The United States and Russia have agreed to press ahead with arms control and related strategic security talks aimed at easing tensions between the world's largest nuclear weapons powers.

Meeting in Geneva on September 30, senior U.S. and Russian diplomats agreed to set up two working groups to pursue potential accords related to nuclear weapons and other global threats, according to a joint statement issued after the talks.

The two working groups are to convene ahead of a third plenary meeting. No dates were announced for those gathering.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, whose countries possess 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, agreed at a summit in Geneva in June to launch a bilateral dialogue on strategic stability to "lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures," and officials from both sides met in the Swiss city the following month.

It was the first time in nearly a year that the sides had held such talks amid frictions over arms control and a range of other issues.

According to the joint statement issued after the September 30 meeting, the delegations headed by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov held "intensive and substantive" negotiations.

A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that the discussion “was very interactive and broad-based, and we think we were able to cover a variety of issues.”

"I think this was a good building-on of the meeting that we had in July and both delegations really engaging in a detailed and dynamic exchange," according to the official, who declined to provide specifics.

The rivals have been looking at specific issues such as how to move beyond the New START treaty, a cornerstone of global arms control, that Biden and Putin have agreed to extend until 2026.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

The head of the European Union’s executive branch sought to reassure the six Western Balkan countries of their future membership in the bloc as she visited Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina on September 30.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attended the inauguration of a railway link in Serbia and a bridge in neighboring Bosnia as part of a six-nation regional tour ahead of an EU-Western Balkans summit on October 6.

Von der Leyen made the stopovers two days after Reuters reported that the 27 member states have so far been unable to agree a declaration reaffirming their pledge of future EU membership for Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

And according to an internal EU document seen by RFE/RL and dated September 27, alleged abuse by Albania, Serbia, and other non-EU European countries has prompted some European Union members to raise the possibility of canceling the visa-free travel regime to the bloc.

Among the abuses cited are unlawful residency and unfounded asylum claims.

Speaking at the opening of the Svilaj Bridge connecting northern Bosnia and Croatia, von der Leyen spoke about the important symbol of the project.

“Building bridges between people, countries, and cultures, that is so crucial for our common future. Because Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all the Western Balkans, belong in the European Union. It is in our common interest, but I also believe, it is our destiny,” she said.

Von der Leyen said the EU had invested 25 million euros ($29 million) in the bridge over the Sava River. The ceremony was also attended by the chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, as well as Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Attending the official launch of the works to modernize a railway section between Nis and Brestovac in Serbia later in the day, von der Leyen said she was “a strong advocate for bringing Serbia into the European Union," according to an EU transcript of the speech.

"We support Serbia's ambition to open as soon as possible new accession clusters," she said, referring to negotiating chapters, while also acknowledging that EU states had the final word in allowing Belgrade to move forward.

Standing alongside von der Leyen, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic promised reform and to help improve ties with Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

The six Western Balkan states are at different stages on the EU membership path.

Montenegro and Serbia are the most advanced, having opened accession negotiations and chapters.

After a veto by EU-member Bulgaria, membership negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia have been postponed despite the two states having fulfilled all criteria.

Bosnia and Kosovo are potential candidate countries.

With reporting by Reuters

Former Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan has been arrested in connection with an investigation into supplies of allegedly faulty ammunition provided to the country’s armed forces.

The National Security Service (NSS) on September 30 confirmed the arrest, which occurred late the previous day.

The NSS statement also said that arms dealer Davit Galstian was also arrested, and both men are accused of defrauding the state of nearly 2.3 billion drams ($4.7 million).

The NSS also said that other, unnamed serving and retired military officers were being investigated in connection with the case.

Tonoyan served as defense minister from 2018 until 2020, and he was sacked just days after a Russia-brokered agreement ended six weeks of fighting between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan over that country’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Galstian owns several firms that have supplied weapons and ammunition to the armed forces for many years.

The Nagorno-Karabakh war ended with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire in November 2020, which among other things led to Baku retaking control of parts of the region and neighboring districts that had been under Armenian control for nearly three decades.

MOSCOW -- A migrant rights defender from Uzbekistan who is being held at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport while facing deportation to Tashkent, where she says she may face torture, has applied for asylum in Ukraine.

Aleksandr Kim, an aide to Valentina Chupik, told RFE/RL on September 30 that the rights defender's representatives had filed applications on Chupik's behalf asking for asylum with Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian Embassy and the consulate-general in Moscow.

There was no official confirmation on that from Ukrainian authorities.

According to Kim, officials from Uzbekistan's Consulate visited Chupik in the immigration detention center at the airport on September 30 and took her picture for documents to bring her to Uzbekistan.

Chupik has said that she might be jailed, tortured, and even killed while in custody if she is deported back to her homeland.

Chupik, an Uzbek citizen who runs a migrant center in Moscow, said earlier that she was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport on September 25 after she returned to Moscow from Armenia.

According to her, officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) informed her that she has been deprived of her refugee status since September 17 and banned from entering Russia for 30 years. The move was made, the officers told her, because she presented either false information or forged documents to Russian authorities when she applied for refugee status in 2006, which Chupik called "an absolute nonsense."

Chupik fled Uzbekistan in 2006 after local authorities imposed pressure on her, trying to take control over her human rights organization there. She has lived in Moscow since then, providing legal defense and assistance to migrant workers from Central Asia.

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture has asked the European Court of Human Rights to prevent Chupik's possible deportation to Uzbekistan.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Athletics have agreed to open formal proceedings against two Belarusian team officials who tried to force sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya on a flight home from the Tokyo Olympics after she criticized them on social media.

In a joint statement issued on September 30, the IOC and World Athletics said the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) will conduct the proceedings into Belarusian team officials Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich were involved in taking Tsimanouskaya to the Tokyo airport, where she sought help because she said she feared for her safety if she returned to Minsk.

"The AIU will publish the outcome of its investigation when this has been finalized," the statement said.

The AIU is an independent body created by World Athletics to manage all integrity issues, both doping-related and non-doping-related, for the sport.

Tsimanouskaya took refuge in the Polish Embassy in Tokyo on August 2 after refusing to allow Belarusian team officials to force her onto the flight. Two days later she boarded a plane to Europe, reaching Warsaw via a stopover in Vienna.

Shimak and Maisevich continued to have contact with Belarusian team members in Tokyo for four more days after the airport incident, until the IOC withdrew their Olympic credentials.

Belarus has been gripped by a sweeping and sometimes violent crackdown on anti-government dissent following mass protests that erupted last year over a disputed presidential election in August 2020.

Authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed a sixth term after the vote, which is widely viewed as having been rigged in his favor.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement during European Union-mediated talks in Brussels to end a tense standoff at their mutual border that was triggered 10 days ago by a dispute over vehicle registration plates.

Two border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo have been blocked by local Serbs since Kosovar authorities on September 20 required all drivers from Serbia entering Kosovo to use temporary printed license plates that are valid for 60 days.

• RFE/RL

Two crossings on Kosovo's border with Serbia have been blocked by local Serbs since Kosovar authorities on September 20 required all drivers from Serbia entering Kosovo to use temporary printed registration details that are valid for 60 days.

The Kosovar government said the move was in retaliation for measures in force in Serbia against drivers from Kosovo since 2008, when the country declared independence from Belgrade.

Serbia does not recognize its former province's independence and therefore its right to take official actions such as registering cars.

Kosovo's government has deployed special police forces to the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings to impose the new rule, while Serbian military jets and helicopters have been flying close to the border in an apparent show of force.

European Union envoy Miroslav Lajcak posted on Twitter a picture of the agreement reached between the two sides on September 30 following what he called two days of “intense negotiations” in the Belgian capital.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he was “personally very satisfied,” while Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said: "Now begins the era when Serbia is starting to get used to reciprocity."

EU and U.S. officials also welcomed the compromise, and called for dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade to continue to normalize their relations.

According to the agreement posted by Lajcak on Twitter, three main points have been agreed by the two sides:

-- Special police units located at the joint border crossings in Jarinje and Brnjak will remove barricades and leave on October 2, while members of the NATO-led KFOR stabilization force will deploy at the two crossings before the start of the withdrawal of the police and the removal of barricades, remaining there for two weeks to ensure security;

-- From October 4, a sticker will replace the removal of the license plates of cars registered in Kosovo and Serbia as a temporary measure until a permanent solution is identified;

-- On October 21, Kosovar and Serbian officials will form a working group chaired by the EU and start working toward a permanent solution that will be presented within six months to the high-level format of the Serbia-Kosovo Dialogue.

In his tweet, Lajcak thanked the Kosovar and Serbian chief negotiators, Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovic, for "their readiness to negotiate and agree for the good of the people."

The EU diplomatic service welcomed the outcome of the negotiations in Brussels, and urged both parties to “constructively engage in the Dialogue in order to make swift progress on comprehensive normalisation of their relations.”

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen -- who was visiting Serbia when the deal was struck -- described the agreement as a "very positive development.”

“It is good for the whole region. Now the dialogue must continue," she wrote in a tweet.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar, who oversees the Western Balkans, also applauded the agreement but underlined that there is "still an awful lot on the agenda" between two sides that needs to be addressed.

"I think we can make enormous strides in helping the Balkans get over a very difficult period during the ‘90s and hopefully, eventually become more integrated with the European Union," he said on a briefing call with reporters.

MOSCOW -- Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has said an arrest warrant has been issued for prominent investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, chief editor of the investigative website The Insider, which was recently added to the country's controversial registry of "foreign agents."

According to the FSB’s September 30 statement, Dobrokhotov is accused of illegally crossing the border into Ukraine in August “bypassing the established checkpoints.” The statement added that Dobrokhotov faces criminal prosecution and up to two years in prison.

Earlier in the day, The Insider reported that FSB officers searched Dobrokhotov’s Moscow apartment and that of his parents, which is located next door.

Dobrokhotov's lawyer, Yulia Kuznetsova, told The Insider that the searches were conducted as part of an investigation into "illegal border crossing."

Dobrokhotov tweeted that the officers confiscated his parents' computers and telephones and were going to take them in for questioning with regard to the case.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Investigative Journalist's Home Raided After Website Labeled As 'Foreign Agent'

In July, just days after The Insider website was labeled a "foreign agent," police searched the apartments of Dobrokhotov and his parents.

Dobrokhotov's passport was confiscated by police, but he still managed to leave the country and is currently abroad. His wife and children remain in Moscow.

Police said at the time that the searches were part of an investigation that had been launched at the request of Dutch journalist Max van der Werff, who accused The Insider of libel.

Van der Werff's lawyer, Stalina Gurevich, said at the time that her client was suing Dobrokhotov, accusing him of falsely reporting that the Dutch journalist had links to Russia's GRU military-intelligence agency.

Van der Werff is known for articles rejecting international investigators' conclusions that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

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The Insider is an investigative website registered in Latvia and well-known for its cooperation with the Bellingcat group, with which it has conducted a series of high-profile investigations, including reports about the Russian secret services' activities abroad and last year's poisoning with a nerve agent of Russian opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

Russia's so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance, and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits. Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Designates Mediazona, OVD-Info, And Others As 'Foreign Agents'

The Russian state media monitor Roskomnadzor last year adopted rules requiring listed media to mark all written materials with a lengthy notice in large text, all radio materials with an audio statement, and all video materials with a 15-second text declaration.

The agency has prepared hundreds of complaints against RFE/RL's services. When they go through the court system, the total fines levied could reach nearly $1 million.

RFE/RL has called the fines "a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation," while the U.S. State Department has described them as "intolerable."

Human Rights Watch has described the "foreign agent" legislation as "restrictive" and intended "to demonize independent groups."

With reporting by Insider and Dozhd

KEMEROVO, Russia -- A court in Siberia has found a group of eight people guilty of negligence in a 2018 fire in the city of Kemerovo that killed 60 people, including 37 children.

The Zavodskoi district court on September 30 found the former director of a company that owned the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) mall, Yulia Bogdanova; former mall manager Nadezhda Suddenok; the mall's former technical director, Georgy Sobolev; and the mall's former security officer, Sergei Antyushin guilty of providing unsafe services that led to the deaths to customers.

In addition, it also found the chief of a company that installed the fire-alarm system in the mall, Igor Polozinenko; his assistant, Aleksandr Nikitin; and firefighters Andrei Bursin and Sergei Genin guilty of negligence in the blaze.

SEE ALSO:

Kemerovo Mall Fire Victims Remembered A Year After Deadly Blaze In Siberia

The court started pronouncing the verdicts and sentences on September 30, The process can take several days to finish.

In May, a prosecutor asked the court to sentence the eight defendants to prison terms of between five years and 14 1/2 years.

Bogdanova and Sobolev pleaded partially guilty, while the others pleaded not guilty.

The 2018 fire was one of the deadliest in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It was the last in a long series of disasters caused or exacerbated by the corrosively deadly effects of negligence, carelessness, corruption, corner-cutting, and crumbling infrastructure.

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Residents, relatives of the victims, and Russians nationwide blamed corruption and government negligence for the high number of casualties.

Days after the fire, investigators said that blocked fire exits, an alarm system that was turned off, and "glaring violations" of safety rules before the blaze started led to the high death toll.

A total of 16 people, including leaders of the regional Emergency Situations Ministry and officials who had approved the mall's operations, have been charged with crimes that investigators said led to or aggravated the tragedy.

Amnesty International has condemned a Russian court's rejection of an appeal by a Yakut shaman against a decision to confine him to a psychiatric clinic as he campaigned to drive President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin.

In a statement on September 29, the director of Amnesty's Russian office, Natalya Zvyagina, called Aleksandr Gabyshev, who was detained several times as he attempted to march to Moscow on foot to drive Putin out of the Kremlin, "a symbol of resistance of ordinary people" in Russia against the government's "pressure that is increasing every day."

"Forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic is a way of torture and violence. The authorities must stay away from forced treatment and immediately, without any conditions, release Aleksandr Gabyshev, because he was sentenced to forced treatment in a psychiatric facility for an indefinite period of time exclusively for implementing his right to express his views," Zvyagina said, adding that the Russian authorities "again turned psychiatric assistance into a punitive measure, the method to curb dissent that was well checked and probed in the Soviet period."

SEE ALSO:

Increasingly, Russian Activists Find Themselves Sentenced To Compulsory Medical Treatment

The Amnesty statement came three days after Gabyshev's lawyer, Aleksei Pryanishnikov, told RFE/RL that his client was transferred from temporary incarceration at a psychiatric clinic in the capital of the Far Eastern region of Yakutia, Yakutsk, to an unknown psychiatric clinic in an undisclosed place.

The decision to confine Gabyshev to psychiatric treatment against his will was made by a court in July after it found Gabyshev "mentally unfit" at a hearing where he was accused of committing a "violent act against a police officer" as he was being forcibly taken from his home to a psychiatric clinic in late January.

The ruling was challenged by Gabyshev's lawyers and supporters who say it was an attempt to silence dissent.

Police said at the time that the incident between Gabyshev and the law enforcement officer took place on January 27, less than three weeks after the shaman had announced a plan to resume his trek to the Russian capital to drive Putin from power.

SEE ALSO:

Anti-Putin Shaman Ordered To Undergo Forced 'Treatment' In Psychiatric Clinic

Gabyshev's sister, Kyaiyylana Zakharova, told RFE/RL in April that her brother's state of health had dramatically deteriorated, most likely due to unspecified injections he received while in the psychiatric clinic.

Gabyshev first made headlines in March 2019, when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he had started a march to Moscow to drive the Russian president from office.

He then walked more than 2,000 kilometers, speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way.

As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views.

SEE ALSO:

Shaman Who Sought To 'Drive Putin From Kremlin' Announces New March To Moscow

In July of that year, Gabyshev led a 700-strong rally under the slogan "Russia without Putin" in the city of Chita.

His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia later in September and placed in a psychiatric clinic in Yakutia for several months against his will.

Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed. But in isolated parts of Siberia, they are now regaining prominence.

Human rights activists in Belarus say the authorities have detained dozens of people across Belarus on charges of insulting a government official or inciting social hatred following a shooting earlier this week in which an IT worker and a KGB officer died -- an incident that the U.S. envoy to Minsk said appears to confirm the regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s "disregard" for human rights.

The Minsk-based Vyasna human rights group said on September 30 that some 50 people were detained amid an intensifying crackdown on civil society, the political opposion, and independent media following last year’s disputed presidential election.

According to Vyasna, the detentions took place the previous day and “were probably connected with comments on social media about the deaths of [Andrey Zeltsar] and a KGB officer.”

The Belarusian Interior Ministry did not immediately comment on the reported detentions, which came after the Committee of State Security (KGB) said on September 28 that its officers shot dead a 31-year-old man and arrested his wife in a raid on their apartment in Minsk.

It gave no details on the man, saying only that he was a "terrorist" -- a term the KGB often uses to describe protesters and those voicing opposition to Lukashenka's regime.

The KGB also said the man had been killed after firing at security forces, leaving one officer dead. There has been no independent confirmation of the KGB statement, including whether the man had fired at security forces.

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Earlier on September 30, U.S.-based software firm EPAM Systems confirmed reports that the man killed by Belarusian security forces was an employee of the company.

In a statement to Reuters, EPAM did not release any further details. It said it couldn't confirm media reports that the employee held U.S. citizenship.

Meanwhile, Julie Fisher, the U.S. ambassador to Belarus, said that Washington is seeking additional information on whether the "victim" is a U.S. citizen.

In a Facebook post, Fisher said the Minsk incident "appears to provide further evidence of the regime’s disregard for #humanrights and its willingness to utilize extreme methods to threaten perceived political opponents."

"The United States condemns these actions and the full range of politically motivated attacks against civil society, media, private companies, and political opponents," she wrote.

SEE ALSO:

Gunfight In Minsk: Doubts Raised About Dramatic Video As Two Killed In KGB Raid

Belarus was engulfed by protests in 2020 after a presidential election in August -- which the opposition and West say was rigged -- gave Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.

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.

In response, the government has cracked down hard on the pro-democracy movement, arresting thousands of people and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

Prominent independent nongovernmental organizations such as the Belarusian Association of Journalists have been forcibly closed, while seven members of Vyasna have been jailed, pending trial on criminal charges.

The group said in its statement on September 30 that Belarusians "continue to be detained, searched, pressured, and subjected to other forms of pressure for their active civil position and dissatisfaction with the government's actions."

On September 29, the commander of the internal troops of the Interior Ministry, Mikalay Karpyankou, said the Minsk shoot-out would prompt new, and much harsher, tactics when dealing with situations where police are attempting to gain entry to residences.

"Now, the security forces will act in the following way: if the doors are not opened, they will be blown open and then stun grenades will be used, a dog will be sent in, and if the special forces don't see someone with raised hands, they will shoot to kill," he said on state television.

Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any fraud in the August 2020 vote and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on a political transition and new elections.

With reporting by Reuters

A Turkmen activist and outspoken critic of the tightly controlled Central Asian state's government has been released from a deportation center in Istanbul, where she is based.

Dursoltan Taganova's lawyers told a correspondent in Istanbul for the online magazine Chronicles Of Turkmenistan that she was released on September 29.

It was not immediately clear if Taganova still faces deportation.

On September 27, the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center said that Taganova was being held at a deportation center in Istanbul amid concerns she could face arbitrary arrest and torture if she was returned to Turkmenistan.

Turkish police reportedly arrived at her home early on September 26. Taganova was not there, but the officers handed her roommate an order calling on Taganova to come to the police station to "sign documents."

When she arrived at the station, Taganova was detained and sent to a deportation center.

In July 2020, Taganova and dozens of other Turkmen were detained when they tried to hold a rally in front of Turkmenistan's Consulate in Istanbul to criticize authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's government.

Most of the detainees were released hours later, but Taganova was held in custody as Turkish authorities sought to deport her back to Turkmenistan.

She was released in October 2020 after 11 human rights organizations urged the Turkish authorities not to follow through with the deportation, saying she would face arbitrary arrest and torture if she was returned to Turkmenistan.

In April this year, Taganova said she had been summoned to Turkish immigration, where she was warned she might face problems with her residency unless she stopped her political activities.

Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive countries in the world, with Berdymukhammedov ruling with an iron fist and allowing little dissent since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

Dozens of Turkmen activists residing abroad held protests near the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva on September 28-29, calling on the international community to pay more attention to the situation regarding human rights and civil freedoms in Turkmenistan.

Similar protests against Berdymukhammedov were staged for several months last year by Turkmen citizens residing in Turkey, the United States, and Northern Cyprus.

Memorial said there were also reports that other activists in the Turkmen protest movement may soon face deportation from Turkey. Some activists have reported increasing pressure on their relatives inside Turkmenistan.

Russia is delaying the appointment of panels of independent experts to monitor violations of UN sanctions on several African countries, diplomats say.

All of the committees blocked are in the process of renewing their members.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appoints panels of between four and six independent experts for each of the UN sanctions regimes. They monitor and report to the Security Council on violations and recommend further action.

Until the Security Council agrees to Guterres's appointments, the experts can't start work and their efforts to track sanctions violations are hampered.

Russia says it has put the approval of a number of panels or individual experts on hold because of a lack of geographic diversity on the committees and says they have a Western bias.

"Unfortunately, we are still faced with the situation when the proposed composition of such panels is not geographically balanced," Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Russia Dmitry Polyansky told Reuters. "We have a predominance of representatives of Western countries."

Polyansky also said some experts on the panels did not meet the requirements of "impartiality, neutrality, and independence."

"This affects the results of their work. This situation should be fixed," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The mandates for the panel of experts on Mali ends on September 30.

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French Defense Minister Warns Mali Against Hiring Russian Security Firm Vagner

Other panels affected are those monitoring sanctions violations in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic (CAR). The mandates for those panels expired on various dates during the summer, stalling their work.

The committee tasked with monitoring the CAR this year condemned "grave human rights abuses" attributed to paramilitaries from the controversial Vagner group, a private Russian security firm.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Urges Russia To Stop Violence In Central African Republic After Damning UN Report

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

During a visit to Pristina, the head of the European Union's executive branch called on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through dialogue and to de-escalate recent tensions over license plates.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Kosovo's capital on September 29 as part of her regional tour before an EU-Western Balkans summit next week.

"It is vital that Kosovo and Serbia normalize their relations," von der Leyen said at a news conference with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, describing the EU-facilitated dialogue as "the only platform to resolve the current crisis."

Both Kosovo and Serbia must improve mutual relations if they want to join the EU. Representatives of the two countries are meeting in Brussels this week, facilitated by EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak.

The renewed talks come as two border crossings between the two neighbors have been blocked by local Serbs since Kosovar authorities on September 20 required all drivers from Serbia entering Kosovo to use temporary printed registration details that are valid for 60 days.

• RFE/RL

Two crossings on Kosovo's border with Serbia have been blocked by local Serbs since Kosovar authorities on September 20 required all drivers from Serbia entering Kosovo to use temporary printed registration details that are valid for 60 days.

The Kosovar government says the move is in retaliation for measures in force in Serbia against drivers from Kosovo since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo's independence and therefore its right to take official actions such as registering cars.

Kosovo's government has deployed special police forces to the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings to impose the new rule, while Serbian military jets and helicopters have been flying close to the border in an apparent show of force. The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo has stepped up patrols on the border with Serbia.

The EU, NATO, and the United States have urged Pristina and Belgrade to exercise restraint.

Von der Leyen is visiting the six Western Balkan countries just days before the EU is set to hold a summit with Western Balkans countries on October 6.

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are at different stages on the EU membership path.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and RFE/RL's Balkan Service

MINSK – Belarus's Information Ministry has blocked access to the website of the Belarusian version of the popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The ministry justified its September 29 decision by saying materials on the site "could produce threats to national security, including through the artificial irritation of tensions and conflicts in society."

The publication posted on its Telegram channel that it had not received official notification that its site, which receives about 20,000 visitors a day, had been blocked.

Belarus has been in the throes of a political standoff since a disputed presidential election in August 2020 handed a sixth term to authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Massive protests following the election were met by an often-brutal crackdown by security forces, while prominent nongovernmental organizations and independent media were closed.

The move against Komsomolskaya Pravda's website came after the website published on September 28 comments by an acquaintance of Andrey Zeltsar, a Minsk resident who some opposition figures have identified as the man who was shot dead by security forces in a shoot-out in the capital.

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Pro-government Telegram channels harshly attacked the woman’s comments, after which the website reportedly made changes to the text.

In 2020, the print version of the newspaper was banned in Belarus.

“The country is becoming more and more like a besieged fortress,” said Vladimir Sungorkin, the longtime editor in chief of the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"It's getting tougher, tougher, and tougher there," he added.

CHISINAU -- During a visit to Chisinau, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier committed Berlin to an assistance package of 10 million euros ($11.6 million) to support the reform program launched by Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

"I brought with me a small package worth about 10 million euros through which we will provide expertise, because we know that when it comes to developing public sector reforms we need expertise, as well as to ensure security energy, health care, and regional cooperation," Steinmeier said following talks with Sandu in the Moldovan capital on September 29.

The European Union needs a stable and prosperous eastern neighborhood, and reforms in Moldova are important for the entire region, said Steinmeier, whose two-day visit is the first-ever by a German president to the Eastern European country.

Sandu called for increased German investment in one of Europe's poorest countries.

The Moldovan president took office after defeating Russia-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in an election in November 2020.

A U.S.-trained economist, she has since pushed for closer links between the former Soviet republic and the EU, and set the objectives of combating corruption and halting mass emigration that has hit the country's economy.

During his visit ending on September 30, Steinmeier is also to hold talks with Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita and to open a German-Moldovan business forum along with Sandu.

He is accompanied by a business delegation.

With reporting by dpa

MOSCOW -- The Russian government has designated three prominent information outlets and 22 individuals as "foreign agents," continuing what critics say is a broad crackdown on independent media and civic organizations.

The Justice Ministry on September 29 added the parent company of the Mediazona website and the human-rights project Zona Prava to its list of foreign-agent media organizations.

The noncommercial information resource OVD-Info, which monitors the activities of law enforcement organizations, was added to the government’s list of "foreign agent" unregistered organizations.

The Nizhny Novgorod Center for Germanic and European Culture and the Ivanovo Oblast-based Center for Gender Studies were designated "foreign agent" nongovernmental organizations (NGO).

In addition, 22 individuals, including several local coordinators of the independent Golos election-monitoring NGO were also added to the list of "foreign agent" media. Golos itself was added to the list in August.

SEE ALSO:

Russia Labels Independent Election Monitor 'Foreign Agent' Ahead Of September Elections

Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov and its chief editor, Sergei Simonov, were also added to the list.

The Justice Ministry did not offer any explanations for its designations.

OVD-Info has been noted for its coverage of arrests during protests in Russia, while Mediazona specializes in covering Russian courts and the rights of prisoners.

Verzilov was a founding member of the Pussy Riot performance-art group and has been a vocal anti-Kremlin activist.

OVD-Info co-founder Grigory Okhotin said he saw the move as being part of "the pressure campaign against independent organizations and media."

"It’s curious that it happened at the height of the public campaign to abolish the foreign agent legislation, in which OVD-Info was one of the key initiators," Okhotin told the Associated Press.

He added that 222 organizations have joined the campaign so far, and said that “it couldn't have gone unnoticed.”

Russia's "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires NGOs that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “"foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

Later modifications of the law targeted allegedly foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time. Several RFE/RL correspondents have also been added to the list.

Human Rights Watch has condemned Russia’s "foreign agent" laws, calling them "another repressive tool the government can use to harass independent groups."

A Russian court has ordered Google to pay another hefty fine for violating the country’s rules on banned content, as Moscow continues to push foreign firms to open offices in Russia and store Russians' personal data on its territory.

The magistrate court of Moscow's Taganka district on September 29 ruled that Google must pay a total of 6.5 million rubles ($89,400) for failure to delete banned content in two cases.

Court spokeswoman Zulfiya Gurinchuk said in a statement that the U.S. technology giant is facing a similar charge in another case to be heard on November 8.

In recent months, the same court ordered Google to pay fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over content, as well as for refusing to localize the personal data of its users in Russia.

Moscow courts have also fined Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and TikTok on similar charges.

Earlier on September 29, Russia threatened to block YouTube, which is owned by Google, after Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels were deleted from the video-sharing platform.

SEE ALSO:

YouTube Deletes RT German-Language Channels Over COVID-19 'Misinformation'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused social media platforms and other tech giants of flouting the country's Internet laws, including a push seeking to force foreign firms to open offices in Russia.

Many critics say the push has nothing to do with "Internet integrity" and instead accuse the authorities of trying to quell dissent amid a decrease in the popularity of Putin and the ruling United Party.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, TASS and Interfax

International human rights organizations are urging Belarus’s authorities to withdraw a lawsuit requesting the liquidation of one of the country's oldest independent human rights groups -- the Belarusian Helsinki Committee -- a move seen as part of a wide effort by the government of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka to silence all critical voices.

The joint call came as the Belarus Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on September 30 on the lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry in late August.

In a September 22 joint letter addressed to Justice Minister Aleh Slizheuski, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and three other nongovernmental organizations described the move to dissolve the Belarusian Helsinki Committee as "an attempt to impose a draconian, punitive and irreversible penalty to bring about the elimination of a long-standing body of human rights defenders."

Calling the lawsuit "inappropriate [and] inconsistent with the Belarusian government’s obligations to respect and protect the legitimate work of human rights defenders," the groups said it also "violates a number of fundamental rights, including those of freedom of expression and association and due process."

In response to mass street protests against the official results of a disputed presidential election in August 2020 that gave Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term, the authorities have arrested thousands of pro-democracy activists and pushed most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

Prominent independent nongovernmental organizations such as the Belarusian Association of Journalists have been forcibly closed, while seven members of Belarus's top human rights group Vyasna have been jailed, pending trial on criminal charges.

The opposition and the West say last year’s vote was rigged. Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, denies that, and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on a political transition and new elections.

The lawsuit against the Belarusian Helsinki Committee alleges discrepancies in financial information the group has provided to the Justice Ministry.

The ministry’s petition to the Supreme Court alleges that these discrepancies constitute a "one-time gross violation of the law," and states that the documents exposing the discrepancies came to light as part of a criminal investigation. It did not provide any information about that probe.

The joint open letter was signed by Marie Struthers, director of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office at Amnesty International; Alice Mogwe, president of the International Federation for Human Rights; Andrew Anderson, executive director of Frontline Defenders; Maria Dahle, director of Human Rights House Foundation; and Hugh Williamson, director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch.

In a statement on September 29, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee noted that its volunteers have taken part in election monitoring campaigns, defended the rights of lawyers, defended Belarusians’ pension rights from abuses, worked to abolish forced labor, and proposed the solutions aimed at improving the legislation, among other things.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are among dozens of members of the ruling United Russia party who will not take up the mandates they won during recent parliamentary elections.

The Central Election Commission said on September 29 that it has distributed among other candidates the mandates of a total of 66 members from the party who have refused to take up seats in the State Duma.

The refusal by Lavrov and Shoigu to not take up their mandates was not a surprise as their inclusion on the party list was widely seen as a way of boosting United Russia's popularity with high-profile candidates.

Others from United Russia who also gave up their parliamentary mandates include several regional governors; Vladimir Yakushev, the presidential envoy in the Urals Federal District, and Yury Trutnev, deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the far Eastern Federal District.

Three candidates from the Communist Party, Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot, Oryol regional Governor Andrei Klychkov, and the deputy chairman of the Moscow Regional Duma, Konstantin Cheremisov, also refused the mandates they won in the September 17-19 elections.

Of the 450 seats in the State Duma, United Russia won 324, which gives it a supermajority in the legislature allowing it to pass legislation unilaterally.

Some opposition parties and activists have called for the election results to be invalidated due to numerous violations and irregularities in the voting.

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.

Despite the criticism, President Vladimir Putin declared on September 25 that the elections were "free and fair."

With reporting by TASS

DUSHANBE -- The prosecution has asked the Dushanbe City Court to sentence a well-known human rights defender, Izzat Amon, to nine years in prison on fraud charges.

A court official told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity on September 29 that Prosecutor Abdulmumin Kabirzoda's request was made at the high-profile trial, which is being held behind closed doors, two days earlier.

The official added that, after his verdict and sentence are pronounced, Amon is very likely to be pardoned due to the law on mass amnesty that was adopted earlier in September to mark the 30th anniversary of the Central Asian nation's independence.

The Dushanbe City Court's secretary confirmed to RFE/RL that Amon will be amnestied as he paid damages that were being demanded by the plaintiffs. It was not immediately clear who may have received such a payment, and the court secretary did not disclose any further information.

Amon for many years led the Center for Tajiks in Moscow before he was deprived of Russian citizenship and forced to return to Dushanbe in March at the request of Tajik authorities, who accused the activist of financial fraud.

Amon's supporters and relatives have dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

Amon's nonprofit organization in Moscow has helped Tajik migrant workers find jobs, obtain work and residency permits, and get legal advice.

The European Union says it will tighten the rules for issuing visas to Belarusian state officials in retaliation for Minsk using migrants to destabilize the 27-member bloc.

The EU has accused Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka of orchestrating a sharp rise in migrant arrivals across Belarus's border with bloc members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia in response to Brussels imposing sanctions on Minsk over a brutal crackdown on dissent following last year's presidential election, which is widely considered to have been rigged.

The European Commission -- the bloc's executive body -- said on September 29 that it wants member countries to consider suspending parts of a “visa-facilitation agreement” with Belarus that came into force in July 2020 and was meant to bring the former Soviet republic closer to Europe.

A group of migrants apparently shipped to the border of the European Union by Belarusian authorities is stranded in no man's land as Polish police prevent them from stepping foot on EU soil.

The measure, aimed at Belarusian officials including members of government, lawmakers, diplomatic delegations, and top court representatives, would increase travel bureaucracy by requiring extra documentation and would increase visa prices. It would not affect ordinary Belarusians.

Poland and Lithuania have been forced to cope with an unusually high number of migrants, primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan, arriving at their borders with Belarus. Warsaw has declared a state of emergency over the situation and aims to soon extend it for another 60 days.

Lukashenka has blamed the West for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter at the Belarusian-Polish border.

"We have an aggressive regime, Lukashenka, that is actually pushing migrants...to the European border to destabilize the European Union," the bloc's Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told journalists on September 29. "This is an act of aggression."

The migrant influx began a year ago, after Brussels imposed sanctions on Lukashenka’s government over the August 2020 presidential election, which the international community views as rigged, and the harsh crackdown on the opposition and peaceful protesters that followed.

"What we are seeing now is a desperate Lukashenka," Johansson said. "This is a regime that has denied its own people free and fair elections. This is a regime that is putting political opposition in jail."

The visa move must be endorsed by the 27 EU member countries to enter force.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

BISHKEK -- Former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev's trial in a case related to a deadly two-day standoff between security forces and his supporters in August 2019 has been postponed again.

Atambaev's lawyer, Sergei Slesarev, told RFE/RL that due to his client's health problems he was unable to take part in the trial on September 29. The court postponed the trial until October 4.

Atambaev and 13 others are charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of the authorities, hostage-taking, and the forcible seizure of power over the standoff, which led to the death of a top security officer and injured more than 170 people.

The trial that has been postponed several times since April.

In June 2020, Atambaev, 65, was sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison in a separate case for his role in the release of a notorious crime boss.

Five months later, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a Bishkek district court for retrial. It gave no reason for the decision.

Atambaev has long denied any wrongdoing.

Russia has reported 857 new coronavirus-related deaths, a single-day record since the pandemic began, as the country continues to see a surge in infections linked to the Delta variant and a lackluster vaccination campaign.

The government's anti-coronavirus crisis center said on September 29 that 22,430 new COVID-19 cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours.

The daily death toll, the second consecutive day a record was hit, brings Russia's total deaths from COVID-19 to more than 206,000 -- the highest total in Europe.

Russia, the world's fifth worst-hit country with more than 7 million people infected, has seen cases spike since last month as vaccinations stall.

Polls show Russians are vaccine-skeptic, with a majority not planning to get inoculated.

Just over a quarter of the population had been fully vaccinated as of September 28, according to the Gogov website, which tallies COVID data from the regions.