Serbia and Argentina have begun industrial production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.

"It is a great honor for me to launch production of the Russian-Serbian vaccine with you today. We are starting to produce 4 million [doses] of Sputnik V vaccine," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during an online ceremony on June 4.

After Belarus, Serbia is the second European country outside of Russia to manufacture the Russian vaccine.

Public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said the first doses produced at Belgrade's state-run Institute for Virology, Vaccines, and Serums are expected to be delivered to vaccination points in the Balkan country within 10 days.

Putin and Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez watched the launch of the production line in Argentina via video link during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported.

The Sputnik V doses produced in Serbia and Argentina will meet the two countries' domestic needs before being exported, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad.

About one-third of Serbia's approximately 7 million inhabitants have received at least one dose of vaccine against the coronavirus.

Serbians have been inoculated with the Sputnik V vaccine and China's Sinopharm for months, as well as with vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Belgrade has also donated vaccines to Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and the Czech Republic.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

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

Based on reporting by Reuters, TASS, RTS, Tanjug, dpa, and RFE/RL's Balkan Service

SOFIA – Bulgaria's government is creating a blacklist of individuals and entities associated with three prominent Bulgarians hit by sanctions imposed by the United States for their alleged "extensive roles in corruption."

All state and local authorities will be banned from working with former parliament member Delyan Peevski, oligarch Vassil Bozhkov, and top intelligence official Ilko Zhelyazkov, the cabinet said on June 4.

The restrictions also apply to companies the three men own or control and all individuals or companies said to be linked to them.

The move aims to "protect companies with state and municipal participation and other spending units from falling within the scope of the sanctions," the cabinet said.

On June 2, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against the three powerful figures under the Global Magnitsky Act for their "extensive roles" in corruption in Bulgaria. It also placed sanctions on 64 entities said to be linked to them.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Places Sanctions On Bulgarian Power Broker, Gambling Tycoon, Citing Influence Peddling

Bulgaria, a NATO member and the poorest country in the EU, is plagued by endemic corruption.

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

The Bulgarian government said it was setting up a working group to prepare its blacklist "as a matter of urgency." Anyone related to or who has worked with the individuals and companies sanctioned by the United States is to be included.

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

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.

SEE ALSO:

Bulgaria's Powerful 'Potbelly' Vanishes From Political Scene Ahead Of Elections

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

The Bulgarian opposition accuses Peevski of controlling the former ruling GERB party, including ministers in the government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, from behind the scenes.

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 was among the 64 entities put on the Treasury Department sanctions list.

SEE ALSO:

Fugitive Bulgarian Tycoon Takes On His Government With Ali Baba Cartoons

Following the U.S. announcement of the sanctions, Peevski was quoted as saying he had not been engaged "in any corrupt activity."

Bozhkov denounced "an attempt to stop a legally registered Bulgarian party from participating in the elections."

Zhelyazkov took a leave from his post at the National Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices.

Also on June 2, the U.S. State Department announced a travel ban on three former Bulgarian officials for their involvement in corruption. Their immediate family members are also banned from entering the United States.

Iran's Guardians Council will review its decision to exclude several prominent candidates for this month’s presidential election after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized the electoral vetting body.

"In the vetting process some candidates were wronged. They were accused of untrue things,” Khamenei said on national television on June 4.

“Protecting people’s honor is one of the most important issues. I call on the responsible bodies to restore their honor,” he said.

Iran's ultra-conservative election watchdog, the Guardians Council, approved only seven candidates from a field of nearly 600 applicants, with the hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi considered the establishment’s shoo-in figure for the June 18 vote.

The Guardians Council came under criticism for barring a number of prominent candidates, including more moderate figures close to outgoing President Hassan Rohani that may have a chance against Raisi.

Rohani, who cannot seek a third term, said during a weekly cabinet meeting on May 26 that he wished the Guardians Council would select more candidates to ensure greater "competition" in the June vote.

Among those barred from the election are former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, and Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Former president Mahmud Ahmadinejad was also barred and said he would boycott the election.

Following the criticism from Khamenei, who has the final say on Iran's affairs, the Guardians Council said it will revise some of its decisions.

"The orders of the supreme leader are final and his ruling must be obeyed. The Guardians Council will soon announce its opinion, acknowledging that it is not immune to error," Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei tweeted.

Khamenei’s statement amounts to a reversal of opinion, after he expressed support last month for the Guardians Council's decision.

Analysts say Khamenei’s criticism may reflect concern about low voter turnout and boycotts, which could be read as a no-confidence vote in the entire establishment.

In his address, Khamenei urged voters to turn out, warning that staying away would mean doing the work of the "enemies of Islam."

"Some want to give up the duty to participate in the election with absurd reasons," Khamenei said in the televised speech.

Khamenei last week made similar calls urging people not to heed calls to boycott the poll.

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

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters

A land mine explosion has killed two Azerbaijani journalists and a local official in an area recaptured from Armenian separatists during last year's war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The explosion on June 4 comes amid heightened border tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan in recent weeks despite a Russian-brokered cease-fire.

Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry said a truck struck an anti-tank mine in the Kalbacar district, killing Azerbaijani state-run AzTV journalist Sirac Abisov and state news agency AzerTag employee Maharram Ibrahimov.

A local village official was also killed in the blast and four people were wounded.

Video published on AzTV purported to show the charred remains of the vehicle along a dirt road, with one dead body in the background.

A six-week war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year, claiming at least 6,900 lives.

The fighting ended with a November 2020 cease-fire that saw Armenia hand over swaths of territory that ethnic Armenians had controlled for decades, including Kalbacar.

In recent weeks, the two sides have blamed each other for a number of incidents along their border, putting pressure on the cease-fire in the run-up to Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections on June 20.

According to Azerbaijan, seven of its troops and 15 civilians have been killed and more than 100 people injured by land mines since the cease-fire.

Late in May, Azerbaijan captured six Armenian servicemen Baku said had crossed into Kalbacar district to lay mines on army supply routes. Yerevan said its forces were only strengthening the border area inside Armenian territory.

Moscow, which has 2,000 peacekeepers monitoring the cease-fire, has proposed to help with the delimitation and demarcation of the neighbors' borders.

Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts are one of the most heavily mined areas of the former Soviet Union.

SEE ALSO:

Dying To Go Home: Displaced Azerbaijanis Risk Mines, Munitions To See Homeland

The worst-affected areas are along the fortified former front lines where land mines had been laid since the early 1990s to create a buffer zone between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.

Some 750,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were displaced from areas in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s war, which claimed the lives of some 30,000 people.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has vowed to return displaced people to villages and towns they were forced to leave nearly three decades ago. The Azerbaijani government says one of the biggest obstacles is hundreds of thousands of mines littered throughout the area.

With reporting by AFP and RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that laying the pipes for the first of two lines of the prospective Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany has now been "successfully completed."

Addressing an economic forum in St. Petersburg on June 4, Putin also said that "work on the second line is continuing."

While the underwater section still needs to be linked to the section on German territory, Russian energy giant Gazprom "is ready to start filling Nord Stream 2 with gas," he added.

Gazprom shares went up 0.6 percent after Putin's comments, reaching 273.80 rubles ($3.74) -- their highest level since mid-2008.

The United States, which has strongly opposed construction of the new Russian pipeline, last month announced new sanctions against Russian companies and ships involved in the project.

But the administration of President Joe Biden decided to waive sanctions against the company overseeing the project and its CEO.

In Washington, the move was met with criticism from Republicans and some Democrats, while the Kremlin hailed it as a "positive signal" ahead of a June 16 summit between Biden and Putin.

SEE ALSO:

Interview: Senators Tell RFE/RL Putin Must Be Confronted About Efforts To 'Undermine American Democracy'

The Baltic Sea pipeline was at the center of a political tussle between Berlin and Washington during the previous administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Since coming into office in January, Biden has sought to heal relations with Europe after they were bruised under his predecessor.

U.S. officials have warned the pipeline will make Europe more dependent on Russian energy supplies and bypass Ukraine, which relies on gas transit fees.

The German government has refused to halt the project, arguing that it is a commercial venture and sovereign issue.

Putin told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia will continue pumping 40 billion cubic meters of gas via Ukraine a year in line with the existing five-year contract.

Kyiv is locked in a confrontation with Moscow over Russia's 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Black Sea Crimean Peninsula and the Kremlin's support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Describing the U.S. use of the dollar as a political weapon, Putin also said that European states should pay for Russian gas in euros, a day after Moscow said it would remove dollar assets from its National Wealth Fund while increasing the share of the euro, Chinese yuan, and gold.

"The euro is completely acceptable for us in terms of gas payments. This can be done, of course, and probably should be done," he said.

Russia has long moved to reduce the dollar's share in its hard-currency reserves as it has faced waves of U.S. sanctions amid heightened tensions with the West over issues including the conflict in Ukraine, cyberattacks allegedly by Russian hackers, and Russia's treatment of jailed opposition activist Aleksei Navalny.

In an interview with state-run Channel One television on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg forum, Putin said he expected "no breakthrough" from his meeting with Biden, but expressed hope that the talks will be held in a "positive atmosphere."

"But the very fact of our meeting, that we will speak about possibilities for restoring bilateral relations, about matters of mutual interest, and, by the way, there are a lot of them, is quite good as such," he added.

Late last month, Biden said he would press his Russian counterpart to respect human rights when the two leaders meet.

The U.S. president in March said he believed Putin was a "killer," which prompted a diplomatic row that led to Moscow recalling its ambassador to Washington for consultations.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, and TASS

BUDAPEST -- A senior German official has rebuked Hungary for blocking European Union statements on Hong Kong and the Middle East, saying the bloc’s common foreign and security policy was being undermined by a failure of unanimity.

"Hungary again blocked an EU statement on Hong Kong. Three weeks ago it was on the Middle East. Common foreign and security policy cannot work on the basis of a blocking policy," German Foreign Office State Secretary Miguel Berger tweeted on June 3.

Berger added that the EU needs "a serious debate on ways to manage dissent, including qualified majority voting."

Previous attempts to replace EU requirements for unanimous decisions with a simple majority have failed.

Berger’s call comes after Hungary blocked an EU statement in April criticizing a national-security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong last year, undermining the bloc's efforts to confront China’s attacks against freedoms in the former British colony. And last month, Budapest declined to back a call for a cease-fire in a conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

The German official's remarks indicate growing frustration with the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which has faced accusations of backsliding on democracy.

With reporting by Reuters

Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova has been arrested at the French Open and has been placed in custody over the suspected fixing of a doubles match at the French Open last year, sources told news agencies on June 4.

An investigation into possible corruption and fraud was opened in October over a first-round match in 2020 that saw Sizikova and her American partner Madison Brengle defeated by Romanian pair Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig.

Shamil Tarpischev, president of the Russian Tennis Federation, told the RIA news agency that he had been informed of Sizikova’s detention. TASS news agency also reported that the Russian Embassy in Paris had been informed of the situation.

Sizikova, 26, is ranked 101st in the women's doubles rankings.

On June 4, Sizikova and her new partner, Ekaterina Aleksandrova, were heavily defeated in under an hour 1-6, 1-6 by Australian pair Storm Sanders and Ajla Tomljanovic in the first round of the women's doubles.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

The isolated and tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, where no coronavirus cases have been officially registered since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, will not be hosting the 2021 Track Cycling World Championships due to restrictions over COVID-19.

The championships were scheduled to be held in Turkmenistan despite concerns about the authoritarian rule of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

In its press release issued late on June 3, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said that the October 13-17 event in Ashgabat was canceled "at the request of the organizers, as the health constraints and restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic make it impossible to stage the event in the country."

"The UCI is currently in contact with several potential alternative organizers with a view to moving the event to another venue on the same dates. The name of the new host city will be communicated as soon as possible," the press release said.

The announcement came a week after the European Track Championships in another former Soviet republic -- Belarus -- were canceled after Minsk ordered the forced landing of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania in order to detain an opposition journalist, Raman Pratasevich, and his girlfriend.

MINSK -- A European Union ban on Belarusian carriers accessing EU airports and flying through EU airspace has taken effect.

The EU imposed the ban on June 4 in response to Minsk’s forced diversion of a passenger flight last month and the arrest of a dissent journalist.

The 27 member states are “required to deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers,” the EU said in a statement.

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.

Enforcement of the EU ban will fall on member state governments. Several EU members have already implemented such a ban.

Belarusian national carrier Belavia said in a statement on June 4 that it has received permission to operate flights to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and will begin service five times a week -- Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays -- on June 10.

The airline also will add four flights to Istanbul beginning June 12, increasing its service to two flights daily from the current 10 times a week, and from June 15 will double the number of flights to the Black Sea city of Batumi, Georgia, from seven to 14, the airline said. Also from June 15, the airline plans to increase flights to Tbilisi from seven to 11 times a week.

Before the EU ban, Belavia operated flights between Belarus and some 20 airports in Europe.

The ban also includes marketing carriers, which sell seats on planes operated by another airline.

SEE ALSO:

Tearful 'Confession' By Belarusian Journalist Sparks Fresh Outcry Over His Treatment

The EU announced a series of punitive measures following Belarus’s scrambling of a fighter jet to force the landing on May 23 of a Ryanair flight carrying opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich. He and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who was also on board the flight, were immediately arrested.

The plane diversion came amid a sweeping crackdown on the opposition by the regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run Belarus since 1994. The country has seen unprecedented pro-democracy protests following a disputed August 2020 presidential election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.

EU member states have called on the European Council to adopt sanctions against Belarusian individuals and entities, as well as targeted economic sanctions.

The bloc has also recommended all EU-based carriers avoid flying over Belarus.

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has upheld the Justice Ministry's move to designate the Latvia-based independent Meduza news outlet as a “foreign agent” -- a move that requires it to label itself as such and subjects the media outlet to increased government scrutiny and regulation.

Meduza said that the Zamoskvorechye district court rejected its appeal on June 4, adding that the court's decision will also be appealed.

The Justice Ministry added Meduza to the registry of "foreign agents" on April 23, without giving detailed justification for the move.

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 of the law have targeted foreign-funded media.

Human Rights Watch has described the legislation as “restrictive” and intended “to demonize independent groups.”

Meduza was formed in 2014 by the former chief editor of Lenta.ru, Galina Timchenko, after she and most of Lenta.ru’s editorial staff left following an ownership change.

According to the independent Medialogia monitoring site, Meduza was among the top 10 most-cited Russian-language Internet sources in 2020 and was No. 1 in the ranking of most-linked-to in social-media posts.

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, the network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

At the end of last year, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to add individuals, including foreign journalists, to its “foreign agents” list and to impose restrictions on them.

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.”

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that would ban supporters and members of organizations deemed by authorities as "extremist" from being elected to any post -- a move making it virtually impossible for anyone connected to jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny from gaining public office.

The law endorsed by Putin on June 4 bars leaders and founders of organizations declared extremist or terrorist by Russian courts from running for elective posts for a period of five years.

Other members or employees of such organizations will face a three-year ban.

The move appears to be a thinly veiled attempt at neutralizing Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which Russian authorities are seeking to have declared extremist ahead of parliamentary elections in September.

SEE ALSO:

'Extremism' As A Blunt Tool: Behind The Russian Law Being Used To Shut Navalny Up

The FBK has already been declared a “foreign agent,” a punitive designation under a separate law.

The law appears to be retroactively applicable since it only involves restricting a person's rights, legal analysts say.

Russian authorities have ramped up their pressure on dissent ahead of parliamentary elections in September with opinion polls showing support for the ruling United Russia party at the lowest levels ever.

Navalny's regional headquarters have been instrumental in implementing a Smart Voting strategy -- a project designed to promote candidates who are most likely to defeat those from United Russia in various elections.

Navalny, Putin’s most vocal critic, is currently serving a prison sentence on embezzlement charges that he says were trumped up because of his political activity.

The law was signed by Putin on Navalny's 45th birthday.

Navalny has been in custody since January, when he returned to Russia following weeks of medical treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning in August that he says was carried out by operatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) at the behest of Putin.

The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning.

Since his jailing, the Kremlin has stepped up its campaign against Navalny and his associates, many of whom have fled the country in fear of being arrested.

BISHKEK -- Tensions escalated along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border as Bishkek said on June 4 that Tajik military personnel had placed a container overnight on what Kyrgyz officials called "a disputed area" along the border between the two Central Asian nations.

The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said in a statement that the Tajik side, "violating all agreements reached by the two sides' government delegations on the issues of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border delimitation and demarcation," placed a container on an unmarked segment of the border in the Chon-Alai district of the Osh region at around 3 a.m. on June 4 , entering 1,000 meters inside Kyrgyz territory.

The UKMK's statement said the Tajik side left the container on the disputed part of the border and by 6 a.m. had withdrawn its military personnel from the site 600 meters back toward Tajik territory.

The Tajik border guards' press service rejected the Kyrgyz statement, saying that its unit had moved to a border area that had been agreed with the Kyrgyz side as Tajikistan's territory.

"In accordance with the agreements reached by the inter-governmental commission, several sites along the border had been defined. At this point, a border guard unit of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan is providing defense along the agreed line of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border," the Tajik statement said.

Meanwhile, the UKMK described the situation in the area as "tense."

In late April, clashes that involved military personnel along another disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border left dozens of people dead on both sides.

SEE ALSO:

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Withdraw Military Units From Border After Deadly Armed Clashes

Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.

In recent decades, there have been many incidents along the border, which in some cases involved gunfire.

PAVLODAR, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan's northern city of Pavlodar has handed parole-like sentences to five activists for their links with the banned Koshe (Street) party amid an ongoing crackdown on individuals supporting the opposition group and its associate group, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK).

The court on June 4 handed an 18-month "freedom limitation" sentence to Nurgul Qaluova, while four other defendants -- Daryn Khasenov, Qaliasqar Amirenov, Zhanat Zhamaliev, and Maqsut Appasov -- received one-year "freedom limitation" sentences each.

Rights organizations in the Central Asian country have recognized the five as political prisoners.

Qaluova became well-known across Kazakhstan after she took part in a protest action in October by Kazakh women, who shaved their heads to demand political freedoms and democratic reforms in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

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Several activists across the Central Asian nation have been handed lengthy prison terms or "freedom limitation" sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the Koshe Party and DVK, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.

MINSK -- A new video featuring Raman Pratasevich has sparked a fresh outcry, with the opposition and the parents of the Belarusian journalist saying he had been coerced into making the statements and urging the international community to apply further pressure on strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

On the Nothing Personal program on the ONT state television channel late on June 3, a tearful Pratasevich praised Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and said he "immediately confessed to organizing mass disorder" after his arrest.

Pratasevich, a former key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta-Live, was arrested after a fighter jet intercepted a Ryanair flight on May 23 and forced it to land in Minsk. He had been covering the mass protests denouncing the official results of an August presidential poll that handed Lukashenka a sixth presidential term.

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"I understood that calls I made publicly added to the situation that led to actual uncontrolled disorder in the streets. And, in fact, Minsk lived in chaos for three days then," Pratasevich said, adding that he "respects" Lukashenka.

SEE ALSO:

Parents Of Belarusian Journalist Arrested On Plane Question Video About Their Son

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya on June 4 urged the international community not to pay heed to the statements, saying, "All such videos are done under pressure."

It is not clear where and when the conversation was recorded, as the "interview" -- which resembled a Soviet-style propaganda broadcast -- was shot in a dark room.

"[Through using violence] you can make a person say whatever you want," Tsikhanouskaya told a news conference in Warsaw.

At the end of the 90-minute interview, Pratasevich began crying and covered his face with his hands, saying he hoped to be able to have a family some day. (RFE/RL has decided not to publish or link to any of the videos showing Pratasevich.)

The video is the result of "abuse, torture, and threats," said Pratasevich's father, Dzmitry.

"It's painful to see 'confessions' of Raman Pratasevich. His parents believe he was tortured. This is not Raman I know," tweeted Franak Vyachorka, a senior adviser to Tsikhanouskaya.

Pratasevich's father, Dzmitry, said the video broadcast on June 3 was the result of "abuse, torture, and threats."

Earlier, he and Pratasevich's mother, Natallya, had told Current Time that previous videos showing their son's "confessions" that appeared on state television channels in recent days were "attempts of the authorities to justify taking hostage" their son and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, a Russian national.

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.

According to the parents, their son had bruises on his face and strangulation marks on his neck in initial videos that were signs proving that the arrested journalist's "confessions" were made under duress.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for those involved in broadcasting the alleged confession by Pratasevich to be held responsible, calling it "disturbing" and saying the journalist was "clearly under duress."

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the German government “condemns in the strongest terms” Pratasevich's TV appearance and dismissed his confessions as “completely unworthy and implausible.”

"This is a disgrace for the broadcaster that screened it and for the Belarusian leadership,” Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, speaking during a trip to Denmark, denounced the broadcast as a manifestation of "state terrorism."

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said the "degrading and humiliating" interview showed Pratasevich to be "under intolerable psychological pressure," and that the journalist had "visible wounds on his wrists."

"It was a televised coercion," Struthers said.

Many Belarusian opposition activists and rights defenders in the former Soviet republic believe that Pratasevich's statements were coerced and that his girlfriend's arrest was carried out to put additional pressure on him.

SEE ALSO:

Video Statement By Belarusian Blogger Contains All The Hallmarks Of Forced Soviet-Era 'Confessions'

Tsikhanouskaya called on the United States, Britain, and the European Union to act jointly to put more pressure on Lukashenka and his government.

"Pressure is more powerful when these countries are acting jointly and we are calling on U.K., the U.S., the European Union, and Ukraine. They have to act jointly so their voice will be louder," Tsikhanouskaya told Reuters in Warsaw on June 4.

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

Belarusian security forces have arrested more than 30,000 people, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies that erupted after Lukashenka was announced the winner.

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

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

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa

Several explosions rocked an ammunition factory in the Serbian town of Cacak early on June 4, but no injuries or deaths were reported and workers were swiftly evacuated.

The first blast was heard shortly after midnight in the ammunition warehouse in the Sloboda plant, which produces home appliances as well as artillery ammunition, propellants, and explosives.

The mayor of Cacak, Milun Todorovic, told local media that about 60 workers on the night shift were all evacuated.

People living in the neighborhood were evacuated after the blasts, which damaged the windows of several nearby houses.

The cause is being investigated.

Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said no one was injured in the explosions and that the "situation is under control." Vulin said the explosions affected a warehouse and not the production line.

The Sloboda plant was badly damaged in 1999 during the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia. The Balkan country's arms industry has recovered since then and exports artillery ammunition mainly to Africa and Asia but also to the West, including to some NATO members.

An explosion in 2003 killed three workers. Another one in 2010 caused no casualties. In 2013, a blast injured two people.

With reporting by Reuters

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and more than 20 other groups have encouraged Ukraine’s parliament to address shortcomings in a proposed law to reform the country’s security service before passing it.

HRW is among 23 civil society groups that on June 3 sent a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the co-authors of the draft legislation to change “problematic” parts of the proposal, which is being prepared for passage, possibly later this month.

The reform is essential to help the security service, known as the SBU, transform into an effective agency that respects and upholds international human rights norms, HRW said in a news release.

But the draft law contains provisions that could be damaging for human rights, the groups said, urging Ukrainian lawmakers to address problems stemming from the draft law’s lack of clarity and properly defined powers and roles, and its provisions maintaining, or in some cases strengthening, regulations that jeopardize human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“The ongoing initiative to reform the security agency, which Ukraine’s partners and allies have long urged the government to undertake, is both needed and long overdue,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. “But for the reform to succeed, and to strengthen Ukraine’s rule of law, several key problematic aspects of the proposed law have first to be addressed.”

The groups’ letter said that while the reform was supposed to streamline the SBU’s work as an intelligence agency and remove law enforcement functions from its mandate, the proposed draft law “extends the scope of the [SBU’s] activities beyond the protection of national security by providing the agency with a vast mandate to investigate a potentially wide variety of crimes.”

The letter called this “deeply problematic in light of serious, credible allegations by Ukrainian anti-corruption and human rights groups of [SBU] involvement in corruption, corporate raiding, and interfering with anti-corruption investigations undertaken by other state agencies.”

The draft law also retains the SBU’s powers of arrest, seizure, detention, interrogation, and surveillance, without clear oversight, the letter said.

While the draft law reiterates the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment in detention, it does not provide sufficient protections to prevent abuses in detention or guarantee such due process measures as requiring the SBU to ensure a detainee has a lawyer, according to the groups that signed the letter.

The groups also point out that a provision to phase out the SBU’s pretrial investigative functions gradually by 2024 and another to allow the agency to operate temporary detention facilities until January 2023 are not supported by a clear road map that would ensure that these deadlines are met.

Noting that the reforms are “long overdue,” the letter encourages Ukraine’s leadership not to squander the opportunity to adopt a bill that “adheres to the stated vision of limiting the role and powers of the [SBU] and that upholds Ukraine’s international obligations and respects fundamental rights and freedoms."

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.