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- By RFE/RL
Iran Presidential Candidates Clash On Economic Crisis In First Debate
Iran's presidential candidates on June 5 traded accusations over the country's economic crisis during their first debate ahead of the June 18 election.
The three-hour televised debate was the first of three in the run-up to the election, which comes amid widespread discontent over a deep economic crisis caused by the reimposition of sanctions after the United States pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran's conservative-dominated Guardians Council approved seven candidates -- five ultraconservative and two reformists -- to run from a field of about 600 hopefuls.
The five ultraconservative candidates attacked the eight-year tenure of incumbent President Hassan Rohani and called on central bank chief Abdolnaser Hemmati, the leading moderate candidate, to take responsibility for the economic crisis.
"Mr. Hemmati, your governance was catastrophic, you are sitting here as a representative of Mr. Rohani," said Mohsen Rezai, a former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Hemmati blamed the hard-liners for heightened tensions with the West that he said had worsened Iran’s economic woes. He also took aim at their economic plans, saying their pledges of massive direct financial aid were "unrealizable."
The ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, who took 38 percent of the vote in the 2017 presidential election, avoided direct clashes with the reformists as he focused on the economy.
"Inflation is one of the serious problems people are facing today. The price of basic products has gone up considerably," he said, adding that the "dishonesty of certain officials" was one of the main worries of the Iranian people.
Raisi rejected the comments of candidates who blame U.S. sanctions for Iran's economic troubles and who say that without proper management the country would have been worse off.
"This is like a goalkeeper who lets in 17 goals...and then says without me it would have been 30 goals!" said Raisi, who holds a doctorate in Islamic law.
The decision last month by the Guardians Council to exclude prominent moderate candidates put Raisi in a dominant position in the field of candidates.
Rohani, a relative moderate whose government is taking part in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, has served two consecutive four-year terms and cannot seek reelection.
Rohani is Iran's main architect of the 2015 nuclear agreement. The talks to revive the nuclear deal have been taking place in Vienna since early April.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Hungarians Protest Planned Chinese University Campus In Budapest
Thousands of Hungarians protested on June 5 against a Chinese university's plans to open a campus in Budapest.
The Fudan University campus, planned for completion in 2024, would be the first Chinese university in the European Union.
The campus is controversial because China is expected to give the Hungarian government a $1.5 billion loan to cover most costs of the project, which is slated to be built at a site where affordable housing for Hungarian students had previously been planned.
Critics also see the project as an avenue for Beijing to increase its influence in Hungary and the European Union.
Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has built friendly ties with China, Russia, and other illiberal governments, while repeatedly clashing with the European Union by curbing the independence of the judiciary and media.
Orban's government argues that having a campus of the Shanghai-based university would allow Hungarian and international students to acquire high-quality qualifications, but critics fear a lack of transparency and academic freedom. The university is ranked 160th in the world and 7th best in China by U.S. News and World Report.
Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karacsony, opposes the expensive project, arguing among other things that the university’s charter requires it to represent the views of the Chinese Communist Party.
WATCH: Plans For Chinese University In Hungary Prompt Concerns
Orban’s Fidesz party “is selling out wholesale the housing of Hungarian students, and their future, just so it can bring the elite university of China's dictatorship into the country," the organizers of the protest said on Facebook.
But Tamas Schanda, a deputy government minister, said the protest was unnecessary "political hysteria" based on unfounded rumors and the project is still in the planning stage.
While Budapest’s mayor doesn’t have much power to stop the project, earlier this week he announced plans to rename streets surrounding the future campus “Dalai Lama road,” "Uyghur Martyrs,” and "Free Hong Kong,” in reference to Chinese human rights abuses.
Beijing has tried to downplay opposition to the campus, saying it is a sign of positive cooperation between China and Hungary.
Orban’s embrace of a Chinese university stands in contrast to his stance on the Central European University, once a liberal bastion of learning in Budapest.
In 2018, Hungary's leading private university was forced to leave the country and relocate most operations to Vienna after Orban's government pushed legislation that drastically curbed its freedom.
The move against the university came as part of a public campaign against its founder, U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros -- a Budapest native of Jewish origin.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Prominent Belarusian Political Analyst Flees Country
A prominent Belarusian political analyst has fled the country, saying he fears being imprisoned, days after being named by detained journalist Raman Pratasevich in a televised interview widely considered to have been given under duress.
Pratasevich, who was arrested after a fighter jet intercepted a Ryanair flight on May 23 and forced it to land in Minsk, said in an interview on Belarusian state media on June 3 that he helped fueled “mass disorder” while working with Belarus’s pro-democracy movement.
In the interview, he gave the names of other people who were also involved, including political scientist Artsyom Shraybman.
In a Telegram post on June 5, Shraybman said he does not blame Pratasevich for the statements and that the journalist was a “hostage” of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime.
He added that he does not work for the opposition and has only been an observer and objective political analyst.
“I have a long-standing position that an analyst cannot and should not become a participant in the processes that he analyzes, just as a match commentator cannot be a football player on the field,” Shraybman wrote.
Shraybman is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center and runs a political consultancy. He's a widely sought after voice by the media, including RFE/RL.
Shraybman suggested the security services knew he was an observer in certain opposition chat groups months ago, and that everything he said was public in his media interviews and analyses.
But now, he said he feared arbitrary arrest after Pratasevich’s statements.
“In today's Belarus, even lack of involvement in what the authorities consider a crime is already insufficient insurance,” he wrote.
Later, Shraybman said he had fled to Ukraine.
Pratasevich’s family and the Belarusian opposition say two interviews with the detained journalist released by the Belarusian authorities were done under duress and possible torture. (RFE/RL has decided not to publish or link to any of these videos.)
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.
A former key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta-Live, Pratasevich had been covering the mass protests denouncing the official results of an August 2020 presidential poll that handed Lukashenka a sixth presidential term.
Lukashenka’s regime has unleashed a harsh crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy movement following the disputed election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.
Pratasevich is facing charges of being behind civil disturbances, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The flight incident and arrest of Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, caused an international uproar.
In response to the flight diversion and ongoing human rights abuses, the United States and European Union are coordinating a fresh round of targeted sanctions against key members of the Belarusian government and entities.
The EU also banned Belarusian carriers from using the bloc's airports and airspace.
With reporting by Current Time
- By AP
Illegal Serbian Church Demolished In Bosnia
A Serbian Orthodox church illegally built on land near Srebrenica and seized from a Muslim family after the 1992-1995 civil war was demolished on June 5, more than a year and a half after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered its destruction. The church, long a flashpoint between the area's Serbs and Muslims, was built in 1998 in Konjevic Polje on land seized from Fata Orlovic, a Muslim refugee. The nearby Srebrenica is where more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serb forces in 1995 -- including Orlovic's husband. When Orlovic returned, her family had their lands restored to them under the terms of the Dayton peace accords, except for the plot on which the church was built. The ECHR ruled in October 2019 that authorities must remove the church and pay damages to the Orlovic family totaling $36,500.
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Defuse Latest Border Incident
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on June 5 reached an agreement to calm a tense border standoff between the two Central Asian nations, in the latest incident over contested territory more than a month after deadly clashes.
Tensions escalated along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on June 4, with both sides accusing the other of violating previous agreements.
Kyrgyzstan had accused Tajik troops of placing a container overnight on what Kyrgyz officials called "a disputed area" along an undemarcated section of the border at Unzhu-Bulak in the Chon-Alai district of the Osh region.
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.
Following talks between top security officials, the two sides reached a nine-point agreement to end the standoff, including both countries moving border posts 3 kilometers from the disputed area and instructing topographic working groups to demarcate the border section.
Almost half of the 970 kilometer-long Kyrgyz-Tajik border has not been demarcated, leading to repeated tensions since the two former Soviet countries gained independence three decades ago.
In late April, clashes along another disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border left dozens of people killed on both sides, raising fears of a wider conflict between the two impoverished neighbors.
- By RFE/RL
Kazakhstan Rejects Russian Proposal Of Joint Response To Western Sanctions
Kazakhstan has rebuffed a proposal floated by a senior Russian official of a joint response to Western sanctions against Moscow and its allies such as Belarus by the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade bloc.
Besides Russia and Kazakhstan, the EEU consists of three other ex-Soviet states -- Armenia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin said this week the EEU was working on a "consolidated response" to Western sanctions against some of its members.
However, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry on June 5 issued an unusual statement saying that the energy-rich Central Asian nation was against "politicizing" the trade bloc.
"In the context of discussing initiatives which are beyond the scope of the EEU Treaty, including those related to responding to sanctions imposed by third parties, we assume that Western sanctions are politically motivated and target individual nations rather than the EEU as a whole," the statement said.
"We would like to point out that the Republic of Kazakhstan is not involved in any talks on 'consolidated measures' by EEU nations in response to sanctions imposed by other countries."
Kazakhstan has close political and economic ties with Russia, but it is also pursuing close relations with the West and China.
Washington earlier this year slapped sanctions on Russia including curbs to its sovereign debt market, in response for interfering in last year’s U.S. election, hacking, bullying Ukraine, and other alleged malign actions.
This week, the European Union banned Belarusian airlines from flying over EU territory or having access to its airports, after Minsk forced a Ryanair jet to land in Minsk and arrested opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend.
With reporting by Reuters
Demolition Begins Of Church Illegally Built In Bosnia's Republika Srpska
An Orthodox church built illegally on the property of a Bosnian Muslim woman was demolished on June 5 in the village of Konjevic Polje in the Serbian-controlled entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The removal of the church, built on land belonging to Fata Orlovic after she was forced to flee during the 1992-1995 civil war, was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in October 2019.
Early on June 5, workers with construction machinery and a crane brought down the white-colored church and its tower bell.
Serbs in 1993 expelled all Muslim residents of Konjevic Polje to Srebrenica, a UN safe area that they overran two years later, killing about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in what is seen as Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. Two international courts declared the massacre as genocide.
Orlovic's husband was killed by Bosnian Serb forces together with 20 family members in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Orlovic, who is now 78, and 13 other members of her family, managed to escape the massacre, only to find a large church built just meters from their front door when they returned.
The ECHR ruled that the church construction in 1998 was illegal and ordered authorities to ensure its removal.
Orlovic's daughter, Hurija Karic, told RFE/RL on June 5 that the demolition of the church was "a victory for her mother and the whole family and the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina."
The family has been fighting in the courts to have the church removed since 2000, when she returned to Konjevic Polje in eastern Bosnia, some 20 kilometers east of Srebrenica.
The region has been controlled by Serbs since the end of the war, when Bosnia was split into two entities -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and a Serbian-led entity known as Republika Srpska. Each has its own government, and the two are linked by weak central institutions.
The family’s situation highlights one of the many issues faced by hundreds of thousands of people who fled ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war but now are looking to return to their homes.
In 2019, while welcoming the decision by the ECHR, Orlovic told RFE/RL that "I am not against [the building of a church], but those who want it should build it on their own property."
Orlovic said the case should send a message to everyone that they should continue to "fight for what is yours, and let go of what is not."
Local authorities have said they will rebuild the church at the entrance to the village.
Serbian President Says EU-Brokered Talks On Normalizing Kosovo Ties To Resume
Serbia’s president says European Union-mediated negotiations on normalizing relations with Kosovo will resume within days.
Aleksandar Vucic did not specify the date for restarting the talks, which stalled last year, but said: “We are talking about days, not weeks."
Vucic added on June 4 that Serbia is "always ready to talk" and "does not want a frozen conflict."
Vucic spoke after U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer and the EU envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, visited Serbia to press its leaders to resume talks on the normalization of ties with Kosovo.
The Serbian government has stated that the normalization process with Kosovo is one of its priorities.
Palmer and Lajcak visited Pristina, Kosovo's capital, before traveling to Belgrade on June 3. Kosovo’s government, led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who took office in March, has said it is busy fighting the coronavirus pandemic and that talks with Serbia are not high on its list of immediate goals.
Both Washington and Brussels have said that normalization is essential for their further integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. Serbia and Kosovo are both seeking EU membership, and Kosovo aims at NATO membership too.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008 after a 1998-99 conflict between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces. The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign that drove Serbian troops out, and a peacekeeping force moved in.
The United States and most EU countries have recognized Kosovo's statehood, while Serbia has the support of Russia and China.
Based on reporting by AP
- By RFE/RL
Belarusians Hold Border Protests Demanding Tough Sanctions On Lukashenka Regime
Exiled Belarusians have launched a multiday protest on their homeland’s border with Lithuania and Poland, calling on the European Union to impose harsh sanctions against the regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Demonstrators gathered at two border crossings on June 5, demanding the EU slap “strong and effective sanctions” against Lukashenka's regime. They are also calling on Belarusian authorities to open land borders for citizens of Belarus and the release of hundreds of political prisoners.
Pavel Latushka, the head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, said the opposition is concerned the EU will not take real steps to punish Lukashenka’s regime.
“We can’t wait for Lukashenka’s regime to commit another crime -- it’s time to move to action,” said Latushka, a former Belarusian diplomat who joined opposition forces last year.
The dual actions are being held at the Babrouniki-Berastavitsa checkpoint on the Poland-Belarus border and the Medininkai crossing with Lithuania.
For the first three days, demonstrators plan to hold rallies and tell passersby about the situation in Belarus, organizers said.
If hard-hitting sanctions promised by the EU are not adopted in the three days, the participants are going to block the road to the border crossing.
Earlier this week, Belarusian authorities temporarily banned most of its citizens from crossing the border, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, a move the opposition says is a further step to limit freedoms.
The border protests come a day after an EU ban on Belarusian carriers using the bloc's airports and airspace came into effect.
The EU imposed the ban in response to Minsk’s forced diversion of a passenger flight last month and the arrest of a dissent journalist.
The flight incident and arrest of opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich on May 23 and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, caused an international uproar.
In response to the flight diversion and ongoing human rights abuses, the United States and European Union are coordinating a fresh round of targeted sanctions against key members of the Belarusian government and entities.
Lukashenka’s regime has unleashed a harsh crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy movement following a disputed August 2020 presidential election that the opposition says was rigged and many Western nations have refused to acknowledge.
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whom the opposition believes was the true winner of the election, has repeatedly called for the West to impose harsh sanctions on the Lukashenka regime.
Serbia, Argentina Launch Production Of Russia's Sputnik Vaccine
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
Bulgaria Moves To Blacklist Power Broker, Oligarch Under U.S. Sanctions
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.
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.
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.
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.
- By RFE/RL
Iran's Khamenei Calls For Review Of Barred Presidential Candidates
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
- By RFE/RL
Mine Kills Two Azerbaijani Journalists, Village Official In Areas Recaptured From Armenian Forces
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.
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
- By RFE/RL
Putin Says First Line Of Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Complete
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.
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
Hungary Criticized For Blocking EU Statements On China, Middle East
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 Sizikova Reportedly Arrested Over Match-Fixing Allegations
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
- By RFE/RL
'Coronavirus-Free' Turkmenistan Will Not Host 2021 Track Cycling Championships (Due To Pandemic)
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.
EU Flight Ban On Belarusian Carriers Takes Effect
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.
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.
New Images Emerge Of Secret Uzbek Presidential Resort Revealed In RFE/RL Probe
Blogger Aleksei Garshin says he hiked across a mountainous region in Uzbekistan to shoot video of a secret presidential resort revealed in an RFE/RL investigation in February. Video he posted online provides a closer look at the luxury residence, complete with landscaped gardens and an artificial lake which, until now, has only been visible via satellite images. The RFE/RL probe included interviews with officials, construction workers, and local people, as well as documentary evidence, corroborating Garshin's research to suggest that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the project.
Moscow Court Upholds Justice Ministry's Decision To Label Meduza A 'Foreign Agent'
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.”
On Navalny's Birthday, Putin Signs Law Effectively Banning His Associates From Running For Office
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.
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.
Tension Along Disputed Segment Of Kyrgyz-Tajik Border Escalates Again
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.
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.
More Kazakh Activists Sentenced For Alleged Links With Banned Opposition Party
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.
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.
Tearful 'Confession' By Belarusian Journalist Sparks Fresh Outcry Over His Treatment
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.
"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.
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.
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
Explosions Rock Serbian Ammunition Plant; No Injuries Reported
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
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