The United States and key European allies have accused Iran of a dangerous escalation in a pattern of malign activity that threatens European security with the alleged supply of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, officially accused Iran of the missile transfers, and Blinken announced new sanctions against Tehran.

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Blinken also accused Moscow of sharing technology that Tehran is seeking, including nuclear technology.

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

Germany's Foreign Ministry then called out Iran for its support of Russia's "war of aggression," noting that Iranian missiles could as a result be striking European soil.

It shared a joint German, French, and British statement condemning the transfers and saying "This act is an escalation by both Iran and Russia, and is a direct threat to European security."

Tehran on September 9 flatly denied the accusation that it supplied such weapons to Russia.

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

The Wall Street Journal and other U.S. media have quoted anonymous sources asserting that the Iranian missiles have come at a crucial juncture in the 36-month-old full-scale invasion.

Support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion is one of the main agenda items during Blinken's London visit, which was to include a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Reiterating ongoing U.S. and U.K. support for Kyiv, Blinken and Lammy announced their plans to travel this week to Ukraine in what Lammy called "the first joint visit of this kind for well over a decade."

"This is a troubling action that we're seeing from Iran," Lammy said. "It is definitely a significant escalation and we are coordinating."

The Blinken-Lammy meeting came with the secretary of Iran's Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in Russia for a meeting later this week of BRICS country security officials.

Lammy said the United States and the United Kingdom are "completely aligned on the need to tackle Iran's malign activity in the region and beyond."

"We're seeing a disturbing pattern of greater Iranian support for the Kremlin's illegal group, and we discussed today our shared commitment to holding Tehran to account for their undermining of global stability," Lammy said.

Blinken said the alleged Iranian supply of short-range ballistic missiles gives Russia added capability and flexibility, and would free up Moscow to devote other resources to longer-range targets in the ongoing war on Ukraine.

He said new U.S. sanctions against Iran for defying warnings against the weapons supplies would be detailed later in the day and would include sanctions on Iran Air.

Germany then said it would also pursue designations of entities and individuals involved in Iran's ballistic-missile program and transfers of such missiles and other weapons to Russia, including Iran Air.

Blinken did not announce any shift in Washington's supply of military or other aid to Ukraine but vowed the United States would be "listening intently" to Kyiv's needs and requests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a number of NATO members have encouraged Kyiv's supporters to dramatically lift restrictions on how -- and where -- Ukrainian forces can use Western-supplied weapons in the conflict.

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The European Union on September 9 described as "credible" information provided by allies suggesting Iran has supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to help Moscow wage war in Ukraine and hinted at a "swift" response.

The statement came after the Kremlin declined to directly refute the accusation and instead highlighted its cooperation with Tehran in "the most sensitive areas" while Iran "strongly rejected" the allegation.

"We strongly reject the claims on Iran's role in exporting arms to one side of the war," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a press conference.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the United States was "incredibly alarmed by reports of the transfer of Iranian missiles to Russia."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Hungary's government on September 10 welcomed a deal reached by energy company MOL aimed at guaranteeing the supply of Russian oil through Ukraine after Kyiv restricted transit. In July, Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of endangering their energy security by barring Russian energy giant LUKoil from using the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline. But MOL announced on September 9 that it had reached a "sustainable solution" securing the transportation of oil to the two countries by concluding agreements with suppliers and pipeline operators. As part of the deal, MOL said it would "take over ownership of the affected volumes of crude oil at the Belarus-Ukraine border" from September 9. It added that the updated arrangements complies with EU sanctions.

A Kazakh activist has been fined for a YouTube clip questioning government plans for a nationwide referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Abzal Dostiyarov streamed the session of the Auezov district court in Almaty on September 10 at which he was found guilty of violating the law on public polling and ordered to pay a 55,350-tenge ($115) fine.

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

"I reject the charge. There were opinions of our subscribers compiled under our video. It was not a poll for all the citizens of the country, it was just feedback," Dostiyarov said. He alleged that the court's ruling was politically motivated.

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

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

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Amid Government Push, Russia Looms Large Over Kazakh Nuclear Power Debate

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

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

Hours before his decree was made public on September 2, President Toqaev reiterated his support for the plant's construction.

There has been no official information about a proposed site, but a public debate was held last year in the village of Ulken on the shore of Lake Balkhash, in the southeastern region of Almaty, on the possibility of constructing a nuclear power station there.

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

Kazakh officials avoided answers, saying the decision would be made after a referendum.

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

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

On September 3, the chairwoman of Kazakhstan's Central Commission on Referendums, Sabila Mustafina, said 15.5 billion tenges ($32.5 million) has been requested to conduct the referendum.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on September 10 expressed hopes for a second peace summit that could dramatically increase the number of national countries from a similar gathering in Switzerland three months ago aimed at ending the current war with Russia.

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At his first press conference since a government shakeup last week, Shmyhal told journalists that he hoped the next peace summit could be organized by the end of the year and attract at least 150 countries.

In one of the most public pushes for a cease-fire since the two-and-a-half-year-old defense against a full-scale Russian invasion began in early 2022, Kyiv pressed for a Swiss summit in June where 80 countries called for the territorial integrity of Ukraine to be the foundation of any eventual peace deal.

Russian officials, whom Kyiv has accused of being unprepared and unserious about possible peace talks, were not invited to that gathering.

China, which has backed Russia diplomatically since its "no limits" partnership with Moscow was inked in the weeks before Russian troops rolled en masse into Ukraine, declined to attend.

Before the Swiss event, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued harsh terms for a cease-fire that included the full handover of four regions Russia claimed to annex in 2022.

Russian invasion forces are said to control about one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula occupied and annexed in 2014. It has repeatedly organized internationally unrecognized elections in occupied parts of Ukraine, including last weekend.

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Ukraine has claimed control of around 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since a surprise incursion into Russia's southern Kursk region was launched in early August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that "we don't need their land" but that the incursion allows for potential bargaining chips in the form of captured land and troops.

Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against reports of international pressure that might encourage Kyiv to give up hope of regaining control of all its territory in exchange for peace.

Russian media on September 10 quoted former Russian Defense Minister and current Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu as saying the Kursk attack was intended to distract Moscow from its goals in eastern Ukraine. But, he said, Russian forces are continuing their offensive.

At the press conference in Kyiv, Shmyhal said Ukraine significantly boosted its weapons production on the previous year and hoped to produce 1 million drones -- a critical tool to resist larger Russian forces -- by the end of the year.

"In the first eight months of 2024, we have doubled our weapons production compared to 2023. We are making progress. Drone production continues to grow," he was quoted as saying.

Shmyhal also touted the relative success of the Ukrainian economy in the form of 3.7 percent growth in the second quarter and modest inflation.

He claimed that Ukrainian exports were nearing prewar levels.

But Shmyhal acknowledged that talks with the monitoring mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were "difficult" and rife with challenges.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

A Russian saxophonist known for his anti-war stance has been transferred from a detention center to a prison infirmary in Samara after reports of an extension of his pretrial detention exposed a serious medical condition. During the hearing on August 28, Andrei Shabanov, who suffers from autoimmune diseases and a serious spinal condition, accused the judge of ignoring his health. He removed his shirt, revealing severe lesions all over his body. Shabanov was arrested in April and charged with making online calls for terrorism, which he and his supporters deny. The charge stems from Shabanov's online posts condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities, click here.

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said on September 10 that no one will simply take Anglo-American multinational Rio Tinto "at its word" and the state will instead seek documented guarantees ahead of work on a recently revived -- and fiercely contentious -- plan to create Europe's biggest lithium mine in that Balkan country.

Vucevic's comments followed a weekend meeting with citizens by Rio Tinto representatives and President Aleksandar Vucic, who has been one of the multibillion-dollar Jadar project's most vocal supporters since a memorandum of understanding was inked between Rio Tinto and the Serbian government in 2017.

Vucevic, who became prime minister in early May, said the Serbian state won't allow lithium mining without guarantees that water and public health will be protected.

"For the first three or four hours, people asked questions," Vucevic said of the weekend forum. "For the first time, we heard Rio Tinto's answers. We faced arguments. The situation is much clearer and better when there is communication."

Vucevic said the Serbian public still hadn't gotten answers to many questions. "If we preserve nature and people, only then can we think about the economic benefit," he said.

The project's permits were revoked by a previous government in 2022 under intense public pressure over land sales and environmental concerns from the mine, before a Constitutional Court decision reversed the stoppage in July and the government quickly revived its preparations.

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Protests Flare Up In Serbian Towns Over Reversal On Huge Lithium Mine

Public anger in the heavily polluted former Yugoslav republic re-erupted and significant protests have continued despite what demonstrators complain is a refusal by Serbian state television to adequately cover the outcry.

Rio Tinto, which has faced backlash over alleged failures at other projects around the world, says Jadar could provide nearly 60,000 tons of lithium a year and thus meet about one-fifth of the needs for Europe's electric-vehicle production.

The company has previously told RFE/RL's Balkan Service that "domestic and international experts have confirmed that the 'Jadar' project can be implemented safely and in accordance with the highest standards of environmental protection."

In a notable indication of support for a project seen as furthering the bloc's climate and energy-independence goals, German and EU officials traveled to Belgrade in conjunction with a memorandum of understanding on "a strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials, battery value chains, and electric vehicles."

Lithium is used in batteries for electric cars, smartphones, and laptops.

The European Union mostly depends on China for its lithium, which it classifies as a critical raw material.

Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic last week lamented that "we have already lost two years -- we could have been first in this race," but said it could take another two years for Rio Tinto to secure the proper permits for construction of the mine.

She said an environmental impact study was essential to any further progress.

A local court in the Moscow region on September 9 sentenced an engineer at a military factory in the city of Dubna to three years in prison for writing pro-Ukrainian messages on key chains. The court found Sergei Krasyuk guilty of discrediting the Russian military by writing "Glory to Ukraine," "Ukraine Will Prevail," and "Putin is a Thief" on key chains used for mobile-phone storage boxes. The OVD-Info group, which monitors arrests and trials of anti-war activists, says at least 1,033 probes have been launched against individuals thought to have publicly condemned the war against Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A court of appeals in St. Petersburg on September 9 rejected an appeal filed by physicist Anatoly Maslov against the 14-year prison sentence he was handed in May on a high treason charge. The 77-year-old expert in the field of fluid gas was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of passing classified information to a foreign country. Maslov rejects the charge. At least 12 scientists have been arrested in Russia on treason charges since 2018, mostly for activities considered a normal part of scientific work, such as publishing papers internationally, collaborating with colleagues from other countries, and attending international conferences. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin accused an unnamed Russian Air Force commander of ordering a devastating air strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv in July, during a September 10 visit to the scene of the tragedy alongside the International Criminal Court's (ICC) visiting top prosecutor.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan told journalists near the heavily damaged Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital that a Kh-101 cruise missile appeared to have been identified as the projectile in the attack.

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But Khan stopped short of assigning culpability for the bombing, which killed dozens of people and shocked the international community despite two years of scenes of suffering and death from Russia's grinding 2-year-old invasion.

Khan is in Ukraine to bolster his intergovernmental court's pursuit of justice for alleged Russian war crimes that have produced international warrants for senior Russian leaders all the way up to President Vladimir Putin.

Kostin hinted at the identity of the Russian commander that Kyiv believes ordered the bombardment that struck Okhmatdyt only by saying the ICC had already issued an international arrest warrant for the suspect.

The ICC agreed in March to Khan's request for warrants over unspecified energy and other attacks against Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash, whom it identified as "a lieutenant general in the Russian armed forces who at the relevant time was commander of the long-range aviation of the Aerospace Force," and Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov, "an admiral in the Russian Navy, who at the relevant time was commander of the Black Sea Fleet."

"We are continuing the investigation to find other people responsible for the strike on Okhmatdyt," Kostin said on September 10.

Kostin added that the Kh-101 cruise missile that struck Okhmatdyt had been fired from a Russian bomber.

Khan has homed in on possible war crimes since early in the full-scale invasion, announcing an investigation in March 2022 of potential crimes spanning back beyond Russia's covert invasion of Ukraine in early 2014.

He and other ICC officials have made multiple visits to Ukraine since February 2022.

In February 2023, Khan launched criminal warrants for Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia from occupied areas of Ukraine.

The ICC has since issued the Kobylash and Sokolov warrants for actions that it said constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Russia has denied targeting civilians despite near-constant attacks on Ukrainian population centers.

Moscow is not a party to the 1998 Rome Statute that established the ICC and has accused the court of being a "puppet body" serving narrow Western interests.

Ukraine is also not among the 120-plus Rome Statute signatories, but Kyiv has accepted ICC jurisdiction in past cases on its territory.

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Other targets of ICC warrants include Israel's leadership and current and former leaders of Hamas, the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization whose incursion from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on October 7 killed at least 1,200 people, many of them civilians, sparking a yearlong Israeli military response that has devastated Gaza and its residents, and threatened a broader conflict.

In addition to pursuing senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes, Khan has sought warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yaov Gallant over the Israeli military response in the Gaza Strip where 2 million Palestinians resided.

Armenia became the 124th state party to the Rome Statute in February, months after archfoe Azerbaijan's lightning offensive forced the capitulation of ethnic Armenian forces who had controlled the internationally recognized Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades.

The Azerbaijani takeover prompted some 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the region and elicited accusations in Yerevan of war crimes.

With reporting by Reuters

Ukrainian officials said on September 10 that a widespread Russian drone-and-missile attack had targeted Kyiv and critical infrastructure in Ukraine's northeast in addition to other regions, while Russian officials said an overnight swarm of attack drones from Ukraine killed a woman near the capital and grounded flights at three Moscow airports.

Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said a 46-year-old woman was killed and four others injured in the town of Ramenskoye when drones struck multistory buildings in the Moscow region.

Dozens of residents were evacuated from a heavily damaged apartment block, officials said.

• RFE/RL
• Kurt Vinion
• AP
• Reuters

On September 10, Ukraine launched its largest drone strike yet on the Moscow region, killing one woman, damaging dozens of homes, and causing the diversion of nearly 50 flights from Moscow-area airports. The attack represents a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict.

Local media quoted Russian defense sources as saying air defense units had destroyed 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions overnight.

Russia's national aviation authority Rosaviyatsiya said that following the drone attacks, flights had been suspended at three of Moscow's international airports -- Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, and Vnukovo -- for safety reasons.

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A few hours later the airports were said to be operating normally.

The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, said Russia attacked overnight with two missiles and at least 46 drones. It said it had shot down 38 of the drones.

The military administration in the Ukrainian capital said its air defenses had shot down all of the UAVs headed for Kyiv after an air alert that began around 4 a.m. local time and lasted about two hours.

Kyiv officials said there had been no damage in the city.

In Ukraine's northwestern Sumy region, the military administration said Russian forces had attacked critical infrastructure facilities but said air defenses had blunted the attack.

RFE/RL could not immediately verify the claims by either side.

A major feature of Moscow's offensive since the early months of its 36-month-old full-scale invasion, Russian missile and rocket attacks on population centers and power and other infrastructure throughout the country have been increasingly countered with cross-border drone attacks by Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin on September 9 discussed the upcoming BRICS summit with Sergei Shoigu, formerly Russia's defense minister, who now serves as the secretary of the Security Council.

President Vladimir Putin invited Serbia to attend the BRICS summit, which is scheduled to be held on October 22-24 in the Russian city of Kazan.

Vulin, who was criticized for traveling to Russia last week and meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, met with Shoigu in Moscow after Putin invited Serbia to take part in a meeting in St. Petersburg of high security representatives of BRICS and partner countries organized by Russia's Security Council ahead of the summit.

BRICS unites Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and has expanded since its founding to include other major emerging economies including the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on September 5 that Serbia would have "important guests from abroad" during the BRICS summit in October and said he would not be able to attend. A day later he said he would decide by the middle of next month whether to accept Putin’s invitation.

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Vulin thanked Shoigu for the invitation to participate in the St. Petersburg meeting. He and Shoigu also discussed "a wide range of topics of common interest to Serbia and the Russian Federation," the Serbian government said in a statement.

One of the topics was the situation in Kosovo, which Vulin said at the meeting was "on the verge of conflict" and thanked Russia for respecting Serbia's territorial integrity. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, and Russia supports Belgrade's position.

The latest tensions involved border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo that were closed over the weekend after blockades on the Serbian side organized in response to decisions by the government of Kosovo to close parallel Serbian institutions in the north of the country. The border crossings reopened on September 7 after the activists took down their blockades.

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Kosovo Reopens Border Crossings After Serbian Activists End Blockades

Vulin told Putin during their September 4 meeting in Vladivostok that Serbia will "never become a NATO member, will never impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, and will never allow any anti-Russian actions to be carried out from its territory."

EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano responded by saying that maintaining or increasing ties with Russia amid its full-scale war in Ukraine “is not compatible with EU values and is not compatible with the EU accession process."

Police in Islamabad have launched a crackdown against the central leadership of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf party. Police conducted raids to carry out the arrest of various party leaders. Those arrested included the chairman of the party, Gohar Ali Khan, central leader and member of parliament Sher Afzal Marwat, and party General Secretary Omar Ayub. The arrests came a day after Khan's party held a rally near Islamabad to demand his release. Khan is the main rival of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Rally participants vowed to use force if Khan isn't released within two weeks. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023, and remains a popular figure despite a series of criminal cases against him.

Kazakhstan's Supreme Court on September 9 refused to hear an appeal filed by the leader of the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, Zhanbolat Mamai, against a parole-like six-year prison setence, citing "lack of reasons" for the appeal. Mamai was sentenced in April 2023, and a court of appeals in June upheld the ruling. Mamai, his supporters, and a rights group have insisted the case is politically motivated. The charges are related to the unprecedented mass protests in January 2022 that turned deadly. Mamai has been trying to register his party for years, but claims he is being prevented from doing so by the government. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

The Afghan Embassy in London is being shut down after its diplomats were dismissed by the country's Taliban rulers, Britain's Foreign Office said on September 9.

A Foreign Office statement e-mailed to RFE/RL said the embassy "is being closed following the dismissal of its staff by the Taliban." Britain does not recognize the Taliban-led government.

But the Afghan ambassador said the decision was made "based on the requirements of the host country's authorities." Zalmai Rassoul said on X that the embassy would shut its doors on September 27 "at the official request of the host country."

Neither the U.K. government nor the ambassador said what would happen to the embassy's staff, but a source at the Afghan Embassy who spoke with RFE/RL said the British government had given embassy staff 90 days to leave the country or apply for political asylum.

The source said the British Foreign Office also said that the embassy building would not be handed over to the Taliban and that the British government would not allow any Afghan political representation or consulate to operate until a recognized government was established in Afghanistan.

The Taliban-led government had asked the embassy staff to interact with the Foreign Office, but the embassy staff refused, and as a result, the embassy's services were declared invalid by the Taliban.

The news has worried Afghans living in Britain, who fear problems without the diplomatic services.

"After this, we Afghans will face many challenges because Afghans need to renew their passports, identity cards, and other documents," Sayed Shah Kharoti and Malik, two Afghans living in London, told RFE/RL.

Diplomats who served under Afghanistan's former Western-backed government were left in limbo when the Taliban seized Kabul and returned to power in August 2021. Many embassies in Europe and beyond have continued to operate.

In another indication that this could be changing, the Afghan Embassy in Oslo announced on September 9 that it will cease its activities as of September 12 and hand over the embassy building, which is the property of Afghanistan, to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

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Taliban Cuts Ties With 14 Afghan Diplomatic Missions Abroad

The Taliban administration announced in July that it no longer recognized diplomatic missions set up by the former Western-backed government and that documents issued by embassies in Britain and 13 other mostly European countries were invalid.

Many Taliban leaders are under sanctions, and no country officially recognizes them as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers, though some countries retain active diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, including Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, and China.

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Afghanistan has sent Taliban-approved diplomats to some of those countries, including Pakistan and China.

Britain and other Western countries are grappling with how to provide humanitarian aid Afghans without recognizing the Taliban-led government, which has dramatically curtailed education, employment, and personal freedom for women and girls.

With reporting by AP

A former salesman for a manufacturer of laser welding machines was arrested on September 9 on charges that he conspired to evade U.S. export-control laws in order to sell his company's products to a division of the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom. Sam Bhambhani was charged in an indictment with working with a Russian citizen who resold laser equipment to the Russian government. It alleges they used falsified export documents to conceal the true end-user of the machines from the U.S. government. The indictment was filed in federal court in Boston. The equipment was sold from 2015 to 2021 to a subsidiary of Rosatom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, that produced components for nuclear munitions and various civilian goods, according to the indictment. A lawyer for Bhambhani did not respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

Two more former convicts recruited by the Wagner mercenary group have been handed lengthy prison terms for murders in Siberia.

A court in the Siberian region of Khakassia on September 9 sentenced a former Wagner Group mercenary pulled from prison to fight in Ukraine to eight years in prison for shooting a man to death for questioning his parking.

Andrei Ashcheulov was serving an 18-year prison term for leading a criminal group when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2023.

He was pardoned after he returned from the war.

Also on September 9, a court in the Siberian region of Omsk sentenced another former inmate and Wagner recruit, Sergei Kozlov, who killed his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend in October 2023.

The Omsk regional court also ordered the 36-year-old Kozlov to pay 12 million rubles ($11,060) to his victim's family.

In 2021, Kozlov was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for attacking a woman and her daughter with an ax. In 2022, he was recruited by Wagner and went to fight in Ukraine.

A year ago, he returned from the war.

In a report in July, the Agentstvo Telegram channel said that as of October 4, 2023, 27 people had been killed in 20 incidents by former military personnel who returned home from the war in Ukraine.

According to Agentstvo, 12 of the registered deadly incidents involved former Wagner mercenaries.

Courts in Russia tend to hand mitigated sentences to such persons, citing their "patriotism" and "contributions" they made to Russia's war against Ukraine.

Wagner's late leader and founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in late June 2023 that 32,000 former inmates recruited by his group from prison had returned home after being granted clemency as part of their remuneration for fighting in Ukraine.

Azerbaijan considers as "acceptable" Kazakhstan's proposal to hold talks between Baku and Yerevan on a peace treaty in Astana, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during telephone talks with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, Aliyev's press service said on September 9. Earlier in May, the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers met in Astana to discuss the peace agreement. Last week, Aliyev said Azerbaijan and Armenia had agreed on about 80 percent of the treaty's text. Baku continues to insist it wants a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh's unification with Armenia removed from the Armenian Constitution. Azerbaijan retook control of the breakaway region in September 2023 following a lightning offensive.

Russian state media quoted sources in law enforcement over the weekend as saying that a probe was launched in absentia against rapper Morgenshtern (real name Alisher Valeyev) on a charge of failure to comply with Russia's "foreign agent" law. Morgenshtern is accused of not marking his online materials as "made by a foreign agent." Morgenshtern was added to the list of foreign agents in May 2022. If tried and convicted, Morgenshtern could face up to two years in prison. Morgenshtern fled Russia in November 2021 after Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin publicly accused him of selling illegal drugs. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

The Kremlin is currently "not interested" in granting an interview with President Vladimir Putin to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 9. "For there to be an interview with foreign media and some specific one, we need to have an occasion," Peskov said. Gershkovich was one of 16 people freed by Russia in August's landmark prisoner swap with the West. He requested an interview with Putin while filling out a form requesting a presidential pardon ahead of the prisoner exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported. Gershkovich spent more than 16 months in Russian detention on espionage charges that he, his employer, and the White House denounced as false.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk launched a four-week session of the UN's Human Rights Council with a call for global leadership to avert a "dystopian future," invoking urgent warnings about the treatment of women in Taliban-led Afghanistan and Ukrainians under near-constant Russian attack.

Midway through his four-year mandate as the UN's leading voice on human rights, Turk said the world was "at a fork in the road."

The world faces a choice between continuing into "a treacherous 'new normal'" that fosters "sleepwalk[ing] into a dystopian future" or "wak[ing] up and turn[ing] things around for the better, for humanity and the planet," he said.

Turk cited "endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically 'advanced' methods of warfare, control, and repression."

He also cited indifference to inequalities between and within countries, a disinformation "free-for-all," the twisting of national sovereignty "to shroud -- or excuse -- horrific violations," and the discrediting of multilateral institutions or trying to "rewrite the international rules."

Turk said human rights aren't in crisis, "but political leadership needed to make them a reality is."

"At their most extreme, for example in Afghanistan, despicable laws and policies are effectively erasing women from public life," Turk said in reference to the Taliban-led government that has led that country since a U.S.-led international coalition withdrew in mid-2021.

The Taliban seized power promising more moderate policies than when the hard-line fundamentalist group ruled the country some two decades earlier, but its leaders have since doubled down on the recreation of a totalitarian clerical regime, especially with regard to women, who have effectively been denied any public role in society.

Afghan women have been banned from working in many sectors and are barred from recreation and leisure activities such as visiting public parks and public baths, and also face severe restrictions on where and how they can appear in public.

Turk's concerns on Afghanistan were echoed in a warning ahead of the session by a Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement saying the UN Human Rights Council "should urgently create an independent body to pursue accountability for all those responsible for serious abuses -- past and present -- in Afghanistan."

HRW said the human rights and humanitarian reality there had "gravely spiraled downward" since August 2021.

Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said in his report ahead of the 57th session of the Human Rights Council that women and girls had been victim to ever-greater restrictions under the Taliban.

In his wide-ranging speech, Turk also talked about horrific conditions for millions of Ukrainians and a region of Russia recently occupied by Ukraine as Russia's full-scale invasion grinds through its third year.

"In Ukraine, civilians are trapped in cycles of terror, through ongoing attacks by the Russian Federation striking civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and supermarkets, and repeated waves of targeting of energy infrastructure leading to country-wide blackouts," Turk said. "I fear for Ukrainians this coming winter."

He also cited the "horrific" attacks in Israel by the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people and injured many more, and the subsequent deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces.

Polish security services have neutralized a sabotage operation orchestrated by Russia and Belarus that aimed to destabilize Poland, Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on September 9. Warsaw has repeatedly accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise Poland because of its role in supplying military aid to its neighbor Ukraine, allegations Russia has dismissed. Saboteurs, operating from Belarus in cooperation with Russia, penetrated local and central government institutions, including state-owned companies implementing military contracts, he said. "The Belarusian and Russian foreign services...had a specific goal: to extort information, to blackmail individuals and institutions, and to wage a de facto cyberwar," said Gawkowski, who is also minister for digital affairs. Gawkowski said cyberattacks have doubled since last year.

Hundreds of policemen in northwestern Pakistan were blocking the Indus Highway that links Peshawar with the port city of Karachi on September 9 to protest alleged interference by Pakistan's military and its intelligence agencies in their daily work.

Senior officials of the local administration in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province were engaged in talks with the protesting policemen to try to resolve the standoff.

Lakki Marwat is located on the periphery with the restive tribal region that borders Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters frequently target policemen and police stations.

The protesting policemen accused the intelligence agencies Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of interfering in their work.

Addressing the gathering, police officer Rashid Khan said the army should leave the district and let the police department work freely.

"We promise that we would restore peace in the area within three months" if the military officers stopped interference, he said.

Criticism of the Pakistani military and especially its powerful ISI have long been considered a red line by some elements in the country.

Fighting erupted again on September 9 between Taliban forces and Pakistani security forces in the Kurram-Khost border areas, with eyewitnesses saying the violence included heavy weaponry and one elder saying a Pakistani soldier had been killed, although that could not be confirmed.

The outbreak follows reports of intense clashes in the same border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan that caused multiple casualties over the weekend.

Locals on the Afghan side of the border told Radio Mashaal that the latest fighting started around 1 p.m. local time on September 9.

Residents were said to be fleeing the villages of Palotsa and Setwan in the Zazai Maidan district of Afghanistan's Khost Province.

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A local elder told Radio Mashaal that a Pakistani soldier had been killed but Radio Mashaal could not independently confirm that report.

Intermittent outbreaks of violence have heightened concerns about security in the region, with recent fighting sparked by an attempt to erect a security outpost on the Afghan side that Pakistani troops tried to stop.

Islamabad insists mutual agreements preclude the construction of new security posts by either side.

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has disputed Pakistani accusations that it is allowing gunmen linked to the outlawed Tehrik-e Taliban to shelter in the area and launch cross-border attacks in Pakistan.

The Taliban has moved reinforcement troops, artillery, and tanks to the area.

Radio Mashaal's Khost correspondent said the Taliban was preventing locals and journalists from sharing information with media or outsiders.

Six Pakistani police officers guarding a team of polio vaccination workers were injured when their police van struck a land mine in northwestern Pakistan early on September 9, an official told Radio Mashaal. Amin Wazir, deputy superintendent of police in Wana, a central town in the South Waziristan tribal district, told Radio Mashaal that nine people were injured in the blast. Pakistan launched a five-day anti-polio drive on September 9 aiming to vaccinate around 3 million children below the age of 5. Pakistan is one of two countries in the world where the deadly polio virus has not been eradicated. Polio teams were frequently targeted by insurgent groups in Afghanistan before the Taliban's takeover of the country in 2021, when the hard-line Islamist group said it wanted to work with the UN to stamp out the disease.

A court in the Russian city of Tomsk on September 9 sentenced the former governor of the Siberian Tomsk region, Dmitry Gurdin, to five years in prison on embezzlement charges. The Soviet district court also ordered the former official to pay a fine of 400,000 rubles ($4,425). Gurdin was found guilty of embezzling 79 million rubles ($873,780) allocated for construction projects in the region. The court also convicted Gurdin of using a forged document but did not sentence him on that charge, citing the statute of limitations. Gurdin's lawyers said the ruling will be appealed. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.