rferl--2020-10-21--At Least 15 Afghans Killed In Stampede Near Pakistan's Jalalabad Consulate

At least 15 people were killed and 10 injured in a stampede that occurred inside a football stadium in Afghanistan 's eastern Nangarhar Province , where thousands had gathered on October 20 to secure visas from the Pakistani consulate , officials said on October 21 .
Sohrab Qaderi , a council member in the provincial capital of Jalalabad , where the incident occurred said that , of the 15 people dead , 11 were women , while several senior citizens were injured .
Zahir Adil , the spokesperson for the public health directorate in Nangarhar , told RFE/RL that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so far to the local hospital .
Two other provincial officials said over 3,000 Afghans had gathered to collect tokens needed to apply for a visa to travel to Pakistan .
Pakistan restricted the number of visas for Afghans earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic .
Officials at the Pakistani Embassy were not immediately available for comment .
Most Afghans travel to Pakistan for medical treatment .
Those who apply for visas in the capital , Kabul , in Jalalabad , or Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan , complain of irregularities and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ease the processing of visas for Afghans and introduced a new visa regime on October 16 .

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--2020-10-22--Uzbekistan Moves To Quicken Transition To Latin Alphabet

Uzbekistan ’ s President Shavkat Mirziyoev has issued a decree to hasten the full transition of the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic to Latin alphabet .
The decree issued on October 21 outlines language policy for the 2020-2030 period as the Central Asian country continues an on-again , off-again attempt to reform the Uzbek language and widen its use .
One pillar of the decree calls on the government to create a working group within three months to develop and submit to the presidential administration a roadmap for a full transition to the Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin alphabet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by April 2021 to be certified in their knowledge of Uzbek .
The document also states that by 2030 , 80 percent kindergarteners should be Uzbek-speaking .
It also aims to increase the hours of Uzbek language teaching .
Uzbek was written in an Arabic script until the late 1920s , then switched to Latin script as part of a larger Latinization of Turkic languages , before the Soviets introduced Cyrillic in 1940 .
In the early 1990s , the newly independent state of Uzbekistan began to transition back to Latin script but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going through various iterations , a working group at Tashkent State University presented a final draft of the updated Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin alphabet in 2019 .
The linguists ’ updated alphabet consists of 30 characters : 29 letters and an apostrophe to denote a hard sign .
In neighboring Kazakhstan , the process of switching to the Latin alphabet has been going on since 2017 , when former President Nursultan Nazarbaev first instructed the government to draw up a timetable for the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the move to shift to Latin script is in part driven by political considerations in order to distance the Central Asian states from years of Russian influence and develop a stronger national identity in the young states .
The Latin script is also considered better suited to Turkic languages .
The Soviet-era transition of Turkic languages to Cyrillic was in part implemented to distance Central Asian states and Azerbaijan from Turkey , which as part of a Westernization drive changed its Persian-Arabic script to a Latin one in the 1920s .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ languages was designed to distance Turkey and Muslim Central Asian nations from the Islamic world .

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoev has issued a decree to hasten the full transition of the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic to Latin alphabet.
The decree issued on October 21 outlines language policy for the 2020-30 period as the Central Asian country continues an on-again, off-again attempt to reform the Uzbek language and widen its use.
One pillar of the decree calls on the government to create a working group within three months to develop and submit to the presidential administration a road map for a full transition to the Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin alphabet.
Another part calls on government officials by April 2021 to be certified in their knowledge of Uzbek.
The document also states that by 2030, 80 percent of kindergartners should be Uzbek-speaking. It also aims to increase the hours of Uzbek language teaching.
Uzbek was written in an Arabic script until the late 1920s, then switched to Latin script as part of a larger Latinization of Turkic languages, before the Soviets introduced Cyrillic in 1940.
In the early 1990s, the newly independent state of Uzbekistan began to transition back to Latin script but Cyrillic is still widely used.
After going through various iterations, a working group at Tashkent State University presented a final draft of the updated Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin alphabet in 2019.
The linguists’ updated alphabet consists of 30 characters: 29 letters and an apostrophe to denote a hard sign.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, the process of switching to the Latin alphabet has been going on since 2017, when former President Nursultan Nazarbaev first instructed the government to draw up a timetable for the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin alphabet.
In both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the move to shift to Latin script is in part driven by political considerations in order to distance the Central Asian states from years of Russian influence and develop a stronger national identity in the young states. The Latin script is also considered better suited to Turkic languages.
The Soviet-era transition of Turkic languages to Cyrillic was in part implemented to distance Central Asian states and Azerbaijan from Turkey, which as part of a Westernization drive changed its Persian-Arabic script to a Latin one in the 1920s.
The switch away from Arabic script among Turkic languages was designed to distance Turkey and Muslim Central Asian nations from the Islamic world.


rferl--2020-10-21--Russia Urged To Free Jailed Activist Ahead Of Parole Hearing

A court in central Russia is set to consider on October 22 an application for parole of Yan Sidorov , who was sentenced to prison last year for organizing a peaceful protest in 2017 .
Ahead of the hearing in the Ulyanovsk region , Amnesty International called on the authorities to “ end a gross injustice by immediately and unconditionally releasing ” Sidorov , whom it considers a prisoner of conscience .
At the hearing , penitentiary officials are expected to present evidence of `` regime violations '' he allegedly committed while in a penal colony , Natalia Zviagina , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said in a statement .
“ One of these so-called violations consisted of Yan not tucking his blanket under his mattress properly .
The record of this ‘ violation ’ only goes to show how desperate Russian authorities are to justify the continued imprisonment of a brave human rights defender , ” Zviagina added .
A year ago , Sidorov and his friend Vladislav Mordasov were convicted of the “ attempted organization of mass disturbances ” and were sentenced to more than six years each in a penal colony -- sentences that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sidorov and Mordasov were 18 and 21 years old when they were detained in November 2017 .
Amnesty International said they were prosecuted for trying to hold a peaceful protest in support of dozens of people in Rostov-on-Don who lost their homes in mass fires earlier that year .
Sidorov “ should have never been imprisoned in the first place , and nothing will make up for the years he has spent behind bars .
But tomorrow there is a chance to begin to rectify this injustice by ordering his release , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watchdog also called for the release of Mordasov , his fellow prisoner of conscience .

A court in central Russia is set to consider on October 22 an application for parole of Yan Sidorov, who was sentenced to prison last year for organizing a peaceful protest in 2017.
Ahead of the hearing in the Ulyanovsk region, Amnesty International called on the authorities to “end a gross injustice by immediately and unconditionally releasing” Sidorov, whom it considers a prisoner of conscience.
At the hearing, penitentiary officials are expected to present evidence of "regime violations" he allegedly committed while in a penal colony, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow office director, said in a statement.
“One of these so-called violations consisted of Yan not tucking his blanket under his mattress properly. The record of this ‘violation’ only goes to show how desperate Russian authorities are to justify the continued imprisonment of a brave human rights defender,” Zviagina added.
A year ago, Sidorov and his friend Vladislav Mordasov were convicted of the “attempted organization of mass disturbances” and were sentenced to more than six years each in a penal colony -- sentences that were subsequently reduced to four years.
Sidorov and Mordasov were 18 and 21 years old when they were detained in November 2017.
Amnesty International said they were prosecuted for trying to hold a peaceful protest in support of dozens of people in Rostov-on-Don who lost their homes in mass fires earlier that year.
Sidorov “should have never been imprisoned in the first place, and nothing will make up for the years he has spent behind bars. But tomorrow there is a chance to begin to rectify this injustice by ordering his release,” Zviagina said.
The London-based human rights watchdog also called for the release of Mordasov, his fellow prisoner of conscience.


rferl--2020-10-21--NATO Set To Approve German Space Center Amid Concern Over Russian, Chinese Moves

NATO defense ministers are expected to agree this week on setting up a space center in southwestern Germany amid concerns about what the Western military alliance sees as increasingly aggressive behavior by Russia and China .
Ahead of the two-day meeting staring on October 22 , NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the new space center is to be set up in Ramstein , an air base close to the French border , to help manage satellite communications and the alliance ’ s military operations around the world .
`` NATO continues to adapt in all domains , including in space @ @ @ @ @ @ @ competitive every year .
Some nations -- including Russia and China -- are developing systems which could blind , disable , or shoot down satellites , ” Stoltenberg said .
Some 2,000 satellites orbit the Earth , more than half of which are operated by NATO members , allowing everything from mobile phone services to weather forecasts .
Currently , at least 40 percent of NATO ’ s communications are via satellite .
`` Space is essential for our ability to navigate , communicate , and detect missile launches .
And fast , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vital for our troops , '' Stoltenberg said , insisting that the allies ’ aim “ is not to militarize space , but to increase NATO 's awareness of challenges in space , and our ability to deal with them . ''
NATO allies have been increasingly concerned about attacks using anti-satellite weapons kilometers above the Earth that could wreak havoc below and leave dangerous debris adrift in space .
In December , members of the alliance recognized space as a fifth domain of operations in which it must defend itself as effectively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on land , at sea , and in cyberspace .
The NATO defense ministers are also expected to address on October 22 what Stoltenberg called “ the Russian missile challenge , which is growing in scale and complexity.
” “ Allies have already agreed a balanced package of political and military measures .
Work is ongoing to improve our air and missile defenses to strengthen our conventional capabilities , ” he said .
The United States and Russia have not yet finalized a deal to extend their last major arms-control treaty , New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in February .
The United States and its allies have accused Russia of violating the now-defunct Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ( INF ) between Moscow and Washington .
Washington has also unilaterally exited Open Skies , a treaty that permits the United States and Russia to conduct reconnaissance flights over each others territory .

NATO defense ministers are expected to agree this week on setting up a space center in southwestern Germany amid concerns about what the Western military alliance sees as increasingly aggressive behavior by Russia and China.
Ahead of the two-day meeting staring on October 22, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the new space center is to be set up in Ramstein, an air base close to the French border, to help manage satellite communications and the alliance’s military operations around the world.
"NATO continues to adapt in all domains, including in space, which is becoming more crowded and competitive every year. Some nations -- including Russia and China -- are developing systems which could blind, disable, or shoot down satellites,” Stoltenberg said.
Some 2,000 satellites orbit the Earth, more than half of which are operated by NATO members, allowing everything from mobile phone services to weather forecasts.
Currently, at least 40 percent of NATO’s communications are via satellite.
"Space is essential for our ability to navigate, communicate, and detect missile launches. And fast, effective, and secure satellite communications are vital for our troops," Stoltenberg said, insisting that the allies’ aim “is not to militarize space, but to increase NATO's awareness of challenges in space, and our ability to deal with them."
NATO allies have been increasingly concerned about attacks using anti-satellite weapons kilometers above the Earth that could wreak havoc below and leave dangerous debris adrift in space.
In December, members of the alliance recognized space as a fifth domain of operations in which it must defend itself as effectively as it does in the air, on land, at sea, and in cyberspace.
The NATO defense ministers are also expected to address on October 22 what Stoltenberg called “the Russian missile challenge, which is growing in scale and complexity.”
“Allies have already agreed a balanced package of political and military measures. Work is ongoing to improve our air and missile defenses to strengthen our conventional capabilities,” he said.
The United States and Russia have not yet finalized a deal to extend their last major arms-control treaty, New START, which is due to expire in February.
The United States and its allies have accused Russia of violating the now-defunct Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) between Moscow and Washington.
Washington has also unilaterally exited Open Skies, a treaty that permits the United States and Russia to conduct reconnaissance flights over each others territory.
With reporting by AP


rferl--2020-10-21--Kosovar Special Prosecutor Warns President's Proposed Legal Changes 'Undercut' War Crimes Tribunal

The Special Prosecutor ’ s Office ( SPO ) says Kosovar President Hashim Thaci is trying to “ undercut ” a Hague-based court ’ s mandate as it investigates alleged war crimes committed during the country ’ s violent separation from Serbia .
In a statement published online , the SPO , which announced in June that Thaci and other prominent Kosovars were the subject of an indictment on suspicion of serious crimes , including `` nearly 100 murders , '' enforced disappearances , and torture , said `` there is good reason to believe '' the president has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategy to undercut the court . ''
At issue are legal amendments Thaci has proposed that would give lawmakers in Kosovo the power to extend the mandate of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers ( KSC ) for another five years .
The SPO warned in its statement that its mandate lasts until `` notification of completion is made by the Council of the European Union , '' and Thaci ’ s move could imply that the mandate already expired .
`` A potential consequence of that position would be the invalidation of all actions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , notably including any confirmation of the indictment against Mr. Thaci himself , '' the statement said .
“ …the fact that the amendments are proposed by a president who is the subject of an indictment submitted by the SPO relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity warrants assessing them with particular scrutiny , ” it said , adding that since Thaci is not a “ disinterested party , ” there is “ good reason to believe that the proposed amendments are part of a larger strategy to undercut the court.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to look into allegations that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army ( UCK ) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1998-99 war to gain independence from Serbia .
It operates under Kosovar law but is based in the Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation .
Last month , it made its first arrest , detaining the former head of the intelligence service of the Kosovo Security Force , Salih Mustafa , on the basis of an arrest warrant and a confirmed indictment issued by a pretrial judge of the KSC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 10,000 people dead -- most of them ethnic Albanians from Kosovo .
More than 1,600 people remain unaccounted for .
The fighting ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbia .
Kosovo , which has a largely ethnic Albanian population , declared independence from Serbia in 2008 , a move recognized by many Western states but not Serbia or its allies Russia and China .

The Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) says Kosovar President Hashim Thaci is trying to “undercut” a Hague-based court’s mandate as it investigates alleged war crimes committed during the country’s violent separation from Serbia.
In a statement published online, the SPO, which announced in June that Thaci and other prominent Kosovars were the subject of an indictment on suspicion of serious crimes, including "nearly 100 murders," enforced disappearances, and torture, said "there is good reason to believe" the president has been acting as part of a "larger strategy to undercut the court."
At issue are legal amendments Thaci has proposed that would give lawmakers in Kosovo the power to extend the mandate of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) for another five years.
The SPO warned in its statement that its mandate lasts until "notification of completion is made by the Council of the European Union," and Thaci’s move could imply that the mandate already expired.
"A potential consequence of that position would be the invalidation of all actions taken by the KSC/SPO since that time, notably including any confirmation of the indictment against Mr. Thaci himself," the statement said.
“…the fact that the amendments are proposed by a president who is the subject of an indictment submitted by the SPO relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity warrants assessing them with particular scrutiny,” it said, adding that since Thaci is not a “disinterested party,” there is “good reason to believe that the proposed amendments are part of a larger strategy to undercut the court.”
The KSC for war crimes is mandated to look into allegations that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1998-99 war to gain independence from Serbia.
It operates under Kosovar law but is based in the Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation.
Last month, it made its first arrest, detaining the former head of the intelligence service of the Kosovo Security Force, Salih Mustafa, on the basis of an arrest warrant and a confirmed indictment issued by a pretrial judge of the KSC.
The independence war with Serbia left more than 10,000 people dead -- most of them ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. More than 1,600 people remain unaccounted for. The fighting ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbia.
Kosovo, which has a largely ethnic Albanian population, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognized by many Western states but not Serbia or its allies Russia and China.


rferl--2020-10-21--Armed Man Takes Hostages At Bank In Western Georgian City of Zugdidi

ZUGDIDI , Georgia -- A masked gunman wearing military fatigues took up to 19 hostages at a bank in the @ @ @ @ @ .
The gunman took employees and customers hostage at a Bank of Georgia branch in @ @ @ @ @ on October 21 , Georgia 's Interior Ministry said .
An RFE/RL correspondent at the @ @ @ @ @ fired a gun inside the building before he allowed several elderly hostages to leave the @ @ @ @ @ standoff with police that stretched into the evening , the gunman left the building and @ @ @ @ @ .
The gunman reportedly demanded $ 500,000 and a guarantee to leave the area safely @ @ @ @ @ , one of the hostages is believed to be a police negotiator .
Television footage @ @ @ @ @ leaving with a hostage carrying a grenade in his hand .
His current whereabouts are @ @ @ @ @ editor-in-chief of the military magazine Arsenal , told RFE/RL ’ s Georgia Service that the @ @ @ @ @ Kalashnikov-type automatic rifle and was wearing the uniform of the Georgian Armed Forces .

TBILISI -- A manhunt continues in Georgia, one day after an armed robber took hostages at a bank in the western city of Zugdidi and escaped with an unspecified amount of cash.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said on October 22 that all the hostages were released and a special operation to locate and apprehend the perpetrator is underway.
A masked gunman wearing military fatigues took up to 19 people hostage at a branch of the Bank of Georgia in Zugdidi on October 21.
After an hours-long standoff with police that stretched into the evening, the gunman left the building and took three hostages with him.
The gunman reportedly demanded $500,000 and a guarantee to leave the area safely.
Television stations appeared to show the gunman carrying a grenade and a backpack reportedly filled with cash while leaving the bank with a hostage.
Rustavi-2 television channel reported on October 22 that the robber released the last of his hostages in a forest near a village in the municipality of Chkhorotsqu.
The Interior Ministry said it has launched a probe into the incident.


rferl--2020-10-21--Armenian, Azerbaijani Leaders Talk War As World Powers Press For Nagorno-Karabakh Truce

YEREVAN/BAKU -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has told the nation that he sees no possibility of a diplomatic solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict , dampening international efforts to forge a sustainable truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway territory .
`` We have to realize that the Karabakh question , at least at this stage and for a very long time , can not have a diplomatic solution , '' Pashinian said during a speech broadcast on Facebook Live on October 21 .
`` Everything that is diplomatically acceptable to the Armenian side ... is not acceptable to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calling on Armenians to `` take up arms and defend the Motherland . ''
Pashinian 's comments followed statements by Azerbaijan ’ s President Ilham Aliyev in which he said that he foresaw a military resolution to the crisis and that Azerbaijani forces would drive Armenians `` out of our lands . ''
The rhetoric has cast a pall on the diplomatic push to end fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces , with Armenia ’ s President Armen Sarkisian visiting Brussels for talks with the European Union and NATO , while the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Moscow for consultations with Russia .
Hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been killed since late September , when fighting flared up over the mountainous enclave run and populated by ethnic Armenians but recognized internationally as Azerbaijani .
After Azerbaijan ’ s Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov met with his Russian counterpart , Sergei Lavrov , in Moscow , the Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia , Polad Bulbuloglu , said that Baku remained committed to efforts to forge a peace deal .
`` Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan ’ s commitment to efforts to resolve the conflict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state agency TASS .
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian met separately with Lavrov on October 21 , but there was no face-to-face meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers .
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the talks centered on `` urgent issues related to implementing agreements reached earlier on a cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and creating conditions for its sustainable settlement . ''
Bayramov and Mnatsakanian will next travel to Washington for talks on October 23 involving U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , a development that has raised hopes of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would tell the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia that “ the right path forward is to cease the conflict , tell them to deescalate , that every country should stay out - provide no fuel for this conflict , no weapons systems , no support . ''
“ It is at that point that a diplomatic solution , that would be acceptable to all , can potentially be achieved , '' he added .
The United States , France , and Russia are the co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Europe ( OSCE ) , which has spearheaded efforts , so far unsuccessful , to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since a fragile 1994 cease-fire .
The three powers have called for an immediate cease-fire and a diplomatic settlement of the conflict .
Welcoming Sarkisian to NATO headquarters on October 21 , the Western military alliance 's secretary-general , Jens Stoltenberg , called for both Azerbaijanis and Armenians to observe the cease-fire .
`` It is important for NATO and international security that hostilities end , the suffering stops , and a peaceful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan reported new fighting on October 21 in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as the second of two humanitarian cease-fires appears to have failed to hold .
Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh reported artillery bombardments , with fighting particularly intense in southern areas of the conflict zone .
Azerbaijan on October 21 denied one of its warplanes was shot down .
`` The Armenian Defense Ministry 's report on the downing of an Azerbaijani Air Force aircraft is untrue , '' it said .
Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian said earlier that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Azerbaijani military plane in the southern part of the conflict zone .
Stepanian did not specify the type of plane downed .
Reports on both sides are often contradictory and hard to verify , with each accusing the other of attacking civilian targets .
The fighting has raised concerns of a wider conflict in the South Caucasus drawing in Russia , which has a defense pact with Armenia , and Turkey , Azerbaijan 's closest ally .
There is also increased concern about the security of pipelines in Azerbaijan that carry Azeri @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay reiterated his country 's support for Azerbaijan , saying on October 21 that Turkey would not hesitate to send troops if Baku requested it .
He also alleged that the Minsk Group was supporting Yerevan and was deliberately trying to keep the conflict from being resolved .
Besides Stoltenberg , Sarkisian was also due to meet with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels , his office said .
`` It is expected that the leadership of NATO and the European @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Azerbaijan 's and NATO-member Turkey 's military actions , which will help bring to life the cease-fire agreements , '' it said .
Armenia has accused Turkey of sending mercenaries to fight on the Azerbaijani side .
NATO member Turkey has rejected the accusation , saying it has no direct role in the fighting .
Azerbaijan says its forces , which are boosted by increased military spending in the past few years and are making heavy use of drones , have made territorial gains .
Internationally recognized as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been controlled by mainly Christian ethnic Armenians , backed by Yerevan , since the 1994 cease-fire .
With reporting by Reuters , AFP , Interfax , and TASS

YEREVAN/BAKU -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has told the nation that he sees no possibility of a diplomatic solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, dampening international efforts to forge a sustainable truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway territory.
"We have to realize that the Karabakh question, at least at this stage and for a very long time, cannot have a diplomatic solution," Pashinian said during a speech broadcast on Facebook Live on October 21.
"Everything that is diplomatically acceptable to the Armenian side...is not acceptable to Azerbaijan anymore," he said, calling on Armenians to "take up arms and defend the Motherland."
Pashinian's comments followed statements by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in which he said that he foresaw a military resolution to the crisis and that Azerbaijani forces would drive Armenians "out of our lands."
The rhetoric has cast a pall on the diplomatic push to end fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces, with Armenia’s President Armen Sarkisian visiting Brussels for talks with the European Union and NATO, while the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are in Moscow for consultations with Russia.
Hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been killed since late September, when fighting flared up over the mountainous enclave run and populated by ethnic Armenians but recognized internationally as Azerbaijani.
After Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow, the Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, said that Baku remained committed to efforts to forge a peace deal.
"Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s commitment to efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully," Bulbuloglu told the Russian state agency TASS.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian met separately with Lavrov on October 21, but there was no face-to-face meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the talks centered on "urgent issues related to implementing agreements reached earlier on a cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and creating conditions for its sustainable settlement."
Bayramov and Mnatsakanian will next travel to Washington for talks on October 23 involving U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a development that has raised hopes of a breakthrough.
Pompeo told reporters that he would tell the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia that “the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell them to de-escalate, that every country should stay out -- provide no fuel for this conflict, no weapons systems, no support."
“It is at that point that a diplomatic solution, that would be acceptable to all, can potentially be achieved," he added.
The United States, France, and Russia are the co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has spearheaded efforts, so far unsuccessful, to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since a fragile 1994 cease-fire. The three powers have called for an immediate cease-fire and a diplomatic settlement of the conflict.
Welcoming Sarkisian to NATO headquarters on October 21, the Western military alliance's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, called for both Azerbaijanis and Armenians to observe the cease-fire.
"It is important for NATO and international security that hostilities end, the suffering stops, and a peaceful solution is found,” he said.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan reported new fighting on October 21 in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as the second of two humanitarian cease-fires appears to have failed to hold.
Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh reported artillery bombardments, with fighting particularly intense in southern areas of the conflict zone.
Azerbaijan on October 21 denied one of its warplanes was shot down.
"The Armenian Defense Ministry's report on the downing of an Azerbaijani Air Force aircraft is untrue," it said.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian said earlier that the air defense of Nagorno-Karabakh had downed an Azerbaijani military plane in the southern part of the conflict zone. Stepanian did not specify the type of plane downed.
Reports on both sides are often contradictory and hard to verify, with each accusing the other of attacking civilian targets.
Fears Of A Wider Conflict
The fighting has raised concerns of a wider conflict in the South Caucasus drawing in Russia, which has a defense pact with Armenia, and Turkey, Azerbaijan's closest ally. There is also increased concern about the security of pipelines in Azerbaijan that carry Azeri gas and oil to world markets.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay reiterated his country's support for Azerbaijan, saying on October 21 that Turkey would not hesitate to send troops if Baku requested it.
He also alleged that the Minsk Group was supporting Yerevan and was deliberately trying to keep the conflict from being resolved.
Besides Stoltenberg, Sarkisian was also due to meet with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels, his office said.
"It is expected that the leadership of NATO and the European organizations will do everything possible to stop Azerbaijan's and NATO-member Turkey's military actions, which will help bring to life the cease-fire agreements," it said.
Armenia has accused Turkey of sending mercenaries to fight on the Azerbaijani side.
NATO member Turkey has rejected the accusation, saying it has no direct role in the fighting.
Azerbaijan says its forces, which are boosted by increased military spending in the past few years and are making heavy use of drones, have made territorial gains.
Internationally recognized as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by mainly Christian ethnic Armenians, backed by Yerevan, since the 1994 cease-fire.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, Interfax, and TASS


rferl--2020-10-22--Whistle-Blower Snowden Reportedly Granted Permanent Residency By Russia

Russian media says U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been granted permanent residency by the government .
News agencies TASS and RIA Novosti quoted Snowden 's lawyer , Anatoly Kucherena , as saying on October 22 that his client had requested a three-year extension of the permit earlier this year before it expired in April 2020 , but the procedure was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic .
He added that Snowden , at the moment , was not considering applying for a Russian passport .
Snowden was charged under the U.S .
Espionage Act for leaking 1.5 million secret documents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government surveillance , prompting public debate about the legality of some of the agency ’ s programs , on privacy concerns , and about the United States snooping on its neighbors .
If convicted , Snowden faces up to 30 years in prison .
Snowden has been living in Russia since 2013 after revealing the documents .
U.S. President Donald Trump said in August that he was considering a pardon for Snowden , while in September , the whistle-blower called on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum .
Snowden had unsuccessfully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and several other countries .
Based on reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti

Russian media says U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been granted permanent residency by the government.
News agencies TASS and RIA Novosti quoted Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, as saying on October 22 that his client had requested a three-year extension of the permit earlier this year before it expired in April 2020, but the procedure was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He added that Snowden, at the moment, was not considering applying for a Russian passport.
Snowden was charged under the U.S. Espionage Act for leaking 1.5 million secret documents from the U.S. National Security Agency on government surveillance, prompting public debate about the legality of some of the agency’s programs, on privacy concerns, and about the United States snooping on its neighbors.
If convicted, Snowden faces up to 30 years in prison.
Snowden has been living in Russia since 2013 after revealing the documents.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in August that he was considering a pardon for Snowden, while in September, the whistle-blower called on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum.
Snowden had unsuccessfully applied for asylum in France in 2013 and several other countries.
Based on reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti


rferl--2020-10-22--Belarusian Opposition Awarded 2020 Sakharov Prize By European Parliament

Belarus 's democratic opposition has been awarded the European Parliament 's 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought .
`` It is an honor to announce that the women and men of the democratic opposition in Belarus are the 2020 Sakharov Prize laureates , '' European Parliament President David Sassoli told European lawmakers .
`` I would like to congratulate the representatives of the Belarusian opposition for their courage , resilience , and determination that they have been showing every day in defense of the freedom of thought and expression .
This is what the Sakharov Prize is awarded for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will go to several opposition figures , including presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya ; Maryya Kalesnikava ; Veranika Tsapkala ; Volha Kavalkova ; and Syarhey Dyleuski ; as well as Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich ; Tsikhanouskaya 's imprisoned husband , Syarhey Tsikhanouski ; the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA , Stsyapan Putsila ; Ales Byalyatski from the human rights organization Vyasna ; and political prisoner Mikalay Statkevich , who was a presidential candidate in the 2010 election .
`` They have shown and continue to show their strength in face of a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going is the [ conviction ] that violence can never defeat the truth , '' Sassoli said .
Protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka have been ongoing since disputed presidential elections on August 9 , resulting in several deaths , hundreds of injuries , and more than 10,000 arrests .
Lukashenka , in office since 1994 , was officially declared the election winner with more than 80 percent of the vote -- a result which the opposition said was rigged and that their candidate , Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya , actually won .
The United States and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lukashenka 's victory .
Tsikhanouskaya , who left Belarus for Lithuania shortly after the election amid threats to her and her family , said she was `` really glad '' to hear of the European Parliament 's decision .
`` This is not my personal award .
It is an award for the Belarusian people , '' she told reporters during a visit to Copenhagen .
The three largest political groups in the European Parliament all backed the Belarusian opposition to win the prize , making the award decision by the leaders of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a foregone conclusion .
The two other short-listed candidates were a group of Honduran environmental activists and Najeeb Michaeel , the archbishop of the Iraqi city of Mosul .
An award ceremony is due to take place in the European Parliament on December 16 , even though it isn ’ t clear yet whether it will be at the legislative body 's Brussels or Strasbourg venue due to the coronavirus pandemic .
The 50,000 euro ( $ 60,000 ) annual human rights prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European Parliament to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms .
The Belarusian Association of Journalists and the former Belarusian presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkievich were awarded the prize in 2004 and 2006 , respectively .
Ilham Tohti , the jailed advocate for China ’ s Uyghur minority , won last year 's Sakahrov prize .

Belarus's democratic opposition has been awarded the European Parliament's 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
"It is an honor to announce that the women and men of the democratic opposition in Belarus are the 2020 Sakharov Prize laureates," European Parliament President David Sassoli told European lawmakers.
"I would like to congratulate the representatives of the Belarusian opposition for their courage, resilience, and determination that they have been showing every day in defense of the freedom of thought and expression. This is what the Sakharov Prize is awarded for," Sassoli said.
The award will go to several opposition figures, including presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya; Maryya Kalesnikava; Veranika Tsapkala; Volha Kavalkova; and Syarhey Dyleuski; as well as Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich; Tsikhanouskaya's imprisoned husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski; the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA, Stsyapan Putsila; Ales Byalyatski from the human rights organization Vyasna; and political prisoner Mikalay Statkevich, who was a presidential candidate in the 2010 election.
"They have shown and continue to show their strength in face of a very powerful adversary, but what keeps them going is the [conviction] that violence can never defeat the truth," Sassoli said.
Protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka have been ongoing since disputed presidential elections on August 9, resulting in several deaths, hundreds of injuries, and more than 10,000 arrests.
Lukashenka, in office since 1994, was officially declared the election winner with more than 80 percent of the vote -- a result which the opposition said was rigged and that their candidate, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, actually won.
The United States and the European Union have refused to recognize Lukashenka's victory.
Tsikhanouskaya, who left Belarus for Lithuania shortly after the election amid threats to her and her family, said she was "really glad" to hear of the European Parliament's decision.
"This is not my personal award. It is an award for the Belarusian people," she told reporters during a visit to Copenhagen.
The three largest political groups in the European Parliament all backed the Belarusian opposition to win the prize, making the award decision by the leaders of the various political groups in the chamber a foregone conclusion.
The two other short-listed candidates were a group of Honduran environmental activists and Najeeb Michaeel, the archbishop of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
An award ceremony is due to take place in the European Parliament on December 16, even though it isn’t clear yet whether it will be at the legislative body's Brussels or Strasbourg venue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 50,000 euro ($60,000) annual human rights prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988 by the European Parliament to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists and the former Belarusian presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkievich were awarded the prize in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
Ilham Tohti, the jailed advocate for China’s Uyghur minority, won last year's Sakahrov prize.


rferl--2020-10-22--UN Extends Sanctions Against Former Tajik Commander Who Joined Islamic State

The UN Security Council has extended sanctions against Colonel Gulmurod Halimov , a former commander of the Tajik Interior Ministry @ @ @ @ @ as OMON , who joined the Islamic State ( IS ) extremist group in Syria @ @ @ @ @ has been reported killed several times in recent years .
Halimov ’ s name remained @ @ @ @ @ ’ s updated sanctions list that was made public on October 21 .
After Halimov @ @ @ @ @ Islamic State via the Internet in May 2015 , Tajikistan issued an international warrant for @ @ @ @ @ States has offered $ 3 million for information on his whereabouts .
There have been @ @ @ @ @ northern Iraq and Syria since 2015 that Halimov was killed while fighting for IS militants @ @ @ @ @ rejected those reports , saying they think he is still alive .

The UN Security Council has extended sanctions against Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, a former commander of the Tajik Interior Ministry's Special Forces, known as OMON, who joined the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria in May 2015 and who has been reported killed several times in recent years.
Halimov’s name remained in the UN Security Council’s updated sanctions list that was made public on October 21.
After Halimov announced that he had joined Islamic State via the Internet in May 2015, Tajikistan issued an international warrant for his arrest and the United States has offered $3 million for information on his whereabouts.
There have been several unconfirmed reports from both northern Iraq and Syria since 2015 that Halimov was killed while fighting for IS militants.
Tajik authorities have repeatedly rejected those reports, saying they think he is still alive.


rferl--2020-10-22--American, Two Russians Return Safely To Earth From International Space Station

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have safely returned to Earth following a six-month mission on the International Space @ @ @ @ @ The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner @ @ @ @ @ 22 .
The trio had spent 196 days in orbit since arriving at the station @ @ @ @ @ Kate Rubins and Russia 's Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov arrived at the ISS a @ @ @ @ @ stay .
The ISS is a rare example of cooperation between Moscow and Washington .
@ @ @ @ @ , AP , and TASS

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have safely returned to Earth following a six-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed in Kazakhstan on October 22.
The trio had spent 196 days in orbit since arriving at the station on April 9.
American Kate Rubins and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov arrived at the ISS a week ago for a six-month stay.
The ISS is a rare example of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and TASS


rferl--2020-10-22--Iran, Russia Reject U.S. Accusations Of Election Interference

Russia and Iran have rejected U.S. claims that the two countries have been interfering with the 2020 presidential election next month .
Iran said on October 22 that it had summoned the Swiss envoy in Tehran , who represents U.S. interests in the country because Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties , to protest against what it called the `` baseless '' U.S. accusations .
Similarly , the Kremlin in Moscow said the accusations are `` absolutely groundless . ''
The reactions come a day after U.S. national security officials said that Iran and Russia have both obtained American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public opinion ahead of the November 3 election .
The announcement at a rare news conference less than two weeks before the election underscored the concern within the U.S. government about efforts by foreign countries to spread false information meant to suppress voter turnout and undermine American confidence in the vote .
`` Iran 's strong rejection of American officials ' repetitive , baseless , and false claims was conveyed to the Swiss ambassador ... .
As we have said before , it makes no difference for Iran who wins the U.S. election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told state TV .
Iran 's mission at the United Nations also rejected the U.S. accusations .
`` Unlike the United States , Iran does not interfere in other country 's elections , '' the mission 's spokesman , Alireza Miryousefi tweeted late on October 21 .
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray said at the press conference on October 21 that the United States will inflict costs on any foreign countries meddling in the U.S. election .
Despite the Iranian and Russian actions , they said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ electoral process .
“ These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries , ” Ratcliffe said .
Ratcliffe said Iran has been sending spoof e-mails designed to intimidate voters , create social unrest , and damage President Donald Trump .
He said Iran was responsible for intimidating e-mails sent to Democratic voters in at least four battleground states , including Florida and Pennsylvania .
The threatening e-mails , falsely purporting to be from the far-right group Proud Boys , warned voters that “ we will come after you ” if the recipients did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The voter-intimidation operation apparently used e-mail addresses obtained from state voter registration lists , which include party affiliation and home addresses and can include e-mail addresses and phone numbers .
It was n't clear if the information was hacked or obtained another way , such as through criminal networks on the dark web .
Some voter information is publicly available .
Ratcliffe said that U.S. intelligence has not observed the same action from Russia , but that “ we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also distributing other online disinformation , including video that suggests individuals could cast fraudulent ballots even from overseas .
“ This video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true , ” Ratcliffe said .
U.S. intelligence agencies have previously said that Iran , Russia , and China are seeking to interfere in the 2020 election .
With reporting by AFP , AP , and Reuters

Russia and Iran have rejected U.S. claims that the two countries have been interfering with the 2020 presidential election next month.
Iran said on October 22 that it had summoned the Swiss envoy in Tehran, who represents U.S. interests in the country because Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties, to protest against what it called the "baseless" U.S. accusations.
Similarly, the Kremlin in Moscow said the accusations are "absolutely groundless."
The reactions come a day after U.S. national security officials said that Iran and Russia have both obtained American voter information and are attempting to influence public opinion ahead of the November 3 election.
The announcement at a rare news conference less than two weeks before the election underscored the concern within the U.S. government about efforts by foreign countries to spread false information meant to suppress voter turnout and undermine American confidence in the vote.
"Iran's strong rejection of American officials' repetitive, baseless, and false claims was conveyed to the Swiss ambassador.... As we have said before, it makes no difference for Iran who wins the U.S. election," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state TV.
Iran's mission at the United Nations also rejected the U.S. accusations.
"Unlike the United States, Iran does not interfere in other country's elections," the mission's spokesman, Alireza Miryousefi tweeted late on October 21.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray said at the press conference on October 21 that the United States will inflict costs on any foreign countries meddling in the U.S. election. Despite the Iranian and Russian actions, they said Americans can be confident in the U.S. electoral process.
“These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries,” Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe said Iran has been sending spoof e-mails designed to intimidate voters, create social unrest, and damage President Donald Trump.
He said Iran was responsible for intimidating e-mails sent to Democratic voters in at least four battleground states, including Florida and Pennsylvania.
The threatening e-mails, falsely purporting to be from the far-right group Proud Boys, warned voters that “we will come after you” if the recipients didn't vote for Trump, a Republican.
The voter-intimidation operation apparently used e-mail addresses obtained from state voter registration lists, which include party affiliation and home addresses and can include e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
It wasn't clear if the information was hacked or obtained another way, such as through criminal networks on the dark web. Some voter information is publicly available.
Ratcliffe said that U.S. intelligence has not observed the same action from Russia, but that “we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016.”
He said Iran is also distributing other online disinformation, including video that suggests individuals could cast fraudulent ballots even from overseas.
“This video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true,” Ratcliffe said.
U.S. intelligence agencies have previously said that Iran, Russia, and China are seeking to interfere in the 2020 election.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters


rferl--2020-10-21--Manhunt Continues In Georgia After Hostage-Taker Escapes Bank With Cash

TBILISI -- A manhunt continues in Georgia , one day after an armed robber took hostages at a bank in @ @ @ @ @ and escaped with an unspecified amount of cash .
The Georgian Interior Ministry said on @ @ @ @ @ hostages were released and a special operation to locate and apprehend the perpetrator is underway @ @ @ @ @ military fatigues took up to 19 people hostage at a branch of the Bank of @ @ @ @ @ 21 .
After an hours-long standoff with police that stretched into the evening , the @ @ @ @ @ took three hostages with him .
The gunman reportedly demanded $ 500,000 and a guarantee @ @ @ @ @ .
Television stations appeared to show the gunman carrying a grenade and a backpack reportedly @ @ @ @ @ the bank with a hostage .
Rustavi-2 television channel reported on October 22 that the @ @ @ @ @ his hostages in a forest near a village in the municipality of Chkhorotsqu .
The @ @ @ @ @ launched a probe into the incident .


rferl--2020-10-23--U.S. Says Russian Hackers Targeted State And Local Governments Ahead Of Election

Russian state-sponsored hackers have targeted dozens of U.S. state and local government networks in recent weeks and stole data from at least two servers , the U.S. government said .
In an advisory released on October 22 , the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ) described a range of activity from Russia-backed hackers since at least September .
The agencies said that to date , there was no indication the hackers intentionally disrupted aviation , education , elections , or government operations .
“ However , the actor may be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to influence U.S. policies and actions , or to delegitimize ” state and local governments , the agencies said .
The advisory did not mention who was targeted , saying only the campaign was against “ a wide variety of U.S. targets.
” It said the hackers -- identified as Berserk Bear , Energetic Bear , Dragonfly , and other names -- successfully compromised network infrastructure and stole data from at least two servers .
The warning comes less than two weeks before the November 3 election and as U.S. authorities are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries to spread false information or interfere in the election .
The United States has said that Russia , which interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts and through social media campaign , is trying to interfere again this year .
However , U.S. officials say that Americans can be confident in the electoral process and that it would be extremely difficult for malign cyber actors to influence vote tallies in any meaningful way .
The alert comes after U.S. officials on October 21 claimed both Iran and Russia had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to influence public opinion ahead of the election .
The announcement at a rare news conference underscored the concern within the U.S. government about efforts by foreign countries to spread false information meant to suppress voter turnout and undermine American confidence in the vote .
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Iran has been sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters , create social unrest , and damage President Donald Trump .
He said Iran was responsible for intimidating emails sent to Democratic voters in at least four battleground states including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparently used email addresses obtained from state voter registration lists , which include party affiliation and home addresses and can include email addresses and phone numbers .
It was n't clear if the information was hacked or obtained another way , such as through criminal networks on the dark web .
Some voter information is publicly available .
Ratcliffe said that U.S. intelligence has not observed the same action from Russia , but that “ we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016.
” Both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

Russian state-sponsored hackers have targeted dozens of U.S. state and local government networks in recent weeks and stolen data from at least two servers, the U.S. government says.
In an advisory released on October 22, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) described a range of activity from Russian-backed hackers since at least September.
The agencies said that to date, there was no indication the hackers intentionally disrupted aviation, education, elections, or government operations.
"However, the actor may be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence U.S. policies and actions, or to delegitimize" state and local governments, the agencies said.
The advisory did not mention who was targeted, saying only the campaign was against "a wide variety of U.S. targets."
It said the hackers -- identified as Berserk Bear, Energetic Bear, Dragonfly, and other names -- had successfully compromised network infrastructure and stolen data from at least two servers.
The warning comes less than two weeks before the November 3 election and as U.S. authorities are on high alert for efforts by foreign countries to spread false information or interfere in the election.
The United States has said that Russia, which interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic Party e-mail accounts and through social-media campaigns, is trying to interfere again this year.
However, U.S. officials say that Americans can be confident in the electoral process and that it would be extremely difficult for malign cyber-actors to influence vote tallies in any meaningful way.
The alert comes after U.S. officials on October 21 claimed both Iran and Russia had obtained U.S. voter information and were attempting to influence public opinion ahead of the election.
The announcement at a rare news conference underscored the concern within the U.S. government about efforts by foreign countries to spread false information meant to suppress voter turnout and undermine Americans' confidence in the vote.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Iran had been sending spoofed e-mails designed to intimidate voters, create social unrest, and damage President Donald Trump.
He said Iran was responsible for intimidating e-mails sent to Democratic voters in at least four battleground states, including Florida and Pennsylvania.
The voter-intimidation operation apparently used e-mail addresses obtained from state voter-registration lists, which include party affiliation and home addresses and can include e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
It wasn't clear if the information was hacked or obtained another way, such as through criminal networks on the dark web. Some voter information is publicly available.
Ratcliffe said that U.S. intelligence had not observed the same action from Russia, but that "we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016."
Both Iran and Russia have denied the U.S. claims.


rferl--2020-10-22--Kyrgyz Parliament Votes To Suspend Elections Until After Constitutional Reform

Kyrgyzstan 's parliament has rushed through a bill to delay a rerun of parliamentary elections , set just a day earlier for December , until after constitutional reforms .
The October 22 move comes as Sadyr Japarov -- who has recently maneuvered to take up the post of prime minister and acting president after being sprung from prison -- has advocated for constitutional changes to consolidate power following more than two weeks of political chaos .
The Central Asian country has been in turmoil since an October 4 election , the results of which were quickly annulled amid unrest triggered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that gave established political parties a dominant position .
President Sooronbai Jeenbekov stepped down last week under pressure from parliamentary factions and Japarov ’ s supporters , who flooded the streets and used strong-arm tactics against opponents .
Japarov , a former nationalist lawmaker and convicted kidnapper who was freed from prison when a mob stormed a Bishkek prison during the protests , was elected prime minister by parliament and then had the presidential powers transferred to him when Jeenbekov left office .
He has advocated shrinking the legislature , altering the electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minister , and introducing a stronger presidential system .
However , Japarov can not take part in the election as the current constitution does not allow acting presidents to seek office .
Earlier this week , Japarov said he would be eligible to run for president if the law was changed .
On October 21 , the Central Election Commission had set December 20 as the date of the new elections after the results of the October 4 vote were annulled .
But parliament on October 22 overturned that decision by suspending part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The bill was passed without discussion in three readings at once .
The constitutional reform must be completed by January 21 and new parliamentary elections held after the reform is complete but before June 1 , 2021 , according to a draft of the law quoted by RFE/RL ’ s Kyrgyz Service .
It is now unclear how legitimate the cancellation of the Central Election Commission ’ s decision will be .
Meanwhile , Japarov has denied suggestions that organized crime groups backed his rapid rise to power .
The turbulence in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a military base in the country .
`` What is going on there is a misfortune , a misfortune of Kyrgyz people , both the election and the coup , '' Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an online address for a discussion forum in Moscow , according to TASS .
Putin said Russia had done `` a lot '' to keep Kyrgyzstan standing , referring to hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the country and Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia .
But added that while it can not view what ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia doesn ’ t “ meddle.
” With reporting by Reuters , AP , AFP , and TASS .

Kyrgyzstan's parliament has rushed through a bill to delay a rerun of parliamentary elections, set just a day earlier for December, until after constitutional reforms.
The October 22 move comes as Sadyr Japarov -- who has recently maneuvered to take up the post of prime minister and acting president after being sprung from prison -- has advocated for constitutional changes to consolidate power following more than two weeks of political chaos.
The Central Asian country has been in turmoil since an October 4 election, the results of which were quickly annulled amid unrest triggered by allegations of vote-buying and other irregularities that gave established political parties a dominant position.
President Sooronbai Jeenbekov stepped down last week under pressure from parliamentary factions and Japarov's supporters, who flooded the streets and used strong-arm tactics against opponents.
Japarov, a former nationalist lawmaker and convicted kidnapper who was freed from prison when a mob stormed a Bishkek prison during the protests, was elected prime minister by parliament and then had the presidential powers transferred to him when Jeenbekov left office.
He has advocated shrinking the legislature, altering the electoral system, abolishing the post of prime minister, and introducing a stronger presidential system.
However, Japarov cannot take part in the election as the current constitution does not allow acting presidents to seek office. Earlier this week, Japarov said he would be eligible to run for president if the law was changed.
On October 21, the Central Election Commission had set December 20 as the date of the new elections after the results of the October 4 vote were annulled.
But parliament on October 22 overturned that decision by suspending part of the constitution that requires new elections. The bill was passed without discussion in three readings at once.
The constitutional reform must be completed by January 21 and new parliamentary elections held after the reform is complete but before June 1, 2021, according to a draft of the law cited by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.
It is now unclear how legitimate the cancellation of the Central Election Commission's decision will be.
Meanwhile, Japarov has denied suggestions that organized-crime groups backed his rapid rise to power.
The turbulence in Kyrgyzstan has concerned Russia, which maintains a military base in the country.
"What is going on there is a misfortune, a misfortune for the Kyrgyz people, both the election and the coup," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an online address for a discussion forum in Moscow, according to TASS.
Putin said Russia had done "a lot" to keep Kyrgyzstan standing, referring to hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the country and Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia. But added that while it cannot view what's going on there without alarm, Russia doesn't "meddle."
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and TASS.


rferl--2020-10-22--Serbian Nationalists Try To Disrupt Kosovo Culture Festival In Belgrade

BELGRADE -- Serbian riot police have prevented several hundred far-right protested from disrupting the opening of an annual festival in central Belgrade that promotes Kosovo Albanian culture and interethnic tolerance .
A strong police presence on October 22 prevented the demonstrators from approaching the venue of the three-day culture festival named Miredita , Dobar Dan !
-- good day in Albanian and Serbian .
The protesters , led by a nationalist political group called Zavetnici , sang nationalist songs , waved Serbian flags , and shouted insults against organizers .
During the opening ceremony , one protester managed to break @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before he was taken away by police .
The festival , which is organized by liberal youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo , presents films , exhibitions , and theater plays from Kosovo .
It also features debates on the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo and cooperation between the two countries ’ youths .
Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo , a former province that declared independence in 2008 following a war in 1998-1999 .
The festival , founded in 2014 , has been targeted by Serbian right-wing protesters in the @ @

BELGRADE -- Serbian riot police have prevented several hundred far-right protested from disrupting the opening of an annual festival in central Belgrade that promotes Kosovo Albanian culture and ethnic tolerance.
A strong police presence on October 22 prevented the demonstrators from approaching the venue of the three-day culture festival named Miredita, Dobar Dan! -- "good day" or "hello" in Albanian and Serbian.
The protesters, led by a nationalist political group called Zavetnici, sang nationalist songs, waved Serbian flags, and shouted insults at the organizers.
During the opening ceremony, one protester managed to break through the cordons and reach the scene before he was taken away by police.
The festival, which is organized by liberal youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo, presents films, exhibitions, and theater plays from Kosovo.
It also features debates on the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo and cooperation between the two countries' youth.
Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, a former province that declared independence in 2008 following a war in 1998-99.
The festival, founded in 2014, has been targeted by Serbian right-wing protesters in the past.


rferl--2020-10-22--Fighting Rages Ahead Of Armenia-Azerbaijan Talks In Washington

Optimism that upcoming talks in Washington will quell fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh appeared to dim as the two sides engaged in new battles and leaders in Baku and Yerevan hardened their positions .
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview published on October 22 that the prospects of reaching a peace settlement were `` very remote . ''
The day before , Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that he could see no diplomatic solution to the long-running conflict at this stage .
Despite their negative tone , Russian President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States would work with Moscow to broker a resolution to the conflict .
`` I very much hope that our American partners will act in unison with us and will help the settlement , '' Putin said on October 22 in Moscow .
Two Russia-brokered cease-fires collapsed instantly after taking effect as the warring sides continue to engage in fierce fighting involving artillery , rockets , and drones .
Putin 's comments come as Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov are due to meet separately with U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on October 23 .
Pompeo has said he would tell them that `` the right path forward is to cease the conflict , tell them to deescalate , that every country should stay out -- provide no fuel for this conflict , no weapons systems , no support . ''
The meeting will take place as heavy fighting continues over Nagorno-Karabakh , a territory located inside Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians , as well as surrounding areas controlled by Armenian forces .
Hundreds of people have been killed since fighting flared on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wider conflict in the South Caucasus drawing in Turkey , which backs Azerbaijan , and Russia , a key player in the region that has a military treaty with Armenia .
Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 22 published the names of 26 more of their soldiers who had died in the fighting , bringing the number of fighters killed on the Armenian side to 897 .
Azerbaijan has not disclosed its military casualties .
It has said 61 Azeri civilians have been killed and 282 wounded .
Putin said on October 22 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been killed cumulatively in the fighting .
Aliyev has demanded promises that Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts controlled by Armenian forces will be returned to Azerbaijan .
He said the issue will be raised in the discussions in Washington .
`` I think that now Armenian leadership must be more reasonable , and to commit itself to liberation of the occupied territories .
So , our main objective at these discussions will be to find out whether the Armenian leadership is ready to liberate our territories or not , and if ready @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in an interview with Japan ’ s Nikkei newspaper , according to a transcript .
The Azerbaijani president said he would not rule out `` cultural autonomy '' for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh , where they would have certain rights within their municipalities .
Armenian forces and the Azerbaijani military claim to have inflicted devastating losses on the other side , but reports from the opposing sides are often contradictory and hard to verify .
Azerbaijan has repeatedly claimed to have secured military gains on the ground , while Armenian forces have acknowledged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made the significant claim that his forces took control of the border with Iran , something Armenia denied .
`` The state border between Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been completely secured through liberation of the Agbend settlement , '' he said on Twitter .
Pashinian said in an interview with Interfax on October 22 that Armenia would accept the introduction of peacekeepers , including Russian peacekeepers , into the region .
Internationally recognized as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan , the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yerevan , since a 1994 cease-fire .
With reporting by Reuters , AP , AFP , and Interfax

Optimism that upcoming talks in Washington will quell fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has appeared to dim as the two sides engaged in new battles and leaders in Baku and Yerevan hardened their positions.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview published on October 22 that the prospects for reaching a peace settlement were "very remote." The day before, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that he could see no diplomatic solution to the long-running conflict at this stage.
Despite their negative tone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped that the United States would work with Moscow to broker a resolution to the conflict.
"I very much hope that our American partners will act in unison with us and will help the settlement," Putin said on October 22 in Moscow.
Two Russian-brokered cease-fires collapsed instantly after taking effect as the warring sides continue to engage in fierce fighting involving artillery, rockets, and drones.
Putin's comments come as Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov are due to meet separately with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington on October 23.
Pompeo has said he would tell them that "the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell them to deescalate, that every country should stay out -- provide no fuel for this conflict, no weapons systems, no support."
The meeting will take place as heavy fighting continues over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory located inside Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians, as well as surrounding areas controlled by Armenian forces.
Hundreds of people have been killed since fighting flared on September 27, raising fears of a wider conflict in the South Caucasus drawing in Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan, and Russia, a key player in the region that has a military treaty with Armenia.
Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 22 published the names of 26 more of their soldiers who had died in the fighting, bringing the number of fighters killed on the Armenian side to 897.
Azerbaijan has not disclosed its military casualties. It has said 61 Azeri civilians have been killed and 282 wounded.
Putin said on October 22 that Moscow believed that nearly 5,000 people had been killed cumulatively in the fighting.
Aliyev has demanded promises that Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts controlled by Armenian forces will be returned to Azerbaijan. He said the issue will be raised in the discussions in Washington.
"I think that now Armenian leadership must be more reasonable, and to commit itself to liberation of the occupied territories. So, our main objective at these discussions will be to find out whether the Armenian leadership is ready to liberate our territories or not, and if ready, then when?" he said in an interview with Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, according to a transcript.
The Azerbaijani president said he would not rule out "cultural autonomy" for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, where they would have certain rights within their municipalities.
Armenian forces and the Azerbaijani military claim to have inflicted devastating losses on the other side, but reports from the opposing sides are often contradictory and hard to verify.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly claimed to have secured military gains on the ground, while Armenian forces have acknowledged difficult fighting.
Aliyev on October 22 made the significant claim that his forces took control of the border with Iran, something Armenia denied.
"The state border between Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been completely secured through liberation of the Agbend settlement," he said on Twitter.
Pashinian said in an interview with Interfax on October 22 that Armenia would accept the introduction of peacekeepers, including Russian peacekeepers, into the region.
Internationally recognized as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by mainly Christian ethnic Armenians, backed by Yerevan, since a 1994 cease-fire.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and Interfax


rferl--2020-10-22--Putin Says He Helped Navalny Leave Russia For Treatment After Poisoning

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he personally intervened to ensure that Aleksei Navalny could be evacuated to Germany for treatment after the opposition politician was poisoned with a Soviet-style chemical agent in August .
Speaking in a televised appearance on October 22 , Putin also said that if the Russian authorities had wanted Navalny dead , Moscow would not have allowed him to be flown to Berlin , where the 44-year-old is recovering from the poisoning that nearly took his life .
Navalny , a fierce Putin critic and prominent anti-corruption campaigner , has blamed the poisoning on the Russian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ firmly rejected .
Russian authorities have also resisted international pressure to launch a criminal investigation and accused Western leaders of launching a disinformation campaign over Navalny 's illness .
Addressing a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow , Putin said that said he had asked Russian prosecutors to authorize Navalny to leave the country after an appeal from his wife .
`` There were travel restrictions against him related to a judicial investigation and a criminal case '' against Navalny , he said .
`` But I nonetheless asked the Prosecutor-General @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left . ''
The Russian leader also said that if `` this particular person was wanted dead -- at least by the authorities -- it 'd be unlikely that they 'd have sent him to Germany for treatment . ''
Navalny fell violently ill on a commercial flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20 .
The airliner made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk , where Navalny was hospitalized before Russian authorities permitted him to be airlifted to Berlin for treatment .
He was released from the Charite hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the clinic .
Last week , the European Union and Britain imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials believed to be responsible for the `` attempted assassination '' of Navalny , as well as one entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok .
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ( OPCW ) earlier this month confirmed the findings of specialized laboratories in Germany , France , and Sweden that Navalny was poisoned with a substance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by British authorities as the toxin used in the near-fatal poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter , Yulia , in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury .
With reporting by Reuters , AFP , and Interfax

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he personally intervened to ensure that Aleksei Navalny could be evacuated to Germany for treatment after the opposition politician was poisoned with a Soviet-style chemical agent in August.
Speaking in a televised appearance on October 22, Putin also said that if the Russian authorities had wanted Navalny dead, Moscow would not have allowed him to be flown to Berlin, where the 44-year-old is recovering from the poisoning that nearly took his life.
Navalny, a fierce Putin critic and prominent anti-corruption campaigner, has blamed the poisoning on the Russian president -- an allegation the Kremlin has firmly rejected.
Russian authorities have also resisted international pressure to launch a criminal investigation and accused Western leaders of launching a disinformation campaign over Navalny's illness.
Addressing a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Putin said that said he had asked Russian prosecutors to authorize Navalny to leave the country after an appeal from his wife.
"There were travel restrictions against him related to a judicial investigation and a criminal case" against Navalny, he said. "But I nonetheless asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to allow it and he left."
The Russian leader also said that if "this particular person was wanted dead -- at least by the authorities -- it'd be unlikely that they'd have sent him to Germany for treatment."
Navalny fell violently ill on a commercial flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20.
The airliner made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where Navalny was hospitalized before Russian authorities permitted him to be airlifted to Berlin for treatment.
He was released from the Charite hospital on September 22 after spending 32 days in the clinic.
Last week, the European Union and Britain imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials believed to be responsible for the "attempted assassination" of Navalny, as well as one entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) earlier this month confirmed the findings of specialized laboratories in Germany, France, and Sweden that Navalny was poisoned with a substance of the Novichok group.
Novichok was identified by British authorities as the toxin used in the near-fatal poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Interfax


rferl--2020-10-22--EU, U.K. Slaps Sanctions On Two Russians, Entity Over Bundestag Cyberattacks

The European Union and Great Britain have imposed sanctions against the head of Russia 's GRU military intelligence agency , a unit within the agency , and one of its officers for their involvement in a 2015 cyberattack on Germany 's lower house of parliament .
The EU Official Journal on October 22 published the names of the targeted individuals and entity that the bloc said `` are responsible for or were involved '' in the cyberattack on the Bundestag 's information system in April and May 2015 .
During the attack , the system 's operations were disrupted for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount of data was stolen , and the e-mail accounts of several members of parliament , including Chancellor Angela Merkel 's , were `` affected , '' the EU said .
The British government announced shortly afterward that it would apply the EU sanctions , with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab saying in a statement that his country `` stands shoulder to shoulder with Germany and our European partners to hold Russia to account for cyberattacks designed to undermine Western democracies . ''
The entity targeted by an asset freeze is a unit within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Center ( GTsSS ) , also known as military unit 26165 , whose officers took part in the cyberattack against the Bundestag , according to the EU .
The individuals hit by asset freezes and travel bans include GTsSS officer Dmitry Badin , who the EU said was part of the team that conducted the cyberattack .
The EU also targeted Igor Kostyukov , saying that as head of the GRU he is responsible for cyberattacks carried out by the GTsSS .
The bloc also noted that military intelligence officers of the GTsSS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Wi-Fi network of The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in April 2018 .
Kostyukov has already been put under sanctions by the EU for his role in the near-fatal poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter , Yulia , in Britain in 2018 German prosecutors have issued a warrant for Badin , who was already being sought by U.S. authorities and is believed to be part of the hacker group known as APT28 , or Fancy Bear .
In May , Merkel said that Berlin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of `` Russian forces '' in the 2015 cyberattacks in which documents from her own parliamentary office were reportedly stolen and called the actions `` outrageous . ''
The EU used its sanctions regime in relation to cyberattacks targeting the bloc or its member states for the first time in July .
The council 's latest decision means that a total of eight people -- six Russian citizens and two Chinese citizens – and four entities -- two Russian , one Chinese , and one North Korean -- have been targeted by restrictive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European Union and Britain imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials and one entity for the `` attempted assassination '' of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny in August .
A Kremlin-connected businessman , Yevgeny Prigozhin , was also hit over his alleged role in Libya 's civil war .

The European Union and Great Britain have imposed sanctions against the head of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, a unit within the agency, and one of its officers for their involvement in a 2015 cyberattack on Germany's lower house of parliament.
The EU Official Journal on October 22 published the names of the targeted individuals and entity that the bloc said "are responsible for or were involved" in the cyberattack on the Bundestag's information system in April and May 2015.
During the attack, the system's operations were disrupted for several days, a "significant" amount of data was stolen, and the e-mail accounts of several members of parliament, including Chancellor Angela Merkel's, were "affected," the EU said.
The British government announced shortly afterward that it would apply the EU sanctions, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab saying in a statement that his country "stands shoulder to shoulder with Germany and our European partners to hold Russia to account for cyberattacks designed to undermine Western democracies."
The entity targeted by an asset freeze is a unit within the GRU's 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS), also known as military unit 26165, whose officers took part in the cyberattack against the Bundestag, according to the EU.
The individuals hit by asset freezes and travel bans include GTsSS officer Dmitry Badin, who the EU said was part of the team that conducted the cyberattack.
The EU also targeted Igor Kostyukov, saying that as head of the GRU he is responsible for cyberattacks carried out by the GTsSS.
The bloc also noted that military intelligence officers of the GTsSS also took part in the attempted hacking of the Wi-Fi network of The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in April 2018.
Kostyukov has already been put under sanctions by the EU for his role in the near-fatal poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain in 2018
German prosecutors have issued a warrant for Badin, who was already being sought by U.S. authorities and is believed to be part of the hacker group known as APT28, or Fancy Bear.
In May, Merkel said that Berlin had "hard evidence" of involvement of "Russian forces" in the 2015 cyberattacks in which documents from her own parliamentary office were reportedly stolen and called the actions "outrageous."
Moscow has denied any involvement.
The EU used its sanctions regime in relation to cyberattacks targeting the bloc or its member states for the first time in July.
The council's latest decision means that a total of eight people -- six Russian citizens and two Chinese citizens – and four entities -- two Russian, one Chinese, and one North Korean -- have been targeted by restrictive measures.
A week ago, the European Union and Britain imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials and one entity for the "attempted assassination" of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny in August. A Kremlin-connected businessman, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was also hit over his alleged role in Libya's civil war.