Facebook announced on August 10 that it had shut down a network of dozens of Facebook and Instagram accounts from Russia with connections to a marketing group that was trying to enlist social-media "influencers" to push false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

Its investigators called the accounts connected to Fazze, a subsidiary of U.K.-registered marketing firm AdNow, which mostly operates out of Russia, a "disinformation laundromat."

It cited its policies against foreign interference.

"We removed 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts from Russia that we linked to Fazze," it said in its latest report outlining the social-media giant's actions against inauthentic behavior, adding, "Fazze is now banned from our platform."

The network was mostly using its influence to push anti-vax messages targeting audiences in India, Latin America, and, to a lesser extent, the United States.

Facebook and other social media have faced sharp criticism, including from U.S. President Joe Biden, for spreading lies about vaccination that hampers efforts around the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company said the Russia-linked Fazze operation had begun with groups of fake accounts set up in 2020 and likely originating from so-called account farms in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It used memes and comments including one that claimed one Western vaccine would turn people into apes.

Facebook said multiple health and lifestyle influencers had shared its falsehoods.

Reuters said that neither Fazze nor AdNow could immediately be reached for comment.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Local activists have warned of authorities' persistent use of compulsory rectal exams to abuse detainees and other suspects in Uzbekistan.

International rights groups last week urged President Shavkat Mirziyoev to immediately order officials to abandon such evidentiary procedures in prosecuting cases of suspected homosexuality.

Alone among post-Soviet states, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan still outlaw consensual same-sex relationships.

At least six men have undergone forced rectal examinations in Uzbekistan in the past five years, nine international rights groups said in a recent appeal to Mirzoyoev.

"Forced anal examinations are a form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that can amount to torture," they said.

The complainants included Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Council for Global Equality, the International Partnership for Human Rights; and six other groups.

In a case decided earlier this year, the groups said, two men who formerly lived together were forced to undergo the exams before being convicted by a Tashkent court and ordered to spend two years under house arrest.

Sodomy can carry a three-year prison sentence under Uzbek law.

Investigators from the Uzbek Prosecutor's Office or Interior Ministry may order such exams in cases involving possible homosexuality.

The World Medical Association has urged medical professionals around the globe to stop conducting such exams.

Mirziyoev, who took power in 2016, has repeatedly pledged to reform Uzbek justice and end allegedly widespread torture in custody.

Rights groups and two Uzbek Interior Ministry officials with knowledge of the situation told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that rectal probes are still used as a common form of torture by police and other authorities.

Nadejda Atayeva, head of the Paris-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, said rectal exams have been used in at least three cases where the individual being tested was a minor, and in one of those cases the subject later attempted suicide.

International rights groups say Uzbekistan is one of only a very few countries around the world to use compulsory rectal exams as evidence in cases involving suspected homosexuality or sodomy.

HRW said in a 2016 report that the others were: Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Zambia and Syria.

The examinations are widely regarded as a means of torture.

Two Uzbek Interior Ministry officials who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity said rectal exams of male detainees are among the most common forms of abuse in Uzbek detention centers and prisons.

In a number of prominent cases, former detainees have spoken out publicly about being threatened with rape with a truncheon if they refused to confess to crimes.

The rights groups say men who engage in same-sex relationships "face arbitrary detention, prosecution, and imprisonment as well as homophobia, threats, and extortion."

They said the Uzbek government acknowledged earlier this year that at least 40 men had been convicted under anti-homosexuality legislation between 2016 and 2020.

They also noted that the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office and other authorities recently drafted a proposed new Criminal Code "but have not proposed repealing Article 120," the article that prescribes up to three years in prison for homosexual behavior.

Iran has asked Iraq to expel Iranian rebels from Iraqi Kurdistan or expect Tehran to take "preventative measures," against the armed groups.

"We call on the Iraqi government to take more serious action to expel these groups from Iraqi Kurdistan so that Iran does not have to take preventative measures against...these armed terrorists," said Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's top national security body, the state news agency IRNA reported on August 10.

Iran has in the past shelled armed Kurdish opposition groups based in northern Iraq, mostly in areas controlled by the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Shamkhani, who made the remarks at a meeting with visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, did not refer to the KRG.

There are frequent clashes along Iran's border with northern Iraq between Iranian security forces and Kurdish militant groups such as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which has links to Kurdish PKK insurgents in Turkey.

Based on reporting by Reuters

The Austrian Foreign Ministry has protested the detention of two journalists who were working in Belarus for Austria's national broadcaster ORF.

ORF correspondent Carola Schneider and her camera operator were detained on August 9 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and taken to a police station.

The pair were later released.

Austria's Foreign Ministry on August 10 called the police action “completely unacceptable.”

"We immediately lodged a protest,” the ministry said on Twitter. "Correspondents must be able to work unhindered and media freedom must always be ensured.”

The Minsk-based human rights center Vyasna (Spring) said that plainclothes police officers stopped the two journalists while they were interviewing a local resident.

Independent media outlets and journalists have faced a clampdown in Belarus since a presidential election a year ago awarded authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term, triggering mass protests amid claims the vote was rigged.

SHUMERLYA, Russia -- An official in the Republic of Chuvashia in Russia's Volga region, where expanding Chinese investment has sparked protests in the past over alleged corruption, has been convicted of forgery linked to a Chinese agricultural deal.

Maksim Medvedev was found guilty of forging documents related to public discussions that never occurred to allocate the lands in 2019 to the Sichuan-Chuvashia Chinese-Russian agricultural joint venture.

The court in the Shumerlya district on August 10 also handed Medvedev, head of the Bolshiye Algashi village, a suspended prison sentence of more than three years.

A lawmaker of Chuvashia's State Council, Aleksandr Andreyev, had accused the republic's top officials of involvement in the illegal allocation of lands to the joint venture.

In the recent years, residents of Chuvashia have staged numerous rallies protesting Chinese companies' involvement in the economic development of the region, accusing local authorities of corruption related to such Chinese projects.

Medvedev refused to comment after the verdict and sentence were delivered. In the past, he had not made any public comments about the probe against him.

Chinese investment projects across Russia and former Soviet republics in Central Asia are largely linked to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was launched in 2013 and involves development and investment initiatives that would stretch from Asia to Europe and beyond.

More than 100 countries have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways, and other infrastructure.

Critics say the plan to create a modern version of the ancient Silk Road trade route to link China with Asia, Europe and beyond is a vehicle for the expansion of communist China. Beijing says such doubts betray the "imperial hangover" of many Western powers that humiliated China for centuries.

A court in Moscow has dropped a libel lawsuit filed by Aleksei Navalny against Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov over comments he made linking U.S. spies with the jailed opposition politician.

Officials of the Presnensky district court told Novaya Gazeta that the case had been turned down on August 10.

Lawyer Valeria Arshinova said on Twitter that the decision was made "without any evidence from Peskov and without his participation in the court hearings."

Navalny filed an initial lawsuit against Peskov in November 2020 to defend what he called his "honor, dignity, and business reputation."

The opposition politician demanded that the Kremlin publish on its official website his rebuttal of public statements Peskov made saying that CIA specialists are "working with Navalny" and that the contents of Navalny's statements, including those criticizing President Vladimir Putin, are prepared by the U.S. secret service.

The court refused to register the lawsuit at the time, citing "procedural shortcomings." It was then refiled, and the court said in May that it accepted the suit for hearing.

Navalny was arrested in January upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he received life-saving treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia in August.

He blames the poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent on Putin and Russia's security services. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning.

In February, a Moscow court ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated. He is currently serving a 2 1/2-year sentence at a prison in the Vladimir region.

Navalny's incarceration sparked numerous protests across Russia which were violently dispersed by police.

Meanwhile, the Russian authorities have cracked down on the opposition, Navalny’s organizations, and his allies as the ruling United Russia party has been polling at historic lows ahead of parliamentary elections in September.

With reporting by AFP

SOFIA -- Bulgaria is heading to new parliamentary elections after the antiestablishment party that narrowly won last month’s vote gave up efforts to form a government.

Slavi Trifonov, leader of There Is Such A People (ITN), said in a video statement released from Sofia on August 10 that the party decided not to propose a government after two apparently sympathetic protest parties said they would not support it.

"We will not present our proposed cabinet for a vote [of confidence in parliament], as we have clearly declared that we will not be presenting a cabinet without the support" of Democratic Bulgaria and a group called Stand Up, BG! We are coming!," he said.

In the July 11 elections, ITN won only 65 seats in Bulgaria's fragmented 240-seat parliament.

Trifonov said that his party would not support any other party that might try to form a government, meaning that the country is "heading toward new elections."

The GERB party of the previous prime minister, Boyko Borisov, which holds 63 parliamentary seats said earlier it would not try to form a government.

The other parties in parliament do not have enough seats to do so.

President Rumen Radev called the July parliamentary elections in April, when no one was able to put together a government with majority support in the legislature.

A court in Belarus has sentenced world champion kickboxer Alyaksey Kudzin to 2 1/2 years in prison on charges of assaulting a security officer during a pro-democracy protest following a disputed election a year ago.

The Maladzyechna district court near Minsk on August 11 pronounced the verdict and sentence against Kudzin, a mixed martial arts fighter nicknamed "the Brick."

Kudzin was detained in Moscow in January after fleeing to Russia in the autumn of 2020.

Russia extradited Kudzin to Belarus in July despite concerns the athlete may be politically persecuted and tortured.

The August 9, 2020, presidential election awarded authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a landslide sixth term, sparking an unprecedented wave of protests amid allegations the vote was rigged.

A day after the vote, Kudzin attended a pro-democracy rally in the central town of Maladzyechna, where security forces attacked protesters with tear gas and batons.

During the melee, Kudzin allegedly knocked out a security officer.

The fighter was later arrested near a hospital, where he had gone to treat his injuries.

While in detention, he was allegedly beaten and shot with rubber bullets before being released on house arrest two weeks later.

He then fled to Russia, skipping his trial in November.

Mass protests against Lukashenka have been met with the heavy-handed detention of tens of thousands of people, with much of the opposition leadership being jailed or forced into exile.

Several protesters have been killed and thousands arrested during mass demonstrations demanding Lukashenka's resignation. There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.

Belarusian authorities have also shut down several nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.

On August 9, the Belarusian PEN Center, an association of writers, said that the Supreme Court had officially shut down the group, which is led by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.

The group has criticized Lukashenka and his government for the ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy activists and organizations.

The West, which has refused to recognize the official results of the presidential election and does not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader, has imposed several rounds of sanctions against his regime, most recently on August 9, the one-year anniversary of the disputed vote.

Internet users in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan say they are being forced to swear on the Koran that they will not use virtual private networks (VPNs).

Several Internet users across the extremely isolated former Soviet republic told RFE/RL that they were instructed by the authorities to swear on the holy book of Muslims that they will never use VPNs after they applied for an Internet connection in their homes.

VPNs are illegal in Turkmenistan but are widely used to circumvent government restrictions on the Internet.

"I waited for a year and a half after I filled all necessary documents and signed application forms asking to install WiFi in my home. Now they say I must swear on the Koran that I will not use a VPN, but nothing is accessible without VPNs. I do not know what to do," an Internet user who introduced herself as Ainur told RFE/RL on August 9.

A local RFE/RL correspondent reported that an officer of the Ministry of National Security was demanding that every Internet user swear on the Koran that they would not use VPNs.

For years, the authorities in Turkmenistan have blocked numerous websites -- including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, as well as sites offering VPN services -- and have arrested people who installed such services on their mobile phones.

Turkmenistan is one of the world's worst countries in terms of Internet censorship, along with Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria, according to a report published last week by Comparitech, a website that provides information on cybersecurity and privacy online.

Russia has opened a criminal investigation into two exiled allies of jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny for raising funds for organizations deemed by the authorities as "extremist."

The Investigative Committee said in a statement on August 10 that the case was opened against Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov and other unnamed individuals.

According to the law enforcement agency, the charge stems from a video posted on the Internet in August in which Volkov and Zhdanov "announced the continuation of their illegal activities and organized fundraising."

The charges carry a maximum penalty of eight years in prison.

In early June, a Moscow court labeled Navalny’s political network “extremist,” a move his team has called a sign of a “truly new level” of lawlessness in the country. The ruling formally came into force a few days ago, making it illegal to donate to their groups.

Zhdanov is the former director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and Volkov headed Navalny's regional network before its dissolution. Both are currently living abroad, accused of other crimes they say are part of a campaign to crush their activism.

"I've already lost count of the number of criminal cases that have been launched against me," Zhdanov wrote on Instagram on August 10.

Volkov also reacted sarcastically to the Investigative Committee's announcement, saying in a Facebook post: “Politics in Russia in 2021 is when you’re in a meeting, your phone starts to blow up from push notifications, questions and calls, you casually think: ‘Oh, probably a new criminal case,’ calmly continue the meeting, then check your messages and it is indeed a new criminal case.”

The moves against Navalny’s organizations and his allies came amid an opposition crackdown as the ruling United Russia party has been polling at historic lows ahead of parliament elections in September.

In February, a Moscow court ruled that Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered as being politically motivated.

Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a prison term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison given time he had been held in detention.

UFA, Russia -- An opposition politician in Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan in the Volga region says he has been denied registration for next month’s elections to the parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma.

Tahir Vakhitov wrote on Instagram late on August 8 that the election commission in Bashkortostan's capital, Ufa, had rejected his registration papers.

He did not provide further details.

A year ago, Vakhitov left his job at the BCT television station to protest its coverage of demonstrations by local activists to protect Kushtau Hill from mining.

During the weeks-long protests, which attracted little attention from local media, the protesters scuffled with police and fought with security guards of the company involved in the mining project.

On September 19, Russia will vote to choose members of the State Duma, 39 regional parliaments, and nine regional governors.

Candidacies of several potential independent and opposition candidates have been rejected by electoral authorities across Russia in recent months.

In the run-up to the elections, the Kremlin has cracked down on opposition political figures and independent media as the ruling United Russia party's popularity dramatically decreased since last year.

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has sentenced a man to 18 months in prison for allegedly attacking a police officer during a January rally in support of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

The Meshchansky district court on August 9 found Aleksandr Federyakov guilty of using pepper spray against a police officer as security forces were dispersing demonstrators gathered in Moscow on January 23.

Federyakov pleaded not guilty to the charge, saying he did not have any pepper spray with him at the rally.

The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center has said it considers his criminal prosecution “politically motivated and unlawful.”

Federyakov’s lawyer said the court's ruling would be appealed.

Prosecutors had sought four years in prison for the defendant, one of several persons who were handed prison terms or suspended sentences in recent months for allegedly attacking police officers during the nationwide demonstrations on January 23 and January 31 against the arrest of Navalny.

The Kremlin critic was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack by what several European laboratories concluded was a military-grade chemical nerve agent in Siberia in August.

Navalny has insisted that his poisoning was ordered directly by President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has denied.

In February, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely considered as being politically motivated. Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a jail term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison, given time he had been held in detention.

More than 10,000 supporters of Navalny were detained across Russia during and after the January rallies. Many of the detained men and women were either fined or handed several-day jail terms. At least 90 were charged with criminal misdeeds and several have been fired by their employers.

With reporting by OVD-Info and Mediazona

A former Iranian prosecutor accused of involvement in the 1988 execution of thousands of political dissidents has gone on trial in Sweden on August 10 in a landmark case likely to stoke tensions in the Islamic republic.

Hamid Nouri, 60, appeared in Stockholm District Court on August 10 charged with "intentionally taking the life of a very large number of prisoners” in Iran in 1988, when around 5,000 political prisoners were executed on government orders.

It is the first time anyone is standing trial over the purge.

Prosecutors said that Nouri worked in July-August 1988 as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor in the Gohardasht prison outside the Iranian city of Karaj and allegedly took part in the executions.

Nouri "denies any accusation of involvement in the alleged executions of 1988," according to his lawyer, Thomas Soderqvist.

Dozens of people demonstrated against the Iranian leadership outside the court as the trial got under way.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT said Nouri was arrested in November 2019 when he arrived in Sweden and has been held in custody since.

The 1988 killings targeted members of Iranian People’s Mujahedin, a political-militant organization that advocated overthrowing the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran and installing its own government.

The group was cooperating with the Iraqi Army, which was at war with Iran at the time, the Swedish prosecutors said, adding that Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued an order for the execution of all prisoners in Iranian prisons who sympathized and remained loyal with the Mujahedin organization.

Due to that order, a large number of prisoners were executed in the Gohardasht prison between July 30 and August 16, 1988, the prosecutors said.

More than 150 personalities, including Nobel Prize winners, former heads of state, and former UN officials, called in May for an international investigation into the 1988 executions.

Sweden's principle of universal jurisdiction allows its courts to try a person on serious charges such as murder or war crimes regardless of where the alleged offenses took place.

The trial is expected to last until April 2022. The court will hear dozens of witnesses over three days of sittings.

The case is particularly sensitive in Iran, where current government figures have been accused of having a role in the 1988 deaths, most notably new President Ebrahim Raisi.

Antoine Bernard of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) hailed the start of the trial in Stockholm, saying it “marks both the first time the mullah regime’s crimes are being tried and the first time that the terrible massacres of 1988 are being tried.”

“Many journalists were among the victims of the 1988 massacres because of their journalistic activity. Noury must be held to account for them as well, until justice finally catches up with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the other members of the 'death commissions'" that were behind the secret executions, Bernard said in a statement.

Raisi, a former chief of Iran's judiciary, has denied involvement in the killings.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

The European Union said on August 10 that it hopes for a stabilization of the migrant situation in Lithuania after Iraq suspended flights from Baghdad to Minsk, as neighboring Latvia declared a state of emergency and Lithuania decided to erect a fence following an influx of illegal migrants entering from Belarus.

Lithuania first started to register a surge of mostly Iraqi migrants crossing the border with Belarus in July. This has been followed in recent weeks by Latvia and Poland witnessing a similar wave, prompting authorities in the EU member states to beef up the border and start pushing back illegal migrants.

Poland, the Baltic states, and EU officials say the migrant flows are being orchestrated by strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka in retaliation for EU sanctions over his government's crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy movement.

Poland says Belarus may also be sending migrants over the border in retaliation for Warsaw's decision last week to give refuge to Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya after she refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics.

EU officials have been pressing Iraq to stem the flow of migrants, with Baghdad this week suspending Iraqi Airways flights to Minsk.

"We are pleased to see a very constructive attitude by the Iraqi partners and their constructive reaction," a spokesman for the European Commission -- the 27-member bloc's executive -- told reporters on August 10.

"We are quite concerned that Iraqi partners are aware how important this issue is for the EU and we hope that the situation will stabilize when it comes to the flights between Baghdad and Minsk," he said.

In Lithuania, parliament voted on August 10 to build a 4-meter-high metal fence topped with razor wire on 508 kilometers of the 670- kilometer border it shares with Belarus.

"Without this physical barrier, it is impossible to protect our borders, it is very clear," Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told Reuters.

The Lithuanian parliament also voted to allow the military to patrol the border alongside frontier guards and to turn back people deemed to have crossed illegally.

Some 4,026 individuals have illegally crossed into Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million inhabitants, from Belarus this year, the Lithuanian Interior Ministry said on August 3, compared with 74 in total last year.

Latvia, which has detained 218 migrants over the August 6-9 period, mostly Iraqis, declared a three-month state of emergency on August 10 at its Belarus border, authorizing the border guards, armed forces, and police to use physical force to return illegal immigrants to the country from which they came, according to the Baltic News Service.

Currently, only border guards can patrol the 175-kilometer border with Belarus.

The Polish Border Guard said in a statement on August 9 that it had detained 349 illegal migrants crossing the Belarusian border since August 6. It said the migrants were probably from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2020, the Border Guard detained 122 illegal migrants crossing the Belarusian border. So far this year, the number has reached nearly 900.

EU ministers are slated to discuss the Belarusian border issue at an extraordinary meeting on August 18.

In a nearly eight-hour press conference on August 9, Lukashenka struck a note of defiance against the West and opposition, denouncing international sanctions against his government.

"The illegal migration. No, we are not blackmailing anyone. We are not threatening anyone. You simply put us in such conditions that we have to react. And we are reacting, excuse us, in the best way we can," Lukashenka said.

August 9 marked the one-year anniversary of country's presidential election that extended Lukashenka's decades-long rule and sparked an unprecedented wave of protests amid allegations the vote was rigged.

Lukashenka reacted to the protests by unleashing a brutal crackdown. More than 32,000 people have been detained in an ever-widening sweep targeting the media, civil society, and any form of dissent.

Opposition leaders have been locked up or forced to flee, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania a day after the vote that supporters say she actually won.

With reporting by Baltic Times, Delfi, Reuters, and TASS

Nine coronavirus patients have died in a Russian hospital in the southern city of Vladikavkaz after an oxygen pipe burst underground, cutting supply to an intensive-care ward, Russian news agencies report.

"Nine patients with coronavirus died due to a lack of oxygen," the TASS news agency said on August 9, citing the local Health Ministry.

"A total of 71 people were in intensive care, not all were [receiving] oxygen supply," TASS quoted the ministry as saying.

Regional authorities have agreed with the Defense Ministry to supply oxygen to all of the city's hospitals from the town of Mozdok, some 80 kilometers north of Vladikavkaz, RIA Novosti reported.

"There was a burst in the oxygen pipe from the reservoir, which is underground, and the oxygen supply was stopped," the acting head of the North Ossetia region, where Vladikavkaz is located, was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

"Medical staff has started to connect the patients who are on ventilators to oxygen tanks. Oxygen tanks have started to arrive," Sergei Menyailo said.

Russia has seen a number of accidents in its coronavirus hospitals lead to the deaths of patients during the pandemic.

In June, three people died in a fire at a hospital in the Russian city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, with a faulty ventilator believed to be the cause of the blaze.

Several people also died in May 2020 in fires at hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, with faulty ventilators likewise believed to have sparked the blazes.

Russia is the world's fourth-worst-hit country in terms of coronavirus cases, with nearly 6.5 million registered, according to an AFP tally.

With 165,650 deaths from the virus, Russia has the highest official COVID-19 toll in Europe -- even as the authorities have been accused of downplaying the severity of the country's outbreak.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Iran to resume talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers but Iran's new hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, says that Iran's "rights" must first be guaranteed.

Macron "called on Iran to quickly resume negotiations in Vienna to reach a conclusion and to put an end, without delay, to all nuclear activities that violate the agreement," the French presidency said on August 9 after the Macron spoke by phone with Raisi, who took office last week.

According to the Iranian presidency's website, Raisi said in the hourlong phone call that "in any negotiation, the rights of the Iranian people must be upheld and the interests of our nation ensured."

The nuclear deal was signed by Hassan Rohani, the relatively moderate Iranian president who could not seek reelection earlier this year after two terms in office.

The accord, whose parties also included the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China, set an easing of sanctions against Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

But U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling financial sanctions.

Trump at the time said Iran was not adhering to the spirit of the deal, accusing it of attempting to build nuclear weapons and of supporting extremist activity in the region. Iran denied the charges.

After Washington pulled out of the deal, Tehran responded by walking back measures it had agreed to under the accord.

Negotiators have been meeting since April in Vienna to seek a way to bring both sides back into full compliance, with the last round taking place on June 20.

A senior European Union official said on August 7 that Iran was ready to resume the talks as soon as early September, Western news agencies reported.

AFP and the dpa said that representatives of the country had given assurances in recent days that the Vienna talks will be resumed, according to the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the EU's negotiator on the matter, Enrique Mora, attended the swearing-in of Raisi in Tehran last week, speaking there with the Iranian official designated to lead the talks, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The EU official said Amir-Abdollahian was slated to be foreign minister in Raisi's cabinet, but the move has not yet been announced.

The Iranians said they wanted to get back to the negotiating table "as soon as possible -- not just for talks but to achieve an agreement. They want a success," the EU official said.

The United States on August 5 urged Iran to return to talks on reviving the nuclear deal after the new Iranian president said he would seek a diplomatic way to end sanctions.

"We urge Iran to return to the negotiations soon," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news briefing. "For us, this is an urgent priority."

Raisi, who is expected to consolidate the power of ultraconservatives during his four-year term, called for a lifting of the sanctions during his inauguration speech earlier on August 5.

The EU official told the news agencies that it was not clear whether the nuclear talks would remain under the responsibility of the Iranian Foreign Ministry or be taken over by country's National Security Council or another body.

"The EU would like Iran to freeze the nuclear activities," the EU official said, but he admitted that Moscow and Beijing did not back its language on that position.

Complicating the matter, tensions have risen recently between Iran and the West, notably with an attack by drones last week on an Israeli-linked tanker off Oman that killed a Briton and a Romanian on board.

The G7 -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan -- blamed the attack on Iran. Tehran denies the accusation.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A court in Moscow has sentenced a Russian stand-up comic of Azerbaijani origin, Idrak Mirzalizade, to 10 days in jail for allegedly inciting ethnic hatred.

The Taganka district court issued the ruling on August 9 after several pro-government media outlets accused Mirzalizade of insulting ethnic Russians in one of his performances.

Mirzalizade pleaded not guilty to the charges, but offered apologies to "all who felt insulted by some parts of my performance which were taken out of context."

In June, he wrote on Instagram that two unknown men attacked him after he received several threats because of his performance.

He also posted a video showing the moment of the attack.

Mirzalizade has said the performance that caused the controversy was about problems faced by non-Russians when they want to rent an apartment in the Russian capital.

In his performance, the comedian joked about what would happen if the perception of Russians by others was based on separate incidents, drawing a parallel with situations that shape prejudices about non-Russians living among Russians.

MOSCOW -- Jailed former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who is charged with high treason, is facing even tougher conditions in detention after his article criticizing the authorities for their treatment of suspects and methods used in investigating espionage amid a wave of cases aimed at muzzling dissent was published.

Safronov's lawyer said on Telegram on August 9 that after the Vedomosti newspaper published his article in July, guards at the detention center in Moscow moved him to another cell next to what is called in Russia's penitentiary system "a punitive isolation cell."

The new cell "is known for additional security restrictions -- there is an additional metal bar at the door and an alarm system at the window. Searches became routine and the jail administration keeps urging him to avoid doing stupid things without saying what they mean by that," Safronov's lawyer wrote.

Safronov, a former adviser to the head of the space agency Roskosmos and journalist who has been charged with leaking classified data, published an article in the Vedomosti newspaper on July 23 outlining how investigators deprive individuals arrested and charged with high treason and espionage of any opportunity to defend themselves.

After several hours online, the article became inaccessible. The Meduza news website also reported an outage of its site after carrying excerpts of the article.

In the article, Safronov said cases were being fabricated in Russia against ordinary people because catching real spies is much harder.

He said charges are made against someone as a method of intimidation instead of being based on facts.

State-appointed lawyers who rarely defend their clients are then brought in to do everything to persuade the accused to plead guilty and make a deal with investigators, while the courts exacerbate the situation by sending "scared and confused" suspects to detention centers.

Safronov was arrested on July 7, 2020, on allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.

Safronov, who at the time of his arrest had moved on from journalism to his job with Roskosmos, has rejected the accusations against him and many of his supporters have held pickets demanding his release.

His defense team says that investigators never revealed when and to whom Safronov had allegedly passed the classified information or what it contained. All case materials have been deemed classified as part of the coverup, they say.

One of Safronov's defenders, lawyer Ivan Pavlov, himself has since become a suspect in a separate criminal case on the disclosure of data with regard to his client's case.

Russian authorities have launched a massive crackdown on dissent in recent months, jailing dozens of opposition members, activists, and regular citizens under the guise of charged widely considered to be falsified.

Treason charges against Russian men and women, especially researchers and scientists, have become common as a way of sending a message through the academic community, critics of the government and rights activists say.

Safronov said in his article that the launch of a probe is just the beginning of the ordeal. Suspects are then pressured to testify against others in exchange for favors ranging from a pretrial deal to phone calls to relatives or friends.

Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronov's release and expressing concern over the intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- A Russian activist has fled Russia after serving 3 1/2 years in prison in the high-profile Set (Network) case that rights defenders and opposition activists have called "fabricated."

Igor Shishkin told the independent news website Mediazona on August 9 that he was in an unspecified EU country.

Shishkin, from the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg, told Mediazona that he had been tortured after his arrest in 2018 and that he had admitted guilt to avoid further pain and humiliation.

Although Shishkin had not previously spoken of such treatment, medical examinations after his arrest indicated that while in custody he had suffered beatings and a fracture to an eye socket.

Russian investigators said the Network group planned to organize a series of explosions in Russia during the presidential election and the World Cup soccer tournament in 2018 "to destabilize the situation" in the country and to organize an armed mutiny.

Rights activists have said the charges are false, while some of those arrested have claimed they were tortured while in custody, which the Investigative Committee denies.

In June 2020, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced two people in the case, Viktor Filinkov and Yury Boyarshinov, to seven and 5 1/2 years in prison.

In February 2020, a court in another Russian city, Penza, sentenced seven other activists of the group to prison terms of between six years and 18 years after convicting them of terrorism.

The group members were arrested in 2017-18 for allegedly creating a terrorist group with cells in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Penza, and Omsk, as well as in neighboring Belarus.

Belarusian authorities told RFE/RL in February that they weren't aware of a Network cell in Belarus.

Amnesty International has called the terror charges "a figment of the Russian security services' imagination...fabricated in an attempt to silence these activists."

The London-based human rights watchdog maintains the case is “the latest politically-motivated abuse of the justice system to target young people.”

Shishkin and another suspect in the case, Yegor Zorin, made deals with investigators and testified against the others.

The case against Zorin was closed in September 2018.

Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg of the Yabloko party says he has been barred from seeking election to the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, next month.

The Moscow City Court cancelled Shlosberg's registration after a member of the Green party filed a lawsuit against him, he wrote on Telegram on August 9.

Shlosberg, who is also seeking reelection to the regional parliament of the northwestern Pskov region, said he would appeal the ruling, which he described as "unlawful and unfounded."

He did not give further details.

Last week, Shlosberg and another member of the liberal Yabloko party, Nikolai Kuzmin, were barred from running for seats in Pskov's parliament.

Some politicians in the western Russian region said at the time that Shlosberg and Kuzmin were barred because of their support for jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, whose network of organizations has been declared "extremist."

But on August 4, the day after their registrations in Pskov were cancelled, local election officials returned their names to the list of candidates.

Shlosberg is one of the best-known figures in the Yabloko party and a regional lawmaker who has openly criticized the Russian government for years.

On September 19, Russia will hold elections for the State Duma, 39 regional parliaments, and nine regional governors.

In the run-up to the vote, the Kremlin has cracked down on opposition political figures and independent media.

In June, a Moscow court ruled Navalny's political network should be labeled as "extremist" in what the opposition politician's team has called a sign of a "truly new level" of lawlessness in the country.

Also in June, President Vladimir Putin endorsed a law that bars leaders and founders of organizations declared "extremist" or terrorists by Russian courts from running for elected office for a period of five years. Other members or employees of such organizations face a three-year ban.

The two factors together prevent people associated with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his network of regional political offices across Russia from seeking public office. It also carries lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, convicted last year in Russia on espionage charges he denies, has been released from solitary confinement in a remote prison, his lawyer says.

Whelan has spent more than two weeks in what Russia's penitentiary system calls a "punitive isolation cell" for an unknown violation of the penitentiary's regulations.

His lawyer, Olga Karlova, said on August 8 that her client was able to talk to his parents by telephone after he was released from solitary confinement at Correctional Colony No. 17 in the region of Mordovia two days earlier.

Last week, Whelan's brother, David Whelan, and his other lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that the 51-year-old former U.S. Marine had just served 15 days in solitary confinement for unknown reasons just before his second stint in isolation began.

Whelan was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 on espionage charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2020 following a trial that was condemned by the United States as a "mockery of justice."

Mordovia is a region located about 350 kilometers east of Moscow historically known as the location of Russia's toughest prisons, including Soviet-era labor camps for political prisoners.

Whelan has rejected the espionage charges and has accused his prison guards of mistreatment.

The United States has criticized the Russian authorities for their "shameful treatment" of Whelan.

Whelan holds U.S., Canadian, British, and Irish passports. He was head of global security at a U.S. auto-parts supplier when he was arrested. He and his relatives insist he visited Russia to attend a wedding.

Whelan is one of several Americans to face trial in Russia in recent years on charges that their families, supporters, and in some cases the U.S. government, have said are trumped up.

Another former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, is serving a nine-year prison term in Mordovia as well. He was sentenced in July 2020 on charges of assaulting two Russian police officers.

The U.S. government and Reed deny the allegations and questioned the fairness of his judicial proceedings.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

AQTOBE, Kazakhstan -- More than 100 people have protested in Kazakhstan's northwestern city of Aqtobe against an event planned by LGBT activists.

The protesters said at the August 8 rally that they would hand a petition to the local authorities requesting them "not to allow representatives of a movement that propagates values contradicting our traditions and religion" to enter Aqtobe.

Police did not interfere with the unsanctioned rally.

A feminist initiative, Feminita, plans to hold a seminar on August 13 on the rights of the LGBT community in the Central Asian nation.

Feminita co-founder Gulzada Serzhan told RFE/RL that the group will hold the event despite threats it has received in recent days.

Last month, seminars organized by Feminita were disrupted by angry mobs in the central Kazakh city of Qaraghandy.

A similar event was disrupted by protesters in the southern city of Shymkent in May.

Although the Central Asian nation decriminalized self-sex relations in the 1990s, scrapping a Soviet-era law, sexual minorities still face firmly entrenched social taboos.

Rights groups say LGBT people face discrimination and persecution across the former Soviet Union.

BISHKEK -- Former Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev returned to Moscow on August 8 after a weeklong visit to Kyrgyzstan during which he was questioned by authorities over alleged corruption around the development of the Kumtor gold-mine project.

Akaev made news headlines after he appeared in Bishkek on August 2 for the first time since he was ousted by anti-government protests in March 2005 and told journalists that he had been questioned by the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) in connection with the investigation into Kumtor, one of the world's biggest gold mines.

Kumtor has been a target of financial and environmental disagreements for years and is currently the subject of an ongoing battle for control between the Kyrgyz state and the mine's operator, Canadian Centerra Gold.

Akaev issued a video statement on August 8 saying that the goal of his trip to the Central Asian republic was to help the authorities to investigate.

"Since the agreement was signed on Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan has made many decisions that supported the interests of Canada's [Centerra Gold] company, leaving Kyrgyzstan's interests behind,” he said.

“The decision to give the mine to the Canadian party did not give any dividends to Kyrgyzstan; the state treasury did not get taxes. It was also my mistake, as I was then the president and it was I who made decisions regarding Kumtor."

A month ago, UKMK chief Kamchybek Tashiev said that Akaev and another exiled former Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiev, had been added to the international wanted list as part of the Kumtor corruption probe.

Tashiev said the Kyrgyz government intends to prove in international court that Centerra Gold paid bribes to top Kyrgyz officials.

Akaev became the first president of independent Kyrgyzstan in 1990. He fled to Russia during the so-called Tulip Revolution 16 years ago and had avoided returning to the Central Asian country, even for the burial of close relatives.

Bakiev has been in exile in Belarus since being toppled by anti-government protests in 2010.

The giant Kumtor gold project has been the focus of international attention since a new Kyrgyz government moved to temporarily take over operations at the mine over what President Sadyr Japarov said was a necessary move to remedy environmental and safety violations.

In May, the Kyrgyz government approved a law allowing it to take control for up to three months of any company that operates under a concession agreement in Kyrgyzstan if that firm violates environmental regulations, endangers the local environment or lives of people, or causes other significant damage.

Centerra has called the Kyrgyz actions "wrongful and illegal" and said in July that it had filed additional arbitration claims against the government in Bishkek over Kumtor.

In recent months, Kyrgyz authorities have arrested several former officials and current lawmakers in connection with the case.

A fire in a landfill near Belgrade has been brought under control, authorities said on August 8, but they warned that smoke that blanketed the city and an acrid smell are likely to persist for days.

Much of Belgrade was covered in smoke, haze, and foul smells after the fire erupted late on August 7 in a landfill in the village of Vinca on Belgrade’s outskirts.

Belgrade city government official Darko Glavas said efforts to fully extinguish the fire will continue in the coming days with the help of heavy machinery that will turn over the garbage. There is no danger of a new fire, Glavas said.

The unpleasant smell was noticeable at the Belgrade’s Ada Ciganlija beach, according to an RFE/RL reporter, and people posted pictures on social networks showing smoke in different parts of Belgrade.

Mayor Zoran Radojcic said Belgrade residents should close their windows and refrain from leaving their homes if they smell the smoke outside.

“Although people are likely to see the smoke for the next few days, I assure you there is no need for fear and panic,” Radojcic said.

Andrej Sostaric of the City Institute for Public Health also urged residents to close their windows and reduce activities outdoors. The smoke will be short-lived and concentrations of pollutants do not exceed limits, he said.

Deputy Mayor Goran Vesic also said the fire was under control but said smoke will be seen for another five or six days in different parts of Belgrade until the fire is completely extinguished.

Environmental organizations accused Vesic of trying to reduce the severity of the fire instead of providing a clear explanation about how it broke out and instructions for reducing it.

The landfill has been a source of air, soil, and water pollution for decades despite large foreign and domestic investments to close the site and move it away from the 2 million residents of the capital. A fire in 2017 burned for months.

The landfill was taken over by a French-Japanese company in a public-private partnership. Two plants for processing waste to produce electricity were built along with a new sanitary landfill with a wastewater treatment plant, Vesic said.

The environmental organizations and citizens' associations demanded urgent action from city authorities and Serb government institutions. Authorities have a duty not only to manage waste and prevent such incidents “but also to urgently and accurately inform the public if they occur," they said in a statement.

The statement said the competent institutions must explain the cause of the fire and immediately declare a state of emergency and publish instructions for the behavior of citizens.

With reporting by AP

The United States, Britain, and Canada have announced new trade and financial sanctions on Belarus on the first anniversary of a presidential election that extended Alyaksandr Lukashenka's decades-long rule and sparked an unprecedented wave of protests amid allegations the vote was rigged.

Lukashenka, in power since 1994, reacted to the protests by unleashing a brutal crackdown. More than 32,000 people have been detained, thousands beaten by police on the streets and in detention, with torture alleged in many cases.

Opposition leaders have been locked up or forced to flee, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania a day after the vote that supporters say she actually won.

Since then, Lukashenka, his inner circle, and Belarusian firms have been hit with several rounds of sanctions by the United States, European Union, Canada, and Britain, among others, leaving the Belarusian strongman internationally isolated, dependent more than ever on Russian support.

Among those entities targeted in the fresh U.S. sanctions was Belaruskali, the Belarusian potash producer, a major source of income for the Lukashenka regime, the White House announced.

Also targeted was Belarus's International Olympic Committee, "for its failure to protect Belarusian athletes from political discrimination and repression."

This comes after Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to board a flight home during the Olympics after she was taken to the airport against her wishes. She has since sought refugee status in Poland.

"It is the responsibility of all those who care about human rights, free and fair elections, and freedom of expression to stand against this oppression," Biden said in a statement. "The United States will continue to stand up for human rights and free expression, while holding the Lukashenka regime accountable, in concert with our allies and partners."

On Twitter, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, "The United States is demonstrating its commitment to holding the Lukashenka regime to account on the anniversary of Belarus's fraudulent election."

Prominent businesspeople who support the Lukashenka regime as well as 15 companies with which they are affiliated -- including Absolutbank, a private Belarusian bank -- were also blacklisted by the Biden administration, as well as entities that operate in the tobacco-products, construction, energy, and transportation sectors of the Belarusian economy.

Earlier, London announced its own sanctions.

The British measures, announced by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office on August 9, include a ban on Belarus's potash and petroleum-product exports and a prohibition on the purchase of transferable securities and money-market instruments issued by the Belarusian state and its state-owned banks.

The package also includes measures to prevent Belarusian air carriers from overflying or landing in Britain and a prohibition on the provision of technical assistance to Lukashenka's "fleet of luxury aircraft."

"These sanctions demonstrate that the U.K. will not accept Lukashenka's actions since the fraudulent election," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. "The Lukashenka regime continues to crush democracy and violate human rights in Belarus."

Britain also added Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev to its sanctions list, saying he was "one of the main private investors in Belarus and a long-standing associate" of Lukashenka.

Canada also announced its own measures. Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said Ottawa would target transferable securities and money-market instruments, debt financing, insurance and reinsurance, petroleum products, and potassium chloride products.

"Since then, the grave injustices carried out by the Belarusian government against its own people have not stopped...these measures will apply further pressure on Belarus's leadership," Garneau said.

Canada has to date placed sanctions on 72 Belarusian officials and five entities.

The European Union, the United States, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as Belarus's legitimate leader and have slapped multiple rounds of sanctions to pressure his regime to ease its crackdown, talk with the opposition, and ensure a new election.

Speaking during a meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis in Vilnius, Tsikhanouskaya said that only a common, coordinated position of all countries on sanctions and further pressure on Lukashenka will help Belarus overcome the crisis.

Separately, Tsikhanouskaya told the media that the Belarusian opposition was "advocating for organizing an international tribunal on the regime's crimes" and was "working on holding a high-level international conference to resolve the crisis in Belarus."

At a press conference, Lukashenka struck a note of defiance, defending last year's election and accusing the opposition of preparing a "coup."

He also denied that his country had any involvement in the recent death of an activist in Ukraine or in trying to forcibly bring home an athlete from the Tokyo Olympics.

Belarusians living abroad and supporters held rallies against Lukashenka on August 8 in European capitals, including Kyiv, London, Warsaw, and Vilnius. More protests were planned for August 9.

"One year ago today, the right to freely elect their leader was taken away from the people of #Belarus. The EU stands firmly with you and will continue to do so," European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits, said in a tweet.

The EU "stands firmly with you and will continue to do so. The legitimate call for a democratic future and respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights must finally be heeded."

The previous day, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc "stands ready to consider further measures in light of the regime’s blatant disregard of international commitments."

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas vowed to support Belarus's democracy movement, saying the whole country was being held "hostage" by Lukashenka.

"Alongside political support, we have launched practical assistance with our Belarus civil society action plan to support people who are being politically persecuted," Maas said.

In a statement on August 9, Amnesty International denounced Lukashenka's "campaign of brutal reprisals against dissent," saying a "plethora" of human rights violations and crimes under international law had been committed against the Belarusian people.

The London-based watchdog said dozens of human rights NGOs and other civil society organizations have been arbitrarily closed and many of their staff arrested as suspects in "fabricated" criminal cases or forced into exile.

"At least three peaceful protesters have died as a result of police use of force, while tens of thousands were subjected to arbitrary arrests and detention. Hundreds more have complained of torture," Amnesty said.

Lukashenka has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994. He has earned the nickname "Europe's last dictator" in the West for his relentless repression of dissent.

On August 9, Lukashenka dismissed "those nasty things that you throw into my face, saying that I'm a dictator."

He said his government had nothing to do with the death of opposition activist Vital Shyshou, who was found hanged in a park in Kyiv after he was reported missing last week.

Ukrainian police have launched a murder investigation into the death of the 26-year-old, who led a Kyiv-based organization helping persecuted Belarusians.

Lukashenka also claimed that Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian sprinter who defected at the Olympics, had been "manipulated" by outside forces.

Tsimanouskaya fled to Warsaw on August 4 under Polish diplomatic protection following a dispute with her coaching team that she said had led to her being ordered home.

The International Olympic Committee has revoked the accreditation of two Belarusian coaches over Tsimanouskaya's alleged treatment, which Japan's Foreign Ministry called "unjust" and "not acceptable."

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP