rferl--2020-03-19--HRW Welcomes Azerbaijani Journalist's Release, Deplores Others Still Behind Bars

Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is calling on Azerbaijan to free at least five journalists and bloggers who it says have been imprisoned on politically motivated charges .
The New York-based human rights watchdog made the call on March 18 , the day after Azerbaijani authorities released investigative reporter Afqan Muxtarli from prison .
Calling the move `` a rare bit of good news '' from Azerbaijan , HRW said in a statement that at least five other journalists and bloggers -- Polad Aslanov , Fuad Ahmadli , Ziya Asadli , Araz Guliyev , and Elcin Ismayilli -- continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jails after publicly criticizing the authorities .
It urged Azerbaijani authorities to release them and `` allow them to report freely and without undue interference . ''
The group noted that other journalists `` continue to face arbitrary and disproportionate travel bans , '' including investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova , who was jailed from December 2014 to May 2016 .
On March 17 , a Baku court ordered Muxtarli 's early release from prison and allowed him to fly to Germany , where he reunited with his wife and daughter .
In May @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where he was living in exile , fearing political persecution in Azerbaijan .
He resurfaced in custody in Azerbaijan , where he faced what human rights groups called politically motivated charges of illegal border crossing , smuggling , and violently resisting arrest .
Muxtarli was sentenced in January 2018 to six years in prison in a case that was condemned by the international community .
The journalist developed serious health complications in prison and did not receive adequate medical care , according to HRW .
Georgian authorities have opened an investigation into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counterintelligence and border police officials .
However , HRW said the probe remained inconclusive .

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Azerbaijan to free at least five journalists and bloggers who it says have been imprisoned on politically motivated charges.
The New York-based human rights watchdog made the call on March 18, the day after Azerbaijani authorities released investigative reporter Afqan Muxtarli from prison.
Calling the move "a rare bit of good news" from Azerbaijan, HRW said in a statement that at least five other journalists and bloggers -- Polad Aslanov, Fuad Ahmadli, Ziya Asadli, Araz Guliyev, and Elcin Ismayilli -- continue to languish in the Caucasus state's jails after publicly criticizing the authorities.
It urged Azerbaijani authorities to release them and "allow them to report freely and without undue interference."
The group noted that other journalists "continue to face arbitrary and disproportionate travel bans," including investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was jailed from December 2014 to May 2016.
On March 17, a Baku court ordered Muxtarli's early release from prison and allowed him to fly to Germany, where he reunited with his wife and daughter.
In May 2017, Muxtarli was abducted in Georgia, where he was living in exile, fearing political persecution in Azerbaijan.
He resurfaced in custody in Azerbaijan, where he faced what human rights groups called politically motivated charges of illegal border crossing, smuggling, and violently resisting arrest.
Muxtarli was sentenced in January 2018 to six years in prison in a case that was condemned by the international community.
The journalist developed serious health complications in prison and did not receive adequate medical care, according to HRW.
Georgian authorities have opened an investigation into the abduction and suspended a number of counterintelligence and border police officials.
However, HRW said the probe remained inconclusive.


rferl--2020-03-19--Iran Frees U.S. Navy Veteran On Humanitarian Grounds

A U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran for allegedly insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting private information online has been released on medical furlough .
Californian Michael White had been serving a 13-year sentence following his arrest in 2018 , the State Department said in a statement announcing the release on March 19 .
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said White had been `` wrongfully detained '' and that he was released on humanitarian grounds with the condition he would remain in Iran .
He will undergo medical testing and evaluation and is currently in the custody of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interests in Iran .
`` The United States will continue to work for Michael 's full release , as well as the release of all wrongfully detained Americans in Iran , '' the statement said .
`` We thank the government of Switzerland for its continued and constructive role as our protecting power in Iran , '' it added .
The release of former Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) agent Robert Levinson was also demanded .
He disappeared in 2007 and Washington suspects Iran of abducting him .
However , Tehran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it 's not a sign he was prosecuted .
The U.S. government also called for the immediate release on humanitarian grounds of Morad Tahbaz , Baquer Namazi , and Siamak Namazi .
White was the first American known to be detained in Iran since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 .

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


rferl--2020-03-19--Date Set For Trial Of U.S. Citizen Charged With 'Espionage' In Russia

The trial of a former U.S. Marine who is being held in a Moscow prison on espionage charges will start @ @ @ @ @ lawyers say .
Olga Karlova and Vladimir Zherebenkov said on March 19 that Paul Whelan @ @ @ @ @ behind closed doors as the case materials are classified .
The 50-year-old Whelan , who @ @ @ @ @ Canadian , and Irish passports , was arrested in a hotel room in Moscow in @ @ @ @ @ receiving classified information .
He was charged with espionage , which carries a sentence of @ @ @ @ @ prison .
Whelan denies the charges and says he was framed .
Whelan 's family @ @ @ @ @ time of his arrest , he was in Moscow for a wedding .
Whelan 's @ @ @ @ @ the nterfax news agency on March 19 that officials from the U.S. , British , @ @ @ @ @ had been barred from visiting the detainee in Moscow 's Lefortovo detention center due to @ @ @ @ @ on reporting by TASS and Interfax

The trial of a former U.S. Marine who is being held in a Moscow prison on espionage charges will start on March 23, his lawyers say.
Olga Karlova and Vladimir Zherebenkov said on March 19 that Paul Whelan's trial will be held behind closed doors as the case materials are classified.
The 50-year-old Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian, and Irish passports, was arrested in a hotel room in Moscow in December 2018 and accused of receiving classified information.
He was charged with espionage, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Whelan denies the charges and says he was framed.
Whelan's family said that, at the time of his arrest, he was in Moscow for a wedding.
Whelan's brother, David, told the nterfax news agency on March 19 that officials from the U.S., British, Canadian, and Irish embassies had been barred from visiting the detainee in Moscow's Lefortovo detention center due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax


rferl--2020-03-19--COVID-19: One Iranian 'Dying Every 10 Minutes'; Romania Urges Expats To Stay Away

The global coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 230,000 people worldwide , causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness .
The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran continues to rise as the worst-affected country in the Middle East prepares for scaled-down celebrations of Norouz , the Persian New Year .
`` With 149 new fatalities in the past 24 hours , the death toll from the virus has reached 1,284 , '' Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said on state television on March 19 .
“ Unfortunately , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since yesterday , ” Raisi added .
Iran has the third-highest number of registered cases after China and Italy .
With the country reeling from the outbreak , officials have recommended that Iranians stay home during the March 20 holiday , a time when hundreds of thousands usually travel to be with friends and relatives .
The government has closed schools at all levels , banned sports and cultural events , and curtailed religious activities to try and slow the spread of the virus .
Kianoush Jahanpour , the head of the Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , noted on March 19 that the data on the outbreak means an Iranian dies every 10 minutes from COVID-19 , while 50 infections occur each hour of the day .
`` With respect to this information , people must make a conscious decision about travel , traffic , transportation , and sightseeing , '' he added .
Despite the dire circumstances , many Iranians were angered by the temporary closure of Shi'ite sites , prompting some earlier this week to storm into the courtyards of two major shrines -- Mashhad 's Imam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shrine .
Crowds typically pray there 24 hours a day , seven days a week , touching and kissing the shrine .
That 's worried health officials , who for weeks ordered Iran 's Shi'ite clergy to close them .
Earlier on March 19 , officials announced that the country wouldn ’ t mark its annual day celebrating its nuclear program because of the outbreak .
The Georgian government has ordered the closure of shops except grocery stores and pharmacies beginning March 20 to curb the spread of the coronavirus .
The measure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exempts gas stations , post offices , and bank branches .
The South Caucasus country has reported 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19 , the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus , so far and no deaths .
Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia on March 19 said he would declare a state of emergency , as many countries in Europe already have , if health authorities advise him to do so .
`` As of today , I would like to emphasize that there is no need for this .
However , in agreement with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as soon as that need arises , that we will be able to make this decision within a few hours , '' he said .
According to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University , more than 240,000 people worldwide have been infected .
More than 9,800 people have died from the disease caused by the pathogen .
President Klaus Iohannis has urged Romanians working abroad to refrain from traveling home for the Orthodox Easter amid fears of a worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in the country .
Romania has been under a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Iohannis made the appeal in a televised speech on March 19 as thousands of workers returning from Western Europe were slowly crossing into Romania after having clogged Hungary 's borders both to the west and the east for two days in a row .
Romania is the European Union 's second-poorest country , and at least 4 million Romanians work abroad , according to estimates .
The bottlenecks were worsened by Hungary 's decision to close its borders on very short notice from March 17 at midnight -- a measure relaxed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` Romanians from abroad are dear to us , and we long to be with them for Easter , '' Iohannis said .
`` However , that wo n't be possible this year ... .
We must tell them with sadness but also with sincerity not to come home for the holidays , '' he added .
Some 12,500 mostly Romanian travelers had crossed into Romania in 4,600 vehicles as of the morning of March 19 , Romanian border police said .
They said 180 people were immediately quarantined , while some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reached their destinations .
The rest were mostly travelers in transit toward Moldova and Bulgaria , according to the police .
One of the patients is in serious condition in intensive care , while 25 people have recovered , according to health authorities .
No deaths have been reported so far .
However , authorities are concerned that the massive number of Romanians returning , mostly from Italy and Spain -- the European countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic -- will lead to a spike in infections in the run-up to Orthodox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ military has started building an emergency hospital in Bucharest amid fears that the country 's crumbling health-care system will not be able to cope with the outbreak .
Some 900 Ukrainians are embarking on March 19 on a train journey from Prague to Kyiv as part of an evacuation plan amid the coronavirus pandemic .
The train is set to travel through the Czech Republic and Poland , where it will make a stop at Przemysl , before heading to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and the capital .
Yevhen Perebiynis , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that more than 3,000 Ukrainians residing in the Czech Republic had asked to be evacuated .
Meanwhile , the mayor of Zhytomyr , Serhiy Sukhomlyn , said the city located 140 kilometers west of Kyiv recorded its first coronavirus infection .
Sukhomlyn said the patient , aged 56 , had recently returned from Austria .
As of March 19 , there were 21 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness in six regions and the capital , Kyiv , the Health Ministry said .
Meanwhile , Ukraine recorded its third death linked to COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elderly woman died one day after visiting a hospital with severe flu-like symptoms , according to the Health Ministry .
Russian officials have reported the country 's first death connected to the coronavirus outbreak , but quickly backtracked , saying an elderly woman perished due to a detached blood clot .
The Moscow health department said on March 19 that the 79-year-old , who had tested positive for COVID-19 , died in a Moscow hospital from pneumonia related to the virus .
Svetlana Krasnova , head doctor at Moscow 's hospital No .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a statement that the woman had been admitted with `` a host of chronic diseases , '' including type 2 diabetes and heart problems .
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin then confirmed the coronavirus-releated death , saying on Twitter , `` Unfortunately , we have the first loss from the coronavirus infection . ''
Hours later , however , health officials put out another statement saying an autopsy had confirmed the woman had died of a blood clot .
A subsequent official tally of the number of official coronavirus cases in Russia showed 199 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not clear whether the woman 's death would eventually be counted as a result of the virus .
Though President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that the situation was `` generally under control , '' many Russians have shown a distrust for official claims over the virus , and fear the true situation is much worse than they are being told .
Amid a recent rise in the number of cases , officials have temporarily barred entry to foreigners and imposed restrictions on flights and public gatherings .
The national health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all travellers from abroad with a decree requiring `` all individuals arriving to Russia '' to be isolated , either at home or elsewhere .
Serbia has closed its main airport for all passenger flights and said it will shut its borders for all but freight traffic in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus .
The government banned commercial flights to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade on March 19 .
However , the airport will remain open to humanitarian and cargo flights , according to the Ministry of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Later in the day , President Aleksandar Vucic said that as of March 20 , Serbia 's border crossings will be closed for all passenger road and rail transport .
`` Nothing but trucks will be allowed to enter , '' Vucic said .
`` From noon tomorrow we will also halt commercial passenger transport inside the country . ''
The move comes after some 70,000 Serbs working in Western Europe and their families returned to Serbia in the last few days despite appeals by authorities not to do so .
Serbia currently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no fatalities .
The Balkan country had already imposed a state of emergency , introduced a night curfew for all citizens , and ordered the elderly to stay indoors .
Authorities in Pakistan have closed shrines of Sufi saints in the capital , Islamabad , and elsewhere while access to museums , archaeological , and tourist sites have been banned as confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 301 , mostly in pilgrims returning from Iran .
Two Pakistanis who had returned from Saudi Arabia and Dubai became the country 's first victims when they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Schools have already been shut in Pakistan .
Thousands of Pakistanis , mostly pilgrims , have been placed into quarantine in recent weeks at the Taftan border crossing in the country 's southwestern province of Balochistan after returning from Iran , one of the world 's worst affected countries .
Pakistani authorities on March 19 plan to quarantine hundreds more pilgrims who returned from Iran .
These pilgrims will be kept at isolated buildings in central Pakistan for 14 days .
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev ’ s influential son-in-law says police have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Uzbek nationals who tested positive for the new coronavirus .
Otabek Umarov , who is also the deputy head of the president ’ s personal security , said on Instagram that officials are now trying to determine the legality of the perpetrators ’ actions .
A joint working group set up by the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General ’ s Office has also identified 33 social media accounts involved in “ disseminating false information that provokes panic among people , ” Umarov wrote .
He called the accounts a “ betrayal ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ national security.
” Umarov ’ s comments come amid a campaign by the Uzbek government to crack down on information that incites panic and fear among the public amid the coronavirus crisis .
On March 16 , the country ’ s Justice Ministry said that , according to Uzbek law , those involved in preparing materials with the intention of inciting panic -- and those storing such materials with the intent to distribute them -- will face up to $ 9,400 in fines or up to three years in prison .
Those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Internet face up to eight years in prison , the ministry added .
The statement came a day after the Central Asian nation announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection , which prompted the government to introduce sweeping measures to contain the outbreak , including closing its borders , suspending international flights , closing schools , and banning public gatherings .
The number of infections had risen to 23 as of the morning of March 19 , the Health Ministry said .
The ministry said that the 23 individuals are all Uzbek nationals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turkey , and the United Arab Emirates .
The Health Ministry regularly updates its social media accounts with information on the outbreak in Uzbekistan .
Posts are frequently accompanied by the hashtag “ quarantine without panic ” in both Uzbek and Russian .
The Kazakh national currency , the tenge , has continued to weaken sharply as the number of coronavirus cases in the oil-rich Central Asian nation reached 44 .
Many exchange points in Nur-Sultan , the capital , and the former Soviet republic 's largest city , Almaty , did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19 , while some offered 471 tenges for $ 1 , more than 25 percent weaker than in early March when the rate was around 375 tenges .
The tenge has plunged to all-time lows in recent days following an abrupt fall in oil prices and chaos in the world 's stock markets caused by the coronavirus outbreak .
The Kazakh Health Ministry said on March 19 that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country had increased by seven to 44 .
In neighboring Kyrgyzstan , three people , who returned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , tested positive for the virus , which led to three villages being sealed off in the southern Jalal-Abad region .
In two other Central Asian nations , Tajikistan and Turkmenistan , no coronavirus cases have been officially recorded to date .
A relative of an Armenian woman blamed for spreading the coronavirus in the South Caucasus country alleges that criminal offenses have been committed against members of their family .
It emerged last week that the woman had traveled from Italy before attending a family gathering with dozens of guests in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the coronavirus pandemic .
The woman , whose name was not released , later tested positive for the virus and was hospitalized .
Dozens of other people who attended the gathering were placed under a 14-day quarantine .
Armenia has reported a total of 122 cases so far , including dozens in Echmiadzin .
It has not yet reported any deaths .
Echmiadzin was locked down and a nationwide state of emergency has been announced in a bid to slow the spread of infection in Armenia .
Many on social media in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was irresponsible behavior by the woman .
Some ridiculed the woman and used offensive language against her .
A photo of her also was posted online .
The woman ’ s lawyer , Gohar Hovhannisian , said that one of her relatives who lives abroad filed a complaint with the public prosecutor on March 17 .
The complaint alleges that personal information about infected people was illegally obtained and published by the press and social media along with insults and photographs .
`` It affects the mental state of a person .
Imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ language is used against her or him and her or his personal data are published , '' Hovhannisian said .
The Prosecutor-General 's Office forwarded the report to police to investigate the case .
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisian , who is not related to the lawyer , noted that the protection of personal data is enshrined in Armenia ’ s law .
He said that disclosure of personal data in this case made it possible to identify the infected woman .
`` Moreover , under the law on medical care and public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secrets , talk about people ’ s medical examinations and the course of their treatment as well as to pass these data to third parties , '' the activist said .
Earlier this week , a shop owner in Yerevan filed a complaint with police alleging that he had been attacked by three relatives of the woman in question for posting a joke about her on Facebook .
Police said they had identified and questioned three people over that complaint .
But the authorities did not reveal their identities .
The Azerbaijani capital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the South Caucasus state .
According to a government decision , as of March 19 entrance to Baku , the nearby city of Sumqayit , and the Abseron district has been banned for all cars , except ambulances , cargo trucks , and vehicles carrying rescue teams and road accident brigades .
The measure will run until at least March 29 .
All railway links between Baku , Sumqayit and the Abseron district , and the rest of the country were also suspended .
Azerbaijan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with one fatality .
In neighboring Armenia , where authorities announced a state of emergency until April 16 , the number of coronavirus cases is 115 .
Elsewhere in the South Caucasus , Georgia , the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 40 .
The United States is temporarily suspending the movement of new soldiers into Afghanistan as a way of protecting them from the coronavirus outbreak .
U.S. Army General Scott Miller said in a March 19 statement that the move could mean that some of the troops already on the ground @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ensure that the NATO-led Resolute Support mission continues .
`` To preserve our currently healthy force , Resolute Support is making the necessary adjustments to temporarily pause personnel movement into the theater , '' he said .
“ We are closely monitoring , continually assessing and adjusting our operations so we can continue to protect the national interests of the NATO allies and partners here in Afghanistan , '' he added .
About 1,500 troops and civilians who recently arrived in Afghanistan have been quarantined , Miller said , stressing that this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not because they are sick.
” Earlier this month , the United States began reducing its troop presence in Afghanistan as part of a peace deal signed in February with the Taliban .
The agreement sees an initial reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 8,600 soldiers .
Miller did not mention the agreement in his statement .
So far , 21 U.S. and coalition staff exhibiting flu-like symptoms are in isolation and receiving medical care , Miller ’ s statement said .
With reporting by RFE/RL 's Armenian , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Romanian , and Uzbek services , AP , AFP , Reuters , Digi24.ro , G4media.ro , and Hotnews.ro

The global coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 230,000 people worldwide, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.
Iran
The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran continues to rise as the worst-affected country in the Middle East prepares for scaled-down celebrations of Norouz, the Persian New Year.
"With 149 new fatalities in the past 24 hours, the death toll from the virus has reached 1,284," Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said on state television on March 19.
“Unfortunately, we have had 1,046 new cases of infection since yesterday,” Raisi added.
Iran has the third-highest number of registered cases after China and Italy.
With the country reeling from the outbreak, officials have recommended that Iranians stay home during the March 20 holiday, a time when hundreds of thousands usually travel to be with friends and relatives.
The government has closed schools at all levels, banned sports and cultural events, and curtailed religious activities to try and slow the spread of the virus.
Kianoush Jahanpour, the head of the Health Ministry's public relations and information center , noted on March 19 that the data on the outbreak means an Iranian dies every 10 minutes from COVID-19, while 50 infections occur each hour of the day.
"With respect to this information, people must make a conscious decision about travel, traffic, transportation, and sightseeing," he added.
Despite the dire circumstances, many Iranians were angered by the temporary closure of Shi'ite sites, prompting some earlier this week to storm into the courtyards of two major shrines -- Mashhad's Imam Reza shrine and Qom's Fatima Masumeh shrine.
Crowds typically pray there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, touching and kissing the shrine. That's worried health officials, who for weeks ordered Iran's Shi'ite clergy to close them.
Earlier on March 19, officials announced that the country wouldn’t mark its annual day celebrating its nuclear program because of the outbreak.
Georgia
The Georgian government has ordered the closure of shops except grocery stores and pharmacies beginning March 20 to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The measure, announced on March 19, also exempts gas stations, post offices, and bank branches. The South Caucasus country has so far reported 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, and no deaths.
Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia on March 19 said he would declare a state of emergency, as many countries in Europe already have, if health authorities advise him to do so.
"As of today, I would like to emphasize that there is no need for this. However, in agreement with the president, we have decided, as soon as that need arises, that we will be able to make this decision within a few hours," he said.
Romania
President Klaus Iohannis has urged Romanians working abroad to refrain from traveling home for the Orthodox Easter amid fears of a worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Romania has been under a 30-day state of emergency since March 16.
Iohannis made the appeal in a televised speech on March 19 as thousands of workers returning from Western Europe were slowly crossing into Romania after having clogged Hungary's borders both to the west and the east for two days in a row.
Romania is the European Union's second-poorest country, and at least 4 million Romanians work abroad, according to estimates.
The bottlenecks were worsened by Hungary's decision to close its borders on very short notice from March 17 at midnight -- a measure relaxed by Budapest after consultations with the Romanian government.
"Romanians from abroad are dear to us, and we long to be with them for Easter," Iohannis said. "However, that won't be possible this year.... We must tell them with sadness but also with sincerity not to come home for the holidays," he added.
Some 12,500 mostly Romanian travelers had crossed into Romania in 4,600 vehicles as of the morning of March 19, Romanian border police said.
They said 180 people were immediately quarantined, while some 10,000 were ordered into self-isolation once they reached their destinations.
The rest were mostly travelers in transit toward Moldova and Bulgaria, according to the police.
Romania has confirmed 277 coronavirus cases.
One of the patients is in serious condition in intensive care, while 25 people have recovered, according to health authorities.
No deaths have been reported so far.
However, authorities are concerned that the massive number of Romanians returning, mostly from Italy and Spain -- the European countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic -- will lead to a spike in infections in the run-up to Orthodox Easter on April 19.
The Romanian military has started building an emergency hospital in Bucharest amid fears that the country's crumbling health-care system will not be able to cope with the outbreak.
Ukraine
Some 900 Ukrainians are embarking on March 19 on a train journey from Prague to Kyiv as part of an evacuation plan amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The train is set to travel through the Czech Republic and Poland, where it will make a stop at Przemysl, before heading to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and the capital.
Yevhen Perebiynis, the Ukrainian ambassador to Prague, tweeted that more than 3,000 Ukrainians residing in the Czech Republic had asked to be evacuated.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Zhytomyr, Serhiy Sukhomlyn, said the city located 140 kilometers west of Kyiv recorded its first coronavirus infection.
Sukhomlyn said the patient, aged 56, had recently returned from Austria.
As of March 19, there were 21 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness in six regions and the capital, Kyiv, the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine recorded its third death linked to COVID-19 in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
An elderly woman died one day after visiting a hospital with severe flu-like symptoms, according to the Health Ministry.
Russia
Russian officials have reported the country's first death connected to the coronavirus outbreak, but quickly backtracked, saying an elderly woman perished due to a detached blood clot.
The Moscow health department said on March 19 that the 79-year-old, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died in a Moscow hospital from pneumonia related to the virus.
Svetlana Krasnova, head doctor at Moscow's hospital No. 2 for infectious diseases, said in a statement that the woman had been admitted with "a host of chronic diseases," including type 2 diabetes and heart problems.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin then confirmed the coronavirus-releated death, saying on Twitter, "Unfortunately, we have the first loss from the coronavirus infection."
Hours later, however, health officials put out another statement saying an autopsy had confirmed the woman had died of a blood clot.
A subsequent official tally of the number of official coronavirus cases in Russia showed 199 confirmed infections but no deaths.
It was not clear whether the woman's death would eventually be counted as a result of the virus.
Though President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that the situation was "generally under control," many Russians have shown a distrust for official claims over the virus, and fear the true situation is much worse than they are being told.
Amid a recent rise in the number of cases, officials have temporarily barred entry to foreigners and imposed restrictions on flights and public gatherings.
The national health watchdog on March 19 tightened restrictions for all travellers from abroad with a decree requiring "all individuals arriving to Russia" to be isolated, either at home or elsewhere.
Serbia
Serbia has closed its main airport for all passenger flights and said it will shut its borders for all but freight traffic in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The government banned commercial flights to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade on March 19.
However, the airport will remain open to humanitarian and cargo flights, according to the Ministry of Construction, Traffic, and Infrastructure.
Later in the day, President Aleksandar Vucic said that as of March 20, Serbia's border crossings will be closed for all passenger road and rail transport.
"Nothing but trucks will be allowed to enter," Vucic said. "From noon tomorrow we will also halt commercial passenger transport inside the country."
The move comes after some 70,000 Serbs working in Western Europe and their families returned to Serbia in the last few days despite appeals by authorities not to do so.
Serbia currently has 103 confirmed coronavirus cases, with no fatalities.
The Balkan country had already imposed a state of emergency, introduced a night curfew for all citizens, and ordered the elderly to stay indoors.
Pakistan
Authorities in Pakistan have closed shrines of Sufi saints in the capital, Islamabad, and elsewhere while access to museums, archaeological, and tourist sites have been banned as confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 301, mostly in pilgrims returning from Iran.
Two Pakistanis who had returned from Saudi Arabia and Dubai became the country's first victims when they died on March 18 in the northwest.
Schools have already been shut in Pakistan.
Thousands of Pakistanis, mostly pilgrims, have been placed into quarantine in recent weeks at the Taftan border crossing in the country's southwestern province of Balochistan after returning from Iran, one of the world's worst affected countries.
Pakistani authorities on March 19 plan to quarantine hundreds more pilgrims who returned from Iran. These pilgrims will be kept at isolated buildings in central Pakistan for 14 days.
Uzbekistan
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s influential son-in-law says police have identified individuals who allegedly published the names of Uzbek nationals who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Otabek Umarov, who is also the deputy head of the president’s personal security, said on Instagram that officials are now trying to determine the legality of the perpetrators’ actions.
A joint working group set up by the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General’s Office has also identified 33 social media accounts involved in “disseminating false information that provokes panic among people,” Umarov wrote.
He called the accounts a “betrayal” of the country and a matter of “national security.”
Umarov’s comments come amid a campaign by the Uzbek government to crack down on information that incites panic and fear among the public amid the coronavirus crisis.
On March 16, the country’s Justice Ministry said that, according to Uzbek law, those involved in preparing materials with the intention of inciting panic -- and those storing such materials with the intent to distribute them -- will face up to $9,400 in fines or up to three years in prison.
Those who spread such information through media and the Internet face up to eight years in prison, the ministry added.
The statement came a day after the Central Asian nation announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection, which prompted the government to introduce sweeping measures to contain the outbreak, including closing its borders, suspending international flights, closing schools, and banning public gatherings.
The number of infections had risen to 23 as of the morning of March 19, the Health Ministry said.
The ministry said that the 23 individuals are all Uzbek nationals who had returned home from Europe, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Health Ministry regularly updates its social media accounts with information on the outbreak in Uzbekistan. Posts are frequently accompanied by the hashtag “quarantine without panic” in both Uzbek and Russian.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
The Kazakh national currency, the tenge, has continued to weaken sharply as the number of coronavirus cases in the oil-rich Central Asian nation reached 44.
Many exchange points in Nur-Sultan, the capital, and the former Soviet republic's largest city, Almaty, did not sell U.S. dollars or euros on March 19, while some offered 471 tenges for $1, more than 25 percent weaker than in early March when the rate was around 375 tenges.
The tenge has plunged to all-time lows in recent days following an abrupt fall in oil prices and chaos in the world's stock markets caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The Kazakh Health Ministry said on March 19 that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country had increased by seven to 44.
In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, three people, who returned home from Saudi Arabia several days ago, tested positive for the virus, which led to three villages being sealed off in the southern Jalal-Abad region.
In two other Central Asian nations, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, no coronavirus cases have been officially recorded to date.
Armenia
A relative of an Armenian woman blamed for spreading the coronavirus in the South Caucasus country alleges that criminal offenses have been committed against members of their family.
It emerged last week that the woman had traveled from Italy before attending a family gathering with dozens of guests in the city of Echmiadzin, disregarding health warnings about the coronavirus pandemic.
The woman, whose name was not released, later tested positive for the virus and was hospitalized. Dozens of other people who attended the gathering were placed under a 14-day quarantine.
Armenia has reported a total of 122 cases so far, including dozens in Echmiadzin. It has not yet reported any deaths.
Echmiadzin was locked down and a nationwide state of emergency has been announced in a bid to slow the spread of infection in Armenia.
Many on social media in Armenia expressed anger over what they said was irresponsible behavior by the woman.
Some ridiculed the woman and used offensive language against her. A photo of her also was posted online.
The woman’s lawyer, Gohar Hovhannisian, said that one of her relatives who lives abroad filed a complaint with the public prosecutor on March 17.
The complaint alleges that personal information about infected people was illegally obtained and published by the press and social media along with insults and photographs.
"It affects the mental state of a person. Imagine that a person is sick and such language is used against her or him and her or his personal data are published," Hovhannisian said.
The Prosecutor-General's Office forwarded the report to police to investigate the case.
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisian, who is not related to the lawyer, noted that the protection of personal data is enshrined in Armenia’s law. He said that disclosure of personal data in this case made it possible to identify the infected woman.
"Moreover, under the law on medical care and public services it is forbidden to disclose medical secrets, talk about people’s medical examinations and the course of their treatment as well as to pass these data to third parties," the activist said.
Earlier this week, a shop owner in Yerevan filed a complaint with police alleging that he had been attacked by three relatives of the woman in question for posting a joke about her on Facebook.
Police said they had identified and questioned three people over that complaint. But the authorities did not reveal their identities.
Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijani capital, Baku, has been sealed off to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the South Caucasus state.
According to a government decision, as of March 19 entrance to Baku, the nearby city of Sumqayit, and the Abseron district has been banned for all cars, except ambulances, cargo trucks, and vehicles carrying rescue teams and road accident brigades. The measure will run until at least March 29.
All railway links between Baku, Sumqayit and the Abseron district, and the rest of the country were also suspended.
Azerbaijan has reported 34 confirmed coronavirus cases, with one fatality.
In neighboring Armenia, where authorities announced a state of emergency until April 16, the number of coronavirus cases is 115.
Elsewhere in the South Caucasus, Georgia, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 40.
Afghanistan
The United States is temporarily suspending the movement of new soldiers into Afghanistan as a way of protecting them from the coronavirus outbreak.
U.S. Army General Scott Miller said in a March 19 statement that the move could mean that some of the troops already on the ground in Afghanistan may have their deployments extended to ensure that the NATO-led Resolute Support mission continues.
"To preserve our currently healthy force, Resolute Support is making the necessary adjustments to temporarily pause personnel movement into the theater," he said.
“We are closely monitoring, continually assessing and adjusting our operations so we can continue to protect the national interests of the NATO allies and partners here in Afghanistan," he added.
About 1,500 troops and civilians who recently arrived in Afghanistan have been quarantined, Miller said, stressing that this was purely a precautionary measure and “not because they are sick.”
Earlier this month, the United States began reducing its troop presence in Afghanistan as part of a peace deal signed in February with the Taliban.
The agreement sees an initial reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 8,600 soldiers.
Miller did not mention the agreement in his statement.
So far, 21 U.S. and coalition staff exhibiting flu-like symptoms are in isolation and receiving medical care, Miller’s statement said.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Romanian, and Uzbek services, AP, AFP, Reuters, Digi24.ro, G4media.ro, and Hotnews.ro


rferl--2020-03-19--Former Uranium Tycoon Dzhakishev Released From Kazakh Prison

Former Kazakh state nuclear company head Mukhtar Dzhakishev , whose conviction on corruption charges in 2010 was criticized by many as politically motivated , has been released from prison .
Dzhakishev on March 19 left the prison in the northeastern city of Semei after a Kazakh court on March 3 granted him an early release .
The court ruled that Dzhakishev will not be allowed to leave the country and will live under parole-like restrictions until his 14-year term is over .
Observers and human rights organizations widely consider Dzhakishev a political prisoner .
Dozens of his supporters greeted him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who has served about 11 years of his sentence , has complained of health issues .
Dzhakishev 's supporters and international human rights organizations have urged Kazakh authorities to release him since his arrest in 2009 .
In March 2018 , the Helsinki Committee Norway and the France-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia called on then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev to release Dzhakishev on humanitarian grounds because because he had a number of health issues .
In 2015 , the UN Human Rights Committee asked the Kazakh authorities to annul Dzhakishev ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It said that his right to a fair and public trial , to have contact with his lawyers , and to be treated humanely had been violated .
Human rights groups in Kazakhstan also called Dzhakishev a political prisoner .
Some government critics believe that he was imprisoned because he was a close friend of Mukhtar Ablyazov , a self-exiled former banker and opposition politician , who has been living in the European Union since 2009 , the year when Dzhakishev was arrested .
Many in Kazakhstan hoped that after Nazarbaev 's sudden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be paroled .
Nazarbaev , 79 , had been president since before Kazakhstan became independent in 1991 .
He continues to play a crucial role in the country ’ s political life as the leader of the ruling Nur-Otan party and the chairman for life of the country ’ s powerful Security Council .
Nazarbaev also holds the title of elbasy , or leader of the nation .
On February 29 , Kazakhstan 's current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said in an interview with online magazine Informburo.kz that he was `` confident that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ request by Dzhakishev will be fair . ''

Former Kazakh state nuclear company head Mukhtar Dzhakishev, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2010 was criticized by many as politically motivated, has been released from prison.
Dzhakishev on March 19 left the prison in the northeastern city of Semei after a Kazakh court on March 3 granted him an early release. The court ruled that Dzhakishev will not be allowed to leave the country and will live under parole-like restrictions until his 14-year term is over.
Observers and human rights organizations widely consider Dzhakishev a political prisoner.
Dozens of his supporters greeted him outside the prison.
The former tycoon, who has served about 11 years of his sentence, has complained of health issues.
Dzhakishev's supporters and international human rights organizations have urged Kazakh authorities to release him since his arrest in 2009.
In March 2018, the Helsinki Committee Norway and the France-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia called on then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev to release Dzhakishev on humanitarian grounds because because he had a number of health issues.
In 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee asked the Kazakh authorities to annul Dzhakishev’s conviction and release him immediately. It said that his right to a fair and public trial, to have contact with his lawyers, and to be treated humanely had been violated.
Human rights groups in Kazakhstan also called Dzhakishev a political prisoner. Some government critics believe that he was imprisoned because he was a close friend of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a self-exiled former banker and opposition politician, who has been living in the European Union since 2009, the year when Dzhakishev was arrested.
Many in Kazakhstan hoped that after Nazarbaev's sudden resignation in March last year, Dzhakishev would be paroled.
Nazarbaev, 79, had been president since before Kazakhstan became independent in 1991. He continues to play a crucial role in the country’s political life as the leader of the ruling Nur-Otan party and the chairman for life of the country’s powerful Security Council.
Nazarbaev also holds the title of elbasy, or leader of the nation.
On February 29, Kazakhstan's current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said in an interview with online magazine Informburo.kz that he was "confident that the decision on the next early release request by Dzhakishev will be fair."


rferl--2020-03-19--Kosovo Coalition Partner To Seek No-Confidence Vote After Interior Minister Is Fired

PRISTINA -- A partner in Kosovo ’ s ruling coalition says it will seek a no-confidence vote in parliament against the government , potentially engulfing the small Balkan nation into a political crisis even as it battles along with the rest of the world to curtail the coronavirus pandemic .
Isa Mustafa , the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo ( LDK ) , said on March 18 that the motion will be filed after the dismissal earlier in the day of Interior Minister Agim Veliu , purportedly for spreading `` panic '' about coronavirus after he backed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the pandemic .
But Mustafa added that the dismissal was also related to the differences between the coalition partners over whether a 100 percent tariff on goods from neighbor and rival Serbia should be lifted .
Late on March 17 , President Hashim Thaci signed a decree on declaring a state of emergency over the coronavirus crisis .
It has been sent to Kosovo ’ s parliament , which has 48 hours to either accept or reject the move .
Prime Minister Albin Kurti has rejected calls for a state of emergency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panic.
” He fired Veliu on March 18 , just hours after Veliu said he supported the call , accusing him of spreading `` panic . ''
`` At this time , when the entire public administration is making the utmost efforts to minimize the damage caused by the coronavirus , the heads of central institutions , including those in the government cabinet , need to prove maturity both in decision-making and in making statements , '' Kurti said in his announcement about firing Veliu .
Veliu is from the LDK , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Self-Determination party .
LDK leader Mustafa gave Kurti until the end of the week to “ annul the decision to dismiss Veliu and take a decision to abolish the tariffs ” on Serbian imports .
Pristina is under huge pressure from the European Union and the United States to revoke the 100 percent import tariff it imposed against Serbia in November 2018 .
The tariff came in response to Belgrade 's diplomatic campaign to encourage some of the 110-plus countries that have recognized Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power , Kurti has resisted removing the tariff and instead has suggested a partial lifting -- something rejected by Thaci as well as the United States , Kosovo ’ s most important ally .
Richard Grenell , the U.S. special envoy to Kosovo and Serbia , said in a tweet on February 27 , that the partial lifting was not enough , calling it a “ half measure.
” The LDK had said it would quit the government if the tariff was not `` revoked unconditionally . ''
Despite the political maneuvering , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today that we have LDK as a partner .
We want to have the LDK in the ruling coalition . ''
The LDK would need approval from a majority of deputies in the 120-member parliament , where Kurti has only 29 seats , to bring down the government .
Kosovo says it has confirmed 20 cases of the coronavirus since the first infected person was discovered on March 13 .
Most cases concern people who had traveled to nearby Italy or had been in contact with others who had been to Italy .
@ @ @ @ @ @

PRISTINA -- A partner in Kosovo’s ruling coalition says it will seek a no-confidence vote in parliament against the government, potentially engulfing the small Balkan nation into a political crisis even as it battles along with the rest of the world to curtail the coronavirus pandemic.
Isa Mustafa, the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said on March 18 that the motion will be filed after the dismissal earlier in the day of Interior Minister Agim Veliu, purportedly for spreading "panic" about coronavirus after he backed a presidential call for a state of emergency over the pandemic.
But Mustafa added that the dismissal was also related to the differences between the coalition partners over whether a 100 percent tariff on goods from neighbor and rival Serbia should be lifted.
Late on March 17, President Hashim Thaci signed a decree on declaring a state of emergency over the coronavirus crisis. It has been sent to Kosovo’s parliament, which has 48 hours to either accept or reject the move.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti has rejected calls for a state of emergency, saying it would cause “unnecessary panic.”
He fired Veliu on March 18, just hours after Veliu said he supported the call, accusing him of spreading "panic."
"At this time, when the entire public administration is making the utmost efforts to minimize the damage caused by the coronavirus, the heads of central institutions, including those in the government cabinet, need to prove maturity both in decision-making and in making statements," Kurti said in his announcement about firing Veliu.
Veliu is from the LDK, which is in a fragile coalition with Kurti's Self-Determination party.
LDK leader Mustafa gave Kurti until the end of the week to “annul the decision to dismiss Veliu and take a decision to abolish the tariffs” on Serbian imports.
Pristina is under huge pressure from the European Union and the United States to revoke the 100 percent import tariff it imposed against Serbia in November 2018.
The tariff came in response to Belgrade's diplomatic campaign to encourage some of the 110-plus countries that have recognized Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 to reverse their position.
Since taking power, Kurti has resisted removing the tariff and instead has suggested a partial lifting -- something rejected by Thaci as well as the United States, Kosovo’s most important ally.
Richard Grenell, the U.S. special envoy to Kosovo and Serbia, said in a tweet on February 27, that the partial lifting was not enough, calling it a “half measure.”
The LDK had said it would quit the government if the tariff was not "revoked unconditionally."
Despite the political maneuvering, Kurti said that “I still say today that we have LDK as a partner. We want to have the LDK in the ruling coalition."
The LDK would need approval from a majority of deputies in the 120-member parliament, where Kurti has only 29 seats, to bring down the government.
Kosovo says it has confirmed 20 cases of the coronavirus since the first infected person was discovered on March 13.
Most cases concern people who had traveled to nearby Italy or had been in contact with others who had been to Italy.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters


rferl--2020-03-19--U.S. Urges Afghan Government, Taliban To Move Forward With Prisoner Releases

The United States says the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban should begin prisoner releases “ as soon as possible , ” adding that the global coronavirus pandemic is making this a matter of even greater urgency .
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad wrote in a Twitter thread on March 18 that the `` coronavirus makes prisoner releases urgent ; time is of the essence . ''
Khalilzad signed a deal on February 29 with Taliban negotiators aimed at ending the nearly 19-year Afghan war .
The accord called for the release by the Afghan government of up to 5,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 1,000 Afghan government captives ahead of intra-Afghan talks .
The Taliban , which so far has refused to meet directly with the Afghan government , said it was committed to the deal but would not start negotiations with Kabul until its fighters were freed .
Western-backed Kabul was not a party to the deal and initially resisted freeing any prisoners .
President Ashraf Ghani then agreed to free 1,500 last week and the rest after peace talks were finalized and Taliban violence had ceased .
But the peace process was again thrown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the release of the first Taliban prisoners had been delayed .
Jawed Faisal , a spokesman for the Afghan National Security Adviser 's office , said the government needed more time to review the list of the prisoners .
“ We have received the lists of the prisoners to be released .
We are checking and verifying the lists .
This will take time , '' Faisal said .
The prisoner releases were slated to have started last week as part of a U.S.-led effort to end America 's longest war and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strife .
Khalilzad , in his Twitter comments , said that `` no prisoners have been released to date despite the commitment to do so expressed by both sides . ''
`` The United States would like to see prisoner releases begin as soon as possible in line with the U.S.-Taliban agreement , '' Khalilzad wrote , adding that Washington understood from talks with both sides that they could `` work together and focus on technical steps '' for freeing detainees .
He said that while face-to-face are meetings are preferable , `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ requires virtual engagement now , '' he said , adding that both sides should `` avoid provocative media statements . ''
With reporting by Reuters , AFP , and RFE/RL 's Afghan Service

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--2020-03-18--U.S. Senator Criticizes Russia For Rights Abuses in 'Occupied Crimea'

U.S .
Senator Bob Menendez ( Democrat-New Jersey ) has criticized Russia for what he called `` serious human rights '' abuses in Crimea during the six years since Russia 's `` illegal occupation and annexation '' of the peninsula from Ukraine .
`` Today , as it was six years ago , Crimea remains Ukrainian territory .
Period , '' Menendez , the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , said on March 18 .
`` On this somber day , I stand in solidarity with the Crimean people , who continue to face serious human rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including torture , arbitrary arrests , and the erosion of basic freedoms of expression and association , '' Menendez said .
Menendez 's criticism came as Russian President Vladimir Putin began a two-day visit to Crimea , which Moscow seized in 2014 .
Moscow deployed military forces across Crimea and secured control of key government buildings in February 2014 .
The following month , it carried out a hastily organized referendum on Crimea 's status that is considered illegitimate by more than 100 countries .
In a statement , Ukraine 's Foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia 's `` cynical '' disrespect for international law .
The visit coincided with Russian military exercises at a training range in Crimea .
Russia 's Defense Ministry said the drills involved 600 airborne troops In his statement , Menendez noted that Congress `` has made clear '' in several pieces of legislation that `` the United States should never recognize Russia 's illegal occupation of Crimea . ''
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on February 26 said Washington `` does not and will not ever recognize '' Moscow 's annexation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. Treasury Department joined the European Union and Canada in imposing fresh sanctions against Russia in response to Moscow 's `` continued aggression toward Ukraine and attempted occupation of Crimea . ''
Menendez urged other countries around the world to `` adopt a policy of nonrecognition of Crimea as Russian territory . ''
`` When world leaders do not speak out against Putin 's use of violence to alter national borders , it only emboldens future illegal aggression , '' he said .
On March 16 , the European Union said all 27 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` fully implementing '' a nonrecognition policy , including through the use of sanctions , until Ukraine 's sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored .

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) has criticized Russia for what he called "serious human rights" abuses in Crimea during the six years since Russia's "illegal occupation and annexation" of the peninsula from Ukraine.
"Today, as it was six years ago, Crimea remains Ukrainian territory. Period," Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on March 18.
"On this somber day, I stand in solidarity with the Crimean people, who continue to face serious human rights abuses at the hand of their occupiers, including torture, arbitrary arrests, and the erosion of basic freedoms of expression and association," Menendez said.
Menendez's criticism came as Russian President Vladimir Putin began a two-day visit to Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Moscow deployed military forces across Crimea and secured control of key government buildings in February 2014. The following month, it carried out a hastily organized referendum on Crimea's status that is considered illegitimate by more than 100 countries.
In a statement, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry criticized Putin's visit and denounced Russia's "cynical" disrespect for international law.
The visit coincided with Russian military exercises at a training range in Crimea. Russia's Defense Ministry said the drills involved 600 airborne troops
In his statement, Menendez noted that Congress "has made clear" in several pieces of legislation that "the United States should never recognize Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on February 26 said Washington "does not and will not ever recognize" Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
On January 29, the U.S. Treasury Department joined the European Union and Canada in imposing fresh sanctions against Russia in response to Moscow's "continued aggression toward Ukraine and attempted occupation of Crimea."
Menendez urged other countries around the world to "adopt a policy of nonrecognition of Crimea as Russian territory."
"When world leaders do not speak out against Putin's use of violence to alter national borders, it only emboldens future illegal aggression," he said.
On March 16, the European Union said all 27 members of the bloc remained committed to "fully implementing" a nonrecognition policy, including through the use of sanctions, until Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored.
With reporting by Interfax


rferl--2020-03-20--Pakistani Doctor Arrested In U.S. On Terrorism Charge

A Pakistani doctor has been arrested in the U.S. state of Minnesota on a terrorism charge , after he told @ @ @ @ @ had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group and wanted to carry out @ @ @ @ @ United States , prosecutors say .
Muhammad Masood , 28 , a former research coordinator @ @ @ @ @ , was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on March 19 by FBI agents @ @ @ @ @ count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization .
Prosecutors say @ @ @ @ @ States on a work visa .
They allege that starting in January , Masood made @ @ @ @ @ -- whom he believed were members of Islamic State -- pledging his allegiance to the @ @ @ @ @ voiced his desire to travel to Syria to fight for IS and a desire to @ @ @ @ @ in the United States .
Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said Masood formerly worked at @ @ @ @ @ was not employed by Mayo Clinic at the time of his arrest .
”

A Pakistani doctor has been arrested in the U.S. state of Minnesota on a terrorism charge, after he told paid FBI informants that he had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group and wanted to carry out lone wolf attacks in the United States, prosecutors say.
Muhammad Masood, 28, a former research coordinator at the prestigious Mayo Clinic, was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on March 19 by FBI agents and was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Prosecutors say Masood was in the United States on a work visa. They allege that starting in January, Masood made several statements to paid informants -- whom he believed were members of Islamic State -- pledging his allegiance to the group.
He also allegedly voiced his desire to travel to Syria to fight for IS and a desire to carry out lone wolf attacks in the United States.
Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said Masood formerly worked at the medical center but "was not employed by Mayo Clinic at the time of his arrest.”
Based on reporting by AP


rferl--2020-03-20--COVID-19: Central Asia Employs Additional Measures; Armenia Suspends Exports Of Medical Items

The global coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 244,000 people worldwide , causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness .
Central Asian nations are moving to take additional measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak .
Uzbekistan 's Transport Ministry said on its Telegram channel that international terrestrial and air passenger traffic has been suspended for 40 days as of March 20 .
The regulation does not affect cargo transportation .
Also on March 20 , state-run media in Uzbekistan reported that President Shavkat Mirziyoev signed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 1 billion to deal with the effects of the coronavirus .
Uzbekistan is Central Asia 's most populous nation , with 32 million people .
In neighboring Kazakhstan , five more coronavirus cases were reported on March 20 , including the first two cases outside Nur-Sultan , the capital , and the country 's largest city , Almaty .
With three more cases in Almaty and two in the central city of Qaraghandy , the number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan is now 49 .
As of March 19 , Nur-Sultan and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , security forces , and military personnel blocking roads and highways inside and around the two cities .
In Kyrgyzstan , a state of emergency was announced in the southern district of Nookat , where another three coronavirus cases were reported on March 20 , bringing the total number to six .
Earlier , a state of emergency was announced in the Suzak district , where three men tested positive for the coronavirus .
All six persons recently returned to Kyrgyzstan from Saudi Arabia .
In Tajikistan , the government suspended all international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus cases have been reported in Tajikistan so far .
In Turkmenistan , RFE/RL correspondents report that as of March 19 , Ashgabat , the capital , has been surrounded with checkpoints to regulate entrances into the city .
Only residents of Ashgabat can enter the city now .
No coronavirus cases were officially recorded .
According to the correspondents , intercity movement in Turkmenistan has also been restricted .
Armenia has suspended exports of some medical items over the novel coronavirus outbreak .
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian , who coordinates Armenia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , published a list of products subject to restrictions on March 19 that includes protective gear for medics , equipment for mechanical lung ventilation , COVID-19 test kits , respirators , medical masks , alcohol-based sanitizers , and other items .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said earlier in the week that his government would allocate at least 150 billion drams ( some $ 300 million ) to support the economy and limit the impact of the pandemic .
Armenia 's Ministry of Education , Science , Culture , and Sports said on March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will switch to online learning .
The current number of officially recorded coronavirus cases in Armenia is 136 .
In neighboring Azerbaijan , President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on March 19 , allocating 1 billion manats ( $ 600 million ) to deal with the impact of the pandemic on the oil-rich nation 's economy .
Meanwhile , as of March 20 , the number of the coronavirus cases in Azerbaijan is 44 , with one fatality .
In another South Caucasus nation , Georgia , where as of March 19 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , post offices , and banks were allowed to operate , the number of coronavirus cases reached 43 .
Activists in Russia 's Republic of Tatarstan have sued authorities of the regional capital , Kazan , for ordering them to provide participants to planned protest rallies with surgical masks because of the coronavirus outbreak .
Organizers of the rallies against constitutional amendments that , among other things , would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power after his term ends in 2024 told RFE/RL that the city administration approved their request to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kazan only on condition they provide participants with face masks and regularly measure the participants ' body temperature during the rallies .
Activists Emil Garayev and Vladimir Kolodtsev told RFE/RL that authorities justified the order by citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic .
The order was included in the city administration 's response to the activists ' request for permission to hold the rallies .
The activists filed a lawsuit against the mayor 's office , challenging the order , adding that a lawyer from the Open Russia opposition organization , Elza Nisanbekova , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also say that they received the city administration 's answer to their request seven days after they officially filed it , although the law provides for an answer to be delivered in three days .
With reporting by RFE/RL 's Kazakh , Kyrgyz , Tajik , Turkmen , Uzbek , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Georgian , and Tatar-Bashkir services

The global coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 246,000 people and killed over 10,000 worldwide, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.
Central Asia
Central Asian nations are moving to take additional measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Uzbekistan's Transport Ministry said on its Telegram channel that international terrestrial and air passenger traffic has been suspended for 40 days as of March 20.
The regulation does not affect cargo transportation.
Also on March 20, state-run media in Uzbekistan reported that President Shavkat Mirziyoev signed a decree to establish an anti-crisis fund of $1 billion to deal with the effects of the coronavirus.
Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous nation, with 32 million people.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, five more coronavirus cases were reported on March 20, including the first two cases outside Nur-Sultan, the capital, and the country's largest city, Almaty.
With three more cases in Almaty and two in the central city of Qaraghandy, the number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan is now 49.
As of March 19, Nur-Sultan and Almaty have been sealed off with police, security forces, and military personnel blocking roads and highways inside and around the two cities.
In Kyrgyzstan, a state of emergency was announced in the southern district of Nookat, where another three coronavirus cases were reported on March 20, bringing the total number to six. Earlier, a state of emergency was announced in the Suzak district, where three men tested positive for the coronavirus.
All six persons recently returned to Kyrgyzstan from Saudi Arabia.
In Tajikistan, the government suspended all international flights as of March 20. No coronavirus cases have been reported in Tajikistan so far.
In Turkmenistan, RFE/RL correspondents report that as of March 19, Ashgabat, the capital, has been surrounded with checkpoints to regulate entrances into the city. Only residents of Ashgabat can enter the city now. No coronavirus cases were officially recorded.
According to the correspondents, intercity movement in Turkmenistan has also been restricted.
Armenia
Armenia has suspended exports of some medical items over the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates Armenia's efforts under a 30-day state-of-emergency rule, published a list of products subject to restrictions on March 19 that includes protective gear for medics, equipment for mechanical lung ventilation, COVID-19 test kits, respirators, medical masks, alcohol-based sanitizers, and other items.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said earlier in the week that his government would allocate at least 150 billion drams (some $300 million) to support the economy and limit the impact of the pandemic.
Armenia's Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports said on March 20 that all universities in the country will switch to online learning.
The current number of officially recorded coronavirus cases in Armenia is 136.
Azerbaijan
In neighboring Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on March 19, allocating 1 billion manats ($600 million) to deal with the impact of the pandemic on the oil-rich nation's economy.
Meanwhile, as of March 20, the number of the coronavirus cases in Azerbaijan is 44, with one fatality.
Georgia
In another South Caucasus nation, Georgia, where as of March 19, only groceries, pharmacies, gas stations, post offices, and banks were allowed to operate, the number of coronavirus cases reached 43.
Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan has asked Pakistani citizens to strictly follow the policy of self-quarantine and social distancing to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
Addressing journalists in Islamabad on March 20, Khan said he was not in favor of total lockdown of the country, saying it would affect poor people.
Khan warned that if the number of infected people continues to spike, Pakistan may not have the necessary facilities to properly handle the situation.
He also advised against buying food in bulk to avoid shortages.
Pakistan, a country of roughly 220 million people, has confirmed 481 cases of coronavirus so far, most of them linked to travel to neighboring Iran, and three deaths.
Khan also called for the lifting of sanctions on Iran so that Tehran can better deal with the coronavirus crisis.
"It is very unjust they are dealing with such a large outbreak on one side, and on the other they are facing international sanctions," Khan said.
Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that U.S. sanctions were "impairing" Iran's ability to fight COVID-19.
Russia
Russian officials said on March 20 that 54 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed across the country during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in Russia to 253.
The coronavirus crisis center in Moscow said the 54 new cases were registered in Moscow and in eight other regions.
Since the pandemic hit Russia, 12 patients have recovered from the virus and have been released from medical institutions.
One coronavirus patient, a 79-year-old woman, has died. But authorities said the cause of her death was not officially registered as COVID-19 because an autopsy revealed she had died of a blood clot.
President Vladimir Putin on March 17 called the coronavirus pandemic "an external threat."
Putin assured Russian citizens that the situation was "generally under control." But many Russians have expressed distrust about official accounts of Russia's outbreak and fear the true situation is much worse than they are being told.
As the number of infections in Russia has risen, officials have temporarily barred entry into the country of foreigners. They also have imposed restrictions on passenger flights and public gatherings.
Russia's national health watchdog on March 19 tightened restrictions on all travelers from abroad with a decree that requires "all individuals arriving to Russia" to be isolated for medical observation.
Meanwhile, activists in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan have sued authorities of the regional capital, Kazan, for ordering them to provide participants to planned protest rallies with surgical masks because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Organizers of the rallies against constitutional amendments that, among other things, would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power after his term ends in 2024 told RFE/RL that the city administration approved their request to hold three protests on March 22 in Kazan only on condition they provide participants with face masks and regularly measure the participants' body temperature during the rallies.
Activists Emil Garayev and Vladimir Kolodtsev told RFE/RL that authorities justified the order by citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The order was included in the city administration's response to the activists' request for permission to hold the rallies.
The activists filed a lawsuit against the mayor's office, challenging the order, adding that a lawyer from the Open Russia opposition organization, Elza Nisanbekova, is their legal representative.
The activists also say that they received the city administration's answer to their request seven days after they officially filed it, although the law provides for an answer to be delivered in three days.
Ukraine
Ukraine has declared a state of emergency in the capital and two regions as a measure to counteract the spread the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on March 20 that a state of emergency had been declared in the city of Kyiv, the east-central Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and the western Ivano-Fankivsk Oblast.
"No new restrictions are yet to be expected. The emergency mode is designed to mobilize efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19," he wrote on Telegram.
Earlier, states of emergency were declared in Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts in the north-central part of the country and the southwestern region of Chernivtsi.
Under the state of emergency, the heads of the affected regions are expected to implement coordinated measures to curtail the spread of the virus and to submit daily reports to the Health Ministry.
The same day, Ukraine’s parliament reported that it would continue working normally even though lawmaker Serhiy Shakhov of the Dovira (Faith) parliamentary group tested positive for the coronavirus on March 18.
As of March 20, Ukraine has reported 26 coronavirus infections and three fatalities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported that the first Ukrainian had recovered from COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
“A patient from Chernivtsi has again been tested for the coronavirus, and his test was negative for the second time,” Zelenskiy said in a national address. “This means we can officially say that Ukraine now has its first person to have recovered from the coronavirus. He will be discharged from the hospital today.”
With reporting by RFE/RL's Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Tatar-Bashkir services