rferl--2020-02-19--Erdogan Says Talks With Russia Unsatisfactory, Turkish Offensive 'Matter Of Time'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that a military operation in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib was a `` matter of time '' if President Bashar al-Assad 's forces fail to withdraw behind Turkish military positions -- prompting criticism from Moscow .
The Syrian Army 's offensive , backed by Russian air support , has triggered the biggest wave of refugees in the nine-year conflict .
Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party on February 19 that talks with Russia , which has been the main backer of the Assad regime , were far from meeting Ankara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which supports rebels who want to remove Assad from power , was determined to make Idlib a secure zone `` no matter the cost , '' even as it continues its dialogue with Russia .
`` Turkey has completed preparations for the implementation of its plan on Idlib , just like we did with previous operations .
Frankly speaking , an operation in Idlib is only a matter of time .
Turkey won ’ t leave Idlib to the [ Assad ] regime , '' Erdogan said .
`` We are counting down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
In reaction to Erdogan 's remarks , Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was strongly opposed to such an operation , but that Russia and Ankara were staying in contact to try to prevent tensions in Idlib escalating further .
Separately , Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that no agreements have been reached during Russia-Turkey talks held in Moscow on February 17-18 .
Meanwhile , Syrian aid workers have issued an urgent call for a cease-fire and international help for the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Idlib @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news conference in Istanbul that existing camps are overcrowded and civilians are forced to sleep in the open as more than 900,000 people had fled the violence .
The regime offensive has killed more than 400 civilians since it began in December , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group .
With reporting by Reuters , AFP , and TASS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that a military operation in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib was a "matter of time" if President Bashar al-Assad's forces fail to withdraw behind Turkish military positions -- prompting criticism from Moscow.
The Syrian Army's offensive, backed by Russian air support, has triggered the biggest wave of refugees in the nine-year conflict.
Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party on February 19 that talks with Russia, which has been the main backer of the Assad regime, were far from meeting Ankara's demands.
He said Turkey, which supports rebels who want to remove Assad from power, was determined to make Idlib a secure zone "no matter the cost," even as it continues its dialogue with Russia.
"Turkey has completed preparations for the implementation of its plan on Idlib, just like we did with previous operations. Frankly speaking, an operation in Idlib is only a matter of time. Turkey won’t leave Idlib to the [Assad] regime," Erdogan said.
"We are counting down, we are making our final warnings."
In reaction to Erdogan's remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was strongly opposed to such an operation, but that Russia and Ankara were staying in contact to try to prevent tensions in Idlib escalating further.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that no agreements have been reached during Russia-Turkey talks held in Moscow on February 17-18.
Meanwhile, Syrian aid workers have issued an urgent call for a cease-fire and international help for the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Idlib.
The Syrian NGO Alliance told a news conference in Istanbul that existing camps are overcrowded and civilians are forced to sleep in the open as more than 900,000 people had fled the violence.
The regime offensive has killed more than 400 civilians since it began in December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS


rferl--2020-02-19--Five Pakistani Soldiers Killed By Militant Attack Near Iranian Border

Five soldiers from Pakistan 's Frontier Corps ( FC ) have been killed in an overnight attack by militants near the Iran-Pakistan border , Pakistani officials told RFE/RL on February 19 .
Speaking on condition of anonymity , officials told RFE/RL that the attackers used `` heavy weapons '' late on February 18 to target a security post in the Balangor area west of the city of Turbat in Balochistan Province ’ s Kech district .
The checkpoint was located about 30 kilometers from the Iranian border on a key highway that links southeastern Iran with Balochistan ’ s provincial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wounded in the attack have been rushed to a nearby hospital , the officials said .
Pakistani security forces launched a counteroperation early on February 19 in an attempt to locate the assailants .
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack , which took place in an area where Baluch separatists frequently target Pakistani security convoys and checkpoints .
The attack follows a suicide bombing on February 17 that killed eight radical Sunni Muslims and injured 16 others at a Islamist rally in Quetta .
There also was no claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rally by followers of the radical Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat ( ASWJ ) party -- the political branch of the banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi extremist group that has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks on Pakistan ’ s Shi ’ a minority .

Five soldiers from Pakistan's Frontier Corps (FC) have been killed in an overnight attack by militants near the Iran-Pakistan border, Pakistani officials told RFE/RL on February 19.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials told RFE/RL that the attackers used "heavy weapons" late on February 18 to target a security post in the Balangor area west of the city of Turbat in Balochistan Province’s Kech district.
The checkpoint was located about 30 kilometers from the Iranian border on a key highway that links southeastern Iran with Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta.
Three Pakistani soldiers wounded in the attack have been rushed to a nearby hospital, the officials said.
Pakistani security forces launched a counteroperation early on February 19 in an attempt to locate the assailants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which took place in an area where Baluch separatists frequently target Pakistani security convoys and checkpoints.
The attack follows a suicide bombing on February 17 that killed eight radical Sunni Muslims and injured 16 others at a Islamist rally in Quetta.
There also was no claim responsibility the Quetta attack.
It targeted a rally by followers of the radical Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ) party -- the political branch of the banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi extremist group that has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks on Pakistan’s Shi’a minority.


rferl--2020-02-19--Uzbek Border Guards Detain 13 Kyrgyz Citizens In Ferghana Valley

BATKEN , Kyrgyzstan -- Uzbek border guards have detained 13 Kyrgyz citizens in the southern region of Batken near the border with Kyrgyzstan .
Kyrgyzstan 's State Border Guarding Service says the residents of the village of Chekelik in the Ferghana valley were detained on February 19 after they `` accidentally entered Uzbek territory . ''
`` The identities of the Kyrgyz nationals detained by Uzbek border guards are being established at this moment and negotiations on their release are under way , '' the State Border Guard 's department in the Batken region said .
Three countries sharing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Tajikistan -- inherited unclear borders after their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 .
Many populated areas remain in dispute The Kyrgyz-border segment near Chekelik is not among the disputed ones , but many local citizens continue to cross the border without official permission .
Last month , Kyrgyz officials had to evacuate more than 250 residents from a village in the Batken region after Kyrgyz and Tajik villagers clashed near a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border .
In December , six Kyrgyz nationals and three Tajik nationals were wounded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence in September claimed four lives .

BATKEN, Kyrgyzstan -- Uzbek border guards have detained 13 Kyrgyz citizens in the southern region of Batken near the border with Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan's State Border Guarding Service says the residents of the village of Chekelik in the Ferghana valley were detained on February 19 after they "accidentally entered Uzbek territory."
"The identities of the Kyrgyz nationals detained by Uzbek border guards are being established at this moment and negotiations on their release are under way," the State Border Guard's department in the Batken region said.
Three countries sharing the Ferghana Valley -- Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan -- inherited unclear borders after their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Many populated areas remain in dispute
The Kyrgyz-border segment near Chekelik is not among the disputed ones, but many local citizens continue to cross the border without official permission.
Last month, Kyrgyz officials had to evacuate more than 250 residents from a village in the Batken region after Kyrgyz and Tajik villagers clashed near a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
In December, six Kyrgyz nationals and three Tajik nationals were wounded in clashes in the area, while violence in September claimed four lives.


rferl--2020-02-19--Samsung Says Will Comply With Russian Law Forcing Local Apps On Phones, PCs

Samsung has said it will comply with the requirements of a controversial Russian law , which stipulates that smartphones and other computer devices must have government-approved , pre-installed software on them .
`` Samsung Electronics will be ready to meet the requirements of the Russian legislation provided by the regulator and adapt the company 's activities in accordance with the adopted regulations , '' The Moscow Times reported on February 18 .
The South Korea-based electronics company said in a statement cited by RIA Novosti the previous day that it already works with Russian application developers and sells products with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ functionality preinstalled on devices .
`` The amendments to the law will not affect the company 's plans to continue working in Russia , '' Samsung said .
Its decision is at odds with U.S.-based rival Apple , which has said it will not sell devices with third-party apps while adding that the law could force it to reassess the extent of its presence on the Russian market .
Last year , Russia 's parliament passed the new rules but is still finalizing which applications will have to be preinstalled on smartphones , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inside the country .
They are set to come into effect this summer .
Fines for noncompliance are currently set at 50,000 to 200,000 rubles ( $ 784- $ 3,137 ) .
According to the RBK business news site , Samsung is Russia 's second most popular smartphone brand , with 28 percent of market share , whereas Apple controls less than 10 percent of the market .
Last week , a Moscow court fined U.S.-based Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles ( $ 63,336 ) each for failing to comply with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ customer data on servers located inside Russia .
Based on reporting by The Moscow Times , RIA Novosti , and RBK

Samsung has said it will comply with the requirements of a controversial Russian law, which stipulates that smartphones and other computer devices must have government-approved, pre-installed software on them.
"Samsung Electronics will be ready to meet the requirements of the Russian legislation provided by the regulator and adapt the company's activities in accordance with the adopted regulations," The Moscow Times reported on February 18.
The South Korea-based electronics company said in a statement cited by RIA Novosti the previous day that it already works with Russian application developers and sells products with Mail.ru's mail application and Yandex search functionality preinstalled on devices.
"The amendments to the law will not affect the company's plans to continue working in Russia," Samsung said.
Its decision is at odds with U.S.-based rival Apple, which has said it will not sell devices with third-party apps while adding that the law could force it to reassess the extent of its presence on the Russian market.
Last year, Russia's parliament passed the new rules but is still finalizing which applications will have to be preinstalled on smartphones, tablets, and computers that are sold inside the country.
They are set to come into effect this summer.
Fines for noncompliance are currently set at 50,000 to 200,000 rubles ($784-$3,137).
According to the RBK business news site, Samsung is Russia's second most popular smartphone brand, with 28 percent of market share, whereas Apple controls less than 10 percent of the market.
Last week, a Moscow court fined U.S.-based Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles ($63,336) each for failing to comply with a law that requires social-media companies to store customer data on servers located inside Russia.
Based on reporting by The Moscow Times, RIA Novosti, and RBK


rferl--2020-02-19--UN-Backed Tripoli Government Halts Peace Talks After Attacks On Key Port

Libya 's internationally-recognized government said on February 18 that it has suspended talks hosted by the UN to end the conflict over Tripoli after forces based in the east shelled the capital city 's port .
`` Today , violations of the ceasefire were renewed , '' the UN-backed Government of National Accord ( GNA ) said in a statement .
`` The militias hit Tripoli 's port which is considered a lifeline for many of Libya 's cities . ''
The GNA added it that it was `` suspending our participation in the military talks held in Geneva until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and its violations . ''
The UN has been hosting cease-fire talks between officials from the UN-backed government in Tripoli and the eastern-based Libyan National Army ( LNA ) , whose declared goal is to take the capital and has been trying to do so for nearly a year .
The North African country has been torn by violence since longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011 .
A cease-fire has been called between the warring sides , with Turkey supporting the government in Tripoli , and Russia backing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Haftar .
Turkey and Russia have both been criticized by UN and Western officials who say their efforts to arm their allies have led to an intensification of the violence .
Earlier this month , the UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country .
Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters

A former top FBI counterintelligence agent pleaded guilty to charges related to his work for notorious Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, changing his plea after federal prosecutors filed new, reduced charges of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia by working for the billionaire industrialist.
The move by Charles McGonigal, made on August 15 before a federal judge in New York City, ends a prosecution that had stunned the FBI, where McGonigal had investigated Russian influence operations for years while climbing the bureau’s ranks.
The 55-year-old also still faces a separate set of foreign agent charges in Washington, D.C., related to work he did for Albanian officials.
McGonigal, who retired as head counterintelligence in the FBI's New York bureau in 2018, was originally indicted in January by a grand jury on more serious charges of money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions.
Prosecutors alleged that McGonigal and a former Russian diplomat with whom he was associated, were paid more than $200,000 to do work for Deripaska, a wealthy Russian metals tycoon who has long been seen as a Kremlin insider. Deripaska was hit with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018.
U.S. authorities said McGonigal was hired to dig up negative information on Vladimir Potanin, a rival oligarch to Deripaska. McGonigal and the former diplomat, Sergei Shestakov, also worked to try and get Deripaska removed from U.S. sanctions lists.
Shestakov has pleaded not guilty to the more serious charges than had been originally filed against McGonigal.
They "attempted to conceal Deripaska's involvement by, among other means, not directly naming Deripaska in electronic communications, using shell companies as counterparties in the contract that outlined the services to be performed, using a forged signature on that contract, and using the same shell companies to send and receive payment from Deripaska," the Justice Department said in a press release after McGonigal entered his plea.
McGonigal could receive up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in December.
The separate case filed in Washington, D.C., by federal prosecutors centers on work McGonigal allegedly did on behalf of a former Albanian intelligence officer, for which he was paid $225,000.
McGonigal also allegedly lied to the FBI about his contacts with foreign nationals and foreign travel while he was still employed by the bureau.
Deripaska also faces charges of violating U.S. sanctions through real estate deals and a complicated scheme under which he allegedly arranged for his girlfriend to travel to the United States to give birth to two of their children.


rferl--2020-02-19--Mexican Man Arrested In Miami, Accused Of Working As Russian Agent

A Mexican citizen has been arrested on suspicion of working for a Russian government official to track down the vehicle of a `` U.S. government source '' in the Miami area of Florida and informing the Russian of its whereabouts .
A U.S. Justice Department statement released on February 18 regarding the arrest of Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes does n't say why a member of the Russian government wanted to know the physical location of the source 's car , including its license plate number .
The U.S. government source was n't identified .
Fuentes was allegedly recruited in 2019 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last time being this month , to meet with the official , the Justice Department said .
The Mexican citizen was allegedly instructed to rent a specific property not in his name in the Miami area and was due in April or May to inform the Russian official of his findings in locating the vehicle .
He and his spouse on February 14 drew the suspicion of a security guard stationed where the U.S. source resided after they entered the premises in a rented vehicle while tailgating another car .
One of them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ source ’ s vehicle and U.S. Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) later found the image along with one of the car ’ s license plates on Fuentes ’ s phone sent by his partner to an encrypted messaging application .
Fuentes was arrested at Miami International Airport on February 16 as he was preparing to leave for Mexico City with his companion .
He was charged with acting on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general , and conspiracy to do the same .
He later admitted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directed by a Russian government official to conduct the operation .
A pretrial detention hearing was set for February 21 in a Miami court and arraignment is set for March 3 in the same court .
The case involved the FBI and CBP as well as an assistant attorney general for national security and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida .

A Mexican citizen has been arrested on suspicion of working for a Russian government official to track down the vehicle of a "U.S. government source" in the Miami area of Florida and informing the Russian of its whereabouts.
A U.S. Justice Department statement released on February 18 regarding the arrest of Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes doesn't say why a member of the Russian government wanted to know the physical location of the source's car, including its license plate number.
The U.S. government source wasn't identified.
Fuentes was allegedly recruited in 2019 and twice flew to Moscow, the last time being this month, to meet with the official, the Justice Department said.
The Mexican citizen was allegedly instructed to rent a specific property not in his name in the Miami area and was due in April or May to inform the Russian official of his findings in locating the vehicle.
He and his spouse on February 14 drew the suspicion of a security guard stationed where the U.S. source resided after they entered the premises in a rented vehicle while tailgating another car.
One of them managed to take a picture of the source’s vehicle and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) later found the image along with one of the car’s license plates on Fuentes’s phone sent by his partner to an encrypted messaging application.
Fuentes was arrested at Miami International Airport on February 16 as he was preparing to leave for Mexico City with his companion. He was charged with acting on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, and conspiracy to do the same.
He later admitted to law enforcement officers that he was directed by a Russian government official to conduct the operation.
A pretrial detention hearing was set for February 21 in a Miami court and arraignment is set for March 3 in the same court.
The case involved the FBI and CBP as well as an assistant attorney general for national security and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.


rferl--2020-02-19--Ukraine's Evacuation Flight To China Departs, Officials Not Naming Quarantine Site

A plane chartered by the Ukrainian government departed three hours late for its ultimate destination of China where a group of Ukrainians and foreign nationals will be evacuated from Wuhan city , the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak in the country .
Operated by SkyUp airlines , the Boeing 737-700 aircraft took off from Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv on February 19 at 2:50 a.m. local time , three hours behind schedule .
It is first flying to Almaty in Kazakhstan from where it will fly to the capital of Hubei Province , which reported 132 new deaths the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there were now 2,004 total fatalities from the COVID-19 virus , up by 136 from the previous day .
The total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far is 74,185 , with some 700 cases in other countries around the world .
Flight data from the carrier shows that the plane is scheduled to arrive back in Kyiv on February 20 at 8:05 a.m. Ukraine ’ s Health Ministry said earlier that 49 citizens and 25 foreign nationals are expected for evacuation .
Nationals of Israel , Norway , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rica , the Dominican Republic , Ecuador , and Spain are among the foreigners .
Upon their arrival , Ukraine is looking to house them under quarantine for 14 days at one or more of four sites , depending on the ultimate size of the group that arrives .
However , the potential sites were n't disclosed `` due to safety concerns , '' Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska told journalists in Kyiv on February 18 .
Some two dozen people on February 18 protested at a sanatorium in the western Ternopil region over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placed there .
Earlier , online flight data from SkyUp showed that the chartered plane was scheduled to land in Lviv in western Ukraine .
Outside China , five fatalities and 827 cases have been reported in 30 locations so far , with more than half of those infected on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan .
Two Russian women were among the 542 passengers who were allowed to disembark the Diamond Princess vessel on February 19 after testing negative for the pathogen .
Beyond China , the cruise ship is the largest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least 524 cases among the 3,700 who have been on board .
The World Health Organization ( WHO ) has warned against a global overreaction to the epidemic following panic-buying , event cancellations , and concerns about cruise ship travel .
`` Measures should be taken proportional to the situation .
Blanket measures may not help , '' WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva .
With reporting by AP , Hromadske , and Censor.net

Four out of 77 people weren’t allowed to board a Ukrainian plane sent to evacuate them from Wuhan city in China, the epicenter of a new coronavirus from which more than 2,000 people have died.
Speaking on Ukrainian television on February 19, Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said three Ukrainians and one foreign national weren’t allowed on the government-chartered plane after they were checked by Chinese medical personnel.
“After that, Ukrainian professionals, medics, who are also on the flight, conducted a final examination,” Lyashko said.
Earlier, a deputy health minister told journalists that all 87 people who arrived to board the plane, including 48 Ukrainians, were cleared to fly.
The plane will first fly to Almaty in Kazakhstan where two Kazakh citizens will disembark. There, the plane’s crew will change and it will fly onward to Ukraine, where it is scheduled to land at 8:05 a.m. local time on February 20.
Nationals from Israel, Norway, Montenegro, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Spain are among the foreigners expected to be evacuated, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Beijing has reported 2,004 total fatalities from the COVID-19 virus, up 136 from the previous day. The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far is 74,185, with around 700 cases in other countries around the world.
Upon the passengers' arrival, Ukraine is looking to house them under quarantine for 14 days at one or more of four sites, depending on the ultimate size of the group that arrives.
However, the potential sites weren't disclosed "due to safety concerns," Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska told journalists in Kyiv on February 18.
Some two dozen people on February 18 protested at a sanatorium in the western Ternopil region over concerns that the evacuated people would be placed there.
Earlier, online flight data from SkyUp showed that the chartered plane was scheduled to land in Lviv in western Ukraine.
Outside China, five fatalities and 827 cases have been reported in 30 locations so far, with more than half of those infected on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan.
Two Russian women were among the 542 passengers who were allowed to disembark the Diamond Princess vessel on February 19 after testing negative for the pathogen.
Beyond China, the cruise ship is the largest cluster of infections and there are at least 524 cases among the 3,700 who have been on board.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against a global overreaction to the epidemic following panic-buying, event cancellations, and concerns about cruise ship travel.
"Measures should be taken proportional to the situation. Blanket measures may not help," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
With reporting by AP, Hromadske, and Censor.net


rferl--2020-02-19--OSCE Urges Restraint In East Ukraine After Deadly Uptick In Fighting

Two high-ranking officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE ) expressed deep concern over the recent upsurge in fighting in eastern Ukraine that killed at least five combatants and wounded at least eight others near a front-line town from which the warring sides withdrew forces in November .
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama and Secretary-General Thomas Greminger said they regretted reports of casualties , while calling for `` restraint and full respect '' for the latest cease-fire that was brokered in Paris in December , according to a February 18 news release .
Ukrainian officials say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was killed and four were wounded .
Yakov Osadchy , leader of a Russia-backed separatist militia in the Luhansk region , says four separatist fighters were killed and four others wounded .
`` This latest incident is not isolated , '' Rama said .
`` Every day the cease-fire is violated , despite the undertakings set out in the Minsk agreements , and the explicit commitment to ' a full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire ' agreed in Paris two months ago.
” Greminger , meanwhile , urged `` all sides to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` the positive steps '' taken in recent months to de-escalate the conflict `` should not be undone . ''
Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists exchanged accusations over the latest deadly clashes in the country 's east on February 18 .
It was the most intense fighting the six-year war has seen in months and the heaviest since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took office in May .
Kyiv said enemy ground forces launched a three-pronged attack on Ukrainian positions following an intense artillery barrage that started around 5 a.m. local time in the Luhansk region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leading separatist , however , said the fighting started after an advanced Ukrainian military unit tried to enter nongovernment-controlled territory and found itself in a minefield .
Fighting died down around 10 a.m. after the Moscow-backed separatists requested a cease-fire to recover their wounded and dead , said General Ruslan Khomchak , chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces .
There was concern that Ukrainian forces lost ground in the five-hour battle .
At a briefing later in the day with the Ukrainian president , Khomchak said three forward observation posts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tank rockets , and infantry rounds .
Ukraine was forced to swiftly mobilize a full-blown defensive operation in the affected areas , the general said .
Fighting was fiercest at the observation point code-named `` the Bathhouse , '' from where Ukrainian forces withdrew .
`` We naturally gave the order for our people to withdraw from [ the Bathhouse ] because we had to deliver a strike upon it , including with artillery , '' Khomchak said .
Neither side controls the abandoned observation post now , he added .
More than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war , and another 1.5 million people internally displaced .
The Ukrainian soldier killed was later identified as Maksym Khitalylov , a 22-year-old grenade launcher with the 72nd Mechanized Brigade .
At least 14 Ukrainian service members have been killed since the beginning of the year .

Two high-ranking officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) expressed deep concern over the recent upsurge in fighting in eastern Ukraine that killed at least five combatants and wounded at least eight others near a front-line town from which the warring sides withdrew forces in November.
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama and Secretary-General Thomas Greminger said they regretted reports of casualties, while calling for "restraint and full respect" for the latest cease-fire that was brokered in Paris in December, according to a February 18 news release.
Ukrainian officials say one soldier from the government's forces was killed and four were wounded.
Yakov Osadchy, leader of a Russia-backed separatist militia in the Luhansk region, says four separatist fighters were killed and four others wounded.
"This latest incident is not isolated," Rama said. "Every day the cease-fire is violated, despite the undertakings set out in the Minsk agreements, and the explicit commitment to 'a full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire' agreed in Paris two months ago.”
Greminger, meanwhile, urged "all sides to exercise maximum restraint," adding that "the positive steps" taken in recent months to de-escalate the conflict "should not be undone."
Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists exchanged accusations over the latest deadly clashes in the country's east on February 18. It was the most intense fighting the six-year war has seen in months and the heaviest since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took office in May.
'Three-Pronged Attack'
Kyiv said enemy ground forces launched a three-pronged attack on Ukrainian positions following an intense artillery barrage that started around 5 a.m. local time in the Luhansk region near the town of Zolote.
A leading separatist, however, said the fighting started after an advanced Ukrainian military unit tried to enter nongovernment-controlled territory and found itself in a minefield.
Fighting died down around 10 a.m. after the Moscow-backed separatists requested a cease-fire to recover their wounded and dead, said General Ruslan Khomchak, chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces.
There was concern that Ukrainian forces lost ground in the five-hour battle.
At a briefing later in the day with the Ukrainian president, Khomchak said three forward observation posts came under heavy attack from shelling, tank rockets, and infantry rounds.
Ukraine was forced to swiftly mobilize a full-blown defensive operation in the affected areas, the general said.
Fighting was fiercest at the observation point code-named "the Bathhouse," from where Ukrainian forces withdrew.
"We naturally gave the order for our people to withdraw from [the Bathhouse] because we had to deliver a strike upon it, including with artillery," Khomchak said.
Neither side controls the abandoned observation post now, he added.
More than 13,000 people have been killed in the war, and another 1.5 million people internally displaced.
The Ukrainian soldier killed was later identified as Maksym Khitalylov, a 22-year-old grenade launcher with the 72nd Mechanized Brigade.
At least 14 Ukrainian service members have been killed since the beginning of the year.


rferl--2020-02-20--Pakistan's Attorney General Resigns Under Pressure From Lawyers, Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan 's Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan announced his resignation on February 20 , a day after the country 's influential lawyers ' organization , the Bar Council , called on him to quit .
The council had demanded his resignation over comments he made about Supreme Court judges .
The Supreme Court also reprimanded Khan and on February 19 ordered him to furnish evidence backing up what he 'd said or else submit a written apology for his controversial comments .
Khan 's remarks have since been expunged from the court record .
In his resignation letter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outgoing attorney general said : `` I note with profound regret that the Pakistan Bar Council , of which I am the Chairman , has demanded through its press release dated 19th of February 2020 that I resign forthwith from the Office of the Attorney General of Pakistan . ''
`` Being a life member of Karachi Bar Association , Sindh Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Association , and having previously served as the Advocate General Sindh , the Attorney General for Pakistan and a judge of the High Court of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and colleagues at the Bar and I wish to reaffirm my faith in the highest principles of integrity and professional excellence that the Pakistan Bar Council has always stood for , '' Khan said .
In the conclusion of his letter , Khan said : `` Accordingly I hereby resign from the position of the Attorney General for Pakistan and request to accept it with immediate effect . ''

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan has stepped down after coming under pressure from the country's influential lawyers' organization, the Bar Council, for critical remarks he made about members of the Supreme Court.
In his February 20 resignation letter, Khan expressed "profound regret" that the council -- which he currently chairs -- had called for his departure. Khan said in his letter that his resignation was effective immediately.
Khan was appointed attorney general for the second time on August 31, 2018. He previously served in that position from December 2009 to April 2010.
During a hearing on February 18 before the Supreme Judicial Council in the federal government's case against Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Khan questioned the moral character of the nation's top judges.
The Supreme Judicial Council called Khan's remarks -- which they banned Pakistani media from reporting -- "too serious" and demanded that he retract them, which he refused to do.
"As a certain statement was made by the AG about the bench yesterday, it would be appreciated if the material on the basis of which the statement was made is placed on record before the bench," Justice Umar Ata Bandial said at the end of the hearing on February 19.
The federal government is seeking to remove Isa, who is slated to become chief justice of the Supreme Court in 2023, from his seat for not reporting three properties it claims he owns in London.
The Supreme Judicial Council, a bench that includes Supreme Court justices, is the only body that can remove a member of Pakistan's Supreme Court.
Isa said the properties belong to his adult children and his wife. He has called the allegations an attack on the "independence of the judiciary."
Pakistani media reported that Isa drew the government's wrath following a 2019 court case, known as the "Faizabad sit in," in which opponents say he criticized the armed forces and spy agencies.
Isa became a member of the Supreme Court in 2014.


rferl--2020-02-20--Tbilisi And Washington Blame Russia For October Cyberattack On Georgian Websites

Georgia and the United States have blamed Russia for a massive coordinated cyberattack that took thousands of Georgian websites offline in October .
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimer Konstantinidi told a news conference in Tbilisi on February 20 that the cyberattack was planned and carried out by Russia .
`` The investigation conducted by the Georgian authorities , together with information gathered through cooperation with partners , concluded that this cyberattack was planned and carried out by the main division of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation , '' Konstantinidi said .
Separately , U.S. Secretary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement that the attack was carried out by a unit of Russia 's GRU military intelligence agency known as Unit 74455 and Sandworm .
`` The United States calls on Russia to cease this behavior in Georgia and elsewhere , '' Pompeo said , adding that Washington would provide assistance to Georgia to help improve the country 's ability to fend off such attacks .
`` We also pledge our support to Georgia and its people in enhancing their cybersecurity and countering malicious cyber actors , '' Pompeo added .
The Russian Defense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 2,000 state , private , and media websites as well as two private television stations -- Imedi and Maestro -- were knocked out on October 28 .
The targeted websites included those of the president 's office and local municipality offices .
In many cases , website home pages were replaced with an image of former President Mikheil Saakashvili , and the caption `` I 'll be back . ''

TBILISI -- The United States and Britain have joined Georgia in blaming Russia for a massive coordinated cyberattack last year that took thousands of Georgian websites offline and even disrupted TV broadcasts.
Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimer Konstantinidi told a news conference in Tbilisi on February 20 that the cyberattack was planned and carried out by Russia.
"The investigation conducted by the Georgian authorities, together with information gathered through cooperation with partners, concluded that this cyberattack was planned and carried out by the main division of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," Konstantinidi said.
Meanwhile, the United States and Britain said in separate statements that the attack was carried out by a unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency known as Unit 74455 and Sandworm.
Sandworm is known as a single group of hackers within the GRU and security experts have linked it to such cyber breaches as the theft of 9 gigabytes of e-mails from the French presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron, a similar campaign against the Democratic National Committee in the United States in 2016, as well as the malware that hit Ukraine's power grid in 2015 and spread globally.
Britain has also linked the group to two attacks against Ukraine in 2017, including NotPetya and BadRabbit, which affected the nation's financial and energy sectors as well as the Kyiv Metro and Odesa’s airport.
"The United States calls on Russia to cease this behavior in Georgia and elsewhere," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, adding that Washington would provide assistance to Georgia to help improve the country's ability to fend off such attacks.
"We also pledge our support to Georgia and its people in enhancing their cybersecurity and countering malicious cyber actors," Pompeo added.
Russia denied involvement in penetrating Georgian government websites.
"Russia did not plan and is not planning to interfere in Georgia's internal affairs in any way," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Russian news agencies.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately comment.
More than 2,000 state, private, and media websites as well as two private television stations -- Imedi and Maestro -- were knocked out on October 28. The targeted websites included those of the president's office and local municipality offices.
In many cases, website home pages were replaced with an image of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, and the caption "I'll be back."
Russia has fraught relations with its southern neighbor, which is seeking to join Western organizations, including the European Union and NATO, moves that Moscow opposes.
Russia fought a five-day war with Georgia in 2008 after which Russia recognized the independence claim of two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which comprise 20 percent of its territory.
Russia is one of only a few countries that recognizes the two regions' independence.
With reporting by Reuters and Interfax


rferl--2020-02-20--Abdullah Slams EU For Recognizing Afghan Presidential Election Results

KABUL -- Afghanistan 's outgoing Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah has complained to the European Union about its recognition of final official Afghan presidential election results showing President Ashraf Ghani has been reelected .
In a Twitter post that included a copy of his letter of complaint , Abdullah declared on February 20 that the results announced on February 18 from the presidential vote were `` illegal and unacceptable to most Afghans . ''
Abdullah alleged that official results showing him in second place behind Ghani were the result of `` systemic fraud and serious electoral irregularities '' that were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rival team . ''
`` As the rightful winners , we decided to form an inclusive government and engage all sides to aim for a just and cohesive outcome , '' Abdullah said in his February 20 tweet .
`` We also ask our international friends to remain impartial , adhere to their principled positions , and respect a fair and legal Afghan process and results . ''
Abdullah on February 19 also sent letters to foreign embassies in Kabul asking them not to recognize what he described as `` illegal '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ letter of complaint was addressed to European Union High Representative Josep Borrell , who also is vice president of the European Commission .
Borrell had telephoned Ghani on February 19 to congratulate him on his victory in the September 28 , 2019 vote .
A statement from Borrell 's office said he 'd welcomed the fact that `` months of intensive verification and an appeal process engaging all interested parties had come to an end . ''
Borrell also said the EU paid tribute to the work of Afghan election officials who were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But with the exception of Borrell , there has been a muted response from the international community about Afghanistan 's final official vote count -- which showed Ghani with just over 50 percent of the vote and Abdullah trailing in second place with about 39.5 percent .
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan ( UNAMA ) was among those issuing a more muted reaction .
It said UNAMA `` takes note of the announcement of the final results for Afghanistan 's presidential election and the work of the country 's electoral bodies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The UNAMA statement stressed `` the importance of any challenge made to the final results of the election process remaining consistent with the regulations of the country and conducted in the interest of stability and cohesion , and in accordance with the constitutional order . ''
UNAMA said it also was `` taking note of concerns '' expressed by Abdullah and other candidates and their supporters about the final official results .
`` The United Nations will continue its work to support the people and institutions of Afghanistan , including all political parties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to encourage electoral officials to `` address the candidates ' understandable desire to have clarity on decisions taken related to audits and recounts , '' it said .
Abdullah 's running mate , Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum , has called on his supporters to take to the streets to protest against the reelection of President Ashraf Ghani .
Dostum said on February 19 that the final official vote count by Afghanistan ’ s Independent Election Commission ( IEC ) amounted to a `` coup . ''
He called on supporters at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jowzjan to `` hit the streets '' to celebrate what he described as a victory for Abdullah .
But reports from across Afghanistan say there have been few signs of major protests or celebrations over the final vote count , despite Dostum 's rallying cry and Abdullah 's public complaints .
The nearly five-month delay for the final results to be announced was caused by lengthy recounts undertaken after Abdullah and others raised allegations of electoral fraud .
Abdullah 's vow to set up an `` all inclusive '' separate government is reminiscent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which Ghani was also declared as the winner and Abdullah finished second .
With additional reporting by AP , Reuters , AFP , and ToloNews

The education of girls and women is universally accepted in more than 200 countries and territories, including nearly 50 Muslim-majority nations.
But Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers have banned teenage girls from attending school after the sixth grade since they returned to power two years ago. The ban was extended in December to women in universities.
Countless protests by Afghans inside the country, pressure from the international community, and lobbying by Muslim scholars and clerics have failed to convince the fundamentalist Taliban leaders to reopen schools.
Experts are divided over whether the ban is rooted in how the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is shaped by conservative Pashtun tribal customs and cultural practices or if it is prompted by how senior Taliban ideologues interpret Islamic teachings.
Most Taliban leaders are ethnic Pashtun, Sunni Muslim clerics. Many were educated in Deobandi madrasahs in neighboring Pakistan. Deobandism emerged as a puritanical Islamic revivalist movement in 19-century British Colonial India. Based on the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence, it is a prominent strain among Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tribal Influences
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, argues that the Taliban restrictions against women are linked to social customs and cultural practices in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Most Taliban leaders come from various Pashtun rural tribal communities in these regions bordering Pakistan.
"They believe that a woman's place is either inside a house or in a grave," Yousafzai said of the basic Taliban belief influenced by the status of women in the families of clerics and religious leaders in these Pashtun regions.
“Women living in the households of the current Taliban policymakers were never educated and never left their homes,” said Yousafzai, who has tracked the Islamist group since it emerged as a ragtag militia in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in late 1994. “These women never performed any government or nongovernmental jobs.”
Yousafzai says the Taliban backs policies shaped by this worldview by leaning on Islamic teachings supporting such ideas. He says Taliban leaders rely on sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that discourage women from leaving their homes.
“Their primary belief is that pubescent girls should not leave home under any circumstance,” he said. “This is why they view women leaving home for education or work as engaging in moral corruption.”
In Afghanistan, a Muslim nation of some 40 million people, activists and rights advocates accuse the Taliban of implementing "gender apartheid" by denying women education, work, freedom of movement, and deciding how they can appear in public.
Most Muslims agree that Islam allows women to get an education. Yet the Taliban publicly says that it will allow girls access to education only after ensuring complete gender segregation and other unspecified conditions.
Almost all Afghan secondary schools were gender segregated and universities imposed a strict separation between men and women after the Taliban takeover.
Yousafzai says in conservative and traditional Muslim societies around the world, some clerics also favor restrictions on women's education, work, and their role in public life. But the governments in those countries usually oppose or limit such ideas.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia -- one of the most conservative Sunni Muslim nations -- has allowed women to drive and granted them freedom of movement without a male guardian. These steps are part of a reform and modernity drive by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The Taliban ban on education has invited universal condemnation from Muslims globally.
“The Taliban's ban on women's education is not rooted in [the Islamic] Shari’a law but rather reflects cultural biases that contradict the teachings of Islam,” said Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in the United States.
He said that contrary to Taliban practices, “Islam emphasizes the importance of seeking knowledge and encourages all individuals, regardless of gender, to acquire an education.”
Historical Conflict
But Islamic scholars and those who have attempted to convince the Taliban about reopening girls schools offer a different explanation.
John Mohammad Butt, an Islamic scholar and former BBC broadcaster who is the only Westerner to graduate from India’s Darul Uloom Deoband, argues that the Taliban's policy on girls' education is not tribal but shaped by the century-old conflict over modern education.
“The problem is that girls' education in Afghanistan -- indeed, contemporary education in general -- has generally been introduced in Afghanistan in line with a secular agenda,” he said.
In the 1920s, a coalition of conservative clerics and tribal and community leaders deposed reformist King Amanullah Khan. He wanted to modernize Afghanistan along Turkish leader Kamal Ataturk's secular lines and championed modern education and rights for women.
This opposition to modernity and secularism continued, and conservative clerics opposed women's education and work. It became a key part of the Islamist opposition to the pro-Soviet Afghan communist governments after the April 1978 military coup that ended the Afghan monarchy. The mujahedin accused the communists of spreading immorality by promoting women’s education and empowerment.
“This has led to particular wariness on the part of conservative circles in Afghanistan with regard to girls' education,” Butt said.
'Deep Ideological Conviction'
Obaidullah Baheer, a political science lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, became part of an effort to rescind the ban by talking to the Taliban last year.
But he says the effort failed because “the ban is a matter of deep ideological conviction” for the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Baheer says that the most prominent Taliban leaders have studied in Pakistani madrasahs and were thus disconnected from village and tribal life.
“They have been indoctrinated by the Deobandi school of thought so that they now enforce the strictest version of Islam on the Afghan population,” he said.
He argues that the ban on girls’ schools is a deliberate policy championed by Akhundzada, who he says has endorsed Taliban Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani's Arabic language book The Islamic Emirate And Its System. In this book, Haqqani supports a fringe Islamic opinion of preferring the choice of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives, Sawdah Bint Zam'ah, who chose to stay at home until her death.
Baheer says Haqqani ignores his other wives and other female companions that played an active role in many sectors of society and how they served as students and teachers for men.
“This fringe opinion is not held by all Taliban leaders but is one that the current absolute sovereign, the Taliban emir, seems to be convinced of,” he said.
Butt says that even Haqqani has acknowledged the principle that if there is something that women need to act upon, then that is also something that women need to learn about.
“I hope the Taliban authorities will come to realize in the not-too-distant future that education for women will make Afghan women into better Muslims,” he says. “It will enable them to make a stronger contribution to the well-being of their country.”
Two years after grappling with the issue, Western diplomats appear to be encouraging Afghan conservative and clerical circles to find ways to end the ban.
Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, recently tweeted that Afghan women must be educated and contribute to the economy to help their country stand on its own two feet.
“If change to policies is made, it will be because Afghans have asked for it, not a result of foreign requests,” he wrote.


rferl--2020-02-20--Tajik Civil War Commander Extradited From U.A.E. May Face More Charges

DUSHANBE -- A former Tajik commander extradited to Dushanbe from the United Arab Emirates ( U.A.E . )
in recent days may face more charges , the Central Asian country 's Interior Ministry said on February 20 .
Khuja Karimov -- who was a commander of government troops during Tajikistan 's five-year civil war -- has been charged with banditry , murder , hostage-taking , torture , and illegal weapons possession , the ministry said in a statement , adding that more charges might be filed against Karimov .
Karimov was shown on state television on February 19 while officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Karimov 's alleged crimes , witnessed such crimes , or were in possession of any information about them to contact the police .
Karimov , 59 , was arrested in the U.A.E .
in July 2019 at Tajikistan 's request .
The Interior Ministry on February 17 announced that Karimov , 59 , had been extradited from the U.A.E .
Tajikistan 's civil war lasted from 1992 until 1997 , pitting rebel groups consisting of a combination of liberal democratic reformers and Islamists against Russian-backed Tajik government forces .
According to wide-ranging estimates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were killed during the conflict .
The war ended after a peace accord was signed in Moscow by the rival sides .
Karimov , known as Commander Khuja , was notorious for his reported cruelty during the conflict .
After the war , he was a deputy commander of a special brigade at the Defense Ministry and the chairman of Tajikistan ’ s Football Federation .
Karimov fled Tajikistan for Malaysia after Tajik authorities launched criminal charges against him in September 2005 .

DUSHANBE -- A former Tajik commander extradited to Dushanbe from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) in recent days may face more charges, the Central Asian country's Interior Ministry said on February 20.
Khuja Karimov -- who was a commander of government troops during Tajikistan's five-year civil war -- has been charged with banditry, murder, hostage-taking, torture, and illegal weapons possession, the ministry said in a statement, adding that more charges might be filed against Karimov.
Karimov was shown on state television on February 19 while officials called on Tajiks who were victims of Karimov's alleged crimes, witnessed such crimes, or were in possession of any information about them to contact the police.
Karimov, 59, was arrested in the U.A.E. in July 2019 at Tajikistan's request.
The Interior Ministry on February 17 announced that Karimov, 59, had been extradited from the U.A.E.
Tajikistan's civil war lasted from 1992 until 1997, pitting rebel groups consisting of a combination of liberal democratic reformers and Islamists against Russian-backed Tajik government forces.
According to wide-ranging estimates, somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the conflict.
The war ended after a peace accord was signed in Moscow by the rival sides.
Karimov, known as Commander Khuja, was notorious for his reported cruelty during the conflict.
After the war, he was a deputy commander of a special brigade at the Defense Ministry and the chairman of Tajikistan’s Football Federation.
Karimov fled Tajikistan for Malaysia after Tajik authorities launched criminal charges against him in September 2005.


rferl--2020-02-20--Authorities In Kazakhstan Agree To Move Coronavirus Quarantine Center

ZAISAN , Kazakhstan -- Authorities in the East Kazakhstan region have agreed to move a coronavirus quarantine center from a village in the Zaisan district bordering China to the regional capital following protests by residents .
Regional Governor Danial Akhmetov met with the protesters in the town of Zaisan on February 20 , a day after residents rallied in the villages of Saryterek and Ainabulaq against quarantine centers .
In Saryterek , protesters rushed into the local hospital where a quarantine center for people arriving from China had been set up and removed all the beds from the center .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients in the center yet and told them he needed three days to process their demands .
He added that the quarantine center will be gradually moved to Oskemen , the regional capital .
The protests started on the evening of February 19 , hours after the Health Ministry announced that special quarantine centers will be placed in towns and villages close to border checkpoints and all people returning to Kazakhstan from China will be placed under quarantine for 14 days .
The ministry warned that those who fail to obey the quarantine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aibolat Qasenov told RFE/RL that the protests were prompted by confusing information that led people to believe the quarantine centers would host individuals diagnosed with the virus .
More than 74,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus in China and hundreds more in nearly 30 countries .
The latest data provided by Beijing says the coronavirus death toll reached 2,118 .

ZAISAN, Kazakhstan -- Authorities in the East Kazakhstan region have agreed to move a coronavirus quarantine center from a village in the Zaisan district bordering China to the regional capital following protests by residents.
Regional Governor Danial Akhmetov met with the protesters in the town of Zaisan on February 20, a day after residents rallied in the villages of Saryterek and Ainabulaq against quarantine centers.
In Saryterek, protesters rushed into the local hospital where a quarantine center for people arriving from China had been set up and removed all the beds from the center.
Akhmetov told protesters that there were no patients in the center yet and told them he needed three days to process their demands. He added that the quarantine center will be gradually moved to Oskemen, the regional capital.
The protests started on the evening of February 19, hours after the Health Ministry announced that special quarantine centers will be placed in towns and villages close to border checkpoints and all people returning to Kazakhstan from China will be placed under quarantine for 14 days.
The ministry warned that those who fail to obey the quarantine order will face repercussions.
Saryterek resident Aibolat Qasenov told RFE/RL that the protests were prompted by confusing information that led people to believe the quarantine centers would host individuals diagnosed with the virus.
More than 74,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus in China and hundreds more in nearly 30 countries.
The latest data provided by Beijing says the coronavirus death toll reached 2,118.


rferl--2020-02-20--Plane Carrying Ukrainians Arrives From China's Wuhan Amid Protests

KYIV -- A plane carrying the first group of Ukrainians evacuated from China 's Wuhan , the city at the epicenter of the deadly new coronavirus outbreak , has landed in Ukraine amid protests by residents of the eastern city of Kharkiv , where a quarantine center has been set up .
Ukrainian authorities said 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreigners , as well as medical personnel and crew members , were aboard the plane .
The nationalities of the foreign citizens were not immediately known .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Facebook on February 20 that the plane carrying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick stop to refuel at Kyiv 's Borispil airport before landing in Kharkiv .
Zelenskiy said all the people who arrived from Wuhan will be quarantined for 14 days in the National Guard 's medical center in the town of Novi Sanzhary in the eastern region of Poltava .
Local authorities they will be transported to Novi Sanzhary in heavily guarded buses .
Meanwhile , a group of Novi Sanzhary residents protesting the presence of the quarantine center in their town blocked a major highway in the region and scuffled with riot police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the protest site to try to calm the protesters .
Separately , in the western region of Lviv , protesters blocked a highway for a short time amid rumors that some of those evacuated from Wuhan could be placed in quarantine in a military hospital in the area .
Local authorities denied the rumors .
Zelenskiy in his Facebook post called on Ukrainians to show respect for their returning compatriots and stop the protests .

KYIV -- A plane carrying the first group of Ukrainians evacuated from China's Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the deadly new coronavirus outbreak, has landed in Ukraine amid protests by residents of the eastern city of Kharkiv, where a quarantine center has been set up.
Ukrainian authorities said 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreigners, as well as medical personnel and crew members, were aboard the plane. The nationalities of the foreign citizens were not immediately known.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Facebook on February 20 that the plane carrying both Ukrainians and several foreigners made a quick stop to refuel at Kyiv's Borispil airport before landing in Kharkiv.
Zelenskiy said all the people who arrived from Wuhan will be quarantined for 14 days in the National Guard's medical center in the town of Novi Sanzhary in the eastern region of Poltava.
Local authorities they will be transported to Novi Sanzhary in heavily guarded buses.
Meanwhile, a group of Novi Sanzhary residents protesting the presence of the quarantine center in their town blocked a major highway in the region and scuffled with riot police.
Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov arrived at the protest site to try to calm the protesters.
Separately, in the western region of Lviv, protesters blocked a highway for a short time amid rumors that some of those evacuated from Wuhan could be placed in quarantine in a military hospital in the area. Local authorities denied the rumors.
Zelenskiy in his Facebook post called on Ukrainians to show respect for their returning compatriots and stop the protests.


rferl--2020-02-20--OSCE Calls For 'New And Full' Investigation Into Nemtsov Murder

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE ) on February 20 called for `` a new and full investigation '' into the murder of Boris Nemtsov , the former Russian opposition politician who was killed almost five years ago near the Kremlin .
The OSCE said shortcomings in Russia 's original investigation left many questions unanswered .
“ His death was a tragedy for Russia and had a strong impact on the political climate , spreading fear and possibly opening up for further attacks and repression , ” the OSCE said in a February 20 report .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge , near the Kremlin in central Moscow , on February 27 , 2015 .
In June 2017 , a Russian court sentenced a former Chechen battalion leader Zaur Dadayev to 20 years in prison for killing Nemtsov .
Four other Chechens were found guilty of involvement in the killing and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 11 to 19 years .
Critics , including relatives and colleagues of Nemtsov , say Russian authorities failed to determine who ordered the killing .
Some have expressed suspicions that the killing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov .
The OSCE report , prepared by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 's special rapporteur , Margareta Cederfelt , said “ organizers and instigators ” of Nemtsov ’ s killing must be held accountable to “ instill hope among those in Russia who continue to risk persecution and attacks to fight for democracy and the rule of law .
“ Despite calls both from within Russia and from other countries and from the international community to make sure Mr. Nemtsov ’ s murder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigated so that both perpetrators , organizers , and initiators were held accountable , the official investigation and the following trial has been subject to severe criticism , ” Cederfelt said .
Cederfelt cited “ important work ” by independent researchers and experts “ in filling in the blanks ” left by Russia 's official investigation .
“ They have particularly pointed to the potential involvement of the Chechen leadership and/or security services , even suggesting that the Russian president may be the initiator , ” Cederfelt said .
Cederfelt said that given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ such arguments can neither be dismissed nor confirmed.
” The killing of Nemtsov -- a reformist politician , former deputy prime minister , and sharp critic of Putin -- was condemned internationally .
Critics say Nemtsov 's killing has highlighted the dangers faced by Russians who oppose the Kremlin .
Supporters of Nemtsov , including members of the country ’ s opposition , plan to hold a mass rally in Moscow on February 29 to mark the fifth anniversary of his death .
Some opposition supporters also plan to use the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country ’ s constitution that critics say are aimed at extending Putin ’ s grip on power after his current presidential term ends in 2024 .

A new report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on February 20 called for "a new and full investigation" into the murder of Boris Nemtsov, the former Russian opposition politician who was killed almost five years ago near the Kremlin.
The report, by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's special rapporteur, Margareta Cederfelt, said shortcomings in Russia's original investigation left many questions unanswered.*
“His death was a tragedy for Russia and had a strong impact on the political climate, spreading fear and possibly opening up for further attacks and repression,” the report said.
Nemtsov was shot dead at close range on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Kremlin in central Moscow, on February 27, 2015.
In June 2017, a Russian court sentenced a former Chechen battalion leader Zaur Dadayev to 20 years in prison for killing Nemtsov.
Four other Chechens were found guilty of involvement in the killing and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 11 to 19 years.
Critics, including relatives and colleagues of Nemtsov, say Russian authorities failed to determine who ordered the killing.
Some have expressed suspicions that the killing was ordered by someone within the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
The report said “organizers and instigators” of Nemtsov’s killing must be held accountable to “instill hope among those in Russia who continue to risk persecution and attacks to fight for democracy and the rule of law.
“Despite calls both from within Russia and from other countries and from the international community to make sure Mr. Nemtsov’s murder was thoroughly, effectively, and transparently investigated so that both perpetrators, organizers, and initiators were held accountable, the official investigation and the following trial has been subject to severe criticism,” Cederfelt said.
Cederfelt cited “important work” by independent researchers and experts “in filling in the blanks” left by Russia's official investigation.
“They have particularly pointed to the potential involvement of the Chechen leadership and/or security services, even suggesting that the Russian president may be the initiator,” Cederfelt said.
Cederfelt said that given the shortcomings of the official Russian probe, “such arguments can neither be dismissed nor confirmed.”
The killing of Nemtsov -- a reformist politician, former deputy prime minister, and sharp critic of Putin -- was condemned internationally.
Critics say Nemtsov's killing has highlighted the dangers faced by Russians who oppose the Kremlin.
Supporters of Nemtsov, including members of the country’s opposition, plan to hold a mass rally in Moscow on February 29 to mark the fifth anniversary of his death.
Some opposition supporters also plan to use the rally to protest proposed amendments to the country’s constitution that critics say are aimed at extending Putin’s grip on power after his current presidential term ends in 2024.
* This story has been amended to clarify that the report was written by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's special rapporteur, Margareta Cederfelt


rferl--2020-02-20--Russian Teen Gets Eight Years In Prison After Conviction For Planning School Shooting

A court in Russia 's Far East has sentenced a teenager to eight years in prison after convicting him of planning a school shooting .
A court in the city of Khabarovsk , on February 20 , found 19-year-old local resident Aleksandr Onufriyenko guilty of plotting a terrorist act , illegal firearms possession , incitement to extremism and terrorism , and undergoing training to commit a terrorist act .
The court concluded that Onufriyenko planned to conduct a shooting spree on February 22 , 2019 , at School No .
30 in Khabarovsk , where he used to study and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Russian language and literature .
Investigators said that police found leaflets of the banned Russian National Unity organization , a sawed-off shotgun , and 95 shotgun shells in Onufriyenko 's possession , which they say he planned to use for the shooting spree in the school .
Onufriyenko pleaded guilty .
There have been several attacks in recent years in schools in Russia , the latest one in a college in the Far Eastern city of Blagoveshchensk in November that claimed one student 's life .
The shooter later shot himself to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 18-year-old student killed 20 people in a gun-and-bomb attack in a college in Russia-controlled Crimea before fatally shooting himself .
In April 2019 , a court in the Urals city of Perm sentenced a 17-year-old teenager to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of a knife attack in January 2018 at his school that left 12 people hospitalized .
Also in January 2018 , a ninth-grader attacked fellow students with an ax and other weapons in the Siberian region of Buryatia .
In 2017 , a teenager in the Russian region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a female student and a teacher before setting a classroom on fire .
Another girl sustained serious injuries when she fled by jumping from a second-story window .
With reporting by RIA Novosti , Debri-DV , Interfax , Baza , and TASS

A court in Russia's Far East has sentenced a teenager to eight years in prison after convicting him of planning a school shooting.
A court in the city of Khabarovsk, on February 20, found 19-year-old local resident Aleksandr Onufriyenko guilty of plotting a terrorist act, illegal firearms possession, incitement to extremism and terrorism, and undergoing training to commit a terrorist act.
The court concluded that Onufriyenko planned to conduct a shooting spree on February 22, 2019, at School No. 30 in Khabarovsk, where he used to study and where his mother works as a teacher of Russian language and literature.
Investigators said that police found leaflets of the banned Russian National Unity organization, a sawed-off shotgun, and 95 shotgun shells in Onufriyenko's possession, which they say he planned to use for the shooting spree in the school.
Onufriyenko pleaded guilty.
There have been several attacks in recent years in schools in Russia, the latest one in a college in the Far Eastern city of Blagoveshchensk in November that claimed one student's life. The shooter later shot himself to death.
In October 2018, an 18-year-old student killed 20 people in a gun-and-bomb attack in a college in Russia-controlled Crimea before fatally shooting himself.
In April 2019, a court in the Urals city of Perm sentenced a 17-year-old teenager to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of a knife attack in January 2018 at his school that left 12 people hospitalized.
Also in January 2018, a ninth-grader attacked fellow students with an ax and other weapons in the Siberian region of Buryatia.
In 2017, a teenager in the Russian region of Bashkortostan entered his school and stabbed a female student and a teacher before setting a classroom on fire. Another girl sustained serious injuries when she fled by jumping from a second-story window.
With reporting by RIA Novosti, Debri-DV, Interfax, Baza, and TASS


rferl--2020-02-20--Ukraine Marks 'Heavenly Hundred's Day' On Anniversary Of Euromaidan Bloodshed

KYIV -- Ukrainians are marking Heavenly Hundred 's Day on the sixth anniversary of a deadly crackdown against the Euromaidan protests that toppled Ukraine 's pro-Russian former president , Viktor Yanukovych .
The commemorations honor those who were killed in Kyiv during clashes with Yanukovych 's security forces on February 20 , 2014 .
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife , Olena , were among Ukrainians who laid flowers at the Monument to the Heavenly Hundred in Kyiv 's Independence Square -- Maidan Nezalezhnosti -- on February 20 .
The Euromaidan movement began in November 2013 when protesters gathered at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yanukovych 's decision not to sign a crucial trade accord with the European Union and , instead , seek closer economic ties with Russia .
Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured as a result of violent crackdowns by authorities against protesters from February 18-20 , 2014 .
Shunning a deal backed by the West and Russia to end the standoff , Yanukovych abandoned power and fled Kyiv on February 21 , 2014 .
The former president , who was secretly flown to Russia and remains there , denies that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yanukovych claims the violence was the result of a “ planned operation ” to overthrow his government .
In March 2014 , shortly after Yanukovych 's downfall , Russian military forces seized control of Ukraine 's Crimean Peninsula -- a precursor to the Kremlin 's forcible annexation of the territory through a hastily organized and widely discredited referendum .
Russia also has supported pro-Russia separatists who are fighting Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine .
More than 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict since April 2014 .
In Kyiv and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ religious ceremonies were scheduled to commemorate those killed during the Euromaidan protests .
Later on February 20 , Euromaidan protest participants and other activists plan to rally in front of the presidential administration building in Kyiv under the slogan : `` Ukraine Is Still On The Front Lines Fighting For Euromaidan 's Ideas . ''
Acting U.S .
Ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien said in a February 20 statement that the Heavenly Hundred 's `` sacrifice was not in vain . ''
`` The Heavenly Hundred continue to inspire Ukrainians from Uzhhorod to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world standing up for democracy and rule of law , '' Kvien said in a video statement issued on Twitter .
`` The United States stands firmly with the people of Ukraine in the effort to build strong democratic institutions .
`` We remain committed to partnering with the people of Ukraine in support of Ukraine 's democracy , sovereignty , and territorial integrity and in support of the Euro-Atlantic future , for which the Heavenly Hundred sacrificed their lives , ” Kvien said .

KYIV -- Ukrainians are marking Heavenly Hundred's Day on the sixth anniversary of a deadly crackdown against the Euromaidan protests that toppled Ukraine's pro-Russian former president, Viktor Yanukovych.
The commemorations honor those who were killed in Kyiv during clashes with Yanukovych's security forces on February 20, 2014.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, were among Ukrainians who laid flowers at the Monument to the Heavenly Hundred in Kyiv's Independence Square -- Maidan Nezalezhnosti -- on February 20.
The Euromaidan movement began in November 2013 when protesters gathered at the central square in Kyiv to protest Yanukovych's decision not to sign a crucial trade accord with the European Union and, instead, seek closer economic ties with Russia.
Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured as a result of violent crackdowns by authorities against protesters from February 18-20, 2014.
Shunning a deal backed by the West and Russia to end the standoff, Yanukovych abandoned power and fled Kyiv on February 21, 2014.
The former president, who was secretly flown to Russia and remains there, denies that he ordered police to fire on protesters.
Yanukovych claims the violence was the result of a “planned operation” to overthrow his government.
In March 2014, shortly after Yanukovych's downfall, Russian military forces seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula -- a precursor to the Kremlin's forcible annexation of the territory through a hastily organized and widely discredited referendum.
Russia also has supported pro-Russia separatists who are fighting Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine.
More than 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict since April 2014.
In Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on February 20, religious ceremonies were scheduled to commemorate those killed during the Euromaidan protests.
Later on February 20, Euromaidan protest participants and other activists plan to rally in front of the presidential administration building in Kyiv under the slogan: "Ukraine Is Still On The Front Lines Fighting For Euromaidan's Ideas."
Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien said in a February 20 statement that the Heavenly Hundred's "sacrifice was not in vain."
"The Heavenly Hundred continue to inspire Ukrainians from Uzhhorod to Mariupol, they inspire others around the world standing up for democracy and rule of law," Kvien said in a video statement issued on Twitter. "The United States stands firmly with the people of Ukraine in the effort to build strong democratic institutions.
"We remain committed to partnering with the people of Ukraine in support of Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity and in support of the Euro-Atlantic future, for which the Heavenly Hundred sacrificed their lives,” Kvien said.


rferl--2020-02-20--Pompeo Meets With Saudi Leaders About Iran, Economy, Human Rights

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met with Saudi Arabia 's King Salman in Riyadh for talk focused on security concerns about Saudi Arabia 's regional rival Iran .
Ahead of his arrival late on February 19 in the Saudi capital , Pompeo said he would also raise concerns with the Saudi leadership about Saudi Arabia 's human rights record -- including cases of Saudi-U.S. citizens who are either imprisoned in Saudi Arabia or barred from traveling abroad .
State Department officials said that Pompeo also planned to meet with King Salman 's son , the powerful Crown Prince @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan .
`` We 'll spend a lot of time talking about the security issues with the threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular , '' Pompeo said on February 19 .
Riyadh has been a strong ally of Washington in its disputes with Iran .
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia competes for influence in the Middle East with Shi ’ ite-led Iran .
Washington and Tehran have been at loggerheads and have come close to open warfare since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanctions on Iran .
The top U.S. diplomat said Washington was `` prepared to talk anytime '' to Tehran but stressed that the Iranians must `` fundamentally change their behavior . ''
Many U.S. lawmakers of both parties have urged Pompeo to press Riyadh on several controversial matters .
Saudi Arabia has come in for intense criticism in the West over its devastating five-year war in Yemen , the detention of women ’ s rights activists , and the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reuters

A polytechnic school in Russia’s Tatarstan, a region some 900 kilometers east of Moscow, is using manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and are increasingly turning to underage students as laborers, many of whom often work in exploitative conditions.
The revelations at Alabuga Polytechnic University raise troubling implications about the lengths that Russian authorities are going to in order to boost the war effort and how the advanced Iranian weaponry -- which is increasingly used to bombard Ukrainian cities and has only recently begun to be manufactured inside Russia -- could contribute to escalating tensions and rising civilian casualties.
The use of underage students as drone factory workers and the details of the manufacturing facilities were first reported by Russian independent media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July.
Since then, RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities has spoken with students who describe grueling working conditions and interviewed dozens of parents whose children have been enrolled at Alabuga Polytechnic University -- some as young at 15 -- who say that their children were forced to work exceedingly long hours, often without proper breaks or meals, and under hostile conditions that have deeply affected their mental health.
“My son enrolled and 2 1/2 months later he called for me to take him away,” Zhanna, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect against reprisals for speaking about the operation, told RFE/RL. “He said to me on the phone, ‘Come and get me or I’ll die,’ so I picked him up immediately.”
Zhanna, who asked that her underage son’s name also not be used, says that she sent him from Nizhny Novgorod to study at Alabuga Polytechnic University in 2022 because of its reputation as a leading technical institution inside Russia.
The school offered students -- often between the ages of 15-18 -- an opportunity to get vocational training as part of a dual program that combines a classroom education with practical work experience. Students were also promised an opportunity to work and earn a locally competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles ($700) a month as part of the work experience program that could further their career growth.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
But, instead, those enrolled were encouraged and in some cases pressured into working at the drone facility, where the salaries of the mostly underage laborers are contingent on meeting tough production quotas.
“This is a textbook definition of what constitutes exploitation,” Sergei Podsytnik, an investigative journalist at Protokol who worked on the series of reports, told RFE/RL. “[Students] assemble drones, with the work taking priority over their studies.”
The pressure to fulfill these quotas has allegedly led to strenuous back-to-back days -- with some shifts lasting up to 15 hours -- with little time for sleep or adequate sustenance. Overtime work is often unpaid, further highlighting potential labor violations. Exhausted students also reported not always meeting their quotas, which led to them not earning the salary initially promised by the school. Many students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and relied on their earnings to cover costs for tuition, room, and board and would send the remainder home.
Other parents, such as Marina, said she decided to take her daughter out of the program when she discovered that she was working in apparent unsafe conditions and that staff from the school had instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work.
“This was the last straw for me,” Marina, who also asked for her identity to be concealed, told RFE/RL. “This is a dangerous production process that involves dangerous chemicals. They also forbid the kids from telling everything to their parents.”
RFE/RL sent multiple requests for comment to various staff and administrators at Alabuga Polytechnic University but received no replies.
Making Iranian Drones In Russia
The complicated and concerning dynamic at Alabuga Polytechnic University stems from growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia that has accelerated since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war, but not since. However, U.S. intelligence officials have warned for months of continued deliveries and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying the two sides were exploring how to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian drones inside Russia.
According to The Wall Street Journal, an Iranian delegation visited Yelabuga in Tatarstan on January 5, touring a potential site for such a factory at the Alabuga special economic zone close to Alabuga Polytechnic University. U.S. officials released satellite images in April of the plant being built.
Russia already possesses an array of unarmed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, which are used mainly for surveillance and artillery spotting, but has turned increasingly to Tehran for attack drones.
After being forced to abandon Ukrainian territory that its troops captured in the early stretches of the war, Moscow shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities. These attacks often rely on a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to knock out electricity and running water for the civilian population in Ukraine.
So far, Iran has provided Russia mostly with so-called "suicide" drones, known as the Shahed-136, that contain a modest amount of explosives that can detonate when the drones crash into targets, military experts say.
In acquiring its own domestic assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of the relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems.
WATCH: Russia has resorted to using Shahed-136 drones from Iran in its war on Ukraine. Ukraine says it's already downed many of the drones, which work by slamming into their intended target, laden with explosives. Ordinary Ukrainians say they can already recognize the sound of the drones, which use two-stroke engines like lawnmowers or motorbikes. Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia.
The arrangement also offers substantial economic and political benefits for Iran, which has sought to portray itself as neutral in the Ukraine war. The appearance of Iranian-made drones over Ukrainian cities, however, has triggered threats of new economic sanctions from the West. The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have also all issued rules in recent months designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.
The Washington Post reported in November 2022, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, that the agreement to deliver Iranian drone schematics and materials for manufacture in Russia resulted from Iranian leaders believing that the arrangement would allow Tehran to avert new sanctions.
Foreign Recruitment And Patriotic Education
Alabuga Polytechnic University is formally not a college. All of its students are officially enrolled at nearby Yelabuga Polytechnic College, with the Alabuga institution existing on paper as a specialized program for students looking to break into high-tech industries.
Currently, about 1,000 students are studying at Alabuga Polytechnic University, with several hundred of them -- most of whom are between the ages of 15 and 17 -- involved in assembling the Iranian drones.
In addition to the work on the drones, there are other signs that point to blurred lines in Russia between the education system and the country’s military amid the war in Ukraine.
According to current and former Alabuga Polytechnic University students, team-building and organized extracurricular activities through the school often take on a “patriotic” character that may be designed to expose students to official government narratives of international events or echo talking points from state television.
Organized paintball games have become a mainstay for students, especially first-year arrivals, in which they are encouraged to compete against one another and then play together against more experienced outside players. Teachers and administration officials regularly refer to paintball as being part of a “patriotic” education needed to complement the technical aspect of their studies.
In one instance, a group of new students competed in paintball as Soviet soldiers against outside players who were dressed as troops from Nazi Germany in a capture-the-flag competition meant to simulate the World War II battle of Stalingrad. According to one student, the Nazi flag contained the compass symbol used by the NATO military alliance instead of the swastika used by Nazi Germany.
Other instances of political teachings from staff are more direct. In a recording obtained by RFE/RL from June 16, a senior administrator can be heard telling the teenagers that NATO launched a hybrid war against Russia back in 2011 and that it has slowly become more overt. The man then goes on to tell students that their hard work and exceeding long days at the drone factory are part of a nationwide struggle against the West and that their patriotism will be rewarded.
Several students and parents identified the man in the recording as Timur Shagivaleev, the director-general of the special economic zone where Alabuga Polytechnic University and the drone factory operate.
Shagivaleev did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
The man in the recording then goes on to tell students not to take holidays and to continue working “even if it's mom's birthday,” before ending his speech with, “Long live our great country.”
WATCH: Amid a new wave of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, analysts in Kyiv are gaining useful intelligence from a collection of downed Russian aerial weapons. They have been studying the remains of Iranian Shahed drones and Russian Kinzhal missiles, among others.
Multiple current and former students told RFE/RL that students who work in the drone factory are often praised by staff, while those who have refused or asked to be reassigned due to the high workload are often publicly shamed. In some instances -- according to recordings heard by RFE/RL -- staff even encourage students to bully others who are not deemed “patriotic” enough.
According to Protokol and Razvorot’s investigations, Alabuga Polytechnic University has also turned toward recruiting foreign students to enroll. The majority of them come from African countries, but also from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where they are promised “world class” salaries as part of the dual-track world experience program.
However, these foreign students are then given low-skill and menial tasks around the campus and the special economic zone, such as janitorial work, and are also paid lower salaries than initially promised.
Written by Reid Standish based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities


rferl--2020-02-20--Moscow Bus Drivers Told To Report Suspected Chinese Passengers, Amid Coronavirus Fears

MOSCOW -- A public transport worker in Moscow has told RFE/RL that all drivers of buses , trams , and trolley buses in the Russian capital have been instructed to stop their vehicles and make all passengers disembark if they suspect any of their passengers are from China .
The public transport driver , who spoke on condition of anonymity , told RFE/RL on February 20 that the measure was aimed at stopping the possible spread of the coronavirus from China .
He said Moscow public transport drivers who suspect they have a Chinese passenger are supposed to contact a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of authorities before continuing with their routes .
The revelations about the policy emerged a day after Russian media and social-network users reported that the Moscow City Transportation Agency , Mosgortrans , had instructed its drivers to report suspected Chinese nationals among their passengers .
There was no immediate comment about the reports from Mosgortrans officials .
On February 18 , Russian authorities announced that Chinese citizens would be temporarily blocked from entering Russia beginning on February 20 in an attempt to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus .
More than 74,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in China and hundreds more in nearly 30 other countries .
According to information released by Beijing on February 19 , the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China has reached 2,118 .

MOSCOW -- A public transport worker in Moscow has told RFE/RL that all drivers of buses, trams, and trolley buses in the Russian capital have been instructed to stop their vehicles and make all passengers disembark if they suspect any of their passengers are from China.
The public transport driver, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL on February 20 that the measure was aimed at stopping the possible spread of the coronavirus from China.
He said Moscow public transport drivers who suspect they have a Chinese passenger are supposed to contact a police dispatcher and wait for the arrival of authorities before continuing with their routes.
The revelations about the policy emerged a day after Russian media and social-network users reported that the Moscow City Transportation Agency, Mosgortrans, had instructed its drivers to report suspected Chinese nationals among their passengers.
There was no immediate comment about the reports from Mosgortrans officials.
On February 18, Russian authorities announced that Chinese citizens would be temporarily blocked from entering Russia beginning on February 20 in an attempt to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The decision wasn't political and was made solely for safety reasons, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on February 20.
"I would like to note that all actions taken by Russia to avoid the spread of this epidemic, including international efforts, are not politicized, they are not made with any political gain," she said. "This is solely an issue of safety, medicine, and expert evaluations of the situation and the steps needed to be taken."
More than 74,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus in China and hundreds more in nearly 30 other countries.
According to information released by Beijing on February 19, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China has reached 2,118.
With reporting by Podyom


rferl--2020-02-20--U.S. Says Iran Continues To Smuggle 'Advanced Weapons' To Huthis In Yemen

The U.S. military says Iran is continuing to send “ advanced weapons ” to Yemen ’ s Huthi rebels as part of their fight against the Saudi-backed government in the war-torn nation .
The comments on February 19 came more than a week after the U.S. Navy seized advanced weapons and weapon components believed to be of Iranian “ design and manufacture ” intended for the rebels in Yemen .
It was the second such seizure of dhow vessels that were sailing without a flag following a previous such incident on November 25 .
Iran denies supplying the mainly Shi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite evidence displayed by U.S. and Saudi officials that it does .
`` The [ latest ] seizure is consistent with a historical pattern of Iranian smuggling of advanced weapons to the Huthis in Yemen , '' Captain Bill Urban of U.S. Central Command -- which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East -- told a briefing at the Pentagon .
Urban said Washington believes that Iran has been providing weapons to the Huthi rebels for the last five years , which he said has helped prolong the deadly conflict .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and said they came from Iran and were intended for the Huthis .
He said the USS Normandy on February 9 found 150 `` Dhelavieh , '' Iranian-made copies of the Russian Kornet anti-tank guided missile , and three Iranian-designed and manufactured surface-to-air missiles .
The November seizures included the same type of missiles , along with a large number of spare parts for cruise missiles , he added .
Urban said U.S. experts had `` high confidence '' the weapons `` were being illicitly smuggled to the Huthis in Yemen in contravention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' Yemen ’ s internationally recognized government , which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition , has been involved in a protracted war with Huthi forces since 2014 .
The rebels have seized much of the nation ’ s northwest and its capital , Sanaa , in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people and created a humanitarian nightmare in the Arab world ’ s poorest country .
Many people have called the fight a proxy war between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi ’ ite-led Iran .
With reporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and The New York Times