German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on September 17 told the leaders of the five Central Asian states that the development of cooperation with their countries was "a strategic goal" for Germany.

"Never before has the exchange between our societies been so close -- and it is constantly increasing: politically, economically, and culturally," Scholz said, adding that Berlin wants "to continue and further intensify this."

Speaking in Astana at the second summit of the Central Asian states and Germany, Scholz said that "especially in times of global uncertainty, we need close, trusting international partners."

Scholz last met with the Central Asian leaders at their first summit with Germany held in Berlin in September 2023 amid efforts to counter Russian influence in the region.

The host of the second summit, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, expressed gratitude to German entities that have established cooperation between "one of the world's leading nations in terms of economic and technological innovations" and the countries of Central Asia.

Central Asia is a "dynamically developing region with an enormous potential for development and wide opportunities for mutually profitable partnership," Toqaev said at the summit.

"By uniting east and west, north and south, Central Asia can become a center of attraction of technologies, localization of production, and producing outputs with a high added value," he said, adding that the region was "open for cooperation in different spheres."

Presidents Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Serdar Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan, and Shavkat Mirziyoev of Uzbekistan also stressed the importance of cooperation with Germany, but not all agree with Scholz on recognition of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, which he said came to power "illegally."

Scholz also called ongoing developments in Afghanistan "depressing" and stressed that the situation faced by Afghan women under Taliban rule was "intolerable."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week issued a statement calling on Scholz to focus on human rights in the five tightly controlled Central Asian nations during this year's summit.

"Serious human rights concerns across the region include suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections," the HRW statement said.

"The German government cannot pretend closer ties with Central Asia are possible without a significant improvement in human rights in the region. The upcoming summit offers a chance to make this clear," it added.

With reporting by dpa and Tengrinews

The Brest regional court in Belarus said on September 17 that five people were handed prison terms a day earlier over taking part in the 2020 mass rallies protesting the official results of a presidential vote that declared authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner. Political prisoner Henadz Vasilyuk, who is serving an 18-month prison term he was handed in February over "likes" on social networks, was sentenced to two years in prison. His wife, Hanna, was sentenced to one year in prison, while three others -- Dzyanis Andrashchuk, Mikalay Pratasevich, and Raman Parfyonau -- were each handed 18-month prison terms. All were found guilty of "organizing actions that blatantly disrupt social order." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

At least eight people were killed and 2,750 were wounded when pagers exploded simultaneously in Lebanon, the health minister said on September 17 after the Iranian-backed Hizballah militant group said two of its members and a girl were among those killed in the "mysterious" explosions.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said 200 of the injuries were critical, and Iran's ambassador in Beirut was among those injured, Iranian media reported.

Hizballah said that a number of pagers used by its members were detonated in the "simultaneous" explosions.

Mojtaba Amani, Iran's ambassador in Beirut, was injured, Iranian media reported. The Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, quoted an unidentified informed source as saying that Amani suffered a "superficial injury" as a result of a pager explosion.

The news channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Mehr news agency also reported that Amani was injured.

The pagers that exploded were the latest models of the devices that Hizballah imported into the country in recent month, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified sources.

Reports from Lebanon indicate that "hundreds" of members of the Lebanese Hizballah group, including fighters and aid workers, were injured in the explosion of the pagers in southern Lebanon and its suburbs.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry condemned what it called an "Israeli cyberattack," adding that some of the pagers that exploded were in Syria. The ministry also said in a statement that it was preparing to submit a complaint to the UN Security Council.

"This dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation is accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the scope of the war against Lebanon on a large scale, and by the intransigence of Israeli's positions calling for more bloodshed, destruction, and devastation," it said.

Hizballah promised to retaliate, saying Israel will receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.

Without commenting directly on the explosions, an Israeli military spokesman said the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, had met with senior officers to assess the situation. No policy change was announced but "vigilance must continue to be maintained," he said, according to Reuters.

In a statement, the Lebanese Health Ministry said that hundreds of injured people had arrived at hospitals as a result of the explosions. The ministry called on all citizens who have pagers to immediately discard them. The statement also called on all hospitals to be put on high alert.

Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, told RFE/RL that whoever carried out the pager-explosion operation intended to send a "clear message" to Hizballah.

Yadlin said it could be a response to a plot to assassinate a senior Israeli security official that the Israeli security apparatus announced. He also noted that Hizballah continues its attacks on Israel as it tries to link itself to the Gaza conflict, and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah does not want to stop these attacks.

The Israeli government decided on September 16 to add the safe return of its citizens to the north as a goal in the war. This was part of an Israeli cabinet announcement that was expanding its war objectives and the focus of its almost yearlong campaign against the extremist group Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, in Gaza to confront Hizballah on its northern border with Lebanon.

Nasrallah must understand that his actions will lead to a shift in Israeli policy, Yadlin told RFE/RL.

"However, whether this policy shift will result in a full-scale war or a limited military operation will become clear in the coming days. In any case, we are now in a new phase," he said

The events coincide with the return of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to try to revive cease-fire talks on the Israeli-Hamas war.

While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hizballah, Hamas's ally in Lebanon, have killed hundreds of people, mostly militants in Lebanon and dozens of civilians and soldiers in Israel, and caused tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee.

Israel's announcement on expanding its objectives came a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that "military action" was the only way left for Israel's northern communities to return to their homes.

Following this decision, Hizballah warned of the consequences of a large-scale attack in Lebanon.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on September 17 announced the new five-year makeup of the EU's executive arm, saying its "core priorities...are built around prosperity, security, democracy" against a backdrop of competitiveness.

She recently said the so-called "college" of the commission would reflect an emphasis on collective security through the introduction of a "full-fledged defense commissioner" as the bloc grapples with fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and other perceived threats.

To that end, she chose conservative former two-term Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as commissioner for defense and space.

But the inclusion of one of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's allies from the hard-right Brothers of Italy party among the expanded list of six vice presidents for von der Leyen's second term also signaled an effort to more broadly distribute influence and respond to accusations that the 65-year-old German had consolidated too much power in her first five years.

She said the Meloni ally, Raffaele Fitto, would be executive vice president for cohesion and reforms, adding, "We will draw on his extensive experience to help modernize and strengthen our cohesion, investment, and growth policies."

In the announcement of her picks, von der Leyen also touted the inclusion of 11 women, saying, "that is 40 percent" of the commission, after she had pushed the other 26 EU members who each nominate a potential commissioner to increase gender balance among the nominees.

One returnee, the controversial commissioner for enlargement from Hungary, Oliver Varhely, was handed the health and animal-welfare post.

Irishman Michael McGrath was placed in charge of democracy, justice, and the rule of law, a portfolio that could put him at the fore of efforts to rein in disputes over perceived democratic backsliding among member states like Hungary.

Magnus Brunner, who has been Austria's finance minister, was given the thorny task of leading the internal affairs and migration portfolio amid conspicuous debate over the bloc's borders and immigration policies.

One day before the planned announcement, France's commissioner for the EU's internal market, Thierry Breton, abruptly resigned and asked his country to nominate someone else in an effort to encourage von der Leyen to give "an allegedly more influential portfolio for France."

Von der Leyen placed French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne in one of the six vice-presidential seats, in charge of prosperity and industrial strategy.

Von der Leyen is in charge of selecting portfolios among each of the 26 candidates.

Von der Leyen has set out goals for the commission that include rethinking the foundations of security and further boosting Ukraine's defense in the face of Russia's 2 1/2-year-old full-scale invasion.

Some of the other urgent challenges currently facing the bloc are perceived threats to transatlantic relations, divisions over Israel's ongoing war with U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and tensions over the bloc's agricultural, industrial, and environmental goals, especially in light of the European Green Deal adopted in 2019.

Von der Leyen has also laid out priorities like the stiffening of EU borders and a merit-based approach to long-stalled EU enlargement.

The top European Commission post is one of three key institutional presidencies, along with the leadership of the European Council, that defines the general political direction and priorities of the bloc and the European Parliament.

Moscow resident Yury Kokhovets has been sentenced to five years in prison for condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine during an interview on the street in July 2022 with a reporter from RFE/RL.

The Moscow City Court handed down the decision on September 17, cancelling a lower court's decision in April to sentence Kokhovets to five years of "forced labor."

Kokhovets was immediately taken into custody after the decision was pronounced.

The punishment defined as forced labor in Russia means that convicts do not serve their terms in prison, but instead can choose to stay home and be sent to work at a nearby industrial facility as designated by the Federal Penitentiary Service.

A certain portion of their salaries are deducted by the state.

The Moscow City Court, however, said it changed the sentence after finding Kokhovets guilty of "distributing false information about the Russian military on the basis of political hatred."

In July 2022, Kokhovets was approached by an RFE/RL journalist who asked him if he thought a detente between Russia and NATO countries was needed.

"Of course we need (de-escalation), but it all depends on our government. It is our government that started it all.... It is Russia who created all these problems," Kokhovets told RFE/RL.

"I don't see any problems with NATO, it is not planning to attack anyone."

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.

He added that Russian forces had killed civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha "for no reason at all." Moscow denies accusations it has committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Kokhovets pleaded partially guilty, denying that his statements during the interview with RFE/RL were hatred-based. He also stated at the trial that he was exercising his constitutional right to freely express his opinion while talking with the RFE/RL journalist.

At the September 17 hearing, Kokhovets also said he did not know that talking to RFE/RL was a violation of the Criminal Code and that he had no idea that the interview he gave to RFE/RL would be published on the Internet.

His lawyer said at the original trial that her client had no hatred toward anyone when he talked to RFE/RL.

According to Yelena Sheremetyeva, the "proof" of her client's guilt was based purely on a forensic linguistic examination of his speech, which according to her, had been held with gross violations, namely that the two people who studied his statements were not state-licensed linguists.

The linguistic forensics study was carried out by math teacher Natalya Kryukova and interpreter Aleksandr Tarasov, who also conducted similar linguistic examinations in the cases of the closure of the Memorial Human Rights Center in 2021 and the imprisonment of Memorial's co-chairman, Oleg Orlov, in February this year.

With reporting by RusNews and Mediazona

A Moscow court on September 17 transferred Vyacheslav Akhmedov, the director of the Defense Ministry's Patriot Park -- a military-themed complex near Moscow -- to house arrest after he was arrested last month on fraud charges. The deputy chief of the Defense Ministry's Department for Innovative Development, Major General Vladimir Shesterov, and former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov were also arrested in the case. Several top military and Defense Ministry officials have been arrested on corruption charges since President Vladimir Putin dismissed Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May and replaced him with former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Lawmakers in Georgia have approved in a third and final reading restrictive new laws curbing LGBT rights and allowing for bans on cultural events such as Pride marches in a vote boycotted by the opposition, underscoring a dramatically polarized political landscape ahead of national elections in October.

A group of protesters outside the parliament building in downtown Tbilisi on September 17 held signs decrying the draft legislation as ignoring the real problems of Georgian families.

SEE ALSO:

Georgian Dream Plays Geopolitics To Shore Up Support At Home

The package of legal changes, which came under the title On Family Values And Protection Of Minors, amends 18 current laws, including on free speech and expression, as well as broadcasting.

It allows for bans on gatherings that promote the notion of a person identifying as a gender other than "his or her biological sex" or same-sex orientation or relationships.

The initiative was brought forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party and passed by a vote of 84-0 in a chamber that most of the opposition has boycotted since May.

That's when Georgian Dream lawmakers approved a "foreign influence" bill that Georgians and Western governments liken to the decade-old "foreign agent" law used by Russian authorities to clamp down on dissent with broad discretion.

They ended up overriding a presidential veto of the legislation to enact it.

The United States and other Western states 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."

On September 16, the United States slapped sanctions on more than 60 Georgians, including two members of the government, who it said had "undermined" democracy and human rights in the country.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze met on September 17 with U.S. Ambassador Robin Dunnigan and warned that Georgia might revise ties with the United States in response to the new sanctions.

"If one more such step is taken, this might lead to a revision of Georgia's stance on U.S.-Georgian relations," Kobakhidze said in the meeting with Dunnigan, according to a statement by the prime minister's office.

SEE ALSO:

Georgia's Ruling Party Initiates Bill Cracking Down On LGBT Rights

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.

In setting election day for October 26, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called the vote a choice between "being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe."

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

With reporting by AFP

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Iran's leadership of an ongoing "brutal repression" of women and peaceful dissenters in the two years since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian student Mahsa Amini while in police custody over a dress-code violation unleashed nationwide protests.

The international watchdog issued its statement on the September 16 anniversary of Amini's death, the same day recently inaugurated Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian pledged at his first press conference that he would use his authority to ensure the country's feared morality police no longer "bother" women.

But Pezeshkian faces an uphill climb limiting the power and influence of the morality police and other hard-line conservative institutions under the reign of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate religious and political authority in Iran.

"The authorities have failed to answer for the killing of hundreds and the arrest of thousands, and they have systematically continued their suppression of opponents, civil society, and human rights defenders," HRW quoted acting Iran researcher Nahid Naghshbandi as saying.

"A change in government and a new president have so far done nothing to alter the authorities' repressive actions toward dissent."

SEE ALSO:

'Women, Life, Freedom': Iran's Protest Movement Magnifies Defiance, Camaraderie 2 Years On

Iran is facing major economic difficulties, much of it brought on by Western sanctions, and growing anger among citizens in many cases led by women's groups over human rights violations at home.

Amini's parents were reportedly surrounded at their home in the city of Saghez and prevented from leaving as part of a clampdown on public signs of mourning that also included a roundup of activists or their families.

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace laureate and longtime women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi issued a plea on September 16 urging the international community to act to end the oppression of women in Iran and other theocratic and authoritarian regimes.

Mohammadi hailed the Women, Life, Freedom movement sparked by Amini's death as part of a lasting "commitment to achieving democracy, freedom, and equality and to defeating theocratic despotism."

Speaking at his first press conference since taking office in late July following the death of a hard-line predecessor, relative moderate Pezeshkian said, "Morality police were not supposed to confront [women]. I will follow up so they don't bother them."

A female journalist in the room noted she had been forced to take a different route to the press conference to avoid a morality patrol.

"Imprisoned women in Iran are reviving the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement through hunger strikes, protest letters, and sit-ins, continuing their activism despite severe sentences," HRW said.

The Sobesednik publishing house in Russia has suspended for up to three months production at all of its outlets, including its popular newspaper, following a decision by authorities to place the company on the list of "foreign agents," Yelena Milchanovska, a Sobesednik correspondent, said on September 17. The Justice Ministry added Sobesednik, which launched its operations in 1984, to its list of "foreign agents" on September 13. The company has said it will appeal the move. In recent years, Sobesednik has been one of the few outlets to criticize the Kremlin and give a platform to opposition figures and activists. To read the original story by RFE/RL's North.Realities, click here.

Noted Russian opposition activist Vitaly Ioffe was killed in the northwestern city of St. Peterburg, a relative told RFE/RL on September 17. Russian media also reported about Ioffe's killing, citing his daughter and other sources. The Mash Telegram channel, which is close to the Kremlin, reported that a 20-year-old St. Petersburg resident was detained after he turned himself in to police in the nearby city of Vyborg and confessed to the killing. Officials have not commented on a possible motive. Ioffe was known for his criticism of the Russian government. He openly condemned Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. To read the original story by RFE/RL's North.Realities, click here.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on September 17 that nine people were arrested in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk after the deaths of three people who died while receiving IV treatments. Those arrested were charged with providing illegal medical services at home for fees. According to the officials, the suspects illegally used strong and psychotropic substances through IV drips to people suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction without proper diagnoses. A search of the suspects' homes allegedly uncovered a large amount of illegal medical substances. To use the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

Unknown attackers on September 16 threw a Molotov cocktail at the house of Dmitry Tyulenev, the father of popular Russian blogger in exile Danya Milokhin, who has openly condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Tyulenev says the fire damaged construction materials piled up near the house, adding the attackers left a written message, saying: "Danya Milokhin should go to the special military operation (the Kremlin's name for the war in Ukraine), and his family to hell." Police are investigating the attack. Milokhin has more than 18 million subscribers on TikTok. He left Russia for the United Arab Emirates in the autumn of 2022. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Investigators in the United States have arrested a 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida, on an indictment charging him with conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act, to commit smuggling, to commit money laundering, and to defraud the United States, the Justice Department said on September 16. Denis Postovoi is suspected of illegally exporting from the United States to Russia microelectronic components with military applications via other countries starting in February 2022, right after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The United States and other Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over the invasion of its neighbor. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

The Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine battled extensive power outages on September 17 after an overnight attack by Russian drones that sent emergency crews and Ukrainian officials scrambling to repair damage and tap into backup facilities for water and other utility infrastructure.

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 Sumy regional military administration said households in Sumy, Konotop, Ohktyr, and a handful of other communities were cut off from the electrical grid.

Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said there were no casualties from the attack but that water pressure plummeted and electricity supplies were experiencing problems.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said Russia's attacks had caused a fire at a power substation and cut power to more than 281,000 consumers. Power was later partially restored, it said

Two weeks ago, authorities in Sumy expanded a list of areas for evacuation amid intensified Russian bombardment by drones and missiles.

A spokesman for a northern Ukrainian military unit, Vadym Mysnyk, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that Russia's stepped-up shelling of energy facilities in Sumy appeared to be retaliation for the Ukrainian incursion into Russia's nearby Kursk region.

"It's just a matter of time before they dump it all on us," Mysnyk said. "Either here or in another city. But they'll hit Ukraine using everything they have -- the entire arsenal."

Ukraine's military said early on September 17 that it had downed 34 drones overnight but that 51 had been detected.

Kyiv claims to have gained control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since launching its surprise incursion into Russia's southern Kursk region in early August in an effort to gain leverage as Russia's full-scale invasion nears its 32nd month.

The General Staff of Ukraine's military said more than half of the 88 clashes that took place on the front on September 17 took place in the areas around Kurakhiv and Pokrovsk.

Fighting also continued in several other areas, including Lyman, Kupyansk, Kharkiv, Toretsk, Kramatorsk, Orihiv, and the Dnieper, the General Staff said.

A rescuer was killed in Russian shelling of a village in the Pokrovsk area, the State Emergency Service reported. The service also said that Russian forces hit Kharkiv with glide bombs, injuring four rescuers who were extinguishing a fire in a forest when they were hit. Three are in serious condition, the service said.

Russian forces captured the town of Ukrayinsk in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency and a pro-Russian war blogger reported. Russian troops raised their flag on a mine-ventilation shaft on the outskirts of the town, RIA Novosti said, citing an unidentified source in the Russian military.

Blogger Yury Podolyaka said Russian forces had taken the city "almost intact," allowing them to use it as a base for further offensive operations.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.

The Ukrainian Navy said it destroyed several supply depots of the Russian armed forces around the port city of Mariupol. They were attacked with missiles and destroyed. Tons of ammunition was blown up in the process, the Ukrainian naval command said.

On September 16, Ukraine invited the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the territory it has captured in the subsequent six weeks to confirm its adherence to humanitarian law.

The Kremlin called the invites a "provocation" and said it expected the UN and Red Cross to decline them.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was reportedly planning to meet with senior ICRC officials in Moscow on September 17, less than a week after three Red Cross staff members were killed when artillery struck a planned aid distribution site in Donetsk.

Kyiv blamed Russian shelling for the deaths.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

Russia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by self-exiled television journalist Tatyana Lazareva against her status of a "foreign agent," her lawyer Leonid Solovyov said on September 17. In July, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Lazareva, who was designated a "foreign agent" in July 2022 on a charge of justifying terrorism. The charge stems from a report Lazareva made about Ukrainian drones attacking sites inside Russia. In June, Russian authorities added Lazareva to the country's wanted list and the registry of "terrorists and extremists." Lazareva fled Russia after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Senior representatives from Serbia and its partly recognized former province of Kosovo were gathering in Brussels on September 17 for internationally mediated talks on implementing past commitments aimed at normalizing relations between the Balkan neighbors.

The countries' chief negotiators in the so-called "dialogue" -- Serbia's director for relations with Kosovo Petar Petkovic and Kosovar Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi -- were expected to participate, along with EU officials.

It was unclear if the two sides would meet jointly or just separately with EU envoys.

Similar meetings have recently fallen through despite heavy public pressure from outside diplomats keen to patch a security risk in Southeastern Europe and regain regional momentum for further Western integration and stem the influence of outside powers Russia and China.

Belgrade has never acknowledged the independence that Pristina declared in 2008, and violent flare-ups and standoffs persist between Kosovar authorities and tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo in a region still scarred by brutal wars and ethnic cleansing in the 1990s.

Already high bilateral tensions were ratcheted up further last week when Kosovar authorities announced the indictment of 45 individuals on terrorism charges over a commando-style operation at a monastery in northern Kosovo last year that killed an ethnic Albanian police officer and wounded another.

Kosovo, which is majority ethnic Albanian, has faced increased criticism from international partners, including the United States and European Union, over "unilateral" and "uncoordinated" actions affecting the daily lives of its ethnic Serbs.

Belgrade and EU and U.S. officials have also pressed for Pristina to lay the legal groundwork to establish an association of mostly Serb municipalities that it originally pledged to create more than a decade ago.

Kosovar officials have countered that the Serbian side is trying to implement measures halfway, including from oral commitments made in Ohrid early last year.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last week announced his intention to boost Belgrade's support to Serbs in Kosovo "significantly and dramatically."

He also urged Serbs who had quit jobs with police and other Kosovar institutions in protest nearly two years ago to retake the jobs, and he laid out administrative plans to help Serbs draw salaries and other financial benefits on the Serbian side of the joint border.

Some Serbs have expressed anger and said they feel betrayed by Vucic's about-face.

EU officials have welcomed the step.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti initially avoided commenting publicly, and it is unclear that those institutions will do anything to facilitate any return en masse by ethnic Serbs.

Pristina calls the so-called "parallel" institutions backed by Belgrade "illegal."

Parliamentary speaker and Kurti party ally Glauk Konjufca told reporters that such an action would be unconstitutional. Foreign Minister Donika Gelvalla-Schwarz has warned of an "instrumentalization of Serbs" by Belgrade.

Pristina has defended recent steps like its ban on the use of the dinar and a cutoff of Serbian banks and post offices in recent months in majority Serb regions by saying it is merely maintaining constitutional and legal order.

Facebook owner Meta said on September 16 that it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya, and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online. The ban marks a sharp escalation in actions by the world's biggest social media company against Russian state media, after it spent years taking more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts. "After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT, and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," the social media company said in a statement. Enforcement of the ban would roll out over the coming days, it said.

Iranian authorities have released Austrian citizen Christian Weber, detained for crimes allegedly committed in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province, to Austria's ambassador in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported on September 17. Austria had said in 2022 that one of its citizens was arrested in Iran for charges not related to the protests that broke out in the country after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman. The news agency said the Austrian citizen was freed in consideration of Islamic mercy. He was handed over to his country's ambassador to arrange his exit, the agency said. Mizan did not specify the crime for which Weber was jailed. Calls to the Austrian Embassy before regular office hours went unanswered.

Afghanistan's Taliban-run Health Ministry on September 17 rejected reports saying the hard-line group has suspended or delayed a major polio vaccination drive.

Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman called such reports false and said there was no official directive to postpone or stop the anti-polio plans.

Instead, he said, Taliban health officials are trying to implement the vaccination campaign in a legitimate and technical way that benefits society.

A day earlier, AP quoted a top official from the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead administer immunizations site-to-site in places like mosques.

Local and international observers have repeatedly warned of humanitarian challenges since the Taliban took control of the country as the U.S.-led international coalition withdrew in mid-2021, heightened by a lack of recognition of the group's government in Kabul.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, up from six cases in 2023, and had announced a sweeping anti-polio drive for September.

A nationwide house-to-house anti-polio campaign in June was the first in at least five years, and WHO authorities said the scheme allowed its vaccinators to reach most of the children it was targeting.

Kamal Shah, a former communications officer at UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for humanitarian and other aid to children worldwide, has urged officials to better integrate the Taliban into polio vaccination efforts.

Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic.

The WHO has warned that high cross-border traffic between those two countries heightens the risk of polio spreading.

India has condemned comments made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the treatment of Muslims in the South Asian nation, calling his remarks "misinformed and unacceptable." "We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or any other place," Khamenei said on September 16. In response, India's Foreign Ministry said it "strongly deplored" the comments. "Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others," the ministry spokesperson said. The two countries have typically shared a strong relationship.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on September 16 gave a positive assessment of the support provided to Moldova in fending off hybrid Russian attacks and pledged further assistance. "With our help, Moldova was able to stabilize its economy, withstand Russia's hybrid attacks, and get inflation under control," Baerbock said during the 5th Support Conference for Moldova in the capital, Chisinau. "And we will not stop; We will continue to support Moldova in very concrete ways," she added. Baerbock criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that he had wanted to plunge Moldova into chaos and cut off the country's gas supply.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev told visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Russia's military "cannot be defeated" in its war against Ukraine and instead urged support for a peace plans being pressed by China and Brazil, a consideration the German leader quickly rejected.

"It is a fact that Russia cannot be defeated in the military sense," Toqaev on September 16 told Scholz, who is in Astana as part of his historic trip to Central Asia.

"A further escalation of war will lead to irreparable consequences for the whole of humanity and above all for the countries involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," Toqaev added.

Scholz disagreed with Toqaev's suggestion, saying Berlin was providing support to Kyiv because Russia had invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked attack in February 2022.

"That is the case and will remain so, so that the country can defend itself and protect its integrity and sovereignty," he said, adding that Russia was "continuing to attack Ukraine with great aggression."

"And that is why this is something that must never be ignored in everything we discuss. It is Russia that has not only started the war but is continuing it and could contribute to ending it at any time by stopping its aggression."

In June, more than 90 countries met for a first peace conference hosted by Switzerland, although Russia was not invited and Russian ally China declined to attend.

Ukraine has put forward a peace proposal that would demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory. Other countries, including China and Brazil, have pressed for deals that would allow the Kremlin to hold on to some captured Ukrainian lands -- something flatly rejected by Kyiv.

Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of some 20 million people, has long been a close ally of Russia, although the government has expressed some concerns about the Kremlin's claims to Ukrainian territory and has tried to maintain good relations with the West.

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"Since the war in Ukraine began, Central Asia has had a chance to reinvent itself in a comfortable geopolitical space," Luca Anceschi, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, told RFE/RL last month.

"They are trying to say that they are not on Russia's side in Ukraine, like Belarus is, but they are not with Ukraine, either. They have ties with the West, but are not pro-Western," Anceschi said.

Germany has provided Ukraine with financial backing but has shown resistance to supplying Kyiv with heavy armaments, including tanks.

Scholz's three-day trip started in Uzbekistan on September 15 with the signing of a migration deal and is continuing in Kazakhstan on September 16-17 for the second meeting of the Central Asia-plus-Germany format that was launched a year ago in Berlin.

International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Scholz to promote human rights when he "makes history" this week as the first German chancellor to attend a summit in Central Asia with all five of that post-Soviet region's presidents.

"The German government cannot pretend closer ties with Central Asia are possible without a significant improvement in human rights in the region," HRW said. "The upcoming summit offers a chance to make this clear."

In its statement, HRW cited persistent rights issues across the region including the "suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections."

HRW last month demanded that Kazakhstan stop limiting freedom of expression and end its persecution of comedians, citing the jailing of 31-year-old stand-up comic Aleksandr Merkul.

Germany has long been interested in boosting energy relations with Central Asia, but Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has further encouraged Germany and other European states to look elsewhere for energy and mineral imports.

This week's summit with the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek heads of state is expected to focus heavily on energy along with broader economic and development talks.

Kazakhstan, the largest and wealthiest of the five, has been accused of failing to adequately ensure compliance with sanctions on Russia.

But energy cooperation has been on the rise with Kazakhstan.

Crude oil from Kazakhstan began flowing last year through the 4,000-kilometer Druzhba pipeline from Russia's southern Tatarstan region through Belarus and Poland to Germany, as part of a pivot to make up for lower supplies of Russian oil.

Toqaev praised the meeting with the German chancellor and said it will help lift the countries' relations to a "new level."

"Our bilateral cooperation will be expanded in the spirit of a strategic partnership," he added.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

BELGRADE -- Belarusian journalist and political activist Andrey Hnyot (aka Andrew Gnyot) on September 16 submitted an appeal to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's office -- signed by more than 780 international and Serbian creators, artists, and intellectuals -- requesting that he not be extradited to Minsk and calling for his release.

Among the signatories were French actress Juliette Binoche, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, and Belarusian Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich.

Hnyot, speaking outside of the Serbian presidential building in Belgrade, said that if extradited to Belarus, he would face "torture" and "likely the death penalty."

"The regime is carrying out horrific repression against political dissidents, journalists, and activists, and it is worsening by the day. There is no justice left in Belarus," he added.

Hnyot was arrested at Belgrade's airport in late October 2023 on an Interpol warrant issued by Belarus, which has since been revoked. The critic of the Belarusian regime is accused of tax evasion by Minsk.

Since June, his detention has been replaced with house arrest, and he is awaiting Serbia's final decision on his extradition.

Hnyot announced he would also submit the appeal to other top Serbian officials in the coming days.

Several Serbian public figures who signed the appeal gathered in front of the presidency to show their support for Hnyot.

Writer Vladimir Arsenijevic told RFE/RL, "the fate of Andrey Hnyot concerns all of us."

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"We know the state of democracy in that country and the fate that awaits dissidents and those who oppose the regime. I believe it is shameful for our country to be involved in something like this," Arsenijevic said.

Film director Janko Baljak said that by signing the appeal with his colleagues, he aimed to make "a final cry against the threat to human freedoms" in Belarus and Serbia.

"I am here to support an unjustly imprisoned artist who has spent a year in a Kafkaesque nightmare, in which my country is partly complicit. As a citizen, I feel guilty," Baljak said.

On September 11, the Belgrade Court of Appeals annulled the Higher Court's decision to extradite Hnyot to Belarus and returned the case for reconsideration.

The Appeals Court explained that the objections raised in the appeal were valid, challenging the legality and correctness of the initial decision by the lower court.

In his first reaction to the decision, Hnyot said it was good news that he was not being extradited to Belarus for now but added that his status as a "prisoner" remained unchanged, as he is still under house arrest.

Numerous NGOs and activists have opposed Hnyot's extradition, pointing out that the regime of authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka is "one of the most brutal and repressive in the world."

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.

They say that political prisoners in Belarus face long sentences in harsh conditions, with some having died in custody.

Hnyot has called the Belarusian charges against him by "false," describing them as part of a "systemic mechanism of persecution" of political opponents by the Minsk regime.

He was one of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who participated in mass protests of 2020, contesting Lukashenka's victory in the presidential election.

Hnyot is also the founder of the Free Association of Athletes (SOS BY), which is considered an extremist organization in Belarus.

In an open letter signed by more than 2,000 Belarusian athletes and sports representatives, the organization demanded the annulment of the 2020 election results, Lukashenka's resignation, and freedom for all those arrested during postelection demonstrations.

Western countries do not recognize the results of the elections, and the European Union has imposed sanctions on Minsk for the repression of demonstrators.

Lukashenka, in power for 30 years, is accused of severe repression of political opponents.

More than 1,500 political prisoners are currently held in Belarusian prisons, including journalists, human rights activists, and politicians, according to rights groups.

Between 200,000 and 500,000 Belarusians have fled their homeland following the crackdown on protests since 2020.

The Swiss-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group on September 16 said it has been forced to close its operations in Russia. "It is with a heavy heart that we have to close our activities in Russia," said the head of the group's Russia program. "Our organization's work is guided by the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality, and medical ethics. We provide assistance based on the needs." MSF has been in Russia since 1992 but said it received notice in August from the Justice Ministry that its office was removed from the register of nongovernmental organizations. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

In a September 16 call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed the "importance of a durable and dignified peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. He added that Blinken welcomed recent progress between the bitter rivals -- including agreement on a border-delimitation regulation that has angered some Armenian opposition figures. Blinken and Aliyev also discussed areas for regional and bilateral cooperation, including the importance of Azerbaijan’s "adherence to international human rights obligations and commitments," the U.S. spokesman added.