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Category: Picks

  • Protests, Prisons, Political Exile: Women At The Forefront Of Resistance In Belarus

    Dismissed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka as too fragile to run Belarus, women have been at the vanguard of the pro-democracy movement that has swept the country since the disputed presidential election on August 9, 2020.

    It’s a Belarusian development that has fueled a growing global trend, explained Oksana Antonenko, director of the London-based Control Risks Group and fellow at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

    “Women are playing an increasingly important role in political activism around the world, and the Belarus example has provided a great inspiration to other regions, including the latest protests in Russia, Thailand, and now Myanmar [Burma], where many participants are women,” Antonenko told RFE/RL in e-mailed comments. “Women-led protests are more likely to remain peaceful and connect with entire societies, their fears and aspirations. It is also great to see that these protests are creating a new generation of female leaders and politicians who can revive trust in democratic institutions.”

    Here are six women in Belarus who are not only making a difference, but have paid a high price for it:

    Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya

    It was not Svyatlana, but her husband, Syarhey, who was expected to be among Lukashenka’s more credible challengers in the August 2020 poll. Syarhey Tsikhanouski had thousands of followers of his corruption-busting YouTube channel A Country For Life, and crowds heeded his call by showing up at rallies with slippers in hand to squash the “cockroach” Lukashenka.

    But after her husband’s arrest on dubious charges, it was Tsikhanouskaya — an English teacher and translator — who filled the void.

    Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appears at a campaign rally in Brest on August 2, 2020.

    Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appears at a campaign rally in Brest on August 2, 2020.

    It was not an easy decision — in a June 2020 video she had said she was reluctant to challenge Lukashenka after receiving threats that her two young children would be taken away if she did. (They were eventually safely taken out of the country.)

    Crisis In Belarus

    Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.

    And at one of her early rallies, in July 2020 in Navapolatsk, the 38-year-old political novice stumbled a bit before apologizing to the crowd, explaining she had never seen so many people before.

    But her confidence grew along with the size of the crowds, reaching numbers rarely if ever seen for any candidate in Belarus. From the beginning, Tsikhanouskaya made it clear she was only in the race to force a repeat election that would include all banned candidates.

    Shortly after an election-day showing that led her and her supporters to declare victory, she left for neighboring Lithuania after another apparent threat to her children.

    From there, she has reached out to European and other leaders to shore up support for the pro-democracy movement back in Belarus and call for action to punish Lukashenka, now deemed an illegitimate leader by much of the international community.

    Tsikhanouskaya spearheaded the creation of the Coordination Council to navigate Belarus toward democratic shores. But most of its top members on the presidium were either arrested or fled Belarus. It wasn’t the only setback for Tsikhanouskaya. Her calls for a national strike in October never gained traction, in part due to threats to employees at state-run factories if they joined and firings of many of those who did.

    Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during an interview with the media in Helsinki on March 1.

    Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during an interview with the media in Helsinki on March 1.

    On January 18, Tsikhanouskaya announced that she had requested the support of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to secure her safety when she returns to Belarus, and called for ONCE-facilitated talks between the European Union, Lukashenka, and the opposition to resolve the crisis.

    Although crowds have dwindled due to winter weather and weariness in the face of an ongoing government crackdown, Tsikhanouskaya in Helsinki on March 3 predicted bigger and better-organized demonstrations against Lukashenka in the spring.

    Tsikhanouskaya is among the more than 300 people who have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

    Maryya Kalesnikava

    Kalesnikava headed the presidential campaign of Viktar Babaryka, former chairman of the Russian-owned Belgazprombank, until it was derailed by his June 2020 arrest on embezzlement charges, which he and his supporters charge were a sham to keep him off the ballot.

    Kalesnikava, 38, then teamed up with Tsikhanouskaya and Veranika Tsapkala, who headed the ill-fated campaign of her husband, Valer.

    The trio were a hit on the campaign trail, drawing campaign crowds that grew in size as the August 9 presidential election approached. Tsikhanouskaya clenching her fist, Kalesnikava making a heart sign, and Tsapkala signaling a V for victory quickly became iconic symbols of the election.

    Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya (center), Veranika Tsapkala (left), and Maryya Kalesnikava attend a campaign rally in Minsk on July 30, 2020.

    Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya (center), Veranika Tsapkala (left), and Maryya Kalesnikava attend a campaign rally in Minsk on July 30, 2020.

    “In Belarus 55 percent of voters are women — more than half. That means that our voice should be heard. In this way, they are trying to exclude us from the political process,” Kalesnikava told Current Time ahead of the vote. https://www.rferl.org/a/women-lead-the-charge-against-lukashenka-in-belarus/30743179.html

    After the vote, which triggered an unrelenting and unprecedented wave of protests in Belarus, Kalesnikava was picked to serve on the presidium of the Coordination Council created by Tsikhanouskaya.

    But as the authorities increasingly clamped down on the opposition, Kalesnikava was arrested in September and charged with calling for action aimed at damaging national security. On September 8, Kalesnikava was taken to the border with Ukraine, where she was to be forcibly deported. However, she foiled those plans by ripping up her passport, as was later recounted by two other Belarusian opposition activists who did pass into Ukraine.

    On January 6, authorities extended Kalesnikava’s pretrial detention until March 8, which happens to coincide with International Women’s Day.

    For her efforts, Kalesnikava was named one of the recipients of the 2021 International Women of Courage award, the U.S. State Department announced on March 4.

    Kalesnikava, along with Tsikhanouskaya and Tsapkala, was also listed when the European Parliament’s 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was awarded to Belarus’s democratic opposition.

    Nina Bahinskaya

    Bahinskaya has been a mainstay at protests in Belarus for decades, dating back to the Soviet days. “I was motivated by all the injustice — social, political, and national. And I said, ‘If you’re not a coward, if you’re not a slave, then you should defend your country and homeland,’” she said in an interview with Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

    Bahinskaya, 73, is rarely seen at demonstrations without her flag, the white-red-white symbol of the short-lived Belarusian People’s Republic, which existed for about a year in 1918-19. The flag was effectively banned by Lukashenka but has become an omnipresent symbol of the opposition to his rule.

    Bahinskaya, a great grandmother, cuts a frail but resolute figure amid the crowds protesting in Belarus.

    In a video from late August 2020, Bahinskaya was seen struggling with riot police in Minsk, demanding they return the flag they had snatched from her.

    In September, Bahinskaya was among hundreds detained at a mostly women’s demonstration in Minsk. Men in green uniforms and black balaclavas encircled female protesters who shouted, “Only cowards beat women!”

    Katsyaryna Barysevich

    Barysevich, a reporter for Tut.by, an independent Belarusian news website that the authorities have targeted in a crackdown on the media, was jailed after reporting information that contradicted the government’s version of events in the death of a protester.

    Barysevich was arrested on November 19 after writing an article about Raman Bandarenka, who died several days earlier following a beating by a group of masked assailants.

    Barysevich disputed the official claim that Bandarenka was drunk, citing medical findings that no alcohol had been detected in his blood.

    The doctor who provided the lab results, Artsyom Sarokin, was arrested, tried, and convicted along with Barysevich, ultimately receiving a suspended two-year prison sentence and fine equivalent to $555 for disclosing medical information.

    Barysevich was handed a six-month prison term and fined the equivalent of $1,100 for disclosing medical information and instigating a crime by pressuring a first responder to share information.

    Katsyaryna Barysevich attends a court hearing in Minsk on March 2.

    Katsyaryna Barysevich attends a court hearing in Minsk on March 2.

    In late November 2020, Amnesty International recognized Barysevich and Sarokin as prisoners of conscience and demanded their immediate release.

    Katsyaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova

    Andreyeva and Chultsova are among the growing number of independent Belarusian journalists who have paid a high price for plying their trade. The two reporters for Belsat, a Poland-based satellite TV station, were arrested on November 15 while covering a rally in Minsk to commemorate Bandarenka.

    Belarusian authorities saw their presence differently and charged the two with “organizing public events aimed at disrupting public order.” A court in Minsk on February 18 found Andreyeva and Chultsova guilty and sentenced them to two years in prison each, sparking international condemnation, with EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano denouncing it as a “shameful crackdown on media.”

    Katsyaryna Andreyeva (right) and Daryya Chultsova flash victory signs from the defendant's cage during their trial in Minsk on February 18.

    Katsyaryna Andreyeva (right) and Daryya Chultsova flash victory signs from the defendant’s cage during their trial in Minsk on February 18.

    “EU strongly condemns and calls for reversal of sentencing of Belsat TV Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova for just doing their jobs. We call on Belarus authorities to respect fundamental freedoms and stop targeting journalists,” Stano said on Twitter.

    The sentencing of Andreyeva and Chultsova is “one of many ways Belarus’s government has retaliated against journalists for reporting on peaceful protests and human rights violations,” Anastasia Zlobina, coordinator for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, said in a February statement.

    She said at least seven other journalists were behind bars in Belarus awaiting trial on similar criminal charges. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said in a recent report that 481 journalists were detained in 2020. It said that was twice the number of detentions over the previous six years combined.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • U.S. Senator Holds Up CIA Nomination To Force Biden To Stop Nord Stream 2

    U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) says he is holding up the confirmation of the next Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief in order to pressure President Joe Biden to stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

    “I’ll release my hold when the Biden admin meets its legal obligation to report and sanction the ships and companies building [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s pipeline,” Cruz said in a tweet on March 6 as he confirmed an earlier Bloomberg story.

    Biden in January picked William Burns, a career Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Russia in the 2000s, to be the next head of the CIA.

    The 64-year-old was approved by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on March 2 following a confirmation hearing last month.

    Senate Republicans have been pressuring the Biden administration to impose sanctions on more companies reportedly involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2.

    The pipeline, which is more than 90 percent complete, is designed to reroute Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Ukraine.

    Congress opposes the pipeline on the grounds that it strengthens the Kremlin hold on Europe’s energy industry and hurts Ukraine, which stands to lose billions of dollars in annual transit fees.

    Legislation passed in 2019 to place sanctions on vessels laying the pipeline halted the project for more than a year.

    However, Russia has resumed completion of the project with its own ships, pushing Congress late last year to pass new legislation widening the sanctions beyond vessels to include companies engaging generally in Nord Stream 2 activities, including insuring and certifying the project.

    The legislation required the administration to update Congress in February on the status of the project and impose sanctions on any companies in violation. The Biden administration identified one vessel and its owner, which were already put under sanctions.

    However, some media reports have identified at least a dozen companies involved in the construction.

    In a March 3 letter addressed to Biden, 40 Senate Republicans, including Cruz, called the February update “completely inadequate” and demanded the Biden administration impose sanctions on the additional companies “without delay.”

    While Biden has called the pipeline a “bad deal for Europe,” his administration is reportedly concerned about the impact additional sanctions would have on its relationship with Germany.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Georgian Opposition Demands PM Resign After Alleged Call With Billionaire’s Son

    TBILISI — Opposition parties have called for Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili to step down amid fresh allegations he is beholden to the ruling party’s billionaire founder.

    TV Pirveli, an opposition station, on March 7 published an alleged audio recording of Bera Ivanishvili, the son of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, demanding Gharibashvili punish his critics on social media.

    Some of the critics later apologized, reportedly under pressure from the billionaire’s former bodyguards, including Anzor Chubinidze, who is now the chief of Georgia’s special service for state guards.

    A member of Georgian Dream dismissed the recording as a fake, saying it was compiled from various recordings over the years.

    The publication of the alleged recording comes amid an intensifying political crisis sparked by last year’s general elections and exacerbated by the recent arrest of a top opposition leader.

    Georgia’s opposition parties have refused to enter the new parliament to protest what they call the rigging of the October 31 parliamentary elections.

    The crisis deepened after a court ruled last month to send Nika Melia, the leader of the United National Movement (ENM) party, to pretrial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee in a case denounced by the opposition as a political witch-hunt.

    Melia’s arrest on February 23, along with several opposition activists, has sparked mass anti-government protests in Tbilisi demanding their release and snap parliamentary elections.

    Melia is accused of organizing “mass violence” during 2019 anti-government protests, a charge he rejects as politically motivated. The ruling Georgian Dream party denies that.

    The 41-year-old politician faces up to nine years behind bars if convicted.

    During a visit to Georgia on March 1, European Council President Charles Michel called on the country’s political parties to engage in dialogue to defuse the “worsening crisis.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Majlis Podcast: Working To Eradicate Gender Bias In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan

    As Central Asian countries mark International Women’s Day on March 8 this year, it also marks roughly one year since the coronavirus became a global pandemic.

    The spread of the virus prompted a series of measures in countries throughout the world, including lockdowns that saw millions of people confined to their homes for periods of time.

    Incidents of domestic violence jumped in many places.

    Public events were prohibited in many countries, including rallies in Central Asia to raise awareness of gender violence and promote equal rights were restricted, so many advocacy groups for women’s rights shifted their message to social networks and other media to continue fighting for women’s rights in the patriarchal societies of Central Asia.

    On this week’s Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on what has changed in the last year, the challenges that remain, and what is being done to bring gender equality to the region and end violence against women.

    This week’s guests are: from Bishkek, Natalia Nikitenko, a deputy in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament; from Tashkent, Irina Matvienko, journalist, rights defender, and founder of NeMolchi.uz, an organization fighting to end violence against women; from Washington, Jasmine Cameron, a senior staff attorney at the Human Rights Center of the American Bar Association, which published a recent report about violence against women in Kyrgyzstan, and Bruce Pannier, author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

    Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • In Or Out Of Jail, Veteran Iranian Human Rights Defender Narges Mohammadi Won’t Be Silenced

    Despite being repeatedly threatened by Iran’s security apparatus, harassed, sent to prison multiple times, and prevented from seeing her children, the authorities have failed to silence Narges Mohammadi.

    One of Iran’s leading human rights defenders, Mohammadi has long campaigned against the death penalty and defended victims of state violence.

    While in prison, she has gone on several hunger strikes to protest the conditions there, attended a sit-in to condemn the security forces’ killing of several hundred protesters in November 2019, and spoke out about human rights abuses in open letters and statements smuggled out of her cell.

    Since her release in October 2020, the award-winning Mohammadi has remained in a defiant mood, speaking out publicly against state tyranny and injustice. “Despite the price I’ve paid, I remain hopeful, and I’m confident that our efforts will bear fruit, although not immediately,” she says.

    Mohammadi’s 10-year prison sentence on charges stemming from her human rights work was shortened due to concern for her health during the coronavirus outbreak in Iranian prisons and after calls for her release by the UN and rights groups.

    Punished For Not Backing Down

    A journalist and trained engineer, Mohammadi tells RFE/RL that despite everything she has endured, she remains positive and determined to keep fighting for better rights, freedom, and democracy in Iran.

    Mohammadi, the spokeswoman of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, has been meeting with mothers whose sons were victims of the recent deadly state crackdowns while continuing to raise concerns about rights violations.

    In a video posted online last week, she highlighted violence against female detainees, including herself, saying she was subjected to force during her 2019 prison transfer from Tehran to the northwest city of Zanjan, some 300 kilometers from the Iranian capital. Mohammadi, who suffers from a neurological illness, has said the prison transfer was aimed at punishing her for protesting the killing of demonstrators.

    Mohammadi said she was physically assaulted by male guards and a prison director despite Islamic laws enforced in Iran that men should not touch women to whom they are not related. “How come you do not have to obey Islamic laws [in prison]? So what you’ve seen saying [about the need to uphold Islamic rules] was a lie,” she said.

    “I protest against assault by the Islamic establishment’s men against women and I won’t be silenced,” Mohammadi said in the video, where she also mentioned jailed environmentalist Niloofar Bayani, who has accused her interrogators of sexual threats and pressure.

    Narges Mohammadi (right) joins Behnam Mahjoubi's mother (center) and others protesting in front of the hospital in Tehran where he died.

    Narges Mohammadi (right) joins Behnam Mahjoubi’s mother (center) and others protesting in front of the hospital in Tehran where he died.

    In late February, Mohammadi was among the activists demanding accountability for the situation of jailed Sufi Behnam Mahjubi, 33, who fell into a coma after suffering from what authorities said was medicinal poisoning.

    In online videos, Mohammadi was seen asking hospital staff about Mahjubi, who later died amid accusations of medical neglect. She was also seen attempting to comfort Mahjubi’s mother outside the hospital where he was fighting for his life. She later criticized Mahjubi’s treatment in media interviews.

    Earlier this month, Mohammadi joined a group of civil society activists and rights defenders to file an official complaint against the use of solitary confinement while calling for the prosecution of officials who authorize it. Political detainees in Iran are often held in solitary confinement for weeks or months with no access to the outside world.

    Mohammadi, who has endured solitary confinement several times in prison, condemned the “inhuman” practice in a 2016 letter from Tehran’s Evin prison, where she called it “psychological torture” aimed at forcing prisoners to make false confessions.

    Mohammadi’s outspokenness could be difficult for the authorities to ignore, especially as they are in no mood to tolerate dissent amid a deteriorating economy and a deadly coronavirus pandemic that Tehran has struggled to contain.

    The prominent rights defender says she is well-aware of the risk she’s facing. “It’s not like I’m not worried, but the truth is that despite being concerned and despite the risk of arrest, I believe we have to keep working on issues that matter in our society,” Mohammadi tells RFE/RL.

    “The efforts that are being made will definitely bring results in the mid- or long term and help remove injustices and discrimination against our people in different areas — including in the economy, culture, politics, and women’s rights — and allow society to grow,” she says.

    Increasing The Pressure

    In December, Iran executed Ruhollah Zam, the manager of the popular Amadnews Telegram channel, who was convicted of inciting violence during the anti-establishment protests in late 2017 and early 2018.

    Scores of activists, academics and dual nationals have also been arrested, and a number have been sentenced to harsh prison terms. The authorities have also pressured a prominent NGO that fights against poverty, ordering its dissolution.

    Even after her release from prison, the authorities kept pressure on Mohammadi by banning her from traveling outside the country and by bringing new charges against her over her 2019 prison protest.

    She has said she will refuse to appear in court, saying her prison sit-in was a peaceful protest against “the repressive policies of the Islamic republic” and the “ruthless” crackdown on protesters two years ago who protested a large, sudden rise in the price of gasoline amid rising poverty in the country.

    “Iranian authorities’ persecution of human rights defenders often continues even after they are released from prison,” Human Rights Watch Iran researcher Tara Sepehrifar told RFE/RL. “Yet Narges, like several other Iranian human rights defenders, continues to show resilience and commitment to peaceful resistance against repression by speaking up and also building pressure by utilizing potential legal avenues open for challenging authorities’ abusive behavior.”

    Mohammad’s teenage daughter and son, Kiana and Ali, live in France with their father, political activist Taghi Rahmani, who left the country in 2012 to escape a jail sentence. Mohammadi remained behind, believing she could be more effective inside the country, and has not seen her children since July 2015.

    Mohammadi says the authorities have rejected her demand to be allowed to visit her twins, who took to social media in late January to condemn the travel ban against their mother.

    Even if the ban is lifted, Mohammadi is not planning to live in exile like many other activists who have been forced to flee Iran to escape state repression. “I told Tehran’s prosecutor that I want to be with my family for two months and then return. Unfortunately, they refused [my request] and I don’t plan to leave the country illegally,” she says.

    Standing with the people is the principle that has guided her throughout her life, she adds.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Turkmenistan Ramps Up Controls Over Outside Information

    Police in authoritarian Turkmenistan are reportedly further tightening controls over information as the secretive country downplays the coronavirus pandemic and clamps down on brewing discontent over years of economic turmoil.

    RFE/RL’s correspondents report that police have been searching the smartphones of medical professionals at hospitals and tracking down young people who use VPNs that allow Internet users to skirt restrictions.

    In the eastern city of Turkmenabat, police have reportedly been checking the phones of health-care workers to find out who has been speaking to RFE/RL and other media about the pandemic situation in the tightly controlled country.

    RFE/RL and other independent publications have reported that the country’s population is suffering from coronavirus, hospitals are strained, and deaths are rising.

    Meanwhile, Turkmen authorities continue to pretend there is no coronavirus in the country, which hasn’t registered any official cases.

    State media does not cover the situation either, even as the country enforces multiple health-related restrictions.

    Turkmenistan began vaccinations against coronavirus in early February using the Russian-produced Sputnik V shot. But the authorities have not officially announced the start of a vaccination campaign.

    Turkmenistan’s security services regularly check the personal information of people and use Internet blocking methods and surveillance of virtual private network (VPN) users to limit the availability of independent information.

    The authorities in the city of Mary have stepped up their search for those using VPNs by stopping people on the streets to inspect mobile phones, calling suspects in for questioning, and detaining alleged violators for up to 15 days.

    The crackdown comes as the authorities are on edge over a growing protest movement in the country and in the diaspora spurred by the oppressive political environment and deteriorating economic conditions.

    According to a joint statement issued by the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center and the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation on March 4, there are also increasing reports of new pressure on citizens of Turkmenistan living abroad and active on the Internet.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘We Are Coming For You’: Russian Feminists Face Intimidation Campaign Online

    MOSCOW — On February 14, a small group of women in the Russian capital marked Valentine’s Day by holding a demonstration in support of jailed women they consider political prisoners. They also wanted to encourage Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

    “I admire those who know that they could face more than just fines but who come to protests anyway,” said a retiree who asked to be identified only as Marina and who regularly attends opposition demonstrations. “When you know what those people are risking, you are ashamed to sit at home and complain in your kitchen.”

    But some of those involved in the protest risked more than fines or even jail. A woman who asked to be identified only as Ksenia, who is a member of the SotsFem Alternativa community, told RFE/RL that the leader of a growing online community called Male State (Muzhskoye gosudarstvo) posted personal information on social media on February 13, telling her not to participate in the protest the next day and stressing ominously that this was her “first warning.”

    “His followers began sending me all sorts of insults, some even saying it would be good if I died,” Ksenia told RFE/RL.

    Other SotsFem Alternativa activists also had their contact information posted on closed Male State forums.

    “We got a lot of indecipherable threats…using anonymous accounts,” Ksenia recalled. “It was very unpleasant.”

    Feminist artist and activist Darya Serenko was an organizer of the February 14 protest, and her personal data and the physical address of some of her relatives were posted by Male State leader Vladislav Pozdnyakov on his Telegram channel. She received nearly 600 insulting or threatening messages.

    Serenko said many of the messages she received from Male State acolytes contained direct threats.

    “There were threats like: ‘We will find out your address,’” she said in an interview with the website Mediazona. “‘We are coming for you.’ ‘Look around you.’ ‘We will sit you down on a bottle.’ ‘We are coming to rape you.’ ‘We know where your husband lives.’ ‘We will kill your pets.’”

    On February 14, she wrote on Twitter that the intimidation campaign against her had moved to the real world.

    “I was followed from early this morning,” she wrote. “I’m talking about a real threat to my life and health. I will file a complaint.”

    Women have been threatened for taking part in protests.

    Women have been threatened for taking part in protests.

    Pozdnyakov, 30, refused to speak to RFE/RL for this article, insisting that he would only do so if RFE/RL deleted an earlier article about the origins of Male State. Pozdnyakov created the online community on the VK social-media site in 2016. Its members were openly racist and misogynist, advocating extreme right-wing views, and even calling for morality police.

    Members celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday and railed against Russian women they felt were destroying the Russian nation through immoral behavior such as homosexuality or consorting with foreigners. Pozdnyakov called the community’s ideology “national-patriarchy.”

    Incel Community

    Filmmaker Yelena Khazanova has spent two years studying the “incel” phenomenon, beginning her work after a self-professed incel drove a truck onto a sidewalk in Toronto, Canada, and killed 10 people. Incels — the term is a portmanteau of “involuntary celibates” — have been listed as a hate group by the U.S.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which describes them as “part of the online male supremacist ecosystem.”

    “We studied both Russian and English-language sources,” Khazanova told RFE/RL in an interview in July 2020. “For two years we were only working on this topic. Two years ago, when we started, no one in Russia had heard the term ‘incel.’ But during the time that we have been working, the situation has changed a lot.”

    Khazanova said the Male State phenomenon is ideologically and psychologically akin to the larger incel phenomenon.

    “These are typical conservative convictions that have been given new life by our digital reality,” she said. “Incels believe that women have taken their place in the world, that in reality men should be dominant and that women must obey them. Their worst enemies are feminists, whom they even refuse to acknowledge as women.”

    Some social-media accounts of Male State leader Vladislav Pozdnyakov have been blocked.

    Some social-media accounts of Male State leader Vladislav Pozdnyakov have been blocked.

    “Feminists and LGBT are biogarbage,” Pozdnyakov wrote on Telegram after the February 14 protest. “Absolute deformities and degenerates. They are psychologically sick people who have no place among normal people.”

    The Male State community gained notoriety for various campaigns purporting to “out” women who supposedly appeared in pornographic clips in the past, threatening to tell their husbands and children and sometimes trying to extort money. Some victims of these campaigns, who asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL they were wrongly targeted for superficial similarities to the women in the videos.

    One woman, who works now as a teacher, shared with RFE/RL an audio direct message from one of Postnyakov’s personal social-media accounts in which a voice threatens to send pornographic videos to her students and to post screenshots around her school if she didn’t quit. Her minor son also received Male State messages.

    Male State campaigns have also targeted women who posted photographs of themselves with black men or who have mixed-race children. One woman, who was only 16 and who asked that her name not be used, was targeted for such a photograph.

    “My goodness,” she told RFE/RL, “I only kissed him once.”

    One 28-year-old from Mordovia who asked to be identified only as Anna is married to a man from Ghana and has a 2-year-old daughter.

    One woman, who is married to a man from Ghana, received abuse online.

    One woman, who is married to a man from Ghana, received abuse online.

    “A lot of the messages contained threats to my life,” she said. “‘We will find you.’ ‘You can’t hide.’ ‘We will cut you up.’ I never thought anyone would actually come and kill me, but the stress affected my health.”

    “They wrote that I was a slut and that I am sleeping with a ‘monkey,’” the woman added. “They wished illness and death not only on me but on my child as well.”

    Male State memes celebrate “Domestic Violence Day” and attract comments glorifying violence against women.

    In July 2020, VK blocked the Male State community, which at the time had about 170,000 members, for calls for violence. Pozdnyakov’s TikTok account was blocked in April 2020. The community, however, continues to exist in various closed forums and Telegram channels.

    Several Male State followers spoke with RFE/RL and defended the threats against feminist activists over the Valentine’s Day demonstration.

    “The leftists in Russia are always saying we have to have freedom of speech,” said Viktor Volkov, who found out about the campaign against Serenko via Telegram. “Everyone must be free to express their opinions. Well, people expressed their opinions about Darya and her activity.”

    Another follower of Pozdnyakov’s, who asked not to be identified, claimed that he knew about and supports the campaign targeting Serenko but did not participate in it.

    “There have to be alternative voices in society,” he said. “The leftists have used these tactics for a long time, and it isn’t surprising that opinion-makers like Pozdnyakov have adopted such effective means of fighting.”

    “Feminism debases and bestializes women,” the man added. “And the rightist fight against feminism is a fight for a decent future for our women and children.”

    Feminist activist Darya Chaban has been in Male State’s sights for several years. She received a torrent of threats when she spoke out in support of the three Khachaturyan sisters, who are being prosecuted for killing their father in 2018 after enduring what they describe as years of sexual and physical abuse. Male State has featured prominently in a coalition of so-called defenders of traditional values — including the Russian Orthodox Church — who have rejected the sisters’ argument of self-defense.

    The online abuse grew much worse when Chaban wrote on social media that she did not want to have children. After that post, she received messages saying she “wasn’t worthy of living” or regretting that “there are no concentration camps where they could destroy people like you together with gays and other unworthies.”

    “There were threats of death, rape, and beating,” she recounted. “Someone wrote that he would denounce me to the police and that I would be imprisoned for distributing pornography. That’s how they claim to be defending the interests of children and teenagers who might come to my social-media page and find my body-positive images.”

    SotsFem Alternativa activist Ksenia stressed that despite the Male State intimidation campaign, the February 14 rally was a success.

    “I think that 250 women who stood up in the center of Moscow in a solidarity chain although they knew that they might be beaten with billy clubs is a successful protest,” she told RFE/RL. “They definitely didn’t manage to cancel it.”

    She added that activists in Russia are used to being threatened and that feminist events regularly attract ultrarightists who use various means to disrupt the proceedings.

    “But that is definitely no reason to stay home,” Ksenia said, “or to stop insisting on the rights of women or to stop fighting for a just world.”

    Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Karina Merkuryeva. RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Sergei Khazov-Cassia contributed to this report.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • His Great-Grandfather Was Executed By Stalin’s Secret Police. Now He’s Being Sued.

    MOSCOW — Denis Karagodin has spent almost a decade compiling a meticulous record of evidence about the murder of his great-grandfather by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s secret police, running a website that lists, by name, every individual he deems complicit.

    The Siberia-based designer has been tipped for prestigious human rights prizes, and leading Western publications have spotlighted his work and the website he runs.

    The people he ties to the killing of Stepan Karagodin, a peasant swept up in Stalin’s Great Terror in the 1930s, have passed away. But their relatives are now making sure Karagodin’s accusations don’t go unchallenged.

    Karagodin was interrogated this week by police in Tomsk, the city where he lives and where his great-grandfather’s murder took place on January 21, 1938. “Buckle your seatbelts, dear friends!” he wrote on Facebook after his questioning. “They’ve filed a police complaint against me.”

    Sergei Mityushov, the son of a deceased local employee of the NKVD secret police force that dispatched millions of Soviet citizens to frigid labor camps and the firing squad, confirmed that he had pressed charges against the amateur researcher for publishing what he says is inaccurate and defamatory information about his father, Aleksei Alekseyevich Mityushov.

    Karagodin published a document citing the execution and bearing Mityushov’s signature. But his son told the independent Belarusian news site Belsat that he had visited historical archives, retrieved documents relating to his father, and concluded that “half the facts on [Karagodin’s] website are plucked out of the air.” He didn’t deny his father’s complicity, but said “I don’t like it when people pry into my life without permission.”

    It’s unclear what specific charges Karagodin faces, but his work has courted controversy from the outset. The 38-year-old began the research in 2012, publishing on his website each document and every shred of evidence he could find about the case. The result is a detailed account of the fate of his great-grandfather, a Cossack farmer and father of nine who was executed on the trumped-up accusation that he was a Japanese spy.

    Stepan Karagodin was killed on January 21, 1938.

    Stepan Karagodin was killed on January 21, 1938.

    Karagodin achieved a breakthrough in November 2016, when he received an envelope in the mail from the archives of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the NKVD and KGB. Inside was an original document in which his great-grandfather’s executioners reported to a Soviet court that its verdict “has been carried out.” The typewritten, stamped document featured the names and signatures of three NKVD agents.

    Armed with the evidence, Karagodin announced his investigation complete. He claimed to have established a direct chain of responsibility that included the three executioners, members of the tribunal that rubber-stamped the verdict, local officials in Siberia including Aleksei Mityushov, secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov, and Stalin himself. He even identified the men who allegedly drove the black vans that shuttled the condemned around the city.

    After Stalin’s death in 1953, Russia never organized its own version of the Nuremberg trials, the military tribunals in postwar Germany that convicted almost two dozen senior Nazi officers. But Karagodin said he planned to prosecute “the entire criminal conspiracy” that led to his great-grandfather’s death.

    “We found out what several generations of my family have wanted to know: the names of the murderers,” Karagodin told RFE/RL at the time. “I began in 2012, and it ended on November 12, 2016.”

    Eight days later, he was stunned by a letter of gratitude from the granddaughter of one of the three secret police agents who executed Stepan Karagodin. “Thank you for the enormous work you have done for the sake of these difficult truths,” the woman wrote. “It gives us hope that society will finally come to its senses thanks to people like you.”

    But in a country where digging up dark pages of the past is a fraught activity — and where Stalin, who oversaw show trials of his opponents and jailed or executed hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens, is officially neither vilified nor excused — not everyone is happy with Karagodin’s work.

    In a December 2019 interview on the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Karagodin said many relatives of people named in his investigation have contacted him to complain. He was defiant.

    “What can they criticize me for? That I published official documents from the FSB saying their relatives took part in mass murders?” he said. “How am I guilty?”

    He is also a controversial figure among professional historians and long-time researchers of Stalin-era repressions, some of whom say he lacks the training to draw accurate conclusions from the archival documents that come into his possession.

    A section on Karagodin’s website titled “Executioners” lists more than 150 names of people he says were tied to his great-grandfather’s murder. A hyperlink with Aleksei Mityushov’s name redirects to a page showing a signed statement listing the date of Stepan Karagodin’s death sentence and the date his execution took place.

    Yan Rachinsky of human rights NGO Memorial, which was founded in 1989 to document Soviet-era crimes, says written statements of this sort — known in Russian as vypiski — were often produced years after the crime and offer no proof that those who signed them took part in it.

    “Such vypiski were folded into case files two years after the Great Terror, in 1939, when they were simply getting documents in order. And that process was carried out by people who had nothing to do with the executions,” Rachinsky told RFE/RL. “These are standard pieces of paper. I’ve seen hundreds of them.”

    Aleksei Mityushov, the man accused of murdering Stepan Karagodin in 1938

    Aleksei Mityushov, the man accused of murdering Stepan Karagodin in 1938

    “I can’t unequivocally say this person did not take part,” Rachinsky said of Aleksei Mityushov. “But it’s wrong to claim on the basis of this document that he did.” He added that Mityushov, who joined the NKVD in 1932 and would have been 25 years old at the time of Karagodin’s death, was most likely an ordinary clerk doing simple administrative work.

    Sergei Mityushov said the “final straw” — the development that prompted him to file charges — was a phone call he alleges was from Karagodin or one of his associates, announcing that researchers had found his father’s grave and posted video and images of it online. (Karagodin, who declined to be interviewed for this article, told RFE/RL he has never communicated with Mityushov.)

    In the Belsat interview, Mityushov voiced general criticism about efforts to dig into Russia’s past, citing the Defense Ministry’s TV channel Zvezda, which often broadcasts propagandistic reports about wartime events and the country’s armed forces, as a useful guide for learning about Russian history.

    “We must acknowledge that we fell into this historical current,” he said of the Stalin-era repressions, which some Russians justify as a necessary evil. “We need a great deal of time to find out what really happened.”

    But Karagodin, Mityushov said, “is staging his own private Nuremberg.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Angry Kazakh Mothers Demand More Government Support, Response

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Dozens of mothers, some of whom have children with medical conditions, have gathered at Almaty’s city hall days before International Women’s Day to demand city officials increase support to families.

    The women entered the building of the city administration on March 5, demanding that Mayor Baqytzhan Saghyntaev meet with them and chanting, “Saghyntaev, come out!”

    The women complained that they had been added to the city administration’s list for distribution of free apartments to families in need, but had failed to move up despite being on it for years.

    The women also demanded more financial and social support for handicapped children.

    Saghyntaev did not meet with the women, sending the chairwoman of the city administration’s directorate on social issues, Nazira Toghyzbaeva, and the deputy chief of the housing directorate, Ermek Amirov, to talk to the women.

    The two officials explained that the state program on the distribution of free apartments to families with lower incomes is being implemented and that all families included on the list can follow the process online. They added, however, that special programs for supporting families with several children, as well as those with handicapped children, have yet to be worked out.

    In the capital, Nur-Sultan, dozens of mothers have been demanding increased social allowances since late February. Many have spent several nights camped inside the building of the city administration.

    Earlier this week, 32 mothers in Nur-Sultan officially filed their demands with the Ministry of Social Support, which informed them that they will receive an official response in mid-April.

    The women answered that they will not leave the city administration building until they receive the responses.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • HRW: Kyrgyz Draft Constitution Endangers Rights, Weakens Checks And Balances

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging Kyrgyzstan to withdraw a draft constitution submitted to lawmakers last month, saying it undermines human rights norms and weakens the checks and balances necessary to prevent abuses of power.

    “The current draft constitution does not reflect the high human rights standards Kyrgyzstan says it aspires to,” Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at the New York-based human rights watchdog, said in a statement on March 5.

    Kyrgyzstan has been in political crisis since parliamentary elections in October led to protests that triggered the toppling of the government and the resignation of then-President Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

    President Sadyr Japarov was among several prominent politicians freed from prison by protesters during the unrest. He had been serving a 10-year prison sentence for hostage-taking during a protest against a mining operation in northeast Kyrgyzstan in October 2013. He has denied the charge.

    Since winning a presidential election in January, Japarov has advanced the draft constitution.

    Votes of at least 80 members of the caretaker parliament, or a two-thirds majority, are required to adopt the proposed constitution before it is put to a national referendum.

    HRW said the legislature should postpone consideration of the text until after a new parliament has been elected to “allow for a full deliberative and consultative constitutional reform process.”

    The government should also refer the draft to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission of constitutional experts.

    “President Japarov has pledged to uphold and respect human rights,” Sultanalieva said, adding: “A new constitution lays the foundation for these actions, so it is vitally important for this document, and the process of preparing it, to uphold beyond all doubt the highest standards of human rights and the rule of law.”

    In its annual report released earlier this week, the Washington-based human rights watchdog Freedom House said the draft constitution “could reshape Kyrgyzstan’s political system in the mold of its authoritarian neighbors.”

    HRW said provisions in the draft regarding the role of the executive and parliament “erode the constitution’s current system of checks and balances.” It cited a proposed article providing the president with powers previously exclusive to the parliament, such as initiating new laws and referendums, in addition to the existing power of veto.

    The group said two other articles would allow the president to indirectly recall the mandates of members of parliament. If the president obtains the support of a majority of lawmakers, the head of state can strip a parliament member’s immunity from criminal prosecution, which HRW said would create “the conditions for political pressure on members who are critical of the ruling party or the president.”

    Other “problematic” provisions would transfer power from the parliament to the president to appoint members of the cabinet, and appoint and dismiss judges, the prosecutor-general, the chairman of the central bank, as well as nominate and dismiss half of the Central Election Committee.

    HRW noted that several proposed articles “directly violate” international human rights standards, including one that would prohibit activities, public events, and dissemination of information contrary to the “moral values and the public consciousness of the people of Kyrgyzstan.”

    The draft constitution also excludes an article guaranteeing freedom of identification of ethnic identity, a move that would create “a dangerous potential for ethnic profiling and discrimination against ethnic minorities.”

    The draft also includes a provision imposing “unnecessary, burdensome” financial reporting requirements on nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, and political parties.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Week’s Best: Nine RFE/RL Stories You Need To Read (Or Watch)

    Hey, you’re busy! We know rferl.org isn’t the only website you read. And that it’s just possible you may have missed some of our most compelling journalism this week. To make sure you’re up-to-date, here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL’s team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jailed Belarusian, Iranian Exile, Slain Afghans Among U.S. ‘Women Of Courage’ Honorees

    The U.S. State Department will honor 14 “extraordinary” women from Belarus, Iran, and other countries who have demonstrated leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and a willingness to sacrifice for others.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) awards in a virtual ceremony on March 8 to honor jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava, as well as Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess arbiter who went into exile after violating her country’s strict Islamic dress code, the State Department said in a statement on March 4.

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    It said a group of seven other “extraordinary” women leaders and activists from Afghanistan who were assassinated while serving their communities will also receive an honorary award.

    The IWOC award, now in its 15th year, is presented annually to women from around the world who have “demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment — often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”

    This year’s recipients include Kalesnikava, a ranking member of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus’s disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.

    The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept the results. Thousands of Belarusians have been jailed during months of crackdowns on the street demonstrations against strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

    Kalesnikava was arrested in September and charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country’s national security, conspiracy to seize state power, and organizing extremism.

    Ahead of the presidential election, “Belarusian women emerged as a dominant political force and driver of societal change in Belarus due in no small part to” Kalesnikava, according to the State Department.

    The opposition figure “continues to be the face of the opposition inside Belarus, courageously facing imprisonment, it said, adding that she “serves as a source of inspiration for all those seeking to win freedom for themselves and their countries.”

    The State Department said Bayat will be honored for choosing “to be a champion for women’s rights rather than be cowed by the Iranian government’s threats.”

    Bayat, the first female Category A international chess arbiter in Asia, sought refuge in Britain after she was photographed at the 2020 Women’s Chess World Championship in Shanghai without her head scarf, or hijab, as her country mandates.

    “Within 24 hours, the Iranian Chess Federation — which Shohreh had previously led — refused to guarantee Shohreh’s safety if she returned to Iran without first apologizing,” the State Department said.

    “Fearing for her safety and unwilling to apologize for the incident, Shohreh made the heart-wrenching decision to seek refuge in the U.K., leaving her husband — who lacked a U.K. visa — in Iran.”

    In addition to the individual IWOC awards, Blinken will also present an honorary award to seven Afghan women whose “tragic murders” in 2020 underscored the “alarming trend of increased targeting of women in Afghanistan.”

    The women include Fatema Natasha Khalil, an official with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; General Sharmila Frough, the head of the Gender Unit in the National Directorate of Security; journalist Malalai Maiwand; women’s rights and democracy activist Freshta Kohistani; and midwife Maryam Noorzad.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU Drug Watchdog Reviewing Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine

    Europe’s medicines regulator says it has started a “rolling review” of the Russian-developed Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, a key step toward approval for use across the 27-nation European Union.

    The human medicines committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will review data from ongoing trials of the vaccine until there is enough clinical data for approval, the Amsterdam-based EMA said in a statement on March 4.

    Last month, peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet medical journal showed the two-dose regimen of Sputnik V was 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, about the same level as the leading Western-developed vaccines.

    EMA’s “rolling reviews” are intended to speed up the process of approving a successful vaccine by allowing researchers to submit findings in real time, even before final trial data is ready.

    The agency has already approved vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca /Oxford, and is expected to give its verdict on Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine next week. Reviews for CureVac and Novavax’s candidates are also under way.

    The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has funded the vaccine and is responsible for selling it globally, said on March 4 that the country would be able to provide the vaccine for 50 million Europeans from June if it was approved by the EMA

    Kirill Dmitriyev also said that the country expected several European countries to approve Sputnik V this month.

    Slovakia earlier this month received its first shipment of Sputnik V doses, becoming the second EU member state to obtain the vaccine after Hungary, even though it lacks approval by the EMA.

    With reporting by Reuters and AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Washington Singles Out Growing Rivalry With ‘China, Russia, Other Authoritarian States’

    The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has singled out a “growing rivalry with China, Russia, and other authoritarian states” as a key challenge facing the United States.

    A White House document outlining Biden’s national-security policies, made public on March 3, describes China, the world’s second-largest economic power, as “the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.”

    The 24-page document also warns that Russia “remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a disruptive role on the world stage.”

    Meanwhile, Iran and North Korea are pursuing “game-changing capabilities and technologies, while threatening U.S. allies and partners and challenging regional stability.”

    Both Beijing and Moscow “have invested heavily in efforts meant to check U.S. strengths and prevent us from defending our interests and allies around the world,” according to the document, titled Interim National Security Strategic Guidance.

    It says that in the face of challenges from “an increasingly assertive China and destabilizing Russia,” the U.S. military would shift its emphasis away from “unneeded legacy platforms and weapons systems to free up resources for investments” in cutting-edge technologies.

    After four years of former President Donald Trump’s “America first” approach, Biden has vowed to confront “authoritarianism” in China and Russia while reengaging with allies and centering multilateral diplomacy.

    Washington and Beijing are at odds over influence in the Indo-Pacific region, China’s economic practices, and human rights in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region.

    Moscow’s relations with Washington are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues including the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, Russia’s alleged meddling in elections in the United States and other democracies, and the poisoning of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

    In a foreign-policy speech at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the U.S. relationship with China as “the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century,” while several other countries also represent “serious challenges” for the United States, including Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    “Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be,” Blinken said.

    The United States needs to “engage China from a position of strength,” which requires working with allies and partners, engaging in diplomacy and in international organizations, “because where we have pulled back, China has filled in,” and “standing up for our values when human rights are abused in Xinjiang or when democracy is trampled in Hong Kong.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • U.S. Expresses ‘Deep Concern’ After Moscow Court Confirms ‘Foreign Agent’ Fines Against RFE/RL

    The U.S. State Department has expressed “deep concern” about what it calls Russian government efforts “to clamp down on the exercise of freedom of expression.”

    The March 3 statement from State Department spokesman Ned Price came the same day that a Moscow judge rejected five appeals by U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty against fines imposed on the company under Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” law.

    “We are concerned by today’s denial of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s appeals of fines unjustly imposed under Russia’s repressive foreign-agent-registration laws,” Price said. “These laws are a further transparent effort to impede the work of RFE/RL outlets, which are already severely limited in their ability to broadcast on television and radio in Russia and to prevent them from bringing real and objective news to the Russian people.”

    Price called Moscow’s actions “unacceptable” and added, “We will continue to support the presence of independent and international media outlets in Russia.”

    Judge Aleksei Krivoruchko of the Tverskoi district court on March 3 confirmed fines imposed on RFE/RL for failing to mark written and broadcast materials in accordance with regulations set by the state media-monitoring agency Roskomnadzor. A lower court imposed the fines on February 10.

    “RFE/RL rejects the imposition of these fines and does not accept the Russian court’s decision to strike down our appeal of them,” RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in response to the rulings.

    “We consider Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor’s self-labeling regulations — in fact, orders to deface our content platforms and intimidate our audiences — to be a state-sponsored assault on media freedom that violates the Russian Constitution and Russia’s media law,” he said, adding that “RFE/RL will continue to object, protest, and appeal these requirements.”

    Despite ongoing appeals in more cases on the issue, RFE/RL now has 60 days to pay the fines and come into compliance with the regulations or face the potential closure of its operations inside Russia. It can also further appeal the March 3 decision.

    “RFE/RL will not abandon our growing audience in Russia, who continue to engage with our objective and independent journalism despite the Kremlin’s pressure campaign,” Fly said.

    “RFE/RL will not be deterred by these blatant attempts to influence our editorial independence and undermine our ability to reach our audience at a moment when the Russian people are demanding the truth,” he added.

    Since January 14, Roskommnadzor has opened 260 cases against RFE/RL for violations of the labeling requirements. A Moscow court has already levied fines in 142 cases, with the total fines approaching a value of nearly $1 million.

    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 targeted foreign-funded media.

    In 2017, the Russian government placed RFE/RL’s Russian Service on the list, along with six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, a network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

    At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals, including foreign journalists, on its “foreign agent” list and to impose restrictions on them.

    In December 2020, Russia added five individuals to its “foreign agent” list, including three contributors to RFE/RL’s Russian Service. All five are appealing their inclusion on the list.

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

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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan President Says Country Should Seize Moment Of ‘Unprecedented’ EU Support

    CHISINAU — The European Union regards Moldova’s new leadership with sympathy and has shown its readiness to help it fight corruption and reform its judiciary, President Maia Sandu has told RFE/RL, adding that the East European state needs to take advantage of this opportunity.

    A U.S.-educated former adviser with the World Bank, Sandu defeated Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.

    “I’ve seen very much support and a lot of openness, unprecedented openness toward Moldova…which gives us enormous opportunities,” Sandu said on March 3.

    “We must seize this moment, because the people expect responsible decisions and actions mainly in the fight against corruption and judiciary reform,” Sandu said.

    Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate stronger links to Brussels and neighboring EU member Romania.

    “I would say that our country hasn’t enjoyed such openness in a very long time. We need to take advantage of this situation on all fronts, including in acquiring more vaccines [to fight the pandemic],” Sandu said.

    Standoff With Parliament

    The country has lagged behind the rest of the continent in the scramble for anti-COVID-19 vaccines and welcomed donations from friendly governments.

    The Moldovan drug regulator last month registered three vaccines — Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and the Russian-made Sputnik V — for use in Moldova.

    The government this week said it expects a first shipment of vaccines under the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries. Last week, Romania donated 21,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the country of 3.5 million that has registered almost 190,000 infections and more than 4,000 fatalities.

    Sandu, who is currently embroiled in a standoff with the parliament dominated by lawmakers allied with Dodon, has repeatedly said she wants to push for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    Moldova’s Constitutional Court last month rejected Sandu’s second attempt to nominate a prime minister, hindering her effort to force early elections.

    Sandu had nominated Natalia Gavrilita unsuccessfully for a second time on February 11 despite parliament’s earlier rejection of Gavrilita.

    The second nomination appeared intended to clear a path for Sandu to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

    Sandu’s former party, the Party of Action and Solidarity, hopes a new vote would leave them stronger relative to Dodon’s Socialists.

    “More than 70 percent of the people want early elections. Who are these lawmakers, who acceded to parliament through fraud, to act against the will of 70 percent of the people?” Sandu said, adding that the dispute could be eventually settled through a referendum.

    “If no compromise can be reached, this conflict must be settled by the citizens in a referendum to either suspend the president or call early elections.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Historic Artifacts Take Leading Role In Russian Play About Gulag

    A new play in Moscow is bringing stories of the Soviet gulag to audiences with the help of real objects discovered at prison camps. The creators say letters, inscriptions, and household items help present a picture of the time as well as the suffering of the prisoners.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU Envoys Agree To Prolong Asset Freeze On Former Ukrainian President

    European Union diplomats say ambassadors to the bloc have approved an extension of asset freezes imposed on former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and seven people in his inner circle over the embezzlement of Ukrainian state funds.

    Speaking on condition of anonymity, several EU diplomats who are familiar with the matter said that the 27 envoys agreed on March 3 to remove former Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov and former Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk form the sanctions list.

    They also gave their green light to a six-month rollover of sanctions against 177 individuals and 48 entities the bloc believes are responsible for the undermining of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

    Both sanctions regimes will officially be extended later this week.

    Brussels imposed the measures against Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin former president, family members, and close political allies shortly after the collapse of his government in February 2014.

    Some of the people listed have challenged, and sometimes won court cases against the measure, leading to growing demands that the list should be pared down further or even scrapped.

    EU diplomats told RFE/RL that there were discussions about removing from the list the former minister for duties and revenues, Oleksandr Klymenko, and the son of the ex-president, Oleksandr Yanukovych, but that the pair will remain under sanctions for now.

    In 2020, sanctions imposed on former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and ex-Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky were lifted. Andriy Klyuyev, the former head of Yanukovych’s presidential administration, was delisted the previous year.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • U.S. ‘Deeply Concerned’ After Kyrgyz ‘Crime Boss’ Released From Detention

    The United States says it is “deeply concerned” over the release from pretrial detention of a Kyrgyz organized-crime figure for whom Washington has offered a $1 million reward.

    In a statement on March 3, the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek described Kamchy Kolbaev as a “transnational organized-crime boss” and a “convicted murderer whose criminal network engages in drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and other dangerous criminal activity.”

    Kolbaev’s drug trafficking network “poisons children across Central Asia, Russia, and Europe,” it quoted Ambassador Donald Lu as saying.

    Kolbaev was detained in October 2020 on suspicion of organizing a criminal group and participating in the activities of an organized criminal group.

    A spokeswoman at the Bishkek City Court told RFE/RL that the decision to change Kolbaev’s pretrial restrictions was made on March 2. She did not say why the decision was made.

    The next day, the State National Security Committee (UKMK) said Kolbaev would be unable to leave the city of Cholpon-Ata.

    The committee also announced a new criminal case had been opened against him on money-laundering charges.

    Kolbaev’s relatives transferred around 20 percent of the total amount of money allegedly laundered — more than 250 million soms ($2,950,000)– to the state, it said, adding that the rest should be paid by the end of April, which marks the end of the investigation period.

    In 2014, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Kolbaev’s criminal network.

    “In a recent meeting with the leadership of the State Committee for National Security, Ambassador Lu repeated the U.S. commitment to support the efforts of Kyrgyz law enforcement to investigate and prosecute Kolbaev,” the U.S. Embassy said in its statement.

    The U.S. envoy “also conveyed Washington’s intention to increase the award offered for the disruption of Kolbaev’s criminal network, and to create an improved mechanism to allow Kyrgyz citizens to collect this reward in order to assist the Kyrgyz government to rid the country of the threat posed by Kolbaev’s crime syndicate.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kazakh Activist Sentenced For Links With Banned Political Group

    TARAZ, Kazakhstan — A court in southern Kazakhstan has handed a parole-like sentence to an activist for her links with the banned Koshe (Street) Party, the second supporter of the opposition movement to be sentenced in less than a week.

    The Taraz City Court No. 2 late on March 2 sentenced Zhazira Qambarova to two years of “freedom limitation” after finding her guilty of organizing and participating in the activities of the opposition Koshe Party, which has links with another outlawed party, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement.

    Qambarova was banned from using the media or the Internet to conduct political and social activities for five years. She also is not allowed to get involved in any political activities for two years.

    The activist, who was charged in September 2020, acknowledged she was taking part in the Koshe Party’s activities but denied she had organized any of them.

    She said she would appeal the ruling, claiming she was being persecuted for her public activities.

    Several activists across the Central Asian nation have been handed “freedom limitation” sentences for their involvement in the activities of the Koshe Party and DVK, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

    On January 26, a Kazakh court sentenced a Koshe Party supporter, Qairat Sultanbek, to one year of “freedom limitation” after he was detained and charged in September.

    DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

    Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russian Feminist Performance Artist Files Appeal Against ‘Foreign Agent’ Listing

    MOSCOW — Russian feminist performance artist Daria Apakhonchich has filed a legal appeal against the government’s inclusion of her on its list of “media organizations fulfilling the functions of foreign agents.”

    Lawyer Pavel Chikov of the Agora legal-defense organization made the announcement on Telegram on March 1. Denis Kamalyagin, editor in chief of the online newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, has also appealed his inclusion on the “foreign agent” list, the website reported on March 3.

    According to Chikov, Apakhonchich’s appeal states that she “never received money or any property from foreign sources for the creation or dissemination of statements or materials that were distributed by foreign media listed under the foreign agents law.”

    Apakhonchich added that she regards the restrictions on her rights to be politically motivated, and her complaint includes 12 pages of examples of alleged violations of her rights to expression and privacy.

    On December 28, 2020, Apakhonchich and four other individuals, including two contributors to RFE/RL’s Russian Service, were included on the government’s list of “media organizations fulfilling the functions of foreign agents.”

    They were the first to be added to the list following a new amendment to the law that authorized the government to apply the designation to individuals.

    The Justice Ministry did not offer any justification for adding these individuals to the list.

    In an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service following the designation, Apakhonchich said the listing was a surprise “because I am not engaged in journalism.” She added that she believed she was targeted for her “feminist activities.”

    On March 1, human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov — another of the individuals added to the list — announced that he was closing down his For Human Rights nongovernmental organization after two decades because of the obstacles created by the controversial “foreign agent” legislation.

    Russia’s so-called foreign agent legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

    Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL’s Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.

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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russian Court Hands Down First Criminal Sentence To Participant In January’s Pro-Navalny Rallies

    KOSTROMA, Russia — A court in Russia’s Volga city of Kostroma has sentenced a man to 18 months of forced labor on a criminal charge for attacking a police officer during January 23 rallies against the arrest of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.

    The Sverdlov district court said on March 2 that a 26-year-old Kostroma resident pleaded guilty to pushing a hat off of a police officer’s head and kicking the officer from behind as police moved in to detain demonstrators.

    The court ruled that the man will be placed in a specialized correctional center, where he will work at an industrial facility for 18 months. Ten percent of his salary will be given to the state.

    The news website Mediazona identified the man as Aleksei Vinogradov.

    OVD-Info, an independent monitoring group, says the sentence is the first in a criminal case against someone who took part in the pro-Navalny rallies in January.

    The nationwide demonstrations held on January 23 and 31 protested the arrest of the Kremlin critic who was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering after being poisoned in Siberia in August by what several European labs concluded was a military-grade chemical nerve agent.

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

    Last month, a Moscow court ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case, which is widely considered to be 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 he had been held in detention.

    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 misdeeds, and several people were fired by their employers.

    With reporting by OVD-Info and Mediazona

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russia Files Complaint Against NGO Tackling Domestic Violence For Violating ‘Foreign Agent’ Law

    MOSCOW — Russia’s Justice Ministry has filed a complaint against one of the country’s leading nongovernmental organizations addressing domestic violence, which was added to Moscow’s controversial list of entities designated as “foreign agents” last December.

    Lawyer Pavel Chikov of the Agora legal-defense organization made the announcement on Telegram on March 2.

    According to Chikov, the government has deemed that the activity of Nasiliyu.net in “publicizing the problem of domestic violence,” “creating conditions so that victims know where to turn for help,” and “participating in promoting and conducting campaigns aimed at adopting a law against family and domestic violence” must be considered “political activity” under the country’s “foreign agent” laws.

    The government also deemed the NGO’s public calls for government agencies “to take measures to protect victims of domestic violence” during the coronavirus pandemic to be “political activity.”

    The complaint also notes that Nasiliyu.net’s website includes contact information to the Anna domestic-violence crisis center, which has also been listed as a “foreign agent” organization.

    Chikov said the government also listed as “political activity” the NGO’s participation in a 2019 sanctioned demonstration against gender discrimination and domestic violence held to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, although the Justice Department’s complaint notes the event “took place without any disturbance to public order.”

    The ministry is asking a court to fine Nasiliyu.net from 300,000 to 500,000 rubles ($4,000 to $6,800). In addition, the ministry is seeking a fine of up to 300,000 rubles against the NGO’s director, Anna Rivina.

    Nasiliyu.net was founded in 2015 and was registered as an NGO in 2018. In December 2020, it was listed as a “foreign agent” organization, a designation that it is appealing in court.

    When Nasiliyu.net was included on the list, Rivina wrote on Facebook that “95 percent” of the reason why the organization was targeted was “because of our draft law on domestic violence and 5 percent because of our support for LGBT rights.”

    Russia’s so-called foreign agent legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

    Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL’s Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.

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

    With reporting by Kommersant

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • An Afghan Parliamentarian And The Mysterious Stash Of Cash, Gold Bars Seized At The Dushanbe Airport

    A high-ranking Afghan politician has found himself at the center of a scandal in Tajikistan involving $15 million in cash and some 90 kilos of gold bars seized from smugglers at the Dushanbe airport in November.

    Mohammad Mirza Katawazai, the deputy chairman of the Afghan parliament, angrily rejects the claim by Afghan media that he is linked to the cash and gold.

    The shock allegation was first made by Afghanistan’s 1TV channel, which said the powerful politician had been “behind the smuggling attempt” involving “dozens of kilograms of gold and millions of dollars” in cash that were discovered and seized by Tajik customs officials.

    The channel dropped the bombshell claim on its primetime news program on February 27, the day Katawazai, 39, arrived in Dushanbe for an official visit. He was part of a parliamentary delegation led by Mir Rahman Rahmani, speaker of the Wolosi Jirga, the lower house of parliament.

    Upon his arrival in Dushanbe, Katawazai faced questions by journalists asking him about the alleged links to smugglers and the confiscated loot.

    “These [allegations] are all nonsense. I’m a politician, not a businessman,” he said on February 28.

    Meanwhile in Kabul, the Afghan Interior Ministry told the 1TV channel that it has begun gathering information to launch a probe into the claims against Katawazai.

    1TV said it obtained its information linking Katawazai to the smuggled money from multiple sources but didn’t disclose their identities. The broadcaster also didn’t produce any evidence to back its claims.

    ‘Several Others Involved’

    The broadcaster also alleged that several other people — including police, local government officials, and customs services workers — have been involved in the smuggling.

    “Katawazai wants to put a lid on the matter,” the TV channel said, alleging that his trip to Dushanbe was partially aimed at resolving the fate of the money and gold found by Tajik officials.

    The politician had been desperately trying to prevent the news of his involvement in the scandal from becoming public, 1TV added.

    According to the TV station, Katawazai’s one-on-one meeting with Saadi Sharifi, the Tajik ambassador in Kabul, on December 15, was part of the deputy speaker’s efforts to resolve the issue.

    The Tajik Foreign Ministry said on its website that the meeting took place “at the request of the Afghan side.” It cited Katawazai as praising Tajikistan’s “favorable investment conditions for Afghan entrepreneurs.”

    The 1TV report also claimed that the members of the Afghan parliamentary delegation that went to Tajikistan “are aware” of the matter, which according to the channel could be raised in meetings during the trip.

    But Rahmani, the head of the delegation, told reporters in Dushanbe that talks and meetings in Tashkent will focus on bilateral cooperation, the fight against terrorism, and intra-Afghan peace talks.

    According to 1TV, the fate of the smuggled precious metal and money was even discussed during at a February 14 meeting between Saimumin Yatimov, the Tajik state security chief, and Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation.

    Authorities said Afghan peace efforts, security cooperation, and the situation along the Afghan-Tajik border was the main topic of the meeting in Kabul.

    Dushanbe Keeps Mum

    When news of the unprecedented confiscation of cash and gold first broke in Tajikistan in November, suspicion fell upon Tajik politicians and businessmen.

    Local media reported that family members of a former manager of the Shugnov gold mine in southern Tajikistan were involved in the smuggling. There was no comment from Tajik officials.

    Authorities in Dushanbe broke their silence on February 18 when they announced the gold and money had been illegally transported from Afghanistan by a group of smugglers.

    The State Customs Service said the group attempted to send the cash and gold bars to the United Arab Emirates on a flight from the Dushanbe airport. But the goods were discovered and seized before they were loaded onto the plane.

    Officials said three customs service employees at a Tajik-Afghan border crossing were detained and charged with “negligence” for failing to properly inspect the goods coming into Tajikistan.

    The Customs Services said seven people have been detained in connection with the case. No names or further details were made public by authorities.

    Tajikistan has long been used a transit route for drug traffickers who smuggle Afghan opium and heroin to Russia which then goes to Europe.

    Tajik state media often show photos and video of drugs that it says were confiscated from Afghan smugglers or their Tajik accomplices.

    But it was the first time Tajik authorities reported the seizure of such large amounts of gold and foreign currency being trafficked from Afghanistan via Tajik territory.

    In its report, 1TV aired a previous speech by Katawazai talking about the “widespread corruption in the government and parliament” of Afghanistan.

    Written by Farangis Najibullah based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Lukashenka: There Will Be ‘No Transfer Of Power’ In Belarus

    Autocratic leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka says there will be “no transfer of power” in Belarus, where thousands have demonstrated acrossthe country since early August demanding his resignation over an elections they say was rigged.

    “No transfer [of power] is possible in Belarus…. Everything will be in accordance with the constitution,” Lukashenka said in Minsk on March 2 as he spoke about his talks last month with President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi.

    “The [new] constitution, as I said before, we will adopt in January-February next year. And that is all that the transfer of power will be about,” Lukashenka said, adding that a transfer of power was not on the agenda when he met with Putin.

    Lukashenka has been under pressure to step down for months after claiming he won an August 9 election by a landslide, while his main challenger, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has said she was the rightful victor.

    Thousands of protesters have been arrested by Belarusian security forces at the anti-government rallies that have continued since August, and beatings at the hands of police have been widely documented.

    The EU, which considers the election that extended Lukashenka’s 26-year authoritarian rule fraudulent, has progressively imposed sanctions on Belarus in response to the violent repression of peaceful protesters, the opposition, and media.

    Crisis In Belarus

    Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.

    Tsikhanouskaya has called for the EU to take a tougher stance against Lukashenka’s regime.

    Lukashenka has long sought to portray himself as a brake on Moscow’s pressure to merge Belarus with Russia. But seven months of unprecedented street protests and the resulting EU sanctions have put the Belarusian leader on the defensive and seemingly more reliant on Putin’s support.

    In recent years, Russia has pressured Belarus to take steps toward integration in order to cement a 20-year-old agreement to form a union state, only to be rebuffed by Lukashenka’s defense of the nation’s sovereignty.

    However, the situation began to change after Russia helped prop up Lukashenka in the wake of the presidential election, bringing the two sides closer over common threat perceptions.

    Lukashenka acknowledged the close relationship but also emphasized on March 2 that Belarus remained “a sovereign and independent state.”

    Putin himself has been under pressure from the West in recent months.

    The EU and Washington announced new sanctions against Russian officials on March 2 over the detention of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and evidence that the anti-corruption campaigner was poisoned with a Novichok-like nerve agent. Navalny blames his poisoning on Putin and Russian agents, which the Kremlin denies.

    Navalny’s detention in January upon his return from life-saving treatment in Germany and a subsequent crackdown on some of Russia’s largest anti-government protests in a decade have prompted international outrage.

    With reporting by BelTA

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Serbia’s President Arrives In Bosnia With COVID-19 Vaccine Donation

    Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic arrived in Sarejevo to donate 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two constituent entities that make up the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vucic was welcomed at the Bosnian capital’s airport on March 2 by members of the Bosnian presidency, Milorad Dodik and Sefik Dzaferovic.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Notorious Kyrgyz Crime Boss Released From Pretrial Detention

    BISHKEK — Kyrgyz organized-crime figure Kamchy Kolbaev, who was added by Washington to a list of major global drug-trafficking suspects in 2011, has been released from pretrial detention and ordered not to leave Bishkek.

    Aisulu Jaasynova, spokeswoman at the Bishkek City Court, told RFE/RL that the decision to change Kolbaev’s pretrial restrictions was made on March 2. She did not say why the decision was made.

    Kolbaev, who is known as a “thief-in-law,” a title traditionally given to kingpins among criminal groups in former Soviet republics, was detained on suspicion of organizing a criminal group and participating in the activities of an organized criminal group on October 22, 2020.

    The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek welcomed Kolbaev’s detention at the time it was announced and expressed hope that Kyrgyz authorities would “prosecute and continue to detain this dangerous criminal leader in the interest of public safety.”

    In late 2012, Kolbaev was extradited to Kyrgyzstan from the United Arab Emirates at Bishkek’s request and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on extortion charges. His prison term was later shortened to three years without explanation.

    In June 2014, Kolbaev was granted an early release, which Kyrgyz officials explained by saying that each day spent by an inmate in a detention center is equal to two days in a penal colony.

    Weeks before his early release, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Kolbaev’s criminal network, which it described as being “part of the broader Brothers’ Circle transnational criminal organization composed of leaders and members of several Eurasian criminal groups.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Prominent Russian Rights Group Shuts Down Over ‘Foreign Agent’ Laws

    MOSCOW — Veteran Russian activist Lev Ponomaryov has shut his well-respected human rights organization due to the country’s controversial laws on “foreign agents.”

    Ponomaryov announced his decision to shut down his For Human Rights NGO in a televised interview on March 1, the day laws increasing fines for violating the so-called “foreign agent” law took effect.

    Ponomaryov’s organization was established as an unregistered group in 2019 after a Supreme Court ruling to liquidate his movement with the same name, which had conducted rights monitoring and advocacy for more than two decades.

    MOSCOW — Veteran Russian activist Lev Ponomaryov has shut his well-respected human rights organization due to the country’s controversial laws on “foreign agents.”

    Ponomaryov announced his decision to shut down his For Human Rights NGO in a televised interview on March 1, the day laws increasing fines for violating the so-called “foreign agent” law took effect.

    Ponomaryov’s organization was established as an unregistered group in 2019 after a Supreme Court ruling to liquidate his movement with the same name, which had conducted rights monitoring and advocacy for more than two decades.

    The original group was shut down because Ponomaryov refused to register it as a foreign agent, a requirement of a 2012 law on nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity.

    At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals on its “foreign agents” list and to impose restrictions on them.

    Ponomaryov said on March 1 that the law also now targets unregistered organizations, and therefore it is impossible for his group to continue its activities.

    “We have a major problem here,” Ponomaryov said. “We are in a situation where thousands of experts working for my organization across the country…may be fined en masse now.”

    Ponomaryov, 79, is a former Soviet-era lawmaker and State Duma deputy who helped found the Memorial human rights group. In 1991, he headed the legislature’s investigation into the August coup attempt against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

    On December 28, 2020, he was added as an individual to the Russian Justice Ministry’s list of media accused of carrying out the functions of a “foreign agent.” The government gave no explanation for including Ponomaryov on the register.

    Russia’s “foreign agent” legislation has been widely criticized by Western governments and Russian and international rights groups as an effort by the government of President Vladimir Putin to stifle dissent. Human Rights Watch has described the laws as “restrictive” and intended “to demonize independent groups.”

    The original group was shut down because Ponomaryov refused to register it as a foreign agent, a requirement of a 2012 law on nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity.

    At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to include individuals on its “foreign agents” list and to impose restrictions on them.

    Ponomaryov said on March 1 that the law also now targets unregistered organizations, and therefore it is impossible for his group to continue its activities.

    “We have a major problem here,” Ponomaryov said. “We are in a situation where thousands of experts working for my organization across the country…may be fined en masse now.”

    Ponomaryov, 79, is a former Soviet-era lawmaker and State Duma deputy who helped found the Memorial human rights group. In 1991, he headed the legislature’s investigation into the August coup attempt against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

    On December 28, 2020, he was added as an individual to the Russian Justice Ministry’s list of media accused of carrying out the functions of a “foreign agent.” The government gave no explanation for including Ponomaryov on the register.

    Russia’s “foreign agent” legislation has been widely criticized by Western governments and Russian and international rights groups as an effort by the government of President Vladimir Putin to stifle dissent. Human Rights Watch has described the laws as “restrictive” and intended “to demonize independent groups.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Gorbachev At 90, Looking Back At A Career That Changed History

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU, U.S. Expected To Slap Sanctions On Russia Over Navalny Issue

    The United States and European Union are expected to take coordinated action against Russia as soon as March 2 over the nerve-agent poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

    European diplomatic sources said on March 1 that EU member states approved sanctions on four senior Russian justice and law enforcement officials involved in the Kremlin critic’s recent detention.

    Meanwhile, two sources in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration told Reuters and CNN that the United States plans to take action against Russia for the poisoning of Navalny.

    Asked by RFE/RL about the impending announcement, a State Department spokesperson said they would not “preview potential sanctions actions.”

    According to two European sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to French news agency AFP, the names of the individuals targeted by the EU will be published in the bloc’s official journal on March 2 after EU foreign ministers agreed on sanctions last week.

    The sources confirmed earlier reports that the officials are Aleksandr Kalashnikov, federal prisons administrator; Aleksandr Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia; Igor Krasnov, prosecutor-general; and Viktor Zolotov, director of the National Guard.

    The four would be the first individuals to be targeted under the EU’s new human rights sanctions regime, which came into effect in December 2020.

    Poisoning

    Navalny was detained in Moscow in January immediately upon returning from Germany, where he had recovered from what several Western labs determined was poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that saw him fall ill on a flight in Siberia in August 2020.

    A Moscow court in February ruled that while in Germany, he had violated the terms of parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered politically motivated. He was ultimately ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

    Russia has denied involvement in the poisoning but Navalny claims the assassination attempt was ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

    Meanwhile, UN human rights experts on March 1 called for an international investigation into the poisoning of Navalny, saying evidence points to the “very likely involvement” of Russian government officials.

    The EU already slapped sanctions on Russia following the poisoning attack on Nalvany last year. But former U.S. President Donald Trump let the incident slide without punitive action.

    The Biden administration has not said exactly what measures it intends to take over the nerve-agent poisoning but suggested it will be coordinated with European allies.

    The U.S. action may also extend beyond punishment for the poisoning, to include the Solarwinds hack blamed on Russia, meddling in U.S. democracy, and other Russian malign activities.

    In a major foreign policy speech in February, Biden said he warned Putin in their first call that the days of the United States “rolling over” to Russia’s “aggressive actions” have come to an end.

    “I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different than my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions — interfering with our elections, cyberattacks, poisoning its citizens — are over,” Biden said on February 4. “We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interest and our people.”

    With reporting by AFP, CNN, dpa, and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.