Watchdog

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has named former president of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbaeva as the UN's new special representative for Afghanistan.

Otunbaeva, 72, replaces Deborah Lyons, who stepped down in mid-June, the United Nations said in a statement on September 2. She assumes the job as the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have been drastically curtailed since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021.

Otunbaeva became interim president of Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 after a bloody uprising forced then-President Kurmanbek Bakiev into exile. She relinquished the presidency the following year after new elections were organized.

Otunbaeva also served as foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan and held several high-ranked diplomatic positions as her country’s ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Britain.

Currently, she is a member of the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation and the Head of the Roza Otunbaeva Initiative Foundation in Kyrgyzstan, the statement said.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Russian authorities has designated rock musician Andrei Makarevich and five others as “foreign agents,” accusing them of unspecified political activities while allegedly receiving funding from Ukraine.

Ivan Zhdanov, the former head of imprisoned Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was also on the list announced by the Kremlin on September 2.

Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Hordon and Russian colleague Katerina Gordeyeva, political scientist Fyodor Krasheninnikov, and Boris Zimin, the son of the founder of the Beeline telecommunications company and philanthropist Dmitry Zimin, were also added to the list, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia has used its so-called foreign agent laws for the past decade to label and punish critics of government policies.

Boris Zimin and his family's fund paid for Navalny's flight to Germany to seek treatment after suffering a poison attack in 2020.

Krasheninnikov, an outspoken Kremlin critic, in July said he had left Russia for Lithuania for the "foreseeable future" after coming under pressure from authorities for his work.

Makarevich is the founder of cult Soviet and Russian band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine).

Many of Makarevich’s concerts have been canceled across Russia since 2014 after he publicly criticized Moscow's role in Ukraine.

Zhdanov and other allies of Navalny allies have faced multiple criminal cases in the past three years, including over their alleged involvement in an “extremist group,” as the Kremlin clamped down on any dissent.

Earlier this year, Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, another Navalny ally, were placed on Russia's list of "extremists and terrorists."

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax