Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has pardoned noted sinologist Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who was released on parole in April after serving more than half of the 10-year prison term he was handed in 2019 on high treason charges.

Syroyezhkin said on September 11 that the Kazakh presidential commission on clemencies had approved his application for a pardon, which means his parole restrictions are now lifted.

The 68-year-old Syroyezhkin was sentenced on October 7, 2019.

Details of the charges were not made public, but some local media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, reported at the time that Syroyezhkin was accused of passing classified information to Chinese nationals for cash.

Some reports at the time of his conviction also said Syroyezhkin was stripped off his Kazakh citizenship and banned from residing in Kazakhstan for five years after his release.

Kazakh authorities were reluctant to officially announce his arrest more than five years ago, but questions about Syroyezhkin's whereabouts began circulating in the media after he failed to show up at two conferences in Kazakhstan.

Syroyezhkin was born in the southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty, which between 1927 and 1997 was the capital and remains its largest city.

In 1981, Syroyezhkin graduated from the Highest School of the Soviet KGB in Moscow with a specialization on China.

From 2006 until his arrest in 2019, Syroyezhkin worked as a leading expert and analyst at the presidential Institute for Strategic Research.

Syroyezhkin is the author of more than 1,000 analytical and research works on China and Kazakh-Chinese relations, written in Russian, Chinese, and English.

When current Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who is a trained sinologist as well, served as prime minister, Syroyezhkin was his adviser on Kazakh-Chinese relations, including during talks on delimiting and demarcating the Kazakh-Chinese border.

With reporting by Informburo.kz

Russian forces have begun attacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and have retaken some territory, pro-Moscow war bloggers and Ukrainian military analysts said on September 11.

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.

The attacks, which some sources characterized as a counteroffensive, are against the western flank of Ukrainian forces that took control of part of the Kursk region after launching a surprise incursion into Russian territory last month.

Ukrainian open-source intelligence resource DeepState said on Telegram that the Russian military "began active assault operations, ferrying armored vehicles first across the Sejm, and then across smaller rivers."

It said another blow took place in the town of Korenevo, which DeepState said was lost recently.

The same information has been shared by the Rybar channel, which is connected to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements, TASS reported.

"The situation is good for us," said Alaudinov, according to TASS. "We continue to hold off and eliminate the enemy in our direction here. Enemy forces have sustained very heavy casualties and are coming to realize that it would be hard to hold this land," Alaudinov was quoted as saying.

Some Russian fighters claim to have restored Russian control over the village of Snagost and several other settlements, but this has yet to be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian side has not reported a change in the situation in the Kursk region.

The Russian attacks have not threatened the city of Sudzha, which is central to the logistics of the Ukrainian group in the Kursk region. Sudzha is 40 kilometers from the village of Snagost.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said last week that Russia was planning a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before the start of the incursion.

Syrskiy said that he considered the incursion a success because it reduced the threat of Russia carrying out the attack and took the fight to the enemy.

“We moved the fighting to the enemy's territory so that he could feel what we feel every day," he said in an interview with CNN.

Kyiv claims to have seized control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since its forces launched the incursion on August 6. According to Syrskiy, Moscow has transferred tens of thousands of troops to the region, including some of its best airborne assault units.

It was previously reported that the operation was aimed at improving Kyiv's position in the event of peace negotiations. Analysts also suggest that the operation is aimed at conveying to the Russians the seriousness of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev unveiled a memorial to honor Crimean Tatar victims of genocide in Kyiv's Peace Park on September 11. Zelenskiy called the memorial "a symbol of our unity and willingness to restore justice...that also reminds us of three tragic stages in the history of Crimean Tatars -- the annexation of Crimea by the Russian empire in 1783, the deportation of Crimean Tatars (by the Soviets to Central Asia) in 1944, and the occupation in 2014." Since seizing Crimea in 2014, Russia has jailed dozens of Crimean Tatars who opposed Moscow's rule. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

The Vyasna human rights center said on September 11 that political prisoner Andrey Buday, who is serving a 15-year prison term on terrorism charges that he and his supporters reject, has been charged with "blatantly disobeying prison guards' orders."

According to Vyasna, Buday's trial on the new charge will start on September 23.

Buday and five other members of the journalism advocacy group Busly Lyatsyat (Storks Are Flying) were handed lengthy prison terms in late September 2022 on terrorism charges that rights activists have called politically motivated.

The Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Buday was sentenced to 15 years, Alyaksey Hamez to 14 1/2 years, Alyaksey Ivanisau to 14 years, Alyaksandr Muravyou and Alyaksandr Sidarenka to 12 years each, and Mikalay Biblis to 8 1/2 years in prison.

The six men were found guilty of being members of Busly Lyatsyat, which was officially declared a terrorist organization and banned in Belarus in November 2021.

They were also convicted of participating in activities disrupting social order, conducting a terrorist act against a state official, premeditated damage to private property, incitement of hatred, and public calls for international sanctions against Belarus.

The trial was linked to the unprecedented mass protests challenging the results of an August 2020 presidential election that proclaimed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner.

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's rule.

Thousands were detained during nationwide protests and there were credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.

Miroslava Reginskaya, the wife of imprisoned Russian nationalist Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), has rejected reports saying her husband was released and allowed to join the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Reginskaya wrote on Telegram on September 11 that Girkin's request to be sent to fight in Ukraine had been rejected twice.

She cited a letter from her husband saying that in the rejection letters, officials wrote that "we do not need colonels."

Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison in January on a charge of making public calls for extremist activities.

In April, Reginskaya and Girkin's lawyers said the former leader of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had received written consent from a Russian military unit that it would make him a commander of one of its platoons, adding that Girkin planned to join Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russian law does not allow those convicted of extremism to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, but several reports in recent weeks said Girkin might have been recruited from prison to the war in Ukraine.

The 53-year-old was arrested in July 2023 after strongly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin online for his handling of the Ukraine invasion. He accused the Kremlin leader of "cowardly mediocrity" and described him as a "nonentity."

He also called out then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for making "mistakes" in the invasion and accused him and Putin of "incompetence."

Girkin last year even called on Putin to transfer power to "someone truly capable and responsible."

A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has also argued for a total military mobilization to ensure Russian victory in the war.

Girkin was a key commander of the separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia occupy Ukraine's Crimea that year.

In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Girkin and two other defendants to life in prison in absentia in the case of the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. All 298 people onboard died in the attack.

In February, international investigators said there were "strong indications" that Putin was personally involved in the incident.

The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, over territory held by the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The victims came from more than a dozen countries, although more than two-thirds were Dutch.

Russia has denied any involvement in the downing of the plane.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, kicked off a three-day visit to neighboring Iraq on September 11 on what is his first foreign trip since taking office in late July.

Expanding relations with neighbors is Iran’s state policy, and Pezeshkian has vowed to deliver.

Pezeshkian, who speaks fluent Kurdish, will also make history by becoming the first Iranian president to visit Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the government in Tehran has had good relations with the authorities in Irbil, ties have often been tested over the semiautonomous Iraqi region's hosting of outlawed opposition Iranian Kurdish groups.

Baghdad and Irbil recently started implementing a security agreement signed last year with Tehran to move the groups away from the border with Iran and disarm them.

"It was a very good opportunity to visit the friend and brother country of Iraq in my first foreign trip as the president of Iran," Pezeshkian said in Baghdad.

"We need to implement security cooperation agreements between the two countries in order to deal with terrorists and enemies," he added.

The neighbors have strong economic relations, and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani told reporters during a joint news conference with Pezeshkian that the two countries signed 14 memorandums of understanding to boost relations.

Pezeshkian will also visit Basra, Iraq's economic hub, which Iran hopes to link to the town of Shalamcheh just across the border via rail as part of a larger railway project connecting Iran to Syria.

Pezeshkian and Sudani also discussed the war in Gaza, with the latter telling reporters at a joint press conference that both leaders opposed any expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.

With reporting by AFP and AP

A Russian military court on September 11 sentenced former Russian opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, who opposed the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, to 10 years in prison on charges of justifying terrorism and spreading false information about Russia's military. The 48-year-old Ponomaryov was the only deputy in the State Duma to vote against Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. He fled Russia for the United States in 2014 and later moved to Kyiv, where he has lived since obtaining citizenship. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

Kosovar authorities have indicted 45 people over their alleged roles in an attack last year by ethnic Serbs that left one police officer dead in the village of Banjska.

Prosecutor Naim Abazi said on September 11 that among those indicted is Milan Radoicic, the fugitive former vice president of the Serbian List party accused of leading and organizing the September 2023 attack. He is believed to be in Serbia.

The names of the others indicted in the case have not been released.

SEE ALSO:

Extradition To Kosovo Of Monastery Attack Suspect 'Impossible,' Serbian FM Says

Abazi said those indicted had different roles within their criminal group "ranging from organizing and directing terrorist activities to financing and money laundering."

Abazi thanked the United States and the European Union for cooperating with Kosovar authorities, which he said helped bring strong indictments against the 45 individuals.

"Given that the Republic of Kosovo unfortunately did not have laboratories available to examine most of this evidence and required international legal assistance from various countries, it can be said that this indictment was filed in an extremely short time frame," Ehat Miftaraj, executive director of the nongovernmental Kosovo Law Institute, told RFE/RL.

Miftaraj added that details on the indictment are still needed "to know whether the indictment also addresses acts related to state aggression against the Republic of Kosovo, or if it is solely about a well-organized criminal group led by Radoicic that carried out the actions specified in the indictment."

During the attack, around 30 ethnic Serb gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Banjska, a village near the border with Serbia, killing Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku, an ethnic Albanian Kosovar police officer.

SEE ALSO:

Who Was Behind The Deadly Attack At The Orthodox Monastery In Kosovo?

The attackers then made a stand in an Orthodox monastery and exchanged fire with Kosovar forces. Three gunmen were ultimately killed.

Radoicic, who claimed the attack, stepped down from his position in the Serbian List party days after the incident.

The attack came months after talks backed by Washington and Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia collapsed, and relations between the bitter neighbors and rivals have only deteriorated further.

Belgrade and its ally Russia still refuse to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty since a 2008 declaration of independence that followed a decade of UN administration after a bloody ethnically fueled war.

A court in the Belarusian city of Brest on September 11 began the trial of seven men charged with "taking part in mass unrest" for their participation in rallies in 2020 over the official results of the presidential poll that pronounced authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner. Syarhey Filimonau, Ihar Varanovich, Alyaksandr Shtyk, Uladzislau Piskunovich, Vital Hira, Yauhen Melnichuk, and Dzmitry Posnikau face up to eight years in prison each if found guilty. Thousands have been detained over the protests against the election results, and rights groups have documented cases of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died during the crackdown. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Asanali Suieubaev, a founding member of the unregistered Algha, Qazaqstan (Forward, Kazakhstan) political party, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on September 10 on a charge of distributing illegal drugs that he rejects as politically motivated. Suieubaev's lawyer, Meiirzhan Dosqaraev, told RFE/RL on September 11 that the case against his client had been "trumped up" after he publicly accused former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of corruption in November 2023. Also in November, the chairman of Algha, Qazaqstan, Marat Zhylanbaev, was sentenced to seven years in prison on extremism charges that he also rejected as politically motivated. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

A court in Russia's southwestern region of Volgograd on September 11 sentenced a former Wagner mercenary group fighter to eight years in prison for beating his wife to death. Sergei Neverov was serving a prison term he was handed in 2019 for robbery and a series of thefts when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2022. He was pardoned after he returned from the war in March 2023. The number of crimes in Russia committed by former Wagner recruits and other ex-military personnel has been on the rise since early 2023 as soldiers returned from duty. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Caucasus.Realities, click here.

At least three people were killed in separate incidents in the Bajaur district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the local police force has confirmed to RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. Unidentified gunmen killed a police officer and a health worker after shooting at a group carrying out polio vaccinations before fleeing the scene. Earlier, a soldier was killed while sweeping for land mines near the village of Niman Khan. There has been a rise in armed attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past two years and protests have been held to demand the authorities take action. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, click here.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A group of Kazakh activists has announced the creation of "a platform" to oppose a government plan for the construction of a nuclear power plant as a nationwide referendum on the issue next month nears.

Environmentalists Qaisha Atakhanova, Gulsim Kakimzhanova, and Vadim Ni, energy expert Aset Nauryzbaev, and political analyst Asel Iztaeva told journalists in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, on September 10 that they had created a group called There is No Need for NNP.

The activists said the goal of their group is to show what they called the opinion of the majority in Kazakhstan, who are openly against the plant's construction.

They also stressed that if a plant is constructed in partnership with a foreign country -- four companies are currently on the shortlist -- Kazakhstan could lose some of its sovereignty.

"All companies that may be involved in the project are foreign state companies. There are no private companies among them, and the money will be allocated by the corresponding governments," Ni said.

"And it will not be us who will choose one of them. Other nations have been invited. Because of that, I would say, it is not just a political issue, it is about geopolitics.... This is the nature of nuclear energy issues. It is tied to powerful nations."

Talks of building a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan have been circulating for years, leading to questions regarding what countries would be involved in the project.

China's CNNC, South Korea's KHNP, France's EDF, and Russia's Rosatom have been named in media reports as possible constructors of a nuclear power plant.

Kazakh officials have avoided commenting directly, saying the decision would be made after the October 6 referendum.

Shortly before launching its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia proposed that its Rosatom nuclear agency be Kazakhstan's main partner in such a project.

Many Kazakhs publicly reject the idea of Rosatom's involvement, citing the legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Russia's occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine as examples of Moscow's attitude toward nuclear safety.

Also on September 10, a court in Almaty fined activist Abzal Dostiyarov for a YouTube clip questioning the plan for a nationwide referendum on the plant's construction.

Dostiyarov was found guilty of violating the law on holding public polls and ordered to pay a 55,350-tenge ($115) fine.

Dostiyarov insisted he is innocent, saying the video clip in question from a week earlier was not a poll.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev last week announced plans for a nationwide referendum on October 6 to gauge public support for the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Many Kazakhs expect the referendum to succeed, given the country's tightly controlled political environment.

But the push to build a new nuclear facility has been met by significant opposition despite apparent efforts to silence dissent on the issue. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against such a project have been prevented from attending public debates on the matter.

Nuclear power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991, and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still operated by Moscow.

Bashkir activist Zagir Mukhamedyarov has fled Russia and entered the United States via Mexico fearing arrest. The 27-year-old activist told RFE/RL on September 10 via a video link from an immigration center in the state of Louisiana, where he awaits a court decision regarding his application for political asylum, that he had to leave Russia amid a wave of arrests of Bashkir campaigners who had taken part in mass rallies protesting the imprisonment of noted Bashkir activist Fail Alsynov in mid-January. Mukhamedyarov was among the protesters. Several participants in the rallies have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges of mass unrest and assaulting police officers. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

KYIV -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, arrived on September 11 in Kyiv on a joint visit that comes as Ukraine pushes its Western allies to drop restrictions that are keeping it from using long-range weaponry deep inside Russia.

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.

Both Blinken and Lammy said the conflict had reached a "critical" juncture, with Russian forces maintaining attacks on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and continuing their use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones against Ukrainian cities.

As Blinken and Lammy arrived from Poland by train, there were reports that Russian forces have begun attacking Ukrainian troops and retaking territory in Kursk a little more than a month after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Russian region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv's allies for months to allow Ukraine to fire Western weapons, including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

Zelenskiy said he hoped the visit of the top U.S. and British diplomats would yield "strong decisions" to support Ukraine.

Blinken has said he wants to hear directly from Zelenskiy and others what Kyiv's goals in the war are and what Washington can do to help it achieve them.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said he and Zelenskiy had had "detailed and productive" talks with Blinken and Lammy. Sybiha told reporters at a joint news conference that he and his two counterparts had discussed the supply of weapons and air defenses.

Zelenskiy last week told military and defense leaders they should not restrain his country’s ability to battle the Kremlin’s forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on September 10 that his administration is "working out" a way to lift the restrictions, though he gave no specifics.

"Together we’re working to make sure that Ukraine can defend its territory against the ongoing aggression, that it will be able to stand strongly on its own two feet militarily, economically, democratically, and that it will remain on the path that the Ukrainian people so desire it to be on of closer integration with Europe, with transatlantic institutions," Blinken said before the trip.

"Ukraine is clearly on that path. Together we’re going to continue to help it move along that path."

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 20 Shahed-type suicide drones launched by Russia in the early hours of September 11, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.

The military said Russia fired 25 Shahed drones, an Iskander ballistic missile, two S-300 antiaircraft guided missiles, and six Kh-31p anti-radar missiles overnight.

The projectiles targeted the Kyiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava regions.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said two people were wounded and hospitalized as a result of the Russian attack. He said the strikes also caused destruction and a fire in one of the businesses in the Kamian district.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the other regions.

Blinken said earlier that Russia is "ramping up its attacks on cities, on people, in particular targeting the energy infrastructure...all in advance of the coldest months," adding that the tactics are part of President Vladimir Putin’s "winter playbook."

He announced at the news conference that the United States would provide more than $700 million in aid for Ukraine in an effort bolster its energy grid.

The $325 million in energy support in the package will help repair and restore Ukraine’s power generation facilities, provide emergency backup power, and strengthen the physical security of energy infrastructure. About $290 million will go toward food, water, shelter, health care, and education programs for Ukrainians in need in the country and refugees outside the country. The remaining $102 million will be used for mine-removal activities, he said.

A freight train derailed in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, due to what the rail operator said was an “interference in operations.” The derailment happened late on September 10, the authorities said in a statement the next day. The Russian government-linked Baza Telegram channel alleged that the cause of the derailment was an explosion on the tracks. About 10 empty carriages and a locomotive went off the tracks but there were no casualties, Baza reported. The read the full story by Current Time, click here.

Iran has vowed to deliver a “symmetric and proportionate” response after Britain, France, and Germany canceled air services agreements with Tehran and pledged to sanction its flag carrier, Iran Air.

The European trio, known as the E3, said in a joint statement on September 10 that they were taking the measures after confirming that Iran had transferred ballistic missiles to Russia.

Separately, the United States designated 10 individuals and six entities based in Iran and Russia, including Iran Air, over the alleged delivery of the ballistic missiles.

In a statement late on September 10, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani called the allegation “completely baseless and false.”

“The actions of these three European countries is a continuation of the West’s hostile policy and imposition of economic terrorism against the people of Iran,” he said in a statement on Telegram.

“It will face a symmetrical and proportionate response.”

In their statement, the E3 said the suspected delivery of ballistic missiles “is a further escalation of Iran’s military support to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and will see Iranian missiles reaching European soil, increasing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

SEE ALSO:

Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

Iran has been hit with several tranches of sanctions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 over Moscow's use of Iranian-made Shahed and Mohajer drones in the war.

Iran still denies that its drones are being used in the war and insists it is not taking sides in the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, officially accused Iran of the missile transfers earlier on September 10 in London.

"Russia has now received shipments of these [Iranian] ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians," Blinken said.

The Kremlin has yet to comment on Blinken's statement.

A day earlier it declined to directly refute the accusation about Iranian-supplied missiles and instead highlighted its cooperation with Tehran, saying it was developing dialogue in all areas.

Tehran has denied supplying missiles to Moscow.

Experts agree that short-range ballistic missiles could be a boost to Moscow's war effort in neighboring Ukraine, which already benefits from Iranian drone supplies and technology.

SEE ALSO:

How Would Iran Benefit From Exporting Ballistic Missiles To Russia?

Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia represents a further military escalation and will be met with a "strong response" from the European Union.

The EU's diplomatic service has already presented the bloc's members with "a substantial set of decisive and targeted measures" against Iran in response to the transfer, Stano said.

Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said on September 10 that new sanctions against Iran over the missile deliveries would be a "positive step" but said it was not enough.

"We also need authorization to use Western weapons against military targets on Russian territory, the provision of longer-range missiles, and the enhancement of our air-defense systems," Yermak said on X.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump exchanged barbs over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza in their first and likely only debate ahead of the November 5 election.

The debate got under way with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, in what was the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.

But then a fiery debate ensued.

Harris accused Trump of being willing to abandon U.S. support for Ukraine to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Trump a "disgrace," while Trump claimed Harris "hates" Israel -- an assertion she rejected.

Neither offered specifics on how they would seek to end each conflict, but Trump insisted that he would end the Ukraine war even before taking office if elected.

Embed share

Harris, Trump Clash Over Ukraine War In Fiery Debate

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:59 0:00

However, such a move conflicts with the doctrine historically in place that lays out that there is only one president at a time and that foreign policy decisions are reserved for the sitting president and not the president-elect. Any moves to negotiate an agreement between Putin and Zelenskiy is also a likely violation of the Logan Act, a 19th-century law that bars private citizens from conducting foreign policy.

“I want to get the war [in Ukraine] settled. I will get it settled even before I become president,” Trump said. “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives."

But Harris charged that the reason Trump would be able to end the conflict quickly “is because he would just give it up.”

The Democratic vice president said Washington’s European and NATO allies were “thankful” that Trump was not in office and talked up the “importance of the greatest military the world has known, which is NATO.”

Trump twice refused to say he believed it was in the United State’s interest for Ukraine, which bipartisan majorities in Congress have backed, to win the war.

SEE ALSO:

Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

The candidates also clashed on domestic policy, taking each other to task on key issues including the economy, immigration, and abortion.

Harris promised tax cuts aimed at the middle class and said she would push to restore a federally guaranteed right to abortion overturned by the Supreme Court two years ago. Trump said his proposed tariffs would help the United States stop being cheated by allies on trade.

The vice president attacked Trump's intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods - a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class -- while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.

Trump criticized Harris for the persistent inflation under President Joe Biden, though he overstated the level of price increases. Inflation, he said, "has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class."

With reporting by AP and Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden said on September 10 that his administration is "working out" a way to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of long range weapons in its war against Russia. Biden responded that his administration is "working that out now" when asked if the United States would make the change. The United States has been reluctant to allow the use of weapons that it has supplied to strike targets deep inside in Russia over concern that it would escalate the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week urged Western nations to lift the restrictions, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany they should not restrain his country’s ability to battle the Kremlin’s forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said lifting the restriction would not be a game-changer in the war.

Members of several of Russia's ethnic groups held a demonstration on September 10 in Warsaw to remember ethnic Udmurt scholar and activist Albert Razin on the anniversary of his death by self-immolation in 2019.

Participants, including representatives of Tatarstan, Buryatia, Yakutia, and Circassia, held posters made by political refugee Nafis Kashapov, who refers to himself as a representative of "the government of Tatarstan in exile."

"Only after the collapse of Russia can peoples speak their native language," read one of the posters. The slogan was written in Russian, English, and Tatar.

Razin died after he lit himself on fire on September 10, 2019, outside the regional parliament in Izhevsk, capital of the Volga region of Udmurtia.

He was holding a placard reading: "If my language disappears tomorrow, I'm ready to breath my last today."

SEE ALSO:

Man Dies After Self-Immolation Protest Over Language Policies In Russia's Udmurtia

At the time of his death he was an associate professor, an honored scholar of Udmurtia, and an active participant in the national movement Udmurt Kenesh.

Razin, 79, was among a group of local experts who signed an open letter in June 2018 calling on the Udmurt parliament not to support a bill that canceled the mandatory teaching of indigenous languages in regions and republics where non-Russian ethnic groups are well-represented.

Officials insisted the change was not aimed at destroying linguistic diversity but would help save some languages from extinction by speeding up the process for approving orthography norms.

But activists considered it an existential threat to their cultures.

The demonstrators in Warsaw aimed to draw attention to the controversial language policy, which banned students from taking final exams in any language other than Russian.

In 2019, a commissioner with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe assessed that the opportunities for Tatars in Tatarstan to access the study of their language and culture remain quite limited despite Tatar also being an official language of Tatarstan. The commissioner told RFE/RL at the time that he was surprised that the Unified State Exam in Tatarstan was only offered in Russian.

Against this backdrop, a provision enshrined in 2020 in the Russian Constitution made Russian the language of the "state-forming people" of Russia. This amendment, proposed by President Vladimir Putin, was seen by experts and activists as reinforcement of the dominant position of both the Russian language and Russian identity.

SEE ALSO:

Russia's State Duma OKs Controversial Bill Allowing Government To Standardize Indigenous Languages

A member of the Belarusian opposition who took part in the demonstration in Warsaw told RFE/RL that Razin's suicide was a protest against Russian "imperialism."

"People learned about the tragedy that the Udmurt people and all other peoples who have the misfortune of being under the rule of imperial Moscow are experiencing," said Vyachaslau Siuchyk of the Belarusian opposition movement Together.

"That is why I considered it my duty to come to the action announced by the League of Free Nations. Moscow has long ago severed all ties between peoples who should unite," he said. "There should be no place for this evil empire in human civilization."

Kashapov said the Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashes and other non-Russian people inhabiting Russia are in the same tragic situation as the Udmurt people with respect to language.

"Russia is destroying their languages and culture. But the collapse of the Putin regime is inevitable. Streets, institutes, educational institutions will be named after Albert Razin," Kashapov predicted.

Ibragim Yaganov, a representative of the Circassian National Movement, told RFE/RL that language is "the storehouse" of any nation.

"When a nation loses its language…[it] loses its identity, he said.

Raisa Zubareva, an activist for the independence of Sakha in Yakutia, said she understood Razin's actions and how much he realized the full depth of the tragedy while at the same time feeling hopeless and great pain for the Udmurt people.

"Now we understand that only dismantling, only disintegration, and only independence will save our nations from this monster that swallows nations whole," she said.

Based on data from the Education Ministry, from 2016 to 2023, the proportion of schoolchildren who learn entirely in their native languages fell from 1.98 percent to 0.96 percent.

At the same time, the number of pupils who learn entirely in their native languages fell from 292,000 to 173,500, although the number of children in schools increased by 3.2 million over those seven years.

TBILISI -- The ruling Georgian Dream party on September 10 selected Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire and former prime minister, as its lead candidate for a parliamentary election on October 26.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a close Ivanishvili ally, was designated the party's No. 2 candidate while Irakli Gharibashvili, chairman of the party and former prime minister, is third.

The list's top 10 also includes other party leaders, including party chairman Irakli Gharibashvili, who previously served as prime minister, and Olympic athletes Lasha Talakhadze, a weightlifter, and Geno Petriashvili, a freestyle wrestler.

Ivanishvili, who served as prime minister from 2012-2013, has been honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party since December. He has played a major role in a political crisis surrounding Georgia's law on "foreign agents," which was pushed through by the government earlier this year despite large-scale protests.

In a speech in April, Ivanishvili lashed out against the West, saying the foreign agent law was necessary to defend Georgian sovereignty against attempts by a "global war party" to drag Georgia into confrontation with Russia.

SEE ALSO:

Defying Controversial 'Foreign-Agent' Law, Georgian NGOs Are Ready To Fight

The United States and other Western nations expressed concern about the law, which requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence."

Tens of thousands of Georgians demonstrated against the bill despite a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation. Most protesters referred to the bill as "the Russian law" because of its similarity to decade-old legislation in Russia that has contributed to a fierce clampdown on independent media and public dissent there.

The European Union reacted to the enactment of the bill by pausing EU accession negotiations, while the United States opted to launch a "comprehensive review" of relations with Georgia.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili last month signed a decree announcing October 26 as the day for the parliamentary polls, calling the elections a choice between "being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe."

Polls show that Georgian Dream remains the country's single most popular party ahead of the October election.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on September 10 that a court in the Perm region sentenced a man to 12 years for committing numerous violent crimes against his wife, including rape, robbery, and axing off her right hand. The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was found guilty of inflicting serious bodily harm for axing off her hand. A similar high-profile crime near Moscow in 2017 shocked Russians after a man axed off both his wife's hands. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Russia has been criticized for adopting a law in 2017 that decriminalized some forms of domestic violence, one of the country's most challenging decades-long problems. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here.

The Tajik Embassy in Moscow on September 10 warned citizens against traveling to Russia for the time being, citing beefed-up security measures and increased document checks by Russian border guards. Last week, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry put out a similar statement to its citizens citing the same reasons. Central Asian migrant workers and visitors have faced increased scrutiny from Russian authorities following a deadly terrorist attack at an entertainment center near Moscow in March that left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured. Russia arrested 12 suspects, mostly from Tajikistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

The Minsk City Court on September 10 started the trial of Belarusian historian Ihar Melnikau on a charge of facilitating extremist activities. It is unclear what the charge stems from. The 44-year-old historian was arrested in January. If convicted, Melnikau would face up to seven years in prison. Former Belarusian presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich told RFE/RL that Melnikau's case appears to be connected to his work on historical ties between Belarus and Poland contradicting the stance of pro-Moscow historians and the concept formed during the Soviet era and promoted by authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Foreign nationals serving terms in Russian prisons have been asked to write requests to serve the remainder of their terms in their homeland following two recent hostage-taking crises at Russian penitentiaries, IStories said on September 10.

The news website cited rights defender Ivan Astashin and a source close to correctional colony No. 17 in Russia's Mordovia region as saying foreign nationals have been advised to officially request a transfer to their home country as prison administrators seek to avoid dramatic hostage-taking events similar to those in Rostov-on-Don and correctional colony No. 19 in the Volgograd region.

According to the sources one Belarusian, three Kyrgyz, one Polish, and two U.S. citizens who are serving terms on different charges at the penal colony in Mordovia are currently awaiting transfers to their homelands.

Also, a Ukrainian citizen serving a term at correctional colony No. 8 in the Russian region of Voronezh told Astashin he had been approached by a penitentiary official who recommended he request a transfer to Ukraine. The man has been in jail in Russia since before Russia launched its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told IStories that the transfers would most likely be made as deportations and not as extraditions as those would require special requests from other countries.

In late August, several inmates from Central Asia at correctional colony No.19 in the southwestern region of Volgograd took guards hostage, killing four of them. Officials said at the time that all the hostage-takers were liquidated.

The violence took place after six inmates at a detention center in the city of Rostov-on-Don took two guards hostage in June. Several hours later, Russian officials said the hostages were released and the hostage-takers killed.

In both cases, the hostage-takers claimed they were members of the Islamic State extremist group.