rferl--2020-04-22--EU Monitors See Coordinated COVID-19 Disinformation Effort By Iran, Russia, China

BRUSSELS -- EU monitors have identified a “ trilateral convergence of disinformation narratives ” being promoted by China , Iran , and Russia on the coronavirus pandemic and say they are being “ multiplied ” in a coordinated manner , according to an internal document seen by RFE/RL .
The document , which is dated 20 April , says common themes are that the coronavirus is a biological weapon created in the United States to bring down opponents and that China , Iran , and Russia “ are doing much better than the West ” in fighting the epidemic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ amplified by Russian media -- continue calling for the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Iran , claiming that they are undermining the country ’ s humanitarian and medical response to COVID-19 .
The document says this is part of a wider Russian , Iranian , and Chinese “ convergence ” calling for a lifting of sanctions on Russia , Iran , Syria , and Venezuela -- all countries that have seen U.S. economic sanctions against them increase under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump .
In the case of Syria , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an anti-EU narrative that claims the bloc is perpetrating an “ economic war ” on the Middle Eastern country .
The 25-page document was written by the strategic communications division of the European diplomatic corps , the European External Action Service ( EEAS ) .
It is a follow-up to an April report stating that Russia and China are deploying a campaign of disinformation around the coronavirus pandemic that could have `` harmful consequences '' for public health around the world .
In a March report , the EU monitors accused pro-Kremlin media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ epidemic in an attempt to `` undermine public trust '' in Western countries .
The new report says Russia and to a lesser extent China continue to amplify “ conspiracy narratives ” aimed at both public audiences in the EU and the wider neighborhood .
It further notes that official Russian sources and state media continue running a coordinated campaign aimed at undermining the EU and its crisis response and at sowing confusion about the health implications of COVID-19 .
The document also states that most of the content identified by the EEAS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such as Twitter and Facebook .
It alleges that Google and other services that deliver advertisements “ continue to monetise and incentivise harmful health disinformation by hosting paid ads on respective websites.
” Representatives of those companies did not immediately respond to RFE/RL 's request for comment .
According to analysis by the team , disinformation about the virus is going particularly viral in smaller media markets both inside and outside the EU in which technology giants “ face lower incentives to take adequate countermeasures.
” It adds that false or highly misleading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russian , and Ukrainian continues to go viral even when it has been flagged by local fact-checkers .

BRUSSELS -- EU monitors have identified a “trilateral convergence of disinformation narratives” being promoted by China, Iran, and Russia on the coronavirus pandemic and say they are being “multiplied” in a coordinated manner, according to an internal document seen by RFE/RL.
The document, which is dated 20 April, says common themes are that the coronavirus is a biological weapon created in the United States to bring down opponents and that China, Iran, and Russia “are doing much better than the West” in fighting the epidemic.
It also states that Iranian leaders -- amplified by Russian media -- continue calling for the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Iran, claiming that they are undermining the country’s humanitarian and medical response to COVID-19.
The document says this is part of a wider Russian, Iranian, and Chinese “convergence” calling for a lifting of sanctions on Russia, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela -- all countries that have seen U.S. economic sanctions against them increase under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the case of Syria, the COVID-19 disinformation is used “to reinforce an anti-EU narrative that claims the bloc is perpetrating an “economic war” on the Middle Eastern country.
The 25-page document was written by the strategic communications division of the European diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS).
It is a follow-up to an April report stating that Russia and China are deploying a campaign of disinformation around the coronavirus pandemic that could have "harmful consequences" for public health around the world.
In a March report, the EU monitors accused pro-Kremlin media outlets of actively spreading disinformation about the epidemic in an attempt to "undermine public trust" in Western countries.
The new report says Russia and to a lesser extent China continue to amplify “conspiracy narratives” aimed at both public audiences in the EU and the wider neighborhood. It further notes that official Russian sources and state media continue running a coordinated campaign aimed at undermining the EU and its crisis response and at sowing confusion about the health implications of COVID-19.
The document also states that most of the content identified by the EEAS continues to proliferate widely on social-media services such as Twitter and Facebook. It alleges that Google and other services that deliver advertisements “continue to monetise and incentivise harmful health disinformation by hosting paid ads on respective websites.”
Representatives of those companies did not immediately respond to RFE/RL's request for comment.
According to analysis by the team, disinformation about the virus is going particularly viral in smaller media markets both inside and outside the EU in which technology giants “face lower incentives to take adequate countermeasures.”
It adds that false or highly misleading content in languages such as Czech, Russian, and Ukrainian continues to go viral even when it has been flagged by local fact-checkers.


rferl--2020-04-22--Migrant Worker Remittances Forecast To Drop 20 Percent Due To Coronavirus

The World Bank says remittances sent home by migrants from low- and middle-income countries are projected to drop nearly 20 percent to $ 445 billion this year due to the global economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic .
In a report released on April 22 , the Washington-based lender said job losses , as well as lost hours and wages were expected to leave migrants in wealthier nations unable to send as much money home to poorer countries .
Remittance flows to states in Europe and Central Asia are expected to drop 27.5 percent , representing a loss of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it said .
The decrease is expected to be 22.1 percent in South Asia and 19.6 percent in the Middle East and North Africa .
The report also cautioned that migrants are being left out of programs that governments have implemented to ease the economic and health effects of the coronavirus and are unable to return to their countries due to transportation shutdowns .
The World Bank said remittances reached a record $ 554 billion last year , becoming a larger source of funds for poorer nations than foreign direct investment .
Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remittances in the Europe and Central Asia region , receiving a record high of nearly $ 16 billion , while Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , and Uzbekistan benefited from a rebound of economic activity in Russia .
With reporting by AFP and AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that there can be no advancement in the relationship between the United States and Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless there is an improvement in the treatment of women in the country.
Speaking to reporters on August 15, the two-year anniversary of the Taliban’s seizure of power in Kabul, Blinken said the United States continues to work to hold the Taliban accountable for the commitments that it's made, particularly when it comes to the rights of women and girls.
"We've been very clear with the Taliban -- and dozens of countries around the world have been very clear -- that the path to any more normal relationship between the Taliban and other countries will be blocked unless and until the rights of women and girls among other things are actually supported," Blinken said.
No country has recognized the Taliban-led government, and the United States has avoided direct economic engagement in part over the treatment of women and girls, who have seen their rights drastically curbed by the hard-line Islamists. This includes a ban on women working in local and international nongovernmental organizations and a ban on education beyond the sixth grade.
The Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 after President Joe Biden withdrew U.S. troops under the terms of an agreement reached in February 2020 between the Taliban and the administration of then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
Blinken defended the pullout and said the United States was not focused on other priorities.
"The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was an incredibly difficult one, but also the right one," Blinken said. "We ended America's longest war. For the first time in 20 years, we don't have another generation of young Americans going to fight and die."
A number of international human rights organizations earlier on August 15 called the Taliban's two years of rule shameful and worrying.
Amnesty International and several other international human rights organizations demanded in a statement an effective response to the situation, noting the Taliban's strict decrees against human rights in Afghanistan, especially against women and girls.
The organizations said in a statement that in the past two years, the Taliban has increasingly imposed harmful policies against women and girls and religious and ethnic minorities that clearly violate Afghanistan's obligations under international human rights law.
The Taliban has previously rejected reports on the treatment of women as propaganda of international organizations. The militant group's leaders have said they have strengthened all the rights of women in Afghanistan in light of Islamic principles.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban, said in an interview with the AP marking the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of the country that the Taliban views its rule of Afghanistan as open-ended and as drawing legitimacy from Islamic law. He also suggested a ban on female education will remain in place.
Female activist Soheila Yousefi calls the situation alarming and wants the world to pay attention.
"The international community should take serious action in this regard because the world chose to be silent in these two years and did not take any practical steps. Our request is that they should look at the current situation in Afghanistan, then take a serious and comprehensive review."
The Taliban did not respond to Radio Azadi's questions before the release of the report, but the rulers have spoken of strengthening human rights in Afghanistan, especially the rights of women and girls, according to Islamic principles.
With reporting by AP and AFP


rferl--2020-04-22--U.S. Ambassador Slams 'Egregious' Charges Against Journalists In Russia

MOSCOW -- The U.S. ambassador to Russia has criticized what he calls the Russian government ’ s lack of action to protect journalists who have received threats of retaliation from Russian officials or face criminal charges considered trumped up by their supporters .
In an online briefing on April 22 , Ambassador John J. Sullivan slammed extremism charges launched against Svetlana Prokopyeva , an RFE/RL contributor in Pskov , and threats issued by Chechnya ’ s leader Ramzan Kadyrov against the broadcaster ’ s North Caucasus bureau chief , Aslan Doukaev , for an article challenging the Chechen authorities ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s threats against Elena Milashina , a journalist working for Novaya Gazeta who has written extensively and critically about the human rights situation in Chechnya .
“ Both myself and our embassy team are following these cases very closely .
Freedom of the press is the pillar of any democracy , ” said Sullivan , a former deputy secretary of state who took up his post in Moscow in January .
“ Unfortunately freedom of the press is under pressure today in Russia , ” he added .
The cases of the three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread within Russia and its constituent republics , first and foremost the Republic of Chechnya .
An article by Milashina was taken down last week following a request by Russia 's media regulator , Roskomnadzor .
The move came after Kadyrov labeled as `` absurd '' the article about measures introduced to tackle the coronavirus in Chechnya , and threatened to harm Milashina .
Sullivan cited a “ disturbing trend “ in Russia 's media environment , singling out the charges against Prokopyeva as “ egregious ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dignity and respect that a member of the press serving in difficult circumstances has earned.
” Prokopyeva is awaiting trial on extremism charges for remarks she made about a November 2018 bomb attack on the offices of Russia ’ s Federal Security Services in Arkhangelsk .
Last month , RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called Prokopyeva 's indictment `` a cynical effort to silence an independent journalist . ''
“ We ’ ve raised these issues with the Russian government and unfortunately , to date , Russian federal authorities have taken no action to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ So it ’ s appropriate for us to continue to do so , and we will , ” he added .
Sullivan also commented on the ongoing trial against Paul Whelan , a U.S. citizen accused by Russia of espionage .
The ambassador said he was denied entry to a closed-door hearing on Whelan ’ s case held on April 20 , despite being able in the past to engage the judge overseeing the case and speak with Whelan himself on at least one previous occasion .
Whelan , a former U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and British citizenships , was charged with spying after security agents arrested him in a December 2018 sting operation , claiming that a flash drive they seized contained state secrets .
He denies the charges calling them political in nature and has alleged being mistreated by guards .
“ He is foremost in my thoughts every day as I continue my services as ambassador , ” Sullivan said of Whelan , who faces up to 20 years in prison .
“ Along with other Americans who have been detained , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American citizens in Russia , Sullivan cited the case of U.S. investor Michael Calvey , who was detained in Moscow last February along with several other executives and employees of his Russia-based private-equity group , Baring Vostok , on charges of financial fraud .
Sullivan said he will continue to engage the U.S. business community , but cases like Calvey 's will have to be resolved before bilateral trade can significantly increase .
“ It ’ s become clear to me in my engagement with U.S. businesses active here in Russia that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue that type of dialogue as long as someone as prominent in the U.S. business community as Michael Calvey remains under house arrest in Russia , ” Sullivan said .
“ The criminalization of business disputes casts a serious pall over the investment and business climate in Russia , ” he added .
With the coronavirus pandemic only deepening in both countries , Sullivan estimated that several hundred American citizens currently in Russia are being assisted in their efforts to return to the United States .
But a dearth of commercial flights in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Moscow to reach the Russian capital at short notice ahead of outbound flights from Sheremetyevo Airport .
Commenting on aid packages supplied by Russia to the U.S. , and U.S. President Donald Trump ’ s suggestion that the United States could reciprocate with its own shipment to Russia , Sullivan said plans are ongoing for further medical assistance between the two countries .
“ Both countries have provided assistance to each other in times of crisis , and are committed to doing so again in the future , ” he said .

MOSCOW -- The U.S. ambassador to Russia has criticized what he calls the Russian government’s lack of action to protect journalists who have received threats of retaliation from Russian officials or face criminal charges considered trumped up by their supporters.
In an online briefing on April 22, Ambassador John J. Sullivan slammed extremism charges launched against Svetlana Prokopyeva, an RFE/RL contributor in Pskov, and threats issued by Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov against the broadcaster’s North Caucasus bureau chief, Aslan Doukaev, for an article challenging the Chechen authorities’ policies.
He also denounced Kadyrov’s threats against Elena Milashina, a journalist working for Novaya Gazeta who has written extensively and critically about the human rights situation in Chechnya.
“Both myself and our embassy team are following these cases very closely. Freedom of the press is the pillar of any democracy,” said Sullivan, a former deputy secretary of state who took up his post in Moscow in January.
“Unfortunately freedom of the press is under pressure today in Russia,” he added.
The cases of the three journalists has highlighted issues around independent coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread within Russia and its constituent republics, first and foremost the Republic of Chechnya.
An article by Milashina was taken down last week following a request by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor. The move came after Kadyrov labeled as "absurd" the article about measures introduced to tackle the coronavirus in Chechnya, and threatened to harm Milashina.
Germany and France echoed the United States’ concern over reported death threats against Milishina, who won the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in 2017 for her “important and courageous work.”
“Threats made by state officials are entirely unacceptable and contravene all forms of the rule of law,” French Human Rights Ambassador Francois Croquette and German Commissioner for Human Rights Policy Barbel Kofler said in a joint statement.
Sullivan cited a “disturbing trend“ in Russia's media environment, singling out the charges against Prokopyeva as “egregious” and arguing that she “deserves the dignity and respect that a member of the press serving in difficult circumstances has earned.”
Prokopyeva is awaiting trial on extremism charges for remarks she made about a November 2018 bomb attack on the offices of Russia’s Federal Security Services in Arkhangelsk.
Last month, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called Prokopyeva's indictment "a cynical effort to silence an independent journalist."
“We’ve raised these issues with the Russian government and unfortunately, to date, Russian federal authorities have taken no action to address them,” Sullivan said.
“So it’s appropriate for us to continue to do so, and we will,” he added.
U.S. Citizen Accused Of Espionage
Sullivan also commented on the ongoing trial against Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen accused by Russia of espionage. The ambassador said he was denied entry to a closed-door hearing on Whelan’s case held on April 20, despite being able in the past to engage the judge overseeing the case and speak with Whelan himself on at least one previous occasion.
Whelan, a former U.S. marine who also holds Canadian, Irish, and British citizenships, was charged with spying after security agents arrested him in a December 2018 sting operation, claiming that a flash drive they seized contained state secrets.
He denies the charges calling them political in nature and has alleged being mistreated by guards.
“He is foremost in my thoughts every day as I continue my services as ambassador,” Sullivan said of Whelan, who faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Along with other Americans who have been detained,” he added.
Addressing the business climate for American citizens in Russia, Sullivan cited the case of U.S. investor Michael Calvey, who was detained in Moscow last February along with several other executives and employees of his Russia-based private-equity group, Baring Vostok, on charges of financial fraud.
Sullivan said he will continue to engage the U.S. business community, but cases like Calvey's will have to be resolved before bilateral trade can significantly increase.
“It’s become clear to me in my engagement with U.S. businesses active here in Russia that it’s going to be difficult to continue that type of dialogue as long as someone as prominent in the U.S. business community as Michael Calvey remains under house arrest in Russia,” Sullivan said.
“The criminalization of business disputes casts a serious pall over the investment and business climate in Russia,” he added.
With the coronavirus pandemic only deepening in both countries, Sullivan estimated that several hundred American citizens currently in Russia are being assisted in their efforts to return to the United States. But a dearth of commercial flights in Russia makes it difficult for Americans outside Moscow to reach the Russian capital at short notice ahead of outbound flights from Sheremetyevo Airport.
Commenting on aid packages supplied by Russia to the U.S., and U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the United States could reciprocate with its own shipment to Russia, Sullivan said plans are ongoing for further medical assistance between the two countries.
“Both countries have provided assistance to each other in times of crisis, and are committed to doing so again in the future,” he said.


rferl--2020-04-22--Lawyer For Azerbaijani Opposition Activist Says Court Is Holding Up Appeal

BAKU -- The lawyer of a member of the opposition Popular Front Of Azerbaijan ( AXCP ) says the failure of a local court to provide documents is holding up his client 's appeal and forcing him to remain in the psychiatric clinic he was placed in after criticizing the country 's leadership .
Lawyer Nemat Karimli told RFE/RL on April 22 that his client Aqil Humbatov had yet to receive a copy of the April 2 court ruling which forcibly put him in a psychiatric clinic in Baku 's Mastaga district .
`` Without the written copy of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not appeal the ruling to the country 's Supreme Court , '' Karimli said .
Critics of longtime President Ilham Aliyev 's government say authorities of the oil-rich South Caucasus nation frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing opposition activists , reporters , human rights defenders , and civil society advocates without grounds .
Dozens of AXCP members have been arrested , and some imprisoned , in recent years on what their supporters have called trumped-up charges .
Humbatov was first detained on March 30 , a day after he placed a post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Aliyev for ignoring the rights of poor children , many of whom need medical treatment .
He was sent to a psychiatric clinic the same day with a diagnosis of `` paranoid personality disorder . ''
However , on April 1 , a court ruled that Humbatov could not be placed in a clinic against his will and the activist was released .
Humbatov then published new posts on Facebook describing the conditions in the psychiatric clinic as `` inhuman '' and `` horrible . ''
On April 2 , police detained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Baku ruled that he must be placed in a psychiatric clinic for treatment .
Humbatov , his wife , and his lawyer insist that he is absolutely healthy , both physically and mentally , and that there is no need to keep him in the clinic .
Aliyev denies any rights abuses .
He took power in 2003 shortly before the death of his father , Heydar Aliyev , a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled Azerbaijan since 1993 .

BAKU -- The lawyer of a member of the opposition Popular Front Of Azerbaijan (AXCP) says the failure of a local court to provide documents is holding up his client's appeal and forcing him to remain in the psychiatric clinic he was placed in after criticizing the country's leadership.
Lawyer Nemat Karimli told RFE/RL on April 22 that his client Aqil Humbatov had yet to receive a copy of the April 2 court ruling which forcibly put him in a psychiatric clinic in Baku's Mastaga district.
"Without the written copy of the court's decision, we technically cannot appeal the ruling to the country's Supreme Court," Karimli said.
Critics of longtime President Ilham Aliyev's government say authorities of the oil-rich South Caucasus nation frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing opposition activists, reporters, human rights defenders, and civil society advocates without grounds.
Dozens of AXCP members have been arrested, and some imprisoned, in recent years on what their supporters have called trumped-up charges.
Humbatov was first detained on March 30, a day after he placed a post on Facebook that criticized the government and President Aliyev for ignoring the rights of poor children, many of whom need medical treatment.
He was sent to a psychiatric clinic the same day with a diagnosis of "paranoid personality disorder."
However, on April 1, a court ruled that Humbatov could not be placed in a clinic against his will and the activist was released.
Humbatov then published new posts on Facebook describing the conditions in the psychiatric clinic as "inhuman" and "horrible."
On April 2, police detained Humbatov again and a court of appeals in Baku ruled that he must be placed in a psychiatric clinic for treatment.
Humbatov, his wife, and his lawyer insist that he is absolutely healthy, both physically and mentally, and that there is no need to keep him in the clinic.
Aliyev denies any rights abuses. He took power in 2003 shortly before the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled Azerbaijan since 1993.


rferl--2020-04-22--COVID-19: Russian Communists Break Lockdown Rules To Mark Lenin's 150th Birthday

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 178,000 with more than 2.5 million infections confirmed , causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness .
Tens of communists in Russia broke Moscow 's coronavirus lockdown to march across Red Square to mark the sesquicentennial anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin , the leader of the Bolshevik revolution .
Members of the Communist Party of Russia laid flowers at the front of Lenin 's Mausoleum in the square on April 22 , led by party leader Gennady Zyuganov @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups and kept at a distance from each other when approaching the granite mausoleum , though their presence broke lockdown rules prohibiting Muscovites from leaving their homes except to buy essentials such as food and medicines , to receive medical treatment , or to take out trash or walk family pets .
A day earlier , Zyuganov called on communists in all of Russia 's regions , as well as in Belarus , Ukraine , Moldova , Central Asia , and the South Caucasus , to lay flowers at remaining statues of Lenin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold mass events and celebrations of Lenin 's 150th anniversary with the participation of Communists from foreign nations , but all of the events were postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic .
Meanwhile , a well-known Russian economist Oleg Vyugin says the Russian government needs to provide more support to ordinary citizens and small businesses to overcome hardships caused by coronavirus pandemic .
Vyugin told RFE/RL on April 21 that instead of allocating major support sums to large state-controlled companies and enterprises , the government should focus more on supporting ordinary people and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vyugin , a former deputy finance minister , chairman of the Observation Council of the Moscow Stock Exchange , and a professor at the National Research University of Russia 's High School of Economics , was one of the authors of the Coronacrisis-2020 report published by the Liberal Mission foundation on April 13 that criticized the government 's coronavirus relief program .
According to Vyugin , the government 's general financial support package is 500 billion rubles ( $ 6.5 billion ) , of which only 80 billion rubles ( $ 1 billion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` This attitude might lead to a situation when the revival of small and medium businesses will proceed very slowly and with huge difficulties .
[ It would be better to choose ] what I call a European way , which is a concept to help ordinary people in difficult times , '' Vyugin said , noting the German government ’ s approach .
`` Germany started giving financial support to small businesses right away .
And later , the federal tax service will look at the situation .
If it turns out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under pandemic restrictions ] , you will have to return the money to the government .
If you took the money but failed to preserve your business and left your employees jobless , then you will have to return money to the government too , '' he said .
According to Vyugin , coronavirus restrictions will most likely start being lifted by late May , or early June , by which point officials will have to have figured out ways to `` coexist with the virus to avoid an economic catastrophe . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on individuals and businesses remain in place for months , they may lead to a situation where banks in Russia will also need government support as the ability of clients to repay loans , credits , and mortgages weakens .
Georgia 's parliament has approved a presidential decree to extend by one month the countrywide state of emergency implemented to help stem the spread of the coronavirus .
In an April 22 vote , 97 lawmakers were in favor of the decree to extend the state of emergency to May 22 , while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Salome Zurabishvili said the extension was needed since the virus was expected to continue spreading in the South Caucasus country for `` the next two-three weeks . ''
She added that Georgia had been able to `` control '' the extent of the epidemic since an initial state of emergency was declared on March 21 .
The state of emergency in Georgia includes a nightly curfew and the closure of nonessential shops , restaurants , and cafes .
Reporters Without Borders ( RSF ) is urging the Azerbaijani authorities to stop using the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” on critical reporting .
The Paris-based media freedom watchdog issued the call on April 22 , after Natiq Isbatov , a journalist for the 7gun.az news website , was jailed for allegedly violating lockdown regulations when he filmed a protest in Azerbaijan ’ s capital , Baku .
`` The misuse of lockdown measures to target reporters is the latest escalation in the persecution of independent journalism in Azerbaijan , '' Jeanne Cavelier , the head of RSF 's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk , said in a statement .
Cavelier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was detained on April 9 when he filmed protesters gathered outside a municipal employment office in Baku to demand financial support during the quarantine period imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus .
The journalist was later sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention for `` violating the lockdown '' and `` resisting the police . ''
In its statement , RSF said Azerbaijan ’ s authorities “ have repeatedly voiced a desire to control information ” about the coronavirus epidemic , citing legal amendments adopted last month under which the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for any `` inaccurate '' or `` dangerous '' content .
Meanwhile , the Prosecutor-General ’ s Office has warned social-media users that the authorities will investigate all reports of `` fake news '' and will punish `` offenders . ''
As a result , media and journalists are “ under pressure ” just to use the official information provided by the special unit established by the government to deal with the crisis , according to RSF .
Azerbaijan is ranked 168th out of 180 countries in RSF ’ s 2020 World Press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aliyev say authorities of the energy-rich South Caucasus state frequently jail opposition activists , reporters , human rights defenders , and civil society advocates without grounds in an effort to silence dissent .
Authorities in Turkmenistan 's northeastern region of Lebap have banned local residents from using water from the Amudarya River to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Central Asian nation , where no COVID-19 cases officially have been registered .
The ban includes fishing and using birds caught on the river 's shores for food .
An RFE/RL correspondent reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banned people from washing their hands in the Amudarya River and waters nearby and letting their livestock drink from it .
People caught fishing are being detained and placed in quarantine , the report said .
The authorities have not provided detailed information , advising only that the measures are to prevent COVID-19 in the area .
However , there are no known cases of coronavirus infection from river water or water wildlife in the world .
The lack of clarity has created rumors and fear among local residents .
In the regional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical institutions have been forced to raise funds to buy antivirus and disinfection substances for local schools .
Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have reported no coronavirus cases , but experts are skeptical given the lack of transparency within their governments and a lack of independent media .
The two countries have recently bucked the global trend of suspending sports events during the crisis by resuming their national soccer leagues .
Turkmenistan 's foreign minister said at a briefing on April 22 that the data was true and that the country is n't hiding anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confirmed coronavirus case we would have immediately informed ... [ the World Health Organization ] in line with our obligations , '' Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov said .
`` We are not hiding anything . ''
Based on reporting by RFE/RL 's Georgian , Azerbaijani , and Turkmen services , Reuters , Interfax , RIA Novosti , and Channel 1TV

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 178,000 with more than 2.5 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions.
Russia
Tens of communists in Russia broke Moscow's coronavirus lockdown to march across Red Square to mark the sesquicentennial anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik revolution.
Members of the Communist Party of Russia laid flowers at the front of Lenin's Mausoleum in the square on April 22, led by party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
Those gathered were split into small groups and kept at a distance from each other when approaching the granite mausoleum, though their presence broke lockdown rules prohibiting Muscovites from leaving their homes except to buy essentials such as food and medicines, to receive medical treatment, or to take out trash or walk family pets.
A day earlier, Zyuganov called on communists in all of Russia's regions, as well as in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus, to lay flowers at remaining statues of Lenin.
Communists in Russia had planned to hold mass events and celebrations of Lenin's 150th anniversary with the participation of Communists from foreign nations, but all of the events were postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, a well-known Russian economist Oleg Vyugin says the Russian government needs to provide more support to ordinary citizens and small businesses to overcome hardships caused by coronavirus pandemic.
Vyugin told RFE/RL on April 21 that instead of allocating major support sums to large state-controlled companies and enterprises, the government should focus more on supporting ordinary people and owners of small- and medium-sized businesses.
Vyugin, a former deputy finance minister, chairman of the Observation Council of the Moscow Stock Exchange, and a professor at the National Research University of Russia's High School of Economics, was one of the authors of the Coronacrisis-2020 report published by the Liberal Mission foundation on April 13 that criticized the government's coronavirus relief program.
According to Vyugin, the government's general financial support package is 500 billion rubles ($6.5 billion), of which only 80 billion rubles ($1 billion) is destined for small businesses.
"This attitude might lead to a situation when the revival of small and medium businesses will proceed very slowly and with huge difficulties. [It would be better to choose] what I call a European way, which is a concept to help ordinary people in difficult times," Vyugin said, noting the German government’s approach.
"Germany started giving financial support to small businesses right away. And later, the federal tax service will look at the situation. If it turns out that your business remained profitable [while under pandemic restrictions], you will have to return the money to the government. If you took the money but failed to preserve your business and left your employees jobless, then you will have to return money to the government too," he said.
RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.
According to Vyugin, coronavirus restrictions will most likely start being lifted by late May, or early June, by which point officials will have to have figured out ways to "coexist with the virus to avoid an economic catastrophe."
According to Vyugin, if the restrictions on individuals and businesses remain in place for months, they may lead to a situation where banks in Russia will also need government support as the ability of clients to repay loans, credits, and mortgages weakens.
Georgia
Georgia's parliament has approved a presidential decree to extend by one month the countrywide state of emergency implemented to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.
In an April 22 vote, 97 lawmakers were in favor of the decree to extend the state of emergency to May 22, while 10 voted against it.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said the extension was needed since the virus was expected to continue spreading in the South Caucasus country for "the next two-three weeks."
She added that Georgia had been able to "control" the extent of the epidemic since an initial state of emergency was declared on March 21.
Georgian health authorities have reported 411 confirmed coronavirus cases, including five deaths.
The state of emergency in Georgia includes a nightly curfew and the closure of nonessential shops, restaurants, and cafes.
Azerbaijan
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging the Azerbaijani authorities to stop using the coronavirus crisis to “crack down harder” on critical reporting.
The Paris-based media freedom watchdog issued the call on April 22, after Natiq Isbatov, a journalist for the 7gun.az news website, was jailed for allegedly violating lockdown regulations when he filmed a protest in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
"The misuse of lockdown measures to target reporters is the latest escalation in the persecution of independent journalism in Azerbaijan," Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement.
Cavelier demanded the immediate release of Isbatov, who was detained on April 9 when he filmed protesters gathered outside a municipal employment office in Baku to demand financial support during the quarantine period imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The journalist was later sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention for "violating the lockdown" and "resisting the police."
In its statement, RSF said Azerbaijan’s authorities “have repeatedly voiced a desire to control information” about the coronavirus epidemic, citing legal amendments adopted last month under which the owners of online media can be prosecuted for any "inaccurate" or "dangerous" content.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor-General’s Office has warned social-media users that the authorities will investigate all reports of "fake news" and will punish "offenders."
As a result, media and journalists are “under pressure” just to use the official information provided by the special unit established by the government to deal with the crisis, according to RSF.
Azerbaijan is ranked 168th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
Critics of President Ilham Aliyev say authorities of the energy-rich South Caucasus state frequently jail opposition activists, reporters, human rights defenders, and civil society advocates without grounds in an effort to silence dissent.
Turkmenistan
Authorities in Turkmenistan's northeastern region of Lebap have banned local residents from using water from the Amudarya River to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Central Asian nation, where no COVID-19 cases officially have been registered.
The ban includes fishing and using birds caught on the river's shores for food.
An RFE/RL correspondent reports from the region that local authorities also banned people from washing their hands in the Amudarya River and waters nearby and letting their livestock drink from it.
People caught fishing are being detained and placed in quarantine, the report said.
The authorities have not provided detailed information, advising only that the measures are to prevent COVID-19 in the area. However, there are no known cases of coronavirus infection from river water or water wildlife in the world.
The lack of clarity has created rumors and fear among local residents.
In the regional capital, Turkmenabat, personnel in local medical institutions have been forced to raise funds to buy antivirus and disinfection substances for local schools.
Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have reported no coronavirus cases, but experts are skeptical given the lack of transparency within their governments and a lack of independent media.
The two countries have recently bucked the global trend of suspending sports events during the crisis by resuming their national soccer leagues.
Turkmenistan's foreign minister said at a briefing on April 22 that the data was true and that the country isn't hiding anything.
"If there was a single confirmed coronavirus case we would have immediately informed...[the World Health Organization] in line with our obligations," Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov said. "We are not hiding anything."
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Turkmen services, Reuters, Interfax, RIA Novosti, and Channel 1TV


rferl--2020-04-22--Ukraine Offers Saakashvili Post Of Deputy Prime Minister

Ukraine 's government has offered former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili the post of deputy prime minister to supervise reforms .
Saakashvili , an ex-governor of Ukraine 's Odesa region , wrote on Facebook on April 22 that he plans to submit to the Ukrainian parliament his proposals `` for the urgent changes '' needed in `` this very difficult period '' faced by Ukraine .
“ It is a great honor for me to receive a proposal from President [ Volodymyr ] Zelenskiy to become a deputy prime minister ... .
I also had a very meaningful and useful conversation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , during which we discussed in detail all the issues related to my possible work in the government , ” Saakashvili wrote .
Zelenskiy 's office confirmed the meeting in a statement , saying the two politicians discussed the country 's development and how to assist it .
`` Mikheil Saakashvili is well-known in the international arena and has already demonstrated the experience of successful implementation of reforms .
President Zelenskiy believes that Mr. Saakashvili has the potential to support the Government of Ukraine and invited him to share his views and developments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” the statement said .
Media reports quoted lawmakers earlier in the day as saying that Saakashvili will attend parliament 's session on April 24 .
Saakashvili , who was Georgian president between 2004-2013 , was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor 's post by Zelenskiy ’ s predecessor , Petro Poroshenko , in 2015 .
Authorities in Tbilisi stripped Saakashvili of his Georgian passport on the grounds that Georgia does not allow dual citizenship .
When relations between Poroshenko and Saakashvili soured over reform efforts and the fight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ November 2016 sacked Saakashvili from the governor 's post .
In July 2017 , after Saakashvili created the Movement of New Forces opposition party , Poroshenko issued a decree that stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship .
In February 2018 , Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv , taken to the airport , and flown to Poland .
Days later , Ukraine 's border service banned Saakashvili from entering the country until February 13 , 2021 .
In May 2019 , just days after his inauguration , Zelenskiy reinstated Saakashvili ’ s Ukrainian citizenship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a criminal probe into Saakashvili ’ s 2018 deportation from Ukraine .
The Chief Military Prosecutor ’ s Office said then that the investigation was launched after Saakashvili filed a complaint over the “ abduction and violent actions against ” him and “ his illegal ” deportation to Poland .

Ukraine's government has offered former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili the post of deputy prime minister to supervise reforms.
Saakashvili, an ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, wrote on Facebook on April 22 that he plans to submit to the Ukrainian parliament his proposals "for the urgent changes" needed in "this very difficult period" faced by Ukraine.
“It is a great honor for me to receive a proposal from President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy to become a deputy prime minister.... I also had a very meaningful and useful conversation with Prime Minister [Denys] Shmyhal, during which we discussed in detail all the issues related to my possible work in the government,” Saakashvili wrote.
Zelenskiy's office confirmed the meeting in a statement, saying the two politicians discussed the country's development and how to assist it.
"Mikheil Saakashvili is well-known in the international arena and has already demonstrated the experience of successful implementation of reforms. President Zelenskiy believes that Mr. Saakashvili has the potential to support the Government of Ukraine and invited him to share his views and developments with the Government and Parliament of Ukraine,” the statement said.
Media reports quoted lawmakers earlier in the day as saying that Saakashvili will attend parliament's session on April 24.
Saakashvili, who was Georgian president between 2004-2013, was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor's post by Zelenskiy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, in 2015.
Authorities in Tbilisi stripped Saakashvili of his Georgian passport on the grounds that Georgia does not allow dual citizenship.
When relations between Poroshenko and Saakashvili soured over reform efforts and the fight against corruption, the Ukrainian president in November 2016 sacked Saakashvili from the governor's post.
In July 2017, after Saakashvili created the Movement of New Forces opposition party, Poroshenko issued a decree that stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship.
In February 2018, Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv, taken to the airport, and flown to Poland.
Days later, Ukraine's border service banned Saakashvili from entering the country until February 13, 2021.
In May 2019, just days after his inauguration, Zelenskiy reinstated Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship and, in October, prosecutors opened a criminal probe into Saakashvili’s 2018 deportation from Ukraine.
The Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said then that the investigation was launched after Saakashvili filed a complaint over the “abduction and violent actions against” him and “his illegal” deportation to Poland.


rferl--2020-04-22--Trump Orders Navy To Destroy Iranian Gunboats That Harass U.S. Ships

U.S. President Donald Trump says he has ordered the Navy to attack and destroy any Iranian vessel that harasses U.S. ships after Iranian ships appeared to harass U.S. vessels last week in the Persian Gulf .
“ I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea , ” Trump said in a tweet posted on April 22 .
The order comes a week after a U.S. Navy video showed small Iranian gunboats coming close to U.S. warships as they operated in the northern Persian Gulf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its ships were in international waters carrying out exercises at the time of the incidents on April 15 .
It said 11 vessels of Iran 's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps ( IRGC ) made “ dangerous and harassing approaches ” toward the U.S. ships .
Trump did not cite a specific event or provide any further details in his tweet .
When asked about Trump ’ s tweet during a press conference , U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist said : `` The president issued an important warning to the Iranians .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ our ships retain the right of self-defense.
” Air Force General John Hyten , vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said during the same briefing that “ the commanders have the authority right now to respond to any hostile act or hostile intent . ''
A spokesman for Iran 's military said in response that the United States should “ focus on saving its armed forces from the coronavirus , ” according to the semiofficial news agency ISNA .
After last week 's incident the IRGC accused the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ encounter , issuing a statement accusing the U.S. Navy of `` unprofessional and provocative behavior '' and warning the Americans that any `` miscalculation will receive a decisive response . ''
Close interactions with Iranian military vessels have occurred in the region in the past , drawing warning shots from U.S. Navy ships when Iranian vessels venture too close .
Tensions between Iran and the United States increased in January after the United States killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq .
With reporting by AP , @ @ @ @

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--2020-04-22--EU To Loan 3 Billion Euros In Coronavirus Aid To Eastern Europe, Tunisia, Jordan

BRUSSELS -- The European Union 's executive arm says it will give 3 billion euros ( $ 3.25 billion ) in macro-financial assistance to 10 mainly Eastern European countries to help them limit the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic .
The money , which comes on top of cash for medical equipment pledged earlier last month , will be made available for 12 months on what the European Commission in a press release called “ highly favourable terms '' to help these countries cover their immediate , urgent financing needs .
Ukraine will be allotted 1.2 billion euros , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Moldova 100 million euros .
In the Western Balkans , Bosnia will receive 250 million euros , Albania 180 million euros , Kosovo 100 million euros , North Macedonia 160 million euros , and Montenegro 60 million euros .
Outside of Europe , Tunisia ( 600 million euros ) and Jordan ( 200 million euros ) will also receive assistance .
The European Parliament and the EU member states are expected to approve the proposal in the coming weeks .
The Commission hopes to disburse the first installment “ upon the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each partner country , ” the statement said .


rferl--2020-04-22--North Ossetia Protesters Against COVID-19 Measures Receive Jail Terms

VLADIKAVKAZ , Russia – Authorities in Russia 's North Caucasus region of North Ossetia have sentenced 13 people to jail terms of between three and 15 days for taking part in an unsanctioned rally against measures local authorities have put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus .
A court in the regional capital , Vladikavkaz , sentenced the 13 local residents late on April 21 after finding them guilty of resisting police and organizing a public event that led to the violation of public order .
Police in North Ossetia detained dozens of protesters a day earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ central square of Vladikavkaz , demanding the resignation of regional leader Vyacheslav Bitarov .
The rally lasted for several hours until police violently dispersed it .
The protest was initiated online via social networks by North Ossetian opera singer Vadim Cheldiyev , who permanently resides in St. Petersburg .
In a video statement posted on social networks , Cheldiyev claimed that the authorities in North Ossetia are exaggerating the dangers of the coronavirus in the region so that they can `` steal '' from ordinary people .
He gave no evidence of wrongdoing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last week and brought to North Ossetia over the weekend .
He was charged with spreading fake news about the coronavirus and assaulting police , which he vehemently denies , and placed in pretrial detention for two months .
On April 21 , a court in Vladikavkaz ruled that Cheldiyev must pay a $ 75,000 ruble ( $ 980 ) fine for spreading fake news about the coronavirus .
His trial on the charge of assaulting police is pending .
Cheldiyev 's lawyer has said his client has started a hunger strike to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia – Authorities in Russia's North Caucasus region of North Ossetia have sentenced 13 people to jail terms of between three and 15 days for taking part in an unsanctioned rally against measures local authorities have put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
A court in the regional capital, Vladikavkaz, sentenced the 13 local residents late on April 21 after finding them guilty of resisting police and organizing a public event that led to the violation of public order.
Police in North Ossetia detained dozens of protesters a day earlier when about 2,000 people gathered in the central square of Vladikavkaz, demanding the resignation of regional leader Vyacheslav Bitarov.
The rally lasted for several hours until police violently dispersed it.
The protest was initiated online via social networks by North Ossetian opera singer Vadim Cheldiyev, who permanently resides in St. Petersburg.
In a video statement posted on social networks, Cheldiyev claimed that the authorities in North Ossetia are exaggerating the dangers of the coronavirus in the region so that they can "steal" from ordinary people. He gave no evidence of wrongdoing.
Cheldiyev was detained in St. Petersburg last week and brought to North Ossetia over the weekend. He was charged with spreading fake news about the coronavirus and assaulting police, which he vehemently denies, and placed in pretrial detention for two months.
On April 21, a court in Vladikavkaz ruled that Cheldiyev must pay a $75,000 ruble ($980) fine for spreading fake news about the coronavirus. His trial on the charge of assaulting police is pending.
Cheldiyev's lawyer has said his client has started a hunger strike to protest his arrest and the charges against him.


rferl--2020-04-22--Afghanistan Releases Another 71 Taliban Prisoners In Step Toward Peace Talks

KABUL -- Afghanistan says it has released another 71 Taliban prisoners in a further step toward bringing the two sides together to negotiate a peace settlement .
Javed Faisal , a spokesman for the National Security Council , said in a tweet that detainees had been released from seven prisons in the Nangarhar , Laghman , Kunar , Nuristan , Faryab , Uruzgan , and Baghlan provinces .
The Western-backed government in Kabul has released a total of 432 Taliban inmates since April 8 .
A pact signed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29 calls for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan .
The Taliban has vowed to release some 1,000 Afghan government troops and civilian workers it is holding .
Since April 12 , the militants have released 60 Afghan security and defense personnel .
The prisoner swap was scheduled to be completed by March 10 , before the start of intra-Afghan peace talks , but it has been delayed by disputes between the sides .
Meanwhile , fighting has continued across Afghanistan since the U.S.-Taliban @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Late on April 21 , 11 members of the Afghan security forces were killed after Taliban militants attacked their checkpoints in three districts of the northern province of Sar-e-Pul , according to the spokesman for the provincial governor .
Eight security force members were also reported killed in a Taliban assault on a checkpoint in the eastern Logar Province .
The spokesman , Zabihullah Amani , told RFE/RL that another 19 were wounded .

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--2020-04-23--Convicted Former Top Kyrgyz Officials Transferred To Different Prisons

BISHKEK -- Two former Kyrgyz prime ministers convicted on corruption charges stemming from their involvement in a 2013 project to modernize the Bishkek Thermal Power Station have been transferred to different penitentiaries .
The State Penitentiary Service ( JAMK ) said on April 22 that former Prime Minister Sapar Isakov , who was sentenced to 15 years in prison , was transferred to the Correctional Colony No .
8 in the northern village of Petrovka , while another former Prime Minister Jantoro Satybaldiev was sent to serve his 7 1/2-year prison term to the Correctional Colony No .
47 on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the electric stations company , Salaidin Avazov , who was also convicted in the high-profile case and sentenced to 11 years and 3 months , was transferred from a detention center in Bishkek to the Correctional Colony No .
27 in the village of Moldovanovka in the northern Chui region .
It was not immediately clear as to why the men were moved .
Isakov 's lawyers said on April 22 that their client 's transfer was illegal as another case against him and former officials is pending .
The three men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high-profile corruption trial has implicated several former top Kyrgyz officials who allegedly are close associates of former President Almazbek Atambaev , who is currently on trial as well .
The probes against Isakov were launched amid tensions between Atambaev and current President Sooronbai Jeenbekov , a former prime minister who was tapped by Atambaev as his favored successor in Kyrgyzstan 's October 2017 presidential election .
Atambaev was arrested in August last year after he surrendered to police following two days of violent resistance following his refusal to show up at police headquarters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged involvement in the illegal release of a jailed organized-crime boss in 2013 .
Atambaev and the 13 codefendants in the case were charged with murder , attempted murder , threatening or assaulting representatives of authorities , hostage taking , and forced seizure of power .

BISHKEK -- Two former Kyrgyz prime ministers convicted on corruption charges stemming from their involvement in a 2013 project to modernize the Bishkek Thermal Power Station have been transferred to different penitentiaries.
The State Penitentiary Service (JAMK) said on April 22 that former Prime Minister Sapar Isakov, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, was transferred to the Correctional Colony No. 8 in the northern village of Petrovka, while another former Prime Minister Jantoro Satybaldiev was sent to serve his 7 1/2-year prison term to the Correctional Colony No. 47 on the Bishkek outskirts.
The former chief of the electric stations company, Salaidin Avazov, who was also convicted in the high-profile case and sentenced to 11 years and 3 months, was transferred from a detention center in Bishkek to the Correctional Colony No. 27 in the village of Moldovanovka in the northern Chui region.
It was not immediately clear as to why the men were moved.
Isakov's lawyers said on April 22 that their client's transfer was illegal as another case against him and former officials is pending.
The three men were sentenced in December 2019.
The high-profile corruption trial has implicated several former top Kyrgyz officials who allegedly are close associates of former President Almazbek Atambaev, who is currently on trial as well.
The probes against Isakov were launched amid tensions between Atambaev and current President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a former prime minister who was tapped by Atambaev as his favored successor in Kyrgyzstan's October 2017 presidential election.
Atambaev was arrested in August last year after he surrendered to police following two days of violent resistance following his refusal to show up at police headquarters for questioning in an investigation into his alleged involvement in the illegal release of a jailed organized-crime boss in 2013.
Atambaev and the 13 codefendants in the case were charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of authorities, hostage taking, and forced seizure of power.


rferl--2020-04-23--COVID-19: Watchdog Says Central Asian Governments Failing To Respect Rights

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 184,000 with more than 2.6 million infections confirmed , causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness .
Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) says governments in Central Asia are failing to respect the rights of their citizens in their responses to the coronavirus pandemic .
The rights group said in a statement on April 23 that while officials in Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Uzbekistan have taken `` important steps '' to limit the spread of the outbreak , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place to target journalists , health-care providers , and activists , and have carried out quarantine measures in ways that have at times proven `` arbitrary and disproportionate . ''
“ All Central Asian governments have obligations to protect their citizens ’ right to health by providing accurate information about COVID-19 , ” said Hugh Williamson , HRW Europe and Central Asia director .
“ Human rights should be respected while the emergency measures are in place , and during any future responses to the virus ... .
They should not use restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and others attempting to inform the public or protect against rights violations , ” he added .
HRW said that authorities in Turkmenistan , which along with Tajikistan has yet to acknowledge the existence of COVID-19 cases in their countries , `` have sought to silence medical workers and others speaking out about the impact of the virus in the country . ''
The statement notes that the situation in Tajikistan has reached a point where RFE/RL President Jamie Fly sent a letter to Tajik authorities chiding the Health Ministry and other agencies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of COVID-19 .
`` By failing to deliver information about COVID-19 and repressing information about it , Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are gravely endangering their citizens ’ health , '' the HRW statement said .
By April 23 , the largest number of registered coronavirus cases in the region was in Kazakhstan , with 2,207 confirmed positive tests and 20 deaths .
In Uzbekistan , the latest number of coronavirus cases reported by the authorities was 1,716 , including seven deaths .
In Kyrgyzstan , there were 631 cases recorded , including eight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A new 10,000-bed infectious-diseases hospital is being built near Uzbekistan 's capital , Tashkent , to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the Central Asian nation of 32 million .
A project contractor , Enter Engineering , said on April 22 that the medical facility 's first phase in the Zangiota district will be officially opened in early May .
`` The facility is designed both to treat virus-infected residents and to house Uzbek citizens returning home from abroad who require quarantine , '' Shohrukh Sattarov , CEO of Enter Engineering said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the complex will be completed within a month after the initial opening .
Uzbek health authorities said in late March that they had started building the hospital , following the example of the authorities of the Chinese city of Wuhan , who earlier this year constructed the Huoshenshan Hospital to handle coronavirus patients in less than two weeks .
Enter Engineering is working on the state-commissioned project together with the state railway company .
As of April 23 , the number of coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan was 1,716 , including seven deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic , authorities have closed mosques and shrines believed to have contributed to the initial spread of the virus .
President Hassan Rohani said some sites may open on May 4 .
But Iran 's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already suggested that mass gatherings may be barred throughout Ramadan over the virus .
Iran has reported almost 86,000 infections and up to 5,400 deaths , but critics say the actual numbers could be considerably higher since the information flow is strictly controlled by the authoritarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all but banned .
With reporting by RFE/RL 's Kazakh , Uzbek , and Kyrgyz services , Reuters , Oil & Gas.com , Kun.uz , and Gazeta.uz

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 184,000 with more than 2.6 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions.
Georgia
Dozens of members of Georgia's opposition Girchi party have rallied in Tbilisi, demanding the repeal of the state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic after it was extended by one month.
Party leader Zurab Japaridze told reporters on April 23 that the extension wouldn't change anything, because the situation around the pandemic will not change in one month.
According to Japaridze, the state of emergency must be cancelled in order "to reignite the economy," though regulations requiring the wearing of masks outdoors and social distancing may stay in place.
The rally was held at the former hippodrome in the Georgian capital. Police detained about 10 protesters.
Georgian health authorities said on April 23 that the number of coronavirus cases in the country was 420, including five deaths.
Central Asia
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says governments in Central Asia are failing to respect the rights of their citizens in their responses to the coronavirus pandemic.
The rights group said in a statement on April 23 that while officials in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have taken "important steps" to limit the spread of the outbreak, they have also used the restrictions put in place to target journalists, health-care providers, and activists, and have carried out quarantine measures in ways that have at times proven "arbitrary and disproportionate."
“All Central Asian governments have obligations to protect their citizens’ right to health by providing accurate information about COVID-19,” said Hugh Williamson, HRW Europe and Central Asia director.
“Human rights should be respected while the emergency measures are in place, and during any future responses to the virus.... They should not use restrictions to muzzle journalists, health-care providers, and others attempting to inform the public or protect against rights violations,” he added.
HRW said that authorities in Turkmenistan, which along with Tajikistan has yet to acknowledge the existence of COVID-19 cases in their countries, "have sought to silence medical workers and others speaking out about the impact of the virus in the country."
The statement notes that the situation in Tajikistan has reached a point where RFE/RL President Jamie Fly sent a letter to Tajik authorities chiding the Health Ministry and other agencies for refusing to answer questions regarding the spread of COVID-19.
"By failing to deliver information about COVID-19 and repressing information about it, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are gravely endangering their citizens’ health," the HRW statement said.
By April 23, the largest number of registered coronavirus cases in the region was in Kazakhstan, with 2,207 confirmed positive tests and 20 deaths.
In Uzbekistan, the latest number of coronavirus cases reported by the authorities was 1,716, including seven deaths.
In Kyrgyzstan, there were 631 cases recorded, including eight deaths, as of April 23.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria has closed its border to prevent Bulgarian Turks in Turkey from entering the country during the first days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Health Ministry’s order applies from midnight on April 23 to April 27 in a bid to prevent travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ramadan begins on April 24.
More than 300,000 Bulgarian citizens live in Turkey. Most of them are Bulgarian-born ethnic Turks who fled to Turkey in 1989 because of discrimination against the minority group under the former communist regime.
The border closure came in response to information that many Bulgarian Turks in Turkey planned to visit relatives and their ancestral villages and towns in Bulgaria for Ramadan.
Turkey has recorded around 100,000 coronavirus infections and 2,491 deaths, making it one of the hardest hit countries in the world.
Turkish authorities on April 23 implemented a four-day lockdown in 31 cities including Ankara and Istanbul. Mosques will remain closed during Ramadan to stem the spread of the virus.
Bulgaria has 1,097 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 52 deaths.
The Chief Mufti's Office in Bulgaria announced that mosques would remain closed during Ramadan and services would be broadcast online.
On the recommendation of the European Union, Bulgaria in late March closed the EU's external borders to third-country nationals.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church refused to close churches and monasteries for Easter on April 19.
Uzbekistan
A new 10,000-bed infectious-diseases hospital is being built near Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent, to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the Central Asian nation of 32 million.
A project contractor, Enter Engineering, said on April 22 that the medical facility's first phase in the Zangiota district will be officially opened in early May.
"The facility is designed both to treat virus-infected residents and to house Uzbek citizens returning home from abroad who require quarantine," Shohrukh Sattarov, CEO of Enter Engineering said.
RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.
According to the contractor, the remainder of the complex will be completed within a month after the initial opening.
Uzbek health authorities said in late March that they had started building the hospital, following the example of the authorities of the Chinese city of Wuhan, who earlier this year constructed the Huoshenshan Hospital to handle coronavirus patients in less than two weeks.
Enter Engineering is working on the state-commissioned project together with the state railway company.
As of April 23, the number of coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan was 1,716, including seven deaths.
Iran
In Iran, one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, authorities have closed mosques and shrines believed to have contributed to the initial spread of the virus.
President Hassan Rohani said some sites may open on May 4. But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already suggested that mass gatherings may be barred throughout Ramadan over the virus.
Iran has reported almost 86,000 infections and up to 5,400 deaths, but critics say the actual numbers could be considerably higher since the information flow is strictly controlled by the authoritarian regime and foreign media access has been all but banned.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Bulgarian, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek services, Reuters, Oil&Gas.com, Kun.uz, and Gazeta.uz


rferl--2020-04-23--Secession Not On Agenda, But Dodik Wants 'More Autonomy' For Bosnian Serbs

SARAJEVO -- Milorad Dodik , the Bosnian Serb member of Bosnia 's multiethnic presidency , says Bosnian Serbs are ready to preserve the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state , but only if they get `` more autonomy . ''
In a telephone interview with RFE/RL on April 23 , Dodik said that it was `` difficult '' for Serbs to `` understand that we are part of Bosnia-Herzegovina . ''
But he insisted that secession was not on the agenda of Republika Srpska , Bosnia 's predominantly ethnic Serb-populated entity , adding that the issue only arose as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if the views of Bosnian Serbs are not respected .
''We are ready to ... preserve Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state in its present territory .
But at the same time , we need to have more autonomy than we have today , '' Dodik said .
Bosnia remains deeply divided along ethnic lines .
The country emerged from the 1992-95 Bosnian War as two autonomous regions -- the mainly Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska -- united under a weak central government .
Dodik has repeatedly called for a referendum on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bosnian Serbs had a right to decide their own future .
Tensions have flared in the Balkan country since the Constitutional Court in February ruled that unclaimed agricultural land became automatically the property of the central Bosnian state rather than Republika Srpska -- contradicting Bosnian Serb law .

SARAJEVO -- Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb member of Bosnia's multiethnic presidency, says Bosnian Serbs are ready to preserve the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state, but only if they get ''more autonomy.''
In a telephone interview with RFE/RL on April 23, Dodik said that it was ''difficult'' for Serbs to ''understand that we are part of Bosnia-Herzegovina."
But he insisted that secession was not on the agenda of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's predominantly ethnic Serb-populated entity, adding that the issue only arose as a possibility in the ''distant future'' if the views of Bosnian Serbs are not respected.
''We are ready to...preserve Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state in its present territory. But at the same time, we need to have more autonomy than we have today," Dodik said.
Bosnia remains deeply divided along ethnic lines. The country emerged from the 1992-95 Bosnian War as two autonomous regions -- the mainly Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska -- united under a weak central government.
Dodik has repeatedly called for a referendum on the status of the Serb-led entity, saying Bosnian Serbs had a right to decide their own future.
Tensions have flared in the Balkan country since the Constitutional Court in February ruled that unclaimed agricultural land became automatically the property of the central Bosnian state rather than Republika Srpska -- contradicting Bosnian Serb law.


rferl--2020-04-23--U.S. Aid To Greenland Looks To Counter Russian, Chinese Influence In Arctic

The United States will give $ 12 million in economic aid to Greenland and open a consulate on the island in a bid to strengthen mutual ties and counter growing Russian and Chinese interests in the Arctic .
Danish and U.S. officials jointly announced the financial and diplomatic package on April 23 .
The United States said it would open its consulate in Greenland 's capital , Nuuk , later this year .
The aid package is aimed mostly at developing natural resources .
Greenland is an autonomous Arctic territory under Denmark .
In recent years the vast , sparsely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ profile raised amid Russian and Chinese commercial and military buildup in the Arctic .
The region has seen an opening of new sea lanes due to warming caused by climate change , which in turn has created new commercial and military activity .
Greenland Prime Minister Kim Kielsen said the U.S. package was good news for the island and `` confirms that our work in building a constructive relationship with the United States is bearing fruit . ''
A senior State Department official said the United States had been working closely with Denmark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the United States was `` in the process of adjusting our Arctic policy to today 's new strategic realities . ''
President Donald Trump suggested last year that the United States considered buying Greenland .
The idea was immediately rebuffed by Denmark , and the State Department official said the aid package was not designed to pave the way for such a purchase .
Though its consulate in Nuuk closed years ago , the United States has maintained a presence on Greenland through Thule Air Base and investments in research projects on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , meanwhile , has stepped up its military capabilities in the Arctic , while China calls itself a `` near Arctic state '' and has laid plans for a Polar Silk Road focused on new Arctic shipping routes and access to natural resources .
Prior to the announcement , the U.S. ambassador to Denmark , Carla Sands , wrote an opinion piece for the online publication Altinget in which she said the United States would be `` the preferred partner in the Arctic . ''
Sands also accused Russia of `` aggressive behavior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' and China of pursuing `` predatory economic interests '' in Greenland .
With reporting by The Washington Post , Reuters , and dpa

The United States will give $12 million in economic aid to Greenland and open a consulate on the island in a bid to strengthen mutual ties and counter growing Russian and Chinese interests in the Arctic.
Danish and U.S. officials jointly announced the financial and diplomatic package on April 23.
The United States said it would open its consulate in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, later this year. The aid package is aimed mostly at developing natural resources.
Greenland is an autonomous Arctic territory under Denmark. In recent years the vast, sparsely populated expanse of land has seen its profile raised amid Russian and Chinese commercial and military buildups in the Arctic.
The region has seen an opening of new sea lanes due to warming caused by climate change, which in turn has created new commercial and military activity.
Greenland Prime Minister Kim Kielsen said the U.S. package was good news for the island and "confirms that our work in building a constructive relationship with the United States is bearing fruit."
A senior State Department official said the United States had been working closely with Denmark for months on the initiative, adding that the United States was "in the process of adjusting our Arctic policy to today's new strategic realities."
President Donald Trump suggested last year that the United States considered buying Greenland. The idea was immediately rebuffed by Denmark, and the State Department official said the aid package was not designed to pave the way for such a purchase.
'One-Two Punch'
Victoria Herrmann, president and managing director of The Arctic Institute think tank, said people working on Arctic diplomacy in the administration have changed their approach from “bombastic declarations to targeted development aid.”
In an e-mail response to questions from RFE/RL, she said the aid was a "one-two punch" aimed at economic and human development and shows China and Russia that "the Trump administration is interested in exerting U.S. soft power in the Arctic by funding education and natural resources."
Though its consulate in Nuuk closed years ago, the United States has maintained a presence on Greenland through the Thule Air Base and investments in research projects on the environment and sustainable development.
But the United States "is woefully behind in investing in both Arctic strategic military assets and critical civilian infrastructure to increase quality of life and human development for the four million people that call the Arctic home," Herrmann said, adding that she doesn’t see that changing with the announcement of aid.
Russia, meanwhile, has stepped up its military capabilities in the Arctic, while China calls itself a "near Arctic state" and has laid plans for a Polar Silk Road focused on new Arctic shipping routes and access to natural resources.
Prior to the announcement, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, wrote an opinion piece for the online publication Altinget in which she said the United States would be "the preferred partner in the Arctic."
Sands also accused Russia of "aggressive behavior and increased militarization in the Arctic," and China of pursuing "predatory economic interests" in Greenland.
With reporting by The Washington Post, Reuters, and dpa