The U.S. State Department has rejected a claim by Russia's ambassador to the United States who said Washington had asked 24 Russian diplomats to leave the country by September 3 after their visas expired.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said on August 2 that the Russian diplomats "can apply for an extension" of their visas. Such "applications are reviewed on a case by case basis," he added.

In an interview with the National Interest magazine, Russian envoy Anatoly Antonov said that the embassy received a list of 24 Russian diplomats who are expected to leave by September 3.

"Almost all of them will leave without replacements because Washington has abruptly tightened visa-issuing procedures," Antonov said in the interview published on August 1.

Last week, the State Department said it had laid off 182 local employees from its diplomatic missions in Russia ahead of an August 1 deadline set by the Kremlin to do so.

The move by the Kremlin came after Washington expelled Russian diplomats from the United States and tit-for-tat closures of diplomatic facilities in both countries amid deteriorating relations.

Russia announced its ban after President Joe Biden signed an executive order on April 15 outlining the expulsions of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against dozens of Russian individuals and entities.

Biden signed the order in response to Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the arrest of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and other actions against the United States and its interests.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

A Belarusian journalist has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of insulting the country's authoritarian leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and slandering two police officers.

The verdict in the case against Syarhey Hardzievich, 50, comes as part of a massive government crackdown in Belarus on independent media, human rights defenders, and activists.

The journalist from Drahichyn, a city 300 kilometers southwest of Minsk, was also ordered by a Belarusian court to pay a $1,600 fine, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said on August 2.

The charges against Hardzievich stem from messages in a Telegram chat group that were deleted last year.

Hardzievich, who worked for a popular regional news outlet, The First Region, rejects the charges.

The Vyasna human rights center declared Hardzievich a political prisoner.

Vyasna says that, in July alone, Belarusian police have conducted more than 200 raids on the offices and apartments of activists and journalists. Dozens of journalists remain in custody either awaiting trial or serving their sentences.

Belarusian authorities have ramped up pressure against nongovernmental organizations and independent media as part of a brutal crackdown against those who dispute the official results of the August 2020 presidential election.

Election officials declared Lukashenka the winner, but demonstrators and opposition leaders say the results were rigged in his favor.

With reporting by AP

Mohammad Mosaed, an Iranian journalist who fled Iran last year to escape a prison sentence, says he is in the United States.

Writing on Twitter, Mosaed said he arrived six months after crossing the border into Turkey during winter, which he said made his escape more difficult.

Mosaed said he was grateful to the U.S. administration for allowing him into the country.

He added that he aims to remain independent and will not become the employee of any government, including the United States'.

Mosaed vowed to continue to raise his voice like millions of Iranians whose voices have not been silenced "by batons and bullets, nor by money and filtering."

Mosaed fled to Turkey in January by foot after being summoned by Iranian authorities to serve a nearly five-year prison sentence on charges of "colluding against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the system."

SEE ALSO:

Iranian Press-Freedom Awardee Sentenced To More Than Four Years In Prison

Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court had also banned Mosaed from conducting journalism activities and from using all communications devices for two years.

The Committee To Defend Journalists (CPJ) had described the ruling as a further attempt by Iranian authorities to try to "suppress the truth."

A freelance economic journalist who had worked for several reformist publications, Mosaed was detained in late 2019 after posting a tweet critical of an Internet shutdown imposed by Tehran during the violent November 2019 antiestablishment protests sparked by a sudden rise in the price of gasoline.

"Knock knock! Hello Free World! I used 42 different [proxy sites] to write this! Millions of Iranians don't have [I]nternet. Can you hear us?" Mosaed tweeted with the hashtag #Internet4Iran that Iranians had been using to protest the Internet blackout. His tweet went viral and days later he was detained for two weeks.

Mosaed was again detained for several hours a few months later by the feared intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for criticizing the establishment on social media, including the country's slow response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

While in custody, Intelligence agents ordered Mosaed to delete his Telegram channel and suspended his Twitter account, the CPJ reported.

The CPJ awarded Mosaed its 2020 International Press Freedom Award for his courage covering corruption, demonstrations, and the Iranian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scores of Iranian journalists have in past years been summoned, harassed, threatened, and sentenced to prison.

Many have been forced to leave the country.

SEE ALSO:

'Unjust And Barbaric': Execution Of Iranian Dissident Sparks International Outrage

In December, authorities executed Ruhollah Zam, the manager of the popular Telegram channel Amadnews accused of inciting violence during Iran's 2017 protests.

The execution sparked a chorus of protests and condemnations, including by the CPJ, which said Iran's government had now joined "the company of criminal gangs and violent extremists who silence journalists by murdering them."

Iran is ranked 174 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Tehran warned on August 2 that it would respond swiftly to any threat to its security, as the United Kingdom summoned the Iranian ambassador over what London and allies say was a deadly attack on a commercial ship off the coast of Oman ordered by Tehran.

Britain, the United States, and Israel have accused Iran of being behind what they say was a deadly bombing last week by an unmanned drone on the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.

All three have said they will work with allies to respond to the July 29 incident, which killed a Briton and a Romanian aboard the ship.

"Iran has no hesitation in protecting its security and national interests and will respond promptly and strongly to any possible adventure," Iranian state TV quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Said Khatibzadeh, as saying.

The same day, Britain summoned the Iranian ambassador in London in connection with the attack.

"Iran must immediately cease actions that risk international peace and security," a British government statement announcing the summons said, adding that "vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law."

The Mercer Street attack marks what is thought to be the first fatal attack on commercial shipping since antagonism and tensions were ratcheted up amid naval confrontations in the vital shipping routes through the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

Those incidents have piled up since the United States withdrew in 2018 from a 3-year-old nuclear agreement between world powers and Tehran trading sanctions relief for checks on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on August 1 that "We believe this attack was a deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran."

The U.S. Navy escorted the damaged vessel to a safe port and said evidence "clearly pointed" to a drone attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was “no justification for this attack, which follows a pattern of attacks and other belligerent behavior.”

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accused Tehran of a "cowardly" denial of responsibility, while his foreign minister suggested the attack merited a harsh response.

Iranian television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Khatibzadeh as saying he "strongly regretted the baseless accusations made by the British foreign secretary against Iran, which were repeated by the U.S. secretary of state in the same context and contained contradictory, false, and provocative accusations."

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

A court in central Russia has sentenced a Ukrainian citizen to more than three years in prison after convicting him of trying to smuggle parts from a Russian missile system to Ukraine.

Ukraine is fighting a seven-year war against Russia-backed separatists and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged on August 2 that the man has "links to the Security Service of Ukraine."

Russian media reports about the conviction, by the Yoshkar-Ola City Court in the Volga region's Republic of Mari El, did not disclose the man's identity.

A court in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don last week sentenced a Russian and an Armenian to between 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 years in prison after finding them guilty of trying to smuggle parts of a S-300 missile system to Ukraine.

Russia has arrested and convicted multiple Ukrainian and Russian citizens on charges of spying for Ukraine or providing Kyiv with classified information.

Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been tense since 2014, when Russia forcibly seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and armed Russia-backed separatists ignited a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has left more than 13,200 people dead.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

A court in Moscow has announced a three-day postponement of the verdicts and possible sentencing of U.S. investor Michael Calvey and his associates in a high-profile embezzlement case.

Judge Anna Sokova of the Meshchansky district court last month said that the court's decisions -- on a case that threatens to deal another blow to Russia's investment reputation -- would be given on August 2.

But the court instead offered a new date of August 5, without giving any reason for the change.

In his final testimony in a trial that is being watched closely by the international business community, Calvey said on July 19 that he and his co-defendants had acted "solely within the law."

He said he believes the case is aimed at pressuring him and his associates from the Baring Vostok private equity group as part of a business dispute over control of Russia's Vostochny Bank.

The case has rattled the investment community in Russia and internationally and prompted several prominent officials and businessmen to voice concerns about the treatment of the executives.

Calvey is a founder of Baring Vostok, and has been charged along with his associate Philippe Delpal, who is a French national, and five others -- Russian citizens Vagan Abgaryan, Ivan Zyuzin, Maksim Vladimirov, Aleksei Kordichev, and Aleksandr Tsakunov.

The case went to trial on February 2, almost two years after their arrests.

The charges stem from a long-running dispute between Baring Vostok and Vostochny Bank shareholders.

Baring Vostok owned a 52.5 percent in the bank, and prosecutors accuse the defendants of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($37.5 million) by persuading Vostochny Bank shareholders to approve a share deal at an unrealistically low price.

The prosecution has asked the court to find Calvey guilty and give him a six-year suspended prison term, adding that Delpal should receive a five-year suspended prison sentence. The others, the prosecution said, should be given suspended prison terms of between four and five years.

Baring Vostok is one of the largest and oldest private-equity firms operating in Russia. It was founded in the early 1990s and manages more than $3.7 billion in assets. It was an early major investor in Yandex, Russia's dominant search engine.

Calvey is one of several Americans currently being held in Russia on charges they and their supporters say are groundless.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years on espionage charges that he has vehemently rejected.

Another former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2020 after a Moscow court found him guilty of assaulting two police officers.

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

BISHKEK -- The ousted first president of independent Kyrgyzstan has returned from Russian exile to Bishkek for questioning in connection with an investigation into possible corruption around one of the world's biggest gold mines.

It is ex-President Askar Akaev's first trip to the post-Soviet Central Asian republic since he fled peaceful pro-democracy rallies in 2005.

He was immediately taken to Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UNMK), which said he was sought in connection with a probe into the development of the Kumtor gold mine.

After the questioning, Akaev told journalists outside the UKMK offices that he was "very happy" to be back in his native country and thanked President Sadyr Japarov for "allowing" him to visit Bishkek.

Akaev did not elaborate on the investigation or questioning, saying that the probe is still under way and adding, "I came to help the government with the investigations and further development of our country."

He also said that "there might have been some mistakes" during his tenure as Kyrgyzstan’s president.

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.

UKMK chief Kamchybek Tashiev said on July 8 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 fled to Russia during the so-called Tulip Revolution in 2005.

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 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 the 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.

Akaev was president from 1990-2005 but since his departure had avoided returning to Kyrgyzstan even for the burial of close relatives.

YEREVAN -- Armenian President Armen Sarkisian appointed acting Prime Minister Nikola Pashinian to the post of prime minister on August 2, the first day of the parliament's new term following an election six weeks ago.

Sarkisian signed the relevant decree after the ruling Civil Contract party nominated Pashinian to the post as lawmakers started the inaugural session.

Pashinian has 15 days to win approval for a cabinet from parliament.

His Civil Contract party holds 71 of the legislature's 101 seats since snap elections in June prompted by a crisis following a truce in intense fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby districts.

The 44-day eruption of a decades-long unresolved war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Azerbaijani territory concluded with a Moscow-brokered truce in November that cemented Azerbaijani control over regions that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians for almost 30 years.

Street protests broke out in which Pashinian's opponents blamed him for the loss of control over the territories to the bigger and better-equipped Azerbaijani military.

Pashinian and his supporters have said former leaders of the country, including ex-Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, were also responsible for the war's outcome.

More than 180,000 people have signed an online petition opposing a Russian law enacted this month that allows for the hunting of animals on the endangered species list.

The law says that in order to monitor, regulate reproduction rates, and prevent mass diseases, hunting such animals is allowed "for scientific purposes."

It came into effect on August 1.

Environment activists have argued against the law for months, saying the new regulation will pave the way to illegal hunting and poaching, citing previous cases when officials in some Russian regions hunted endangered wildlife.

Their main concerns are about such endangered species as snow leopards, polar bears, Siberian tigers, saiga antelopes, and others that inhabit Russia.

The "scientific research" rationale echoes a longtime argument by Japanese officials that has allowed the continuing hunting of endangered whales in protected waters despite the meat from such hunts appearing in food shops.

The signature drive protesting the new Russian legislation continues online.

A senior EU official is due in Lithuania on August 2 to discuss further measures to curb the growing number of people illegally crossing the border from Belarus.

Lithuanian authorities have reported a sharp increase in irregular arrivals in its territory from Belarus in recent months in what is seen as revenge by Minsk after the European Union imposed a new round of sanctions on Alyaksandr Lukashenka's repressive regime.

Lithuania has also become a center for the Belarusian opposition, led by Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, since a disputed presidential election last year.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson will meet Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in Vilnius, according to Brussels. She is then due to visit the Padvarionys border crossing point, together with Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite.

Within one day, almost 200 people crossed the border earlier this week, bringing the total number of intercepted migrants this year to 3,500 -- compared to 81 in the whole of last year. Most of them have applied for asylum.

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The Baltic country, which shares a nearly 680-kilometer border with Belarus, accuses Minsk of deliberately allowing migrants across its borders.

Lukashenka has repeatedly threatened to allow migrants from war zones such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan to cross into the EU in response to sanctions imposed on Minsk following the disputed presidential election in August last year and a subsequent crackdown on those protesting the strongman's claim that he won reelection by a landslide.

Additional border guards from the EU border agency Frontex have already been sent to the country in recent weeks and more are set to follow.

In her talks with Lithuanian lawmakers, Johansson plans to outline more closely the nature of additional EU support.

More EU sanctions on Belarus are also a possibility.

With reporting by dpa

The European Union has sharply criticized Minsk's attempt to force a Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to return home early from the Olympics after criticizing coaches of her national team, and welcomed EU-member Poland's decision to grant the 24-year-old athlete a humanitarian visa.

"The attempt to forcibly repatriate Krystsina Tsimanouskaya against her own will is another example of the brutality of the repression of [Alyaksandr Lukashenka's] regime that hits all categories of Belarusian society, including athletes, and does not respect any Olympic truce," Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on August 2.

In comments to Reuters, Massrali went on to express Brussels' "full solidarity" with Tsimanouskaya and lauded "the fact that she has now been given a humanitarian visa by Poland."

Tsimanouskaya was seen entering the Polish Embassy on August 2 after appealing for Japanese and international help to avoid being put on a flight against her will and spending the night at Tokyo's international airport after apparently running afoul of Belarusian officials.

"I can confirm that we have issued a humanitarian visa. I can confirm that we will provide all necessary support in Poland if she wishes to use it," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on August 2.

Polish officials have said the sprinter requested the humanitarian visa and that she will be eligible to seek refugee status once in Poland. The activist group Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) has said it has purchased Tsimanouskaya a plane ticket to Warsaw, and that she plans to seek asylum.

Multiple reports said Tsimanouskaya's husband, Arsen Zhdanevich, had traveled to Ukraine from Belarus as his wife continues to fight repatriation.

Tsimanouskaya has expressed fears she could face arrest in her homeland over criticism she aired on social media of her coaches' decision to enter her in a race she had not prepared to run.

The sprinter's plight, which erupted when she sought help to avoid being hustled by Belarusian handlers onto a flight at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on August 1, has led to offers of help from Poland, France, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry is working with organizers of the Tokyo games as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is also involved in efforts to help resolve Tsimanouskaya's situation.

The international actions to respond to her pleas for help were praised by U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher, whose country has been among the leading international critics of Alyaksandr Lukashenka's rights record and yearlong crackdown on a pro-democracy movement and other dissent since he claimed a disputed reelection in August 2020.

"Thanks to the quick action of Japanese and Polish authorities, Tsimanouskaya is able to evade the attempts of the Lukashenko regime to discredit and humiliate this #Tokyo2020 athlete for expressing her views," Julie Fisher said in a tweet.

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.

Lukashenka has long regarded sports as an effective forum for countering adverse news about decades of human rights violations and political repression in Belarus.

Lukashenka served as head of the Belarusian National Olympic Committee until recently handing over its leadership to his eldest son, Viktar, in a move that was not recognized by the IOC.

Alyaksandr Opeikin, a spokesman for the BSSF, which supports opposition athletes, told Current Time that Tsimanouskaya's fears have been compounded by the airing of several "lambasting programs" on "propaganda TV channels."

Tsimanouskaya was due to compete in the women's 200-meter sprint on August 2. But the athlete said her coaching staff ordered her to pack her bags before taking her to the airport.

Tsimanouskaya had alleged on social media that she was entered by Belarusian officials into the women’s 4x400-meter relay event on July 29 on short notice after some team members were found to be ineligible to compete.

The Belarusian Olympic Committee said in a statement that Tsimanouskaya withdrew from the games on the advice of doctors concerned about her "emotional [and] psychological state.”

Euroradio and the Nick and Mike group on Telegram and YouTube, which monitors human rights in Belarus, published an audio recording on August 1 that they say was recorded when two Belarusian sports officials were talking to Tsimanouskaya.

The two male voices in the recording tell Tsimanouskaya her decision to raise the coaching issue on social networks was "stupid" because "people may lose their jobs" as a result. They say she needs to return to Belarus.

The Nasha Niva newspaper identified one of the individuals in the recording as the head coach of the Belarusian national team in track-and-field, Yury Maisevich. The Nick and Mike group identify the second man as senior Belarusian Olympics official Artur Shumak.

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"You just go home. Don't write anything anywhere. Give no comments. I am giving you word-for-word what I was told," one of the men says over the sound of a woman seemingly crying. "If you want to continue to perform on behalf of the Republic of Belarus, just listen to what they recommend. Go home to your parents, or elsewhere. Let this situation go. Otherwise, the more you move, it's like when a fly gets in a spiderweb: The more it turns around, the more it gets tangled."

The other male voice in the audio suggests that Tsimanouskaya say nothing to her husband or relatives and echoes the call for her to go back to Belarus.

Tsimanouskaya confirmed to Current Time that it is her voice in the audio. Current Time is the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

The IOC has asked the NOC to provide detailed explanations on the situation faced by Tsimanouskaya, Deutsche Welle reported on August 2.

The IOC in March announced its refusal to recognize Viktar Lukashenka's leadership of the Belarusian national effort for reasons that included a failure to ensure "better protection of the athletes’ rights and preserve the athletes from any discrimination or undue pressure."

Lukashenka has been banned from the Tokyo Olympics by the IOC, which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced reprisals and intimidation in fallout from the protests against his disputed re-election.

With reporting by Reuters, Deustche Welle, Euroradio, Nick and Mike, AP, AFP, TASS, and Tribuna.com

Kosovo has awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal on the Rule of Law to Beau Biden -- the late son of U.S. President Joe Biden – for his work helping to strengthen the Balkan country's justice system.

In a ceremony in Pristina hosted by Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on August 1, U.S. Ambassador Philip Kosnett received the medal on behalf of Biden’s family.

Beau Biden worked in Kosovo after the 1998-99 war with U.S. military forces and also with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help train local prosecutors and judges.

He died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.

In a prerecorded message that was aired during the event in Pristina, President Biden described the award as a “a great honor to recognize the legacy of our son.”

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He said his son “fell in love with the country” when he spent time there.

“That's why he was so committed to working with the people of Kosovo to make sure that the war crimes were thoroughly investigated and professionally prosecuted, to help Kosovo build a fair judicial system capable of bringing justice and reconciliation to the country," Biden said.

Biden visited Kosovo as vice president in 2016 when the country named a street after Beau Biden.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with Western backing, but Serbia still refuses to recognize it and considers Kosovo part of its territory.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and CNN

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it is monitoring the situation surrounding a Belarusian Olympic athlete who accused her coaches of trying to remove her from the Tokyo games after she criticized them on social media.

Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya sought the protection of Japanese police at Haneda airport on August 1, saying she was being sent back to Belarus against her wishes.

“The IOC…is looking into the situation and has asked the [the Belarus National Olympic Committee] for clarification,” the IOC said in a statement.

Earlier, Tsimanouskaya, 24, said in a video message posted on YouTube that she didn’t want to return to Belarus and had asked the IOC to “intervene.”

“I was put under pressure and they are trying to forcibly take me out of the country without my consent,” she said.

Tsimanouskaya was due to compete in the women's 200-meter event on August 2. But the athlete said that her coaching staff ordered her to pack her bags, before taking her to the airport.

Tsimanouskaya had alleged on social media that she was entered into the women’s 400-meter relay event on July 29 at short notice by Belarusian officials, after some team members were found to be ineligible to compete.

The Belarusian Olympic Committee said in a statement that Tsimanouskaya withdrew from the games on the advice of doctors concerned about her "emotional [and] psychological state.”

Several hours later, Tsimanouskaya said she was "safe" and under police protection in Japan. Her message was published on Telegram by the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), an organization that supports opposition athletes.

Aleksandr Opeikin, a spokesman for the BSSF, told the Associated Press that Tsimanouskaya has been targeted by supporters of the authoritarian government of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

“The campaign was quite serious and that was a clear signal that her life would be in danger in Belarus,” he said.

Tsimanouskaya would ask for asylum from the Austrian Embassy, Opeikin said.

The BSSF was founded last August by retired Belarusian swimmer Alyaksandra Herasimenia as protests erupted in Belarus after the disputed reelection of Lukashenka.

The organization provides financial and legal help to Belarusian athletes targeted by the authorities after calling for an end to the violent police crackdown on demonstrators.

In January, nearly 350 Belarusian athletes and other members of the sports community signed an open letter calling for the presidential election to be annulled and for all "political prisoners" and those detained during mass demonstrations that followed to be released.

Lukashenka has been banned from the Tokyo Olympics by the IOC, which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced reprisals and intimidation as a result of the protests.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Lilly King echoed fellow U.S. swimming medalist Ryan Murphy's criticism of the presence of Russian athletes at the Tokyo Olympics and raised it a notch on August 1 by saying, "There are a lot of people here that should not be here."

She was the third prominent American to publicly question the stringency of ongoing penalties for Russian national programs found to have doped extensively.

The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, blasted "the Russian state and sport officials" in an e-mail to Reuters, saying they "put the dark cloud over themselves and, in the process, tragically, pushed their athletes out in the storm."

Russia is still serving a multiyear ban on international competition after Russia was found to have a massive, state-sponsored cheating program ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics that helped evade anti-doping rules in a wide array of sports.

It has sent depleted squads under Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) banners to the past two Olympics.

Tygart said the "rebrand" of Russia makes "a mockery of the games by their thirst for medals over values" and challenged the ROC to make its athletes' test results public if it wants to end the doubts.

"They should put their money where their rhetoric is by making individual tests by athlete name public and allow a transparent international accounting of the reality of whether things have changed within Russia, as the evidence of the last years is that nothing has, unfortunately," Tygart told Reuters.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach repeated his defense of Russian participants, 335 of whom are competing in Tokyo.

"They have all gone through the qualifications and appropriate tests like all other athletes participating here. Therefore, they have the right to be treated accordingly," Bach told dpa.

The winner of a silver and a bronze this week in the 200- and 100-meter breaststroke events, King was responding on August 1 to the president of the ROC saying his squad's medals are the "best answer" to critics.

Russian athletes deemed clean from doping are competing under the ROC team banner at these games, although they can't use the Russian name, flag, or anthem.

ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov tweeted this week that critics “supposed that as a matter of fact our athletes can’t compete without doping" but said Russians in Tokyo “proved the opposite, not just with words but with their deeds and results.”

Tygart said Russian officials "want to continue to lie, deny, and attack those with the courage to stand up to their deceit and blatant disregard for the rules and the truth."

Without mentioning Russia by name, Ryan this week suggested after finishing behind Russian swimmer Yevgeny Rylov in two medal races that those events were "probably not clean."

He later said he wasn't targeting Rylov but the sport.

“I was asked a question about doping and swimming and I answered honestly," Ryan said. "I do think there’s doping in swimming.”

King was more direct concerning Russia's history of cheating.

“I wasn’t racing anyone from a country who should have been banned and instead got a slap on the wrist and rebranded their national flag,” Lilly said, sitting next to Murphy. “So, I personally wasn’t as affected. But Ryan was.”

Russian athletes have won 40 medals in Tokyo, 11 of them gold.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa

Christian Schmidt of Germany takes over as the United Nations' top official in Bosnia-Herzegovina on August 1 amid recent pressure inside and outside the country over the fate and direction of the post of the UN's high representative.

Schmidt replaces outgoing Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, who as high representative has safeguarded civilian and rule-of-law aspects of the 1995 Balkan peace agreement for 12 years.

The 63-year-old Schmidt brings a reputation as a tough regional and federal politician who doesn't shy away from controversial decisions.

The outgoing Inzko has recently been forced to pushed back against critics of UN oversight of Bosnia, including Russia and China, which last month failed with a joint proposal to phase out the high representative's position.

The most strident domestic voice against international oversight is the secession-minded leader of the mostly Serb entity that, along with a Bosniak and Croat federation, makes up Bosnia: Republika Srpska's Milorad Dodik.

Bosnia is still governed under the 25-year-old Dayton peace accords that helped end ethnic violence following the breakup of Yugoslavia and which included the post of high representative, with its power to impose decisions or dismiss officials.

Inzko has suggested that the international community "changed gears too quickly from...a robust, strong, international presence -- to domestic responsibility [and] domestic institutions" in Bosnia.

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Inzko told AP last week that, going forward, "the new approach should be more prescriptive; it should be more robust, and there must be a sense of urgency."

The country faces an array of problems that arise from parallel structures of regional and executive power.

Dodik and his allies on July 30 approved two new laws to block a decision last week by the outgoing Inzko to ban genocide denial.

Inzko has warned that “there is no reconciliation without the recognition of crimes and without responsibility.”

The wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s are estimated to have killed at least 130,000 people and displaced millions.

Schmidt was appointed in May to succeed Inzko by the ambassadors of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, the international body that still guides Bosnia’s peace process.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department says the Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign broke into the email accounts of some of the most prominent federal prosecutors' offices in the United States during 2020.

The Justice Department said 80 percent of the Microsoft e-mail accounts used by employees in the four U.S. attorney offices in New York were breached.

Altogether, the Justice Department said the e-mail account of at least one employee in 27 U.S. attorney offices were compromised during the Russian hacking campaign.

In a statement on July 30, the Justice Department said it believes the accounts were compromised from May 7 to December 27.

That time frame is notable because the SolarWinds campaign was first discovered and publicized in mid-December.

The Russian hacking scheme infiltrated dozens of private-sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies.

In April, the administration of President Joe Biden announced sanctions in response to the SolarWinds hack and Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The punitive measures included the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States.

Russia has denied any wrongdoing.

The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts confirmed in January that it was also breached.

That gave the SolarWinds hackers another entry point to steal confidential information like trade secrets, espionage targets, whistle-blower reports, and arrest warrants.

The list of affected offices include several large and high-profile ones like those in Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, and the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Southern and Eastern districts of New York, where large numbers of staff were hit, handle some of the most prominent prosecutions in the country.

Based on reporting by AP

Several thousand nurses gathered in Budapest on July 31 to demand better pay and working conditions in Hungary's ailing public health system.

The protest rally came after a recent survey revealed that many nurses in Hungary are thinking about leaving the country for higher salaries elsewhere -- a development that would further burden a system already short of workers.

Nurses wearing white T-shirts and carrying white balloons gathered in a central Budapest square. Hundreds of them arrived from outside the capital and travelled hours to attend the rally.

The crowd also included supporters from several of Hungary's largest trade unions.

Demonstrators said the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened an already precarious situation for health-care workers while their demands for pay raises and reduced working hours have gone unheeded by the government.

"The past period has been very difficult for us," said Kata Gornicsak, who has worked for 26 years as a chief nurse in a Budapest hospital.

"The COVID pandemic has turned our lives upside down,” she said. “The reason we are here is not because of hope but desperation. We want respect, which we are not getting at all.”

Like many countries in Central Europe and Eastern European, where local salaries are much less than Western European levels, Hungary faces a shortage of doctors and medical workers.

Zoltan Balogh, chairman of the Chamber of Hungarian Health-Care Professionals, said the survey conducted by his organization suggests there could be "a huge wave of nurses quitting when pandemic travel restrictions are lifted across Europe."

Balogh says that, before the pandemic, about 400-500 nurses were already leaving Hungary every year.

Ibolya Pinter Gal, a veteran nurse for more than three decades has been caring for COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit since March 2020. She says she was promised extra pay for the high-risk work, but still has not received it.

"We are the mid-level professionals who are always forgotten when salaries are raised," she said.

Hungary's Minister of Human Resources Miklos Kasler was invited to the July 31 rally but did not attend.

Kasler did send a letter thanking nurses for their work.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Two judokas from Georgia have been thrown out of the Tokyo Olympic Games after leaving the Athletes' Village to go sightseeing, the Japanese Kyoto news agency reported on July 31.

Tokyo organizers said the two participants had violated strict COVID-19 protocols.

It is the first dismissal of athletes at the Tokyo Olympics since the games begun on July 23, organizing committee spokesman Masanori Takaya said.

An official with Georgia’s National Olympic Committee identified the two as silver medalists Vazha Margvelashvili, 27 and Lasha Shavdatuashvili, 29 and said they had ventured out of the compound to meet "one of their good acquaintances" who lives in Japan.

"When they went outside of the village, no one stopped them at the exit. So they thought that they could go outside," the official who did not want to be named told the AFP news agency on July 31.

"They wanted just to have a bit of open air, to relax after a tough day of competition, after a tough lockdown period,” the official said.

Tokyo 2020 organizers said on July 31 they had taken disciplinary action on July 29 against at least one Olympics participant, without revealing how many people were involved or their identity.

Takaya, said at a press briefing on July 31 it was an "egregious case" of rule-breaking and the offenders are no longer allowed to enter Olympic facilities.

The Georgian NOC official said the pair had their accreditation revoked on July 29, but that they have now left Japan to return home.

Both athletes had been beaten to the gold medals by different Japanese judoka this week.

Athletes are tested daily while in Japan, where they are living in biosecure 'bubble' environment and must leave the country 48 hours after they have finished competing.

Athletes are not allowed to take public transportation and can only leave their accommodation to travel to Olympic venues.

Japan is facing a surge in coronavirus cases.

Based on reporting by Kyodo, dpa and AFP

CHISINAU -- Former Moldovan Finance Minister Natalia Gavrilita has welcomed her nomination by President Maia Sandu as prime minister-designate after her Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won snap elections earlier this month.

In a Twitter statement posted early on July 31, Gavrilita said she was "honored and humbled" to be nominated by President Sandu, who is also a member of the pro-Western PAS.

"It is a great responsibility to fulfill expectations of Moldovan people to improve institutions, ensure rule of law, and build economic prosperity," Gavrilita said.

Gavrilita and the cabinet that she proposes is expected to be approved by parliament.

That's because PAS won a parliamentary majority with 63 of the 101 seats in the legislature as a result of the July 11 elections.

PAS had campaigned on a platform of carrying out reforms and tackling corruption. It also advocates closer ties with the European Union and the United States.

The 43-year-old Gavrilita had been Moldova's finance minister in 2019 when Sandu was briefly prime minister in a government that fell in a no-confidence vote within months.

Before that, Gavrilita worked with the British-based consultancy Oxford Policy Management and at the non-profit Global Innovation Fund.

She received her education as an economist at Harvard University in the United States and at Moldova State University in Chisinau.

"I have full confidence that the designated prime minister will put together an integrated and professional team," Sandu wrote on Facebook on July 30.

Wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania -- with which it shares a common language -- Moldova is one of Europe's poorest states and has long been divided over whether to pursue closer ties with Brussels or maintain its Soviet-era relations with Moscow.

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President Sandu defeated her Moscow-backed predecessor Igor Dodon in a presidential election last November and called the July 11 elections in a successful bid to consolidate power.

"People expect a change for the better and for that we need firm actions and competent decisions that will have the interest of our citizens at heart," Sandu wrote on Facebook.

With reporting by Reuters and unimedia.md

The United States says it has laid off nearly 200 local employees from its diplomatic missions in Russia ahead of an August 1 deadline set by the Kremlin to do so -- a move made by Moscow in response to U.S. sanctions and the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on July 30 that the layoffs are regrettable and will severely impact the operations of U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

"Starting in August, the Russian government is prohibiting the United States from retaining, hiring, or contracting Russian or third-country staff, except our guard force,” Blinken said. “We are deeply saddened that this action will force us to let go of 182 local employees and dozens of contractors at our diplomatic facilities in Moscow, Vladivostok, and Yekaterinburg.”

The layoffs will potentially impact the safety of U.S. personnel "as well as our ability to engage in diplomacy with the Russian government," he added.

Blinken said the United States regrets the ban but "will follow through on our commitments while continuing to pursue a predictable and stable relationship with Russia."

The Russian Foreign Ministry was silent on the matter. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from RFE/RL.

Russia earlier this year announced a ban on almost all non-American staff at the embassy in Moscow as well as the U.S. consulates in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. That move came after Washington expelled Russian diplomats from the United States and tit-for-tat closures of diplomatic facilities in both countries amid deteriorating relations.

Russia announced its ban after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on April 15 outlining the expulsions of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against dozens of Russian individuals and entities.

Biden signed the order in response to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the jailing of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and other actions against the United States and its interests. In addition, the U.S. Treasury placed limits on the Russian sovereign debt market.

Russia responded by declaring 10 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as personae non gratae. They had to leave the country by May 21. The U.S. Embassy suspended routine consular services, and since May has been processing immigrant visas only in cases of life-or-death emergencies.

In his July 30 statement Blinken, thanked the dismissed local employees in Russia, saying the United States was "immensely grateful for the tireless dedication and commitment" they showed and their work to improve U.S.-Russia relations.

"Their dedication, expertise and friendship have been a mainstay of Mission Russia for decades," Blinken said.

With reporting by AP

Britain has joined Israel in accusing Iran of being behind an attack last week on an Israeli-managed oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people, a Briton and a Romanian.

The July 27 incident that damaged the Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned Mercer Street tanker was the first fatal attack on commercial shipping in the region explicitly linked by foreign leaders to heightened tensions with Iran in recent years.

“We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, adding that Britain and its allies planned a coordinated response over the strike.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accused Iran of "trying to shirk responsibility" for the incident and said Tehran's denials were "cowardly."

The U.S. Navy said on July 31 that a “drone strike” had targeted the Mercer Street and that its USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher were escorting the damaged tanker to a safe port.

The Mercer Street is managed by London-based Zodiac Maritime, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh described the allegation that Iran carried out the attack as “baseless.”

He told a weekly press conference on August 1 that Israel "has created insecurity, terror, and violence" and said "these accusations about Iran's involvement are condemned by Tehran."

Iran has blamed Israel for the assassination of a top nuclear scientist last year and a series of attacks on its nuclear facilities.

And Al Alam TV, the Iranian government's Arabic-language television network, cited unidentified sources as saying the attack was in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on an airport in Syria.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Iranian targets in Syria as part of a shadow war between the regional foes. In recent months, vessels linked to each nation have been mysteriously targeted in waters around the Middle East.

Tensions have risen in the Persian Gulf since the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP