BELGRADE -- U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer and the EU envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, are visiting Serbia to press its leaders to resume talks on the normalization of ties with Kosovo.

“I believe in the possibility of reaching a compromise solution in the dialogue with Kosovo,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic wrote on Instagram on June 3 after the meeting with the U.S. and EU officials in Belgrade.

The Serbian government has stated that the normalization process with Kosovo is one of its priorities.

“But it is necessary to implement everything previously agreed within the dialogue. Belgrade has fulfilled all its obligations and we expect to see the same from the other side as well, so that the dialogue makes sense,” Prime Minister Ana Brnabic’s office quoted her as telling Palmer.

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Kosovo’s government, led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who took office in March, has said it is busy fighting the pandemic and that talks with Serbia are not high on its list of immediate goals.

Both the United States and the European Union have repeatedly said that normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo are essential for their further integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions.

Serbia and Kosovo have both applied for EU membership and Kosovo is aiming for NATO membership, too.

Palmer and Lajcak traveled to Belgrade from Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, where the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state said that Washington strongly supports the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, with the goal of full normalization of relations and mutual recognition.

“That’s the one thing that would put this issue behind the parties and open up the path to membership in the EU for both Serbia and Kosovo,” Palmer said.

Lajcak said that their meetings with Kosovar government officials and opposition politicians would help prepare for a meeting between Kurti and Vucic.

EU-facilitated negotiations to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo started a decade ago and stalled last year.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a 1998-99 war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serb forces. The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and an international peacekeeping force moved in.

Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but Belgrade and its allies Russia and China don’t.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Romanian authorities to stop harassing journalists reporting on corruption and not to pursue criminal cases against them.

According to the daily newspaper Libertatea and the weekly magazine Newsweek Romania, four of their employees have been questioned by prosecutors at the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism since May 20 over the outlets’ coverage of alleged corruption in public works contracting.

“It is essential for journalists to be able to freely report on the use of public funds without fear of being harassed by law enforcement agencies,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement on June 3.

She urged Romanian authorities to stop their investigation into the Libertatea and Newsweek Romania staffs, and called on public officials to “withstand scrutiny from the press rather than harass journalists for doing their jobs.”

Libertatea Editor in Chief Dan Duca and Newsweek Romania Editor in Chief Sabin Orcan told the CPJ that prosecutors interrogated the four employees in relation to a criminal complaint filed by Daniel Baluta, the mayor of Bucharest’s Section 4 district, who oversaw the public contract that the outlets suspect was tainted with corruption.

According to them, Baluta accused the four of establishing an “organized criminal group” to blackmail him into changing the contracting decision in favor of a company with the promise of “financial gain.”

Orcan called the accusations “totally absurd,” while Duca told the CPJ they constituted “a serious form of intimidation.”

Under Romania’s Criminal Code, blackmail and establishing an organized crime group are each punishable by up to five years in prison.

Russian opposition politician and former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov was released from custody on June 3 without being formally charged.

Gudkov was detained in Moscow two days earlier over an allegedly unpaid debt on a rented property dating from several years ago.

A court had been expected to consider the terms of his pretrial detention, but the hearing did not take place.

The politician was legally required to be released on the evening of June 3 as 48 hours had elapsed since his detention.

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Although no charges were brought against him, he remains a suspect in the case.

Gudkov is a former member of the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma.

Kremlin critics says the authorities have been stepping up a campaign of intimidation against dissent ahead of parliamentary elections in September, an allegation rejected by officials.

Also on June 3, Russian authorities opened a criminal case against Gudkov's father, Gennady, a former State Duma deputy and Kremlin critic who lives in Bulgaria, over ammunition allegedly found at his apartment in Russia, local media reported.

The state-run TASS news agency said that law enforcement officers found 50 cartridges for a pistol during a search of Gudkov's apartment.

They also found an expired permit for the weapon, the agency said.

According to media reports, the cartridges were found during a search conducted in the case involving his son.

There was no official confirmation of the criminal case from officials.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Iranian state media said a huge fire at a state-own oil refinery near Tehran has been extinguished after more than 20 hours.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency on June 3 quoted a spokesman for the owner of the facility, the Tehran Oil Refining Company, as saying the fire was “brought under control.”

Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national rescue service, said 11 people, including nine firefighters tackling the blaze, were injured.

Authorities said the fire at the Tondgooyan refinery was triggered by a gas leak.

The facility is located in a large industrial zone on the outskirts of the Iranian capital, near residential areas.

IRNA said the facility has been in operation since 1968 and has a capacity of refining some 250,000 barrels of oil per day.

Industrial accidents are common in Iran.

Nine people were injured in an explosion at a plant producing explosive materials in central Iran on May 23, local media reported.

Based on reporting by IRNA, AFP, and AP

MINSK -- Belarus says it is reducing the permitted number of diplomats and other staff at the U.S. Embassy in Minsk and tightening visa procedures for American citizens, in response to U.S. sanctions imposed on the Eastern European country over a sweeping crackdown on the opposition.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz made the announcement on June 3, without providing specifics.

Glaz said that permission for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to work in the country has also been revoked.

“These measures are targeted. They are designed to send a clear signal to the United States about the futility of pressure and coercion in relations with Belarus,” he said.

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The move comes as U.S. sanctions imposed on nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises following Belarus's forced diversion of a Ryanair flight on May 23 and the arrest of a dissident journalist who was on board came into effect.

“Actions have consequences. As a result of the...regime's continued disregard for human rights, the U.S. has terminated authorization for business dealings with nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises. The regime's escalation of repressive tactics will not go unanswered,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted earlier in the day.

The White House announced the U.S. measures in late May, saying that Washington was also coordinating with the European Union and other partners to develop a list of targeted sanctions against key members of the Belarusian government "associated with ongoing abuses of human rights and corruption, the falsification of the 2020 election, and the events of May 23."

Glaz on June 3 called the U.S. moves “illegal actions, contrary to international law, and designed to put pressure on a sovereign state.”

Belarus has seen unprecedented protests against authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, following a disputed August presidential election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.

Lukashenka has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 people have been detained, many sentenced to lengthy prison terms, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted.

Tajikistan and Pakistan have signed several accords to boost ties between the two nations, including defense and armaments.

"It is very important that our defense cooperation develops," Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said after the June 2 meeting.

He did not comment further, nor did Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

An official accompanying the Tajik delegation to Islamabad told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that "they may have talked about cooperation in a closed-door meeting, but the document has not been signed."

According to Dawn, an English-language daily, the Pakistani prime minister said the two leaders had "discussed Tajikistan's need for Pakistani-made weapons and signed a memorandum of understanding."

At the same time, Pakistani journalist Sajjad Hussain wrote on Yahoo's website that Pakistan and Tajikistan had signed a defense cooperation agreement under which Pakistani-made weapons would be sold to the Central Asian country.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal and RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has criticized Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of several Russian state-controlled media outlets, for making public comments that amounted to “open support” for an ongoing crackdown on independent media in Belarus.

On May 23, Belarus dispatched a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair commercial flight and forced it to land in Minsk, citing a purported bomb threat. Once the plane was on the ground, journalist and opposition activist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, who were both aboard the flight, were detained. No bomb was found on the aircraft.

The incident triggered international outrage, calls for Pratasevich's release, as well as additional sanctions from the United States and threats of sanctions and more serious actions from the European Union.

However, Simonyan expressed her admiration for the Belarusian government and congratulated authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka for the move.

“I never thought that I would envy Belarus in any way. But now I somehow envy. [Lukashenka] performed beautifully,” she tweeted.

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Simonyan, which the Paris-based RSF described as “a pillar of Russian propaganda,” has led state-owned RT television since 2005, as well as the state-funded media group Rossiya Segodnya, which controls the Sputnik network.

Her comments on Belarus “amount to welcoming the crackdown on Belarusian journalists, which is shocking coming from someone who often invokes freedom of the press when it comes to defending the interests of the media organizations that she runs,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement dated June 2.

Deloire cited Article 2 of the Munich Charter of ethics stating that journalists should “defend freedom of information, comment, and criticism.”

“Simonyan is doing the opposite, which says a lot about her idea of freedom,” he added.

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Belarus has seen unprecedented protests against Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, following a disputed August presidential election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.

Lukashenka has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 people have been detained, many sentenced to lengthy prison terms, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted.

Belarus fell five places to 158th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by RSF.

At least seven Jehovah's Witnesses have been handed prison terms in Russia amid a continuing crackdown on the religious group, which was banned in the country in 2017.

Representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses informed RFE/RL that a court in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk sentenced Andrei Stupnikov to six years in prison on June 3 after finding him guilty of the organization of activities of an extremist organization.

Stupnikov was arrested three years ago. He was initially kept in a detention center and later transferred to house arrest.

Stupnikov rejected the charge, insisting that the case against him was launched because of his religious views.

According to the religious group, a court in Russia's western city of Kursk on June 3 sentenced four other members -- Andrei Andreyev, Andrei Ryshkov, Armen Bagratyan, and Alevtina Bagratyan -- to prison terms of between two years and 4 1/2 years. One more follower of the faith, Aleksandr Vospitanyuk, received a suspended sentence. All five were found guilty of organizing or taking part in the activities of an extremist group.

A day earlier, a court in the Siberian city of Minusinsk fined Dmitry Maslov 450,000 rubles ($6,100) for taking part in the activities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, while a court in the Far Eastern city of Zeya handed a suspended two-year prison term to 78-year-old Vasily Reznichenko on the same charge.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a Christian denomination with an estimated 175,000 followers in Russia. The group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejection of military service, and not celebrating national and religious holidays or birthdays.

Since the faith was outlawed in Russia, many Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Russia and in the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

According to the group, dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses have either been convicted of extremism or are in pretrial detention.

The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center has recognized dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses who've been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners.

The European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses estimates that between 5,000 to 10,000 of its members have fled Russia since the ban came into force.

KYIV -- A group of U.S. senators says President Joe Biden should warn his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at a summit this month that he will be held accountable for his actions against the United States.

The three U.S. senators -- Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut), Rob Portman (Republican-Ohio), and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire) -- told RFE/RL in Kyiv that while Washington and Moscow have areas where they agree, such as the New START treaty and denuclearization efforts, Biden should press the point during the meeting with Putin that his subversive actions against the United States will not be overlooked.

"We need to let Vladimir Putin know that we want to hold him and Russia accountable for their actions. Putin has been very aggressive towards the U.S., in his efforts to interfere in the U.S. election, the cyberhacking that’s been going on, the effort to put bounties on our troops in Afghanistan," Shaheen said in a wide-ranging interview on June 2 that also touched on Ukraine's NATO aspirations and its progress on reforms, and Moscow's stifling of the Russian opposition and independent media.

Shaheen's point was reinforced by Murphy, who added: "It’s incredibly important that Biden raises with Putin face-to-face Russia’s attempts to undermine American democracy."

The senators were part of a delegation that has been touring Eastern Europe ahead of a June 16 summit in Geneva between Biden and Putin, their first meeting since the U.S. president was inaugurated in January.

The summit will be held with U.S.-Russia ties at their lowest levels since the Cold War after Russia's 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula; the Kremlin's ongoing support for separatists in Ukraine's east, where more than 13,200 people have been killed since April 2014; accusations of Moscow's interference in U.S. elections; and hacking attacks Washington says involved Russian actors.

Murphy, Portman, and Shaheen were critical of what they see as Moscow's ongoing assault against the country's independent media, highlighting the critical role played by outlets such as RFE/RL and stressing the need for Western support for a free press in countries with authoritarian regimes.

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"You can’t have a democracy without a free press. We in the West need to speak out against the jailing of journalists in Russia, the threats to journalists," Shaheen said.

Portman said that RFE/RL's journalism is "frightening to the leadership of Russia and Belarus and other countries."

The bipartisan congressional delegation visiting Kyiv encouraged Ukraine to continue reforms to solidify its democracy and expressed solidarity with the country in the face of Russian “aggression.”

Portman said Russia's continued interference in the conflict in Ukraine's east, and its presence in Crimea, mean that Putin should be told directly that he should finally allow Ukraine to be a sovereign country.

"Give back Crimea. It was an illegal annexation. We heard that there are Russian troops inside Ukrainian territory," Portman said, adding that the recent deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea has not been completely reversed, despite claims to the contrary by Moscow.

"The concern that has been heightened in the last few weeks was the Russian deployment of 100,000 to 115,000 troops in the area. And when they said they would pull back to their bases, some reporters reported that, taking them at their word," Portman said. "But the intelligence does not confirm that and it indicates that only a small number have left -- maybe 10 to 20 percent based on the data that we have -- and that the equipment was largely left behind, meaning that they could very quickly come back and rejoin that equipment and provide this additional threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine," Portman said.

Touching upon the near-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline -- a bone of contention between Washington and Germany -- Murphy said that Washington and Europe should have acted in coordination.

The United States and several Eastern European allies have staunchly opposed the project -- aimed at transporting gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea by bypassing Ukraine -- saying it will become a tool of geopolitical blackmail for Russia.

“Why we feel so strongly about Nord Stream 2 is because we don’t understand. You know, Europe joins us in sanctions against Russia but then allows it to build a pipeline. It’s a mixed message that we don’t understand,” Murphy said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on June 1 that Berlin and Washington are holding talks to try to settle the dispute over the pipeline, which is about 95 percent complete and could be finished by September.

The Biden administration on May 19 sanctioned several companies and ships for their work on Nord Stream 2, but waived penalties on the firm behind the Baltic Sea project -- Nord Stream 2 AG -- and its chief executive, Matthias Warnig, a close ally of Putin.

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Shaheen said that the United States needs to take action to stop the project, with more sanctions already on the table in Congress, even though "it’s not clear whether we’re going to be able to pass" them.

"But I intend to do everything I can to try and stop the pipeline," she said.

Referring to Ukraine's efforts to join NATO, Portman said that Kyiv will continue to enjoy U.S. support in its drive to implement the reforms needed to demonstrate that Ukraine is adhering to Western values.

“NATO is both a military alliance and an alliance of values,” Murphy said, adding, "That’s why the reforms that are currently under way in Ukraine are absolutely critical."

“To ask Ukraine to fight a war against an invading foreign enemy and to engage in dramatic political, economic, and social reforms, that’s a lot to ask, and Ukraine has stepped up,” he said, but pointed to the need for Kyiv to work harder to eradicate corruption.

The parents of journalist Raman Pratasevich, who was arrested after Belarus dispatched a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair commercial flight on May 23 and force it to land in Minsk, say the latest recording of their son broadcast by state TV was apparently ordered by the government, like the previous ones.

Dzmitry and Natallya Pratasevich told Current Time on June 3 that by broadcasting the video, the authorities tried "to justify taking hostage" their son and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, a Russian national.

"I have noticed handcuff marks on his hands. In addition, all parts of the film are of a very high resolution and quality, but when Raman is shown, the footage showing his face appears to be edited. I wonder if it was done to hide bruises on his face and on his nose, and strangulation marks on his neck, that were noticeable on another video shown last week," Natallya Pratasevich said.

Raman Pratasevich, 26, is facing charges of being behind civil disturbances that followed disputed presidential election in August last year, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

"I have questions for those who made the recording. Tell me please, how about the investigatory privilege? If the investigation is under way, how come then all of this data [related to the probe] is made public?" Natallya Pratasevich said.

RFE/RL has decided not to publish or link to any of the videos showing Pratasevich.

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According to the journalist's parents, lawyers have not been allowed to meet with their son although the attorneys have been told that they could meet their client between May 31-June 2.

"Maybe lawyers were not allowed to meet him because the film was being made at that exact time. Also, we have not received any response to our request to allow independent physicians to examine Raman," Natallya Pratasevich said.

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.

Authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka publicly said that Raman Pratasevich was also suspected by Kremlin-backed separatists in Ukraine's east of fighting against them, adding that he will invite the separatists to interrogate the journalist.

Separatists in Ukraine's Luhansk region launched an investigation into Pratasevich on May 27, four days after his arrest in Minsk. Dzmitry Pratasevich said the separatists' accusations against his son were trumped up.

"They do not allow lawyers to see our son, but in the meantime they broadcast propaganda videos on public television, violating all possible norms of investigation. We do not know when exactly Raman's statements used in those videos were made, while it is apparent that the videos and films were fabricated using different footage recorded at different times," Dzmitry Pratasevich said.

Raman Pratasevich was a key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta-Live, which has been covering the mass protests against the official results of the presidential poll that handed Lukashenka a sixth presidential term since 1994.

Security forces have arrested more than 30,000 people, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies.

The plane forced by Belarusian authorities to land in Minsk on May 23 to arrest Pratasevich and his girlfriend was flying over Belarus from Athens to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

The move sparked international outrage and demands for Pratasevich's release. The European Union banned flights from Belarus after the incident.

IRKUTSK, Russia -- Activists say Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) in the Siberian region of Irkutsk has used a legal maneuver to keep lawyers from human rights groups from defending cases of alleged torture in the region's jails and penal colonies.

Rights activist Svyatoslav Khromenkov told RFE/RL on June 3 that three lawyers for the Siberia Without Torture group had received official letters from the FSIN saying they had been given the status of witnesses in high-profile torture cases, which under Russia law makes it impossible for them to defend the inmates.

The group's lawyer, Dmitry Dmitriyev, called the move "a way to deprive inmates of legal assistance."

"In this particular case, all crimes against inmates were conducted behind closed doors in penal colonies and jails, and rights defenders could not witness the situations.... The move was made to create a false reason to deprive the victims from free assistance of attorneys," Dmitriyev said.

The FSIN directorate in Irkutsk refused to comment on the situation.

Three probes were launched in the region in late May into allegations of the torture and rape of three inmates -- Kezhik Ondar, Tahirjon Bakiev, and Yevgeny Yurchenko -- while they were held in detention centers in Irkutsk and the nearby city of Angarsk.

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Earlier in March, nine other probes were launched against FSIN officers over alleged torture of inmates in several penal colonies in the region.

In April last year, more than 200 inmates in a penal colony in Angarsk maimed themselves to protest what they called torture at the hands of their guards. The protest turned into a large prison riot that led to a fire, with one inmate found dead amid the debris.

Hundreds of inmates were transferred from the penal colony in Angarsk to other penitentiaries after the riot, where many of them said they were tortured to confess to organizing the riot.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has defended her country's controversial labeling of some foreign-funded media as "foreign agents" by saying Moscow was "forced" to adopt the measure in response to actions taken by the United States.

The labeling of "foreign agents" has been interpreted by many civil society activists as another tool for the Kremlin to use to intimidate Russia's political opposition, especially with parliamentary elections looming in September and the ruling United Russia party slumping in opinion polls.

"We were forced to do it to defend our journalists and our information space," Zakharova said at a breakfast roundtable on the "foreign agent" law in St. Petersburg on June 3.

"I would again like to remind you of the excellent expression that comes to us from our historical and religious heritage about 'an eye for an eye.' I think otherwise there would have been a lot of others who wanted to strike us and there would have been a lot more attacks."

Zakharova was the featured speaker at the roundtable, titled Business Breakfast For Foreign Media Agents With Maria Zakharova, which was held within the framework of the 2021 St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Other panelists included Anna Belkina, deputy editor in chief of Russian state-owned RT television; Aleksandr Malkevich, general director of Russian state-controlled St. Petersburg Television; and Aleksei Venediktov, editor in chief of Ekho Moskvy radio, which is owned by the Russian state-controlled natural-gas giant Gazprom.

Andrei Shary, director of RFE/RL's Russian Service, which has been labeled a "foreign agent" media outlet under the law, also spoke briefly via video link from Prague.

Shary said RFE/RL rejected the "foreign agent" designation and charged that "freedom of speech is quickly being restricted in Russia," in part because of the law.

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The same day as the forum, the business daily VTimes, which was designated a "foreign agent" last month, announced it will cease operations on June 12 because of "the risk of criminal prosecution of the publication's employees with the possibility of their incarceration."

The designation, the newspaper said in a statement on June 3, had also destroyed its business model and driven away advertisers and other partners.

When asked about the VTimes announcement, Zakharova said she was not informed about the matter, but added it sounded to her like "a purely financial matter."

Russia's so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

Later modifications targeted foreign-funded media.

In 2017, the Russian government placed RFE/RL's Russian Service on the list, along with six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, a network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. The Russian Service of VOA was also added to the list.

At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals, including foreign journalists, on its "foreign agents" list and to impose restrictions on them. Several RFE/RL contributors were placed on the list in December 2020.

The Russian state media monitor Roskomnadzor last year adopted rules requiring listed media to mark all written materials with a lengthy notice in large text, all radio materials with an audio statement, and all video materials with a 15-second text declaration.

RFE/RL rejects the "foreign agent" designation and has refused to comply with the rules, so the agency has prepared hundreds of complaints against RFE/RL's projects. When they go through the court system, the total fines levied could be more than $3 million.

RFE/RL has called the fines "a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation," while the U.S. State Department has described them as "intolerable." Human Rights Watch has described the foreign agent legislation as "restrictive" and intended "to demonize independent groups."

RFE/RL has filed a complaint about the matter with the European Court of Human Rights.

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Zakharova repeated the Russian government's assertion that the creation of the register of "foreign agent" media in Russia was a response to a 2017 decision by the United States to compel RT to register under a 1938 law called the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at the time that FARA registration "is simply triggered when an entity or an individual engages in political activity."

"When the United States tells someone to register under a foreign-agent requirement, we don't impact or affect the ability of them to report news and information," Nauert said. "We just have them register. It's as simple as that."

Courtney Austrian, the U.S. charge d'affaires to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told the council in March that "there is no equivalence between U.S. FARA legislation and Russia's 'foreign agent' law."

"Russia uses its 'foreign agent' law to restrict, intimidate, prosecute, and shut down civil society organizations and independent media," Austrian said.

While RT distributes its programs freely in the United States on cable television, RFE/RL and VOA have no access to cable television in Russia.

RFE/RL once had distribution agreements with nearly 100 radio channels inside Russia, but had lost them all by 2012 following a campaign of pressure by the authorities.

The U.S. decision to compel RT to register under FARA came after a January 2017 U.S. intelligence finding that RT and Russia's Sputnik news agency spread disinformation as part of a Kremlin effort to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Republican candidate and eventual winner Donald Trump.

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Moscow has denied any such effort.

Roskomnadzor announced another set of complaints against RFE/RL's projects in Russia on June 2.

"After freezing our bank accounts, the Kremlin is now attempting to fine our Moscow bureau out of existence," RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in response.

"This concerted pressure on RFE/RL and other independent media in Russia is only hurting the Russian people by depriving them of information choice. We will redouble our efforts to provide objective news and information to our audiences across Russia despite these outrageous attacks on our operations."

RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Each week, nearly 7 million people access RFE/RL's news portals in Russia.

The EU Court of Justice has dismissed Hungary's challenge to a decision by the European Parliament to investigate whether Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken moves that undermine European legal standards and democratic values.

Orban, a right-wing nationalist, has repeatedly clashed with EU leaders over his moves to increase state control of the judiciary, media, and academia.

After the European Parliament approved a so-called Article 7 procedure in 2018 against Hungary to probe allegations of a "serious breach" of the 27-member bloc's democratic values, Budapest turned to the courts to dismiss the move on a technicality, saying the vote count "seriously infringed" on rules by leaving out abstentions.

"When calculating the votes cast when that resolution was adopted, the parliament was right to exclude the taking into account of abstentions," the court said in a statement.

Members' "abstentions do not have to be counted in order to determine whether the majority of two-thirds of the votes cast [needed to launch the procedure] has been reached," it added.

Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga described the court's decision, which cannot be appealed, as "completely unacceptable and shocking."

"As we all know, abstention means a tacit disagreement," Varga wrote on Facebook. "And still, we are the ones who are held accountable for adhering to common values and rules?"

Earlier this year Hungary, along with Poland, which has faced similar accusations of backsliding on democracy, challenged a new mechanism in the European Union's budget that links payments to rule-of-law conditions.

The countries have vowed to shield each other from any moves against them via the Article 7 procedure, which would suspend their voting rights in the bloc. According to EU rules, 26 of its 27 members must approve any suspension of voting rights.

Orban has also antagonized the bloc through his very close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has spoken up against EU sanctions on Russia. Hungary became the first EU country to use a Russian vaccine for COVID-19.

Budapest and Warsaw threatened to veto the EU's recovery fund last year along with the entire EU budget over proposals to link some fund payments to rule of law conditions, describing it as "political blackmail".

With reporting by Bloomberg and AFP

BISHKEK -- Dozens of people have rallied in front of the Kyrgyz parliament building in Bishkek, demanding the government find the leader of the Sapat education network after the Turkish native went missing in the Central Asian country.

The protesters, many of whom believe that Orhan Inan was abducted by the Turkish secret services, demonstrated on June 3 following recent similar rallies in front of the Turkish Embassy in Bishkek and the government building.

The demonstrators held placards saying: "Orhan is a Kyrgyz citizen. Find him!"

Inan, who has lived in Kyrgyzstan since 1995 and holds Kyrgyz citizenship, disappeared late on May 31.

His car with was found in downtown Bishkek early in the morning on June 1 with the doors wide open and valuable items still inside seemingly untouched.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has ordered the Interior Ministry to find Inan and the Bishkek police have created a special investigative group to locate Inan.

The director of Sapat, Nurlan Kudaiberdiev, said on June 1 that Inan might have been kidnapped by Turkish agents, though he did not present any evidence to back up his claim.

In 2019, Ankara officially requested Bishkek extradite two men working for the Sapat network in Kyrgyzstan -- Sinan Yilmaz and Sancar Abdulhakim -- saying they were wanted in Turkey on unspecified charges.

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office ruled in favor of extraditing the two men at the time, but the decision was later cancelled by a Bishkek court following rallies protesting the move.

Over the past five years, Turkey has requested Kyrgyzstan shut down Sapat, saying that it was linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016, which Gulen denies.

MOSCOW -- Online business media outlet VTimes has announced its closure after the Russian Justice Ministry added it to the registry of "foreign agents" last month, a move the site says "destroyed" its business.

The website's editors said in a statement on June 3 that the information portal will halt its operations as of June 12 because they do not want to work "as a niche opposition political media" outlet that would create threatening situations for its employees.

They added that the "foreign agent" designation had scared away its partners, ruined its business, and made it harder to report news.

Activists have warned the legislation was targeted at independent media such as VTimes and would seriously impact them because of its "restrictive" nature that "demonizes independent groups."

VTimes is an information and analytical site created in 2020 by journalists who left Vedomosti, a top Russian business newspaper, after it was sold last year to a new owner.

The journalists accused the editor in chief brought in by the new owner, Ivan Yeryomin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, of introducing pro-Kremlin censorship.

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EU Says Russian 'Foreign Agent' Law Stifling Independent Media, Calls For Repeal

"The foreign-agent label has destroyed the VTimes business model, and we created the outlet as a business project. Advertisers and partners do not understand how to cooperate with 'a foreign agent,' and we cannot judge them for that," the statement says, adding that businessmen, analysts, and officials hesitated to deal with any outlet on the "foreign agents" registry.

"We have realized by our own experience that Russian authorities do not need a professional and independent media," the statement says, emphasizing that VTimes was created as "a platform for the free exchange of constructive thoughts...to find positive examples and ideas for the development of businesses and society."

Russia's controversial "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, a network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

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Russian Regulator Plans More Protocols Against RFE/RL For Violating Labeling Requirement

At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified again to allow the Russian government to include individuals, including foreign journalists, on the list and to impose restrictions on them.

Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor has accused RFE/RL of hundreds of violations of the labeling rules under the "foreign agent" law.

RFE/RL, which faces a raft of fines that could total as much as $3.4 million, has called the penalties "a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation," while the U.S. State Department has described them as "intolerable."

Negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal are heading into their most delicate phase, European diplomats said after the latest round of talks ended in Vienna.

"We have continued to make progress and important parts of a future deal have now been fleshed out, but the most difficult decisions lie ahead. We have of course worked based on the principle of nothing is agreed to [until] all is agreed," the group of diplomats from Britain, France, and Germany, known as the E3, said in a statement.

"Together we understand that time is on nobody's side. Decision time is coming up. We will reconvene next week," they added.

Negotiators from the E3 and the other major powers that struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran have been meeting in working groups in the Austrian capital since early April, with the EU team overseeing indirect talks between Iran and the United States.

The agreement has been on hold since 2018 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy.

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

The most difficult questions remaining include which of its sanctions Washington would be willing to lift and how to permanently prevent Iranian nuclear facilities from being used for military purposes.

EU envoy Enrique Mora, chief coordinator of the talks, said on June 2 he believes a deal will be struck at the next round of talks.

"I am sure that the next round will be the one in which we will finally get a deal," Mora told reporters as the fifth round wrapped up.

The negotiators are under pressure to reach a renewal of the pact before Iran's June 18 presidential election, which is likely to usher in a hard-line president.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said barriers to the revival of the deal were complicated but not insurmountable.

"Differences have reached a point where everyone believes these differences are not insolvable," Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV. "But the details are important and Iran's firm positions are important to be observed."

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters the chief U.S. negotiator, Rob Malley, would be returning to Washington soon and suggested the talks were making slow headway.

"Some progress has been made," she told reporters but added, "This isn't going to be a quick or easy process."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa

Russia's media regulator has notified RFE/RL that it plans to draft another set of 130 protocols for violations of the country's controversial "foreign agent" law requiring the labeling of content.

The violations covered under the Roskomnadzor summons on June 2 total 71.5 million rubles, or about $980,000.

The charges will be drafted and issued between June 15 and July 6 and sent to court for adjudication.

Roskomnadzor has already accused RFE/RL of some 520 violations of labeling rules under the "foreign agents" law. The additional 130 violations will bring the total to 650, and once all are adjudicated by Russian courts, they are expected to result in fines of $3.4 million.

RFE/RL has called the fines "a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation," while the U.S. State Department has described them as "intolerable."

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in a statement on June 2 that Russia was attempting to fine RFE/RL's Moscow bureau out of existence.

"This concerted pressure on RFE/RL and other independent media in Russia is only hurting the Russian people by depriving them of information choice," Fly said. "We will redouble our efforts to provide objective news and information to our audiences across Russia despite these outrageous attacks on our operations."

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Russian Court Bailiffs Again Enter RFE/RL's Moscow Bureau

The "foreign agents" law requires that each published or broadcast story include prominent labeling. RFE/RL is in the process of appealing the protocols, but Russian courts have so far rejected hundreds of appeals.

The total amount of fines RFE/RL already faces under Russian court orders is more than 80 million rubles -- just over $1 million.

The "foreign agents" law is increasingly being used against Russian-language media outlets in the country, including RFE/RL. The European Union has called on Moscow to repeal the law.

U.S. authorities have attributed the attack on Brazil-based meat processor JBS to hackers believed to be tied to Russia and said U.S. investigators are working "diligently" to bring the group to justice.

Investigators have attributed the JBS attack to REvil and Sodinokibi, an FBI statement said, urging anyone who is the victim of a cyberattack to contact the bureau immediately.

REvil and Sodinokibi are two names for the same hacking group with ties to Russia, according to cybersecurity experts quoted in U.S. media reports.

The White House said earlier that a criminal group likely based in Russia was thought to be responsible for the hack on JBS, the world's largest meat processor.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on June 2 that a review was under way to consider how to respond and no options had been taken off the table. Washington is in direct touch with Russia "to convey our concerns about these reports," Psaki said.

She added that the hack is expected be discussed at the summit on June 16 between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"President Biden certainly thinks that President Putin and the Russian government has a role to play in stopping and preventing these attacks," Psaki said.

The attack was first reported on June 1 and targeted servers supporting JBS’s operations in North America and Australia. The affected processing plants are expected to return to full capacity in the next couple days, said officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers international union.

JBS said on June 1 that it had made "significant progress in resolving the cyberattack."

The FBI and the White House declined to comment on the ransom, and it is not known whether JBS paid one.

The cyberattack followed a ransomware attack last month on Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline in the United States, which crippled fuel delivery for several days in the U.S. Southeast. A group with ties to Russia was behind that attack, which ended when the company paid $4.4 million to the hackers.

Ransomware is a type of hack in which a victim's digital data are encrypted, rendering them unusable until the targeted company pays the ransom.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and Bloomberg

The United States has slapped economic sanctions on three Bulgarian individuals, including a power broker and a gambling tycoon, as well as dozens of companies they allegedly own or control for their "extensive roles" in corruption in Bulgaria.

The Department of the Treasury on June 2 announced sanctions against former member of parliament Delyan Peevski, prominent businessman Vassil Bozhkov, and ex-national-security official Ilko Zhelyazkov under the Global Magnitsky Act. It also placed sanctions on 64 entities said to be linked to them.

Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member, has suffered from rampant corruption since overthrowing communism more than three decades ago. It is the EU's poorest member and routinely comes in at the bottom of the bloc for corruption perception and media freedom.

"The United States stands with all Bulgarians who strive to root out corruption by promoting accountability for corrupt officials who undermine the economic functions and democratic institutions of Bulgaria," Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.

"This designation under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program shows that we are committed to combating corruption wherever it may be."

The Global Magnitsky Act bans entry to the United States of any sanctioned person. It also blocks any U.S.-based property, including overseas U.S. dollar accounts, held by those sanctioned and prevents U.S. entities from doing business with them.

Separately, the State Department announced a travel ban on former Bulgarian officials Aleksandar Manolev, Petar Haralampiev, and Krasimir Tomov for their involvement in corruption.

The three served respectively as deputy economy minister, director of the state agency for Bulgarians abroad, and chief secretary of the state agency for Bulgarians abroad. Their immediate family members are also banned from entering the United States.

The sanctions come a little more than a month before snap parliamentary elections scheduled for July 11 and could potentially hurt the image of the former ruling GERB party.

Opposition leaders have already seized on the news to criticize GERB and former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, and a demonstration in Sofia on June 2 called for the resignation of the top state prosecutor.

'Puppet Master'

Peevski, who controlled large swaths of the Bulgarian media landscape, including newspapers and television stations, is considered one of the most powerful people in the country.

He served in parliament as a member of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, which is mostly made up of ethnic Turks.

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Who Is Bulgaria's 'Potbelly' And Why Do People Claim He Controls The Government?

Bulgarian opposition officials accused Peevski of controlling GERB, including ministers and members of the judiciary in Borisov's government, from behind the scenes.

Marshall Harris, a former U.S. State Department official who is now a lobbyist in Washington representing two Sofia-based businessmen, called Peevski the "oligarch in chief" and the "ultimate puppet master" in Bulgaria in material he distributed to members of Congress last year.

His clients accused Peevski of seeking to seize their assets with the help of the Prosecutor-General's Office.

The Treasury Department said in its statement that Peevski "has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society."

It said Peevski sought to influence municipal elections in 2019 by providing politicians with positive media coverage in exchange for protection from criminal investigations.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Peevski owned some 80 percent of the print media in Bulgaria at the time, as well as private television networks and websites.

The Treasury Department said Zhelyazkov served as Peevski's "front man," carrying out the various bribe schemes.

Peevski did not immediately comment on the sanctions.

Hristo Ivanov, the co-founder of Democratic Bulgaria, a West-leaning party in opposition to GERB and DPS, said Borisov's government failed to investigate corruption.

"Neither Bozhkov nor Peevski emerged on their own. Peevski was raised by the DPS and fed by GERB and Borisov," Ivanov said in a statement on the party’s website.

'Cut Down To Size'

Peevski in December hired BGR Group, a large Washington lobbying firm, to help him with "issues in the U.S.," according to lobbying registration documents.

In a possible sign he expected the United States to place sanctions on him, Peevski soon sold off his media assets, dropped off DPS's list for the April parliamentary elections, and disappeared from the Bulgarian political scene. He is reportedly living in Dubai.

"Bit by bit, he is being cut down to size," Harris told RFE/RL in an interview after the U.S. announced the sanctions.

Harris said the sanctions could give the opposition the "international cover" to look deeply into the accusations of corruption by Peevski. "People are going to be empowered by this and less afraid" to investigate, he said.

SEE ALSO:

Senators Warn U.S.-Bulgarian Relationship Faces 'Serious Challenges'

'Gambling Czar'

Bozhkov is one of Bulgaria's richest individuals, having made his fortune in the country's gambling industry. He fled Bulgaria last year for Dubai amid accusations of corruption.

Earlier this year, he formed the Bulgaria Summer political party, which received nearly 3 percent of the April vote but fell short of receiving a seat in parliament. Bulgaria Summer was among the 64 entities put on the Treasury Department sanctions list.

The Treasury Department said Bozhkov "bribed government officials on several occasions," including the former chairman of the now-abolished State Commission on Gambling.

The businessman paid the former chairman $6,200 a day to revoke the gambling licenses of his competitors, according to an investigation by Bulgarian prosecutors.

The Treasury Department also accused Bozhkov of providing money to a former Bulgarian official and a Bulgarian politician earlier this year to help him "create a channel for Russian political leaders to influence Bulgarian government officials."

The tycoon did not comment on the sanctions.

Election Impact

The sanctions could impact the July elections, which were called after the parties that entered parliament in April failed to form a new government.

Emilia Zankina, a Bulgarian political analyst, told RFE/RL the sanctions against Bozhkov could boost his party's appeal to "young voters vulnerable to populist appeals." She did not expect the DPS -- which has historically garnered between 8 percent and 13 percent of the vote -- to be impacted.

Genoveva Petrova, managing director of Alpha Research in Sofia, told RFE/RL the sanctions could hurt GERB if this is "just the beginning of the story." She said if more details emerge showing a connection between Peevski's alleged corruption and Borisov's government, it could have "a significant impact" on the party's results in July.

GERB's popularity has slid since a corruption scandal broke last summer, driving thousands of people in Sofia to protest for weeks on end.

GERB came in first with 26 percent of the April parliamentary vote, but that was its worst performance since it was formed about 15 years ago.

A court in Bishkek has ordered former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov be held in pretrial detention for two months.

Babanov and at least four other prominent politicians were detained earlier this week as part of a corruption investigation connected to the Central Asian country's largest gold mine.

Speaking to RFE/RL as he arrived at Bishkek’s Pervomaisky district court on June 2, Babanov denied any wrongdoing and called the charges against him absurd.

Hundreds of his supporters demonstrated outside the court to demand the ex-prime minister's release.

The other suspects detained in the case include lawmakers Torobay Zulpukarov and Asylbek Jeenbekov, whose brother Sooronbai Jeenbekov stepped down as president last year, as well as two ex-lawmakers.

The Kyrgyz government has temporarily taken over control of the Kumtor gold mine, which is run by Canada's Centerra Gold, in what President Sadyr Japarov said was a necessary move to address environmental and safety violations.

Centerra Gold has refuted the claims, calling them meritless

Authorities in North Macedonia say they have arrested six people on suspicion of running a migrant-smuggling ring that illegally transferred people from Greece to wealthier European countries.

The prosecutor’s office said on June 2 that the arrests were made during police raids in the capital, Skopje, and four other cities.

Police said that the criminal ring had illegally taken at least 100 migrants from Greece in trucks to locations near Serbia’s border since last July.

The migrants were charged by the traffickers up to $850 each.

Authorities said they came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

If tried and convicted, the six suspects face at least five years in prison.

Police were still searching for three more people with suspected links to the smuggling group.

Four other members of the ring were already serving prison terms, authorities said.

North Macedonia is a transit route for migrants trying to get from Greece to wealthier countries in Western and Northern Europe.

People smuggling has remained active in the region despite border closures and restrictions of movement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With reporting by AP and BalkanInsight

Flights between Russia and Germany were briefly suspended after Moscow failed to extend German flag carrier Lufthansa's flight permissions in time, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Berlin.

"Russian authorities granted permission for Lufthansa to carry out flights to Russia in June. This means that Lufthansa flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg can operate as planned," a spokeswoman for the airline said late on June 2.

Russian airlines Aeroflot and S7 also announced flights would resume to Germany, Russia’s news agencies reported.

Earlier on June 2, Germany’s Federal Transport Ministry said Russia's aviation authority FATA had not renewed Lufthansa's flying rights for June, meaning that flights from Germany due to depart early in the day had to be cancelled at short notice.

The German Federal Aviation Office would not issue any further permits for incoming flights by Russian airlines to Germany as long as the permits were pending on the Russian side, the ministry said.

As a result, Aeroflot and S7 flights could not take place on June 2.

There was no immediate comments from Russian authorities.

Berlin says Russia “unilaterally” suspended bilateral agreements on airline traffic between the two countries in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Flights have since been authorized reciprocally on a monthly basis, it says.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Three members of the ethnic Polish minority in Belarus who had been jailed for their political activism are now free and in Poland, authorities in Warsaw said on June 2.

The activists -- identified as Irena Biernacka, Maria Tiszkowska, and Anna Paniszewa -- were arrested in March as part of the Belarusian authorities’ crackdown on ethnic Poles who opposed the authoritarian regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “as a result of efforts by Polish diplomatic and consular services,” the activists arrived in Poland on May 25.

They were safe and being given “the necessary support and care,” the ministry said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told reporters that “all Poles abroad who are subjected to repression will always find support and shelter” in Poland.

Poland “expects the freeing of all political prisoners in Belarus,” he added.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, had appealed for the release of Biernacka, Tiszkowska, and Paniszewa, who were reportedly facing up to 12 years in prison in Belarus.

Two other activists from the Polish community in Belarus -- Andzelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut -- remain imprisoned in the country.

Belarus has been in political turmoil since Lukashenka claimed victory in an August 2020 presidential election, which the opposition claimed was rigged in his favor.

The EU, United States, and other countries have imposed sanctions against the regime of Lukashenka, who has led a violent crackdown on dissent since mass protests broke out in the country over the disputed results of the election.

With reporting by AP

The United States has sanctioned three Bulgarian individuals, including a power broker and a gambling tycoon, and dozens of companies they allegedly own or control for their “extensive roles” in corruption in the Southeast European country.

The Department of the Treasury said in a statement on June 2 that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has put former member of parliament Delyan Peevski, prominent businessman Vassil Bozhkov, and ex-national-security official Ilko Zhelyazkov on the Global Magnitsky list, along with a total of 64 entities said to be linked to them.

Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member, has struggled to end endemic corruption that has held the country back economically. Bulgaria is the EU’s poorest member state and routinely comes in toward the bottom of the bloc's annual corruption perception polls.

“The United States stands with all Bulgarians who strive to root out corruption by promoting accountability for corrupt officials who undermine the economic functions and democratic institutions of Bulgaria,” OFAC Director Andrea M. Gacki said in a statement issued by the State Department.

“This designation under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program shows that we are committed to combating corruption wherever it may be.”

Peevski, who controls large swaths of the Bulgarian media landscape, including newspapers and television stations, is considered to be one of the most powerful people in the country.

SEE ALSO:

Who Is Bulgaria's 'Potbelly' And Why Do People Claim He Controls The Government?

Bulgarian opposition officials say he had been behind the appointment of ministers and members of the judiciary.

Peevski “has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society,” the Treasury Department said in its statement.

The Treasury Department said Peevski sought to influence municipal elections in 2019 by providing politicians with positive media coverage in exchange for protection from criminal investigations.

Zhelyazkov was Peevski’s “frontman,” carrying out various bribe schemes, the Treasury Department said.

In material distributed on Capitol Hill last year by Washington lobbyist Marshall Harris, Peevski was described as one of the “key architects of Bulgaria’s democratic decline and devolution into a criminal state.”

Harris, a former State Department official, called Peevski the “oligarch in chief” and the “ultimate puppet master” in Bulgaria in the material published on the Department of Justice’s foreign lobbying website.

Harris represents two businessmen who accuse the Bulgarian state of seeking to seize their assets under false pretenses.

Bozhkov, who made a fortune in the Bulgarian gambling industry, has “bribed government officials on several occasions,” including the former chairman of the now-abolished State Commission on Gambling, the Treasury Department said.

The businessman paid the former chairman $6,200 a day to revoke the gambling licenses of his competitors, according to an investigation by Bulgarian prosecutors.

It also accused Bozhkov of providing money to a former Bulgarian official and a Bulgarian politician earlier this year to help the tycoon “create a channel for Russian political leaders to influence Bulgarian government officials.”

The sanctions could impact snap parliamentary elections this summer.

Peevski had been a key member of the Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS) party, which polled fourth in parliamentary elections in April.

A party backed by Bozhkov received less than 3 percent of the April vote, just missing out on a seat in parliament.

New elections were called for this summer after the parties that entered parliament failed to form a government.

A U.S. bipartisan congressional delegation visiting Kyiv has encouraged Ukraine to continue reforms to solidify its democracy and expressed solidarity with the country in the face of Russian “aggression.”

“Ensuring Ukraine continues key reforms to strengthen its democracy is critical to our enduring partnership & to counter Russian aggression,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire), who is heading the U.S. delegation, tweeted from the Ukrainian capital on June 2.

“Appreciated meeting w/government reps & civil society members on their work to root out corruption & build a better tomorrow for Ukraine,” she added.

The visiting delegation includes Shaheen and two other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- Rob Portman (Republican-Ohio) and Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut).

“We talked about the importance of increasing our ties, providing even more effective military assistance, so Ukraine can defend itself," Portman told reporters after the talks.

The United States has provided nearly $5 billion in financial, humanitarian, and military aid to Kyiv since 2014, when Russia forcibly annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backed separatists in two of its eastern provinces, sparking a war that has killed more than 13,200.

The senators "reaffirmed bipartisan U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty & territorial integrity," according to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that long-term bipartisan support for Ukraine in the U.S. Congress is “vital to our strategic partnership at a time when our state continues to resist Russian aggression and implement reforms."

The three senators traveled to Ukraine from Lithuania, where they met with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. They called for harsher economic sanctions against the regime of Belarus’s authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka and for the release of political prisoners.

The delegation is set to travel to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi after it leaves Kyiv.

Ahead of the bipartisan trip, Shaheen said it would send “a clear message that the United States is committed to rebuilding our transatlantic relations and reasserting U.S. global leadership to promote democratic values.”

“We support Ukraine and Georgia in their desire to achieve their Euro-Atlantic ambitions, and the U.S. is eager to play a supporting role to make NATO and EU membership a reality.”

Ukraine and Georgia are seeking closer ties with the West, including membership in NATO that Moscow adamantly opposes.

Russia maintains troops in two breakaway regions that comprise about 20 percent of Georgian territory, in what Tbilisi considers an occupation.

With reporting by AP