalists quickly relocated. Melia apologized for the disturbance but said he was not to blame.

Melia thanked the ambassadors of the EU and the United States, as well as European Council President Charles Michel.

"I don't know if I look like a criminal or a politician, but in either case, together with my colleagues and society, I will pose a serious threat to the authorities and Bidzina Ivanishvili," said Melia, who appeared to have lost a lot of weight.

"We are facing a ruthless opponent," he said, referring to the ruling Georgian Dream party founded by Ivanishvili, a multibillionaire. "Unfortunately, I am not the last political prisoner in Georgia."

Melia, whose case has roiled the country's political scene, went on trial on April 8 for allegedly organizing "mass violence" during 2019 anti-government protests.

Melia has rejected the charge calling it politically motivated, which the ruling Georgian Dream party denies.

His release was part of an agreement that the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition leaders signed last month under European Council President Charles Michel's mediation.

The ENM, however, had refused to join the EU-mediated deal until Melia was released from pretrial detention. There was no immediate comment from the party on the court's May 10 ruling.

The political scene in Georgia has been on the brink of crisis since October parliamentary elections dominated by the Georgian Dream party, but which independent monitors said were marred by irregularities.

The opposition has boycotted the new parliament and staged protests demanding new elections.

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The decision to arrest Melia after he refused to pay an increased bail bond led to the resignation of Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia in February.

Gakharia said the decision was unacceptable if it threatened to fuel political divisions in the Caucasus country of 3.7 million people. It also sparked mass protests as well as international condemnation amid mounting fears in the West over the ex-Soviet republic's perceived backsliding on democracy.

The Interior Ministry carried out the arrest on February 23, five days after Gakharia stepped down, which further deepened an ongoing political crisis in the South Caucasus country caused by the parliamentary elections.

The 41-year-old politician faces up to nine years in prison if found guilty.

President Vladimir Putin says that almost 21.5 million people in Russia have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and encouraged Russians push the number higher in a country of 146 million people.

"The situation over the virus in the country, according to specialists, is stable, " Putin told reporters in Sochi on May 10, adding that the spread of the coronavirus across the nation had held steady for several days.

"That is why it is necessary to actively get tested and vaccinated. These are the most important ways to overcome the pandemic and its consequences," Putin said.

The Kremlin said last month that Russia's relatively low rate of vaccination so far is linked to demand and it expects this to accelerate "over time."

As of May 10, the number of officially registered coronavirus vases in Russia was 4,888,727, including 113,647 deaths.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, Interfax, and TASS