Russian opposition politician and former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov said he has fled the country amid concern he could be arrested on what he called trumped up charges.

Gudkov was detained in Moscow on June 1 over an allegedly unpaid debt on a rented property dating from several years ago. He was released on June 3 without being formally charged.

"I am approaching Kyiv," he said on Facebook in a June 6 post he confirmed to AFP as genuine. “Several sources close to the presidential administration said that if I do not leave the country, the fake criminal case will continue until my arrest.”

SEE ALSO:

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

Aleksei Navalny, the most prominent Russian opposition leader, was detained in January as he arrived from Germany on charges of violating his parole and sentenced to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

He said he believed the case was launched to force him out of the country at least until parliamentary elections in September. Gudkov is a former member of parliament.

“I hope that with my departure, the zeal of the gendarmes will decrease. My decision was supported by my family and friends, who also received serious information about threats and risks,” he said in the Facebook post.

Embed share

'A New Wave Of Repression': Kremlin Critic Nabbed From Plane

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:45 0:00

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

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

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

With reporting by AFP

Russian Economy Minister Maksim Reshetnikov said his country could restrict more food exports in an attempt to stem domestic inflation.

Russia announced a wheat export quota at the beginning of the year as domestic food prices spiked. The move was followed by the imposition of export duties earlier this month.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on June 6, Reshetnikov said Russia might widen the measures to include outright export curbs as well as a floating tariff on other goods should prices continue to rise.

Food inflation has historically been a very sensitive political issue in Russia and the Kremlin has repeatedly intervened over the past 20 years to nip it in the bud with price controls.

The Kremlin earlier this year temporarily capped the prices for staples. While it is ending most of them, it will continue to subsidize certain staples, such as bread and flour.

“There’s no guarantee that global food prices have stabilized and peaked,” Reshetnikov told the FT. “Any news about crop forecasts can provoke...yet another rally for some foodstuffs, so we are constantly paying close attention to them and taking some measures when need be.”

The measures also come as Russia prepares to hold national parliamentary elections in September.

The ratings of the ruling United Russia party have dropped sharply since the last election in 2016 following years of falling disposable incomes, which is making the recent food price jump difficult for many families.

About one in seven Russians live below the poverty line, according to the FT.

The FT said the proposed export limits have won the support of local supermarket chains, which blame increased Chinese imports of Russian foods for the domestic price surge.

However, some Russian officials have blamed the local food producers and supermarket owners for the spike, citing greed.

Russia has a competitive food retail market with a combination of large national chains and local players.

Reshetnikov hinted at higher taxes on food producers and supermarkets if they don’t reinvest more of their profits into expansion and upgrades.

“If you invest all your profits, even if they’re very high, in new production, development, research, and so on, that's one thing. If you pay dividends, which is also fine...it may well be that another tax level is appropriate to stimulate investment in business,” he said.

With reporting by the FT

Russian intelligence activity in Germany has significantly increased and now reached Cold War levels, Berlin’s top domestic intelligence chief warned.

In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on June 6, Thomas Haldenwang, who leads the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution, said Russia has a "very complex intelligence interest in Germany” in most policy areas.

He said Russia has a “whole number of agents” seeking to make contact with decision makers.

Germany is the largest nation in the European Union by population and economic output and has significant influence over the bloc’s policy toward Russia.

The nation will hold federal elections in September that will usher in a new chancellor for the first time in 16 years. One topic of debate is the future of the Kremlin's $11 billion natural gas pipeline to Germany, which has faced considerable foreign opposition.

In the same interview, Bruno Kahl, president of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, warned that adversaries are using “all possible methods...to stir up dissonance between states in the West."

Kahl said adversaries are taking “a rougher and more ruthless approach” to their work.

Germany blames Russian state agents for the murder of an ethnic Georgian man from Chechnya in Berlin in 2019.

The murder is just one of several political killings or attempted killings in Western Europe pinned on Russian agents over the past 15 years.

Based on reporting by Welt am Sonntag and dpa

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Belarus is becoming “more and more dependent” on Russia following the nation's isolation by the West in the wake of its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Stoltenberg made the comments in an interview with Welt am Sonntag that was published on June 6 a week before the annual NATO summit in the United Kingdom.

Russia and Belarus will be a key topic at the meeting, which will follow a three-day meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations to be held June 11-13.

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.

Western nations imposed more sanctions on Belarus after Minsk diverted a plane traveling from Greece to Lithuania under the false pretext of a bomb threat in order to arrest a journalist critical of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Stoltenberg told the paper that NATO is “following what is happening in Belarus very closely” and expressed concern over deeper ties between Minsk and Moscow.

Lukashenka visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi days after the plane incident and received the backing of the Kremlin leader in his confrontation with the West.

He said Russia agreed to give Belarus a $500 million loan.

Stoltenberg said the alliance is ready “to protect and defend any ally against any kind of threat coming from Minsk and Moscow."

He also said NATO’s partnership agreement with Belarus had been significantly scaled back since Lukashenka unleashed his police force on protesters following the August 9 presidential election they claim was rigged in the strongman’s favor.

Separately, Stoltenberg said NATO is “sticking with” its two-pronged approach toward the Kremlin of deterrence and dialogue on issues of mutual concern such as arms control.

"If we don't talk to each other, we can neither settle our disputes nor improve mutual understanding."

With reporting by Welt am Sonntag and dpa

A United Nations court at The Hague is scheduled to deliver its final verdict on June 8 on an appeal by former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic against his genocide conviction.

The ruling will close the case against the man dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia," who has challenged his 2017 conviction and life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-95 war.

These included the massacre in and around the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in mid-1995 when some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces.

Mladic, 78, is expected to be in the court, where he has previously delivered angry outbursts against the West and accused the judges of lying.

Relatives of some of the men and boys killed at Srebrenica in the worst act of bloodshed on European soil since World War II will be outside the court where they have long campaigned for justice.

Mladic has maintained his innocence. The appeal case has been repeatedly delayed by his ill health and, more recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court also found Mladic's political chief, Radovan Karadzic, guilty of similar charges, including genocide, in 2016, and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. In 2019, Karadzic’s prison term was changed to a life sentence.

Karadzic and Mladic were among the last suspects put on trial by the UN tribunal in The Hague for the civil war.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

U.S. President Joe Biden says there will be no doubt about the resolve of the United States to defend democratic values when he holds his upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden attempted to set the stage for the June 16 meeting by writing an opinion piece in which he noted the meeting with Putin will take place after days of discussions with U.S. partners and allies “who see the world through the same lens as the United States.”

Biden laid out his agenda and goals for his upcoming trip to Europe, his first foreign travel since becoming president, in the article, which was published June 5 in The Washington Post and released by the White House.

The trip will be packed with meetings between Biden and the leaders of many of the United States’ closest democratic partners, including the Group of Seven (G7) nations, NATO allies, and leaders of the European Union, before it concludes with his meeting with Putin.

Biden repeated many common themes in the op-ed, reiterating that in taking on the challenges of the pandemic, climate change, and "the harmful activities" of China and Russia, "the United States must lead the world from a position of strength."

Biden is scheduled to leave for Europe on June 9 and first attend the G7 summit in Britain. He said the trip comes in a “moment of global uncertainty” as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic but will mostly be about “realizing America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.”

He said when he meets Putin in Geneva after the many meetings with allies, it will be clear to the Russian president that the United States and its friends “are standing united to address Russia’s challenges to European security, starting with its aggression in Ukraine.”

SEE ALSO:

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

He reiterated that Washington wants a stable and predictable relationship with Moscow that allows the two countries to work together on common issues like strategic stability and arms control.

Biden’s op-ed came a day after Putin set a confrontational tone for the summit, accusing Washington of trying to contain Russia and influence its domestic politics.

Speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on June 4, Putin said that arms control, global conflicts, the coronavirus pandemic, and climate change are among the issues he and Biden would discuss.

“We need to find ways of looking for a settlement in our relations, which are at an extremely low level now,” Putin said.

“We don’t have any issues with the U.S.,” he continued. “But it has an issue with us. It wants to contain our development and publicly talks about it. Economic restrictions and attempts to influence our country’s domestic politics, relying on forces they consider their allies inside Russia, stem from that.”

Speaking later in a videoconference with journalists, Putin said the United States and Russia have some corresponding interests, despite certain disagreements that are “not the result of Russian actions.” He also said that he doesn’t expect any breakthrough results from the summit.

With reporting by AP

European Parliament President David Sassoli has called for allowing Western Balkan states into the European Union, saying expanding the EU would be positive for peace and prosperity.

"Enlargement can bring immense benefits both to the region and to Europe as a whole, helping to secure a stable, prosperous and peaceful continent," Sassoli said, Germany’s Funke Mediengruppe reported on June 6.

But how quickly they can join depends on the Western Balkan countries' fulfillment of the accession criteria.

"Reforms still need to be completed in every single one of these countries," Sassoli said, adding that the European Union must also keep its promises and recognize progress.

The EU is already conducting accession talks with Montenegro and Serbia, while Albania and North Macedonia are official candidates. North Macedonia last month received the backing of Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia to start talks with the EU.

SEE ALSO:

North Macedonia Gets EU Backing From Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have so far been considered potential candidates for negotiations.

The EU enlargement process has faced major challenges, including some rooted in ethnic divisions in Western Balkan countries. Unanimity is required from all EU member for the adoption of the negotiating framework.

Bulgaria last year vetoed the start of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia over a language and history dispute.

Bulgaria, which wants Skopje to acknowledge that both its identity and language have Bulgarian roots, last month said it did not plan to lift its veto on accession talks.

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

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

Based on reporting by dpa

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.

SEE ALSO:

Iranian Supreme Leader Backs Disqualification Of Key Presidential Candidates

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

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

Embed share

Plans For Chinese University In Hungary Prompt Concerns Over Influence

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:03:42 0:00

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.