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  • The Week In Russia: Just One Minute (Of Freedom)

    A Russian court conjures up an “illusion of leniency” with a ruling that lets four young arrestees leave their homes for one minute a day, part of a continuing crackdown ahead of elections. Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny’s troubles persist in prison. Tension rises as Russia builds up forces near Ukraine and the United States offers Vladimir Putin a summit — and sanctions.

    Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

    ‘Freedom is Better’

    Dmitry Medvedev, whose single-term presidency stands for some as a monument to false hopes for change in Russia, famously said that “freedom is better than unfreedom.”

    That may seem obvious, but it was taken as a signal of possible change at the time nonetheless, and he repeated it shortly before he stepped down in 2012 and handed Russia’s reins formally back to Vladimir Putin, who first became president in 2000 and may continue and now has the option of seeking to stay in office until 2036.

    And now, nine years after Putin returned to the Kremlin, a Russian court has issued a ruling that seems to stand Medvedev’s maxim on its head: It has ordered four editors of a student magazine who have been arrested in connection with a video related to protests over opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s jailing to remain in their homes for all but one minute of freedom each day for two months.

    The four — Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Vladimir Metyolkin, and Natalya Tyshkevich — will be allowed out from 11:59 p.m. to midnight.

    The restriction, imposed by Moscow’s Basmanny district court on April 14 at the behest of prosecutors, is a pretrial measure. The editors of student magazine Doxa are charged with engaging minors in potentially harmful activities and could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted.

    A single protester, as allowed by law, demands "hands off Doxa" outside the court in Moscow.


    A single protester, as allowed by law, demands “hands off Doxa” outside the court in Moscow.

    The video they were charged over questioned teachers’ warnings to students about possible repercussions they could face for participating in unsanctioned rallies on January 23 and 31.

    Normally, if the Russian authorities want to refrain from jailing an arrestee ahead of trial but also do not want to leave them free, a court will order house arrest. In the case of the Doxa detainees, the court ordered that their movements be restricted — a custody measure that, at least on paper, seems substantially more lenient.

    In this case, however, the restrictions are “in essence even more severe than house arrest,” said Irina Biryukova, a lawyer with the Russian legal-aid NGO Public Verdict. For one thing, suspects under house arrest are allowed occasional outing such as to get fresh air, go to the doctor, or go to a house of worship.

    “In my view, this is just the illusion of leniency,” Biryukova told Mediazona, a Russian outlet that specializes in reporting on courts, prisons, and the law. “‘Restrictions on Certain Activities’ sounds far softer than ‘House Arrest.’”

    Kirill Koroteyev, a lawyer at the Russian human rights organization Agora, said that the one-minute restriction might violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

    It can also be interpreted as a form of trolling — something that the Russian state seems to have made part of its arsenal of measures in both domestic and foreign policy in the past few years.

    Trouble Speaking

    How else to explain the imprisoned Navalny’s statement earlier this month that his jailers were trying to undermine the hunger strike he declared on March 31 by roasting chicken near his cell and slipping candy into the pockets of his clothing.

    Or, for that matter, their repeated assurances that his condition is “satisfactory.”

    Yulia Navalnaya is worried about her husband. (file photo)


    Yulia Navalnaya is worried about her husband. (file photo)

    Navalny, who is serving a 2 1/2-year prison term on charges he calls absurd, has accused his jailers of a deliberate effort to undermine his health. After visiting him in prison on April 13, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said he had lost 17 kilograms, speaks “with difficulty,” and had to lie down and rest repeatedly during their telephone call across a glass barrier.

    “I know that he is not going to give up…. But after the visit with Aleksei, I worry about him even more,” she said.

    The Doxa case is likely to underscore the rift between the Russian state and millions of its younger citizens, who polls show are substantially less likely to want Putin to stay in office after his current term expires in 2024 and present a problem for the ruling United Russia party in parliamentary elections slated for September.

    The prosecution of the editors is part of a wide-scale crackdown on government critics, perceived Kremlin opponents, and civil society that has intensified since Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated following a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning in Siberia in August that he blames on Putin and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

    More than 100,000 people protested nationwide on two successive weekends after his arrest at the airport on arrival, and police detained some 10,000 people in a violent response.

    Protest Echo

    The arrest and imprisonment of Navalny has increased the already severe strains in ties between Russia and the West, long seen by both as being close to, at, or below Cold War lows since 2014, when Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula and fomented separatism across much of Ukraine, helping ignite a war that has killed more than 13,000 people in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed forces hold parts of two provinces.

    Tensions over Ukraine have increased substantially in recent weeks, with a flare-up in fighting and a series of highly visible military movements by Moscow, which has sent additional forces into occupied Crimea and into areas close to the Ukrainian border in southwestern Russia.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (center) visits the troops along the front line in eastern Ukraine on April 8.


    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (center) visits the troops along the front line in eastern Ukraine on April 8.

    The movements have raised questions about Russia’s intentions, which are unclear.

    “It appears [to be] a coercive demonstration, but the chance that it is not remains significant,” Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, wrote on Twitter on April 14. “It is too early, and overly optimistic, to assume the situation will de-escalate.”

    If Russia’s intentions are unclear, so are its excuses. Since the military movements started getting noticed, Russian officials have offered several sometimes conflicting — and, in the eyes of many analysts, unconvincing — explanations.

    They include claims that Russia is merely holding military exercises, assertions that Ukraine is threatening to retake control over the separatist-held parts of the Donbas, and a statement from Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that NATO is conducting “military activities that threaten Russia.”

    Shoigu appeared to be referring to NATO military exercises. But his remarks were undermined in advance by Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said that Russian military moves on its own territory pose no threat to any other country. If that’s the case, though, then the same should be true of NATO moves on alliance territory.

    One of the theories about Russia’s buildup is that it’s in part an attempt to test U.S. President Joe Biden early in his term and pressure his administration not to challenge Russia in a number of ways, such as by stepping up U.S. support for Ukraine and imposing new sanctions on Moscow.

    Then-Vice President Joe Biden (left) shakes hands with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow in March 2011.


    Then-Vice President Joe Biden (left) shakes hands with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow in March 2011.

    But sanctions came. Two days after Biden and Putin held their second telephone call since the U.S president took office in January, his administration announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against dozens of Russian people and companies, in response to alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election and the breach of government systems in the Solarwinds hack, as well as human rights violations and other actions in Crimea.

    The sanctions seemed to be in line with remarks Biden has made about Russia policy, and with the White House readout of Biden’s phone conversation with Putin on April 13: Biden “made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions,” it said, but at the same time he “reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with U.S. interests.”

    Biden also “proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia,” the White House statement said.

    An observer for Moscow tabloid Moskovsky komsomolets wrote that Biden was “gaslighting” Putin by proposing a summit and imposing new sanctions two days later.

    Summits And Sanctions

    But Biden stated that he was not trying to “kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict” with Russia, saying that the United States “could have gone further” but that he chose not to for that reason, at the same time adding that if Russia “continues to interfere with our democracy, I am prepared to take further actions to respond.”

    “The message here is that the Biden administration is deliberate and considerate when it comes to attacks on our political processes, security, and the sovereignty of our allies,” Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert at the Wilson Center think tank, wrote on Twitter shortly after the sanctions were announced.

    “It will continue to impose costs on Russia for its malign activities but with the offer of a US-Russia summit this week, also a reminder that Putin has the keys to rolling back these costs. Pull out of Ukraine. Stop meddling in other countries’ affairs,” Jankowicz wrote. “Unlikely to happen, of course, but the off-ramp is there.”

    U.S. Army personnel march in a military parade marking Ukraine's Independence Day in Kyiv in August 2018.


    U.S. Army personnel march in a military parade marking Ukraine’s Independence Day in Kyiv in August 2018.

    It’s possible, or course, that Putin will steer clear of a summit, at least for the “coming months” mentioned in the offer, but blow past the off-ramp when it comes to what a White House statement called “Russia’s harmful foreign activities.”

    Before the sanctions were announced, Peskov said that additional punishments would “not be conducive” to a Biden-Putin summit, but he left the door open. For years, Putin has used the United States as a bugbear to bolster his image — while also using meetings with senior world leaders, and in particular the president of Moscow’s former Cold War foe, to the same purpose.

    But a summit, if it happens, is weeks or month away, and whether it happens will depend on numerous other factors in addition to U.S. sanctions and their severity, not least the next developments in Ukraine.

    In the short term, the U.S. measures seem certain to focus even more attention on the Russian forces gathering in Crimea and close to Ukraine’s eastern border, as Kyiv, Washington, and the West watch for Kremlin responses to the new sanctions.

    Even as observers worry that Moscow may be spoiling for a fight, and hoping that Kyiv will provide a pretext with some aggressive move, Russia has laid the groundwork to blame Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union for any further escalation of hostilities.

    “If there is any aggravation, we of course will do everything to ensure our security and the safety of our citizens, wherever they are,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on April 13, apparently referring in part to the Donbas residents whom Russia has given passports — that it, citizenship. “But Kyiv and its allies in the West will be entirely responsible for the consequences of a hypothetical exacerbation.”

    One short tweet seems to sum up what some of those who disagree with Ryabkov’s remark may be thinking.

    “Pre-emptive plea,” Nate Schenkkan, director of research strategy at Freedom House, wrote, “if Russia attacks Ukraine (again) to please not say it is in response to US sanctions.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • RFE/RL Petitions European Court To Block Russian Fines Under ‘Foreign Agents’ Law

    RFE/RL has filed an urgent petition with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to block Russia from enforcing penalties for violations of its controversial “foreign agent” law that could cost the broadcaster more than $1 million.

    The broadcaster said in a news release late on April 15 that it had asked the court in Strasbourg to grant interim measures ordering Russia to refrain from enforcing hundreds of “administrative protocols” that it has brought or threatened to bring against the media organization under the law, which critics say is aimed at muzzling independent media, especially RFE/RL.

    The interim measures would be in place until the court can rule on the Russian government’s actions, RFE/RL said.

    The “foreign agent” laws apply to foreign-funded media and to nongovernmental organizations that have been judged by the government as engaging in political activity and that receive foreign funding.

    The laws have been widely criticized as aiming to undermine civil society and discredit critical reporting and dissent.

    While RFE/RL has complied with all of its legal obligations under the “foreign agent” law, it has declined to implement the new labeling requirement established by the state media-monitoring agency Roskomnadzor.

    The measures are “clearly intended to damage its reputation and viability as an independent media organization in Russia,” RFE/RL’s news release said.

    As a result, Roskomnadzor has filed 390 violation cases, so-called protocols, against RFE/RL’s Moscow bureau and its general director, Andrei Shary, over a period of three months. Fines from those actions total approximately $1,430,000.

    Roskomnadzor is due to begin filing an additional 130 cases against RFE/RL and Shary on April 16, with additional fines estimated at nearly $1 million, RFE/RL said.

    If the fines are not paid, Russian authorities have the power to place RFE/RL into insolvency and/or to block access to its media sites, while Shary faces the prospect of a prison sentence of up to two years and personal bankruptcy.

    RFE/RL argues that Russia’s actions violate the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press that are protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and says that if the court does not act now, its Moscow bureau and its general director “will suffer irreversible harms.”

    RFE/RL also warned that, left unchecked, the Kremlin’s campaign will have a chilling effect on what is left of independent media in Russia.

    “RFE/RL will not be put in a position of undermining freedom of speech and journalistic integrity,” RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said.

    “We will not allow Roskomnadzor and the Kremlin to make editorial decisions about how we engage our audiences in Russia,” he was quoted as saying.

    RFE/RL hopes the ECHR “will view these actions by the government of Russia for what they are: an attempt to suppress free speech and the human rights of the Russian people, and a dangerous precedent at a time when independent media are under assault around the globe,” Fly said.

    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. In 2017, the Russian government placed RFE/RL’s Russian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time on the list.

    Since October, Roskomnadzor has ordered broadcasters designated as foreign agents to add a lengthy statement to news reports, social-media posts, and audiovisual materials specifying that the content was created by an outlet “performing the functions of a foreign agent.”

    RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Each week, nearly 7 million people access RFE/RL’s news portals in Russia.

    RFE/RL’s Russian-language news services are the only international media outlets with a physical presence in Russia to have been designated “foreign agents.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Ukraine To Consult With France, Germany On Russian Military Buildup

    French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on April 16 in a show of support for Kyiv amid concerns about a buildup of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea.

    Macron will receive Zelenskiy for lunch in Paris and both leaders will then talk with Merkel on a videoconference call, the French presidency said.

    “Ukraine’s sovereignty is under threat,” Macron’s office said. “All our work is aimed at avoiding an escalation and defusing tensions.”

    Zelenskiy said the discussions in Paris will help prepare so-called Normandy Format talks involving the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany to try to resolve the Ukraine conflict. France and Germany have been mediators in the conflict since 2015.


    Recent photographs, video, and other data suggest major movements of Russian armed units toward or near Ukraine’s border and into Crimea, fueling concerns that Russia is preparing to send forces into Ukraine.

    The United States and NATO have described it as the largest Russian military buildup since 2014, when Moscow illegally annexed Crimea and backed separatists in the east of Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people.

    Zelenskiy’s meeting with Macron and Merkel comes after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for stronger Western backing, saying that “words of support aren’t enough.”

    Kuleba, speaking on April 15 after talks in Kyiv with his counterparts from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, asked the Baltic states to reach out to other European Union and NATO members about offering “practical assistance” to Kyiv.

    Kuleba accused Moscow of “openly threatening Ukraine with war and the destruction of Ukrainian statehood” and said it was necessary to show Russia that its actions in eastern Ukraine could have “very painful” consequences.

    “The red line of Ukraine is the state border. If Russia crosses the red line, then it will have to suffer,” he warned.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry has said the troops are merely responding to “threatening” actions by the NATO alliance and participating in military drills.

    U.S. President Joe Biden and Merkel earlier this week called on Russia to reduce its border deployment.

    The call came after German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on April 14 accused Russia of seeking provocation with its troop buildup.

    “My impression is that the Russian side is trying everything to provoke a reaction,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

    With reporting by AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Non-Papers’ And Nonsense: Slovenia Muddles Balkan Picture With Talk Of Bosnia’s ‘Dissolution’

    Its provenance was unexpected, the underlying motives unclear, and its seriousness questioned.

    But a public squabble born of Slovenian indelicacy rippled through the Bosnian and EU capitals this week and raised uncomfortable questions about the durability of borders and institutions in the Balkans, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    Slovenian President Borut Pahor reportedly broached the possible “dissolution” of Bosnia-Herzegovina in conversation with Bosnia’s tripartite presidency last month, and unconfirmed reports this week cited a phantom “non-paper” by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa echoing talk of possible border changes to address lingering malaise in the former Yugoslavia.

    Both leaders publicly dismissed suggestions that they were advocating or agitating for such an outcome.

    But the alarm was duly raised and, strategic or not, the flap has unsettled outsiders to whom tinkering with decades-old borders is anathema and who think reforms are the best way to lift ethnically fraught Bosnia out of political paralysis.

    “The idea of border changes is dangerous,” Florian Bieber, director of the Center for Southeast European Studies at Austria’s University of Graz, said.

    He cited particular peril in the Balkans, where Serbian and Kosovar leaders were rumored to have considered a possible land swap three years ago. But he also warned of an unintended spillover into places like Ukraine, where Russia annexed Crimea seven years ago and still supports armed separatists.

    “It was already highly risky [to] discuss a mutually agreed border change between Kosovo and Serbia and [is] even more risky in Bosnia because it would involve not only a nonconsensual process [but] affect people against their will and throw overboard the approach of the international community [that has been in place] since 1991, namely that no border changes along ethnic lines are acceptable,” Bieber said. “This would have knock-on effects in Crimea and elsewhere and could trigger renewed conflict in Bosnia.”

    Out In The Open?

    A local Slovenian news portal first reported on April 11 that Pahor had asked Bosnia’s co-presidents at a March 5 meeting whether “separating peacefully” was an option for Bosnia, which is still governed as a Bosniak and Croat federation along with a Serb-majority entity called Republika Srpska.

    The complicated arrangement and labyrinthian levels of government were codified in the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian War in 1995.

    Bosniak Zeljko Komsic said a day later that the question had been put to him and the other two members of Bosnia’s presidency at a meeting in March.

    Pahor’s office later confirmed that he had asked the Bosnian leaders about “ideas about the dissolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the redrawing of borders in the Western Balkans” during a visit to Sarajevo in early March “out of concern about these ideas.”

    Reports suggested that Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the presidency and leader of Republika Srpska who recently intensified his calls for secession from the rest of Bosnia, responded more warmly to the Slovenian idea than his Bosniak and Croat counterparts.

    Pahor subsequently stressed his “advocacy” for Bosnia’s languishing EU membership bid and his respect for the country’s territorial integrity.

    Then came whirlwind reports this week suggesting that Jansa personally delivered a “non-paper” earlier this year to European Council President Charles Michel in which possible border changes were mentioned.

    Jansa, a politically pugnacious ally of Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has denied writing any such “non-paper.”

    An EU official responded on behalf of Michel’s office on April 12 by saying that “we cannot confirm that we have received” such a document.

    Bosnian border police along the Drina River in Zvornik, Bosnia


    Bosnian border police along the Drina River in Zvornik, Bosnia

    On April 15, a Ljubljana-based outlet, necenzurirano.si, published what it said was the “non-paper” in question.

    In it, under the heading “Western Balkans — A Way Forward,” Jansa proposes “solutions” that included “the unification of Kosovo and Albania” and “joining a larger part of the Republika Srpska territory with Serbia.”

    It proposes special status “following the model of South Tyrol” — the mainly German-speaking province in northern Italy — for “the Serbian part of Kosovo.”

    It also suggests either “joining the predominantly Croatian cantons of Bosnia-Herzegovina with Croatia, or…granting special status to the Croatian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

    Bosniaks, it reasons, “will thus gain an independently functioning state and assume responsibility for it.”

    It goes on to say that, after EU preparations for stabilization and other programs, “silent procedures” that are already “under way” include running the plans by “decision-makers in the region” and “decision-makers in the international community.”

    Pressure For Change

    Bosnia-Herzegovina has faced near-constant problems of governance since its creation with the two ethnic-based entities and locally governed Brcko district leaving the country with a highly constrained, weak central government.

    Brussels and its high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, have repeatedly stressed the bloc’s desire to see a commitment to reforms from Bosnian officials that would “enable the country to progress towards the EU.”

    But unresolved issues — including the problem of Bosnia’s ongoing political instability and stagnation when it comes to reforms — dominated conversation around the 25th anniversary of the Dayton accords in December.

    Last month, Croatia’s Foreign Ministry was quoted saying Zagreb was “the driver” of an initiative earlier this year to draft a “non-paper” to highlight Bosnia “as an important issue for the European Union which should be more visible on the geopolitical space in Southeast Europe.”

    WATCH: Peace, But No Prosperity: Bosnia Marks 25 Years Since Dayton Accords

    EU institutions and member states occasionally share confidential but unofficial “non-papers” as suggested talking points or possible frameworks for discussion of particularly fraught topics.

    In the Croatian one, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman advocated EU candidate status for Bosnia, including for its effect to improve the beleaguered country’s “fragmented political landscape and atmosphere of mistrust” that exists among Bosnia’s political representatives.

    Slovenia was among the other signatories, as were Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, and Hungary.

    Grlic-Radman said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers on March 22 that other European counterparts — including from France and Germany — had also expressed support for the document.

    It said Bosnia must reform its electoral legislation before next year’s general election.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month appealed to Bosnia’s tripartite presidency to work toward at least modest reforms, including “limited constitutional change…to reform the electoral system.”

    He reportedly cited EU membership goals and “rulings of the European courts,” a reference to a 2009 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision demanding that Bosnia allow a minority outside the three main ethnicities — Bosniak, Croat, and Serb — to run for high office, an act that is currently banned.

    It was the first official communication to Bosnia from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and, while delicately worded, sent an unmistakable signal to Sarajevo.

    “There’s a whole bunch of things that are happening right now,” Toby Vogel, a policy analyst focused on the Western Balkans and senior associate of the Democratization Policy Council (DPC), told RFE/RL prior to the leak of Jansa’s purported “non-paper.”

    “And I think it makes a lot of people nervous, not just Bosnians but others as well who fear that the incumbent ethnic elite [in Bosnia] might be seeking to sort of cement or solidify their stranglehold over politics, society, and the economy and preempt any challenge to their rule,” he said.

    In that sense, Vogel added, the main ethnic parties that were essentially enshrined in the Bosnian Constitution that emerged from Dayton “absolutely have a congruence of interest.”

    Then came the confusing barrage of diplomatic signals from Slovenia.

    ‘Dangerous Game’ In Ljubljana

    Slovenia is scheduled to join the rotating Trio Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2021, so the timing of Pahor and Jansa’s statements packs a particular punch.

    Perhaps they are simply seeking political points by appearing to offer solutions to the lingering instability among fellow former Yugoslav republics to the southeast.

    Some analysts speculate that the Slovenian leaders could also be channeling dissatisfaction with Bosnia among “bigger actors” within the European Union.

    Mateusz Seroka, a research fellow at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) in Warsaw, told RFE/RL he thinks border adjustments are a nonstarter — “such an option would cause as many problems as it could theoretically solve.”

    But speaking before the “non-paper’s” contents were leaked, he said “there are still groups which could embrace thinking about partitioning the Western Balkan region along ethnic lines,” and doesn’t necessarily fault Ljubljana for raising the topic.

    “Of course serious politicians should take into account that things could go in [the] wrong direction, so they should talk about various scenarios with their counterparts from the region,” Seroka said. “But it does not necessarily mean that they are in favor of, for example, the partitioning of existing countries.”

    Policy analyst Vogel said he doubts the reported talk of Balkan border changes by Slovenian officials is a thoughtful strategic push.

    “I think it’s more of a trial balloon or a provocation maybe,” he said. “But the question is, what’s the secondary effect this is going to have? Independently of whether any of this will actually happen, I think the effect it has is to create an atmosphere in which people feel that everything is negotiable — nothing is to be taken for granted. And that’s a very dangerous game to play, I think, in the Balkans.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kyrgyzstan’s Hydropower Problems Causing Concern In Neighboring Nations

    Any farmer can explain the problems that come with being dependent on generous rain clouds to water the crops.

    It seems there is often either too little or too much.

    Many people in Kyrgyzstan are about to face the consequences of too little water. In a country where 90 percent of the electricity is generated by hydropower facilities, the problems caused by a long drought do not end in the farmers’ fields but could extend to neighboring countries.

    Kyrgyzstan’s Toktogul hydropower plant (HPP) was opened in 1975, during the Soviet era. It took some 15 years to prepare the massive reservoir and fill it before the four 300 megawatt (MW) units could start producing energy.

    It was one of the earliest attempts to tap into Kyrgyzstan’s hydropower potential, which even today is only being used at 10 percent of its capability.

    The plant has suffered several problems in recent years associated with its aging equipment.

    In December 2015, one of the turbines shut down and, in less than a week, three of the four units had stopped functioning, forcing authorities to ration electricity during the coldest part of winter. The HPP is currently undergoing renovation work that aims to replace or rehabilitate the old equipment and bring the total output up to 1440 MW.

    While the Toktogul reservoir is a source of domestic power for Kyrgyzstan, its water is needed in two other countries.


    While the Toktogul reservoir is a source of domestic power for Kyrgyzstan, its water is needed in two other countries.

    The Toktogul reservoir is in the western Kementub Valley, along the Naryn River that eventually flows into Uzbekistan and merges into one of the two great rivers of Central Asia, the Syr Darya (the other is the Amu Darya), before snaking into Kazakhstan.

    The Toktogul HPP provides some 40 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s electricity, but the water level at the reservoir has been falling in recent years, which will soon result in the reduction and maybe the suspension of operations.

    In August 2017, the reservoir was filled to the maximum, with 19.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water. But on March 30, 2021, Kyrgyz Energy Minister Kubanychbek Turdubaev said the level had dropped to 8.7 bcm.

    The new leadership in Kyrgyzstan has been promising to decrease the country’s debt and any additional financial burden is especially unwelcome at the moment.

    Turdubaev called 8.5 bcm the “critical level” where the operation of the Toktagul HPP would be affected. The water level might reach this critical level very soon, judging by the rate it is falling.

    On March 22, Kyrgyzstan’s main electricity provider, Elektricheskiye Stantsii, said the water level at Toktogul was 8.83 bcm.

    Turdubaev noted that the amount of water spilling out of the reservoir has exceeded the amount coming into it for several years and “every year the volume of water is decreasing by 1.5-1.8 bcm.”

    The simplest way to correct the problem would be to close the spillways out of the reservoir for brief periods and allow water to accumulate. But while Toktogul is a source of domestic power for Kyrgyzstan, its water is needed in two other countries.

    Some 80 percent of the water that leaves the Toktogul reservoir goes into Uzbekistan, where it joins the Syr Darya.

    This water is desperately needed for agriculture in both of the downstream countries. Kazakhstan has promised to send up to 1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity exports, with Uzbekistan offering 750 million kWh to help Kyrgyzstan with its power problem.

    The idea is that this will allow Kyrgyzstan to cut back on the water used for the Toktogul HPP. All three parties seem to be counting on melting snow and spring rain to raise the water level at Toktogul, though there is no guarantee this will happen.

    Toktogul

    Toktogul

    In the meantime, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also want to ensure sufficient water from the reservoir for this year’s crops.

    As for electricity imports, there was reportedly a deal with Uzbekistan for a swap, whereby Uzbekistan will export electricity to Kyrgyzstan from March to October and again in March and April next year.

    In return, Kyrgyzstan has pledged to send electricity to Uzbekistan during the June-August period for 2021-2023. But Turdubaev indicated Kyrgyzstan will have to pay both countries for electricity imports and said his cash-strapped country cannot immediately make those payments.

    “We explained the situation to them and asked for [electricity supplies] on credit,” Turdubaev said.

    Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have pledged to charge low rates for the electricity, but the new leadership in Kyrgyzstan has been promising to decrease the country’s debt and any additional financial burden is especially unwelcome at the moment.

    Besides that, electricity imports from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will not be enough to cover the shortfall from the low water level at the Toktogul HPP.

    Turdubaev said other power plants that normally reduce their output during the warm months when HPPs operate will have to keep operating at or near winter capacity, and he specifically named the Bishkek thermal power plant (TPP).

    The coal-burning Bishkek TPP is thought to be a major contributor to air pollution in the Kyrgyz capital, which at times during this winter had some of the worst air pollution of any major city in the world.

    This year, the summer skies above Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, might be even browner than usual.


    This year, the summer skies above Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, might be even browner than usual.

    The clean electricity produced by Toktogul helps ease pollution problems in Bishkek and other areas of Kyrgyzstan during the warmer months of the year, but this year the summer skies above Kyrgyzstan’s capital might be even browner than usual.

    Longer term, the current drought is something Kyrgyzstan needs to consider in its grand plans to become an electricity exporter. Kyrgyzstan has exported electricity to its immediate neighbors during years when there was sufficient water for all of the country’s HPPs.

    But the country has much bigger plans.

    President Sadyr Japarov attended a ceremony in Kyrgyzstan’s southern village of Kara-Bulak on April 3 to launch construction of the first high-voltage power transmission line for the Central Asia-South Asia project, better known as CASA-1000.

    CASA-1000 aims to bring some 1,300 MW of surplus electricity generated during the summer months from HPPs in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan (300 MW) and Pakistan (1000 MW). The project is tentatively due to launch in 2023.

    But the current situation at the Toktogul reservoir is a reminder that the water needed to operate HPPs is not guaranteed to be constant. Some in Kyrgyzstan have also noted domestic demand for power is growing in the country and that that should be satisfied before any electricity is exported.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘It’s Like A Military Field Hospital Here’: Ukrainian Medics And Patients Speak Of COVID Trauma

    Current Time has visited the intensive-care unit of a COVID-19 hospital in Kyiv, where a recent surge in infections means every single bed is full. Many patients arrive in critical condition and require mechanical ventilation of their lungs. Medical staff say they’re battling difficult conditions and fatigue, while surviving patients speak of the trauma they have experienced.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Iran Signs Deal To Buy 60 Million Sputnik Vaccine Doses From Russia

    Iran’s ambassador to Moscow says Tehran has signed a contract with Russia to purchase 60 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.

    Kazem Jalali told the state-run IRNA news agency on April 15 that the deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, would provide enough shots to fully vaccinate 30 million people.

    Jalali said 60 million doses would be sent to Iran between June and December.

    He added that so far two Iranian companies have signed a contract with Russia for the joint production of vaccines in Iran.

    Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, overcame international skepticism in February after peer-reviewed results published in the medical journal The Lancet showed it to be safe and 91.6 percent effective against COVID-19. Sputnik V is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus, which causes the common cold.

    Iran is struggling to stem a new wave of COVID-19 infections, with the coronavirus killing one person every four minutes in the country, state TV reported on April 15. The country of 83 million people has recorded a total of 65,680 coronavirus-related deaths and more than 2.1 million infections since the pandemic began.

    Authorities imposed a 10-day lockdown on April 10 across most of the country to curb the spread of a fourth wave of the coronavirus, triggered in part by people ignoring health protocols during a two-week public holiday for Norouz, the Persian New Year.

    In some cities, hospitals are inundated with the sick and running out of beds.

    Businesses, restaurants, schools, and other public institutions have been forced to shut and gatherings are banned during the holy month of Ramadan.

    Iran is testing a homemade vaccine that may be ready for distribution in the spring. The country has also began working on a joint vaccine with Cuba. It is also planning to import some 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under COVAX, an international collaboration to deliver the vaccine equitably across the world. COVAX delivered its first shipment of 700,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses this week.

    With reporting by AP, IRNA, and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hunger Striking Kazakh Activist Rushed From Prison To Hospital With Heart Issue

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Jailed Kazakh activist Kenzhebek Abishev, who started a hunger strike several days ago protesting the cancellation of his release on parole and prison conditions, was rushed overnight to hospital in a critical condition.

    Abishev’s lawyer, Gulnar Zhuaspaeva, told RFE/RL on April 15 that an ambulance brought her client to the Qapshaghai City Hospital overnight.

    According to her, physicians diagnosed Abishev, who was recognized by human rights groups as a political prisoner, with coronary heart disease.

    Zhuaspaeva quoted the hospital’s doctor, Zubaira Sarsenova, as saying that Abishev’s current condition had improved to “stable.”

    An opposition activist, Rysbek Sarsenbaiuly, told RFE/RL that Abishev did not stop his hunger strike, adding that he and other activists urged him via the hospital window to end it to stay alive.

    Sarsenbaiuly said he and his colleagues will demand authorities restore the court decision on Abishev’s early release on parole.

    Abishev, who was jailed for being linked to a political movement founded by a fugitive tycoon, launched the hunger strike on April 11 and wrote an open letter to President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev asking him to intervene in his case.

    In his letter, Abishev called the cancellation of the court decision to release him on parole in February and the case against him “illegal,” adding that his medical conditions — heart and respiratory problems — had worsened due to the lack of proper medical treatment in prison.

    There have been no official statements regarding Abishev’s hunger strike either by Kazakhstan’s Penitentiary Service or the Prosecutor-General’s Office.

    On February 1, the Qapshaghai City Court in Kazakhstan’s south ruled that Abishev can be released on February 16, more than three years early, for good behavior while in prison, a procedure allowed by Kazakh laws.

    However, the Almaty regional prosecutor’s office appealed the ruling at the very last moment, arguing that the 53-year-old activist’s good behavior in custody was not enough for his release since he still has more than three years to serve. The court then scrapped the move, leaving Abishev in prison.

    Abishev was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other activists were found guilty of planning a “holy war” because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement. His prison term was later cut by eight months.

    Abishev pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him politically motivated.

    The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been residing in France for several years.

    Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet in recent years.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Criminal In A Cassock’: Russian Clergy Quarrel Over Navalny After A Priest Speaks Out In His Support

    MOSCOW — Since his return to Russia and subsequent jailing in January, opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been the subject of heated debates amid a wave of criminal cases and harassment against those who publicly endorse him.

    Students have been expelled and supporters of all stripes subjected to punitive measures for speaking out in favor of the Kremlin critic and his yearslong campaign against authoritarian President Vladimir Putin.

    But throughout the clampdown, one institution has largely maintained a guarded silence: the Russian Orthodox Church.

    So when Aleksei Uminsky, the head of a parish in east-central Moscow, urged “Christian mercy” for Navalny in a two-minute video posted online, his words prompted a spate of accusations and an unusual public apology that forced the institution to break its silence and exposed a division within it over political issues and proximity to the state.

    “For me as a priest, it’s not so important what an inmate’s name is or what crime he was convicted of,” Uminsky says in the video, without specifically endorsing Navalny or his politics. “But what is hugely important for me are the words of Christ, who urges the same attitude toward every person who finds themselves behind bars as toward Christ himself.”

    Navalny’s deteriorating health since he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on February 2 has been a cause célèbre for Russian civil society and many public figures concerned about the scale and severity of the state’s campaign to root out opposition ahead of parliamentary elections expected in September.

    It’s also the latest dark turn in Navalny’s monthslong ordeal, which began with his poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in August, continued with his jailing upon his return from treatment in Germany, and now, his relatives and supporters allege, could reach a grim denouement with a hunger strike that he commenced in early April over inadequate medical care at a notorious prison 100 kilometers east of Moscow.

    A still image from CCTV footage shows what is said to be jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny speaking with a prison guard at his prison outside Moscow earlier this month.


    A still image from CCTV footage shows what is said to be jailed Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny speaking with a prison guard at his prison outside Moscow earlier this month.

    Church leaders, who hold sway over millions of faithful in Russia, have been tight-lipped over the Navalny saga. So heads turned when, within two days of Uminsky’s public plea on April 7, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Spas TV channel aired a lengthy tirade against the priest.

    During a one-sided, 90-minute program titled Who Is Dragging The Church Into Politics And Making Martyrs Of Criminals?, Sergei Karnaukhov, a lecturer in politics at a Moscow university, described Uminsky as a “criminal in a cassock” and suggested the priest should be arrested before he “plunges our church into an abyss.” Karnaukhov called for a broader, concerted campaign to discipline priests who undermine Russia’s constitution.

    Uminsky, a well-regarded priest who has published extensively on the topic of church teaching and served as a television host in his own right, has long cultivated a reputation as one of the few Russian clergymen who openly sympathizes with the opposition. He has visited Russian prisons to speak with inmates and chaplains and has added his name to initiatives in support of jailed Russian protesters.

    In 2019, amid a crackdown following rallies in Moscow that led to prison sentences for participants, Uminsky was one of more than 180 priests who signed an open letter urging the authorities to show leniency and free arrested activists. It was an intervention in politics that church scholars said was unprecedented in Russia since the 1991 Soviet collapse, and it prompted a move by church authorities to discipline some clergymen who endorsed it.

    Karnaukhov’s denunciation of Uminsky’s statement was in line with the Kremlin’s long-standing conspiratorial narrative about protests and those who back them. But despite its close ties to the state, the Orthodox Church has often been riven by conflicting views over whether and how to respond to opposition protests and the authorities’ often violent tactics to suppress them. And the stance of Uminsky, a respected clergyman, has only deepened that ambivalence.

    “Uminsky has long irritated the most conservative members of the church,” church expert Roman Lunkin told RFE/RL. “But disciplining him would risk alienating other church members, especially young believers who may feel sympathy for Navalny.”

    Against this backdrop, Karnaukhov’s public condemnation of Uminsky’s stance — and especially his calls for criminal charges — elicited a spat among bodies tied to the Russian Orthodox Church, a generally ultraconservative faith whose head, Patriarch Kirill, has aligned himself publicly with Putin and been accused of, and vehemently denied, engaging in large-scale corruption.

    Orthodoxy And The World, a popular news website focused on church issues, announced it was severing ties with Spas TV until the channel apologizes to Uminsky. Karnaukhov’s words represented the “mockery of a respected priest,” the outlet said. After several other church figures and religious experts criticized the Spas TV program, the channel promised to issue an apology to Uminsky.

    The apology, or something close to it, came at the end of a studio discussion on April 12. Golovanov, the Spas TV presenter, stopped short of defending Uminsky, but acknowledged that airing Karnaukhov’s accusations was a mistake. He said the church’s role was to rise above social conflicts and mediate peace between warring parties. He promised his program would return to its original primary focus: church teaching and questions of faith.

    “Spas TV, like the church, unites people of all stripes,” Golovanov said. “Sorry to all those who were offended.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russian Military Activity Ramps Up In Crimea Along Major Highway From Russia

    Video recently shot in Crimea shows a marked increase in the movement of Russian military vehicles along the Tavrida highway in the east of the peninsula. The highway links the Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia via the Kerch bridge, which was built following Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. According to RFE/RL eyewitnesses, the convoy included combat vehicles with multiple rocket-launch systems, along with trucks carrying personnel and military equipment.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Turkmenistan’s Authoritarian Leader Expands Grip On Power

    ASHGABAT — Turkmenistan’s authoritarian president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is also the head of the government in the tightly controlled state, has added another title to his name: the speaker of the newly established upper chamber of parliament, the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council).

    State media in the extremely isolated former Soviet republic reported on April 14 that Berdymukhammedov was “elected to the post by secret ballot” by the chamber’s members.

    During the session, Berdymukhammedov appointed eight additional members to the Halk Maslahaty, bringing the total number of members to 56.

    The other 48 members of the upper chamber were “elected” in late March.

    With a cult of personality around the 63-year-old authoritarian ruler, dissent is not tolerated in the Central Asian state and all media is under strict state control.

    With the exception of turning the parliament into a two-chamber institution, other details of the constitutional changes that Berdymukhammedov signed into the law in September 2020 remain largely unknown.

    Berdymukhammedov initiated the constitutional changes in 2019 and led a commission he established that prepared a bill of amendments.

    The Halk Maslahaty was created in 2017 as a separate entity on the basis of the Council of Elders. Berdymukhammedov was the body’s chairman.

    Critics have said that Berdymukhammedov plans to use the constitutional amendments to secure his lifetime presidency and to pass it on to his son and grandchildren.

    Before the bill was signed into law last year, dozens of Turkmen citizens held rallies in Washington, as well as in the cities of Houston and Pittsburgh, protesting the plan.

    Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the restrictive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Navalny Ally Sobol Handed One-Year Suspended Sentence For Trespassing

    MOSCOW — Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has been handed a one-year suspended sentence and a penalty of either 10 percent of her wages or correctional labor for trespassing.

    According to Russian legislation, those handed such a sentence must pay the State Treasury the required amount if they are employed. If they are unemployed, they must work at jobs defined by the Federal Penitentiary Service during the term of their sentence.

    The court on April 15 found Sobol guilty of illegally forcing her way into the apartment of Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev in December 2020, hours after Navalny had published a recording of what he said was a phone conversation with Kudryavtsev.

    During the 49-minute phone call, in which the anti-corruption campaigner posed as an FSB official conducting an internal review, Kudryavtsev described the details of an operation to poison the Kremlin critic in August.

    Investigators say Sobol pushed Kudryavtsev’s mother-in-law, who opened the door, and forcibly entered the apartment.

    Sobol rejected the charge, saying she did not push Kudryavtsev’s mother-in-law, but went to the apartment to meet Kudryavtsev to ask him about his conversation with Navalny.

    Her team has described the case as political “revenge” for a lawyer not being afraid to ask questions of the alleged assassin.

    In her final statement at the trial, Sobol reminded the court that no probe had been launched into Navalny’s poisoning.

    “I am sure that my verdict will be guilty. Because it is me on trial, not those who poisoned Navalny, not members of the [ruling] United Russia [party],” Sobol said.

    Kudryavtsev was not summoned to the trial to testify, which investigators said was not necessary because he was neither a witness nor a plaintiff in the case.

    Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he received life-saving treatment for the poisoning in Siberia in August.

    Navalny has insisted that his poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The FSB and the Kremlin have denied any role in the poisoning.

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

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

    The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Navalny affair and ensuing crackdown on protesters.

    Last month, Sobol said she planned to run for parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, in September elections

    Sobol is currently under house arrest in another case. She and several other associates and supporters of Navalny were charged with violating sanitary regulations during unsanctioned rallies on January 21 to protest Navalny’s incarceration.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Court Restricts Moscow Student Magazine Editors To One Minute Outside Per Day

    MOSCOW — A Moscow court has placed in de facto house arrest four editors of the student magazine Doxa who have been accused of “engaging minors in actions that might be dangerous” over a video related to unsanctioned rallies to protest the incarceration of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

    The Basmanny district court late on April 14 ordered Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, Natalya Tyshkevich, and Alla Gutnikova not to leave their homes between 11.59 p.m. and midnight for two months, giving them only one minute to be outside each day.

    The four were detained for questioning at the Investigative Committee after their homes and the magazine’s offices were searched over the video, which the magazine posted online in January.

    Dozens of supporters held single-person protests near the court and organized “a live chain,” to express support for the four editors. Police detained one of the protesters.

    As the journalists left the court one by one after the announcement of their pretrial restrictions, supporters cheered and applauded them.

    The video for which the journalists were charged questioned teachers’ moves to warn students about possible repercussions they could face for participating in unsanctioned rallies on January 23 and 31 in protest of Navalny’s arrest.

    Doxa editors say the video was deleted from the magazine’s website following a demand from Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove it.

    More than 10,000 supporters of Navalny were detained across Russia during and after the January rallies.

    Many of the detained men and women were either fined or handed several-day jail terms. At least 90 were charged with criminal offenses and several have been fired by their employers.

    Human rights groups have called on Moscow repeatedly to stop targeting journalists because they covered the protests or expressed solidarity with protesters since both are protected under the right to freedom of expression.

    “Instead of targeting journalists, the authorities should hold accountable police who attack journalists and interfere with their work,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on February 3.

    Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning in Siberia in August 2020 that several European laboratories concluded was from a military-grade chemical nerve agent.

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Iran Nuclear Talks To Resume In Vienna Under Shadow Of Alleged Sabotage

    Talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal are set to resume in Vienna amid renewed tensions as Tehran prepares to ramp up uranium enrichment following an alleged sabotage attack on the country’s main nuclear site.

    Iran and other parties to the 2015 agreement -– Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia — last week launched what has been described as “constructive” talks to bring Washington and Tehran into full compliance with the accord.

    But on April 13, Iran announced it would start enriching uranium at up to 60 percent purity, higher than it has ever done before, casting a shadow on the negotiations at which European countries have worked as intermediaries between Washington and Tehran.

    Iranian officials say the move comes in reaction to an alleged attack on the Natanz nuclear site two days earlier that they have blamed on archenemy Israel.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tehran’s “provocative” announcement on enrichment “calls into question Iran’s seriousness with regard the nuclear talks.”

    Britain, France, and Germany expressed “grave concern” over Tehran’s “dangerous” announcement, saying it was “contrary to the constructive spirit and good faith” of ongoing efforts to revive the 2015 pact.

    Under the deal, abandoned by the United States under former President Donald Trump, Iran had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent. Recently it has been enriching up to 20 percent, saying the deal was no longer enforceable.

    While enriching uranium to 60 percent would be the highest level achieved by Iran’s nuclear program, it is still short of the 90 percent purity needed for military use. Tehran has repeatedly denied it is seeking nuclear weapons and that its nuclear ambitions are purely for civilian purposes.

    Few details have emerged about the April 11 alleged sabotage attack, which Iranian officials said knocked out power at the enrichment plant in central Iran.

    Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement but multiple Israeli media outlets quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying that the country’s Mossad spy service carried out a successful sabotage operation at the Natanz site.

    Lawmaker Alireza Zakani, who heads the research center of Iran’s hard-line parliament, said in an interview that “several thousand centrifuges were damaged and destroyed.” Other officials said that only first-generation machines had been affected.

    Citing two intelligence sources, The New York Times has reported that production at Natanz could be set back by at least nine months due to the attack.

    Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, have visited the site but have not commented on the extent of the damage caused by the alleged attack.

    However, the IAEA did say that Iran had “almost completed preparations” to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity.

    The 2015 nuclear deal lifted international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. But the Trump administration imposed a raft of sanctions under a “maximum pressure” campaign after it withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018.

    Iran responded by gradually breaching many of the nuclear restrictions, saying the deal no longer applied.

    U.S. and Iranian officials have publicly clashed over the sequencing of possible U.S. sanctions relief and Iran reversing its breaches of the deal.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on April 15 said the Natanz attack had unleashed a “dangerous spiral” and warned Biden the situation could only be contained by lifting the sanctions Trump imposed.

    “No alternative. Not much time,” he wrote on Twitter.

    Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group think tank, said that events of the past few days had “added urgency” to the talks.

    “It is clear that the more the diplomatic process drags on, the higher the risk that it gets derailed by saboteurs and those acting in bad faith,” he added.

    Eric Brewer, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told RFE/RL that “enriching to 60 percent is a significant Iranian step and will further shorten Iran’s breakout timeline.”

    However, the Iranian move was “unlikely to have the intended effect of forcing the U.S. to accept Iran’s demands,” said Brewer, who served as a deputy national intelligence officer and was responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.

    With reporting by AFP, dpa, and RFE/RL’s Radio Farda

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kyrgyz Powerbroker Matraimov Released From Custody, Case Closed

    BISHKEK — Raimbek Matraimov, the controversial former deputy chief of the Kyrgyz Customs Service who was placed on the U.S. Magnitsky sanctions list for his involvement in the illegal funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars abroad, has been released from custody and the investigation has been closed.

    The State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on April 15 that the money-laundering probe against Matraimov was stopped after investigators had not found any cash or real estate belonging to Matraimov or members of his family abroad.

    When Matraimov was rearrested in February, the UKMK said he was held as a suspect for laundering money through the purchase of property in China, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates.

    A Bishkek court in February ordered pretrial custody for Matraimov in connection with the corruption charges after hundreds of Kyrgyz protested a previous ruling mitigating a sentence after a guilty plea to no jail time and fines of just a few thousand dollars.

    The court had justified the mitigated sentence by saying that Matraimov had paid back around $24 million that disappeared through schemes that he oversaw.

    That decision was based on an economic-amnesty law passed in December 2020 that allows individuals who obtained financial assets through illegal means to avoid prosecution by turning the assets over to the State Treasury.

    The idea of an economic amnesty was announced in October by Sadyr Japarov, then-acting Kyrgyz president, just a day after Matraimov was detained and placed under house arrest.

    Japarov has since been elected president on a pledge to stamp out graft and enact reforms. Japarov also championed a new constitution — approved by voters earlier this month — that expands the power of the president.

    Critics say the amnesty legislation was proposed and hastily prepared by lawmakers to allow Matraimov and others to avoid conviction for corruption, while the constitutional changes create an authoritarian system and concentrate too much power in the hands of the president..

    In June 2019 an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan by Chinese-born Uyghur businessman Aierken Saimaiti, who was subsequently assassinated in Istanbul in November 2019.

    According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the estimated $700 million scheme involved a company controlled by Matraimov bribing officials to skirt customs fees and regulations, as well as engaging in money laundering, “allowing for maximum profits.”

    A U.S. report on human rights around the world, released in March, spotlighted threats to freedom of expression and a free press in Kyrgyzstan.

    In a section on respect for civil liberties, including freedom of the press, the State Department noted threats to journalists involved in that report, which implicated Matraimov.

    In January, the 49-year-old Matraimov changed his last name to Ismailov, while his wife, Uulkan Turgunova, changed her family name to Sulaimanova.

    The changed names, confirmed to RFE/RL by a spokesperson for Kyrgyzstan’s state registration service, were seen as an attempt to evade the U.S.- imposed sanctions.

    There have been no official statements from lawyers for Matraimov’s family to explain the name change.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Incident At Natanz Complicates Attempts To Revive Iranian Nuclear Deal

    An alleged act of sabotage against a key Iranian nuclear site appears to have complicated newly launched negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

    Two days after the attack — which Iran has blamed on Israel –Tehran announced it will start enriching uranium at 60 percent purity, higher than it has ever done before.

    Iranian President Hassan Rohani said on April 14 that the decision to sharply boost the enrichment was a reaction to the alleged attack at the secretive underground facility in central Iran.

    “Enabling IR-6 [centrifuges] at Natanz today, or bringing enrichment to 60 percent, this is the response to your evilness,” Rohani, apparently alluding to Israel, said at a cabinet meeting. “What you did was nuclear terrorism. What we do is legal.”

    Iranian authorities have called the damaging attack on Natanz an act of “nuclear terrorism,” suggesting it was aimed at undermining recently launched, indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington held to try to find a way for the United States to rejoin the deal it left in 2018 in exchange for Iran strictly adhering to the agreement.

    “You wanted to leave our hands empty during the talks but our hands are full,” Rohani said, suggesting that Tehran was attempting to gain leverage in the talks in Vienna, which are due to resume later this week.

    Tehran’s decision to enrich uranium at unprecedented levels was announced two days after the April 11 incident at Natanz. Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharibabadi, said on April 14 that 60 percent enrichment would begin next week.

    Under the nuclear deal agreed between six world power and Iran, Tehran is allowed to enrich uranium at 3.67 percent. Nuclear enrichment of 90 percent purity is needed to produce a nuclear bomb.

    Tehran began enriching uranium to 20 percent in January after parliament passed a law requiring the government to boost enrichment levels. The bill was adopted following the November assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh amid suspicions that Israel was behind the killing near Tehran.

    Analysts have warned that the incident at Natanz — which involved a carefully timed disruption of the site’s power — was likely to make it more difficult for Iranian negotiators to compromise in the nuclear talks, at which European countries have worked as intermediaries between Tehran and Washington.

    “Domestic politics in Iran were already making compromise hard, this is just going to pour gasoline on that problem,” Eric Brewer, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told RFE/RL. “Enriching to 60 percent is a significant Iranian step and will further shorten Iran’s breakout timeline,” said Brewer, who served as a deputy national intelligence officer and was responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.

    He added that the move was “unlikely to have the intended effect of forcing the U.S. to accept Iran’s demands.”

    A satellite image shows the Natanz uranium enrichment facility on April 12.


    A satellite image shows the Natanz uranium enrichment facility on April 12.

    Who Profits?

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said sabotaging Natanz was “a very bad gamble” that he claimed would strengthen Tehran’s hand in the nuclear talks. He also said Tehran will retaliate if it determines that Israel was behind the sabotage. “The Zionists want to take revenge for our progress on the way to lift cruel sanctions,” Zarif said earlier in the week, adding that “we will not fall into their trap.”

    The extent of the damage to the underground nuclear site is not clear. Citing two intelligence sources, The New York Times reported that production at Natanz could be set back for at least nine months due to the attack, which reportedly caused fires.

    Lawmaker Alireza Zakani, who heads the research center of Iran’s hard-line parliament, said in an interview that “several thousand centrifuges were damaged and destroyed.”

    Israel has neither denied nor confirmed a role in the attack. Unnamed intelligence sources have told Israeli media that Mossad was responsible for the sabotage.

    The White House has denied that the United States had any involvement in the incident while declining to comment on whether the major power outage might undermine efforts to restore the nuclear accord.

    ‘Not A Small Signal’

    Brewer said the attack at Natanz signals to Iran that “its adversaries can still ‘reach out and touch’ its nuclear program whenever they feel like it.”

    “After years of attacks against Iranian facilities and scientists and efforts Iran has taken to prevent them, [that attack is] not a small signal,” he said, adding that more events, “deliberate and otherwise,” are expected that could test the talks.

    “For diplomacy to work we have to weather those events, and we’ve done so before. But that’s a lot harder right now given that we’re probably a ways off from a deal and there’s a lack of trust,” he added.

    Damage is seen to a building after a fire broke out at the Natanz facility in July 2020.


    Damage is seen to a building after a fire broke out at the Natanz facility in July 2020.

    Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, said the attack at Natanz appeared to be “a win-win scenario for Israel.”

    “If Iran doesn’t retaliate out of fear of derailing nuclear diplomacy, it grants Israel a cost-free but devastating blow to Iran’s nuclear program. If Iran retaliates, then it risks derailing nuclear diplomacy, which is in line with Israel’s objectives,” he told RFE/RL.

    Complicating Talks

    Dalia Kassa Kaye, a fellow at the Wilson Center and the former director of the Rand Center for the Middle East, believes undermining diplomacy was not the only aim of the attack at Natanz, which was also targeted in July in an act of sabotage that was also blamed on Israel as part of shadow efforts undermining Iran’s nuclear program, which Israeli officials see as an existential threat.

    “But such incidents certainly complicate diplomacy for the [administration of President Joe Biden] and are only likely to further erode trust between the United States and Iran,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine the administration welcomed this action in the midst of this particularly sensitive time in nuclear diplomacy.”

    The incident resulted in a call by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, for Rohani’s government to leave the Vienna talks that the news outlet said were taking place “under the shadow of terror.” Tasnim suggested the Natanz attack must have been coordinated with the United States.

    Lawmaker Mojtaba Zolnur, who heads the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, called on Rohani not to trust Washington, saying Israel’s “involvement” in the incident did not clear the United States, which he claimed had been working “to inflict more severe blows” on Tehran.

    But Reza Noroozpur, the head of the official IRNA state news agency, warned against halting the negotiations, saying it was “the demand of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.” He added that Tehran should follow the policy of “strategic patience” and retaliate at an appropriate time.

    U.S. President Donald Trump exited the landmark agreement in May 2018 while reimposing crippling economic sanctions at the same time. Tehran reacted by gradually decreasing its commitments under the deal.

    The Biden administration has expressed its readiness to rejoin the nuclear deal — also co-signed by Germany, France, Russia, Britain, and China — if Tehran returns to full compliance with the agreement.

    Washington said last week it would be prepared to lift sanctions that are inconsistent with the nuclear agreement.

    But Tehran has called for the removal of all sanctions in refusing any direct talks with Washington, saying that it is no longer a party to the agreement.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russian Investigative Journalist Says Raids, Interrogation Intended To Find ‘Something Else’

    Prominent investigative journalist Roman Anin believes that the newfound attention paid by Russian authorities to him and his media organization differs from the official line, and that recent raids on his home and office — and his subsequent interrogation — were in response to recent critical coverage of high-profile business and security figures.

    Speaking to RFE/RL’s Russian Service on April 13 a day after his visit to the Investigative Committee for questioning relating to a story he wrote five years ago, the editor in chief of Important Stories (Istories) gave his assessment of what he sees as part of the “sad process in Russia of pressure on independent journalism.”

    The April 9 seizure of computers and mobile phones from his home and and Istories’ offices by Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, he said, had nothing to do with the recent reopening of the case centered on the piece he wrote in 2016 for Novaya gazeta that explored the connection between the wife of powerful Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and one of the world’s largest yachts.

    That case had already been resolved, and resulted in the newspaper publishing a court-ordered refutation atop the article page that says the report was “untrue and discredited the honor and dignity” of Sechin, a longtime associate of President Vladimir Putin who is considered one of his closest allies. State-owned Rosneft is Russia’s biggest oil company.

    However, the case was reopened in March and Anin is being investigated as a witness for “violation of privacy” through the abuse of his professional position, a development that has led to an outcry from media watchdogs and independent journalists in Russia.

    Whoever is behind the case, Anin told RFE/RL, had “a task, including gaining access to all my documents, to my sources, to my correspondence, to, perhaps, future publications that we are preparing.”

    The FSB took away everything he had touched, and many items that were not his at all, he said, paying special attention to English-language documents and anything related to his time spent abroad. Officers nearly walked away with a picture of him with fellow students at Stanford University in the United States, he said, before opting instead to simply take a photo of it.

    “Of course, this was done in order to try to find something else,” Anin said.

    His interrogation as a witness at the Investigative Committee three days later, he said, focused on two points: the editorial processes at Novaya gazeta, and queries as to how he managed to gain access to photographs from Sechin’s wife’s Instagram account that were published in the 2016 Novaya gazeta report.

    “I said that Olga Sechina, having published these photos on the site, a public site, thereby disseminated them among an unlimited number of people,” Anin said. “And that it is clear that these photos, in fact, were published by her voluntarily.”

    “Everything leads to the conclusion that they want to accuse me of publishing Sechina’s Instagram photos illegally and without her permission, which, in my opinion, is just a delusional construction,” he said.

    Rosneft chief Igor Sechin attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2019.


    Rosneft chief Igor Sechin attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2019.

    The potential charges under Part 2 of Article 137 of Russia’s Criminal Code are punishable by up to four years in prison, as well as the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to five years.

    Istories specializes in investigative reports and lists among its recent articles an exposé into the wealth of Kirill Shamalov, Putin’s former son-in-law, as well as a report on the FSB surveilling imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. Another Istories investigation focused on deputy FSB head Sergei Korolev, and another on Rosneft’s purchase of a stake in Pirelli and Sechin’s role on the Italian tire giant’s board of directors.

    “I can only say that any of these investigations could have become a reason to put pressure on the editorial board of Important Stories in the first place, and on me as the editor in chief and author of that text about the yacht,” Anin told RFE/RL.

    Rosneft issued a press release on April 12 in which it said that it could not comment on the actions of law enforcement agencies, but alleged that the raid on the offices of Istories “was used by unscrupulous media to denigrate” the oil company and harm Russia.

    “A large-scale information war has been launched against Rosneft and its leadership, in which foreign interests are also participants,” the press release said. “The smear campaign is aimed at discrediting the results of Rosneft’s activities, given its budgetary and system-forming role for the Russian economy, as well as its leading position in the global energy industry. Such information attacks are organized to reduce competitiveness and create additional sanctions risks not only for Rosneft, but for the country as a whole.”

    Rosneft added that it had already taken a number of legal actions to protect its business reputation and shareholder value, and called on the media to refrain from “biased assessments” and to take “legal responsibility for publishing false information in relation to the company.” The company also said that the judgment by a Moscow court pertaining to the 2016 article published in Novaya gazeta “is exhaustive and confirms the fairness of the position of the plaintiff.”

    Rosneft has recently filed several additional lawsuits against media outlets in Russia, including Dozhd TV, Ekho Moskvy, and Novaya gazeta. On April 14, Kommersant reported that Rosneft had filed suit against the newspaper Sobesednik and its journalist Oleg Roldugin.

    Roldugin said on his Telegram channel that the case was related to the newspaper’s reporting in March on a Rosneft facility described as “Putin’s personal ski resort.” “Now it is definitely spring. This time Rosneft did not like this publication,” Roldugin wrote on Telegram, providing a link to the story. “Read and distribute before Sechin bans everything.”

    As for his case, Anin told RFE/RL that he did not know the authorities’ intentions, but that “the laws in Russia are now formulated in such a way that any independent journalist, in fact, acts on the edge and sometimes even beyond these laws.”

    “If they want to close Important Stories, they can do it tomorrow, no matter what excuse they have,” he said.

    Written by Michael Scollon based on an interview conducted by Alina Pinchuk of RFE/RL’s Russian Service

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Georgians Rally Against Hydropower Plant Amid Environmental Concerns

    An ongoing protest against the construction of the Namakhvani hydropower plant in western Georgia continued on April 14 as demonstrators gathered near the village of Gumati and later decamped to the regional capital, Kutaisi. Protesters fear the possible negative environmental impact of the plant and say that it is not in the interests of Georgia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Another Kazakh Activist Goes On Trial Over Links With Banned Political Group

    NUR-SULTAN — Kazakh activist Erbol Eskhozhin has gone on trial over his alleged links with the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement as authorities continue to roundup supporters of the group that is led from abroad by former banker Mukhtar Ablyazov.

    The Saryarqa district court in the Kazakh capital began the hearing on April 14 as about a dozen of activists rallied in the city, demanding Eskhozhin’s release and expressing support for dozens of other activists sentenced for backing the DVK in recent years.

    The trial is being held online due to coronavirus precautions.

    Eskhozhin, 44, was arrested in December 2020 and charged with taking part in the activities of the DVK, which was labelled as extremist and banned in the country in 2018.

    Last December, the charge was changed to organizing activities for the DVK, which is an offense punishable by up to six years in prison. Eskhozhin has rejected the charge as politically motivated.

    In recent years, many activists across the Central Asian nation have been convicted for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and its associated grouping, the Koshe (Street) Party.

    Last week, human rights activists in Kazakhstan’s second-largest city, Almaty, expressed concerns over the situation faced by another jailed DVK supporter, Aset Abishev, who, the activists said, was placed in solitary confinement after he cut his wrists to protest his treatment by guards and overall prison conditions.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Armenian Holy Site Where Music ‘Rings Like A Bell’

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Aide Of Former Putin Envoy Gets More Than 12 Years In Prison On High Treason Charge

    MOSCOW — Aleksandr Vorobyov, who worked as an assistant to President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Urals region, has been sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison on a charge of high treason.

    The Moscow City Court sentenced Vorobyov on April 14 after a trial that was held behind closed doors due to classified materials in the case.

    Vorobyov was detained in July 2019 and fired shortly after the arrest.

    His chief, Nikolai Tsukanov, left the post of presidential envoy in the Ural Federal District more than a year after Vorobyov was charged with high treason.

    At the time, Tsukanov was a member of Russia’s Security Council, the State Border Commission, and the Presidential Council on Priority Projects. He quit those posts after his aide’s arrest.

    Media reports at the time said that investigators had found a Polish passport and a recording device in Vorobyov’s possession at the time of his arrest.

    Vorobyov was stripped of the rank of state councilor of the third degree, which corresponds to the military rank of major general, and expelled from the ruling United Russia party.

    The affair was the first publicly known case of a government official being arrested on suspicions of treason in post-Soviet Russia.

    Since then, the number of cases of alleged high treason in general has increased dramatically in Russia.

    One of the latest high-profile high treason cases involves Ivan Safronov, a journalist and an aide to the Russian Roskosmos space agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin.

    Safronov was arrested on July 7 and later charged with passing classified material to the Czech Republic. He has denied the charge.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Members Of Navalny’s Team Detained In Southern Russian City Of Krasnodar

    KRASNODAR, Russia — Police in the Russian city of Krasnodar have detained several members of the local team of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny for unclear reasons amid ongoing crackdown on the network of Navalny’s teams across the country.

    The coordinator of the team, Anastasia Panchenko, told RFE/RL that traffic police stopped a car transporting her and two colleagues as they were traveling to a location to shoot a documentary.

    Police took the activists to the Krasnodar city police department for what they called “a check.” When the activists said they would not go, the officers threatened them with a charge of disobeying a police order.

    Panchenko said lawyer Feliks Vertegel is representing their interests at this point.

    Activists associated with Navalny have been under pressure since the 44-year-old outspoken Kremlin-critic was incarcerated in February.

    The coordinator of Navalny’s team in the North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Eduard Atayev, and his assistant Murad Manapov, were detained on unspecified administrative charges on April 12 and April 13 respectively, after the team was established over the weekend, Navalny’s associate Ruslan Ablyakimov told RFE/RL.

    Earlier in February, an initial attempt to set up Navalny’s team in Makhachkala failed after its coordinator-to-be, Ruslan Ablyakimov, was attacked and beaten by unidentified individuals after he arrived in the region from Moscow.

    The coordinator of the network of Navalny’s teams across Russia, Leonid Volkov, has said that, despite Navalny’s incarceration, the teams will continue their work to derail the ruling United Russia party’s stranglehold on power in parliamentary elections in September.

    Navalny and his supporters have developed a “smart voting” system, which is aimed at undercutting United Russia candidates.

    Under the system, voters can enter their address into a special app, which will then give them a list of the candidates deemed most likely to defeat their United Russia rivals regardless of their party affiliation.

    Navalny was imprisoned after returning to Russia in January from his recuperation in Germany after he survived a poison attack last August in Siberia. He has accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering his assassination, something the Kremlin denies.

    Navalny has complained of back pain and numbness in his hands and legs and has accused prison authorities of withholding adequate medical treatment.

    He declared a hunger strike in late March, raising even more concerns about his overall health.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Well-Known Kyrgyz Political Analyst Detained On High Treason Charge

    BISHKEK — Marat Kazakpaev, a well-known Kyrgyz political analyst, has been detained on a charge of high treason.

    The State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on April 14 that Kazakpaev and another person identified only by his initials, M.T., had been detained the previous day.

    Due to classified materials in the case, no further details were made public. If found guilty, the two men may face up to 10 years in prison.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kyiv Extends COVID Lockdown Till End Of April

    The Ukrainian capital Kyiv will remain on lockdown until April 30 as the daily number of new coronavirus cases and coronavirus-related deaths continues to climb.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the decision in a televised briefing on April 14, saying there was “no other choice, otherwise the medical system would not be able to cope with a further rise in the number of patients, otherwise there will be even more deaths.”

    Last month, city authorities closed schools and kindergartens, theaters, and shopping centers, while cafes and restaurants were only allowed to provide takeaway food. Kyiv public transport is now operating on special passenger passes for those working for critical infrastructure enterprises.

    Klitschko recommended that companies keep employees working remotely, or, have them take vacation.

    “No time to be frivolous. Today, our main task is to preserve the health and life of Kyiv residents, to help our doctors cope with this wave,” he said.

    The mayor said the capital reported 1,457 new coronavirus cases on April 13 and some 47 related deaths.

    Ukraine has registered a total of nearly 1.9 million coronavirus infections and over 38,220 related deaths since the start of the pandemic.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Prosecutors In Siberia Seek Lengthy Prison Terms For Two Jehovah’s Witnesses

    KEMEROVO, Russia — Prosecutors in the Siberian city of Kemerovo have asked a court to sentence two Jehovah’s Witnesses to five years in prison each as Russia continues its crackdown on the religious group.

    The group said the prosecutor had requested the Zavodskoi district court to hand down the jail terms to 60-year-old Sergei Yavushkin and 46-year-old Aleksandr Bondarchuk. The defendants are expected to give their final statements in the trial on April 16, after which Judge Vera Ulyanyuk will announce her decision.

    The case against Yavushkin and Bondarchuk was launched in July 2019. They were charged with organizing the activities of “a banned, extremist group” and placed under house arrest at the time, because of which they lost their jobs.

    It was said at the trial, which started almost exactly a year ago, that charges against the defendants were based on materials provided by a person who had actively taken part in the prayers and Bible studies of the religious group and secretly recorded the sessions with the intention of turning over the materials to investigators.

    Since the faith was outlawed in Russia, many Jehovah’s Witnesses have been imprisoned in the country and in Russia-annexed Crimea.

    The United States has condemned Moscow’s ongoing crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses and other peaceful religious minorities.

    For decades, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.

    The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, rejecting military service, and not celebrating national and religious holidays or birthdays.

    According to the group, dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses have either been convicted of extremism or are being held in pretrial detention.

    The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized dozens of Jehovah’s Witnesses who’ve been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Germany Says Russia Seeking To ‘Provoke’ With Troop Buildup At Ukraine’s Border

    Germany has accused Russia of seeking provocation with its troop buildup in the occupied Crimean Peninsula and along the border with Ukraine, while rejecting Moscow’s claim that it was responding to threats from NATO.

    “My impression is that the Russian side is trying everything to provoke a reaction,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told public broadcaster ARD television on April 14.

    “Together with Ukraine, we won’t be drawn into this game,” she said, adding it was clear that Russia “is just waiting for a move, so to speak, from NATO, to have a pretext to continue its actions.”

    Recent photographs, video, and other data suggest major movements of Russian armed units toward or near Ukraine’s borders and into Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, fueling concerns that Russia is preparing to send forces into Ukraine.

    Ukraine and the West also blame Russia-backed separatists holding parts of the country’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk for a recent spike in hostilities, while Moscow has pointed the finger at Kyiv.

    Kramp-Karrenbauer also cast doubt on Moscow’s claim that the buildup is in response to “threats” from the transatlantic alliance.

    “If it is a maneuver, like the Russian side says, there are international procedures through which one can create transparency and trust,” she said.

    Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted amid a wave of public protests.

    Moscow also backs separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 13,000 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.

    With tensions rising, U.S. President Joe Biden on April 13 urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to take measures to de-escalate the situation with Kyiv and proposed a summit between the two leaders in a third country.

    In a phone call with Putin, Biden “voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military buildup” while reaffirming “his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with U.S. interests, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia,” a White House statement said.

    Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on April 14 that the Kremlin will consider Biden’s proposal.

    “It is early to talk about this meeting in terms of specifics. This is a new proposal and it will be studied. There will be an analysis,” he told reporters.

    Such a summit would be the first between Putin and Biden, who took office vowing a tougher stance toward Moscow than the one taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

    Some analysts have suggested that Russia’s recent actions may be meant to test the new U.S. administration and its commitment to Ukraine.

    The Kremlin has rejected Western calls to pull back its troops from the border region, denying they are a threat and adding that military movements within Russia are an internal sovereign issue.

    It has also warned that Moscow “will not remain indifferent” to the fate of Russian speakers who live in Ukraine’s east.

    Citing a Russian Foreign Ministry source, the RIA Novosti news agency reported that Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, had told the U.S. ambassador in Moscow on April 13 that Moscow would act decisively if the United States undertook any new “unfriendly steps,” such as imposing sanctions.

    Speaking to the Vesti FM radio station on April 14, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused NATO of “playing games” with Kyiv, inciting politicians there to maintain tensions in eastern Ukraine, according to TASS.


    A Journey Into The Trenches And Bomb Shelters As Military Tensions Escalate In Eastern Ukraine

    A Journey Into The Trenches And Bomb Shelters As Military Tensions Escalate In Eastern Ukraine



    Photo Gallery:

    A Journey Into The Trenches And Bomb Shelters As Military Tensions Escalate In Eastern Ukraine

    Multiple social-media videos that have appeared, along with analysis of available data, indicate a large Russian military buildup in Crimea and along Russia’s border with Ukraine. There has also been an increase in shelling along the line of control separating Ukrainian forces from Russia-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine.

    The previous day, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Moscow has deployed troops to its western borders for “combat training exercises” in response to NATO “military activities that threaten Russia.”

    But it was not clear to which activities Shoigu was referring, as the Western security alliance has denied making any military moves in the region.

    Shoigu didn’t elaborate, but he could have been referencing the DEFENDER-Europe 21 military exercises taking place in Europe and Africa, which began in March and involve almost 30,000 troops from 26 nations.

    Nearly 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been reported killed since the start of the year, compared with 50 in all of 2020. Separatists have said more than 20 of their fighters had been killed so far in 2021.

    The exercises, which will run into June, are taking place in various countries, including Estonia — which shares a border with Russia — Bulgaria and Romania.

    According to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s office, Russia has massed more than 40,000 troops both on Ukraine’s eastern border and in the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

    Kyiv has so far reacted in a “sober” manner, the German defense minister said in the ARD interview, stressing that NATO allies are “committed to Ukraine, that is very clear.”

    On April 13, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba held talks in Brussels with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who accused Russia of taking “very provocative” actions.

    Blinken also affirmed the United States’ “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”

    At a news conference, Stoltenberg called on Moscow to end “the largest massing of Russian troops since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014,” saying the movements were “unjustified, unexplained, and deeply concerning.”

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said one of its soldiers were killed and three wounded on April 13 when separatists fired 82-millimeter mortar rounds toward Ukrainian positions, as well as grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and automatic rifles.

    Nearly 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been reported killed since the start of the year, compared with 50 in all of 2020, when fighting in the conflict subsided as a new cease-fire deal came into force in July.

    Separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions have said more than 20 of their fighters had been killed so far in 2021.

    With reporting by AFP, UNIAN, TASS, and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bipartisan U.S. Task Force Highlights Strategy To Counter Russia, Other ‘Autocratic Regimes’

    A bipartisan U.S. task force has published a road map for a foreign policy and national-security strategy prioritizing the advancement of democracy and the fight against authoritarianism in China, Russia, and elsewhere.

    In a report published on April 14, the task force convened last year by Freedom House, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and the McCain Institute said that “the rise of authoritarianism, coupled with the erosion of democracy, threatens global stability, America’s economic and security alliances, and respect for human dignity.”

    “This alarming confluence requires an urgent, bold, generational response,” the task force — comprising leaders, experts, and former policy makers — insisted, saying “increasingly repressive and aggressive China” is using “economic, military, and diplomatic coercion to undermine democratic governance and advance its influence in Asia and beyond.”

    Meanwhile, Russia “foments division and insecurity in established and struggling democracies, especially those close to its borders, viewing the spread of democracy as an existential threat,” according to the report.

    Both Beijing and Moscow “seek to advance their interests by undermining the rules-based liberal international order that the United States and its allies have superintended for three-quarters of a century, and which constrains their ambitions,” it said.

    “We are living through a historically unprecedented rate of technological, economic, demographic, and geopolitical change, and that instability has created space for authoritarians around the world to flourish,” said Freedom House President Michael J. Abramowitz, who urged the U.S. administration to “reverse this frightening trend before it’s too late.”

    In its annual report released in March, Freedom House said that the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty, and conflicts across the world contributed to the decline of global freedom in 2020. The Washington-based human rights watchdog said that the number of countries designated “not free” was at its highest level in 15 years.

    In its inaugural report, the Task Force on U.S. Strategy to Support Democracy and Counter Authoritarianism recommended seven “interrelated strategies” to reverse “the rising tide against freedom” that would include making democracy and countering authoritarianism a priority for U.S. diplomatic engagement by “galvanizing an international coalition to push back against authoritarian threats and reinforce democratic governance.”

    “The United States and its democratic partners should make clear that authoritarian governments in China, Russia, and elsewhere seek to divide and undermine democracies while denying their own citizens’ fundamental rights,” the task force said.

    Viewing democracy as “a threat to their authoritarian model,” China and Russia “seek to prop up like-minded autocrats in other countries, especially those facing popular pushback.”

    The report called on the United States and its partners to “dramatically increase investment in the pillars of open, accountable, inclusive, democratic society: free and fair elections; independent media; and a vibrant, active civil society.”

    That would include investing in “a large-scale Enterprise Fund for Independent Media to promote free expression and quality journalism internationally.”

    The United States should also develop a strategy to counter intentional disinformation, state-sponsored propaganda, unintended misinformation, online hate, and harassment whose “rampant spread” is interfering with basic democratic processes.

    “State actors like Russia and China have been using disinformation globally for years as part of a broader malign influence strategy to sow chaos, amplify internal divisions, discredit critics, and decrease trust in the democratic process,” according to the report.

    For instance, the Russian government uses traditional outlets such as the state-owned multilingual news services RT and Sputnik, as well as social media, to “exploit divisions” in Europe — especially the Balkans — and in Africa, Latin America, and the Asia- Pacific region.

    The task force called the fight against corruption and kleptocracy a “fundamental pillar” of the U.S. national security strategy.

    Foreign aid and security assistance should be distributed in ways that help reduce corruption and promote private investment in countries showing progress in countering corruption, which “harms effective governance, undermines economic growth, and weakens the rule of law.”

    The report noted that corruption in Russia “plays an increasingly large role in regime stability,” with President Vladimir Putin being able to consolidate his power by allowing key political elites to benefit from graft. The Kremlin also uses corruption to “undermine democracy in Europe and counter U.S. influence in the world.”

    Washington should also negotiate economic agreements that set high standards for governance and democracy, as well as use development finance and U.S. leadership in multilateral development banks to “boost inclusive growth and a sustainable recovery; incentivize democratic governance; and avoid debt traps, while demonstrating that democracy can deliver,” the report concluded.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • U.S.-Belarusian Lawyer ‘Abducted’ In Moscow, Transferred To Minsk

    MINSK — Yuras Zyankovich, a Belarusian lawyer who also has U.S. citizenship, has been detained in Moscow and transferred to a detention center in Minsk amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Belarus following a disputed presidential election last year.

    Zyankovich’s wife, Alena Dzenisavets, told RFE/RL on April 13 that Russian security officers “abducted” her husband from the Nordic Rooms Hotel in Moscow on April 11 and brought him to the Belarusian capital.

    “I learned about that only yesterday. I talked to a manager of the hotel. According to him, the hotel’s personnel saw how men in civilian clothes took Yuras away, saying that he was suspected of terrorism. They showed their documents saying that they are from security organs,” Dzenisavets said, adding that Zyankovich is currently in the detention center for the Belarusian Committee of State Security (KGB) in Minsk.

    Yuras Zyankovich, who used to be a regional leader of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front (BNF) party and once sought to be its presidential candidate, has been living in the United States since 2007.

    He is a graduate of Fordham University’s School of Law in New York and is permanently based in Houston, Texas. Zyankovich frequently visits Belarus and actively takes part in the country’s political life.

    On April 12, the day of Zyankovich’s detention in Moscow, a noted Belarusian political analyst, Alyaksandr Fyaduta, went incommunicado in the Russian capital, where he works as a media consultant.

    Moscow police said at the time that they had started looking for him after his relatives raised concerns about his whereabouts.

    On April 13, the Belarusian KGB said that Fyaduta is in custody in Minsk.

    The KGB statement said that Fyaduta and BNF chairman Ryhor Kastusyou were being held on unspecified charges, adding that detailed information on the cases will be provided later.

    Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994, was declared the landslide winner in the August election, which was widely viewed as rigged in his favor.

    Thousands of citizens took to the streets for months to protest the results, saying Lukashenka’s challenger, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, actually won the election.

    Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus for Lithuania after the election for security reasons, while Lukashenka has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 have been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted.

    Many other senior opposition figures have also left or were forced to leave Belarus, fearing for their safety, while several of those who haven’t left have been detained by security officials.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Iran Says It Will Start Producing Uranium Enriched To 60 Percent Following Suspected Sabotage

    Iran says it will start producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity by next week following an alleged attack on the country’s main Natanz nuclear site that Tehran has blamed on archenemy Israel.

    Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), tweeted on April 14 that the country will use two cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges in Natanz to enrich uranium hexafluoride up to 60 percent.

    Enriching uranium to 60 percent would be the highest level achieved by Iran’s nuclear program, although it is still short of the 90 percent purity needed for military use. Tehran has repeatedly denied it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear ambitions are purely civilian.

    “The modification of the process just started and we expect to accumulate the product next week,” Kazem Gharibabadi wrote.

    Iran had flagged the move a day earlier when it announced it would enrich uranium to its highest level ever, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying the alleged attack on the nuclear site south of Tehran was a “very bad gamble” that would strengthen Tehran’s hand in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

    Under the agreement, Iran had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent. Recently, it has been enriching up to 20 percent, saying the deal was no longer enforceable.

    The White House has said it remains committed to talks with Iran despite Tehran’s “provocative” statement that it will ramp up uranium enrichment.

    In a message aimed at Israel, Iran’s President Hassan Rohani said during a cabinet meeting on April 14: “You wanted to make our hands empty during the talks, but our hands are full.”

    “We cut both of your hands, one with IR-6 centrifuges and another one with 60 percent,” he added.

    IR-6 centrifuges enrich uranium at a far faster rate than the IR-1 first-generation centrifuges that were taken out in the suspected sabotage attack.

    On April 13, the IAEA’s director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, confirmed that Iran had informed the agency that the country “intends to start producing UF6 enriched up to 60 percent.”

    The White House is “certainly concerned about these provocative announcements,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “We believe that the diplomatic path is the only path forward here and that having a discussion, even indirect, is the best way to come to a resolution.”

    Few details have emerged about the April 11 alleged attack; no images of the aftermath have been released.

    Iranian officials have said an explosion caused a power failure at Natanz that affected Iran’s first generation of centrifuges, and vowed it would take “revenge” and ramp up its nuclear activities.

    In a state television interview, Alireza Zakani, head of the Iranian parliament’s research center, referred to “several thousand centrifuges damaged and destroyed.”

    While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Israel is widely believed to have carried out the still-unexplained assault, which came a day after new uranium-enrichment equipment was unveiled at Natanz, an underground site key to Iran’s uranium-enrichment program that is monitored by IAEA inspectors.

    It also occurred amid diplomatic efforts to revive the nuclear agreement, abandoned by the United States under former President Donald Trump, and which Israel fiercely opposes.

    “Israel played a very bad gamble if it thought that the attack will weaken Iran’s hand in the nuclear talks,” Zarif said on April 13. “On the contrary, it will strengthen our position.”

    Last week in Vienna, Iran and the global powers held what they described as constructive EU-hosted talks centering on overcoming an impasse between Washington and Tehran to bring both parties into full compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord.

    Further discussions are scheduled in the Austrian capital on April 14.

    The pact lifted international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. But the Trump administration imposed a raft of sanctions on Tehran under a “maximum pressure” campaign after it withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018.

    Iran responded by gradually breaching many of the nuclear restrictions.

    U.S. and Iranian officials have publicly clashed over the sequencing of possible U.S. sanctions relief and Iran reversing its breaches of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

    Multiple Israeli media outlets quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying that the country’s Mossad spy service carried out a successful sabotage operation at the Natanz site, potentially setting back enrichment work there by months.

    Israel is suspected of carrying out sabotage against Iran in the past, including cyberattacks and assassinations of nuclear scientists.

    With reporting by AP and AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Doxa Student Magazine In Moscow Raided By Police Over Navalny Protest Video

    Moscow police have searched the offices and homes of editors of the student magazine Doxa over a January video related to unsanctioned rallies to protest the incarceration of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

    The magazine said on Telegram that the searches were conducted on April 14 in the magazine’s offices and the homes of Doxa editors Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, Natalya Tyshkevich and Alla Gutnikova.

    Police told Leonid Solovyov, a lawyer for the Agora human rights group, that they plan to take Aramyan to the Investigative Committee for questioning.

    Tyshkevich was informed that she is suspected of “violating the law on engaging minors in actions that might be dangerous.”

    According to Doxa, the searches were conducted over a video that the magazine deleted at the request of the Roskomnadzor media watchdog request in January.

    The video was about students being warned about the possible repercussions they face for participating in unsanctioned rallies held on January 23 and January 31 against the arrest of Kremlin critic Navalny.

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

    Human rights groups have called on Moscow repeatedly to stop targeting journalists because they are covering the protests or expressing solidarity with protesters, since both are protected under the right to freedom of expression.

    “Instead of targeting journalists, the authorities should hold accountable police who attack journalists and interfere with their work,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on February 3.

    Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning in Siberia in August 2020 that several European laboratories concluded was from a military-grade chemical nerve agent.

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

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

    With reporting by Meduza

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.