There are signs that a decline in nuclear arsenals witnessed since the end of the Cold War has stalled, a top research institute said, warning that both Russia and the United States appear to have attached greater importance to nuclear weapons in their defense policies.

The nine states known or believed to have nuclear armaments -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- held an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual report released on June 14.

That number represents a slight decrease from the estimated 13,400 weapons these states possessed at the beginning of 2020.

However, the figure includes retired warheads waiting to be dismantled, and without them the combined military stockpile of nuclear arms rose from 9,380 to 9,620.

“The overall number of warheads in global military stockpiles now appears to be increasing, a worrisome sign that the declining trend that has characterized global nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War has stalled,” said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at SIPRI.

The United States and Russia still had more than 90 percent of all nuclear weapons, enough to destroy life on Earth many times over.

Despite the marginal overall decrease in nuclear weapons, the number of operationally deployed nuclear weapons increased from 3,720 to 3,825, SIPRI said.

Of these, around 2,000 were kept in "a state of high operational alert" and nearly all of them belonged to Russia or the United States.

While the United States and Russia continue to dismantle retired warheads, both were estimated to have had around 50 more nuclear warheads in operational deployment at the start of 2021 than a year earlier. Britain and France also have deployable warheads.

SIPRI did not provide estimates of the number of warheads depolyed by the other nuclear states.

Meanwhile, both the United States and Russia are carrying out "extensive and expensive" programs to replace and modernize their nuclear arsenals, according to SIPRI.

"Both Russia and the United States appear to be increasing the importance they attribute to nuclear weapons in their national security strategies," said Kristensen.

Earlier this year, the United States and Russia extended the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty for another five years. The treaty limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear forces but does not limit total nuclear warhead stockpiles.

"The last-minute extension of New START by Russia and the United States in February this year was a relief, but the prospects for additional bilateral nuclear arms control between the nuclear superpowers remain poor," Kristensen said.

The report said the other seven nuclear powers are also developing or deploying new weapons systems or have announced their intention to do so.

"China is in the middle of a significant modernization and expansion of its nuclear weapon inventory, and India and Pakistan also appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals," SIPRI said.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Leaders of NATO member states have vowed unity and commitment to the Western military alliance’s mutual defense clause in the face of China's rise, Russia’s “aggressive actions,” and any other threats from state and non-state actors.

"We are united and resolute in our ability and commitment to defend one another,” the leaders said on June 14 in a joint communique after their one-day summit in Brussels.

The document said the allies “will maintain and further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to ensure credible deterrence and defense and provide the Alliance with a wide range of options to tailor our response to specific circumstances and to respond to any threats.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference concluding the summit: “All leaders agreed that -- in an age of global competition -- Europe and North America must stand strong together in NATO to defend our values and our interests, especially at a time when authoritarian regimes like Russia and China challenge the rules-based international order."

U.S. President Joe Biden said NATO is facing "a once in a century global health crisis at the same time the demographic values that undergird are under increasing pressure both internally and externally."

"Russia and China are both seeking to drive a wedge in our transatlantic solidarity."

Biden also said that the U.S. commitment to the collective defense doctrine enshrined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty is "rock solid" and "unshakable."

"America is back," he told a press conference.

Biden's attendance at the NATO summit was part of a European tour aimed at repairing relations and reassuring Washington’s transatlantic partners after four years of contentious relations under his predecessor, Donald Trump.

From Brussels, Biden is due to travel to Geneva for his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be held on June 16.

Having not met face to face since 2018 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the leaders of the alliance's 30 member states had plenty of topics to deal with, including an ongoing pullout of troops from Afghanistan, relations with Russia and China, and defense spending.

Moscow's relations with the West are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues including Russia's meddling in elections, the conflicts in Ukraine, and cyberattacks allegedly from Russian hackers.

"Until Russia demonstrates compliance with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities, there can be no return to 'business as usual,'" the NATO leaders said in their final statement.

“Russia’s aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security,” they said, citing its “growing multi-domain military build-up, more assertive posture, novel military capabilities, and provocative activities, including near NATO borders,” among other things.

"Russia's nuclear strategy and comprehensive nuclear weapon systems modernization, diversification, and expansion, including the qualitative and quantitative increase of Russian nonstrategic nuclear weapons, increasingly support a more aggressive posture of strategic intimidation."

The allies also denounced Moscow's "hybrid actions," "widespread disinformation campaigns," and "malicious" cyberactivities.

NATO “will continue to respond to the deteriorating security environment by enhancing our deterrence and defense posture, including by a forward presence in the eastern part of the Alliance,” according to the communique.

The allies also vowed to “respond in a measured, balanced, coordinated, and timely way to Russia’s growing and evolving array of conventional and nuclear-capable missiles.”

Two days from his meeting with Putin, whom he described as “bright” and “tough," Biden said he would "make clear where the red lines are" while also offering to Moscow to cooperate on areas of common interest.

"I will make clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate if he choses," Biden said at his press conference. "If he choses not to cooperate and acts in the way he has in the past related to cybersecurity and some other activities, we will respond, we will respond in kind."

China's 'Coercive Policies'

The NATO heads of state and government also agreed that China’s “stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security."

They expressed concern about China’s “coercive policies,” citing its “rapidly expanding” nuclear arsenal, its military cooperation with Russia, and its “frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation.”

The communique called on Beijing “to uphold its international commitments and to act responsibly in the international system, including in the space, cyber, and maritime domains, in keeping with its role as a major power.”

China is one of the world's leading military and economic powers, whose ruling Communist Party has a tight grip on politics and much of society.

Ahead of the summit, Stoltenberg said there was not a new Cold War with China -- one of the world's leading military and economic powers, whose ruling Communist Party has a tight grip on politics and much of society.

But he said NATO needs "to address together, as the alliance, the challenges that the rise of China poses to our security."

Afghanistan Withdrawal

On Afghanistan, NATO leaders agreed to maintain funding for Kabul's civilian airport after the U.S.-led withdrawal of allied troops from the war-torn country.

"Recognising its importance to an enduring diplomatic and international presence, as well as to Afghanistan's connectivity with the world, NATO will provide transitional funding to ensure continued functioning of Hamid Karzai International Airport," the leaders said in their communique.

NATO and its member states “are now working on how to ensure the continued operation” of the airport, Stoltenberg said after the summit, adding that “Turkey of course plays a key role in those efforts.”

The allies also said the alliance will “continue to provide training and financial support to the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces” and that the alliance will “retain a Senior Civilian Representative's Office in Kabul to continue diplomatic engagement and enhance our partnership with Afghanistan.”

Spiraling violence and stalled peace talks between the Taliban and the Western-backed government in Kabul have casts further uncertainty over the future of Afghanistan once U.S.-led international forces leave the country by September 11.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is reported to have offered to guard the Kabul airport after the pullout, said that Ankara would need “diplomatic, logistic and financial assistance” from the United States if it were to maintain troops in Afghanistan.

Turkey, a majority Muslim nation, currently has some 500 soldiers in the country.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have agreed to challenge China’s “nonmarket economic practices” and call out Beijing for rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

At the end of a three-day summit in southwestern England on June 13, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States said their countries would continue to "consult on collective approaches to challenging nonmarket policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy.”

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.

"We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms, and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration," the G7 leaders also said in their final joint communiqué.

Beijing is facing growing international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang, with the United States using the word genocide to describe the treatment of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim indigenous people.

Hong Kong is a part of China but has been governed under the principle of "one country, two systems," meaning the former British colony has its own legal system and rights, including free speech and freedom of press. But many in Hong Kong, as well as rights groups and Western democracies, have accused Beijing of eroding those freedoms and autonomy in recent years.

Beijing has repeatedly hit back against what it perceives as attempts by Western powers to contain China.

A statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in London on June 14 denounced the G7 statement, accusing it of "lies, rumors, and baseless accusations."

"The Group of Seven takes advantage of Xinjiang-related issues to engage in political manipulation and interfere in China's internal affairs, which we firmly oppose," an embassy spokesman said in a statement.

A day earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters at the G7 summit that democracies were in a global contest with "autocratic governments," and that the G7 had to deliver viable alternatives.

"We're in a contest, not with China per se...with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as to whether or not democracies can compete with them in a rapidly changing 21st century," he told reporters.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations has urged Russia take action against those conducting cyberattacks and using ransomware from within its borders, as it wrapped up a three-day summit in southwestern England.

In their final joint communiqué issued on June 13, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States also called on Moscow to conduct a probe into the use of chemical weapons on Russian soil.

The communiqué said Russia must "stop its destabilizing behavior and malign activities" and "hold to account those within its borders who conduct ransomware attacks, abuse virtual currency to launder ransoms, and other cybercrimes.”

That issue is in the spotlight after a cybercriminal group that the U.S. authorities said operates from Russia penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. Last month’s hack caused a shutdown lasting several days and led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying, and localized fuel shortages in the Southeast.

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Describing the practice of encrypting victims' data and demanding payment for its return an “escalating" threat, the G7 leaders called on all states "to urgently identify and disrupt ransomware criminal networks operating from within their borders, and hold those networks accountable for their actions."

The G7 called on Russia to “urgently investigate and credibly explain the use of a chemical weapon on its soil" after the Kremlin's most vocal critic, Aleksei Navalny, was treated in Germany for what German doctors said was poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent.

The anti-corruption campaigner has insisted that the poisoning attack in Siberia in August 2020 was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin denies.

Navalny was arrested in January upon his return to Russia from Germany and is now serving a sentence of over 2 1/2 years in prison in an embezzlement case that is widely considered as being politically motivated.

In their statement, the G7 leaders also urged Russia to stop "its interference in other countries’ democratic systems" and "its systematic crackdown on independent civil society and media."

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would be ready to hand over suspected cybercriminals to the United States but only if Washington did the same for Moscow and if the two powers reached an agreement on the matter.

Putin made the comments in an interview aired in excerpts on state television on June 13 ahead of a June 16 summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva. Ties between the powers are badly strained over an array of issues.

″If we agree to extradite criminals, then, of course, Russia will go for it. But only if the other side -- in this case, the United States -- agrees to the same thing,″ Putin said, without elaborating.

Putin said he expected the Geneva meeting to help establish bilateral dialogue and revive personal contacts.

The White House has said Biden will bring up ransomware attacks emanating from Russia at the meeting.

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That issue is in the spotlight after a cybercriminal group that U.S. authorities said operates from Russia penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. The hack last month caused a shutdown lasting several days and led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying, and localized fuel shortages in the southeast.

Colonial Pipeline decided to pay the hackers who invaded their systems nearly $5 million to regain access, the company said.

Ransomware rackets are dominated by Russian-speaking cybercriminals who are shielded -- and sometimes employed -- by Russian intelligence agencies, according to security researchers, U.S. law enforcement, and now the Biden administration.

Asked if Russia would be prepared to find and prosecute cybercriminals, Putin said that would depend on Moscow and Washington reaching an agreement.

Since taking office in January, Biden has challenged Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, alleged meddling in elections, and cyberattacks emanating from Russia.

But the U.S. leader has also said the United States wants a "stable, predictable" relationship that allows Moscow and Washington to work together on common issues like strategic stability, arms control, and climate change.

In segments of an interview broadcast by NBC on June 11, Putin said that the U.S.-Russia relationship had "deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years."

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Biden will hold a solo press conference after his summit in Geneva next week with Putin, a U.S. official revealed on June 12.

An unnamed U.S. administration official said Biden appearing alone was "the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting -- both in terms of areas where we may agree and in areas where we have significant concerns."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the announcement, but suggested it didn't necessarily bode badly for the summit.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax

Russia reported another sharp rise in fresh COVID-19 cases on June 13, a day after the mayor of Moscow told residents of the Russian capital to say home from work next week to curb the spread of the virus.

Russia reported 14,723 new COVID-19 cases, including 7,704 in Moscow, the largest one-day national caseload since February 13.

The number of new infections in Moscow was the most reported in one day since December 24.

The coronavirus task force said that 357 people had died of coronavirus-related causes nationwide, taking the death toll to 126,430.

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The federal statistics agency has kept a separate toll and has said that Russia recorded about 270,000 deaths related to COVID-19 between April 2020 and April 2021.

"We are now observing an increase in the hospitalizations of young people. This number has been growing day by day," Aleksei Pogonin, chief doctor at Moscow's Sergei Spasokukotsky Clinical Hospital, told reporters on June 13, adding: "Our reserve of beds will not be sufficient for a long time."

On June 12, Anastasia Rakova, Moscow’s deputy mayor for social development, said that about 78 percent of beds for coronavirus patients were occupied in the city's hospitals.

Meanwhile, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said restaurants, bars, and similar venues in the city may not serve customers after 11 p.m. until at least June 20.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

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

And enforcement of mask- and glove-wearing on public transportation and in public places will be bolstered, with violators facing fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($70).

Sobyanin said Moscow authorities "expected that the spring pandemic peak would fall in April-May, just like last year," but that "now we're seeing that it has shifted toward June-July."

Sobyanin has estimated that around half of Moscow residents now have some level of immunity against the virus, presumably from previous infection or vaccination, although the source of that figure was unclear.

Interfax on June 12 quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying that 18 million Russians have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Russia has around 144 million people.

Russia approved Sputnik V, the world's first coronavirus vaccine, for use beginning last August, but authorities have struggled to ramp up vaccination efforts.

With reporting by Interfax, TASS, and Reuters

The Iranian and Russian negotiators meeting in Vienna with global powers played down the hopes for a quick settlement in the talks to revive the 2015 landmark deal that curtailed Tehran's nuclear programs.

Abbas Araqchi, Tehran’s chief negotiator, said late on June 12 that he did not think they could conclude this week, ahead of the country's June 18 presidential election.

"Personally, I don't think that we can manage to reach a conclusion this week in Vienna," Araqchi was quoted by state media as saying.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's representative, told reporters that “we need a couple more weeks to clean up the existing text and to remove square brackets around secondary topics. We need to concentrate on how the deal will be implemented.

“But I remain optimistic. Despite the remaining differences, the trend is positive,” the Russian added.

Moscow is one of Iran’s main allies.

Iran is voting on June 18 to replace President Hassan Rohani, who promoted the 2015 deal and whose successor is widely expected to be a hard-liner. Rohani is ineligible to run after serving two four-year terms.

Representatives from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and Iran are meeting in the Austrian capital in an effort to bring Washington back to the deal and Tehran back into compliance with its terms.

The future of the 2015 accord has been in danger since U.S. President Donald Trump took the United States out of the deal in 2018 and began reimposing damaging financial sanctions against Iran.

In response, Tehran steadily has exceeded limits on its nuclear program spelled out in the deal.

Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Joe Biden has indicated a willingness to rejoin the deal on the condition that Iran respects its commitments to the original terms.

U.S. negotiators are indirectly taking part in the Vienna talks -- brokered by European diplomats -- although the Americans are not meeting directly with Iranian counterparts.

So far, there have been five rounds, with negotiators saying early this month that the talks are heading into their most delicate phase.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged parties to be flexible.

"It is about flexibility and pragmatism from all participating parties," he told Reuters. "Playing for time is in no one's interest."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sounded pessimistic recently when he told lawmakers that it remains “unclear whether Iran is willing and prepared to do what it needs to do come back into compliance."

Politico reported early on June 13 that negotiators have produced some 20 pages of text with options on how to resolve remaining issues.

The report said U.S. and European powers are pushing to include a mention of follow-on talks that would address Iran’s ballistic-missile program and its broader regional behavior.

For its part, Iran wants guarantees the United States won’t again exit the deal, as Trump did in 2018.

With reporting by Politico, Reuters, AP, and AFP

Azerbaijan said it handed over 15 Armenian prisoners of war in exchange for a map showing the location of land mines in part of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said the maps turned over by Armenian authorities detailed the location of nearly 100,000 land mines in the Agdam district of Azerbaijani, which is adjacent to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The 15 Armenian captives were turned over on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border with the participation of Georgian representatives," the ministry said.

In a post to his Facebook page, Armenia's acting prime minister, Nikol Pashninan, confirmed the exchange and listed the names of those who were swapped, but gave no further details and made no mention of a map. He also apologized to families whose relatives have not yet returned.

"I have good news. Fifteen of our captured brothers are returning home. They are on their way now. When they are in Armenia, I will make a more detailed statement," he was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency as saying earlier.

Azerbaijani forces seized swaths of territory in and around the mountainous region during a short war with ethnic Armenia

A Russian-brokered cease-fire ended six weeks of fighting and saw Russian peacekeepers deployed to some parts of the area.

The number of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees still in Azerbaijani custody remains unclear.

In March, the European Court of Human Rights, where relatives of detainees have appealed for help, referred to 249 Armenians that had been allegedly captured by Azerbaijan and were still detention.

Part of the difficulty in resolving the issue is that Azerbaijani authorities considers some of the detainees not prisoners of war -- with protections under the Geneva Conventions -- but merely captives.

Armenian authorities earlier said that 69 POWs and other detainees had been turned over by Azerbaijan.

Moscow's mayor has announced a non-working week on June 15-19 in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases, as both the Russian capital and the rest of the country reported the highest number of new coronavirus infections since winter.

Also on June 12, Russia's national pandemic task force said that the daily tally of confirmed cases had risen by 47 percent over the past week, including more than a doubling in Moscow to over 6,700 cases in 24 hours.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

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

It cited 13,510 new infections nationally in the previous day.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said restaurants, bars, and similar venues in the city may not serve customers after 11 p.m. until at least June 20.

And enforcement of mask- and glove-wearing on public transportation and in public places will be bolstered, with violators facing fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($70).

Meanwhile, Interfax quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying that 18 million Russians have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Russia has around 144 million people.

Sobyanin said Moscow authorities "expected that the spring pandemic peak would fall in April-May, just like last year," but that "now we're seeing that it has shifted toward June-July."

Sobyanin has estimated that around half of Moscow residents now have some level of immunity against the virus, presumably from previous infection or vaccination, although the source of that figure was unclear.

More than 125,000 coronavirus deaths have been registered by authorities since the start of the pandemic, but many experts say officials vastly underreport fatalities.

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The federal statistics agency, Rosstat, has kept a separate toll and has said that Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to COVID-19 between April 2020 and April 2021.

Russia approved Sputnik V, the world's first coronavirus vaccine, for use beginning last August, but authorities have struggled to ramp up vaccination efforts.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Negotiators from Iran and five world powers have resumed talks to try and revive the landmark deal that curtailed Tehran's nuclear programs but was later put in doubt when U.S. President Donald Trump's administration abandoned it.

The June 12 talks in Vienna, brokered by European diplomats, include indirect contacts between U.S. and Iranian negotiators.

So far, there have been five rounds, with negotiators saying early this month that the talks are heading into their most delicate phase.

Earlier, Russia's representative to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said in a post to Twitter that the talks would allow the participants to “exchange views on how to arrange further work in order to complete the negotiations successfully and expeditiously.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged parties to be flexible.

"It is about flexibility and pragmatism from all participating parties," he told Reuters. "Playing for time is in no one's interest."

The deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, has been in danger of complete collapse since 2018, when Trump pulled Washington out of the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

In response, Tehran steadily has exceeded limits on its nuclear program spelled out in the deal.

The United States is not formally part of these talks. But the administration of Trump's successor, Joe Biden, has signaled its willingness to rejoin the deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sounded pessimistic recently when he told lawmakers that it remains “unclear whether Iran is willing and prepared to do what it needs to do come back into compliance."

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price raised a separate issue this week, saying that Iran has yet to provide the International Atomic Energy Agency with information the agency needs regarding potential undeclared nuclear material.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

The White House says U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a "solo press conference" after his summit in Geneva next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latest indicator of the tensions swirling between Moscow and Washington.

An unnamed U.S. administration official said Biden appearing alone was "the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting -- both in terms of areas where we may agree and in areas where we have significant concerns."

The go-it-alone tactic highlights the U.S. administration's desire to challenge Kremlin talking points and to avoid appearing overly cozy with the Russian leader, whom Biden has suggested is "a killer" out to undermine international security and permanently silence his domestic critics.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the announcement, but suggested it didn't necessarily bode badly for the summit.

"After the talks are over, President Putin will appear before the Kremlin pool reporters and other media outlets," he was quoted by TASS as saying.

Biden's decision is a contrast to the scene after Putin met with Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, in Helsinki in 2018.

After those closed-door talks, Trump emerged at a joint press conference defending Russia over U.S. intelligence assessments that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

"We expect this meeting to be candid and straightforward," the White House official said, according to a pool report.

Since taking office in January, Biden has challenged Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, alleged meddling in elections, and cyberattacks emanating from Russia.

But the U.S. leader has also said the United States wants a "stable, predictable" relationship that allows Moscow and Washington to work together on common issues like strategic stability, arms control, and climate change.

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In segments of an interview broadcast by NBC on June 11, Putin said that the U.S.-Russia relationship had "deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years."

Biden is in Cornwall on the southern U.K. coast for a summit with other Group of Seven industrialized nation leaders this weekend that will include talks on Russia and China, then goes to Brussels for meetings with European Union and NATO officials.

With reporting by The Washington Post and Reuters

The influential political scion and former speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, has demanded an explanation from the country's vetters as to why he was excluded from running in next week's Iranian presidential election.

Larijani's query toward the hard-line Guardians Council follows that body's disqualification of hundreds of would-be candidates in a familiar feature of Iranian elections that left just seven contenders to succeed incumbent Hassan Rohani.

There are no prominent critics of the senior leadership or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran's clerically dominated system, among them.

"Dear Guardians Council, please, between yourself and God, in view of proving the falsity of the reports given to that council regarding me and my family, state all the reasons for my disqualification formally and publicly," Larijani tweeted.

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With just seven days to go before the June 18 vote, it is unclear what the intended effect of Larijani's public challenge could be.

Khamenei first shrugged off criticism of candidate vetting but then made an unusual public call on June 4 for the Guardians Council to review its decisions, saying "some candidates were wronged" and "accused of untrue things."

Larijani is a notable moderate conservative from an influential political family who was a top negotiator in Iran's dealings with the international community over its nuclear program.

At the time of his disqualification last month, Larijani said merely that he had "done my duty before God and my dear nation."

There are reportedly fears within Iran's establishment that disaffected Iranians will stay away from the presidential vote in large numbers, further denting its credibility.

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Rohani, a relative moderate on a carefully controlled political landscape dominated by anti-Western conservatives, is barred from running for a third term.

The disputed reelection of Rohani's predecessor, hard-liner Mahmud Ahmadinejad, sparked massive street protests and a crackdown in 2009.

Ahmadinejad was also among those barred from running in this month's vote.

The disqualifications are widely seen as bolstering the prospects of one of the most hard-line candidates, judiciary head Ebrahim Raisi.

A record 57 percent of Iranians did not vote in parliamentary elections in February 2020 in which thousands of candidates, many of them moderates and reformists, were barred from running.

With reporting by Reuters

The parents of the jailed Belarusian blogger detained after his international flight was forcibly diverted to Minsk have appealed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for assistance to secure his release, according to Germany's Bild.

Dzmitry and Natallya Pratasevich, who are in Poland after fleeing Belarus 10 months ago, said in an interview published on June 12 that their 26-year-old son, Raman, and other Belarusian political prisoners are being subjected to "sadism and violence on a daily basis."

"We ask very much for you to help us get all the innocent people out of [Belarusian] prisons," Pratasevich's mother said in her appeal to Merkel, adding, "They urgently need help because they are exposed to sadism and violence on a daily basis."

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Mother Of Detained Belarusian Journalist: 'Hear The Cry Of My Soul'

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The younger Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were seized after Belarusian authorities cited a dubious bomb threat to force a Ryanair flight between Athens and Vilnius to land at Minsk's international airport on May 23.

The Western backlash to what many regard as a "state hijacking" has been fierce, with sanctions targeting Belarusian officials and bans and other measures targeting air travel from -- and even over -- Belarus.

Western governments had already imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka since a violent crackdown began over massive protests that broke out after Lukashenka claimed a sixth-term reelection victory in August.

"Please stop Lukashenka," Natallya Pratasevich appealed to the German leader. "Every additional day -- no, every additional hour -- that goes by costs innocents, including children, their lives."

The Prataseviches say the letters they have sent to their son have not been delivered and that his lawyer "cannot talk to us freely on the phone."

Pratasevich is now facing charges in Belarus of inciting civil unrest that could keep him in prison for 15 years or more.

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But the Belarusian opposition, his supporters, and international rights groups have warned of a more immediate risk to his life if he remains in the custody of the Lukashenka administration.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned on June 11 that Belarus might be slipping "into pariah status" after the airplane diversion.

"We need Belarus to step up and live up to the basic, fundamental, cardinal rules of international law," Raab said.

Pratasevich's parents have led a chorus of outrage and insist the charges are trumped up. They have also rejected the validity of videos of a haggard-looking Pratasevich allegedly confessing to wrongdoing.

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In the Bild interview, they cited "clear signs of torture," including a possible broken nose and bruising" in the videotaped "forced confessions."

Videos and other evidence of the brutal physical abuse of detainees has multiplied since the protests erupted in August and authorities launched a wave of thousands of arrests.

Sapega's family said on June 10 that it had just received their first letters from her since the couple was arrested more than two weeks ago, addressed from a KGB prison in Minsk.

With reporting by Bild and Deutsche Welle

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law imposing penalties for disclosing the personal data of security officials or their relatives, a move that could further hamstring efforts to expose corruption or hold Russian officials accountable.

Punishments for offenders include jail sentences, house arrest, forced labor, and fines of up to 18 months' salary.

The law could discourage the kind of exposés that jailed anti-corruption lawyer Aleksei Navalny and other Kremlin critics have published, highlighting dodgy properties linked to senior officials like Putin and ex-President Dmitry Medvedev.

One such investigation, Putin's Palace, has attracted more than 100 million YouTube views and further cemented the reputation of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Campaign (FBK) as a detailed chronicler of suspect deals.

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Pole Dancing And Fancy Toilet Brushes: Millions Watch Navalny Video On Alleged 'Putin Palace'

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The FBK was declared an "extremist" group by a Moscow city court on June 9, preventing people associated with it and his collection of regional political offices from seeking public office.

The ruling marked another watershed moment for Russia’s opposition.

A campaign by authorities to dismantle opposition networks has accelerated ahead of elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, in September.

SEE ALSO:

'I Woke Up An Extremist': Navalny Team Vows To Challenge Putin, Despite Watershed Ruling

The new law signed this week by Putin casts a wide net, prohibiting the illegal collection, transfer, distribution, or access to the personal data of judges, prosecutors, investigators, Interior Ministry employees, or staff of numerous law enforcement agencies in connection with their professional duties.

It also covers such data relating to their families.

The State Duma previously passed a bill banning the disclosure of information about operational investigative activities, covering data on law enforcement officers and military personnel "regardless of the presence of an immediate threat to their safety."

The Russian federal agency tasked with maintaining real-estate records, Rosreestr, has already implemented changes to prevent access to information on assets linked to prominent officials, including relatives of former Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika.

The Russian Ministry of Culture has refused to issue a distribution license for Romanian director Radu Jude’s film Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, which won the prestigious Golden Bear award for best film at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, known as the Berlinale.

The ministry said on June 11 that the movie violates Russia’s laws on pornography.

SEE ALSO:

Romanian Sex-Tape Satire Wins Top Prize At Berlin Film Festival

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn is a satire that tells the story of a schoolteacher who finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet. Despite pressure from parents and public condemnation, she refuses to step down.

The Berlinale jury described the film as “a lasting artwork.”

With reporting by Interfax and Current Time

Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations with the United States have plummeted to their lowest point in years, in a wide-ranging interview in which he also addressed allegations that he is "a killer."

"We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years," Putin said in an interview with NBC, an excerpt of which was released on June 11.

The interview comes just days before the Russian leader is due to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden for bilateral talks in Geneva on June 16.

Putin compared former President Donald Trump with the current occupant of the White House, saying that he hoped to be able to work with Biden.

“I believe that former U.S. President Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become U.S. president," Putin said in the interview that will be broadcast in full on June 14.

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The Russian president described Trump as “a colorful individual” who did not come from the political establishment.

In contrast, Biden is “radically different” from Trump because he is a “career man” who has spent his life in politics as a senator and vice president, Putin said.

"That's a different kind of person, and it is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but that there will not be any impulse-based movements on the part of the sitting U.S. president," he said.

Biden has said the United States wants a "stable, predictable" relationship with Russia that allows the two countries to work together on common issues like strategic stability, arms control, and climate change.

But the U.S. president has repeatedly emphasized that the United States will respond to Russian cyberattacks, election interference, and other malign actions.

The White House has said Biden will bring up ransomware attacks emanating from Russia, Moscow's aggression against Ukraine, the jailing of dissidents, and other issues that have plagued the relationship when he meets with Putin next week.

In the interview, Putin was asked about several of his opponents who have been killed in recent years and whose deaths have been blamed on Moscow. They include ex-KGB spy Aleksandr Litvinenko, who was poisoned, and opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead near the Kremlin.

SEE ALSO:

'This Is A Purge': Russian Authorities Dig Up Old Incidents To Sideline Potential Opponents

He was also asked about Biden’s comments in an interview in March in which he agreed that Putin is “a killer.”

At one point, NBC's Keir Simmons asked Putin directly: “Mr. President, are you a killer?"

"Over my tenure, I've gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness, and none of it surprises me," Putin said, adding that the term “killer” was part of "macho behavior" common in Hollywood.

Such discourse "is part of U.S. political culture, where it's considered normal. By the way, not here; it is not considered normal here," he said.

Pressed further about the deaths of Kremlin opponents, the interviewer asked whether they were “all coincidences.”

"Look, you know, I don't want to come across as being rude, but this looks like some kind of indigestion, except that it's verbal indigestion. You've mentioned many individuals who indeed suffered and perished at different points in time for various reasons, at the hands of different individuals," Putin said, adding that in some cases the alleged perpetrators had been punished.

Putin also dismissed a report in The Washington Post this week that Russia was preparing to supply Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East, including U.S. forces.

"It's just fake news. At the very least, I don't know anything about this kind of thing," Putin said. "It's just nonsense, garbage."

Viktar Sheiman, one of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka's closest allies and a figure believed to have run death squads in the past, has abruptly resigned.

In a video of a June 11 meeting at the presidential palace in Minsk, Lukashenka accepted Sheiman’s resignation, but told the 63-year-old hard-liner “not to go too far and lend a shoulder where it is necessary.”

It wasn't clear why Sheiman, who most recently served as the head of the presidential administration, was resigning.

Sheiman has served alongside Lukashenka under various top-level security positions since the authoritarian leader took power in 1994.

Though their relationship has had some “ups and downs” over the decades, Sheiman “was always nearby” Lukashenka, Grigory Ioffe, a Radford University professor who has authored works on the Belarusian leader, told RFE/RL.

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Sheiman’s departure comes at a time when Lukashenka is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since taking power almost 27 years ago.

The country has been roiled by political upheaval since Lukashenka claimed he won a sixth term as president in elections last August. The opposition launched large-scale protests in response, arguing the elections were rigged in his favor.

While the protests have lost momentum in recent months, Lukashenka has turned into an international pariah over a brutal crackdown on dissent.

In the coming weeks, he faces potentially devastating economic sanctions, including on state-run enterprises, from the United States and European Union for human rights abuses and the diversion of a Ryanair plane to arrest a dissident journalist.

'Death Squad'

During the 1994 presidential election, Lukashenka claimed he was the target of an assassination attempt and said Sheiman saved his life, recalled Ioffe.

Following his victory in the election that year, Lukashanka tapped Sheiman, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, to serve as secretary of the Security Council, a role he would hold until 2000.

During those years, Lukashenka moved to crush all opposition and subordinate the newly independent nation to his rule.

Several political opponents, including former Interior Minister Yury Zakharenko and former Central Election Commission Chairman Viktar Honcha, disappeared in 1999.

In 2001, two former Belarusian police investigators who fled the country claimed that Sheiman oversaw a death squad that had been responsible for more than 30 assassinations and disappearances, including Zakharenko and Honcha.

SEE ALSO:

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The United States and Europe would later impose sanctions on Sheiman, claiming he was responsible for the unresolved disappearances.

Sheiman would go on to serve in various positions, including prosecutor-general, though Ioffe said he did not possess the legal background for such a position, and chief of staff.

Concurrently, Lukashenka tapped him to develop ties with authoritarian regimes in Latin America and Africa, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

Belarus has been seeking to sell machinery, including weapons, to other foreign nations to lessen its economic dependency on Russia.

During their June 11 meeting, Lukashenka said he would like Sheiman to continue to oversee Cuba, Venezuela, and Africa “until I decide who will take care of them.”

The U.S. Defense Department announced on June 11 a new military assistance package for Ukraine.

The Pentagon said the $150 million package would “enhance the lethality, command and control, and situational awareness” of Ukrainian forces.

The "defensive lethal assistance" includes counter-artillery radars, communications and electronic warfare equipment, counter-drone systems, and training.

The United States has provided more than $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when Russia forcibly annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backed separatists in the east, sparking a war that has killed more than 13,000 people.

Although the latest package comes from funds already committed by Congress for the U.S. government's fiscal year that ends in September, the Pentagon announcement details of how the U.S. military will allocate assistance.

In March, the Pentagon announced another tranche of $125 million, including additional armed Mark VI patrol boats.

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Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have risen in recent months after the two countries blamed each other for an increase in fighting in eastern Ukraine amid stalled peace talks between Kyiv and Kremlin-backed separatists.

Russia also amassed 100,000 troops on its western border with Ukraine and in Crimea, drawing Western condemnation and concern for what Moscow said was just a defensive exercise.

Although Russia later announced a pullback, both Washington and Ukraine say that the withdrawal is not complete.

The issue of Ukraine is expected to be high on the agenda when U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, hold a bilateral summit in Geneva on June 16.

Earlier this week, the White House said that Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Washington this summer in a show of support for Ukraine as it struggles to implement reforms to advance its Euro-atlantic aspirations.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on U.S. support to counter Russian aggression and wants to join the NATO military alliance, something the Kremlin strongly opposes.

Moscow's mayor has sounded the alarm over a spike in COVID-19 cases as both the Russian capital and the rest of the country reported the highest number of new coronavirus infections since winter.

At the national level, 12,505 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, the highest number since late February, taking the national tally to 5,180,454 since the pandemic began.

Out of that total, 5,853 new cases were reported in Moscow, a record for the capital since mid-January, prompting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to say COVID-19 was becoming more difficult to treat.

"We expected that the spring pandemic peak would fall on April-May just like last year," Sobyanin said in televised remarks on June 11.

"But now we're seeing that it has shifted toward June-July," he said.

Sobyanin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, estimated that around half of Moscow's residents had by now some level of immunity against the virus.

"At the same time we are seeing just how aggressive COVID-19 is," he said, stressing that it was becoming more difficult to treat.

"Quite a lot of Muscovites are in intensive care on ventilators," he said. "The danger is real."

More than 125,000 coronavirus deaths have been registered by authorities since the start of the pandemic but some experts say officials vastly underreport fatalities.

The federal statistics agency, Rosstat, has kept a separate toll and has said that Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to COVID-19 between April 2020 and April 2021.

Bloomberg quoted Rosstat deputy chief Pavel Smelov as saying that the agency will revise upward the number of fatalities last year even more in a report to be released on June 15.

Nearly all virus-related restrictions have been lifted and many Russians are refusing to wear masks on public transport and in other public places.

Russia approved Sputnik V, the world's first coronavirus vaccine, for use beginning last August, but authorities have struggled to ramp up vaccination efforts.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and Bloomberg

SOFIA -- The European Union's chief prosecutor told Bulgarians weary of corruption that judges' independence is the most important condition for a functioning justice system.

Laura Koevesi chose Bulgaria, the EU's poorest and most corrupt country, for her first visit to a member state since the European Public Prosecutor's Office started operations on June 1.

"Only an independent judiciary can be a guarantor of justice," Koevesi told a news conference in Sofia, encouraging Bulgarians to send complaints about large-scale graft linked to misuse of EU funds directly to her office.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office is the first independent EU office with the power to investigate and prosecute crimes in members' courts that concern the misuse of EU budget funds.

"Everyone is equal in front of the law and we will make no distinction in who we will investigate ... We are here for you. We want to earn your trust for our work," Koevesi said.

She said her office had received more than 300 cases and 120 individual complaints from different countries, including Bulgaria, in the 10 days since it formally began operation.

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Koevesi came to prominence as a successful anti-graft prosecutor in another corruption-ridden EU country, Romania. She was dismissed by Romania's corruption-ridden leftist government in 2018 for alleged abuse of power, something critics said was prompted by her dogged attacks on graft.

Many in Bulgaria hope that she will investigate bribery and fraud in Bulgaria and prove that the bloc is serious about rooting out misconduct across its 27 member states.

Bulgaria has yet to convict any high-level official on corruption charges.

Koevesi's visit to Sofia came amid protests by activists against Bulgarian chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, whom they blame for refusing to investigate high-level corruption and fostering a climate of impunity.

SEE ALSO:

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Demonstrators chanting "Geshev is disgrace" and holding signs reading "Geshev = Mafia" waited for Koevesi at the offices of the EU commission in Sofia.

She called on the government to choose new prosecutors to join her office, after six of Bulgaria's ten nominations were rejected. She also urged Bulgarian prosecutors to hand over all ongoing investigations into major crimes that affect the EU budget.

The United States this month imposed sanctions on three Bulgarians and 64 companies linked to them over alleged corruption. Many Bulgarians welcomed the U.S. sanctions, but feel bitter that Bulgaria and the European Union failed to act first.

The EU’s existing anti-fraud office is widely considered to be weak, having only the power to recommend member states prosecute cases, but not force them to investigate. In contrast, the new prosecutor's office will be able to take high-profile cases directly to national courts.

With reporting by Reuters

MOSCOW -- Russian protest artist Pavel Krisevich has been detained after his "suicide" performance in which he used a nonlethal firearm on Red Square in Moscow.

Witnesses say Krisevich fired a pistol twice into the air on June 11 at Moscow's main tourist attraction, and then once more while he held the gun to his head.

His girlfriend Anastasia Mikhailova said the pistol was a noncombat model loaded with blank ammunition.

While shooting, Krisevich chanted: "There will be shots before the Kremlin's curtain!"

According to his girlfriend, the performance's goal was to support political prisoners in Russia.

Police also detained journalist Nika Samusik who recorded the performance on video.

The Open Media Telegram channel published a picture of the pistol along with a statement where Krisevich called his performance "a kill shot" aimed at "state intimidation."

"The state labels protests as crimes. It forces us to think that we are criminals in our cells and chats. But what is it without state intimidation? Clearly, it is an empty space," Krisevich's statement says.

Krisevich is known for his protest performances.

In November, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail after he performed a protest in front of the Federal Security Service's headquarters in Moscow where he was "crucified" on a large cross with a pile of files burning under it, symbolizing criminal cases against Russian citizens.

He was then expelled from a Moscow university.

In May he was sentenced to 10 days in jail after he took part in an action organized by activists to support political prisoners by displaying their paintings in central Moscow.

The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center has condemned a court decision to label a group of organizations associated with jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny as extremist.

In a statement on June 11, Memorial called the court's decision to label Navalny's regional campaign network, along with his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his Citizens' Rights Defense Foundation (FZPG), "another step toward the full replacement of political discussion and political competition with repression."

"We consider the decision to ban these public organizations as purely political, violating the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. It brazenly contradicts freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression. Its obvious consequence will be politically motivated criminal prosecutions and administrative repressions. Its goal is obvious -- the fear of such deliberately used sanctions will paralyze peaceful political opposition, as well as, wider public activities and public criticism of the authorities," Memorial's statement says.

The Moscow City Court handed down its ruling to label Navalny's organizations as extremist late on June 9, marking a watershed moment for Russia’s opposition as September parliamentary elections loom.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Bans Navalny's Organizations As 'Extremist' Ahead Of Election

The decision prevents people associated with the FBK and Navalny's other groups from seeking public office. It also makes it illegal to hold membership or participate in the activities of the groups tied to Navalny, who is serving a 2 1/2-year sentence in a prison outside of Moscow on fraud charges he says are trumped up. His supporters could now also face fines and jail time for displaying symbols associated with the groups.

In April, tens of thousands of people protested for his release, following similar mass protests in January against his arrest.

Prosecutors in Moscow have claimed that "under the guise of liberal slogans," Navalny-linked organizations were "engaged in creating conditions for destabilizing the social and sociopolitical situation."

On June 11, lawyer Vladimir Voronin said his client, FBK director Ivan Zhdanov, who is currently residing in Lithuania, had been added to the Interior Ministry's wanted list on unspecified charges.

In late March, Zhdanov's 66-year-old father, Yury Zhdanov, was arrested after police searched his home in the city of Rostov-on-Don.

Investigators accuse Yury Zhdanov of recommending that a Russian town’s administration provide a local woman with a subsidized apartment, though it later turned out that the woman's family had previously received housing allocations.

Ivan Zhdanov has said that his father's arrest was a move to exert pressure on him because of his ties to Navalny.

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5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny

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Russian authorities have ramped up pressure on dissent ahead of the elections in September, with opinion polls showing support for the ruling United Russia party waning.

Navalny's foundation has relentlessly targeted senior government officials over the past decade with widely watched videos that expose alleged corruption. His political network has been instrumental in implementing a "smart voting" strategy -- a project designed to promote candidates most likely to defeat Kremlin-linked figures.

The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) has approved two slogans as official soccer symbols as it looks to reverse a UEFA decision forcing the country to remove the words from the team jersey because they had a political connotation.

UAF President Andriy Pavelko wrote on Facebook that the slogans "Glory to Ukraine" and "Glory to the heroes" were unanimously approved by the UAF on June 11 ahead of the Euro 2020 championship, which begins later in the day.

Ukraine's jersey has aroused opposition from Moscow because it includes an outline map of the country showing the Crimean Peninsula.

After Moscow took Crimea by force, Russia tried to legitimize its actions with a referendum widely derided as a sham. The vote was conducted in a heavily militarized environment and was illegal under the Ukrainian Constitution.

The result has never been recognized by most of the international community.

Still, acting upon a complaint from Russia over the jerseys, European soccer's governing body said on June 10 that while the map was not an issue, the combination of the phrases "Glory to Ukraine" and "Glory to the heroes" was "clearly political in nature."

"The Executive Committee approved the official football status of the slogans 'Glory to Ukraine!' and 'Glory to the heroes!,' which for many years have been a greeting by millions of our fans in our native land," Pavelko wrote, noting that the UAF was still arguing its case with UEFA on June 11.

The committee also approved the image of Ukraine's map including Crimea as the association's official coat of arms, Pavelko added.

Oleksandr Hlyvynskiy, the Ukrainian national team's press secretary, told reporters that the jerseys should stand as they are and that UAF officials were continuing to meet with UEFA to keep the uniforms as originally designed.

"They are approved by UEFA. All things have been approved by UEFA. All of the signs were approved by UEFA, and the chairman of the Ukrainian federation is now in Rome speaking with UEFA about this," he said.

The team jerseys are for the Euro 2020 championship, which was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and will be played from June 11 to July 11 in 11 cities including St. Petersburg, Russia, where Ukraine may play if it advances to the quarterfinals.

Ukraine's first match is set for June 13 against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned that Belarus may be slipping "into pariah status" after it recently forced a civilian aircraft to land in Minsk to arrest opposition activist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend.

"We need Belarus to step up and live up to the basic, fundamental, cardinal rules of international law," Raab told the Reuters news agency in an interview published on June 11.

Raab's comments come a day after the European Parliament called for sweeping economic sanctions and a raft of other measures against Belarus in response to growing repression and the forced landing of the plane, a Ryanair passenger jet that was flying between two EU capitals on May 23.

SEE ALSO:

European Parliament Calls For Harsh Economic Sanctions On 'Criminal' Belarusian Regime

In a nonbinding resolution that says it considers the regime in Belarus as "illegitimate, illegal, and criminal," EU lawmakers said economic sanctions should target Belarus's state-run companies in the oil, potash, steel, and wood-processing industries.

The European Union has already imposed three rounds of sanctions on Belarus, applying asset freezes and visa bans on 88 individuals and seven entities, including authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has launched a sometimes violent crackdown on dissent after claiming to win a disputed presidential election last August.

Almost 30,000 people have been detained in the crackdown, with many sentenced to lengthy prison terms, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted for reporting on the events.

Based on reporting by Reuters