Iran has re-incarcerated French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah after she had spent more than a year under house arrest, the French Foreign Ministry said on January 12.

Adelkhah, a researcher at the elite Paris Institute of Political Studies, was arrested in 2019 at Tehran airport and handed a five-year prison sentence in 2020 for conspiring against national security.

It was unclear why Iranian authorities decided to place the anthropologist and specialist in Shi’a Islam back in prison, after allowing her to live under house arrest since October 2020.

The French Foreign Ministry voiced "astonishment" at the decision to re-incarcerate the academic with "no explanation or preliminary warning.”

"The decision to re-incarcerate her, which we condemn, can only have negative consequences on the relationship between France and Iran and reduce the trust between our two countries,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"France demands the immediate release of Ms. Adelkhah,” it added.

A group of her supporters said Adelkhah had been placed in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where her health and life could be under threat.

"The Iranian government is cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque, and that have nothing to do with her activities," it added.

The surprise move by Iranian authorities comes as France and other world powers are in drawn-out talks aimed at reviving the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

Adelkhah's French colleague and partner, Roland Marchal, who was detained with her, was released in March 2020 in a prisoner exchange between Iran and France.

Marchal was swapped for engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad, who faced extradition to the United States over accusations he violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.

At least a dozen Western nationals or dual nationals are believed to be held in Iran.

Western governments and activists accuse Iran of using such prisoners as hostages to extract concessions from the West.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters.

The United States has sanctioned six North Koreans, one Russian, and a Russian company for procuring goods from Russia and China for North Korea's weapons programs.

The new U.S. sanctions on January 12 come after a series of North Korean missile launches, including two in the past week.

“Today’s actions, part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to counter the DPRK’s (North Korea) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, target its continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

The sanctions target North Korean national, Choe Myong Hyon, a Vladivostok-based representative of North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), for procuring telecommunications-related equipment from Russia.

In a related action, the State Department sanctioned North Korean national O Yong Ho, Russian national Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and Russian entity Parsek for contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery.

Four Chinese-based North Korean representatives of SANS-subordinate organizations -- Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak and Pyon Kwang Chol -- and one other North Korean, O Yong Ho, were also targeted.

The sanctions freeze any U.S.-related assets of those targeted and prohibit all dealings with them.

The latest sanctions come after North Korea conducted another suspected ballistic missile launch on January 11 on the same day six countries in the UN Security Council, including the United States and Japan, urged North Korea "to refrain from further destabilizing actions... and engage in meaningful dialogue towards our shared goal of complete denuclearization."

In 2021, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, a long-range cruise missile, a train-launched weapon, and what it described as a hypersonic warhead.

The continued saber-rattling comes while the nuclear negotiations of Washington and Pyongyang have stalled following the collapse of talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019.

UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear tests and impose sanctions.

With reporting by Reuters

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced price caps on six basic foodstuffs as of February 1 in order to fight inflation ahead of elections this spring.

Orban said in a video statement on his Facebook page on January 12 that the measure would impact sugar, flour, cooking oil, pork legs, chicken breasts, and milk.

Prices for the products will have to revert back to levels from October 15 last year in every store, he said.

The price caps come as inflation is rising across Europe, with the year-on-year rate in Hungary hitting 7.4 percent in November.

In November, the government put a cap on gasoline prices to 480 forints ($1.55 euros) per dollar.

Orban, a nationalist who has been in power since 2010, faces a challenge to his rule with opposition parties agreeing to unite behind one candidate in the April 3 general election.

Recent polls suggest a close race for Orban's ruling Fidesz party against the opposition's joint candidate for prime minister, Peter Marki-Zay.

Orban’s critics say he and his Fidesz party have dismantled democratic institutions in Hungary, while trashing judicial independence and controlling the media.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he communicated Turkey’s concerns about the treatment of the Uyghur ethnic group to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during talks in Beijing.

“We conveyed our views, expectations, and sensitivities regarding the issues on our agenda, especially the Uyghur Turks,” Cavusoglu said after the talks on January 12, adding that the two sides also discussed economic cooperation.

The Chinese government has been accused of establishing a network of detention camps holding more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

The United States and many rights groups have alleged that Beijing is carrying out genocide against the Uyghurs. China denies abuses in Xinjiang and says it is "reeducating" Uyghurs to prevent radical Islam and terrorism.

The issue is sensitive for Turkey because the Turkic Uyghurs share ethnic, religious, and linguistic connections that are a domestic political issue among Turkish nationalists and conservatives.

But Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has been accused of largely remaining silent on the plight of Uyghurs due to economic ties and other interests with the world’s second largest economy.

In July, Erdogan held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in which he said it was important that Uyghurs live in peace as "equal citizens of China" but that Turkey respects China's national sovereignty.

An estimated 50,000 Uyghurs live in Turkey, the largest diaspora outside of Central Asia.

With reporting by Reuters

Four Israeli women who sent pictures and other information to an Iranian operative have been accused of spying for Iran, Israel’s domestic intelligence service said.

The women, who were all Jewish immigrants from Iran according to local media, were indicted for "serious crimes" over the past month, Shin Bet said in a statement on January 12.

The Iranian operative, a man calling himself Rambod Namdar, originally contacted the women on Facebook posing as an Iranian Jew, Shin Bet said.

Although the women suspected the man was an Iranian operative, they still provided him with intelligence in return for payment, according to the statement. In some cases, the contacts went on for several years.

The women are alleged to have sent various photographs to the Iranian, including of U.S. diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, an election polling station, an Interior Ministry office, and a shopping mall.

The intelligence agency said the information could have been used to carry out terrorist attacks.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett praised intelligence officials for preventing “hostile terrorist activity against the state of Israel."

"Iran's attempts to harm Israel's security are not limited to security and intelligence but also expand to efforts to influence Israel’s citizens, Israel’s society, to sow polarization and division, to undermine Israel’s political stability and damage public confidence in the government,” he said.

Based on reporting AP, dpa, and Haaretz

Protesters opposed to Bulgaria’s COVID-19 restrictions have clashed with police in front of the parliament building in Sofia as the country notched up a record number of infections from the virus.

Protesters were able to break through a police cordon in the unrest on January 12 and make it to the stairs of parliament before being pushed back.

Eight police officers were injured, the Interior Ministry said.

Some protesters then moved to the Council of Ministers building and the Ministry of Health but were contained by police.

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Around 1,000 supporters of the nationalist Vasrazhdane (Rebirth) party, which holds 13 seats in parliament's 240-seat chamber, attended the protest.

They said they would remain in front of parliament until their demands for an end to mandatory face masks and so-called green vaccine passes are met.

Anti-pandemic measures require Bulgarians to show a health pass proving vaccination, recovery from infection, or a recent COVID-19 negative test to get into such venues as restaurants, cafes, shopping malls, and gyms.

People are also required to wear masks indoors and on public transport.

Bulgaria is the least vaccinated country in the 27-member European Union, with only a third of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

To incentivize vaccinations, the new centrist government has offered 75 levs ($43.59) to pensioners who get fully vaccinated or receive a booster.

Bulgaria is experiencing a fifth wave of coronavirus infections driven by the omicron variant, with the number of cases reaching a record high of 7,062 on January 12.

The virus has killed 89 people in the past 24 hours in the country, according to official numbers.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Trud.bg

Lithuania has terminated its state-owned railway contract with Minsk on the transportation of Belarusian potash amid U.S. sanctions imposed on Belaruskali, the potash-producing giant.

The Baltic state's government on January 12 approved the decision by a special commission, which noted that the agreement between Lithuanian Railways and Belaruskali was not in the interests of Lithuania's national security.

Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis told reporters that the agreement will be annulled as of February 1.

Belaruskali was added to the U.S. sanctions list in August last year.

The U.S. Treasury in December issued a general license authorizing the winding down of transactions involving Belaruskali's marketing arm, the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) until April 1, blaming Minsk for creating a migration crisis on the EU-Belarus border.

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A scandal erupted in Lithuania in December after it turned out that the Baltic state's companies continue to ship Belarusian potash products, a key ingredient in fertilizer, through its rail network and port of Klaipeda to markets in the EU and elsewhere.

The continuing trade with the Lukashenka regime has sparked controversy in Lithuania, with some calling for the government to step down.

Based on reporting by Delfi and Reuters

The British Council says an Iranian female employee convicted of spying for Israel has been acquitted by a court and is now free and has arrived in the United Kingdom.

Aras Amiri, who worked for the council's London office, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019.

The British Council said on January 12 that an appeal her lawyers made to Iran's Supreme Court had been successful.

"We are very pleased to confirm that British Council employee and Iranian citizen Aras Amiri has been acquitted by the Supreme Court in Iran of all charges previously made against her, following a successful appeal lodged by her lawyer. She has been freed from detention and has returned to the United Kingdom," the organization said in a statement.

"We have always refuted the original charges made against Aras," the statement said. "We are very proud of her work in our London office as an arts program officer supporting a greater understanding and appreciation of Iranian culture in the U.K."

Iranian officials did not immediately acknowledge her release.

Another British-Iranian woman who has been detained in Iran since April 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while traveling with her young daughter.

With reporting by AP

President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev says troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will begin leaving Kazakhstan on January 13 after being called in to help stabilize the Central Asian nation after unrest sparked by a fuel price hike turned deadly amid an apparent standoff with loyalists of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

A statement on January 12 from the CSTO -- an alliance consisting of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Tajikistan -- added that the pullout of the contingent of some 2,000 troops from Kazakhstan should take about 10 days to complete.

Earlier in the day, Toqaev took part in a session of Almaty city's emergency operation task force and met with relatives and colleagues of law enforcement officers killed during the violence. The exact number of people killed in the unrest remains unclear.

The CSTO soldiers arrived in Kazakhstan last week after the leadership of the oil-rich country asked the Russian-led bloc for military assistance when the protests turned deadly with security personnel and mobs clashing on city streets nationwide.

Kazakh media reported on January 12 that another 1,700 people had been detained since the violence subsided, bringing the total number of detentions during the unrest to almost 10,000.

In the face of a mounting crisis, Toqaev declared a state of emergency on January 5 and called on the CSTO to deploy troops to help maintain security.

Toqaev claimed that "foreign-trained terrorists" were behind the protests in an attempt to overthrow the government. But analysts say there appears to be an internal power struggle between the president and followers of former leader Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has remained a powerful figure in the country since handpicking Toqaev as his successor in 2019.

After dismissing the cabinet, Toqaev removed the 81-year-old Nazarbaev as head of the National Security Council, a powerful position from which the longtime leader continued to exert considerable influence over the oil-rich Central Asian state.

Toqaev also fired the head of the National Security Committee (KNB), longtime Nazarbaev ally Karim Masimov, and then had him arrested for high treason. Several other security officials were also detained.

Human rights experts from the United Nations on January 11 called on Kazakhstan's authorities to halt their "unrestrained use of force, including lethal force, against protesters."

Toqaev also recommended that CSTO Secretary-General Stanislau Zas appoint an envoy for peacekeeping operations.

With reporting by TASS and KazTAG

The father of Ivan Zhdanov, a close associate of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has been placed in a detention center for allegedly violating restrictions imposed on him after he was handed a suspended prison sentence last month in a corruption case that critics say is politically motivated.

A court in the Arctic city of Naryan-Mar on January 11 ruled that Yury Zhdanov should be arrested for illegally leaving the city for the Nizhny Novgorod region in December without court permission.

Zhdanov's lawyer, Vladimir Voronin, wrote on Instagram on January 12 that his client was currently in a detention center in the Nizhny Novgorod region, adding that the 67-year-old Zhdanov was not aware he was barred from leaving Naryan-Mar, as prosecutor's have appealed his sentence and the court is still considering the motion.

A court in Naryan-Mar handed Zhdanov a three-year suspended prison term on December 19 on charges of fraud and forgery over an alleged recommendation he made to the town's administration to provide a local woman with a subsidized apartment, though it later turned out that the woman's family had previously received housing allocations.

Zhdanov has rejected the charges.

The apartment was later returned to municipal ownership in accordance with a court decision and no one among those who made the decision was held responsible.

Prosecutors appealed the sentence, calling it "mild," and demanding Zhdanov be sentenced to three years in prison.

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Ivan Zhdanov, the former chief of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has accused the presidential administration of trying to pressure him by arresting his father.

The FBK was known for publishing investigative reports on corruption among top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin.

Last year, FBK and other groups associated with Navalny were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia.

With reporting by TASS

Armenia says three of its soldiers have died in fighting along the border with Azerbaijan, raising fears the Caucasus neighbors may be edging toward another war.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said on January 12 that the body of a third soldier had been found in an area where heavy clashes were reported the day before that Yerevan and Baku blamed on each other amid warnings that tensions along the border are escalating.

Azerbaijani officials have already said that one of their soldiers was killed in the battles. Armenian officials had previously announced the deaths of two soldiers before the third soldier's corpse was found with fatal gunshot wounds.

Armenia's Defense Ministry has blamed Azerbaijani forces for sparking the violence by opening fire on January 11 in the border area near Verin Shorzha in the eastern Gegharkunik Province. It also accused Azerbaijani forces of firing artillery across the border and using drone aircraft in the altercation.

In turn, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported that its soldier was killed along the border with Armenia "as a result of an Armenian provocation in the direction of Azerbaijan's Kalbacar district."

Azerbaijan denied that its military used artillery or drones, saying its forces were "responding to a provocation by the enemy."

It also said Armenian fire was "suppressed due to corresponding actions taken by units of the Azerbaijani Army."

Baku said that "the entire responsibility for the latest tensions lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia."

Tensions have simmered for years over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan that broke away from Baku's control in the early 1990s.

A six-week war erupted in autumn 2020, claiming more than 6,500 lives.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire under which Armenians ceded territories they had controlled for decades to Azerbaijan. The situation at the border has remained tense despite the accord.

President Vladimir Putin has warned Russians they have two weeks to prepare for a fresh wave of coronavirus infections driven by the omicron virus after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a "west-to-east tidal wave" of the super-contagious variant that could infect more than half of the Europeans in the next two months.

"We see what is happening in the world," Putin told a meeting of cabinet ministers on January 12. "We have at least a couple of weeks to prepare."

Russia, Europe's worst-hit country in terms of COVID-19 deaths, has lifted nearly all of the restrictions designed to limit new cases, despite the rapidly rising number of omicron infections.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage

Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

The country found itself in an "extremely difficult situation," Putin said, instructing regional and federal authorities to take measures to curtail the impact of omicron.

Putin's warning came a day after Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe, warned that more than half the population of the continent will likely be infected by March, in what he called a new "west-to-east tidal wave" sweeping across the continent.

Kluge called on countries with no previous rises in cases of the omicron strain to rapidly introduce precautionary measures and prioritize vaccinating at-risk populations.

There is a "closing window of opportunity" for countries to prevent their health systems from being overwhelmed, he warned.

The WHO's European region covers 53 countries and territories, including several in Central Asia, and Kluge said omicron was fast becoming the dominant variant in the western countries and is now spreading to the Balkans.

Several countries in Europe and Central Asia have already reported an explosion in infections.

In Southeastern Europe, Bulgaria reached a record-high number of new infections at 7,062 on January 12, official data showed.

Bulgaria is the European Union's least vaccinated member state, with just over 28 percent of the 6.9 million inhabitants fully vaccinated.

Infections have seen a spike since the beginning of the year, surpassing a previous peak set in late October.

The total death toll is 31,761, with 89 more deaths over the past 24 hours.

Despite the rising number of cases, anti-vaccine protests, organized by the ultranationalist Revival party, are expected in Sofia on January 12 despite appeals by the new centrist government to vaccine-skeptic Bulgarians to get the jab.

In Central Asia, neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan also reported spikes in new cases on January 12 as both countries said the omicron variant of the virus was now spreading on their territories.

Kyrgyzstan reported its first omicron cases on January 12, and registered a total of 465 new coronavirus infections -- a five-month high.

Kazakh health authorities reported the same day that the country had registered over 8,000 cases from the last seven days, almost three times more than in the previous seven-day period.

The World Bank, meanwhile, provided a fresh assessment of the coronavirus pandemic on the world economy, predicting that global economic growth will decelerate in 2022 as omicron risks exacerbating labor shortages and supply-chain backups.

In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, it cut its forecast for world economic growth this year to 4.1 percent after the 5.5 percent rebound last year.

The warnings came exactly two years after the announcement of the first person dying of a virus that later was identified as COVID-19. The death was that of a 61-year-old man in Wuhan, China, where the illness was first detected.

Since January 11, 2020, known fatalities in the pandemic have soared to nearly 5.5 million.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa

NATO had a "serious and direct exchange" with Russian officials on the Ukraine crisis and the alliance is ready to meet Kremlin envoys again to discuss European security, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

Speaking on January 12 after meeting in Brussels with a delegation from Russia as part of the NATO-Russia Council, Stoltenberg said the alliance would not agree to Moscow’s demands for a new security architecture in Europe but wanted to continue diplomacy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a series of demands for security guarantees in Europe, including NATO not accepting new members like Ukraine and Georgia and limits on allied deployments in Eastern European NATO members.

Stoltenberg reiterated that Ukraine has a right to decide its future security arrangements and that Russia had no right to veto NATO admitting new members.

Stoltenberg said NATO voiced "serious concern" over Moscow's buildup of nearly 100,000 troops near Russia’s border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimean Peninsula in what Western capitals fear could be a prelude to an invasion.

"There are significant differences between NATO allies and Russia on this issue," he told reporters after the four-hour meeting with Russian officials.

"Our differences will not be easy to bridge, but it is a positive sign that all NATO allies and Russia sat down around the same table and engaged on substantive topics."

Stoltenberg said the allies had agreed to hold a series of meetings with Moscow on a variety of strategic issues.

"Russia was not in a position to agree on that proposal. They didn't reject it either, but the Russian representatives made it clear that they needed some time to come back to NATO with an answer," he said.

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The Russian delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko and Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin.

At a lengthy news conference after the meeting, Grushko said that that NATO’s expansion poses a threat to Russia’s security, but that Moscow was willing to talk about weapons deployment and verification measures.

“It’s absolutely imperative to end the policy of open doors and offer Russia legally binding guarantees precluding further NATO’s expansion eastward,” Grushko said. “The freedom to choose ways of ensuring one’s security mustn’t be implemented in a way that infringes the legitimate security interests of others.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russia, while not issuing ultimatums, remains concerned about the Western alliance's possible enlargement.

"Of course, Russia is concerned over any NATO expansion. NATO is not an instrument of development, it is an instrument of confrontation," Peskov told journalists in Moscow.

The NATO-Russia Council meeting was the first under that framework in more than two years. It was the second round of high-stakes diplomacy this week following an initial meeting between senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva on January 10.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the top American negotiator at the Geneva talks, also took part in the meeting in the Belgian capital.

She called on Russia to stay at the negotiating table to discuss Ukraine and other issues, including arms control.

"If Russia walks away... it will be quite apparent they were never serious about pursuing diplomacy and that is why collectively we are preparing for every eventuality," Sherman told reporters in Brussels.

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U.S. Says NATO Allies 'United' Ahead Of Talks With Russia

"The heavy pace of bilateral and multilateral engagements this week demonstrates that the United States and our allies and partners are not dragging our feet. It is Russia that has to make a stark choice: de-escalation and diplomacy or confrontation and consequences,” she said.

The NATO-Russia Council was set up two decades ago, but full meetings were suspended after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The council has met only sporadically since, the last time in July 2019.

Western officials and analysts say Russia’s buildup is an attempt to pressure the United States and European allies to make concessions.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa

The United States has urged authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina to investigate ceremonies held over the weekend marking the banned Republika Srpska Day in the country's Serb-dominated entity.

A State Department spokesperson on January 11 said the U.S. was "deeply concerned over reports of hate speech, glorification of war criminals, and provocative incidents targeting returnees in the Republika Srpska entity" during the ceremonies.

"We urge competent authorities to investigate these incidents without delay and to hold the responsible individuals accountable," the spokesperson said.

The Republika Srpska on January 9 celebrated what its leaders call their "national day" holiday but what the country’s top court has declared unconstitutional.

The holiday marks the date in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs declared their own state in Bosnia, triggering a four-year war that killed more than 100,000 people and left millions homeless.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the Serbian representative in Bosnia's tripartite presidency, presided over the celebrations, which included a march by armed police through the main Bosnian Serb city of Banja Luka.

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Dodik, who has stoked political division in the Balkan country by repeatedly threatening to withdraw from state-level institutions, last week was hit with sanctions by Washington for "destabilizing and corrupt activities and attempts to dismantle" the 1995 U.S.-brokered Dayton peace accords that ended the war.

The accords created two highly autonomous entities that share some joint institutions: Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation. The country is governed and administered along ethnic lines established by the agreement, with a weak and often dysfunctional central government.

Dodik has described Bosnia as "an experiment by the international community" and an "impossible, imposed country." He also has said that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces "did not take place."

A day after the ceremonies the European Union threatened Republika Srpska with sanctions and a reduction in assistance if the situation in the country deteriorates.

The State Department spokesperson also noted that while Chinese and Russian diplomats and officials from neighboring Serbia attended the Republika Srpska Day ceremonies, the United States donated 96,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the central government.

With reporting by Reuters

Novak Djokovic has admitted to making an "error of judgement" by going ahead with an interview with a French journalist while positive for COVID-19 and conceded that a member of his team submitted a false declaration to the Australian government about his travel history.

But the world No. 1 insisted other reports about his activities following his positive test for COVID-19 were "misinformation" and had been "very hurtful" to his family.

Djokovic made the comments on January 12 on Instagram as he addressed controversies surrounding his efforts to be cleared to defend his Australian Open title while unvaccinated.

The 34-year-old entered Australia last week with a vaccine exemption due to a positive test for COVID-19 on December 16.

The following day, however, he appeared without a mask at the launch of a Serbian stamp bearing his image and at an event in Belgrade for young tennis players.

Djokovic's Instagram post made no mention of the stamp ceremony, but it said that he had only received the positive results of a PCR test for COVID-19 on December 17 after he attended the youth tennis event.

Djokovic said that on December 18 he canceled all events but decided to go ahead with the interview with the French publication L'Equipe and a photo shoot.

"I felt obliged to go ahead and conduct the L'Equipe interview, as I didn't want to let the journalist down, but did ensure I socially distanced and wore a mask except when my photograph was being taken," he said.

"While I went home after the interview to isolate for the required period, on reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment," he said.

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Djokovic's statement also addressed a reported discrepancy in his travel declaration, which was published by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia earlier this week.

The declaration showed that he confirm he would not travel in the 14 days before landing in Australia, but he reportedly had been in Serbia before departing from Spain.

He attributed it to "human error" on the part of the member of his support team.

"On the issue of my travel declaration, this was submitted by my support team on my behalf -- as I told immigration officials on my arrival -- and my agent sincerely apologizes for the administrative mistake in ticking the incorrect box about my previous travel before coming to Australia."

The statement came as Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke considered whether to again cancel Djokovic's visa and deport him ahead of the Australian Open, which starts on January 17.

Hawke has the discretionary power to cancel Djokovic's visa, and a spokesman for the minister said he was still considering taking action, a process that would be extended to assess the new information.

Australia has a policy barring noncitizens or nonresidents from entry unless they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but offers a medical exemption.

Djokovic landed in Australia on January 5 and after the player said he had been given a medical exemption by the organizer of the Australian Open from its vaccination rules to compete based on his positive test last month.

Djokovic was sent to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, angering many in Serbia. On January 10 an Australian judge reinstated the visa, freeing him to return to his training regimen.

Though the court ruled that the visa should still be valid, it did not touch on whether the reason for his exemption was valid, leaving the question to Hawke.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Bulgaria's law on secret surveillance and how data is held violates the European Convention of Human Rights.

The court said on January 11 that its justices had ruled unanimously on the case, brought to the court by two Bulgarian lawyers along with two rights organizations, that Bulgaria failed to meet the rights convention with its Special Surveillance Means Act of 1997.

"The court found in particular that the relevant legislation governing secret surveillance did not meet the quality-of-law requirement of the convention and was unable to keep surveillance to only that which was necessary," the court said in a statement.

"Similarly, the court found that the laws governing retention and accessing communications data did not meet the quality-of-law requirement of the convention, and they were incapable of limiting such retention and accessing to what was strictly necessary," it added.

While the case was filed in 2012, its relevance has been front and center in Bulgarian politics in recent years after a special parliamentary commission found in 2020 that more than 900 citizens -- including journalists, politicians, and rights activists -- had had their conversations recorded by special services during anti-corruption protests that led to the toppling of the government.

MINSK -- Two Belarusian cross-country skiers say they have been barred from competition after sports officials in the tightly controlled country accused them of supporting the country's political opposition.

Svyatlana Andryyuk and Darya Dalidovich told Reuters on January 11 that the Belarus Ski Union annulled their individual athlete registrations last month and therefore they are no longer able to take part in in official competitions organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS), including qualifications for major international events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing that start in less than a month.

According to Andryyuk and Dalidovich, the head of the Belarus Cross-Country Skiing Federation, Alyaksandr Darakhovich, ordered officials in November to bar them from competing.

Neither Darakhovich, who is also a deputy mayor of Minsk, nor the Belarus Ski Union were available for comment.

FIS confirmed to Reuters that the two athletes' individual registration numbers had been deactivated.

The two young skiers are the latest athletes to be targeted since a crackdown on critics of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka after a 2020 presidential election his opponents say was fraudulent.

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Andryyuk, 22, said she had never publicly expressed her political point of view, adding that she was "neutral" to political events in the country.

Dalidovich, 17, said her father's political views might have been behind the authorities' move.

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Her father, Syarhey Dalidovich, a seven-time Olympian, took part in anti-Lukashenka demonstrations in 2020.

The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) said on social media on January 11 that it officially urged the FIS to restore the two athletes' eligibility to take part in international skiing events.

The BSSF was founded in August 2020 by retired Belarusian swimmer Alyaksandra Herasimenya as protests erupted in Belarus after the disputed reelection of Lukashenka.

It provides financial and legal help to Belarusian athletes targeted by the authorities over the anti-Lukashenka protests.

In one of the most high-profile cases targeting athletes, Belarusian team officials tried to force sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to fly home from the Tokyo Olympics after she criticized them on social media.

She took refuge in the Polish Embassy in Tokyo after refusing the order. Two days later she boarded a plane to Europe, reaching Warsaw, where she is living in exile.

Lukashenka's crackdown on dissent has seen thousands detained, while most opposition politicians have left the country fearing for their safety.

With reporting by Reuters

Hungary's president has set April 3 as the date for the Central European country's next general elections, expected to be a tough test for Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing government.

"I announce the date (for the parliamentary) election as April 3," President Janos Ader said in a statement posted on his website.

Orban, a nationalist who has been in power since 2010, faces a challenge to his rule with multiple opposition parties agreeing to unite behind one candidate for the first time.

Recent polls suggest a close race against the coalition's candidate for prime minister, Peter Marki-Zay.

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Orban's critics say his ruling Fidesz party has dismantled democratic institutions in Hungary, while trashing judicial independence and controlling the media.

He has also stepped up an anti-LGBT campaign as part of an ongoing drive to depict itself as the guardian of Christian values against Western liberalism that also includes a hard-line anti-immigration policy.

An Azerbaijani soldier and two Armenian soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, according to military officials in Baku and Yerevan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are blaming each other for the deadly violence and both sides have warned that tensions along the border are escalating.

Armenia's Defense Ministry said Azerbaijani forces opened fire around 3:15 p.m. (1115 GMT/UTC) in the border area near Verin Shorzha in the eastern Gegharkunik Province.

It initially said one Armenian serviceman was wounded, but later revised its casualty figures to two dead and two wounded.

The ministry also claimed later on January 11 that Azerbaijani forces had fired artillery across the border and used drone aircraft in the altercation, adding that shooting by Azerbaijani forces was "suppressed due to retaliatory actions of the Armenian side."

It said that as of 5 p.m., the situation along the border was "relatively stable" and "under full control of the Armenian armed forces."

Earlier, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported that an Azerbaijani serviceman was killed along the border with Armenia "as a result of an Armenian provocation in the direction of Azerbaijan's Kalbacar district."

The ministry denied that Azerbaijan's military used artillery or drones, saying to its forces were "responding to a provocation by the enemy."

It also said Armenian fire was "suppressed due to corresponding actions taken by units of the Azerbaijani Army."

Baku added, "the entire responsibility for the latest tensions lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia."

The U.S. ambassador to NATO says members of the alliance "stand united" ahead of high-stakes talks with Russia over the future of European security as concerns about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine hang in the balance.

The Western military alliance's 30 members will meet with Russian officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels on January 12 to discuss Moscow's demand for security guarantees as well as the Kremlin's troop buildup near Ukraine.

Russia is demanding NATO commit to ending its eastward expansion and roll back its advances in Central and Eastern Europe since the 1990s.

"It has become crystal-clear that not a single ally inside the NATO alliance is willing to budge or negotiate anything as it relates to NATO's open-door policy," U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said on January 11.

"NATO is open and committed to a meaningful reciprocal dialogue with Russia," Smith said. "At the same time, we stand united to deter threats against NATO allies and further Russian aggression against our partners in Europe."

Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula in what the United States has said could be a prelude to an invasion.

Western officials and analysts say Russia's buildup is an attempt to pressure the United States and European allies to make concessions.

On January 11, Russian forces staged live-fire exercises with tanks and about 3,000 troops near Russia's southern border with Ukraine.

Smith reiterated the U.S. call for Russia to de-escalate by withdrawing its troops and pursuing diplomacy.

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Questions About Russia's Commitment To Diplomacy Persist After High-Stakes Talks With The U.S.

NATO in 2008 committed to accepting Ukraine and Georgia, two former Soviet states that border Russia, into the alliance at an undetermined future date.

Russia has called Ukraine's membership in NATO a "red line." Many analysts say that Ukraine's membership in the alliance is at least a decade away.

The NATO-Russia Council meeting on January 12 follows bilateral talks between the United States and Russia in Geneva on January 10.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who led those talks, briefed officials from NATO earlier in the day about her conversations with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov during eight hours of talks she described as "serious" and "businesslike."

"I briefed the North Atlantic Council on yesterday's discussions with Russia at the Strategic Stability Dialogue in Geneva," Sherman wrote on Twitter on January 11 after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and ambassadors from NATO member states.

"The United States is committed to working in lockstep with our Allies and partners to urge de-escalation and respond to the security crisis caused by Russia," she added.

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U.S.-Russia Conclude 'Difficult' Geneva Talks On Ukraine, European Security

During a call with media on January 11, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the U.S.-Russia talks were open and direct but did not lead to any progress on issues that Moscow deems urgent.

"We see no real reason to be optimistic so far," Peskov said.

The NATO-Russia Council talks are to be followed by a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on January 13 in Vienna. The United States, Russia, and Ukraine are all members of the OSCE.

Peskov said Russia would get a "clear picture" of where the United States stands with regards to its demands at the conclusion of all the talks this week in Europe.

Sherman said on January 10 that the United States and Russia would sit down following the OSCE meeting to discuss the next steps.

Peskov said there was "no deadline" for the talks, but "Russia's position is that we would not be satisfied with an endless dragging out of this process."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on January 11 praised "unity" with the West against what he called Russian "ultimatums."

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Kuleba told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on January 11 that the Geneva talks proved "our strength lies in the unity and coherence of positions against...Russian ultimatums."

Kuleba also said the United States remains Kyiv's No. 1 security partner.

SEE ALSO:

U.S. Will 'Respond Decisively' If Russia Invades Ukraine, Biden Tells Zelenskiy

U.S. President Joe Biden and Putin held two phone calls in December, accompanied by a flurry of diplomacy involving officials from the United States, its European allies and Ukraine, and Russia ahead of the meetings this week.

Ryabkov commented after the Geneva talks that he had assured Sherman that U.S. and NATO concerns about Russia's military buildup on its border with Ukraine were unfounded.

Still, Sherman said in a separate tweet on January 11 that Washington's support for Kyiv was unwavering.

"We affirmed a unified @NATO approach toward Russia balancing deterrence and dialogue and stressed our unwavering support for Ukraine," she wrote.

With reporting by Todd Prince in Washington, Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, TASS, and Interfax

Patriarch Porfirije, the head of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church, has tested positive for COVID-19 amid a surge in coronavirus infections in the Balkan nation after massive New Year celebrations that included open-air concerts and relaxed antivirus rules.

Porfirije, 60, became the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church after the previous patriarch, Irinej, died of COVID-19 in November 2020 at the age of 90.

Porfirije "remains with very mild symptoms of the virus infection and ... will be treated at home," his office said in a statement on January 11, adding that he was carrying out administrative duties entirely without problems.

On January 9, Porfirije attended a mass ceremony in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity of neighboring Bosnia, where few people wore face masks.

Porfirije last year also went into isolation after being in contact with an infected priest.

The Serbian Orthodox Church numbers some 12 million followers, mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia.

Serbia, a country of 7 million people, has registered 1,359,544 infections and 12,936 coronavirus deaths.

The country reported nearly 9,000 new infections on January 10.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

MINSK -- Maryya Kalesnikava, a leading opposition activist in Belarus who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September, has been transferred to a penal colony for women in Homel, a town 300 kilometers southeast of the capital, Minsk.

Rights activists told RFE/RL on January 11 that Kalesnikava has been sent to Correctional Colony No. 4, where she will spend her first two weeks in quarantine as part of the facility's COVID precautions.

Kalesnikava and another opposition figure, Maksim Znak, were sentenced to prison terms of 11 and 10 years respectively on September 6, after being found guilty on charges of conspiracy to seize power, calls for action to damage national security, and calls for actions damaging national security by trying to create an extremist group. Both pleaded not guilty and rejected the charges.

Kalesnikava, 39, was a coordinator of the electoral campaign of an excluded presidential aspirant, former Belgazprombank head Viktar Babaryka. After Babaryka was arrested weeks before the August 2020 presidential election, Kalesnikava joined forces with another presidential candidate, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is widely believed to have won the election.

After joining Tsikhanouskaya’s support group, Kalesnikava became a member of the opposition Coordination Council and turned into a prominent leader of protests demanding the resignation of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who was officially announced the winner of the election, which demonstrators say was rigged and which the West has refused to recognize.

SEE ALSO:

Women Lead The Charge Against Belarus's Longtime Ruler

Kalesnikava was snatched from the streets of Minsk on September 7, 2020, by masked men along with two staffers. The three were driven early the next day to the border, where authorities told them to cross into Ukraine.

Security officers reportedly failed to deport Kalesnikava because she ripped her passport into small pieces after they arrived in the no-man’s land between Belarus and Ukraine. Her two associates entered Ukraine, but with no valid passport, Kalesnikava remained in the country and was subsequently detained.

A dozen human rights watchdogs based in Belarus have recognized Kalesnikava and two other associates who are also being detained as political prisoners and have demanded their immediate release from custody.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called her trial a "politically motivated conviction and shameful sentencing" on "bogus" charges.

Last year, Kalesnikava won the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded annually by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to honor "outstanding" civil society action in the defense of human rights amid an ongoing crackdown in Belarus on pro-democracy activists and groups by Lukashenka.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has discussed tennis player Novak Djokovic's visa situation with his Serbian counterpart, Ana Brnabic, as the unvaccinated world No. 1 faces the threat of deportation despite winning a court battle to compete in the upcoming Australian Open.

Morrison's office said the two heads of government agreed in their telephone conversation to keep in touch over the 34-year-old Serbian player’s disputed visa.

“The PM explained our nondiscriminatory border policy and its role in protecting Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Morrison’s office said in a statement. “They both agreed to stay in contact on the issue.”

Serbian public television RTS reported that Brnabic asked Morrison to ensure the tennis star was treated with dignity.

“The (Serbian) prime minister specifically emphasized the importance of the conditions for training and physical preparation for the upcoming competition, considering that Novak Djokovic was not allowed to train in recent days, and the tournament in Melbourne starts this weekend,” RTS reported.

The nine-time Australian Open defending champion meanwhile swapped the court of law for a tennis court within hours of being released from a quarantine hotel in Melbourne as he seeks to make up for lost training time ahead of the tournament that starts on January 17.

On January 10, an Australian judge reinstated Djokovic's visa, which had been canceled last week because the unvaccinated Serb player was said to have violated Australia's strict COVID-19 requirements.

He had been given a medical exemption by Tennis Australia, the tournament organizer, from its vaccination rules to compete because he was infected with COVID-19 last month.

Though the court ruled that the visa should still be valid because of technical reasons surrounding Djokovic's ability during the incident to speak with counsel and tournament organizers, it did not touch on the subject of whether the reason for his exemption was valid.

Speculation has swirled over the tennis star's documentation showing he tested positive for COVID-19 on December 16 in view of public appearances he made -- while not wearing a mask or taking social distancing precautions -- after the test date. According to Serbian law, a person who tests positive must immediately quarantine for 14 days.

Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has warned that he is considering exercising his executive power to deport Djokovic under separate legislation.

“The minister is currently considering the matter and the process remains ongoing,” Hawke’s office said in a statement.

Since Djokovic’s visa was canceled, Czech tennis player Renata Voracova and an unnamed European tennis official have been deported for similar reasons.

The dispute has added pressure on Morrison's government for his handling of the omicron variant wave in an election year, and prompted accusations of incompetence by the opposition.

The Australian opposition home affairs spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, blamed the dispute on a lack of planning by the government, which she said should have been clear about Djokovic's situation when it initially granted him the visa.

“If (he) gets deported it does incredible damage to Australia. If he gets to stay it does incredible damage to our tough border laws and is a real insult to the Australians who did the hard work of lockdowns and vaccination,” Keneally told Australian television.

Keneally said the Djokovic saga made Australia “look like a bit of a joke” on the world stage.

Prominent writer Viktor Shenderovich, an outspoken Kremlin critic, says he has left Russia because of a pressure campaign against him by officials, including his controversial designation as a "foreign agent."

Shenderovich, a columnist for The New Times, wrote on Facebook on January 10 that he decided to leave the country "until better times in Russia" after a libel probe was launched against him at the request of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.

Shenderovich, 63, has criticized Prigozhin for allegedly leading the private Russian military contractor Vagner Group, a paramilitary force that Western governments say the Kremlin has been using in conflicts in Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Mozambique, and the Central African Republic.

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Russia's Paramilitary Mercenaries Emerge From The Shadows

Last month Shenderovich was placed on the foreign agent list by the Justice Ministry. Russia's foreign agent laws require those designated to register with the authorities and label their content with an intrusive disclaimer, with criminal fines for not doing so.

Kremlin critics say the foreign agent designation brings up Soviet-era connotations and is intended to root out any independent, civic activity in Russia.

Many activists, journalists, and associates of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny have left the country in recent months amid increasing pressure on independent media and those voicing dissent. Several of those to leave the country were on the foreign agent list.

"(My) departure is exactly what the Kremlin has been hinting at me to do over the last 20 years of endless and demonstrative criminality directed at me," Shenderovich wrote on Facebook.

"We're talking about the prospect of imprisonment."

Russia denies a link between the government and the mercenaries, often describing the paramilitary force as trainers or advisers, despite evidence they have been engaged in combat operations.

President Vladimir Putin has said the Vagner Group does not represent the Russian state and is not paid by it. He has also said private military contractors have the right to work and pursue their interests anywhere in the world as long as they do not break Russian law.

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Investigation Charts Massive Haul For State Deals By Companies Linked To 'Putin's Chef'

Prigozhin, who is believed to run the Vagner Group, is sanctioned by the United States, Britain, and the European Union “in connection with his dealings with the Russian Federation's Ministry of Defense and his efforts to subvert U.S. democratic processes.” Prigozhin has denied the international allegations.

Last year, he sued Shenderovich for comments the writer made during an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio.

A Russian court in December found Shenderovich guilty of slander for calling Prigozhin a “criminal” and a “murderer” during a show on Ekho Moskvy and ordered him to pay 100,000 rubles ($1,330) in damages.

At the end of December, Prigozhin’s company, Konkord, said it was looking at filing criminal charges against Shenderovich for the libel case, which under Russian law could result in a prison sentence of up to five years if found guilty.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev says troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will begin withdrawing from Kazakhstan in two days as the situation calmed following the deadliest violence in the ex-Soviet republic's three decades of independence from Moscow.

In a televised address to parliament on January 11, Toqaev said the CSTO troops will complete their withdrawal over the next 10 days now that order has been largely restored.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said two of its Il-76 military transport planes arrived in Moscow on January 11 after leaving from the airport in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty.

The ministry said each plane was carrying 145 Russian citizens. It also said that the repatriation of Russia citizens from Kazakhstan "will continue until the task is implemented in full."

The CSTO military contingent arrived in Kazakhstan last week after the leadership of the oil-rich country asked the Russian-led bloc for military assistance when protests sparked by a fuel price hike turned deadly with security personnel and mobs clashing on city streets nationwide.

Toqaev claimed that "foreign-trained terrorists" were behind the protests in an attempt to overthrow the government. But analysts say there appears to be an internal power struggle between the president and followers of former leader Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has remained a powerful figure in the country since handpicking Toqaev as his successor in 2019.

SEE ALSO:

Kazakh President Says Week Of Deadly Unrest Was 'Attempted Coup,' Without Citing Evidence

Human rights experts from the United Nations on January 11 called on the Kazakh authorities to halt their "unrestrained use of force, including lethal force, against protesters."

Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN's special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said in a statement that Kazakhstan's overly broad use of the term "terrorism" to describe protesters, civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and political parties "appeared aimed at instilling fear and was deeply concerning."

Other UN rights experts also expressed concern that Toqaev had given orders for his security forces and army to "open fire with lethal force" against protesters that he described as "bandits and terrorists."

The UN rights experts also called for "independent and human-rights-based investigations of state use of force against protesters" in Kazakhstan.

Toqaev on January 11 suggested for the first time that there was an internal power struggle in Kazakhstan, saying that "under the country's first president, very lucrative companies and internationally known rich people appeared."

"The time has come to give people what belongs to them, to provide help systemically. The government must look into such companies to define what their contributions to the For Kazakhstan's People Fund should be," he said, chiding the nation's oligarchs who have "diminished competition" in the country.

In a major move targeting people around Nazarbaev, Toqaev also ordered the government to shut down operations of Operator ROP, a major disposal and recycling company that many in Kazakhstan says is connected to Nazarbaev's youngest daughter, Alia Nazarbaeva.

Toqaev on January 11 nominated Alikhan Smailov for the post of prime minister, a move that lawmakers approved hours later in parliament.

Smailov, 49, served as first deputy prime minister in the previous cabinet which Toqaev dismissed last week as the country was engulfed in unprecedented protests that turned violent and left at least 163 people dead.

Later in the day, Toqaev's office issued a presidential decree appointing a new government, which saw some former cabinet members, including the interior minister, defense minister, and foreign minister, retain their posts,

Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar was promoted to the post of the first deputy prime minister, while the ministers of information, justice, health, industry, economy, culture, finance, and energy were replaced.

Kazakhstan was thrown into turmoil in the past week after protests in the remote western region of Manghystau over a sharp hike in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) spread across the country all the way to Almaty.

What morphed into peaceful protests against wider economic and political grievances erupted into a spasm of violence, with mobs ransacking and torching public buildings and stores in Almaty, the commercial capital of 1.8 million people, and elsewhere.

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The head of the Almaty City Health Directorate, Nariman Tabynbaev, told reporters on January 11 that during the violence more than 1,200 people visited medical facilities for assistance because of injuries they had suffered.

"Some 176 individuals are currently in hospitals [in Almaty], of whom 18 are in intensive care units, including three children," Tabynbaev said, adding that most of the hospitalized patients had suffered gunshot wounds.

The Interior Ministry said on January 11 that security forces have detained 9,900 people in connection with the deadly unrest.

So far, authorities have failed to produce solid evidence to support claims that "terrorists," including "foreign fighters," were behind the unprecedented protests in the authoritarian country. Some have blamed government forces for fueling the violence.

In the face of a mounting crisis, Toqaev declared a state of emergency on January 5 and called on the CSTO to deploy troops to help maintain security.

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At the same time, he dismissed his cabinet and removed the 81-year-old Nazarbaev as head of the National Security Council, a powerful position from which the longtime leader continued to exert considerable influence.

Toqaev also dismissed the head of th National Security Committee (KNB), longtime Nazarbaev ally Karim Masimov, then had him arrested for high treason. Several other security officials were also detained.

Toqaev sought to reassure citizens that he was working toward economic stability, ordering the central bank and the financial regulations agency to ensure foreign exchange market stability in order to build confidence in the local currency, the tenge.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP