Category: Picks

  • The Moscow-based Novaya gazeta newspaper on February 15 published official documents it says prove that many of the people allegedly killed in extrajudicial executions in Chechnya in 2017 had been detained by local police.

    Novaya gazeta reported in 2017 that 27 detained individuals had been summarily executed in late January that year.

    Chechen authorities have denied the individuals in question had ever been arrested, while the Investigative Committee rejected Novaya gazeta’s request to launch an investigation into the allegations.

    The North Caucasus region of Chechnya is controlled by Kremlin-installed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Its security forces have been accused of gross human rights abuses for many years, including abductions, torture, and killings.

    Citing documents Novaya gazeta said were obtained from the Chechen Interior Ministry, the newspaper reported on February 15 that the 27 were detained during a special operation following an attack against police officers in Grozny in December 2016.

    In April 2017, Novaya gazeta officially handed to the Investigative Committee the list of the 27 people and additional three men who, according to the newspaper, were also killed by the Chechen police during a campaign against gays in February 2017 in the region.

    Investigators only confirmed that four men from the list had deceased, and two other men were announced as being alive.

    However, Novaya gazeta said in its latest investigative report that the two in fact were brothers of two executed men identified as Mokhma Muskiyev and Shamkhan Yusupov.

    The report also alleged that several men detained in Chechnya in January 2017 were pressured by local law enforcement to “take an oath of loyalty to the Islamic State [extremist group]” in front of cameras and then forced to denounce the extremist group.

    The newspaper suggested that the videos were later used to declare the men as terrorists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • When Russians took to the streets three times in recent weeks to protest the jailing of Kremlin opponent Aleksei Navalny, police violently dispersed the crowds and detained more than 11,000 people. But the latest nationwide demonstration, on February 14, provoked hardly any clashes or arrests.

    That was one of the goals of the Valentine’s Day gatherings, which saw residents of numerous cities brave subzero temperatures to hold flashlights in the courtyards of their apartment buildings, silently expressing opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s government while showing solidarity with Navalny and other activists swept up in the crackdown.

    Absent were the chants — “Putin is a thief!” and “Down with the tsar!” — that echoed through town squares at rallies across Russia on January 23 and 31 and in Moscow and St. Petersburg on February 2. Police mostly stayed away despite advance warnings that formed part of a concerted state effort to keep people from taking part.

    Thousands posted selfies online, boosting the hashtag #любовьсильнеестраха (#LoveIsStrongerThanFear) to the top of the Russian-language segments of Twitter and Instagram.

    'Love Is Stronger Than Fear': Navalny Supporters Cast Their Protests In A New Light

    'Love Is Stronger Than Fear': Navalny Supporters Cast Their Protests In A New Light Photo Gallery:

    ‘Love Is Stronger Than Fear’: Navalny Supporters Cast Their Protests In A New Light

    Following mass anti-government rallies that saw a brutal crackdown and thousands of detentions, supporters of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny used cell-phone lights, flashlights, and candles on the night of February 14 as a new form of silent — but visible — protest.

    But the diffuse nature of the flashlight protest, and the difficulty of gauging how many joined them, provoked mixed responses as to what impact they could have in a country where many of the key opposition activists are under house arrest or in jail, with many wondering whether such demonstrations can maintain momentum in the months before parliamentary elections in which Navalny’s allies hope to challenge the ruling United Russia party.

    Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, seized on the lack of reliable turnout figures to suggest the low-key demonstrations had little impact. “Yes, some people walked around with flashlights,” he told reporters on February 15. “Wonderful.”

    “It wasn’t a failure, but you can’t exactly call it a success either,” Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter and now political analyst, told RFE/RL. “It seems not that many people came out.”

    Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, suggested on February 15 that based on the thousands of social-media posts, tens of thousands of people had come out. Vladislav Inozemtsev, an economist and political analyst who is a critic of Putin, said that if just a few residents from thousands of apartment buildings came out, the total numbers may have been similar to the 100,000 estimated at protests on January 23 and 31.

    ‘No OMON, No Fear’

    The opposition has had a tough time in recent weeks. Following a particularly violent crackdown on the recent protests, and Navalny’s sentencing to more than 2 1/2 years in prison on February 2, activists issued a controversial statement calling for a halt to street rallies until the spring and urging supporters to dig in for a protracted political campaign that would culminate with the September elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

    So it came as a surprise to some when Leonid Volkov, who runs Navalny’s network of campaign offices across Russia, announced the flashlight demonstrations as an alternative show of anger against the state. “Let’s have social-media feeds filled with thousands of shining hearts from dozens of Russian cities,” Volkov wrote on Facebook on February 9. “No OMON [riot police], no fear.”

    The unorthodox protest was initiated by Navalny’s team as a way of circumventing the authorities’ readiness to deploy violence and overcoming the fear it instilled. It was also a way of keeping up momentum in the face of the authorities’ campaign to break it through force, through TV propaganda, and by organizing counter-rallies featuring participants professing their ostensible respect and admiration for Putin.

    Inozemtsev said that the Valentine’s Day initiative had greater symbolic appeal than large street protests and that it reached more people because it took place in neighborhoods across cities, including on their outskirts, not just in the center.

    “The number of people who saw what was taking place was immeasurably greater than the number that directly observed the protests on recent weekends,” he wrote on Facebook. “In other words, as a symbolic act the initiative turned out to be very successful.”

    Many participants voiced the same sentiment, revealing hopes that despite its more understated nature, the series of flashlight demonstrations would send a message that would resonate across the country and recruit even more activists to the protest cause.

    “I went out alone. It was predictable, I expected nothing else,” Yekaterina Khramtsova, an activist in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, wrote on Twitter. “And if just one person walked past or looked out of their window and paused to think, then all this wasn’t in vain.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied Turkish media reports alleging that an Iranian citizen recently arrested in Turkey is a consulate employee linked to the 2019 murder of an Iranian dissident in Istanbul.

    “What has happened is the arrest of an Iranian national upon entry,” ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on February 15, adding that Tehran was in contact with Turkish officials regarding the matter.

    Khatibzadeh did not provide more details.

    Last week, Turkey’s pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that a man identified as Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh was arrested on suspicion of planning the killing of Masud Molavi Vardanjani, a critic of Iran’s political and military leadership.

    Reuters confirmed that Naserzadeh had been held over Vardanjani’s killing, but the news agency said it could not confirm Sabah’s allegation that the suspect worked at the civic registry department of the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.

    Vardanjani, a former Iranian intelligence operative who exposed corruption involving Iranian officials, was shot and killed in Istanbul on November 14, 2019 — a year after leaving Iran. He had been put under investigation by Iranian authorities.

    A Turkish police report published in March 2020 said Vardanjani had worked in cybersecurity at Iran’s Defense Ministry before becoming a vocal critic of the Iranian regime.

    Two senior Turkish officials told Reuters last year that Vardanjani’s killing was instigated by intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul. One of the officials identified the two suspects by their initials, and one set of initials matched Naserzadeh’s.

    A senior U.S. administration official said in April 2020 that Washington had grounds to believe that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security was directly involved in Vardanjani’s killing.

    Iran has denied that any consulate staff had been involved in Vardanjani’s shooting death.

    Last week, a Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison on charges of planning an attack on an exiled opposition group.

    It was the first trial of an Iranian official on terrorism charges in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

    With reporting by IRNA, AFP and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Following recent mass rallies that saw thousands of detentions, supporters of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny used light from cell phones, flashlights, and candles as a new form of protest. Groups of people showed their support for Navalny by turning on phone flashlights and arranging candles in a heart shape in various cities across Russia to mark Valentine’s Day on February 14. The ‘flashlight’ protests were held under the motto “Love is stronger than fear.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Voters in Kosovo headed to the polls on February 14 to elect a new parliament. Among early voters in the capital, Pristina, were former President Ramush Haradinaj, incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, and former Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The snap polls were called after the Constitutional Court ruled that the parliament’s election of a new government in June 2020 had violated the constitution.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • KYIV – Ukraine’s army says three of its soldiers have been killed by an explosive device in eastern Ukraine, bringing to five the number of troops killed in the region this week, the latest casualties of a six-year conflict with Russia-backed separatists.

    The three service personnel died on February 14 when an unknown device exploded while they were on their way to take positions near the town of Novoluhanske in the region of Donetsk, according to the army.

    The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates, said he had sent the country’s defense minister and its chief of staff to eastern Ukraine to investigate the incident.

    “An immediate investigation is needed so that similar tragedies do not repeat in the future. I am waiting for their report on the circumstances immediately after my return” to Ukraine on February 15, a statement quoted Zelenskiy as saying.

    The deaths come three days after two government soldiers were killed in combat in the Donetsk region, despite a cease-fire that has been in place since last summer.

    Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists holding parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hundreds joined a women-only rally in downtown Moscow on February 14 to demand the release of women detained in recent demonstrations held across Russia in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. The human-chain protest featured references to Valentine’s Day, such as flowers and images of black hearts.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hundreds of women have attended protests in Moscow and St Petersburg on St. Valentine’s Day in support of Russian women prosecuted for political reasons.

    The Chain Of Solidary And Love protest is also dedicated to imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who flew to Germany on February 10. Although no explanation was given for her departure, Navalnaya had recently been detained for taking part in unsanctioned rallies in support of her husband.

    Images shared on social media on February 14 show women holding red roses, balloons, and heart signs with the names of female political prisoners written on them. Demonstrators also sang, “Love is stronger than fear,” the motto of the protests.

    The organizers said on their Facebook page that the rallies were dedicated to the women who were “beaten and tortured by police during peaceful protests,” as well as “to everyone who spends their days in courts, police buses, and special detention centers.”

    They said the “chain” along Moscow’s Old Arbat Street honors Navalnaya as well as lawyer Lyubov Sobol, Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, municipal deputy Lucy Shtein, Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh, and Doctors’ Alliance head Anastasia Vasilyeva, who all face criminal charges for calling on supporters to rally for Navalny’s release last month.

    Later on February 14, Navalny supporters plan a protest using light from mobile phones, flashlights, and candles to express support for him, despite a warning that people taking part could face criminal charges.

    Navalny’s team has called on people across Russia to switch on their cell phone flashlights for 15 minutes beginning at 8 p.m. local time and shine the light into the sky from their homes or the courtyards of their apartment buildings.

    Navalny, 44, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been treated for a nerve-agent poisoning he says was ordered by Putin. The Kremlin denies it had any role in the attack.

    Navalny’s detention sparked outrage across the country and much of the West, with tens of thousands of Russians taking part in street rallies on January 23 and 31.

    Police cracked down harshly on the demonstrations, putting many of Navalny’s political allies behind bars and detaining thousands more — sometimes violently — as they gathered on the streets.

    With reporting by tvrain.ru, Reuters, hrw.org, and themoscowtimes.com

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • There has been a lot of news coming out of Turkmenistan lately — the president’s heir-apparent son climbed up a few more rungs on the government ladder, a Taliban delegation visited Ashgabat and promised not to hinder the construction of a natural-gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghan territory, and a long dispute with Azerbaijan over ownership of a gas and oil field in the Caspian Sea was resolved.

    On this week’s Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on what has been happening in Turkmenistan recently and if any of these events signal a change in the country’s future.

    This week’s guests are: from Glasgow, Luca Anceschi, professor of Central Asian Studies at Glasgow University and author of the book Turkmenistan’s Foreign Policy: Positive Neutrality And The Consolidation Of The Turkmen Regime; from Moscow, Stanislav Pritchin, an expert on the Caucasus region and Central Asia who is currently a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Center for Post-Soviet Studies IMEMO (Institute of World Economy and International Studies); from Prague, Farruh Yusupov, the director of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk; and from Prague, Bruce Pannier, the 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.

  • BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Hundreds of people have attended a rally in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to demand that authorities take measures against widespread corruption in the Central Asian country.

    The protesters gathered at midday on February 14 near the main Bishkek railway station, before marching towards the central Ala-Too Square. They were holding slogans that read “We demand the rule of law” and “We are for a bright future” among others.

    Rally participants also condemned a recent ruling by a Bishkek court that ordered a mitigated punishment and no jail time for former customs official Raimbek Matraimov, who was placed on the U.S. Magnitsky sanctions list for his involvement in the illegal funneling of hundreds of millions of dollars abroad.

    Matraimov, the former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service, was fined just over $3,000 after pleading guilty to corruption charges. The court said on February 11 that Matraimov had paid back around $24 million to the state in damages lost through corruption schemes that he oversaw.

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

    Also Read: Plunder And Patronage In The Heart Of Central Asia

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

    The participants of the protest in Bishkek condemned the court ruling and chanted: “Arrest Raim” and “Raim must be held responsible.”

    The protest was initiated by the Bashtan Bashta movement, which has been organizing similar peaceful rallies in central Bishkek every Sunday since October 2020 when anti-government protests over official results of parliamentary elections toppled the government and led to President Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s resignation.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The remains of French and Russian soldiers who died more than 200 years ago during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow were laid to rest on February 13 in a cemetery in a town in the Smolensk region.

    The ceremony in Vyazma, about 200 kilometers west of Moscow, was held to rebury the remains of 126 people killed in one of the bloodiest battles of Napoleon’s Russian campaign in 1812.

    French diplomats and representatives of the princes of the Murat family and the imperial house of Romanov attended the ceremony, which took place in a snowstorm and severe frost, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reported.

    About 100 reenactors in military uniforms of the period and a company of the guard of honor took part in the event, which included playing the national anthems of France and Russia, a gun salute, and a liturgy by Orthodox and Catholic priests.

    The remains of 120 soldiers, as well as three women and three adolescents, were discovered in 2019 by a Russian-French archaeological dig led by Pierre Malinowski, head of the Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historical Initiatives.

    All are thought to have fallen during the Battle of Vyazma on November 3, 1812, at the beginning of the French Army’s retreat from Moscow.

    The three women are believed to have provided first aid and kept canteens in the French Army, while the three adolescents are believed to have been drummers.

    Inna Demidova, head of the Vyazemsky district administration, said they had been buried in a mass grave.

    Prince Joachim Murat, a descendant of one of Napoleon’s most celebrated marshals, called the ceremony a “symbol of mutual respect” between the once-warring sides, according to the French AFP news agency.

    The ceremony marked a rare moment of unity between Russia and France at a time of heightened tensions between the European Union and Russia, including the Kremlin’s increasingly harsh crackdown on political opposition.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Russian Service and AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kosovo is holding an early parliamentary elections that the leftist-nationalist Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party is expected to win by a landslide.

    Some 1.8 million eligible voters started to cast their ballots on February 14 as nearly 2,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time. They’re electing 120 lawmakers among more than 1,000 candidates from 28 political groupings.

    Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the voters are required to wear masks and keep at least a 2-meter distance in polling stations. Election officials said that those infected by the coronavirus will be able to vote through mobile polling teams.

    Some 100,000 Kosovars living abroad are also eligible to vote by post. Some 43,000 votes from the diaspora have already arrived in Kosovo.

    The polling stations will remain open through 7 p.m. and the first official results are expected a few hours later.

    Opinion polls predict Vetevendosje will win between 40 percent and 50 percent of the vote.

    The national elections are the fifth since independence. They were called on short notice by acting President Vjusa Osmani after the Constitutional Court ruled that the parliamentary vote electing a new government in June was unconstitutional.

    Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti addresses supporters at an electoral rally in Podujevo on February 8.

    Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti addresses supporters at an electoral rally in Podujevo on February 8.

    The court ruled on December 21 that the election of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) was illegal because one member of parliament who voted for the government had previously served time in prison.

    Since then, the campaign has featured disqualifications of senior politicians, including Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti, based on the same law.

    A coalition government led by Kurti lasted just two months last year before it was toppled by a no-confidence vote based on its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Kurti has won support for Vetevendosje based on pledges to fight widespread corruption and on a stance that there should be no compromise in a dialogue with Serbia, which lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign to stop Serbian forces from overrunning the territory.

    In a televised address on February 12, Kurti said dialogue with Serbia was “not one of the first priorities.”

    Albin Kurt on the campaign trail in Pristina earlier this week.

    Albin Kurt on the campaign trail in Pristina earlier this week.

    He has also said that multiple reforms would be on the new government’s agenda.

    “We plan to focus on the strengthening of our state, and two key concerns of the citizens of Kosovo are jobs and justice,” Kurti said in an interview last week with the Associated Press.

    Nearly one-quarter of Kosovo’s workers were unemployed at one point last year, according to the national statistics agency. The World Bank says the coronavirus pandemic slowed the country’s growth by 4.5 percent in 2020.

    Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but Serbia, backed by Russia, does not, and normalization talks have stalled. The situation has blocked Kosovo from joining international organizations such as the United Nations and NATO.

    While Vetevendosje could finish with nearly double the percentage of votes it garnered in 2019, it may still need a partner to form a government.

    Depending on the outcome, it may have to join forces with either the now-ruling Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) or the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). Each of those parties has received about 20 percent in recent voter polls.

    The former leaders of the PDK are on trial at an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where they face war crimes and other charges related to the war.

    With reporting by Reuters and AP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Iranian health minister has warned about a fourth COVID-19 surge in Iran due to the spread of a mutated virus in his country.

    Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rohani has told state television that “alarm bells were ringing for a fourth coronavirus wave” as at least nine cities and towns in southwestern Iran were declared high-risk “red” zones after a rise in cases on February 12.

    In a February 13 meeting with the heads of Iranian medical colleges broadcast live on state television, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said: “Hard days are beginning for us and you must prepare to fight the most uncontrollable mutated virus which is unfortunately infecting the country.”

    Namaki said Iran’s first three deaths this week from the virus variant that was first found in Britain — including the death of a 71-year-old woman with no history of travel — suggested that the mutant strain of the virus was spreading and soon “may be found in any city, village or family.”

    He urged Iranians to avoid gatherings in order “not to turn weddings into funerals” during what is traditionally one of the most popular wedding months in the country.

    Iran started a vaccination drive on February 9, two weeks after declaring there were no “red” cities left in the country.

    Iran has recorded more than 1.5 million cases and 58,883 deaths from COVID-19.

    Based on reporting by Reuters and IRNA

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • HERAT, Afghanistan — A fuel tanker exploded on the Afghan-Iranian border on February 13, causing a massive fire and a chain reaction that destroyed more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel.

    Afghan officials and Iranian state media said the blast occurred on the Afghan side of the border in the western Afghan province of Herat at the Islam Qala border crossing.

    Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Power Supply, said the blaze forced Afghanistan to shut down its electrical supply from Iran — leaving the provincial capital of Herat in darkness after nightfall.

    Initial reports said at least seven people were injured. But Wahid Qatali, Herat’s provincial governor, suggested the number of casualties could be much higher — saying:: ““For the time being, we can’t even talk about the casualties.”

    Qatali said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion. He said Afghan firefighters did not have the means to put out the enormous blaze and had requested support from Iran in the form of firefighting aircraft.

    Mohammad Rafiqu Shirzy, a spokesman for the regional hospital in the city of Herat, said the intensity of the flames meant ambulances were having trouble reaching the wounded or getting close to the site of the blast.

    But he confirmed that at least seven people injured by the fire had been admitted to the hospital in the city of Herat, about 120 kilometers east of the border.

    Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted truck drivers who said that more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel were burned.

    The Associated Press reported that two explosions at the border crossing were powerful enough to be spotted from space by NASA satellites.

    The first was at about 1:10 p.m. local time and the next was about half an hour later.

    The fire was continuing to burn after nightfall.

    The road between the city of Herat and Islam Qala is a dangerous stretch of highway that Afghans rarely travel on during the night for fear of attacks by criminal gangs.

    Taliban militants also travel freely in the area. Afghan security services had set up checkpoints and were assisting ambulances and emergency vehicles traveling to and from the border crossing.

    Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Mohsen Nejat, director-general of crisis management in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi Province. as saying that Iranian “rescue forces and fire fighters were under way to extinguish the fire inside Afghanistan” at the request of Herat’s provincial governor.

    Iranian state television reported that fire also spread to the Dogharoon customs facilities on the Iranian side of the border.

    It reported that Iranian firefighters, troops from the Iranian Army, and Iranian border guards were all working to try to extinguish the blaze.

    Other trucks carrying natural gas and fuel were directed to leave the scene.

    The United States allows Afghanistan to import fuel and oil from Iran as part of a special concession that exempts Kabul from U.S. sanctions against Iran.

    Satellite photos taken on February 13 before the explosion showed dozens of tankers parked at the border crossing.

    With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and Tolonews.com

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Newly independent Kosovo spent much of its first decade stuck in the political mud.

    Led almost exclusively by veterans of a bloody war for independence, it was weighed down by only being partially recognized and by an exodus of emigrés who could have helped the tiny Balkan country gain economic traction.

    When voters in 2019 appeared to plot a new course behind an emerging nationalist party that challenged the old guard, Kosovars watched one year later as their push for change sputtered into a political dead end.

    The resulting power vacuum and caretaker leadership have persisted through national tests like an unprecedented health crisis, mounting pressure to mend diplomatic fences with neighbor Serbia, and war crimes indictments that unseated a powerful president and other senior politicians.

    But Kosovo’s voters will be back for more on February 14.

    “Despite all the difficulties, this election will be a kind of new test, yet again, to prove what started in October 2019,” says Vedran Dzihic of the University of Vienna, a senior researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP), of the vote that broke the tight grip on power of the Democratic Party (PDK) and other groups led by ex-guerrillas.

    He says subsequent events have been a nasty reminder of the “clientelism” and immaturity of the Kosovar political scene.

    The coalition government led by Albin Kurti and his Self-Determination (Vetevendosje) party, which took power after the 2019 elections, lasted just two months before it was toppled by a no-confidence vote based ostensibly on its handling of the coronavirus pandemic early last year.

    Albin Kurti on the campaign trail earlier this month

    Albin Kurti on the campaign trail earlier this month

    Recent polls show Self-Determination with support of between 40 and 50 percent this time around, well above its 26 percent plurality in the last elections.

    It probably won’t be enough to give Kurti’s party sole control of the 120-seat parliament.

    Old And New Guards

    But it could far outpace its soured former coalition partner, the Democratic League (LDK), or the other of Kosovo’s big three parties: the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which is led by former liberation army fighters. Each of those parties has been polling somewhere around 20 percent.

    “There is an obvious clash of generations and political styles now for the voters to decide which way to go,” Dzihic says.

    Dzihic identifies three main contrasts between the old and new guards.

    Election campaign posters on the streets of Pristina

    Election campaign posters on the streets of Pristina

    The first is the difference between the “old-fashioned, established, quite corrupt and clientelistic parties rather oriented toward keeping their privileges,” he says.

    Another is the perceived attention to domestic issues, including the COVID-19 crisis, which Dzihic says neither the LDK-supported caretaker government nor Kurti’s government appeared to manage very well.

    The third fracture point is generational.

    “Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe, and there is a growing confidence of young generations, and also women, and they want to see a different type of politics,” Dzihic says.

    ‘Collective Action Problem’

    These national elections are the fifth since independence, with the intervals narrowing with each successive vote.

    They were called on short notice by Kurti ally and acting President Vjusa Osmani after the courts threw out the mandate of the caretaker government last month based on legislation banning individuals with recent criminal convictions from parliament.

    Since then, the campaign has featured late-hour disqualifications of senior politicians, including Kurti himself, based on the same law, as well as an outcry within Kosovo’s sizable diaspora over glitches in registration and the distribution of ballots.

    The concern has been that it could all signal more than just growing pains for a fledgling European democracy of some 2 million people that’s only about one-third the size of Belgium.

    But Kosovars also do not appear to be overly bitter about the setbacks of frequent elections to replace battered coalitions.

    “We don’t believe them. We’re so used to these promises,” Elma Ejupi, an economics student in Pristina, tells RFE/RL of the pledges that accompany each election cycle. “They promised before new jobs, which never happened, especially not for young people. We should, however, vote and try to effect change.”

    Ahead of the Balkans’ first election since the opposition in nearby Montenegro turned the tables on a party that had ruled for three decades, a recent study by the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG) think tank said a majority of Kosovars still have faith that elections can bring change.

    Kosovars were second only to Montenegrins in breaking out of what BiEPAG described as “the Balkans’ collective action problem.”

    “The significantly higher trust in the electoral process in Montenegro, and partially also in Kosovo and in North Macedonia, after election results which confirmed that such change is possible, cannot be overstated,” the BiEPAG authors said.

    They said the “‘changeability’ of the government is an important precondition for democratization” in a tough region democratically.

    But they added that such hope “must lead to the improvement of institutions’ performance and their independence for it to have long-lasting positive effects.”

    ‘All That’s Left Is To Run Away’

    “They lie. They work for themselves and no one works for the people,” Nuhi Dili tells RFE/RL’s Balkan Service in Pristina. “In 21 years, the situation hasn’t gotten better. Visa liberalization, nothing. Economy, the same…. I’ll vote for those I’ve made up my mind on, but if they don’t implement their promises, all that’s left is to run away from Kosovo.”

    Kosovars, like many of their Balkan neighbors, have already shown a willingness to uproot themselves and set out for greener pastures if their governments continue to fail them.

    Acting Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani (center) participates in an election rally on February 12.

    Acting Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani (center) participates in an election rally on February 12.

    The outflow of Kosovars has eased since its peak early last decade, but the best estimates still represent a 10 percent drop since independence in 2008.

    “Kosovo’s had so many elections and everybody considers every election to be a turning point,” says Robert Austin, an East-Central and Southeastern Europe specialist at the University of Toronto. “And the problem with Kosovo is sometimes you reach a turning point and then nothing turns.”

    But it could be an “extremely important” election for Kosovo, he says, particularly if Kurti gets a chance to finish what he started as prime minister a little over a year ago.

    If that happens, Austin says, “it could start a new era for Kosovo.”

    Dzihic suggests much the same thing.

    “If everything runs smoothly now, and if you get significant change, that will be yet more exceptional proof of a continuing resilience and quality of Kosovo democracy,” Dzihic says.

    He sees some hope in the political ascendancies of Kurti and acting President Osmani, who has expressed support for Self-Determination and is herself expected to seek election in an indirect presidential election that hasn’t been scheduled but should take place by early March.

    “This tandem could be really something new or could initiate a kind of a new era for Kosovo, at least internally,” Dzihic says.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A 4.7-magnitude earthquake shook the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Feburary 13, prompting residents to flee buildings into the streets in fear of an aftershock.

    Armenia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported some destruction in Yerevan, and local news reports said items were knocked off shelves in stores.

    The ministry has reported about 20 minor aftershocks.

    One person was injured, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on his Facebook page.

    The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said the quake’s magnitude was 4.7 and its epicenter was 13 kilometers south of Yerevan.

    With reporting by AP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Law enforcement officers have searched the Chelyabinsk offices of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, activists reported on February 13.

    The activists said on Twitter that the search took place while nobody was present at the offices in the Urals city.

    “We came to the headquarters and found this,” the activists tweeted together with several pictures of the ransacked office. “The premises were raided while we were working remotely,” they said.

    The 44-year-old Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been treated for a nerve-agent poisoning he says was ordered by Putin. The Kremlin denies it had any role in the poison attack against Navalny.

    Tens of thousands of Russians took part in street rallies on January 23 and 31 in protest at Navalny’s detention, which sparked outrage across the country and much of the West.

    In a change in tactics from mass street rallies that resulted in thousands of arrests, Navalny’s team has called on people across Russia to switch on their mobile-phone flashlights for 15 minutes beginning at 8 p.m. local time on February 14 — shining the light into the sky from courtyards and posting pictures of the protest on social media.

    In an attempt to limit the planned February 14 flashlight-protest, Russia’s federal media regulator ordered media outlets, including RFE/RL’s Russian Service and Current Time TV, to delete all reports about the event.

    The official order from Roskomnadzor was received by media groups on February 12.

    It says Russian authorities consider any reporting about the planned flashlight protest to be a call for people to take part in an unsanctioned public demonstration and mass disorder.

    Roskomnadzor’s order was also sent to online newspapers Meduza and Open Media, and the TV-2 news agency in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

    Navalny’s team in Tomsk said they were also warned by the city prosecutor’s office on February 12 that they could be held liable for staging an unsanctioned protest action.

    Telegram channel Baza reported on February 13 that in Bryansk, 379 kilometers southwest of Moscow, students were banned from using flashlights on the premises of the local university on the day of February 14.

    Leonid Volkov (left) and Aleksei Navalny (file photo)

    Leonid Volkov (left) and Aleksei Navalny (file photo)

    Leonid Volkov, director of Navalny’s network of teams across Russia, announced the change of tactics on February 9 in response to police crackdowns against mass street demonstrations that have led to tens of thousands of arrests across Russia.

    The “flashlight” protest is a tactic similar to what demonstrators have been doing in neighboring Belarus following brutal police crackdowns targeting rallies against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

    Volkov says it is a nonviolent way for Russians to show the extent of outrage across the country over Navalny’s treatment without subjecting themselves to arrests and police abuse.

    Police cracked down harshly on the demonstrations, putting many of Navalny’s political allies behind bars and detaining thousands more — sometimes violently — as they gathered on the streets.

    A Russian court on February 2 ruled Navalny was guilty of violating the terms of his suspended sentence relating to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated.

    The court converted the sentence to 3 1/2 years in prison. Given credit for time already spent in detention, the court said Navalny must serve another 2 years and 8 months behind bars.

    That prompted fresh street protests across the country. But Volkov called for a pause in street rallies until the spring — saying weekly demonstrations would only result in more mass arrests.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Meduza, TV-2, Dozhd, and Znak

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kameel Ahmady spent years in Iran compiling research into the treatment of some of the most vulnerable elements of society.

    His widely praised anthropological work shone a light on child marriage, sexual orientation, minorities and ethnicity, as well as official silence over the ongoing practice in Iran of female genital mutilation.

    More recently, with a long prison sentence pending as one of the Iranian regime’s latest dual-nationals convicted on dubious charges of spying for the West, Ahmady made headlines with a daring escape on foot across Iran’s mountainous northeastern border.

    But personal accounts by three Iranian women, whose identities are known to RFE/RL but who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety, suggest that the Iranian-born and U.K.-educated Ahmady’s story may include a darker side — including sexual assault and other predatory behavior against women.

    Two of those women accuse him of sexual assaults that date back several years and, in one case, possibly with the use of illegal drugs. The other says he once emerged from a bathroom naked and wanted her to fondle him.

    When contacted by RFE/RL via e-mail, Ahmady demanded the names of the women who accused him in order to defend himself. He also agreed to be interviewed by Skype but later e-mailed to say he was seeking legal advice.

    Ahmady has rejected allegations of sexual abuse in the past on multiple occasions.

    In a February 12 statement to The Guardian, which published a story about sexual allegations against him the same day, he called the claims “deliberate slander and baseless, but also very well and deliberately organized, at both a state and personal level.”

    Ahmady added that some people “used their gender” to “weaken my scholarly research and personal position” and to “create obstacles in my life…in their desire to gain power.”

    Most of the public accusations that have previously emerged against Ahmady — and allegedly prompted his expulsion from a sociological association last year — have been anonymous.

    RFE/RL knows the identities of the accusers and has maintained their confidentiality because they could face punitive action by Iran’s strict Islamic authorities for engaging in even nonconsensual sex if their assault charges were not believed once they told their stories.

    The women also fear they could face shame and ostracism from families and friends over the episodes.

    Researching The Vulnerable

    As a researcher whose work has frequently focused on vulnerable members of society, Ahmady was in close contact with women who have suffered genital mutilation in their youth or are lesbian in a country that does not officially recognize homosexuality.

    The allegations against Ahmady were first published on social media in late August as a worldwide #MeToo movement first gathered momentum in Iran.

    It included an outpouring of reports of sexual abuse or rape from Iranian women who, in some cases, named their alleged abusers.

    Eight women posted their accounts of alleged abuse on a feminist Twitter account called Bidarzani against a man who was identified by the initials “KA” or, in one case, as “Mr. X.”

    RFE/RL learned through sources that Ahmady was the target of those accusations.

    He then issued a statement on September 2 on social media saying that he “apologized” for some mistakes” at work and for “hurting” some people due to what he said was “my relaxed attitude and different views toward relationships.”

    Detailed Accounts

    At the time of the accusations on social media, Ahmady was awaiting sentencing after being charged with espionage, an offense that the Iranian judiciary often brings against dual nationals who have been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

    In September, Ahmady was expelled from the Iranian Sociological Association, where he had been head of a group focusing on the sociology of childhood.

    The association said its board of directors had “meticulously investigated” allegations of the sexual abuse of female colleagues by Ahmady and cited “available evidence” to expel Ahmady for “misusing one’s position of power” and “misusing relationships that were built on trust.” It concluded that “the behavior resulted in the sexual abuse of some younger [female] colleagues in the project.”

    Since Almaty’s perilous escape to the West earlier this month, RFE/RL has spoken to three women who accused him of sexual misconduct after they met him through research projects on gender, child labor, or minority issues.

    Two of the women offered detailed accounts of the assaults allegedly committed by Ahmady.

    Another said he appeared naked in front of her after he invited her to his apartment and attempted to convince her to look at and touch his genitals. She said Ahmady attempted to manipulate and pressure her into having sex with him during the three years they worked together.

    All three of the women cited the sensitivity of such issues in Iranian society, where women are often blamed for being sexually harassed or even raped.

    Proving a crime like rape is extremely difficult and victims can face punishment based on laws that criminalize sexual relations outside of marriage.

    Similar Stories

    Marzieh Mohebi, a lawyer based in the northeastern city of Mashhad, told RFE/RL that she had been approached by four women who accused Ahmady of sexually assaulting them.

    She said she believed the women’s claims but that they had insufficient evidence after the years since the assaults took place to prove their cases in an Iranian court.

    “Those we talked to had his text messages, the text of their chats on Whatsapp and Telegram where he had invited them or threatened them, but it wasn’t solid enough for [an Iranian] court,” Mohebi said.

    Activists have long complained of the difficulty of proving rape allegations in Tehran’s judicial system, which routinely discounts women’s testimony without concurring testimony from a man.

    If unproven, such accusations can turn into prosecutions of female accusers of sexual wrongdoing under strict Islamic codes on marriage out of wedlock.

    Mohebi said that, while the women did not know each other, their accounts were all similar.

    “He would find his victims among girls and women active socially and would meet them for research purposes,” she said.

    One of the women RFE/RL interviewed, a well-known researcher, said she was sexually assaulted by Ahmady during a field trip to an Iranian province about 10 years ago.

    Another, an LGBT activist, said she was sexually assaulted by Ahmady in 2016.

    All three women who spoke to RFE/RL were in their 20s when the alleged attacks took place.

    They offered similar accounts of Ahmady inviting them to an apartment where he was staying in Tehran or other cities. They said he offered them alcohol and, in one case, a woman accused Ahmady of putting hashish in a water pipe without her knowledge. She said she became dizzy and felt she was losing consciousness before going to lie down. She said Ahmady entered the room and sexually assaulted her despite her protests.

    A few days later and amid mounting anger, she told RFE/RL that she confronted him.

    The other woman alleged that when Ahmady assaulted her she didn’t fight him as she was afraid he would harm her.

    “I didn’t physically resist,” she said. “He looked very drunk and I was thinking that if he injures me, how am I going to explain it to my parents?”

    #MeToo Arrives In Iran

    She became the first woman to post an account of alleged sexual assault by Ahmady on Bidarzani amid last year’s social media campaign among Iranians highlighting sexual abuse.

    She told RFE/RL that Ahmady later contacted her, asking her to remove the post and threatening to report her LGBT activism to Iranian authorities if she did not.

    Meanwhile, her account of the alleged assault seems to have prompted several other Ahmady accusers to come forward.

    A former colleague of Ahmady’s who now lives in Europe told RFE/RL that she had witnessed what she described as inappropriate and “unprofessional” behavior and language by Ahmady over the years. She said she had not witnessed any assaults.

    The ex-colleague, who also did not want to be named, said Ahmady often talked about sex with women who seemingly trusted him due to their work relationship.

    “He would pose as a hero who has come to save [Iranian] women from sexual deprivation,” she said. “I witnessed it many times.”

    All of the women interviewed by RFE/RL, including the alleged victims, said they had been frustrated by the recent media reports depicting Ahmady as heroic because of his escape from Iran.

    Ahmady authored a widely cited study on female genital mutilation five years ago that aimed to shatter official silence over the fact that the practice was being carried out on a large scale in some Iranian provinces.

    Ahmady reportedly grew up in a largely ethnic Kurdish and Turkish town near the northwestern border where Turkey, Iraq, and Azerbaijan converge.

    He emigrated in his late teens to the United Kingdom, where he studied anthropology at the University of Kent before returning to Iran in 2010, reportedly to look after his aging father.

    State Harassment

    Ahmady’s projects since then have focused on some of Iran’s most acute social and cultural fractures, including child marriage (which can be as young as 9 for girls, with court and parental permission), sexual orientation, ethnicity, and a groundbreaking study exposing officials’ failure to halt genital mutilation in women.

    Iran’s hard-line clerical leadership frequently dismisses international pressure for tolerance on those issues and other matters — including the discriminatory treatment of women and a liberal application of the death penalty — as Western meddling.

    Ahmady had previously complained of alleged harassment by Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that he said targeted him over his research and its dissemination among other academics and lawmakers.

    Born into Iran’s minority Kurdish community, Ahmady was sentenced in December to at least eight years in prison for allegedly collaborating with a hostile government — a charge he denies — and ordered to pay a fine equivalent to some $720,000.

    He spent time in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and was released on bail before his recent escape in which he made his way through Iraq and Turkey to get to Europe.

    “The sentence issued against him in Iran is unfair,” said the activist who claims Ahmady sexually assaulted her. “But at the same time the public should know who he is. I saw young students around him — these girls have a right to know.”

    “The most important thing is for men like him who do these things to understand that they can’t get away with it,” another alleged victim told RFE/RL.

    U.K.-based activist and doctoral student Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh said she had learned of accusations of sexual assault against Ahmady in 2017. Offenders, she said, should be held accountable in such cases.

    “One shouldn’t face prosecution for doing research,” said Peyghambarzadeh, who last year signed a petition calling for Ahmady’s release from prison. “But a person who is facing [sexual assault] accusations should be investigated.”

    Prominent Iranian-born women’s rights advocate Sussan Tahmasebi said Ahmady should be held accountable for any “unforgivable breach of trust with these most vulnerable communities and the harm that he has [allegedly] caused to social research in Iran.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Two U.S. senators have urged President Joe Biden to ensure the implementation of sanctions aimed at stopping the Nord Stream 2 gas-pipeline project from Russia to Germany.

    Senators Jim Risch (Republican-Idaho) and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire) urged the State Department in a letter on February 12 not to delay issuing a report to Congress required under sanctions passed last month in the annual defense policy bill.

    The report, due by February 16, will identify companies involved in constructing, insuring, and verifying Nord Stream 2. The law requires the companies listed in the report to be sanctioned.

    The letter made reference to “press reports that the German government has put forth an offer that would require the United States to disregard statutorily mandated sanctions.”

    Risch and Shaheen didn’t provide details, but reports in German media have said Germany sought to cut a deal with the Trump administration to let the nearly completed pipeline be finished.

    An environmental and consumer protection group said on February 9 that the German government offered financial support of up to 1 billion euros ($1.21 billion) to invest in facilities for the import of U.S. liquefied natural gas. The Trump administration pushed U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas as an alternative to Russian gas.

    According to a document published by the Environmental Action Germany (DUH), German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz offered funding in August. In return, Washington was asked to permit the “unhindered construction and operation of Nord Stream 2.

    ‘A Dirty Deal’

    Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, the DUH executive director, called it a “scandal” and a “dirty deal at the expense of third parties.” The German Finance Ministry has not commented on the matter.

    State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated on February 12 that the United States sees the pipeline project as a “bad deal” for Europe.

    “It’s a bad deal because it divides Europe, it exposes Ukraine, and Central Europe to Russian manipulation. It goes against Europe’s own stated energy and security goals,” Price said.

    But he said “sanctions are only one” of many tools, and that the department will work closely with allies and partners to reinforce European energy security and safeguard against “predatory behavior.”

    About 150 kilometers of pipe transiting Danish and German waters of the Baltic Sea must be laid to complete the pipeline controlled by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.

    The pipeline is intended to carry 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Russia to Germany, but work was halted in December following the threat of sanctions from Washington.

    The pipeline would affect Ukraine by depriving it of transit fees from existing pipelines that transverse its territory.

    With reporting by Reuters and Bloomberg

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • An Iranian official suspected of instigating the killing of an Iranian dissident in 2019 has been arrested in Turkey, Reuters has reported.

    Quoting unnamed sources, Reuters said it had confirmed a report by Turkey’s Sabah newspaper that Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh was detained earlier this week on suspicion of planning the shooting of Masud Molavi Vardanjani, a critic of Iran’s political and military leadership.

    Sabah reported that Naserzadeh worked at the civic registry department of the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul. Reuters said it could not independently confirm that information.

    The incident could strain ties between regional powers Turkey and Iran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the newspaper report “baseless.”

    Vardanjani, a former Iranian intelligence operative who exposed corruption involving Iranian officials, was shot and killed in Istanbul on November 14, 2019 — a year after leaving the Islamic republic. He had been put under investigation by Iranian authorities.

    A Turkish police report published in March 2020 said Vardanjani had an “unusual profile.” It said he had worked in cybersecurity at Iran’s Defense Ministry before becoming a vocal critic of the Iranian regime.

    Two senior Turkish officials told Reuters in 2020 that Vardanjani’s killing was instigated by intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.

    At the time, one of the Turkish officials identified the two suspects by their initials. One set of initials matched Naserzadeh’s.

    A senior U.S. administration official said in April 2020 that Washington had grounds to believe that Iran’s Intelligence and Security Ministry was directly involved in the killing of Vardanjani.

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied that any consulate staff had been involved in Vardanjani’s shooting death.

    The Foreign Ministry’s website said Iran was in talks with Turkish officials to shed light on the issue.

    Last week, a Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison on charges of planning an attack on an exiled opposition group.

    It was the first trial of an Iranian official on terrorism charges in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

    With reporting by Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ASHGABAT — Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has appointed his son Serdar to the posts of deputy prime minister and chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber, renewing speculation the 63-year-old autocrat is grooming his son to be his successor.

    State media outlets reported on February 12 that according to the presidential decrees signed the day before, Serdar Berdymukhammedov also became a member of the State Security Council.

    The promotions come a year after the younger Berdymukhammedov assumed the post of minister of industry and construction. A year before that, he was promoted to the post of provincial governor.

    The rapid rise of Berdymukhammedov’s son, whose political career started in late 2016 when he became a lawmaker, appears to lay the groundwork for the 39-year-old to eventually take over the tightly controlled Central Asian state.

    Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, speaks to journalists after casting his ballot as his son Serdar (second right) stands with other family members at a polling station in Ashgabat in February 2017.

    Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, speaks to journalists after casting his ballot as his son Serdar (second right) stands with other family members at a polling station in Ashgabat in February 2017.

    Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has run the former Soviet republic since 2006, tolerating no dissent and becoming the center of an elaborate personality cult. Turkmens often refer to him as “Arkadag” (The Protector).

    Serdar Berdymukhammedov is often referred to in state media as “the son of the nation,” and his appearances in television reports along with his father are called “the symbol of generations’ continuance.”

    In his new job, Serdar Berdymukhammedov will supervise activities related to digitalization and the introduction of innovative technologies to the state and social infrastructure, as well as the health-care, education, financial and economic sectors, his father said in a televised statement.

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

    Like his late predecessor, Berdymukhammedov has relied on subsidized prices for basic goods and utilities to help maintain his grip on power.

    According to Human Rights Watch, Berdymukhammedov, “his relatives, and their associates control all aspects of public life, and the authorities encroach on private life.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • MINSK — Opposition sources say that the Belarusian authorities have added charges including conspiracy to seize state power and organizing extremism to the cases of jailed opposition figures Maryya Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak.

    Both are among the detained ranking members 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.

    News of the fresh prosecutions came after the first day of a Soviet-style “All-Belarusian People’s Assembly” mounted by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to float possible reforms and development in a move that appears designed to buy him time amid unprecedented protests against his regime.

    Lawyer Dzmitry Layeuski and the Telegram channel of jailed would-be presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka disclosed the emergence of the new charges against Kalesnikava and Znak, which could carry prison sentences of up to 12 years.

    The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept its results.

    Western governments have also repeatedly called for the release of senior opposition leaders and thousands of protesters jailed during months of crackdown on the street demonstrations against Lukashenka.

    Kalesnikava and Znak were arrested in September and Kalesnikava was charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country’s national security via the media and the Internet after she urged people to protest the official election results.

    Znak was previously charged with public calls for actions aimed at harming the country’s security, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, and defense.

    Both have rejected the charges as politically motivated.

    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.

    Mass demonstrations engulfed the country after Lukashenka claimed victory and a sixth consecutive term.

    Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran for president after her husband was jailed while trying to mount a candidacy of his own, left the country for Lithuania shortly after the election due to security concerns.

    Thousands of Belarusians, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.

    Several protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.

    Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.

    The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.

    The 66-year-old Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, opened the two-day “People’s Assembly” on February 11 by saying that a foreign “blitzkrieg” on Belarus had failed.

    The U.S. Embassy in Belarus issued a statement on February 11 saying that the assembly was “neither genuine nor inclusive of Belarusian views and therefore does not address the country’s ongoing political crisis.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Human Rights Watch (HRW) has joined other rights organizations in condemning the arrest of Uzbek video blogger Otabek Sattoriy, calling the extortion case against him “dubious” and urging the Central Asian country’s government to drop all charges and release him.

    “Otabek Sattoriy’s blogging on sensitive issues such as alleged corruption and farmers’ rights has put him in local authorities’ crosshairs,” Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at HRW, said in a statement on February 12.

    “Uzbek authorities should release Sattoriy, drop the charges for lack of evidence, and respect and protect freedom of expression,” Rittmann added.

    The 40-year-old founder and editor of the video blog Halq Fikiri (People’s Opinion), which is streamed on his Telegram and YouTube channels, was detained in late January.

    A court in the southern city of Termiz on February 1 placed him in pretrial detention on suspicion of extorting a new mobile phone from the head of a local bazaar.

    HRW said in the statement that the authorities claim that Sattoriy extorted a new phone from the head of a local bazaar in Termiz, while his relatives and a colleague insist that unknown individuals attacked Sattoriy in late December when he was trying to collect material at the bazaar for his report about irregularities there.

    The head of the bazaar later agreed to replace the broken phone and brought it to Sattoriy in late January, and several men in plain clothes detained the blogger right after that, HRW said,citing Sattoriy’s relatives.

    Sattoriy’s lawyer has called the case against his client “fabricated.”

    “Targeting Sattoriy with questionable criminal charges is a blow to freedom of speech,” HRW’s Rittmann said. “The authorities should release Sattoriy from pretrial detention and, unless they can present any credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing, drop the case.”

    The Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office, however, said on February 11 that the criminal case against Sattoriy was “lawful.”

    Since Shavkat Mirziyoev became president in late 2016, the Uzbek authorities have promised to ease media restrictions put in place by his predecessor, longtime authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, that earned the government a reputation as a chronic abuser of rights.

    Despite some improvements, rights groups say the media is still being kept on a short leash.

    Sattoriy has been known as a harsh critic of regional Governor Tora Bobolov. In one of his recent postings, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the “crackdown.”

    The HRW statement comes on the heels of similar reports from Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, which have also condemned Sattoriy’s arrest and demanded his release.

    Since his arrest, Sattoriy has already been tried in a separate case and was found guilty of defamation and distributing false information. According to the Prosecutor-General’s Office, the blogger was ordered to pay a fine for the offenses.

    Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny will appear in court again on February 12 in a slander case involving a World War II veteran after the trial was interrupted last week.

    The anti-corruption campaigner has described the slander case as a fabricated Kremlin public-relations campaign meant to harass and discredit him.

    Navalny is accused of slandering a World War II veteran who took part in the promotional video in support of last year’s constitutional amendments that cleared the way for President Vladimir Putin to run for two more terms in office after 2024, if he wants.

    The trial centers on a social-media post from June in which Navalny, one of Putin’s most vocal critics, described those in the video as “traitors,” “people with no conscience,” and “corrupt lackeys.”

    Russia’s Investigative Committee argues the comments contained “deliberately false information denigrating the honor and dignity” of the World War II veteran.

    If convicted, Navalny faces a fine, community service, or jail time.

    The trial was interrupted last week after the plaintiff, Ignat Artyomenko, said he was feeling ill and was taken away by ambulance.

    Before he was rushed away, the 94-year-old veteran said he wanted a public apology from Navalny, who said he believed that the elderly man was being used “like a doll on a chain.”

    Navalny also suggested Artyomenko, who attended the proceedings by video from his home, was mentally unable to follow the trial.

    “You have perverted criminal law, and now you are using Artyomenko to defend the thief Putin and his friends with [Artyomenko’s] medals,” Navalny told the court.

    The trial comes after the Kremlin critic on February 2 was ordered to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison for violating the terms of probation imposed from a widely criticized 2014 embezzlement case.

    Navalny could not report to parole officers because he was recovering from a coma in Germany after being poisoned with a nerve-agent in Siberia last August, in an attack he blames on Putin and his security agents. The Kremlin dismisses the allegations.

    Navalny was immediately arrested upon his return to Russia in January, triggering nationwide protests and a crackdown on his allies and supporters.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says Russia is violating a bilateral investment treaty by targeting the organization’s news operations within Russia under its controversial “foreign agent” law.

    The assertion, made public by RFE/RL in a statement issued on February 11, comes as Russian regulators have hit the company with a series of fines in recent weeks.

    Media regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded RFE/RL comply with strict requirements to label content published and broadcast within Russia as financed by foreign sources. Those demands include prominent 15-second disclaimers shown at the start of every television, radio, or video program, be it online or broadcast.

    RFE/RL, one of three foreign news organizations to be labeled as a “foreign agent” and the only one facing fines, has not complied. In response, Roskomnadzor has served RFE/RL with 260 notices of violations. When they go through the court system in the coming weeks, the total fines levied will amount to almost $1 million.

    In its statement, the company said Moscow’s move violated a bilateral investment treaty signed in 1994 between Russia and the Czech Republic that obligates Moscow to treat Czech investments in Russia fairly. It called on Russia to negotiate to try to resolve the dispute.

    If Russia is not willing to do so, the treaty allows for international arbitration proceedings against Moscow, the company said.

    “These punitive measures by the Russian government are a nervous reaction aimed at driving RFE/RL out of business at a time when our audience in Russia is skyrocketing,” said Daisy Sindelar, the organization’s acting president and editor in chief.

    “We intend to use every legal avenue available to defend our operations in Russia, so we can continue to deliver the accurate, unflinching journalism our audiences expect and depend on,” she said.

    Prague HQ

    Funded by U.S. Congress, RFE/RL is a private nonprofit organization incorporated under Delaware law in the United States. RFE/RL’s global headquarters have been based in the Czech Republic since moving there from Munich in 1995, and its operations there are executed through a Czech legal entity called a “branch.”

    For that reason, the company argues its investments in Russia are covered under the 1994 treaty between Prague and Moscow.

    With dozens of employees in Prague, about 50 full-time staff in Russia, and close to 300 freelance reporters across the country, RFE/RL’s Russian-language operations — TV, radio, and online — make it one of the largest independent foreign news organizations within Russia.

    Press watchdogs have said the effort appears aimed at closing down all of RFE/RL’s operations in Russia, which currently reach nearly 6.7 million people a week.

    First passed in 2012 and expanded several times since, the “foreign agent” law gives authorities the power to brand nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, and news media deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as a “foreign agent,” a label that carries pejorative Soviet-era connotations.

    The law subjects these organizations to bureaucratic scrutiny and spot checks and requires them to attach the “foreign agent” label to their publications. They must also report on their spending and funding.

    Among other things, the law requires certain news organizations that receive foreign funding to label content within Russia as being produced by a “foreign agent.” It also puts RFE/RL journalists at risk for criminal prosecution.

    RFE/RL executives have said Russian regulators singled out the organization for punishment as compared with other foreign news organizations. The only other news organizations to be hit with the “foreign agent” designation and ordered to label their content, but not yet fined, are Voice of America and a small Czech outlet called Medium-Orient — neither of which currently have a physical presence in the country.

    Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers called for new sanctions against Moscow if the Kremlin moves to enforce the fines and stringent restrictions.

    Since early in Vladimir Putin’s presidency, the Kremlin has steadily tightened the screws on independent media. The country is ranked 149th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Neither Taliban nor Turkmen officials are giving any details about their talks after a delegation from the Muslim extremist group arrived in Turkmenistan on February 6.

    With only scant information available about the meetings in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, here is what is known.

    The delegation to Ashgabat was led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and, according to an unusually prompt statement the same day from the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the Taliban came to talk about construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural-gas pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power line, and further connecting Afghanistan to Turkmenistan by railway.

    Baradar also led the Taliban delegation to Iran on January 26 and to Pakistan on December 16, 2o20.

    Those visits were to discuss the stalled Afghan peace talks that began last year in the Qatari capital, Doha.

    The Turkmen Foreign Ministry statement included a brief statement from Taliban delegation member Mohammad Suhail Shahin, who said, “Without a doubt, the early start on the construction of projects such as TAPI, TAP, and a railroad from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan will contribute to the achievement of peace and economic development in Afghanistan.”

    Shahin said the Taliban would ensure the “protection of all national projects implemented in our country” that are done to benefit the Afghan people.

    He added that “we declare our full support for the realization and security of the TAPI project and other infrastructure projects in our country.”

    The Value Of A Taliban Promise

    The Taliban have made such promises before, including in November 2016 when spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the Taliban “not only support all national projects that are in the interest of the people and result in the development and prosperity of the nation, but are committed to protecting them.”

    In January and February of that same year, the Taliban cut power lines in northern Afghanistan that carried electricity from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

    The destruction left areas in northern Afghanistan without power and greatly reduced electricity supplies to Kabul.

    After the Taliban pledge in 2016, Deputy presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi said that in the months before making that promise, the Taliban had destroyed 302 schools, 41 health clinics, 50 mosque minarets, 5,305 houses, 1,818 shops, a government building, six bridges, 293 overpasses, and 123 kilometers of roads in 11 provinces.

    In May 2020, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the Taliban had destroyed 110 public projects in 14 provinces during the previous six months, including “three pylons for electricity imported from Tajikistan in the Baghlan-e Markazi district [and] two pylons for electricity coming from Uzbekistan in the Dand-e Shahabuddin and Khwaja Alwan neighborhoods of Pul-e Khumri, Baghlan Province.”

    Insecurity Scaring Investment

    As for TAPI, it has been Turkmenistan’s desire to build the pipeline for more than 25 years, but security problems in Afghanistan have always made its realization impossible.

    Journalist Ahmed Rashid is the author of the bestselling book Taliban and is one of the leading authorities on Afghanistan.

    He told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website that “In 1990s when Ashgabat pushed for building the TAPI pipeline it became impossible because the Taliban began executing women in the football stadiums.”

    Rashid added that now “It is very unlikely that there ever will be any foreign investment in Afghanistan if the Taliban are in control of the government and they do not compromise with the Kabul regime and they do not work out their modus operandi.”

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a ceremony marking the start of work on the TAPI pipeline in Herat, Afghanistan, on February 23, 2018.

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a ceremony marking the start of work on the TAPI pipeline in Herat, Afghanistan, on February 23, 2018.

    There is not only a question of foreign investment, but also of who exactly would be tasked with construction.

    It is presumed that foreign workers with experience building pipelines along with the necessary machinery would be brought to construction sites.

    But which companies would send their employees and equipment to areas where fighting rages or areas under Taliban control, knowing these workers could be caught up in the fighting or used as human shields?

    The Pipeline

    Turkmenistan’s need for TAPI has never been greater. The country is mired in economic problems that stem mainly from its inability to find markets for natural gas, its main export.

    Currently, the only significant exports of Turkmen gas go to China and last year Beijing significantly reduced the amount of Turkmen gas it imports via the three pipelines that connect the two countries.

    The TAPI project proposes to carry 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas more than 1,000 kilometers through western Afghanistan, then across the south through Kandahar to Pakistan, and on to Fazilka in India.

    Afghanistan would receive 5 bcm of that gas, Pakistan and India would both receive 14 bcm with Afghanistan and Pakistan also collecting transit fees.

    Turkmenistan is desperate for revenue and late last fall started making a new push to get the TAPI project moving again after Ashgabat finally agreed to cut the price it planned to charge Pakistan and India for that gas.

    Both India and Pakistan had been demanding that Turkmenistan slash its price for natural gas, with Pakistan saying it would not start construction of its section of TAPI until that dispute was resolved.

    While Turkmenistan did agree to reduce the price, talks on the exact reduction continue and, as recently as September 2020, Pakistan was saying “it would like to do the TAPI groundbreaking in Pakistan at the earliest after the finalization of the issues under discussion,” one of those issues being the price of the gas, which Pakistan insists must be significantly lower than the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

    But even if all parties are convinced of the security guarantees, there are still several obstacles facing the construction of TAPI.

    What Was Discussed In Ashgabat?

    One of the intriguing elements of the Taliban delegation’s visit to Ashgabat was that they were received in the capital.

    Turkmenistan is an isolated country that grants very few foreigners entry and, since the coronavirus pandemic started last year, Turkmen authorities have done their best to seal the country, especially Ashgabat.

    For nearly a year now, foreign flights have been directed through the eastern city of Turkmenabat.

    The Turkmen authorities have denied the presence of coronavirus in the country.

    The Turkmen authorities have denied the presence of coronavirus in the country.

    The only visit to Ashgabat by a foreign delegation since then — excluding German doctors who flew to Turkmenistan twice to check on the president — has been a mission from the World Health Organization in July 2020 that Turkmen authorities hoped would validate their bizarre claim that the country is completely free of the coronavirus.

    So whatever Turkmen officials wanted to discuss with the Taliban, it was important enough to bring them to Ashgabat.

    TAPI is certainly important to Turkmenistan, but as noted, the obstacles in building the pipeline through Afghanistan remain formidable and the current situation makes construction impossible.

    Electricity Instead Of Gas?

    Since April 2018, Turkmenistan has offered at least three times to host Afghan peace talks, though there is no mention of such an offer being made in reports from the February 6 meeting, which is interesting when remembering that Afghan peace talks were at the top of the agenda when the Taliban recently visited Pakistan and Iran.

    The Turkmen Foreign Ministry’s statement mentioned nothing about the peace talks beyond a vague allusion to the “importance of establishing and maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan.”

    But perhaps one of the main topics of discussion between the Taliban delegation and the Turkmen government was not gas, but electricity.

    Turkmenistan is looking to export electricity through Afghanistan to Pakistan after the construction of a proposed 500 kilovolt TAP, a power-transmission line.

    On January 14, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani watched the inauguration via video link of the first part of TAP — the Karki-Andkhoy-Pul-e Khomri power-transmission project.

    Turkmenistan already exports electricity to areas in northern Afghanistan, some of which are under Taliban control.

    The Taliban have been charging residents in these areas for the electricity, though the fees are low. It is, however, unknown how much — if any — of that money goes to paying cash-strapped Turkmenistan.

    The Afghan government usually is responsible for paying these power bills to Turkmenistan, though it is unclear how much Kabul pays for the electricity exports used in the Taliban-controlled areas of northern Afghanistan.

    But it is clear that the Taliban uses the Turkmen electricity to further their cause in northern Afghanistan.

    In late July 2018, Turkmenistan launched its third power line to Afghanistan, a 110-kilovolt transmission line that runs to Qala-e Nau, the capital of Badghis Province.

    In April 2019, the Taliban cut that power by blowing up pylons in Badghis and preventing crews from reaching the sites to make repairs.

    Then-Badghis Governor Abdul Ghafur Malikzai said, “[The] Taliban want electricity for 21 villages [under Taliban control in Badghis’s Moqo district] and their demand has been accepted. But it is not possible in one day.”

    After the February 6 Turkmen-Taliban meeting, current Badghis Governor Hesamuddin Shams told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan, known locally as Azadi, that he welcomes the Taliban promise not to destroy infrastructure and said they now “need to act and deliver on it.”

    But Shams said insurgent behavior in his province has not changed and power lines bringing electricity from Turkmenistan continue to be targeted by extremists.

    Shams also noted that the Taliban are not the only militant group operating in Badghis Province.

    “The Bala Murghab [district] is a major center of the armed opposition,” Shams said. “In addition to the Afghan fighters it is home to militants from Uzbekistan affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are Pakistanis too.”

    Also interesting is the Turkmen authorities’ reluctance to divulge almost any information about the meeting.

    RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, reports that state media said an “Afghan delegation” visited and was careful not to name any Turkmen officials who met with them, though there is at least one photo that clearly shows Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov sitting at the negotiation table.

    The Afghan government did not comment specifically on the visit, but did tell Azadi that all groups in Afghanistan should protect the country’s infrastructure to avoid any further suffering by the Afghan people, while also calling on the Taliban to agree to an immediate cease-fire.

    So whatever the Taliban’s business was in Ashgabat, some or most of it seems to be something that is only between them and the Turkmen government.

    Turkmenistan has UN-recognized status as a neutral country and that has been especially useful when dealing with Afghanistan. Turkmenistan tries not to take anyone’s side in the long-running conflict in that war-ravaged country.

    But for that reason it is unlikely anyone involved in the Afghan conflict views Turkmenistan as a reliable ally when it comes to achieving stability.

    Written by Bruce Pannier based on reporting from Azadi and Ikram Karam of Radio Free Afghanistan, the Turkmen Service, and Gandhara Managing Editor Abubakar Siddique.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • It was with “pain in my heart,” rector Konstantin Markelov said on January 29, that he announced the expulsion of three Astrakhan State University students for attending opposition protests.

    But “the law is the law,” he said in an open letter posted to social media. “Think a hundred times when they urge you to join unsanctioned demonstrations.”

    The university in southern Russia prompted an uproar with its decision, a case still rare in Russia despite an increasingly harsh crackdown on dissent following nationwide rallies in support of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny on January 23.

    Now two of the students — Vera Inozemtseva and Aleksandr Mochalov — are suing the university and demanding their reinstatement. “I see my expulsion as a case of political repression,” Inozemtseva told RFE/RL in an interview.

    She and her legal team will argue that the decision violates the school’s own charter as well as their right to freedom of assembly under the Russian Constitution.

    “They can’t properly justify the decision aside from issuing abstract statements,” said Yaroslav Pavlyukov, the lawyer representing the students. “They say the rules of their code of conduct have been violated. What rules? They don’t say.”

    Target Demographic

    The fallout from the protests in late January and early February has convulsed Russia’s student community, a target demographic in the Kremlin’s campaign to rein in political activism among young people and shift their allegiance away from the opposition and toward the state.

    Thousands took part in the recent protests, and millions watched pro-Navalny videos uploaded by students to the TikTok video app, with many of the clips filmed in school classrooms or university corridors.

    The clampdown was swift. In Siberia, lecturer Aleksei Alekseyev was fired from the Novosibirsk Energy And Technology College for a social-media post encouraging people to attend a January 23 demonstration as a “good excuse to meet and discuss the fate of the country.”

    In the Volga River city of Samara, the state university redacted its Code of Ethics to ban participation in anti-government rallies by both students and teachers, a move that is expected to serve as an example for other schools going forward.

    Students also say they’ve been pressured or even deceived into taking part in pro-Kremlin parades that, according to news outlet Meduza, have been recorded and posted online under instructions passed down from President Vladimir Putin’s administration.

    Nevertheless, the incident in Astrakhan has turned heads.

    “We know that students are often threatened with expulsion for joining protests, but actual expulsion happens very rarely,” Pavlyukov said. “We need to prove this is illegal and unjust.”

    Of the three expelled students, 22-year-old Inozemtseva is the only seasoned opposition activist. She worked in Navalny’s regional political campaign in 2017, ahead of his attempt to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, from which he was barred due to criminal convictions on charges he says were fabricated. She has also joined multiple protests in the past, including a series of rallies in March 2017 that prompted the Kremlin to launch a similar preemptive campaign in Russia’s schools.

    Inozemtseva says that on January 23, as she was on her way home from the protest in Astrakhan, she was abducted by masked men in civilian clothing who confiscated her belongings. She says she later discovered that calls for anti-government rallies were posted to her social-media accounts while her phone was in police custody.

    Since her expulsion she has publicly campaigned for the resignation of Markelov, the Astrakhan State University rector, and has gained support from Yabloko, an opposition party that has petitioned the Education Ministry to strip Markelov of his position, citing evidence dug up by Dissernet, an anti-plagiarism group, that large parts of his doctorate thesis were taken from other academic articles.

    “A person who built his so-called academic career on a fake dissertation cannot be a guarantor of the rights and freedoms of his university’s students,” Yabloko said in a statement.

    Inozemtseva said that if her lawsuit is successful, her victory in Astrakhan’s courts will be instructive to other students who find themselves expelled or pressured to renounce opposition views in the future.

    “It will give them a guarantee that no student can be thrown out for their political views,” she told RFE/RL.

    But the scale of the recent anti-government protests, which most estimates say brought out some 100,000 people on two consecutive weekends, has fueled a fraught and tense climate ahead of parliamentary elections expected in September, and a sense among activists that the authorities will tolerate no dissent.

    “Since the case has a political undertone, I don’t know how it will play in our courts,” Pavlyukov said. “But in any case, we have to try.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • TASHKENT — The Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office has said a criminal case against Otabek Sattoriy, a video blogger critical of the regional government, is “lawful,” while rights watchdogs said the case is fabricated and called on Tashkent to immediately release Sattoriy.

    In its February 11 statement, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said that special inspections had not revealed any wrongdoings by the Interior Ministry’s directorate in the southern Surxondaryo region, where the 40-year-old founder and editor of the video blog Halq Fikiri (People’s Opinion) was arrested in lateJanuary.

    “A criminal case launched against Otabek Sattoriy is based on complaints related to seven episodes, which are currently being investigated,” the statement said, without giving any other details of the case.

    The statement added that since his arrest on January 29, Sattoriy, who streamed on Telegram and YouTube, has already been tried in a separate case and was found guilty of defamation, insult, and distribution of false information. According to the Prosecutor-General’s Office, a court in the city of Termiz ordered the blogger to pay a fine after finding him guilty.

    Sattoriy’s relatives told RFE/RL earlier that he was charged with extorting money and stealing mobile phones from unspecified individuals. If found guilty, Sattoriy may face up to 10 years in prison.

    Sattoriy has been known as a harsh critic of the regional governor Tora Bobolov. In one of his recent postings, Sattoriy openly accused the local government of launching fabricated criminal cases against bloggers and vowed to continue to raise the issue of corruption among officials despite the “crackdown.”

    Media freedom watchdogs have condemned Sattoriy’s arrest.

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on February 11 that the charges against the blogger are aimed at silencing his reporting on local corruption.

    “This is yet another attempt to silence critical voices in Uzbekistan,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in the statement.

    “We firmly condemn the use of fabricated charges with the aim of covering up local corruption, and we call on the authorities to release this blogger at once and to drop all proceedings against him,” Cavelier added.

    The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists earlier this month called for Sattoriy’s release, saying “the persecution of bloggers and citizen journalists for their reporting on corruption violates their constitutional rights.”

    RSF said that despite a “relative improvement” in press freedom since President Shavkat Mirziyoev took over the Central Asian country in 2016, “critical journalists and bloggers are still often imprisoned, and extortion charges are still often used to silence dissent.”

    Uzbekistan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • KYIV — Ukraine’s government has banned the registration of vaccines for COVID-19, from “aggressor states,” a designation it has applied to Russia since 2015.

    The government made the decision on February 8, but did not announce it publicly until February 10, when it appeared on the government’s website.

    “The registration of vaccines or other medical immunobiological medicines specific to the prevention of the acute respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus…[that were] developed and/or produced in a nation recognized by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine as an aggressor-state, is banned,” the government’s ruling says.

    Talking about the possible use of Russian vaccines, Zelenskiy said last week that “Ukrainians are not guinea pigs” and that the government didn’t “have the right to conduct experiments on our people.”

    Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been tense since Russia forcibly seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and threw its support behind pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east, where the ongoing conflict has claimed more than 13,200 lives.

    The ban comes despite criticism of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the government’s sputtering vaccination plan.

    Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Ukraine would begin the first phase of the vaccination campaign later this month even though it has yet to receive a single dose of any vaccine.

    On February 10, the Health Ministry said that China’s Sinovac Biotech had officially applied to get its COVID-19 vaccine registered in Ukraine. Kyiv has already agreed to buy 1.9 million doses from the Chinese company.

    Zelenskiy said last week that his government had agreed to get 20 million vaccine doses from India’s Serum Institute and the global COVAX scheme, adding that, by early 2022, at least half of the country’s 41 million population will be vaccinated.

    Ukraine has also agreed to get COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novavах.

    As of February 11, the number of registered coronavirus cases in Ukraine was 1,258,094, including 24,058 deaths.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.