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'They Tortured Him': Wife Of Detained Crimean Journalist Yesypenko Demands His Release
The wife of detained Crimean journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko is demanding his immediate release and called his arrest a "deliberate attack on freedom of speech." Kateryna Yesypenko said her husband had been tortured with electric shocks and falsely accused of being a spy. Yesypenko is a freelance contributor to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that is known locally as Radio Svoboda. He was detained on March 10 after covering an event marking the 207th anniversary of the death of Ukrainian poet and thinker Taras Shevchenko in the city of Simferopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
- By RFE/RL
Iran Detentions In Spotlight As U.K. Alleges 'Torture,' U.S. Rejects Report Of Prisoner Swap
U.S., U.K., and Iranian officials have all dismissed or otherwise downplayed unconfirmed reports out of Iran that suggested deals had been struck to swap prisoners against the backdrop of high-profile nuclear talks over Iran's nuclear activities.
The United States said reports of an agreement to exchange prisoners and free up billions in Iranian assets were "not true," while British officials avoided linking a U.K. national's case to current talks, and an Iranian envoy said a U.S. exchange was "not confirmed."
The renewed focus on Westerners held in Iran emerged a day after the parties to a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran wrapped up a third round of tense talks on May 1 focused on bringing the United States and Iran back into full compliance with the deal.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on May 2 said that dual British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran since 2016, is being held "unlawfully" and "being treated in the most abusive" way.
"I think it amounts to torture the way she's being treated, and there is a very clear, unequivocal obligation on the Iranians to release her," Raab told BBC television on May 2.
Raab spoke by telephone with former charity worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe on April 28, days after her lawyer announced that she had been sentenced to another year in prison in Iran for spreading "propaganda against the system."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was already serving a five-year sentence for plotting the overthrow of Iran's government, a charge that she, her supporters, and rights groups deny.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has accused Tehran of holding Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a diplomatic ploy.
Iranian state TV on May 2 quoted an anonymous source as saying a deal had been agreed for the United Kingdom to pay hundreds of millions of pounds for the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The 400 million pound ($552 million) sum mentioned seems to correspond to a British debt to Tehran that predates Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Foreign Office responded to the report of a possible swap by saying Britain continues "to explore options to resolve this 40-year-old case and we will not comment further as legal discussions are ongoing."
The claims of a prisoner swap appeared in Iranian media in the hours before a nationally broadcast speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he made no mention of such a deal.
Later, Iran's envoy to the United Nations was quoted by a state-affiliated website called the Young Journalists Club as saying such news was "not confirmed."
"The news of the agreement for the release of American prisoners [in Iran] is not confirmed," the website quoted envoy Majid Takht Ravanchi as saying.
The U.S. State Department denied the reports suggesting a deal including a prisoner swap had been made between Washington and Tehran.
"Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said. "As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran. We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families."
The unsourced reports said four Iranians and "four American spies who have served part of their sentences" would be traded and $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds released.
Even after the U.S. denial, an Iranian anchorwoman on state TV told viewers that "some sources say four Iranian prisoners are to be released and $7 billion are to be received by Iran in exchange for releasing four American spies."
Iran is known to be holding at least four Americans: father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, and entrepreneur Emad Shargi.
U.S. President Joe Biden has stated his aim of rejoining the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Biden's chief of White House staff, Ron Klain, told CBS on May 2 that "unfortunately" the report of a swap was "untrue."
"We're working very hard to get them released," Klain said. "We raise this with Iran and our interlocutors all the time, but so far there's no agreement."
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Cease-Fire Said Holding After Worst Violence In Decades On Kyrgyz-Tajik Border
Both sides have reported calm on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border as a day-old cease-fire appeared to be holding and more than 40 people were being mourned from some of the worst clashes in decades on their disputed frontier.
A joint Kyrgyz-Tajik military commission reported finding an unexploded rocket embedded in a residence in the area as the group inspected the scene of 24 hours of intense violence on April 28-29.
Kyrgyzstan is observing two days of official mourning for 34 people who died in Batken Province. One hundred and seventy-eight more were reported injured on the Kyrgyz side, seven of them still in grave condition.
Some 30,000 Kyrgyz villagers were reportedly evacuated from their homes.
Fifteen people were thought to have been killed on the Tajik side and 90 more injured, according to RFE/RL's Tajik Service, although Tajik authorities did not disclose casualty figures.
The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said in a statement on May 2 that "the situation in all districts and villages of Batken Province on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border is stable and calm."
The violence followed a dispute over the installation of surveillance cameras at a water-distribution point near Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave, drawing in security forces from both countries.
Kyrgyz security officials at one point accused Tajik forces of using MI-24 helicopter gunships to shoot at Kyrgyz villages.
Kyrgyz reports say about 100 structures, including dozens of homes, three border checkpoints, a medical center, a police station, and two schools, were damaged.
The heads of national security for the post-Soviet, Central Asian neighbors agreed to the pullback during a crisis meeting on May 1.
The meeting of the Tajik and Kyrgyz delegations followed a telephone conversation between Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon.
The European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and Russia have all urged both sides to respect the cease-fire agreement.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan both host Russian military bases.
Human Rights Watch has urged an immediate investigation to hold either side responsible for laws-of-war violations against civilians.
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.
- By RFE/RL
Journalists, Writers Come To Defense Of Russian Rights Lawyer
More than 80 Russian journalists, writers, historians, and translators have issued an open letter in support of prominent defense attorney Ivan Pavlov, who was detained in Moscow on April 30 and accused of disclosing classified information about the ongoing investigation of former journalist Ivan Safronov.
"The persecution of Ivan Pavlov and the seizure of confidential case files is an act of terror directed not only at Pavlov but at the entire law community and an attempt to drive Pavlov out of the Ivan Safronov case," the open letter published on May 2 said.
The signatories of the letter represent the Moscow PEN Club and the Free Speech Association.
Pavlov, 50, is one of Russia's leading human rights lawyers and the head of the legal-aid foundation Team 29. Law enforcement officers searched the Team 29 office in St. Petersburg, the home of the group's IT specialist, and the apartment of Pavlov's wife.
Safronov is accused of treason and has been in pretrial detention since July 2020. Authorities say he gave classified information about Russian arms sales in the Middle East to the Czech Republic, an accusation that Safronov denies.
Pavlov has also been representing the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which was created by imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and which Russian authorities are pushing to have declared an "extremist" organization.
In a statement on April 30, Amnesty International described Pavlov as "one of the country's most courageous lawyers" and said his detention was "a travesty of justice."
Pavlov also defended physicist Viktor Kudryavtsev, who was also charged with treason. Kudryavtsev died of cancer on April 29 as his trial was pending.
Pavlov told journalists that the 14 months Kudryavtsev spent in pretrial detention had "completely damaged his health." The case was "an example of how the secret services are literally killing Russian science in general," he added.
- By RFE/RL
Russia Says Half A Million Passports Issued In Eastern Ukraine In Last Two Years
Russia's Interior Ministry says that more than 527,000 people in parts of eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed separatist formations are waging a war against Kyiv have been granted Russian citizenship over the past two years.*
The ministry's press service made the announcement on May 2 to the state news agency TASS.
It said around 40 percent of applications had been rejected, citing expulsions or restrictions on entry to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2019 issued an order for a simplified and expedited citizenship process for residents of those areas.
Moscow's policy of handing out citizenship in Ukraine has come under intense international criticism as a bid to further destabilize the area, where more than 13,000 people have been killed since the fighting started in April 2014.
Ukraine has condemned the Russian naturalization of Ukrainian citizens as part of a hybrid-warfare campaign being waged by Moscow and a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to the separatists in parts of Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Moscow maintains it is not involved in Ukraine's domestic affairs.
The developments come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks, when Russia launched a major military buildup along its border with Ukraine and in the Black Sea Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
On April 8, Putin's deputy chief of staff, Dmitry Kozak, said Russia could "be forced to come to the defense" of Russian citizens in Ukraine, a statement that was repeated the following day by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
In November 2020, Peskov said, "Russia has always protected and will continue to protect the interests of Russians, regardless of where they live."
Viktor Vodolatsky, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma's Committee on CIS Affairs and Eurasian Integration, told TASS on April 24 that Russia could issue up to 1 million new passports to Ukrainians by the end of the year.
On March 20, a Russian presidential decree came into force banning non-Russian citizens from owning land in most of Crimea.
"The European Union does not recognize the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, which is a clear violation of international law," said an EU statement at the time.
"Therefore the European Union does not recognize this decree and considers its entry into force as yet another attempt to forcibly integrate the illegally annexed peninsula into Russia."
With reporting by TASS, UNIAN, and The Atlantic
*CORRECTION: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect time frame for the issuing of Russian passports to residents of eastern Ukraine.
- By RFE/RL
Iran's Supreme Leader Chides Minister Despite Apology For Leaked Comments
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has lashed out at Tehran's top diplomat in a powerful rebuke that could hobble Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as international nuclear talks continue in Vienna and a presidential election looms.
Khamenei did not identify Zarif by name in his televised speech on May 2, but he cited as "a big mistake" his leaked criticism of the conduct of foreign policy that frequently left him out of the loop.
The embattled Zarif publicly apologized earlier in the day for comments he made in a recording that emerged last week in which he criticized the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its forrmer commander, assassinated General Qasem Soleimani.
"This was a big mistake that must not be made by an official of the Islamic republic," Khamenei said.
"Nowhere in the world does the Foreign Ministry determine foreign policy," Khamenei, who holds the final word on religious and political decisions, told the country. "There are higher-ranking officials that make the decisions and policies. Of course, the Foreign Ministry is also involved."
Zarif was a key participant in the talks that resulted in the 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
He is helping steer tense multilateral talks that began last month to revive the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after U.S. President Joe Biden signaled his desire to return to the deal, which his predecessor Donald Trump exited in 2018.
Zarif wrote on Instagram on May 2 that he hoped Soleimani’s family and the Iranian people would forgive him for the controversial comments.
The leaked recordings have touched off a firestorm in Iran less than two months ahead of a presidential election. On the recording, Zarif criticizes the IRGC's involvement in diplomacy and charges that Soleimani maintained separate relations with Russia.
He also criticized his lack of influence within the country's theocratic political system, saying that he was often left in the dark on important foreign-policy decisions.
Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad in 2020 and, since then, has been lionized in Iran as a martyr. Prosecutors in Tehran have launched a criminal investigation into the leak, while hard-liners have accused Zarif of "betrayal" and the "defamation" of Soleimani.
The leaked audio was from an interview with Zarif that was recorded on February 24 as part of an "oral history" series, the interviewer, prominent economist Saeed Laylaz, said in an audio file that was posted online.
Zarif can be heard repeatedly saying his comments are not for publication.
After the disclosure, the Foreign Ministry said the most controversial excerpts were taken out of context from a seven-hour conversation.
Zarif has said he does not plan to participate in the June presidential election, in which Zarif ally and incumbent President Hassan Rohani is ineligible after serving two terms. In the past he has often been mentioned as a possible challenger to the hard-line faction.
Russia has long been one of Iran's closest allies and has consistently supported Tehran at the United Nations. Moscow called the assassination of Soleimani a "reckless step" that threatened regional stability.
On April 28, Zarif posted on Instagram a video of himself visiting the memorial to his "longtime friend" Soleimani in Baghdad. He wrote that he favored a "smart adjustment" between the diplomatic and military spheres in Tehran.
- By RFE/RL
Orthodox Christians Mark Second Easter Holiday Under Pandemic Restrictions
Orthodox Christians around the world are observing the holiday of Easter for the second time under conditions of the global pandemic.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on May 2 expressed his hope that the coronavirus would be eliminated, and the pandemic ended.
"This Easter is special and its special nature lies in the hope that the bane of the pandemic will pass and, leaving us with a number of important lessons, will after all abandon us forever," Kirill told the Russia-24 TV channel.
Many worshipers in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior were seen wearing masks to reduce the transmission of the virus, but President Vladimir Putin was unmasked.
Putin issued a statement thanking the church for its contribution to "pressing social problems" and for promoting family traditions.
WATCH: In Kazan, Tatar-speaking Orthodox Christians -- a community known as Kryashens -- gathered for an Easter Mass.
Despite concerns expressed by Serbia's national task force ahead of Easter ceremonies in Serbia and the Balkan region, the Serbian Orthodox Church did not include calls for restricting communion or other procedures in its online schedule of liturgies.
The new patriarch, Porfirije, did make a reference in his Easter address to "respecting the recommendations of medicine."
The Serbian church replaced its patriarch in February, three months after 90-year-old Patriarch Irinej died after coronavirus infection as the church refused to change practices including the administration of communion with a single spoon for an entire congregation.
Serbia, which is among the leaders in Europe in its vaccination efforts, is around 85 percent Orthodox, with hundreds of thousands more followers of the Serbian Orthodox Church in neighboring countries.
The holiday was also celebrated at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and at the main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo. In both cases, participation was restricted because of the pandemic.
"We are praying for an end to this pandemic that has horrifyingly swept through the world," Coptic Pope Tawadros II said in an Easter message. "We are praying for our dear health workers, being the first defense line in confronting this pandemic."
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny also issued an Easter statement, congratulating believers, nonbelievers, and "militant atheists" on the occasion.
"I embrace and love you all," he wrote on social media. "On such a day I know for certain and understand that everything will be all right."
Navalny recently ended a hunger strike that he had been holding to demand he be examined by his own doctors amid what he has described as a "deliberate campaign" by Russian prison officials to undermine his health.
Navalny has been in custody since January, when he returned to Russia following weeks of medical treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning that he says was carried out by operatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) at the behest of Putin.
He is serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that he says were trumped up because of his political activity.
Many countries are restricting normal Orthodox Easter celebrations, after last year much of the world lived in lockdown.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians based in Istanbul, has conducted various Easter celebrations over the weekend with limited attendance, as Turkey is under a strict lockdown.
In Greece, the government kept pandemic restrictions in place through the Easter holiday while preparing to restart services for tourists next week. Many church services were held outdoors and those indoors required social distancing and mask wearing.
In Lebanon, a curfew was in effect to curb the spread of coronavirus and churches were allowed to hold Easter Mass and prayers only at 30 percent capacity.
With reporting by dpa, AP, RFE/RL's Balkan Service, Orthodox Times, and TASS
Russian LGBT Activist On Trial For 'Pornography' Launches Hunger Strike
A Russian LGBT activist and artist has declared a hunger strike to protest the proceedings of her closed-door trial on pornography charges.
Yulia Tsvetkova's trial began on April 12 after a nearly 1 1/2-year investigation, during which time she has been fined for spreading LGBT "propaganda" and put under house arrest in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East.
Tsvetkova, 27, is charged with producing and distributing pornographic material for administering a page on social media called The Vagina Monologues showing abstract art of female genitalia.
The artist, an activist who draws women's bodies, is known for her advocacy of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues.
Her trial, which has been repeatedly drawn out, is ostensibly being held behind closed doors because prosecutors need to show evidence in the form of artistic vagina images and drawings of women's bodies.
In a Facebook post declaring the hunger strike, Tsvetkova wrote that the state's "cowardly" handling of her case and ruining of her life amounted to "torture."
She said the hunger strike would continue until the state could "be a man" and allow her to defend herself in a public trial.
According to Amnesty International, the case against Tsvetkova amounts to political repression and "Kafkaesque absurdity."
"A woman has been criminally charged with 'producing pornography' simply for drawing and publishing images of the female body and freely expressing her views through art," Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow office director, said ahead of her trial last month.
"During this ordeal, Yulia has spent time under house arrest and twice been subjected to extortionate fines under the so-called 'gay propaganda' law."
Bulgaria Set For Early Elections After Last Attempt To Form Government Fails
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.
- By RFE/RL
Iran Nuclear Talks Adjourn With Mixed Messages About Progress
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.
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
Kyiv Eases COVID-19 Restrictions Following Decrease In Infections
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
- By RFE/RL
Ukraine's Naftogaz Supervisory Board Resigns After CEO's Controversial Dismissal
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.
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.
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
Kyrgyz, Tajik Officials Reach Agreement On Troop Pullback, Truce After Deadly Border Clashes
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.
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.
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 Leans On China For COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign
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
- By RFE/RL
Belarus Court Gives 14 People Long Prison Terms For 'Mass Disorder'
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 Bars Eight EU Citizens From Entry In Tit-For-Tat Move Slammed By Brussels
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
Severely Beaten Uzbek Blogger Under House Arrest After Release From Hospital
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."
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.
- By RFE/RL
EU, U.S. Criticize Sacking Of Ukraine's Naftogaz CEO
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
Hungary Eases COVID-19 Restrictions For Those Who Are Vaccinated
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.
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“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
- By RFE/RL
Rammstein Guitarist Expresses Shock At Prison Sentence For Russian Man Who Shared Band's Video
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.”
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.”
- By RFE/RL
Russia's Financial Watchdog Puts Navalny's Regional Campaign Offices On 'Terrorism, Extremism' List
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.
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.
Pretrial Detention Extended For Russian Journalist Charged With High Treason
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.
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
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Embassy In Moscow Announces Reduction In Services After Russia Imposes Staff Limits
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.
Hearing Starts On Forced 'Treatment' In Psychiatric Clinic Of Anti-Putin Shaman
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.
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.
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.
Kazakh Journalist Sentenced To Forced Labor, Media Ban, 'Restricted Freedom'
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.
RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.
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