Tajikistan has begun releasing the first group of prisoners under a mass amnesty affecting some 16,000 people.

Tajik lawmakers earlier this month approved an amnesty law proposed by President Emomali Rahmon to mark the former Soviet republic's 30th anniversary of independence on September 9.

The amnesty affects mainly women, individuals younger than 18 and older than 55, disabled persons, inmates with serious illnesses, people with state awards, war veterans, and foreign nationals.

The amnesty doesn't affect political prisoners in the tightly controlled country.

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Around 10,000 convicts will be released from penitentiaries of different security levels and the prison terms of another 6,000 inmates will be shortened.

RFE/RL reported on September 22 that the first group of 605 inmates were release the previous day from Yavan prison and dozens more from the Nurek women's prison and reunited with relatives.

Prison officials in Bokhtar, the capital of Khatlon Province, said they had released prisoners as well, but the exact number wasn't clear.

The Ministry of Justice's Penitentiary Department told RFE/RL that the release of prisoners from the Yakum Sovetsky prison in the capital, Dushanbe, will begin in the coming days.

Individuals sentenced to life in prison, those who committed a crime after receiving a previous pardon, people who committed crimes while serving prison sentences, and inmates who systematically violated prison order regulations will not be included in the amnesty.

According to the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report, detainees and inmates in Tajikistan have described harsh and life-threatening conditions in the country's prisons, including extreme overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

In a speech before the UN General Assembly in New York, President Maia Sandu again called or the departure of Russian troops from Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region.

Some 1,400 Russian troops are still stationed in Transdniester, which declared independence from Moldova in 1990, ostensibly to protect Soviet-era arms depots.

"I'd like to reiterate that our position with regard to the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the the Russian forces [from Transdniester] remains unchanged," Sandu told the General Assembly on September 22.

"This also includes the removal or the destruction of the munitions stored in the Cobasna depots (eds: in northern Transdniester) that remain a threat for the security and the environment of the region and beyond. We count on the support of the international community in reaching this objective," Sandu added.

Transdniester fought a short war in 1992 with Moldova over fears that the newly independent country would seek reunification with neighboring Romania.

The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops stationed in the region since Soviet times intervened on the side of the separatists.

Several rounds of negotiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have failed to bring the conflict to a resolution, despite the involvement of the United States and the European Union in the mediation process.

Sandu, who defeated Russian-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020 on a ticket of closer relations with the West, has repeatedly called for Russian troops in Transdniester to be removed in favor of civilian monitors under the auspices of the OSCE.

The Kremlin has rebuffed the idea, saying it could lead to a "serious destabilization" of the situation.

Ukraine's parliament has passed a law defining anti-Semitism and banning it in the country.

The Verkhovna Rada on September 22 approved a second reading of the bill by 283 votes with the required minimum of 226, sending it to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for his signature to become law.

Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, has said he lost relatives in the Holocaust.

An estimated 0.2 percent of Ukraine's population of 41 million is Jewish.

The legislation defines anti-Semitism as hatred of Jews, calling for or justifying attacks on the minority, making false or hateful statements about Jews, and denying the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.

Damaging buildings, monuments, or religious institutions would also fall under the definition of anti-Semitism.

"The lack of a clear definition of anti-Semitism in Ukrainian legislation does not allow for the proper classification of crimes committed on its basis," the law's authors said.

"In practice, this leads to the actual impunity of offenders," they said.

Under the bill, victims can claim compensation for material and moral damage and violators may face penalties under existing hate-crime laws.

An estimated 1.5 million of Ukraine's pre-World War II Jewish population was killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

In one of the worst atrocities, nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children were killed in mass shootings on the edge of the capital, Kyiv, on September 29-30, 1941, in what is known as the Babyn Yar massacre.

With reporting by Reuters and Kyiv Post

The border between Kosovo and Serbia has remained blocked for a third straight day by ethnic Serbs protesting a decision by the Pristina authorities to start removing Serbian license plates from cars entering the country.

The ongoing dispute has raised fears that it may unleash much deeper tensions between the two neighbors.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on September 22 that his country and Serbia should start recognizing each other's car license plates to allow free movement of people and goods and ease border tensions.

Kurti called on Serbs to move vehicles away "because they are blocking themselves." A few hundred Serbs spent the night in tents and blocked the roads to the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings with trucks.

They were now camping in tents by the trucks parked in the middle of the roads leading to the border.

"Our offer is very practical, let's lift the temporary plates, in Serbia and in Kosovo," Kurti said at a government meeting.

"Neither our state or citizens nor Kosovar Serbs or Serbia are interested in incidents and escalation" of the tension, Kurti said, accusing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of being the "only one individual...interested in that. We are for dialogue."

Tensions soared on September 20 when Kosovo special police with armored vehicles were sent to the border to impose the same rule of temporarily replacing Serbian license plates on cars while they are in Kosovo.

Serbia, which doesn't recognize its former province as a separate state and considers its border with Kosovo an "administrative" and temporary boundary, has for years taken off registration plates from Kosovo-registered cars entering Serbia. Drivers need to pay five euros (nearly $6) for a 60-day temporary license plate.

Kosovar authorities say a 2016 deal reached in European Union-mediated talks had expired and only proper Kosovar symbols were now valid.

Vucic, who convened a session of the national Security Council on September 21, described Kosovo's decision as a "criminal action" and urged Pristina to withdraw all troops, "then we can go to Brussels and discuss everything and possibly reach an agreement."

Vucic convened the session to discuss the measures that Belgrade will take "if Kosovo does not change its decision." He said that the measures would primarily be economic.

The EU and United States urged Kosovo and Serbia to exercise restraint "immediately, without any delay," and refrain from unilateral actions.

Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani met with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in New York and urged the bloc that "efforts on tensioning [sic] and destabilization from illegal structures supported by Serbia should be judged from the EU."

In a tweet on September 22, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi urged both Kosovo and Serbia "to exercise restraint and deescalate the tensions, return to dialogue and ensure freedom of movement without delay. Unilateral actions are never a solution. They only lead to unnecessary tensions and should be withdrawn."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

The European Union has summoned Georgia's envoy to Brussels, Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, after leaked files alleged the country's security agency spied on the bloc's diplomats and others.

EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell told reporters on September 22 that the alleged spying by "a close friend and partner like Georgia" raised serious questions about the relationship between the two and compliance with diplomatic norms.

"A surveillance society is not what should be part of a democratic society," Hartzell said.

Georgian media have reported that thousands of leaked files, released by a whistleblower last week, showed the State Security Service eavesdropped on Hartzell, U.S. diplomats, Israel's ambassador, and other diplomatic missions in Tbilisi.

Although many of the recordings focused on the Georgian Orthodox Church and its ties to Russia, some allegedly reveal security agents listening in on the conversations of Georgian journalists, opposition politicians, and diplomats.

Hartzell said the "the volume and nature" of the alleged eavesdropping appeared to go beyond the normal activities of security agencies in addressing potential threats.

Surveillance "should be used carefully, [has] to be monitored, and kept under control with appropriate oversight," Hartzell said.

"Because on the other side of this spectrum lies the privacy of individuals, the right to private space and not to be surveilled in an arbitrary manner," he added.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili of the ruling Georgian Dream party has dismissed the recordings as a "fabrication and falsification" put forward by the opposition, while also defending the security services.

"The state has the State Security Service because it conducts legitimate wiretaps within the limits established by law. This is obvious to everyone. The whole world is governed in this way," he said.

Last week, the European External Action Service, the EU's foreign-policy wing, told RFE/RL that it was aware of the alleged spying, saying the bloc would take "appropriate steps" in response.

"This is a very serious matter since it has implications in the framework of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations," Peter Stano, the lead spokesman for EU external affairs, said.

With reporting by Civil.ge

Top U.S. and Russian military officials have held a "constructive" meeting to discuss issues of mutual interest and how to lower the risk of incidents during military exercises.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, met just north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on September 22 as Washington looks to shore up its intelligence gathering and sharing in Afghanistan now that it has no boots on the ground after withdrawing the remainder of its troops from the war-wracked country last month.

Russia has rejected the deployment of any U.S. troops in countries neighboring Afghanistan -- namely the former Soviet republics in the region, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, or Tajikistan.

The two sides agreed not to disclose details of the talks, as has been the practice in previous meetings and calls, though Milley said afterward that "it was a productive meeting. When military leaders of great powers communicate, the world is a safer place."

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement the "meeting was constructive" with issues of "mutual interest" addressed.

U.S. military and intelligence officials have warned that Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group could regenerate and pose a threat to the United States in one to two years.

To minimize the risk of that happening, Washington is looking for places to conduct counterterrorism surveillance and, if necessary, strikes in Afghanistan.

Based on reporting by AP, TASS, and Reuters

MOSCOW -- Russia's government has approved measures aimed at halving the number of abortions carried out in the country before 2025, according to a document published on its website.

The plan is part of the government's latest long-term blueprint for improving the demographic situation in the country through 2025, amid a recently resumed decline in population growth after a decade of sluggish but stable increases.

The blueprint also sets forward plans for a significant reduction in infant and maternal mortality, and a rise in general reproductive health.

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Rising Mortality Rates Challenge Russia's Efforts To Kick-Start Population Growth

As part of the new measures regarding abortion, the authorities plan to improve public access to legal, psychological, and medical assistance for pregnant women considering terminating their pregnancies.

The program also sets out the goal of ensuring that 80 percent of women considering an abortion undergo consultations with a doctor, with a focus on increasing the likelihood that they reject the procedure.

The official document, which was flagged by Russian media after its publication online, has elicited controversy among women's rights activists, who insist that abortion should be a universal right and that the state's role in regulating it should be minimal.

Many have also taken issue with the document's focus on "strengthening traditional family values," often seen in Russia as a euphemism for homophobic sentiment and advocacy of conservative policies.

But the latest effort to limit abortions fits into a consistent pattern. In December 2020, lawmaker Oksana Pushkina denounced a Health Ministry resolution that set out the conditions under which women could terminate pregnancies by arguing that such restrictions will lead to a "catastrophe."

She cited massive protests in Poland, an EU country that announced a near-total ban on abortion earlier this year.

"I've received a whole mass of complaints from women's organizations and communities, and personal messages from Russian women who ask that I prevent them from being stripped of their right to end pregnancies," Pushkina said.

Pushkina was widely considered Russia's most progressive lawmaker until she gave up her seat in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, after deciding not to seek another term in elections that took place last week.

Her absence in parliament will make it harder for feminists to slow the progress of an anti-abortion campaign that has been endorsed by Putin, who has made improving Russia's demography a key pillar of his presidency.

In his state-of-the-nation address in January 2020, he described Russia's declining population as one of the country's biggest problems.

"Exiting this demographic trap is our historical duty," he said. "The preservation and growth of our nation is the highest national priority."

One year later, in a videoconference with officials, he backed plans to proactively discourage Russian women from terminating pregnancies.

"Simply convincing a woman not to have an abortion is obviously important, but what’s more important is creating conditions to help the woman and her family in raising the child, placing the child on its feet, and giving the child the possibility to receive a decent education," he said.

In March, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that the number of abortions in Russia had declined by 39 percent since 2016.

"Those are serious numbers," she told a government session.

With reporting and writing by Matthew Luxmoore

Russian authorities say an aircraft with six people on board has disappeared from radar in the Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk.

Communication was lost with the Antonov An-26 aircraft while it was flying “38 kilometers from the Khabarovsk city airport, presumably in the area of Khekhtsir Nature Reserve."

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said the plane was carrying a crew of six people, according to preliminary data, adding that the aircraft was performing a technical flight.

"Searches are complicated by the dark time of the day and unfavorable weather conditions," the ministry said.

A group of rescuers and an Mi-8 helicopter have been dispatched to the area.

The An-26 is a civilian and military transport plane equipped with two turboprop engines designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.

Based on reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti

A Russian researcher known for detailed analyses of past elections says fraud was a major factor in the State Duma election victory of the ruling United Russia party.

Sergei Shpilkin, who published his analysis on September 21, two days after the Duma election concluded, said that, without vote manipulation, the Kremlin-backed party would have likely received around 31-33 percent of ballots in the party-list voting -- not the nearly 50 percent reported by the Central Election Commission.

Shpilkin’s analysis adds to the growing clouds looming over the vote, which was already under suspicion due to the concentrated state crackdown on the alternative voter-guide strategy promoted by jailed corruption crusader Aleksei Navalny, among other things.

The preliminary results released by the Central Election Commission indicate that United Russia preserved its two-thirds majority in the Duma, which would enable it to pass major legislation and even constitutional amendments without help from other parties.

SEE ALSO:

For Russia's Opposition, 'The Least-Worst Option' Was Key In the Duma Vote. Did It Work?

In 2020, the Duma voted for amendments that allow President Vladimir Putin to seek two more six-year terms after his current tenure ends in 2024. He has not indicated whether he will.

United Russia’s success came even as preelection polls showed the party’s approval ratings were below 30 percent – the worst in its roughly two decades of existence.

In his analysis published on Facebook, Shpilkin, a physicist by training, estimated that United Russia's genuine support was between 31 and 33 percent.

Shpilikin also estimated that nationwide turnout was likely 38 percent of voters, compared with the official figure of 52 percent.

His analysis was based on data across the country’s 97,000 individual polling stations, examining outlier polling stations where high turnout was reported as well as high vote tallies for United Russia.

Among the biggest clouds hanging over the results is the new electronic voting system that was used in Moscow and six other locations this year. Election authorities billed the system as a way to help minimize the dangers of COVID-19, which has hit Russia hard.

SEE ALSO:

'A Dress Rehearsal': Russia's Marred Duma Elections Could Point The Way For 2024 Presidential Ballot

But outside observers and independent election experts say it’s impossible to access and analyze the raw data, leaving the door open to manipulation.

Experts have already identified several districts in Moscow where results are unusual, particularly compared with past election patterns; the release of early results on September 20 was postponed several times.

As a result, out of 15 Moscow single-mandate districts, eight that initially had opposition candidates in the lead eventually ended up going to United Russia candidates.

Electronic voting is "an absolute evil, a black box that no one controls," Shpilkin wrote.

"It is impossible to investigate a million votes piled up in one heap - you can analyze an array of numbers. But in the case of the results of electronic voting, we are shown only the results of several parties and one number on the turnout. There are simply not enough details for analysis," he said.

Shpilkin gained widespread attention in 2012 for his statistical analysis of the 2011 election for the Duma and regional legislatures. He concluded the vote was tainted by fraud.

In the 2016 Duma vote and the 2018 presidential vote, in which Putin won reelection, Shpilkin found similar levels of fraud.

His jagged chart representation of alleged fraud in the 2018 vote gave rise to the term "Churov’s Saw" -- a reference to the head of the Central Election Commission at the time, Vladimir Churov, who oversaw several elections rife with allegations of manipulation.

An Estonian newspaper is reporting that Russian opposition politician Lyubov Sobol has settled in Estonia with her young daughter after fleeing her homeland this summer following her conviction and sentencing at a Moscow court on charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Sobol, a close associate of imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, arrived in Estonia in August, Eesti Ekspress reported on September 21, after she was found guilty for allegedly violating coronavirus protocols with her calls for people to rally in support of the Kremlin critic. She was sentenced to 18 months of parole-like limits on her freedom.

Her lawyer called the court ruling "written by investigators and affirmed by prosecutors," and said her client would appeal.

Media reports later said that Sobol and Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh -- who was found guilty of the same offense and handed the same sentence -- fled Russia, which has not been confirmed either by the two women or their lawyers.

The case against Sobol was launched after she and several other Navalny associates and supporters were detained on the eve of unsanctioned mass rallies against Navalny's latest arrest in mid-January.

Eesti Ekspress said that contacts in Estonia helped Sobol settle in and enroll her daughter in school.

"She is going between a few places. She's also going elsewhere, outside of Estonia," said a friend of Sobol who has been assisting her, according to the newspaper.

It said the friend did not want to share more details about Sobol so as not to "hand out information to the Kremlin’s butchers."

According to the Moscow ruling in early August, Sobol was barred from leaving her home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., attending public events, or leaving Moscow. Sobol was also ordered to report to a parole officer three times a month.

Separately, another court in the Russian capital sentenced Sobol in April to a one-year suspended sentence of correctional labor after finding her guilty of trespassing in what she described as a ruling designed to silence her.

Navalny was arrested after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he says was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has denied any role in the incident, which was the latest of numerous attacks on Navalny.

In February, Navalny was convicted of violating the terms of a suspended sentence related to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated. The remainder of Navalny's suspended sentence, 2 1/2 years, was then replaced with a real prison term.

With reporting by Eesti Ekspress

A group of independent municipal and regional deputies has launched a petition demanding all results from September 17-19 elections across Russia be invalidated due to numerous violations and irregularities in the voting.

The Association of Independent Municipal and Regional Deputies said Central Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova failed to ensure "fair and transparent" elections, and "in fact your [Pamfilova's] actions led to the exact opposite result."

"The brightest opposition politicians were not allowed to participate in the elections under far-fetched and unjust pretexts," the appeal says, adding that "multiday voting led to increased opportunities for massive falsifications."

The Central Election Commission announced on September 21 that, with all of the votes counted, the Kremlin-backed United Russia party won 49.82 percent of the ballots, well ahead of its closest rival, the Communist Party with 18.93 percent.

The preliminary final results of the three-day election, which was marred by the lack of a significant opposition presence, showed United Russia candidates took 112 seats in the State Duma through voting by party list and 198 seats through voting in single-mandate districts nationwide. That gives the party a comfortable two-thirds majority in the 450-seat Duma. Such a supermajority is required for making changes to the constitution.

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Disappearing Ink: Another Item In Russia's Election Bag Of Tricks?

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The election, held over the weekend alongside elections for regional governors and local legislative assemblies, was also widely seen as an important part of Putin's efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of a possible run in the 2024 presidential vote, making control of the State Duma key.

Many critics say the Kremlin carefully managed the elections from the start, with the opposition largely barred from running and a crackdown on government opponents that shows no sign of abating.

In a major blow to opposition candidates, jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny's election-guide app aimed at eroding United Russia’s stranglehold on politics disappeared from the Apple and Google online stores on September 17, the day voting started. Navalny's associates decried the move as censorship, and slammed the tech giants for bowing to Putin's pressure tactics.

SEE ALSO:

For Russia's Opposition, 'The Least-Worst Option' Was Key In the Duma Vote. Did It Work?

The petition chided Pamfilova for overseeing an election process where the rights of independent observers were "subject to constant illegal restrictions," while restrictions to reporting at polling stations aimed at transparency were shut down, making "the voting process as closed as possible and setting the entire electoral system back a decade."

"We, citizens of the Russian Federation, municipal deputies, deputies of different levels and independent observers, demand that you, Ella Alexandrovna [Pamfilova], stop the lawlessness and return, when making your decisions, to the legal field of modern democracy," says the petition, which attracted almost 3,700 signatures within the first few hours of being posted online.

Human rights watchdog Freedom House says global Internet freedom has declined dramatically in Belarus, where last year’s disputed presidential election led the authorities to repeatedly restrict access to the Internet, increase social media surveillance, and detain and use "deadly force” against online activists.

According to the report Freedom on the Net 2021, published by Washington-based Freedom House on September 21, the "repressive campaign" by authorities against Internet liberty continued into this year, leading to a seven-point decline in the country's Internet freedom -- a drop surpassed only by Burma.

Mass protests broke out across Belarus against alleged election fraud after the official results of a August 2020 vote handed authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office.

The protest movement was met with a brutal crackdown on demonstrators and the opposition from Lukashenka’s government, with hundreds of people being prosecuted and jailed.

The opposition and the West have refused to recognize the results and called for a new, independently monitored vote.

Lukashenka's postelection crackdown included the closure of the offices and blocking of the websites of TUT.by and Nasha Niva, two popular independent media outlets in the country, and the forced diversion in May of a Ryanair flight to Minsk to arrest opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich, the former editor in chief of the popular NEXTA channel on the Telegram messaging platform.

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Freedom on the Net is an annual report of human rights in the digital sphere. This year’s report assesses Internet access developments in 70 countries during the period spanning from June 2020 to May 2021.

Overall, the report says global Internet freedom declined for the 11th consecutive year, with the greatest deterioration being documented in Burma, followed by Belarus and Uganda.

'Draconian Prison Terms'

China ranked as the worst environment for Internet freedom for the seventh year in a row, with the authorities imposing "draconian prison terms for online dissent, independent reporting, and mundane daily communications."

In the United States, "false, misleading, and manipulated information continued to proliferate online, affecting public acceptance of the 2020 presidential election results." That led to the country’s score declining for the fifth consecutive year.

Officials in at least 48 countries have pursued new rules for tech companies on content, data, and competition to "subdue free expression and gain greater access to private data," according to Freedom House.

Authorities suspended Internet access in at least 20 countries, and 21 states blocked access to social media platforms, while authorities in at least 45 countries are "suspected of obtaining sophisticated spyware or data-extraction technology from private vendors."

Along with Belarus, Freedom House defines Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Iran as being "not free" countries regarding their level of the Internet freedom.

Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan are described as "partly free," while Georgia, Armenia, Serbia, and Hungary are deemed to be "free."

'Labyrinth Of Regulations'

In Russia, Freedom House says the government "added to the labyrinth of regulations that international tech companies must navigate in the country."

It cited a January law introducing new fines for websites and platforms that fail to remove content the state deems "illegal," while legislation in February reinforced platforms' obligations to identify and remove banned content and required them to coordinate with the federal regulator regarding content moderation decisions.

Iran was among governments that imposed "especially egregious sentences" against people arrested or convicted for their online speech.

Ruhollah Zam, the manager of the popular Telegram channel Amadnews, was executed in December 2020 after he was accused of inciting violence during Iran's 2017 protests.

SEE ALSO:

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

Internet users faced physical attacks in retribution for their online activities in dozens of countries, including in Azerbaijan, where one of them was beaten and forced to apologize by local police in January for Facebook posts in which he criticized local government officials.

A hail of bullets ripped through a car transporting Serhiy Shefir, a top aide of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in what senior officials have called an attempt to intimidate the country's leadership as it tries to tackle corruption.

Shefir was unharmed when more than 10 bullets tore into his car in the attack at around 10 a.m. local time on September 22 in the village of Lisnykiy just outside of Kyiv.

Local media said almost double that number of bullet holes were visible on the driver's side of the car. Police said the driver was wounded but gave no further details. There were no other passengers in the car, which did not have armor plating.

Shefir leads a group of advisers to Zelenskiy, who was elected in 2019 in part on a platform of tackling the country's notorious deep-seated corruption, including the undue influence of powerful businessmen known as oligarchs, and cleaning up the court system.

Police said they were investigating the case as attempted murder and mentioned three possible motives. They include an attempt to pressure the country's leadership, create political destabilization, or an attack engineered by a foreign intelligence service.

"The aim of this crime was not to simply intimidate, but to assassinate the Ukrainian president's top aide," Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy told journalists in Kyiv.

"I would like to stress that the presidential team of Ukraine cannot be intimidated. All of the initiated reforms, including the fight against organized crime, will be continued," he added.

On July 1, Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party approved in the first reading a draft bill -- known as "the oligarch law" -- that seeks to introduce a legal definition for a tycoon and impose limitations, including blocking them from financing political parties.

Parliament is this week due to debate the law directed at limiting the influence of oligarchs.

The United States has long called on Ukraine to tackle the handful of tycoons who wield enormous political influence from behind the scenes to the detriment of the country and its citizens.

Zelenskiy, who is currently in the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, vowed a "strong response" to the shooting, which occurred as the car passed by a wooded area.

"It is weakness to say 'hello' to me by shooting at my friend's car from a forest. But the response will be strong," Zelenskiy said in a video statement from New York, adding that he would be doubling down on his planned reforms rather than backing off.

Shefir, who called the attack nothing more than an attempt at "intimidation," and Zelenskiy have worked together for years.

In 2003 he co-founded a production company called Kvartal 95 with his brother Boris and Zelenskiy, who was then a comedic actor .

Shefir produced and wrote The Servant Of The People, a show in which Zelenskiy portrayed a schoolteacher who becomes president and which eventually launched his political career.

Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook that police had opened an investigation into attempted murder.

"The intentions of the criminals were quite serious," National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and AFP

Classes at Perm State University, the site of a shooting rampage earlier this week that left six people dead and dozens of others injured, will resume next week.

Perm regional Governor Dmitry Makhonin said on September 22 that students will return to their classrooms on September 27, allowing time for police to finish their investigation into the attack.

Dressed in black tactical gear and wielding a smooth-bore hunting rifle, Timur Bekmansurov walked on to the campus where he was enrolled on September 20, entered a building, and then opened fire on his fellow students, many of whom jumped from second-story windows to flee the scene.

One man and five women aged between 18 and 66 were killed in the shooting spree.

Regional Health Minister Anastasia Kuten said on September 22 that 11 of the 43 people injured in the attack remain in the hospital.

The 18-year-old gunman was wounded by police while being apprehended.

He remains in the hospital in serious condition after having the lower part of his leg amputated, Kuten said.

Police are investigating the shooting and have yet to say what Bekmansurov’s motive was.

The shooting was the second major attack by a gunman at a school in Russia in four months and underscores a rise in such attacks, which were once considered extremely rare in Russia.

The university, which has an enrollment of about 12,000, is located in the city of Perm, about 1,200 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

A ransomware attack believed to be the work of Russian hackers has forced an association of corn and soy farmers based in the U.S. state of Iowa to take its systems offline.

New Cooperative said in a statement that the attack was “successfully contained” and that it had quickly notified law enforcement.

The statement said the association took its systems offline out of “an abundance of caution” and was working with data security professionals to remedy the situation. It did not specify when the ransomware attack occurred.

The cooperative has created workarounds to receive grain and distribute feed, according to news reports on September 21 quoting people close to the business.

The hackers demanded a $5.9 million ransom for a key to decrypt files they scrambled, according to security researcher Allan Liska of Recorded Future.

New Cooperative stores and sells the grain it collects from farmers and offers feed for chickens, hogs, and cattle along with fertilizer, crop protection, and seed.

The attack on its systems follows ransomware attacks earlier this year that targeted targeted companies and critical infrastructure, including a major U.S. pipeline and a meatpacker. There was also an attack on the software firm Kaseya that impacted some 1,500 businesses.

The attack on New Cooperative, which is believed to have been launched last week just as Iowa's corn and soy harvesting got under way, has been attributed to a group called BlackMatter.

BlackMatter has threatened to publish 1 terabyte of data it claims to have stolen from New Cooperative if its ransom demand is not paid by September 25.

The data includes invoices, research and development documents, and the source code to the cooperative’s soil-mapping technology, according to cybersecurity experts quoted by The Washington Post.

Security researchers believe BlackMatter may be a reconstituted version of the ransomware syndicate DarkSide, another operation believed to be tied to Russia, that disrupted Colonial Pipeline in May and then disbanded.

That ransomware attack disrupted fuel service for six days to the U.S. East Coast, and Colonial Pipeline officials eventually paid a $4.4 million ransom. Federal law enforcement officials were able to get a portion of the ransom back and sideline much of DarkSide’s infrastructure.

But experts cautioned at the time that the hackers would probably reemerge.

REvil, another Russian-based cybercrime operation, carried out a ransomware attack in June on JBS, the world's largest meat producer. The company eventually paid an $11 million ransom. In July, REvil claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. company Kaseya.

After the attack on Kaseya, President Joe Biden repeated a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States would take "any necessary action" to defend Americans and critical infrastructure threatened by cyberattacks.

Biden had previously warned Putin about ransomware attacks during the two leaders’ summit in June.

The United States is also moving to cut off the flow of money by sanctioning cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitate the ransom payments.

On September 21, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Russian-based cryptocurrency exchange over its alleged role in facilitating the payments.

With reporting by Reuters and the Washington Post

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has issued a pardon to more than 2,000 prisoners ahead of the former Soviet state's Independence Day on September 27.

State media reported on September 20 that the authoritarian president signed a decree releasing 2,064 prisoners based on the "principles of mercy and humanism bequeathed by our great ancestors."

Six of the pardoned prisoners are reportedly foreign nationals from unspecified countries.

Berdymukhammedov, who rules the closed country with an iron fist, issues such pardons several times a year, usually on the eve of state or religious holidays. Such acts usually do not cover political prisoners.

In May, Berdymukhammedov released more than 1,000 prisoners, including 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses who had refused compulsory military service, on the occasion of the Night of Revelation, an important holiday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In December last year, another 2,082 people were amnestied, including four foreign citizens, to mark the national Neutrality Day holiday.

The latest pardon comes after RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported earlier this month that prisons in the country are suffering from large outbreaks of COVID-19 and shortages of food and medicine.

The government has not publicly confirmed a single coronavirus infection since the start of the pandemic last year despite reports of overwhelmed hospitals and the introduction of health measures in all regions of the country.

Kazakhstan will switch from its current Russian dialing code, +7, to its own national international dialing code, +997, the government said.

The Ministry of Digital Development announced the policy change on September 21, saying it would be coordinated with Russia.

The former Soviet republic plans to switch to a new national prefix from January 2023 and the transition plan has been discussed with telecom operators.

When the new code goes into effect, the new and old codes can be used in parallel for two years.

The full transition is expected to take effect as of 2025.

The United States has imposed sanctions on a Russian-based cryptocurrency exchange over its alleged role in facilitating illegal payments from ransomware attacks.

The Treasury Department action on September 21 targeted SUEX, in what officials said was the first sanctions leveled against a cryptocurrency exchange laundering money for cybercriminals.

This year, ransomware attacks have targeted companies and critical infrastructure, including a major U.S. pipeline and a meatpacker. There was also an attack on the software firm Kaseya that impacted some 1,500 businesses.

Ransomware payments surged last year to over $400 million, more than four times their level in 2019, according to the U.S. government.

But those payments represent only a fraction of economic harm caused by cyberattacks, which have disrupted critical sectors, including financial services, health care, and energy.

“Ransomware and cyberattacks are victimizing businesses large and small across America and are a direct threat to our economy,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

In a ransomware attack, hackers take control of a company or organization’s computer systems and data. They unblock it only after receiving payments, typically in cryptocurrency.

Although SUEX is registered in the Czech Republic, it has no physical presence there and operates out of Russia instead.

U.S. officials said that 40 percent of SUEX’s known transaction history is associated with illicit transactions.

According to cryptocurrency-tracking firm Chainalysis, SUEX is among the most active of a small group of illicit services that handle most money laundering for cybercriminals.

"In Bitcoin alone, SUEX's deposit addresses hosted at large exchanges have received over $160 million from ransomware actors, scammers and darknet market operators," said a report from Chainalysis.

The sanctions block Suex's access to all U.S. property and prohibit Americans from transacting with the company.

Suspected Russia-based criminal groups have been linked to high-profile ransomware attacks, including the one on Colonial Pipeline and Kaseya. Although U.S. officials say the attacks originate in Russia, it is less clear whether there is direct state involvement. Russia denies responsibility.

The issue has become so prominent that at a Geneva summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, President Joe Biden said the two leaders discussed keeping 16 types of critical infrastructure off-limits to cyberattacks, including the energy and water sectors.

In a separate phone call in July, Biden called on Putin to take action to disrupt ransomware groups operating in Russia and vowed to defend companies and critical infrastructure from ransomware attacks.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Two United Nations agencies have requested immediate access to asylum seekers stranded at Belarus's border with European Union members Poland and Lithuania, after four migrants were found dead in the area.

The International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency called on the governments involved to be guided primarily by human rights and international law as they try to stop people from illegally entering the EU.

"IOM and UNHCR call for immediate access to those affected, in order to provide lifesaving medical help, food, water and shelter, especially in light of the approaching winter," the two agencies said in a statement on September 21.

Poland and Lithuania received an unusually large number of migrants and refugees from Belarus in recent months. They accuse Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government of trying to destabilize the 27-nation EU.

The border pressure began after Western countries slapped sanctions on Lukashenka’s government over the country's disputed August 2020 presidential election and a crackdown on the opposition.

The UN agencies also called for an investigation into the four deaths.

The governments of Poland and Lithuania declared states of emergency that deny entry to some border regions to anyone except border guards and security services. They are also building razor wire fences along their border with Belarus.

Poland’s authorities said three people who were found dead on September 19 close to the Belarusian border died from hypothermia and exhaustion. Polish border guards also saw the body of a woman close to the border, on the Belarusian side.

The UN agencies, both based in Geneva, said the nationalities of the people who died have not been confirmed, but two of the victims who died of hypothermia were believed to be from Iraq.

The agencies said they were “following with growing concern, reports of pushbacks of people at these borders. Groups of people have become stranded for weeks, unable to access any form of assistance, asylum or basic services. Many were left in dire situations, exposed to the elements, suffering from hypothermia. Some were rescued from swamps."

Refusing to allow asylum seekers to seek protection is considered a violation of international law.

With reporting by AP

The acting head of Afghanistan's Taliban-led government, Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund, has met in Kabul with representatives from Russia, China, and Pakistan, Taliban official Ahmadullah Muttaqi tweeted on September 21.

Muttaqi also uploaded photos purportedly showing the Russian envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq Khan, and China’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong.

Muttaqi also said the Taliban was represented by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Acting Minister of Finance Hedayatullah Badri. No details of the meeting were immediately available.

Moscow and Beijing have shown a united front on Afghanistan in the run-up to last month's hasty completion of the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from the war-wracked country, with the Russian and Chinese leaders holding consultations on the situation following the power vacuum that resulted from the fall of the foreign-backed government and the Taliban's subsequent seizure of Kabul.

In the latest such contact, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on August 25.

Chinese media said after the call that Putin told Xi he shares China's positions and interests in Afghanistan and he is willing to work with China to "prevent foreign forces from interfering and destroying" the South Asian country.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

New Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi wants talks with world powers to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal to lead to the removal of all U.S. sanctions.

"The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions," Raisi told the UN General Assembly in a prerecorded speech on September 21.

Iran held six rounds of talks this year with world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving the nuclear accord, which was abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018. The negotiations were suspended in June when the hard-line Raisi was elected.

Earlier, President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly that the United States will return to the nuclear deal "in full" if Tehran does the same and will "engage Iran diplomatically."

Trump reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to gradually breach its commitments under the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The talks in Vienna, being mediated by European parties to the deal, have been hung up on the technical details of Iran’s compliance with its nuclear commitments and the timing and extent of U.S. sanctions relief.

The United States, China, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, and Iran are the original parties to the JCPOA.

Earlier on September 21, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the Vienna talks "will resume soon and over the next few weeks," adding that "every meeting requires prior coordination and the preparation of an agenda."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is leading talks on behalf of European powers, said on September 20 that he will meet with his new Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on the sidelines of the UN this week.

"After the elections, the new presidency asked for the delay in order to fully take stock of the negotiations and understand better everything about this very sensitive file," Borrell said. "The summer has already passed by and we expect that the talks can be resuming soon in Vienna."

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

MOSCOW – Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has accused the Kremlin of using "intimidation and repression" to steal parliamentary elections that saw the ruling United Russia party retain its constitutional majority amid widespread reports of voting irregularities and ballot tampering.

Writing in an Instagram message from prison, Navalny said on September 21 that his tactical voting system was "a huge success," weakening the party of President Vladimir Putin's choice, only to have the results "redrawn in the most primitive way."

"The crooks twisted the results on the scoreboard to make their winnings look more convincing," he said in the post.

"A fake result is lit on the scoreboard. Our observers were dragged from the polling stations. Intimidation and repression have robbed many of their will, and people are simply afraid to take to the streets," he added.

Hours earlier, the release of full preliminary voting results showed the Kremlin-backed United Russia party maintained its constitutional majority in the lower house of parliament in an election denounced by the West and described by an independent monitoring agency as "one of the dirtiest" in Russian history.

The Central Election Commission announced on September 21 that with all of the votes counted United Russia won 49.82 percent of the vote -- marking a drop of 6 percentage points in support from the previous elections in 2016.

According to preliminary final results of the three-day elections, which were marred by the lack of a significant opposition presence, United Russia candidates took 112 seats in the State Duma, along with 198 single-mandate constituencies across the country.

That gives the party a comfortable two-thirds majority in the Duma's 450 seats needed to make changes to the constitution.

United Russia's closest rival, the Communist Party, received 18.93 percent of the vote -- nearly 6 percentage points higher than in the previous elections.

Three other parties cleared the 5 percent hurdle required for representation in the State Duma: the Liberal Democratic Party with 7.55 percent of the vote, A Just Russia with 7.46 percent, and a newcomer party, New People, received 5.32 percent.

Turnout was reported at 51.6 percent.

Final results are to be announced on September 24.

The elections, held over the weekend alongside votes for regional governors and local legislative assemblies, are widely seen as an important part of Putin’s efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of a possible run in the 2024 presidential vote, making control of the State Duma key.

The vote was also criticized by the West, with the European Union denouncing "an atmosphere of intimidation of all the critical independent voices" in the run-up to the voting.

Many critics say the Kremlin carefully managed from the start, with the opposition largely barred from running and a crackdown on government opponents that shows no sign of abating.

The vote was a major event for Navalny, the jailed corruption crusader whose allies had invested heavily in their Smart Voting strategy, aimed at eroding United Russia’s stranglehold on politics.

As the vote kicked off on September 17, Navalny’s election-guide app disappeared from the Apple and Google online stores in what his associates slammed as censorship and bowing to pressure, and Telegram removed the Smart Voting bot after the company announced it would "limit the functioning of bots associated with election campaigns."

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Navalny has languished in prison since February on what he and the West call politically motivated charges. All of his top aides have fled the country since his network was declared an “extremist organization” and outlawed by the government in June.

For the first time since 1993, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were not present due to limitations imposed by Russian authorities.

A co-chairman of the independent election-monitoring group Golos said 78,000 more electronic votes had appeared in the officials' Moscow tally than were issued, highlighting what they called a "shame" and "one of the dirtiest" elections in Russian history.

Navalny, who is the Kremlin’s most potent domestic critic, tried to end his Instagram post on a more positive note, urging his supporters to fight on in the battle for democracy.

"We have one country no matter where we live," the 45-year-old said on his Instagram account which is being run by his team.

"And the fight for it is not a sprint but a long and hard marathon."

Several hundred Communist demonstrators turned out in protest against the results in Moscow’s Pushkin Square in the evening on September 20 as police looked on.

Iron fences and police vans could be seen near the central square on the morning of September 21 ahead of the possibilities of more protests.

Across the country, there were reports of ballot-box stuffing and “carousel voting” -- where voters are bussed into multiple polling stations as an organized group.

With reporting by TASS

Tension remains high at two border crossings between northern Kosovo and Serbia, where ethnic Serbs from Kosovo have blocked traffic for a second day on September 21 amid a spat between the two neighbors over reciprocal recognition of license plates in the context of a wider dispute over sovereignty.

The previous day, hundreds of Kosovo Serbs drove to the border in their cars and trucks to block the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings to protest against a move by Kosovar authorities to temporarily replace Serbian license plates from cars while they drive in Kosovo.

Kosovo police fired tear gas at the protesters, but they continued to keep the roads leading to the border crossings blocked.

Small groups of protesters spent the night there in tents.

Concern rose again when Kosovar authorities deployed special police with armored vehicles to the border to impose the new policy described by Pristina as a "reciprocity" action.

Serbian police have for years been taking off registration plates from Kosovo-registered cars entering Serbia.

Kosovar authorities say a 2016 deal reached in European Union-mediated talks had expired and only proper Kosovo symbols are now valid.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic convened a session of the national-security council on September 21 to discuss the measures that Belgrade will take "if Kosovo does not change its decision."

Vucic said that the measures would primarily be economic.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that as long as Serbia changes the license plates of Kosovo cars when entering there, the same would be applied to Serbian cars entering Kosovo.

The EU and United States urged Kosovo and Serbia to exercise restraint “immediately, without any delay,” and refrain from unilateral actions.

With reporting by AP

British police have filed charges against a third person in the Novichok assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, the former Russian double agent who was poisoned in 2018.

Scotland Yard said on September 21 that enough evidence has been gathered against a man known as Sergei Fedotov to charge him with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, possessing and using a chemical weapon, and causing grievous bodily harm.

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"Police enquiries uncovered evidence to show that ‘Sergei Fedotov’ is an alias for ‘Denis Sergeyev’ and that he is a member of the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU," a police statement said.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in March 2018 with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok.

The two, who were found unconscious in the British city of Salisbury, survived the near-fatal attack.

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Britain has already accused two other GRU officers -- who traveled to the U.K. under the names Ruslan Boshirov and Aleksandr Petrov -- of carrying out the attack. The investigative site Bellingcat later identified Boshirov as Anatoly Chepiga and Petrov as Aleksander Mishkin, both GRU officers.

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British police said they would not seek the three men’s extradition because the Russian Constitution does not permit the extradition of its own nationals.

“We have, however, obtained a European Arrest Warrant which means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges for which there is no statute of limitations,” they added.

Speaking to the British parliament, Home Secretary Priti Patel said Russia had carried out a “shameless and deliberate attack."

“Should any of these individuals ever travel outside Russia, we will work with our international partners and take every possible step to detain and extradite them to face justice," she said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, a senior counterterrorism officer, said investigators have pieced together evidence suggesting that all three suspects “previously worked with each other and on behalf of the Russian state as part of operations carried out outside of Russia," and there had been discussions with Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

“All three of them are dangerous individuals,” he said. “They have tried to murder people here in the U.K, and they have also brought an extremely dangerous chemical weapon into the U.K. by means unknown."

In April 2021, the Czech authorities said they were searching for Mishkin and Chepiga in connection with an ammunition depot explosion in 2014 which killed two people, an attack which had been aimed at a shipment to a Bulgarian arms dealer who was poisoned in 2015.

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The police announcement comes on the same day that the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the "assassination” of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in 2006.

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European Rights Court Rules Russia Responsible For Litvinenko Death

Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on November 1, 2006, after he drank tea that was poisoned with polonium-210, a rare, highly radioactive isotope.

A British inquiry concluded in 2016 that Putin “probably” approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder Litvinenko.