One person was killed and around 10 -- including three police officers -- were wounded in a shoot-out near the office of Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, on September 18.

The Wildberries' press service claimed Vladislav Bakalchuk, the husband of the retailer's founder and CEO, Tatyana Bakalchuk, and several other men tried to "illegally break into the offices." It added that others tried to take over a different Wildberries office in Moscow at the same time.

Vladislav Bakalchuk called the shoot-out "a large-scale provocation," claiming that he arrived in the Wildberries' office for what he called "another stage of negotiations" related to suspending the construction of new storage buildings for the company.

The couple are currently in the process of a divorce.

"I arrived in the office along with my colleagues, but right at the entrance, I was attacked by security officers and unknown individuals, who provoked an armed conflict," Vladislav Bakalchuk said.

Meanwhile, Tatyana Bakalchuk said on Telegram that a group led by her husband and two others, whom she identified as Sergei Anufriyev and Vladimir Bakin, attempted to seize Wildberries' offices in the Russian capital.

"The statement of some sort of negotiations, to which an armed group arrived, sounds absurd, because nobody had agreed on any negotiations," Tatyana Bakalchuk wrote on Telegram.

"I publicly urge law enforcement structures to take the situation under control."

According to Tatyana Bakalchuk, three people were wounded in the shoot-out.

The Shot Telegram channel says seven people, three of whom are police officers, were wounded.

The Ostorozhno, Moskva Telegram channel reported that 10 people allegedly involved in the standoff -- some of whom might be ethnic Chechens -- were detained at the site.

The RIA Novosti news agency quoted law enforcement officials as saying that around 30 people were detained and brought to police for questioning after the incident.

Tatyana Bakalchuk, 48, is the richest woman in Russia.

She filed for divorce after her husband asked the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for help in a conflict with his wife in July this year, claiming plans plans to merge Wildberries with Russ Group, an out-of-home advertising operator, were harmful for the company and amounted to a hostile takeover.

Tatyana Bakalchuk was the sole owner of her empire until December 2019, when she transferred 1 percent of her business to her husband.

She is believed to have ties to powerful political figures in the Russian government, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his first deputy, Denis Manturov.

With reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti

BUDAPEST -- A Budapest-based company alleged to have made the pagers used in the deadly attack on Hizballah in Lebanon appears to have only one employee working from an empty office that offers a range of services but not pager manufacturing.

At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by members of Hizballah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17.

One official from Hizballah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East, called the attack the group's "biggest security breach" in its history.

Images of destroyed pagers indicated they were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company.

Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that Gold Apollo named in a statement as BAC Consulting KFT.

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The statement added that according to a cooperation agreement, BAC is authorized to "use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC."

"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Hsu told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on September 18.

However, the head of the Budapest-based company BAC Consulting KFT later told NBC News that her company did not make the pagers.

"I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," a person who identified themselves as Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told the U.S. broadcaster.

According to RFE/RL's Hungarian Service, Barsony-Arcidacono, 49, has an apartment in Ujpest, a central district of Budapest, and had been engaged in business activities there since 2021.

Efforts to contact Barsony-Arcidiancono by RFE/RL were unsuccessful. The Hungarian Interior Ministry did not response to queries from RFE/RL on whether authorities planned to open a probe on the matter.

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The stated address for BAC Consulting in Budapest is a peach-colored building on a mostly residential street in an outer suburb.

A person at the building who asked not to be named told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service he had never met any employees from BAC Consulting and only mail was forwarded to that address once a month.

The official register described the company as a "leadership consulting" business that was established in 2022.

The company's LinkedIn page boasts of having "over a decade of consulting experience."

"With over a decade of consulting experience, we are on an exciting and rewarding journey with our network of passionate experts with a hunger for innovation and discovery for the Environment, Innovation & Development, and International Affairs. We work internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants who put their knowledge, experience, and humanity into our projects in a connecting and authentic journey," it reads.

Besides consulting, its registered business activities also included everything from broadcast equipment production to hairdressing and even oil extraction. The company's website makes no reference to pager manufacturing. Revenue for 2022 was the equivalent of $700,000, with that figure dipping to a reported $565,000.

Barsony-Arcidiacono is listed as the CEO and sole employee of BAC Consulting KFT. On her LinkedIn page profile, she claims to have worked as an adviser for several organizations, including the European Commission, the EU’s top executive body, and UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization.

Under education, she lists the London School of Economics and the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University in London.

The Supreme Court of Belarus on September 18 rejected an appeal filed by self-exiled rights defender Leanid Sudalenka against a five-year prison term he was handed in absentia in June on a charge of participating in extremist activities. Sudalenka fled Belarus in July 2023 after serving more than 2 1/2 years in prison for taking part in activities that "disrupted social order." The charge stemmed from Sudalenka's participation in mass protests in the summer of 2020 against the results of a presidential election that pronounced authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner. The opposition and many Western governments say the vote was rigged. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.

Armenia's Investigative Committee said on September 18 three suspects, allegedly trained in Russia, had been arrested for planning an armed coup with four more still at large. The statement said five of the suspects are Armenian citizens, while two are former residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The identities of the suspects were not disclosed. According to the committee, the suspects and other individuals recruited an unspecified number of Armenian nationals and former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and transported them to Russia, where they underwent military training with the aim of overthrowing the Armenian government. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, click here.

Telegram channels in Russia's Tatarstan quoted the wife of prominent veteran activist Zinnur Agliullin as saying that her 73-year-old husband had been detained for questioning after police searched their home on September 18. Almira Agliullina added that a police officer told her husband that a case had been launched against him on a charge of propagating extremism. Agliullin, who years ago used to lead the All-Tatar Public Center (TIU), once a leading nongovernmental organization involved in promoting and protecting Tatar history, culture, and language, was released after questioning. In 2022, the TIU was labeled an extremist group and banned in Russia. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, click here.

BISHKEK -- A court in Bishkek announced on September 18 that a relative of President Sadyr Japarov who is suspected of fraud had been transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest.

According to the court's press service, Ulan Japarov, who is a son of President Sadyr Japarov's cousin, Rakymjan Japarov, was transferred to house arrest on August 24.

The same court ruled in July to send Ulan Japarov to pretrial detention for at least two months.

Local media has reported that Ulan Japarov is suspected of obtaining a significant amount of cash from a person in exchange for securing an official post for him, which in the end never happened.

Japarov was initially arrested in July 2023 on corruption charges.

Presidential spokesman Erbol Sultanbaev said at the time that Ulan Japarov was suspected of involvement in corruption linked to the Customs Service.

In October 2023, the Birinchi Mai district court transferred Japarov to house arrest.

In July this year, media reports in the Central Asian country said a brother-in-law of the chief of the State Committee for National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, was arrested on a fraud charge.

The reports gave the man's initials as A.T.O.

Sources close to the UKMK leadership confirmed to RFE/RL that a man with those initials was arrested but did not give any further details.

Neither the authorities nor Tashiev have commented on the reports.

The Birinchi Mai district court told RFE/RL at the time that its judge sent A.T.O. to pretrial detention for at least two months. The court neither elaborated on the case nor confirmed if the suspect was related to Tashiev.

Also in July, the Birinchi Mai district court said the boyfriend of President Japarov's niece had been arrested on a charge of producing illegal drugs.

Aftandil Sabyrbekov, the boyfriend of Lazzat Nurgojoeva, who is a daughter of President Japarov's younger brother, Davletbek, was arrested days after a video showing him proposing to Nurgojoeva in a lavish ceremony circulated on the Internet, sparking a public outcry.

Mikhail Afanasyev, the imprisoned editor in chief of the Novy fokus (New Focus) online newspaper covering the Siberian region of Khakassia, has been given a 2024 Free Media Award for journalistic bravery. The chief of the Center for Media Rights, Galina Arapova, accepted the award on Afanasyev's behalf at a ceremony in Oslo on September 17. Afanasyev was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on a charge of discrediting Russia's armed forces after reporting about the refusal of local riot police officers to participate in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

The European Union's top diplomat has called on Georgia to scrap legislation approved by lawmakers that curbs LGBT rights and allows for bans on cultural events such as Pride marches.

The so-called Family Values bill was pushed through parliament by the ruling Georgian Dream party on September 17. Opposition members boycotted the vote and protesters rallied against it outside parliament, underscoring the dramatically polarized political landscape in the Caucasus nation ahead of national elections in October.

"The Georgian Parliament adopted laws on 'family values and protection of minors’ which will undermine the fundamental rights of the people and increase discrimination & stigmatization,"Josep Borrell, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, wrote in a post on X on September 18.

"I call on Georgia to withdraw this legislation, further derailing the country from its EU path."

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.

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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 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 have 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.

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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.

Ukraine's unified heavyweight world boxing champion, Oleksandr Usyk, has been released at the Krakow airport in Poland after being detained late on September 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram. A video appeared on social media showing Usyk in handcuffs at the airport. It remains unclear why the world champion was detained. He described on Instagram his brief detention as "a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved." The WBC, WBO, and WBA champion, who also won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, is considered a national hero in Ukraine. Usyk has publicly supported Ukraine's efforts to stand against Russia's ongoing attack of his homeland.

A suspected Ukrainian strike reportedly involving more than 100 drones rocked Russia's Tver region after an arms depot was hit and set off a string of violent explosions and caused a fire 6 kilometers wide.

Emergency services launched a partial evacuation of local residents on September 18 hours after the overnight strike that appeared to target Toropets, a town about 400 kilometers west of Moscow that hosts two Russian military units and an arms depot.

The Astra Telegram channel and other social media published videos that showed massive explosions and flames erupting into the night sky near the town of Toropets, located in the west of the Tver region. Other footage posted on social media showed rows of apartment buildings in the town with windows blown out from blast waves.

Footage later posted on social media showed large plumes of smoke rising from the scene and rows of apartment buildings in Toropets with windows blown out from blast waves.

Satellite imagery from NASA showed multiple heat sources from the location and earthquake monitoring stations picked up seismic waves equal to a minor earthquake.

Tver regional Governor Igor Rudenya was quoted by the local government as saying in the afternoon that no deaths or serious injuries had been reported as a result of the incident, which he earlier said was caused when debris from a downed drone sparked a fire. He also said evacuated residents were being allowed to return home and all public services and infrastructure were operational.

"The air-defense system worked, the UAVs were shot down, and a fire occurred when they fell," Rudenya wrote on Telegram around 3:30 a.m. local time, without saying what was burning. Rudenya said Russian air defenses were working to repel a "massive drone attack."

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.

Reports indicated that the town is home to two Russian military units, one of which has been targeted by drone strikes twice in the past six months. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported in 2018 that an arms depot was being constructed in Toropets, which has a population of around 11,000 people.

While Kyiv has not officially commented on the incident, a source in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on condition of anonymity that the SBU in cooperation with Ukraine's Intelligence and Special Operations Force launched the attack and "wiped the depot off the face of the Earth." The source said the depot stored Iskander and Tochka-U tactical missile systems, antiaircraft missiles, and artillery ammunition.

"The SBU, together with its counterparts from the Defense Forces, continues to methodically reduce the enemy's missile potential, which it uses to destroy Ukrainian cities," the source said.

Other reports cited Ukrainian intelligence sources saying the arms depot held significant stocks of ballistic missiles obtained by Russia from North Korea as well as glide bombs, and that an area 6 kilometers wide was engulfed in flames.

Russian state media reported early in the morning that kindergartens and schools were temporarily closed in the Zapadnodvinsk district, which borders the Toropetsk district in the Tver region, without indicating why.

Residents of the village of Tsikarevo, which is located along a lake to the east of Toropets and only 200 meters from the arms depot, were initially experiencing difficulties being evacuated and were awaiting help. RFE/RL's North Realities reported that locals had written on local chat groups that safe access was only possible by boat and that "there was nothing left of the village."

One local wrote that people were stranded on the water waiting for help, and described seeing minor damage to homes in neighboring villages. Another, however, said that he had become "homeless."

Russia's Defense Ministry has not specifically commented on the incident, saying only that 54 Ukrainian drones had targeted five western Russian regions overnight and that all of the drones had been destroyed.

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The Defense Ministry, without mentioning the Tver region, said half the drones had been shot down over the Kursk region, where Russian forces have launched a counterattack to push out Ukrainian forces that entered the region and took control of large swaths of Russian territory in a surprise incursion in August.

The rest of the drones, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, were shot down over the Bryansk, Smolensk, Oryol, and Belgorod regions.

Regional authorities in the western Smolensk region bordering Belarus and in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine also said drones had been shot down.

Kyiv has previously said its strikes against Russia are intended to hit military, energy, and transportation infrastructure that are key to Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, Russian drone and missile strikes targeted energy facilities in the northeastern city of Sumy. One person was killed in Kropyvnytskiy, the capital of the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine.

WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers promised to continue fighting for the freedom of Russian and Belarusian political prisoners as they welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza back to the U.S. Capitol.

Kara-Murza, whose work with Congress was instrumental in passing the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which sets out sanctions for human rights violators in Russia, was among 16 political prisoners released by the Kremlin last month in exchange for eight Russians held in the West for crimes including murder, cybertheft, and espionage.

The 43-year old Kara-Murza, who was sentenced last year to a quarter-century in prison for his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine, told a packed room at the Senate building in Washington on September 17 that there were many more political prisoners than the 1,300 indicated in public data and vowed to work with U.S. lawmakers to secure their freedom.

"There are so so many people in Russian prisons today who are there for the only reason that they have opposed, publicly opposed, Putin's murderous war on aggression. It's the fastest-growing segment of Russian prisoners," he said. "Now that I have been saved, I think about all those who have been left behind."

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Kara-Murza highlighted the case of Yury Kokhovets, who was sentenced a day earlier by a Moscow court to five years in prison for anti-war comments he made to RFE/RL's Russian Service in July 2022.

U.S. officials and lawmakers who worked to free Kara-Murza were present at the reception and said they will continue to use administrative tools to fight for those left behind in Russian prisons.

"We're not going to stop working on behalf of those who are detained unjustly, and we're not going to forget the purpose of this cause," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said. "We have a lot of tools to and we will use them. We will continue to pursue their freedom as we work."

Senator Roger Wicker (Republican-Mississippi) told the audience that he just had a call to discuss plans to punish Russia further for its actions though he did not give any details.

Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, called Kara-Murza's return to Capitol Hill a "day of celebration," but said the United States "must never forget" the other political prisoners left behind in Russia.

"There is a lot more that we need to do," he said.

Senator Jean Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire) said the United States must work to free Belarusian political prisoners as well.

Kara-Murza said putting a public spotlight on the political prisoners abroad was more than just talk.

"Whatever the cynics and the skeptics will tell you, advocacy works and public attention protects and public attention saves," he said.

Quarter-Century

Kara-Murza, a close associate of assassinated Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, worked with members of Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which gave the executive branch the right to place sanctions on Russian officials for human rights abuses and corruption.

Putin fought hard to overturn the law, which U.S. presidents have used to target people close to the Kremlin.

Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 shortly after returning to Russia from a trip to the United States and Europe, where he spoke out against the invasion.

Putin had weeks earlier outlawed criticism of the war and the Russian armed forces. Russian police and security services were quick to act on it, arresting people for social media posts and public acts.

In explaining his decision at the time to return, Kara-Murza said he was a Russian politician and had to be in his country to be politically relevant.

Representative Steve Cohen (Democrat-Tennesse), who was among the lawmakers actively pushing for his release, told Kara-Murza: "You have been to hell and back. Don't go again."

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has dismissed as "unconscionable" demands made last week by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for the return of local Serbs to Kosovar institutions.

Kurti, responding to Vucic's demands for the first time, also said on September 17 that they were part of an "aggressive campaign for new conflicts."

The response came as senior representatives from Serbia and Kosovo gathered in Brussels 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 -- met separately with EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak, but he was unable to bring the parties together for a trilateral meeting.

Lajcak said he would continue to be available to the parties "and we will continue in the coming weeks." Bislimi and Petkovic blamed each other for the failure of the sides to agree to a three-way meeting.

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.

Among the demands Vucic laid out last week are new local elections in the north, the return of Serbs to the Kosovo Police force and judiciary, and the withdrawal of Kosovo Police special units from the northern region. He said it was his intention to boost Belgrade's support for Serbs in Kosovo "significantly and dramatically."

"His demands, his measures, are out of desperation and represent irrationality and are not peaceful at all, but rather part of the aggressive campaign for new conflicts that undoubtedly have no place in Kosovo," Kurti said in his response.

Vucic said his demands must be met in order to make progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

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.

The demands were welcomed by the European Union as a positive move.

Tensions have been high in Kosovo since Pristina shut down several Serbian-backed parallel institutions at the end of August. Pristina calls the so-called "parallel" institutions backed by Belgrade "illegal."

Kurti said his own demands were "peaceful and rational" compared to those of the Serbian leader.

First among them are that Serbia hand over Milan Radoicic, who is wanted in Kosovo in connection with an armed attack in Banjska last year. Radoicic, the fugitive former vice president of the Serbian List party accused of leading and organizing the attack, is believed to be in Serbia.

Kosovar authorities last week 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.

Kurti also said Kosovo wants an agreement on normalization of relations to be signed and it also wants the withdrawal of a letter from former Prime Minister Ana Brnabic rejecting Kosovo's independence and a seat for Kosovo at the United Nations.

Lajcak said Serbia had already withdrawn the letter, but Vucic neither confirmed nor denied this when he was asked about it last week.

Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating normalization since 2011 through the Brussels dialogue, supervised by the EU. They reached an agreement on normalization steps in early 2023, but key elements of the deal remain unfulfilled. Kosovo insists that this agreement must be signed first, although the EU says it is binding on the parties regardless of signature.

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 Serb minority.

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.

An EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) patrol in Georgia was temporarily detained on September 17 near the boundary with the breakaway region of Abkhazia, the mission said in a statement. EUMM said the patrol was held up by "security actors" while conducting a routine patrol near the disputed boundary between Georgia and Abkhazia in the Khurcha area. The monitors were later released unharmed. The patrol was detained by representatives of the Russian occupation forces in the occupied territory near Khurcha, RFE/RL reported, citing the State Security Service, which controls the area on the Georgian side. The EUMM expressed "deep concern about any actions that prevent its monitors from carrying out their mandated activities." The EUMM was established after the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia to monitor the boundary. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Georgian Service, click here.

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 nine 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.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression," while Hizballah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.

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 called it 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.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement that she deplored the attack, warning that it "marked an extremely concerning escalation."

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.

The United States was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the explosions, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

The blasts came after weeks of private diplomacy by the United States to discourage Iran from retaliating against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, in Tehran.

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.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed Middle East tensions with Gallant on September 17, the Pentagon announced.

"Secretary Austin spoke by phone today with his Israeli counterpart to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

Ryder declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.

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."

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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.