The White House and Kremlin are inching closer to a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

In a joint statement on May 24, U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, described consultations in Geneva as an "important step" in the preparation of a summit between to the two leaders.

"The discussions were held in a constructive manner and, despite outstanding differences, allowed for a better understanding of each other's positions," the joint statement read.

The date and location of any Biden-Putin summit is to be announced at a later date, but is expected to be held in June, when Biden will make his first foreign trip as president to Europe for a Group of Seven summit in Great Britain followed by talks with EU leaders and NATO officials in Brussels.

Geneva is said to be the likely location for the bilateral summit.

The top U.S. and Russian security advisers discussed a wide range of issues of mutual interest, with strategic stability a key focus.

"The sides expressed confidence that mutually acceptable solutions could be found in a number of areas," the joint statement said. "The sides agreed that a normalization of U.S.-Russian relations would be in the interest of both countries and contribute to global predictability and stability."

The Biden administration first broached the idea of a U.S.-Russia summit in April amid deteriorating relations between the two countries over alleged Russian election interference and cyberattacks, the poisoning and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

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Kremlin Says 'Positive Signals' In U.S.-Russian Relations Despite 'Serious Differences'

Despite a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and sanctions, Biden has said he wants to cooperate where the two countries have common interests and seeks to avoid a cycle of escalation.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Iceland, with both sides stressing that their countries had "serious differences," but can still find ways to work together.

Russia's communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has given Google 24 hours to delete what it said was prohibited content as it faces the possibility of a punitive slowdown measure on it.

Google faces a fine of up to 4 million rubles ($54,300) if the company does not respond to Roskomnadzor's May 24 notifications about the removal of prohibited information within 24 hours, the watchdog was quoted as saying by TASS.

Roskomnadzor said that YouTube, which is owned by Google, did not remove about 5,000 "prohibited" videos, out of which some 3,500 incite "extremism."

"To date, about 5,000 banned materials have not been removed from YouTube. Most of all -- 3,500 -- with calls for extremism. More than 900 materials recognized as banned by the court," the watchdog said.

"Roskomnadzor sent more than 26,000 notifications to the management of Google about the need to delete illegal information. If, after receiving the Roskomnadzor notification, the Internet platform does not restrict access to prohibited information within 24 hours, it will be fined 800,000 to 4 million rubles," TASS quoted the watchdog as saying.

"In case of a repeated offense, the amount of the fine will be increased to one-10th of the total amount of the company's annual revenue."

Google Russia did not immediately comment on the demand by Roskomnadzor.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Lawmakers Back More Restrictive Civil Society Legislation

Russia has already placed a punitive slowdown on U.S. social network Twitter for not deleting banned content, part of a push by Moscow to rein in Western tech giants and beef up what it calls its Internet "sovereignty."

Roskomnadzor claimed that the content it wanted removed included videos of how to buy drugs, scenes of cruel animal killings, videos calling for violence, and materials from terrorist and extremist organizations.

"Google does not fully fulfill its obligation to ban links to Internet resources with information prohibited in our country from search results in Russia. On average, from 20-30 percent of links to content prohibited in Russia are not removed from search results, including websites of terrorist and extremist organizations, websites with pornographic images of minors, as well as online stores selling drugs," the regulator's spokesperson told TASS.

On May 20, the Russian arm of Google appealed a court ruling that its YouTube unit unblock the accounts of the Tsargrad TV channel in Russia and its former chief editor, pro-Kremlin analyst Aleksandr Dugin.

Google said on May 20 it was appealing a decision last month by the Moscow Arbitration Court that ruled it must restore Tsargrad's account or face a daily fine of 100,000 rubles.($1,360). Failure to comply would result in a doubling of the fine each week, the court said.

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Google Russia Appeals Ruling On Unblocking Oligarch-Backed Orthodox TV Channel

Google said in July 2020 that the accounts were blocked due to the violation of laws on sanctions and trade regulations.

In January and early February, a series of massive anti-government rallies actively promoted on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok ushered in an intensified push to fine-tune the online censorship apparatus.

In 2019, Russia passed a "sovereign Internet" law that gives officials wide-ranging powers to restrict online traffic, up to the point of isolating the country from cross-border Internet connections during national emergencies.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it is ready to use the new measure if unrest were to reach a serious scale.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Kazakhstan has officially refused to grant citizenship to three ethnic Kazakhs who fled China's northwestern region of Xinjiang for illegally entering the country as they fled persecution.

Qaisha Aqan, Murager Alimuly, and Kaster Musakhanuly are three of several ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang residing in Kazakhstan after they were convicted for illegally crossing the Chinese-Kazakh border in recent years, but later given temporary refugee status in October 2020.

Locked Up In China: The Plight Of Xinjiang's Muslims

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is partnering with its sister organization, Radio Free Asia, to highlight the plight of Muslims living in China's western province of Xinjiang.

Aqan told RFE/RL on May 23 that she had received a letter signed by Deputy Interior Minister Arystangali Zapparov that said they would not be granted citizenship because their place of permanent residence was outside Kazakhstan before they were convicted of illegally crossing the border.

The three have insisted that they fled China fearing they would be placed in so-called reeducation camps for indigenous ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

In January, Aqan and Alimuly were both violently attacked in the Central Asian country by unknown assailants in separate incidents in different cities.

The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps.

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs.

The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.

Iran and the UN's nuclear watchdog say they have agreed to extend by one month an agreement to monitor Tehran's nuclear activities, a move that will give more time for ongoing diplomatic efforts to salvage the country's tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

"The equipment and the verification and the monitoring activities that we agreed will continue as they are now for one month expiring on June 24, 2021," the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, told a news conference in Vienna on May 24.

The Iranian representative to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, acknowledged the agreement on Twitter.

Under a three-month agreement struck with Iran on February 21, the IAEA was allowed to collect and analyze images from surveillance cameras installed at Iranian nuclear sites.

Those images have helped the Vienna-based agency monitor whether Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal.

But Iran said on May 23 the monitoring deal had expired and that IAEA access to images from inside some Iranian nuclear sites would cease.

Gharibabadi said that under the new agreement, IAEA access to images from inside some Iranian nuclear sites would cease.

"The data from the last three months are still in the possession of Iran and will not be handed over to the IAEA. The data for the next month will remain only with Iran," Gharibabadi said, according to state media.

Grossi said that Tehran had agreed that information collected so far by agency equipment in Iran would not be erased.

He said the outcome of this "long discussion" was "important" but the situation was "not ideal."

"We should all be reminded that the temporary understanding is a sort of stop-gap measure. It is to avoid flying completely blind," he said.

Iran and the United States have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna since April to renew the 2015 deal with world powers.

The agreement was put on hold three years ago after then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy.

In response, Tehran steadily overstepped the accord’s limits on its nuclear program designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb -- an ambition Tehran denies.

Diplomats are expected to resume the negotiations this week.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Belarus's authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has signed into law legal amendments severely restricting civil rights and the free flow of information amid a crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy movement.

The amendments, signed by Lukashenka on May 24, make it tougher for protest organizers to hold rallies by making it compulsory for all mass events to be authorized by municipal authorities. They also make political parties and public associations responsible if their leaders make public calls for organizing a mass event before the permission to organize the event is granted.

One part of the legislation also states that reporters cannot act as organizers or participants of mass events in the course of their work, and cut off the ability to raise funds to hold events, providing additional ammunition for authorities to use draconian tactics to silence protesters and opposition forces challenging the official results of a presidential election last year that handed Lukashenka his sixth consecutive term.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

In the wake of the election, thousands of Belarusians have taken to the streets in what has become the largest and most-persistent show of opposition to Lukashenka. More than 33,000 people have been arrested in a crackdown that has left much of the opposition leadership in exile or prison.

The amendments signed into law by Lukashenka also give municipal authorities and law enforcement agencies the right to suspend the operation of infrastructure in areas where mass events are to take place and along the routes their participants use.

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

Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.

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

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

The main amendments take force one month after their official publication.

With reporting by BelTA

Latvia's airBaltic says that it has changed its flight routes to avoid Belarusian airspace after the forced diversion and landing of a Ryanair plane to Minsk that was carrying a prominent opposition journalist on an internal EU flight.

The air carrier said on May 24 that it would avoid Belarus airspace until "the situation became clearer" or authorities issue a decision on how to proceed.

Talis Linkaits, Latvia's transport minister, added in an interview with Latvian state radio that the national airline "continuously keeps a close eye" on the security situation over the airspace of different countries.

"It has already decided not to use Belarusian airspace when operating its flights. The Latvian Civil Aviation Agency will also announce its recommendations," he added.

Belarusian authorities scrambled a military jet to escort the civilian plane, which was en route to Vilnius from Athens on May 23, over what turned out to be a false bomb report. Once the plane landed, police detained Raman Pratasevich, a 26-year-old opposition activist and journalist.

EU officials and several Western governments have condemned the incident as the state-sponsored hijacking of a commercial flight, with some calling for fresh sanctions against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has led a crackdown on dissent in the country since a disputed presidential election last August.

The European Union has agreed to impose fresh sanctions against Belarus, including moves to seal off the bloc's airspace to Belarusian airlines, amid strong Western condemnation over the forced diversion of a commercial airliner on a flight between two EU member states to arrest an opposition journalist.

The Ryanair flight was forced to land on May 23 in Minsk, where 26-year-old Belarusian journalist and opposition activist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend were detained. The EU demanded their immediate release, with some leaders calling the incident "state hijacking."

Following an EU summit in Brussels on May 24, the bloc instructed officials to "adopt necessary measures to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports," European Council President Charles Michel's spokesman Barend Leyts said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The summit's conclusions came as Pratasevich, in a video released on Belarusian state TV on May 24, said he was "confessing" to charges of being behind civil disturbances, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

"I can say that I have no health problems.... I continue cooperating with investigators and am confessing to having organized mass unrest in the city of Minsk," he says in the video, in which he appears to have black marks on his forehead. The Belarusian opposition and Pratasevich's allies dismissed the comments as made under duress.

Dmitry Pratasevich, the detained Belarusian journalist's father, told RFE/RL the family was "very worried about what is happening to our son." Pratasevich's parents said they feared their son, who has lived in Lithuania and Poland since he fled a brutal crackdown against the opposition in Belarus, would be tortured.

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Father Of Journalist Detained In 'Air Piracy' Incident Says Belarus Must Have Had Outside Help

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In the statement adopted at the summit, the leaders said the EU "demands the immediate release" of Pratasevich and his girlfriend and called on the European Council to adopt additional sanctions on Belarusian persons and entities.

Leaders also urged the bloc's airlines to avoid Belarus's airspace and called on the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to urgently investigate the incident, which it called "unprecedented and unacceptable." The UN agency said its 36 diplomatic representatives will meet on May 27 to discuss Belarus's actions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also backed calls for an independent investigation into the plane diversion.

The EU also voiced its solidarity with member Latvia, which announced it was expelling all Belarusian diplomats, including the Belarusian ambassador, in a tit-for-tat measure.

Earlier on May 24, Belarus expelled Latvia's ambassador to Minsk and all the embassy's employees apart from one staff member. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced that move after the Latvia-based airBaltic joined other airlines that are avoiding Belarus airspace.

Polish national carrier LOT, Hungarian airline Wizzair, Scandinavian airline SAS, and Dutch airline KLM were among airliners announcing a halt to using Belarus's airspace.

Lithuanian Transport Minister Marius Skuodis announced that all flights to and from Lithuanian airports must avoid Belarusian airspace from midnight GMT on May 25.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK would suspend the air permit that allows flights in British airspace by the Belarus's national airline, Belavia -- a move that effectively blocks it from using Britain's transit hub at Heathrow International Airport. Raab also said British authorities are instructing British airlines to cease all of their flights over Belarusian airspace.

Raab told Parliament that Belarus "must be held to account for such reckless and dangerous behavior.”

"The scenario as reported is a shocking assault on civil aviation and an assault on international law," he said. "It represents a danger to civilian flights everywhere."

The diversion of the flight and the detention of Pratasevich has also been met by criticism from the United States, which has pledged to coordinate a response with its European allies.

SEE ALSO:

What Now For Brussels And Belarus After Forced Landing Of EU Flight?

The Ryanair flight from Athens to Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, was diverted on the orders of Belarusian strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka as it was flying through Belarusian airspace.

Belarusian authorities said the flight to Vilnius was diverted because of a bomb threat from Hamas, a claim the Palestinian militant group rejected.

Rolandas Kiskis, the Lithuanian chief of criminal police, said five of the 126 passengers who boarded the Ryanair flight in Athens did not reach Vilnius, though he would not elaborate.

But Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said the airline believes "there were some [Belarusian security agency] KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well."

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Although the Ryanair flight was closer to Vilnius when it was intercepted, Minsk claims the diversion and forced landing with a MiG-29 fighter jet escort was necessary because Belarusian authorities were informed there was a bomb on the plane. No explosive device was found.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed that explanation as "completely implausible."

"We have seen a forced landing that led to the arrest," Merkel said on May 24 ahead of the summit. "All other explanations for the landing of this Ryanair flight are completely implausible."

"This was effectively aviation piracy, state sponsored," Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. Ryanair is headquartered in Dublin.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg denounced the diversion as a "serious and dangerous incident." NATO officials say the military alliance will discuss the matter on May 25.

Many European leaders already have called for expanded sanctions against the regime of Lukashenka, who has led a sometimes violent and deadly crackdown on dissent in his country since mass protests broke over the disputed results of last August's presidential election.

Russia accused the West of hypocrisy, reiterating accusations that in 2013 a flight from Moscow carrying then-Bolivian President Evo Morales had been diverted to Austria after reports that fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden might be on board.

Speaking to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't say if the Belarusian authorities had contacted Russia about the incident.

Russia and Belarus have close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenka has relied on Moscow's support amid Western sanctions.

SEE ALSO:

Who Is Raman Pratasevich, And Why Is Belarus Targeting Him?

The EU has already imposed three rounds of sanctions against Belarus and was preparing a fourth round before the Ryanair event, including further asset freezes and visa bans on Belarusian officials and entities amid the ongoing crackdown on the opposition and pro-democracy protesters.

Belarus has been rocked by protests since Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the landslide winner of a presidential election in August 2020 that the West and opposition deem fraudulent.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Since then, more than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten or tortured, and journalists targeted in the crackdown by Lukashenka.

The opposition says Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to neighboring Lithuania after the election due to concerns about her safety, was the true winner of the vote.

Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta Live, which has been covering the protests that broke out in Belarus following the disputed presidential election.

Belarusian authorities in November 2020 launched investigations into Pratasevich and a colleague, Stsyapan Putsila, on suspicion of the organization of mass disorder, disruption of social order, and inciting social hatred.

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Describing Pratasevich as a high-profile opponent of Lukashenka, Tsikhanouskaya told Sky News on May 24 that she was "really afraid not only for his freedom, but for his life.

Pratasevich spoke to Current Time from an undisclosed location in Poland on November 19, 2020, after Belarusian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

"It seems to me that the [state] power now considers nearly any expression of a different opinion in general to be a crime,” Pratasevich said, saying this was clear from the number of people who were being detained. Current Time is a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

In October 2020, a court in Minsk designated the Nexta Live channel and its logo as extremist and instructed the Information Ministry to restrict access to information resources using the name and logo of the Telegram channel, as well as their distribution in the Belarusian segment of the Internet.

Media in Belarus have been targeted by the Lukashenka government in the ongoing crackdown. The watchdog Reporters Without Borders has designated Belarus as the most dangerous spot in Europe for journalists.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, Reuters, AP, and AFP

Students in Belarus are facing arrest and expulsion from school for peaceful activism against the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Amnesty International said in a report issued on May 24.

Belarus has been thrown into turmoil since Lukashenka was declared the winner of the country’s presidential election last August, despite opposition and Western assertions the poll was rigged to maintain the authoritarian leader's rule after more than two decades in power.

More than 30,000 people have been arrested, hundreds beaten or even tortured, and journalists targeted in a sweeping crackdown that has led to the government's international isolation amid Western sanctions targeting Lukashenka and his inner circle.

In its news publication, Amnesty International described brutal reprisals against students and exposed the impact of the state’s repression of academic life in Belarus.

“Students and teachers who protested across Belarus began their current academic year in a country radically transformed by events over the summer. From the outset, it was clear that their dissent would not be tolerated by either the authorities or many university administrations. On October 27, Alyaksandr Lukashenka called for universities to dismiss them. We then saw with dismay how universities did exactly this to scores of students,” said Aisha Jung, Amnesty International’s senior campaigner on Belarus.

As of May, according to the Belarusian Students’ Association, an independent student union, at least 466 students have been detained. Many were put under administrative detention or fined an average of 120 euros, a quarter of the average monthly salary in Belarus. At least 153 students have been arbitrarily expelled from universities and many have fled to neighboring countries fearful for their safety. Forty-two students have become suspects in criminal cases and six have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment.

Amnesty International highlighted the launching of a criminal investigation against 11 student activists and one teacher, many of whom were apprehended at their homes on November 12, 2020, a date which has since become known as “Black Thursday.” Their trial started on May 14 and is expected to continue until mid-June. All are facing charges under an article of the criminal code for "violating public order” that carries a prison sentence of up to two years.

The targeting of politically active students and teachers is not a new tactic in Belarus. However, as with all those currently speaking out against the government in the context of the presidential election, the scale of harassment, persecution, and violence against them is unprecedented in the former Soviet state's postindependence history.

Amnesty International calls on the Belarusian authorities to immediately end the repression against students, academics, and all peaceful protesters.

“The Belarusian authorities must abide by their obligations under international human rights law and respect students’ rights to peacefully express their opinions, together or in association, and to peacefully demonstrate without fear of harassment or reprisals,” said Jung.

“We call on student unions and student leaders across the world to show solidarity with their peers in Belarus and demand that their countries’ authorities take immediate steps to put pressure on Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government to end the strangulation of public life, of academic life, of the brightest youth in the country,” she said.

A chorus of EU leaders called for swift sanctions after Belarus’s authoritarian ruler forced a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk and detained a prominent opposition journalist, in what was widely condemned as a state-sponsored hijacking of a commercial flight.

Ahead of a preplanned EU leaders’ summit on May 24, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen urged a toughening of the bloc’s existing sanctions against Belarus imposed over the crackdown by the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

“The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences. Those responsible for the #Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned,” von der Leyen wrote on May 23 in a late-night tweet.

Raman Pratasevich, an opposition activist and journalist who faces charges in Belarus that could bring 15 years in prison, was aboard the Ryanair flight from Athens, Greece, to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius when it changed course between the two EU members to head for Minsk.

Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported that Lukashenka had personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the Ryanair plane to land in Minsk, ostensibly due to a bomb threat. Officials later said no explosives were found on the plane.

Pratasevich and his girlfriend were taken away by police shortly after the Ryanair flight landed in the Belarusian capital. Ryanair said the flight arrived safely in Vilnius on May 23 after a delay in Minsk of several hours.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda slammed the arrest of Pratasevich, calling it an “unprecedented event" and saying the Belarusian regime is “behind this abhorrent action.”

He said EU leaders would discuss “a state-sponsored terror act” by Belarus at the summit in Brussels and “serious sanctions against the regime.”

A senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that potential measures may include suspending overflights of all EU airlines over Belarus, banning Belarus’s state airliner Belavia from landing at EU airports, and suspending transit from Belarus to the EU.

“Belarusian airspace is completely unsafe for any commercial flight, and it should be deemed this not only by the EU but by the international community. Because now, this instrument could be used for any plane crossing Belarusian airspace,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

EU leaders will also call for an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which earlier described the incident as a possible violation of international air travel rules under the Chicago Convention.

The EU was already preparing a fourth round of sanctions before the Ryanair event, including further asset freezes and visa bans on individuals and entities over the crackdown on the opposition and what the West and opposition deem a fraudulent presidential election last August.

The diversion of the flight between two EU members and the detention of Pratasevich was met by a torrent of criticism from Western governments.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier asked the European Council's president to discuss immediate sanctions against Belarus, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the incident requires a "strong and united" response from the European Union.

The government in Ireland, where Ryanair is headquartered, described the incident as "absolutely unacceptable," while NATO called it a “serious and dangerous" incident and demanded an international investigation.

"This is an Irish Airline with EU citizens on board, forced to land in Minsk, while travelling between EU cities...EU inaction or indecision will be taken as weakness by Belarus," Irish Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Simon Coveney said on Twitter.

The German and British foreign ministries also expressed alarm and called for consequences, and European Council President Charles Michel said an investigation by the ICAO "will be essential."

U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher condemned the Ryanair incident as an example of Lukashenka’s “contempt” for the international community.

“Faking a bomb threat and sending MiG-29s to force @RyanAir to Minsk in order to arrest a @Nexta journalist on politically motivated charges is dangerous and abhorrent,” she wrote on Twitter.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States supports an ICAO investigation and was closely coordinating a response with the EU, Lithuania, and Greece.

"The United States strongly condemns the forced diversion of a flight between two EU member states and the subsequent removal and arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release," he said in a statement.

Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel NEXTA Live, which has been covering the protests that broke out in Belarus following the country’s disputed presidential election last August.

Belarusian authorities in November 2020 launched investigations into Pratasevich and a colleague, Stsyapan Putsila, on suspicion of the organization of mass disorder, disruption of the social order, and inciting social hatred.

"It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of secret services to capture the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich," exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Telegram.

The opposition says that Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to neighboring Lithuania after the election due to concerns about her safety, was the true winner of last year's presidential vote.

Pratasevich was a 2017-18 Vaclav Havel Journalism fellow in Prague. The Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship -- a joint initiative of RFE/RL and the Czech Foreign Ministry -- is available to aspiring, independent journalists in the European Union's Eastern Partnership countries and Russia.

Pratasevich spoke to Current Time from an undisclosed location in Poland on November 19 after Belarusian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

"It seems to me that the [state] power now considers nearly any expression of a different opinion in general to be a crime,” Pratasevich said, saying this was clear from the number of people who were being detained. Current Time is a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

Belarus has been rocked by protests since Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the landslide winner of the poll amid allegations of vote-rigging. Since then, more than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten or tortured, and journalists targeted in the crackdown by Lukashenka, whose government has been hit by Western sanctions.

In October 2020, a court in Minsk designated the NEXTA Live channel and its logo as extremist and instructed the Information Ministry to restrict access to information resources using the name and logo of the Telegram channel, as well as their distribution in the Belarusian segment of the Internet.

Fearing prosecution, Pratasevich and Putsila fled the country and their whereabouts have not been known.

In October 2020, Putsila, along with several Belarusian activists, received the European Parliament's 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Media in Belarus have been targeted by the Lukashenka government in the ongoing crackdown. The watchdog Reporters Without Borders has designated Belarus as the most dangerous spot in Europe for journalists.

The head of NATO has joined the leaders of several EU countries in demanding an investigation into the diversion on May 23 of a Lithuanian-bound flight to Minsk, where authorities arrested one of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance was closely monitoring the "forcible landing" of the flight -- from Athens to Vilnius -- in Belarus and the reported detention of Pratasevich.

"This is a serious & dangerous incident which requires international investigation. Belarus must ensure safe return of crew & all passengers," Stoltenberg said on Twitter.

Ryanair said the flight arrived safely in Vilnius on May 23 after a delay in Minsk of several hours. The Irish airline said earlier that "nothing untoward" had been found after it was notified of a potential security threat on board by Belarus air traffic control and instructed to divert.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda earlier slammed the arrest of Pratasevich on Twitter, calling it an “unprecedented event" and saying the Belarusian regime is “behind this abhorrent action.”

Lithuania later summoned the Belarusian ambassador and urged its EU allies to do likewise. It also called for EU countries to jointly recommend that planes avoid Belarusian airspace.

The proposal will be put forward at a meeting of European leaders on May 24 and will include a call to recognize the incident as a violation of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.

"This is a brutal affront against all [the] EU," Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in a statement.

The ICAO said the incident "could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention," which prohibits any use of civil aviation that may endanger safety.

The ICAO is a UN agency directed by 193 governments, including Belarus, to support cooperation in air transport but has no regulatory power.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier asked the European Council's president to discuss immediate sanctions against Belarus during the May 24 meeting, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the incident requires a "strong and united" response from the European Union.

The German and British foreign ministries also expressed alarm, and European Council President Charles Michel said an investigation by the ICAO "will be essential."

Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported that authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka had personally ordered a fighter jet to escort the Ryanair jet, which was carrying more than 100 passengers, to land in Minsk.

Pratasevich was taken away by police shortly after the Ryanair flight landed in the Belarusian capital.

Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel NEXTA Live, which has been covering the protests that broke out in Belarus following the country’s disputed presidential election last August.

Belarusian authorities in November launched investigations into Pratasevich and a colleague, Stsyapan Putsila, on suspicion of the organization of mass disorder, disruption of social order, and inciting social hatred.

Pratasevich was a 2017-18 Vaclav Havel Journalism fellow in Prague. The Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship -- a joint initiative of RFE/RL and the Czech Foreign Ministry -- is available to aspiring, independent journalists in the European Union's Eastern Partnership countries and Russia.

Pratasevich spoke to Current Time from an undisclosed location in Poland on November 19 after Belarusian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

"It seems to me that the [state] power now considers nearly any expression of a different opinion in general to be a crime,” Pratasevich said, saying this was clear from the number of people who were being detained. Current Time is a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

Belarus has been rocked by protests since Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the landslide winner of the poll amid allegations of vote-rigging. Since then, more than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten or tortured, and journalists targeted in the crackdown by Lukashenka, whose government has been hit by Western sanctions.

In October, a court in Minsk designated the NEXTA Live channel and its logo as extremist and instructed the Information Ministry to restrict access to information resources using the name and logo of the Telegram channel, as well as their distribution in the Belarusian segment of the Internet.

NEXTA Live then changed its name and logo, switching from the Latin transliteration of its name to a Cyrillic one.

Fearing prosecution, Pratasevich and Putsila fled the country and their whereabouts have not been known.

In October, Putsila, along with several Belarusian activists, received the European Parliament's 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Media in Belarus have been targeted by the Lukashenka government in the ongoing crackdown. The watchdog Reporters Without Borders has designated Belarus as the most dangerous spot in Europe for journalists.

On May 21, Belarusian security forces raided a Minsk studio used by a Polish-based TV station that has produced investigations critical of Lukashenka and his associates.

Belsat said uniformed officers broke into a studio on May 21 used for producing a talk show, detaining six people, including four cameramen.

In April, the channel published an investigation into the business dealings of Lukashenka's daughter-in-law and others associated with him.

Earlier this year, two journalists for Belsat were handed what their lawyers called an "absurd" sentence of two years in prison each for reporting live from a rally in Minsk in November.

Earlier this week, police launched a probe of the country's largest independent online media outlet, Tut.by, searching the homes of several of its editors and blocking its website.

Meanwhile, a Minsk court on May 21 sentenced another reporter who covered the police raid on Tut.by to a 15-day prison sentence, a media advocacy group said.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists said 27 media workers are currently behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving sentences.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and Current Time

Several people have been injured and more than 100 arrested after violent clashes during boisterous celebrations in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, by fans of the soccer team Red Star Belgrade after the team won the national league title.

The fans first set off fireworks from the bridges and banks of the Sava River in downtown Belgrade on the evening of May 22 and then went on a rampage through a Belgrade district where several popular restaurants are located.

Customers ran in panic or locked themselves inside the restaurants as fans demolished chairs and tables, broke windows, and clashed with restaurant security guards who the Red Star fans claimed were supporters of the rival Partizan Belgrade club.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin told the national RTS television station that about 130 mostly Red Star fans were arrested and that several people were injured during the riots.

“This will no longer be tolerated,” Vulin said. “This scum that shamed our city, Red Star and its celebration, deserve to be sharply punished.”

The celebration by thousands of Red Star fans was announced in advance and was tolerated by authorities, despite a ban on large gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

With the return of nationalists to power in Serbia nine years ago, far-right soccer supporters were often seen at pro-government rallies, acting as security while promoting a nationalist political agenda. In exchange, analysts say, the hooligans have been allowed to pursue their illegal business activities.

Several members of a radical Partizan fan group have been arrested since February and accused of murder, kidnapping, and drug trafficking in what officials say is a major crackdown against crime.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

The speaker of the Iranian parliament said on May 23 that a three-month monitoring deal between Tehran and the UN's nuclear monitoring agency has expired, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts to save the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers.

"From May 22 and with the end of the three-month agreement, the agency will have no access to data collected by cameras inside the nuclear facilities agreed under the agreement," Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as saying.

His comments further underscored the narrowing window for the United States and others to reach terms with Iran. Tehran is already enriching and stockpiling uranium at levels far beyond those allowed by its 2015 nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said this week that it was in talks with Tehran on how to proceed with the monitoring deal. The IAEA had said its director-general would brief reporters later on May 23 in Vienna. The United Nations agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.

Under what is called an “additional protocol” with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said then that it had placed “2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment.”

Iran’s hard-line parliament in December approved a bill that would suspend part of UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories did not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions by February.

The IAEA struck a three-month deal with Iran to have it hold the surveillance images, with Tehran threatening to delete them afterward if no deal had been reached.

It wasn't immediately clear if the images from February had been deleted.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

North Macedonia received support in its bid to begin European Union membership talks from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia, a day after Bulgaria said it planned to continue to exercise its veto to block the small Western Balkan nation.

The foreign ministers of the three countries on May 22 voiced support for North Macedonia, along with small neighbor Albania, to start talks with the EU, saying that separate bilateral issues should not block enlargement into the region.

Bulgaria on May 21 said it did not plan to lift its veto on long-delayed accession talks between North Macedonia and the EU over a language and history dispute with its neighbor.

Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, wants Skopje to acknowledge that both its identity and language have Bulgarian roots.

Skopje has long insisted Macedonian is a distinct South Slavic language that forms part of the country's culture and national identity, while Sofia says Macedonian is a regional dialect of Bulgarian.

Unanimity is required from all EU member for the adoption of the negotiating framework.

Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg, the Czech Republic's Jakub Kulhanek, and Slovenia’s Anze Logar arrived in Skopje to offer their backing for EU accession talks, scheduled to start in June.

The three will travel to EU hopeful Albania on May 23.

Kulhanek said it is “not fair” for an EU member nation to condition the process on a bilateral issue.

“This is a crucial time, and we cannot allow [the process] to be stuck with such demands,” he said.

Many in the West have urged the EU to speed ascension talks, seeing membership in the bloc as a way to counter Russian and Chinese efforts to gain influence in the region.

European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, visited North Macedonia after talks in Sofia.

Zoran Zaev, North Macedonia’s prime minister, on May 21 said the two EU officials presented a proposal that he said provided a “good basis” for resolving his country’s dispute with Bulgaria.

Skopje, which first applied for EU membership in 2004, received a positive assessment from the European Commission in 2005.

Macedonia settled a nearly three decade-long dispute with neighboring Greece over the country’s name, leading it to change it to North Macedonia. Athens considers the name Macedonia to refer to one of its regions.

Western Balkan nations Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are at various steps in their quests to enter into membership talks with the EU.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Bulgarian and Balkan services, and AP

Russian police detained four people at a meeting of opposition figures and municipal deputies in the city of Novgorod, in the latest crackdown on Kremlin critics ahead of elections later this year.

Yulia Galyamina, an opposition leader from Moscow; Vitaly Bovar, a municipal deputy from St. Petersburg; Yamalo-Nenets lawmaker Aleksandr Bondarchuk; and Viktor Shalyakin, the head of the Novgorod Yabloko party, were all detained on May 22.

Police broke up the meeting at the Rossia hotel soon after it started, citing a breach of coronavirus rules.

Andrei Nikitin, the governor of the Novgorod region, banned gatherings of more than 30 people in one room in a decree on May 8.

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Gatherings of more than 30 people in one room are banned. Police claimed 31 people were present, although organizers said only 25 people were in attendance.

"This is political persecution," said Galyamina, who posted a video of herself being taken into police custody.

In March, Russian police detained around 200 people, mostly opposition figures and municipal deputies, at an event in Moscow.

Among the detainees were prominent Putin critics, including senior Open Russia leaders Andrey Pivovarov and Anastasia Burakova; former Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman; opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza; and city deputy Ilya Yashin.

The detentions were the latest crackdown on Russia’s opposition since Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny was arrested, put on trial, and imprisoned in the wake of his January return from Germany, where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny's team has accused authorities of seeking to further intimidate critics ahead of general elections in September.

Navalny and his supporters have developed a "smart-voting" system, which is aimed at undoing United Russia’s stranglehold on political power in the upcoming election through better coordination of voters at the local level.

With reporting by dpa

CORRECTION: This article has been amended to correct the Novgorod governor's first name as well as to clarify that four people were detained and the events took place in the city of Novgorod.

World Athletics, the global track-and-field athletics governing body, has approved 23 Russians to compete in international competitions as neutral athletes, taking the total to 27 this year.

The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has been suspended since 2015 after a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of mass doping among Russian track-and-field athletes.

The doping scandal resulted in Team Russia's ban from international competition, including the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics.

Since RusAF’s suspension, clean Russian athletes have been competing as authorized neutral athletes under the nondescript logo AOR, or Athlete Of Russia.

Among the 27 neutral athletes approved by World Athletics on May 22 were women's high jump world No. 1 Mariya Lasitskene and Anzhelika Sidorova, who won silver and gold in women's pole vault at the 2019 World Championships.

No more than 10 Russian athletes will be granted eligibility to compete at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, under rules approved by the World Athletics.

Two applications for authorized neutral athlete status have so far been rejected by the World Athletics doping review board. The individuals have not been named.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

A Belarusian political activist who was sentenced in January to five years in prison for participating in anti-government protests has reportedly died.

The precise circumstances of Vitold Ashurak’s death weren’t immediately clear. The news website Onliner and other media said he suffered a heart attack in a prison facility in eastern Belarus.

Ashurak, 50, was a member of the Belarusian Popular Front opposition party and a coordinator of the For Freedom movement.

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At a closed-door trial in January, a court found him guilty of gross violations of public order and violence against police.

Exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemned prison authorities for allowing Ashurak’s death.

"People are not just suffering, people die because of the regime in Belarus," she said in a post to Twitter.

Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets for months last year after Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared a landslide reelection victory in a vote in August that was widely disputed.

Tsikhanouskaya has called for new elections, something Lukashenka has refused to agree to.

The European Union and the United States have sanctioned Lukashenka and dozens of officials and businessmen with asset freezes and visa bans.

In response to Ashurak's death, European Union spokesman Peter Stano said the bloc "demands the immediate release" of all political prisoners.

With reporting by AFP

The United States formally blacklisted more than a dozen Russian ships involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, days after exempting the pipeline's Russian operator and CEO.

The widely expected move, announced late on May 21 by the U.S. Treasury Department, came amid vehement criticism from congressional Republicans about the White House's earlier announcement that it would not include the pipeline's Russian-owned operator in the new sanctions.

Nearly complete, the Baltic Sea pipeline will bring Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing land routes through Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries.

Critics said it will increase German dependence on Russian energy supplies and make Berlin more susceptible to Russian politics. It will also deprive Ukraine and other countries of lucrative transit fees.

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However, the pipeline has been backed by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Political observers said President Joe Biden appeared to not want to pick a fight with a U.S. ally over the issue.

The State Department earlier this week announced the intention not to sanction the pipeline's Russian-owned operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, or its CEO, Matthias Warnig, who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Republican senators say they will introduce legislation to reinstate the sanctions.

"I don't understand. Do they not want to make Putin mad? I don't get that. Do they not want to get Germany mad?" Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters on May 20.

With reporting by Reuters

Belarusian security forces raided a Minsk studio used by a Polish-based TV station that has produced investigations critical of authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his associates.

Belsat said uniformed officers broke into a studio on May 21 used for producing a talk show, detaining six people, including four cameramen.

The host of the talk show, Hleb Labadzenka, confirmed that the raid had taken place but told Euroradio that he was not detained.

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Belarus's Lukashenka Doubles Down On Fear To Silence Pro-Democracy Opponents

The studio was being prepared for a future program and no filming was taking place when the raid took place, the outlet said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the detentions from Belarusian law enforcement.

In April, the channel published an investigation into the business dealings of the daughter-in-law of the country’s strongman leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and others associated with him.

Earlier this year, two journalists for Belsat were handed what their lawyers called an "absurd" sentence of two years in prison each for reporting live from a rally in Minsk in November.

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Belarusian Journalists Handed 'Absurd' Prison Sentences For Live Coverage Of Anti-Government Rally

Separately on May 21, Belsat said two freelance journalists had been detained in Minsk and were taken to a police facility. They were to appear in court on May 24, the report said, although details were not available.

Broadcasting in Belarusian, Belsat TV is a subsidiary of Poland's public broadcaster, Telewizja Polska. Its correspondents have been harassed and detained in the past by Belarusian agents. It is also funded by several European governments and foundations and had correspondents in Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, and other European countries.

Belarus has been gripped by nearly unprecedented political turmoil since last August, when Lukashenka declared victory in a disputed presidential election.

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Belarusians have taken to the streets around the country to protest and in some cases have clashed with security officials, who have arrested thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies. Most of the top opposition figures have been pushed out of the country.

Authorities have also stepped up pressure on independent media and stripped accreditation from a host of correspondents from international news organizations.

Earlier this week, police launched a probe of the country's largest independent online media outlet, Tut.by, searching the homes of several of its editors and blocking its website.

Meanwhile, a Minsk court on May 21 sentenced another reporter who covered the police raid on Tut.by to a 15-day prison sentence, a media advocacy group said.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists said 27 media workers are currently behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving sentences.

SOFIA -- Bulgaria is investigating claims that opposition politicians were wiretapped under the government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov ahead of last month’s general elections.

Borisov's center-right GERB party, which has ruled the country for almost a decade, came in first in the April 4 elections with 26 percent of the vote.

New elections are scheduled for July 11 after three failed attempts by the country’s main parties to form a government.

Atanas Atanasov, an opposition politician and the former chief of the counterintelligence services, claimed on May 20 that 32 opposition politicians were wiretapped ahead of the elections.

He said the politicians included his own liberal, Western-leaning grouping Democratic Bulgaria and others who participated in nationwide anti-corruption protests last year.

The current caretaker prime minister, Stefan Yanev, a critic of Borisov, was among them, Atanasov said.

Sofia prosecutors said in a statement on May 21 that they were looking to establish if there had been "any irregularities in the use of special surveillance devices."

Caretaker Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov said he was alerted that "the state agency for national security is currently destroying documents" allegedly related to the wiretapping.

With reporting by AFP

Iran is using Bitcoin mining to evade crippling U.S. sanctions on its economy, according to a new study.

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates that around 4.5 percent of global Bitcoin mining takes place in Iran, allowing the country to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies that can be used to “purchase imports and bypass sanctions.”

U.S. sanctions have severely affected Iran’s banking sector and prevented the country from exporting oil, which accounts for 70 percent of the country's revenues.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are created through a process known as mining, where powerful computers compete to solve complex mathematical formulas or puzzles. The process requires huge amounts of electricity.

"Iran has recognized that Bitcoin mining represents an attractive opportunity for a sanctions-hit economy suffering from a shortage of hard cash, but with a surplus of oil and natural gas," said Elliptic.

Iran’s crypto mining industry has grown in recent years, with the government providing the industry with cheap electricity and demanding that it sells mined bitcoins to the central bank.

Cheap power has attracted foreign miners, especially from China, to Iran.

Iran uses crypto mining to pay for the import of authorized goods, Elliptic said.

"Iran-based miners are paid directly in bitcoin, which can then be used to pay for imports -- allowing sanctions on payments through Iranian financial institutions to be circumvented," the London-based company said.

With reporting by Reuters

Bosnian war crimes prosecutors have launched an investigation after a video emerged of an alleged sniper taking shots during the almost four-year-long siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.

The footage, posted by French journalist Philippe Buffon on YouTube this week, appeared to show Bosnian Serb fighters hiding in a house in the suburbs of Sarajevo.

One of them could be seen firing a sniper's rifle and boasting that he hit someone "in the head.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s prosecutor's office said in a statement that a case was opened “immediately” after the video appeared on the Internet.

The office said its Special Department for War Crimes will examine “all the circumstances and the role of all the people in the recording.”

The local telecommunications company Telemach BH said it had contacted prosecutors after one of its employees was recognized in the video. It said the employee had been suspended.

The YouTube video, titled The Snipers Of Nedzarici, after a Sarajevo neighborhood, was no longer available on the video-sharing platform on May 21.

The footage was distributed on social networks and broadcast on local television, causing a stir in the Bosnian capital, where more than 11,000 people were killed in the siege by Bosnian Serb forces.

Separately on May 21, Bosnia's top court indicted eight Serb ex-soldiers on charges of crimes against humanity for their alleged involvement in the killing of 78 Bosnian Muslim civilians during the 1992-95 war.

Prosecutors accuse the former soldiers of "persecuting the Bosniak civilian population based on national, ethnic, and religious grounds with discriminatory intention, and of killing civilians in violation of the international law."

They say the eight Bosnian Serbs had driven Bosniak civilians out of a school in the western village of Velagici, lined them up, and shot dead at least 78 people in June 1992.

There were no comments from the suspects or their representatives. Some are now believed to be in Serbia.

Hundreds of people have been convicted of crimes committed during the Bosnian War in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Local judiciary officials are still examining some 600 cases involving 4,500 suspects, according to official data.

The conflict ended in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in 1995 that divided Bosnia into two entities -- the Muslim and Croat federation and Republika Srpska -- held together by joint central institutions.

With reporting by AFP and RFE/RL’s Balkan Service

SOFIA/SKOPJE -- Bulgaria says it does not plan to lift its veto on long-delayed accession talks between North Macedonia and the European Union over a language and history dispute with its neighbor.

“No change in Bulgaria's national position regarding the Republic of North Macedonia can be expected," caretaker Bulgarian Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev said after meeting with visiting EU officials in Sofia on May 21.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said that EU enlargement in the Balkans must be based on achieving sustainable results in building good neighborly relations.

"That is why we want to see not declarations, but clear guarantees for our national security and for our national interests," Radev’s office quoted him as saying.

In November 2020, Bulgaria blocked the start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia by refusing to approve the so-called negotiation framework with Skopje.

Unanimity is required from all EU member for the adoption of the negotiating framework.

Any new developments on the issue before Bulgaria holds snap parliamentary elections on July 11 appear unlikely.

European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, also visited North Macedonia after their talks in Sofia.

North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the two EU officials presented a proposal which he said provided a “good basis” for resolving his country’s dispute with Bulgaria.

“This draft solution does not touch or encroach our Macedonian identity issues,” Zaev said, without revealing any details of the proposal.

Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, wants Skopje to acknowledge that both its identity and language have Bulgarian roots.

Skopje has long insisted Macedonian is a distinct South Slavic language that forms part of the country's culture and national identity, while Sofia says Macedonian is a regional dialect of Bulgarian.

A joint commission of historians was established to resolve the standoff but has failed to find common ground.

With reporting by AP

Journalist Artsyom Mayorau has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for "petty hooliganism" after he reported on a police raid at the popular news site Tut.by.

Mayorau, who works for the Belarusians And The Market newspaper, was sentenced by the Moskovsky District Court in Minsk on May 21.

A police report said that a policeman allegedly approached Mayorau to have a "preventive conversation" with the journalist, when he "started swearing and waving his arms."

Belarusian authorities have launched a severe crackdown on independent journalists in the country as they look to silence reporters from covering a wave of dissent sparked by a disputed presidential election last August that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka his sixth consecutive term in power.

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Mayorau was reporting when financial police launched a probe into Tut.by, the country's largest independent online media outlet, and raided its offices and the homes of some of its staff saying it violated media laws by publishing content on behalf of BYSOL, a foundation that helps victims of political repression but lacks proper state registration.

Fourteen Tut.by staff members and workers from companies affiliated with the site remain in custody following the raids. The widow of Tut.by founder Yury Zisser, Yuliya Charnyauskaya, has been put under house arrest.

The United States, human rights groups, and media freedom watchdogs have denounced the move against Tut.by.

Calling the case against Tut.by “a new attempt to silence the most well-known independent media in Belarus,” Christophe Deloire, executive director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has urged the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to “ensure respect for the right to the freedom to inform" in the country.

Tens of thousands of people in Belarus have been swept up in the crackdown. Protesters say the election was rigged in favor of Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus since 1994.

Dozens of reporters have been temporarily detained or jailed over the ensuing nine months.

Following the presidential election, "dozens of sociopolitical and media sites were blocked in Belarus, and a number of print outlets were forced to stop publishing," according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

As of May 18, 16 journalists and other media workers were behind bars, it said.

Lukashenka has insisted he won the August 9, 2020 election and has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who insists she won the vote, says she was forced to leave Belarus for Lithuania a day after the election amid threats to herself and her family.