Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone on November 15, urging the Kremlin leader to end the war against Ukraine and negotiate with Kyiv for a "just and lasting peace," the chancellor's office said. It was the first time the German and Russian leaders have spoken since December 2022. Scholz expressed "unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression for as long as necessary," Berlin said. It also said Scholz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy before the Putin call and would speak again afterward. Reuters quoted a source as saying Scholz told Putin that the deployment of North Korean troops for combat missions is a significant escalation and expansion of the war.

U.S. technology giant Apple has notified RFE/RL that it has removed several of its apps following a request from Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor.

The RFE/RL apps removed were those of the Russian Service and its regional projects Siberia.Realities and North.Realities, as well as the apps for its Kyrgyz Service and Current Time, the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL.

Roskomnadzor notified Apple that the apps contain materials from an organization whose activities in Russia have been declared "undesirable."

The Russian Service's app is still available in Apple's App Store in other countries.

RFE/RL was placed on Russia's list of "undesirable organizations" in February. RFE/RL President Stephen Capus called the decision "yet another example of how the Russian government sees truthful reporting as an existential threat."

Besides RFE/RL's apps, Apple also removed or hid several Russian-language podcasts produced by independent journalists.

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The news outlet Mediazona reported on November 14 that new episodes from the online radio station Ekho Moskvy and investigative outlet The Insider were no longer accessible inside Russia. A BBC Russian Service podcast also appeared to be affected.

Older episodes dating back more than a week were available, Mediazona reported, and users outside of Russia could still access all episodes.

In recent years, Russian authorities have accelerated efforts to more strictly regulate and control content on the Russian-language Internet, known informally as the RuNet. Sites like X or Facebook have been throttled or slowed down in the past in what experts say appears to be tests by regulators to filter content or redirect Russian users.

The Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube, which has been largely untouched by regulators, saw a major slowdown beginning in the summer.

Some officials blamed outdated equipment inside Russia, equipment Google has been unable to maintain due to Western sanctions. But others said the "degradation" was intentional, aimed at slowing the platform down and frustrating viewers in a bid to nudge them toward homegrown Russian alternatives that are more tightly controlled.

On November 14, Internet monitors reported that YouTube inside Russia appeared to have returned to normal speeds and was fully accessible throughout the country.

On November 15, the Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin "is looking into" slow speeds and disruptions on YouTube after a top cinema official raised the matter.

Karen Shakhnazarov, a prominent filmmaker who heads Russia's most famous film studio, told a talk show on state-run TV on November 14 that he had raised the issue of YouTube speeds with Putin during a meeting a day earlier.

Other efforts by regulators to control the RuNet include installing sophisticated monitoring hardware, squeezing major Internet companies until they're sold to pliant owners, and ordering global tech giants to ensure their servers are accessible to regulators.

A Russian-American man whose theft of thousands of bitcoins was one of the largest in history has been sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison. U.S. prosecutors charged Ilya Lichtenstein with conspiracy and money laundering for his theft of around 120,000 bitcoins from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. Worth around $71 million at the time, the bitcoins are now worth 1,000 times that amount. Officials said Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia and raised in the United States, pleaded guilty last year, as did his wife, Heather Morgan, who helped him launder the funds, buying gold coins and shopping gift cards.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has visited Iran’s key underground uranium enrichment sites at Fordow and Natanz, Iranian state media reported on November 15, without offering details. Iran has restricted inspection of its nuclear sites and barred several IAEA inspectors from visiting its enrichment facilities. Grossi is in Iran to push for diplomacy, warning that the “space for negotiation…is getting smaller” over Iran’s advancing nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are peaceful. The visit comes ahead of an upcoming meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors, where some nations are pushing for action against the Islamic republic.

Opposition-led protesters in Georgia's Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia stormed the gates of the local parliament in Sukhumi, the regional capital, on November 15 in an attempt to force lawmakers to drop a controversial deal with Moscow that gives preferential treatment to Russian property developers.

According to local media reports, an attempt to ratify the agreement failed as the protesters outside surged forward.

But that did not stop the crowd, which was said to be pushing the legislature to vote on dropping the deal completely and demanding Abkhaz leader Aslan Bzhania's exit.

"The confrontation is growing, and there is a risk of it turning into bloodshed," Nuzhnaya Gazeta wrote on its Telegram channel.

Local media said police and hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces, who allegedly used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

There were no initial reports of arrests or injuries. But local agency Apsnypress later cited Abkhaz breakaway authorities as saying that seven people had been treated briefly for injuries and another remained under medical supervision. RFE/RL could not confirm that report.

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Bzhania's press service subsequently said his administration is preparing a document on the withdrawal from parliament of the draft law. But protesters said they do not intend to withdraw before Bzhania resigns.

Tensions have been running high in the region in recent weeks, with opposition activists demanding an end to Russia's dominance over the region and its economy, though opposition parties on November 15 said their protest is not against Russia.

"The actions of the protesters are not directed against relations between Russia and Abkhazia," they said in a joint statement. "In fact, we, the opposition, have always emphasized the importance of fraternal and strategic ties between our countries."

They said their anger was directed at Bzhania, whom they accused of using relations with Moscow "for his own selfish gain during his entire rule."

Russia's Foreign Ministry posted a statement in which spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the Abkhaz opposition of exceeding legal means and "provoking an escalation."

She said Russia was not interfering and expected the situation "will be resolved exclusively by peaceful political means."

Zakharova recommended that any Russian citizens in Abkhazia leave "if possible" and that others refrain from traveling there.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia's rule after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Moscow recognized the independence of the two regions after Russian forces repelled a Georgian attempt to retake South Ossetia in a five-day war in the summer of 2008, which ended with Georgia's defeat.

Most countries still recognize Abkhazia as part of Georgia, but its economy is almost entirely dependent on Moscow, which pays the salaries of public administrators as well as social payments to residents.

Russian forces have reportedly opened an all-out assault on Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine, days after partially breaching Ukrainian defenses to the north of the city.

Ukrainian forces have struggled for weeks to hold back Russian troops who have slowly advanced on the railway and transport hub from the north, east, and south.

The city has been under Ukrainian control since the fall of 2022, when commanders retook it amid a surprise offensive in the Kharkiv region.

Earlier this week, small units of Russian troops managed to enter Kupyansk's northern outskirts, Ukrainian and Russian officials reported. But Ukrainian commanders claimed they had repelled the effort.

On Telegram, Russian war bloggers reported infantry units had entered an industrial zone on the northern side of the city, and fierce fighting was under way.

Ukraine's General Staff said that Russian units were attacking outlying districts, but made no mention of fighting inside the city itself.

For months now, Ukrainian troops have struggled to hold back Russian advances across the nearly 1,100-kilometer front line.

In addition to Kupyansk, Russian units are closing in on the Donbas city of Pokrovsk, and partially control Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. If those cities fall to Russia, Ukrainian supply and logistics lines across the Donbas will be severely threatened.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has stepped up its use of drones to target military bases and industrial sites such as fuel depots inside Russia itself.

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On November 15, Ukraine launched dozens of drones, some targeting the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev reported, saying two districts -- Krymsk and Krasnoarmeisk -- suffered damage but no casualties.

The Telegram channel Astra reported that the attack targeted the Krymsk airbase, which is used by Russian forces to launch attacks.

Ukrainian officials had no immediate comment on the attack.

Russia's Defense Ministry also reported more than 80 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory as well as the occupied Crimean Peninsula. The ministry claimed dozens were downed by air defense systems.

A day earlier, Russia launched its own drone and missile strike against the Black Sea port city of Odesa, an important hub for Ukrainian grain and agricultural exports. Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov called it "a massive combined strike."

WATCH: A Russian air attack struck a residential building and energy installations in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on November 14, killing one person, injuring 10, and leaving 40,000 people without heating.

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Officials said one person died and at least 10 other people, including a 9-year-old boy, were wounded.

One apartment building was completely destroyed, several others damaged, and a main pipeline supplying heating to some 40,000 people, was struck, forcing its shutdown, regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported nearly 30 Russian drones and a cruise missile were fired at three regions overnight. It claimed 25 had been downed.

South Korean authorities have detained Uzbek citizen Javlon Yunusov on suspicion of involvement in the attempted murder of Komil Allamjonov, a close associate of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev's daughter, independent sources in South Korea and Uzbekistan told RFE/RL on November 14.

A source in Uzbekistan's law enforcement called Yunusov's detention "a turning point" in an ongoing investigation. A representative of the Uzbek Embassy in Seoul confirmed Yunusov's detention but did not elaborate.

Interpol had issued a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest Yunusov, 36, on behalf of Uzbekistan on a charge of attempted murder.

The Red Notice issued by Interpol is not an arrest warrant but allows a third country to detain a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action, according to Interpol.

The alleged crime took place on October 26 in the Tashkent region, according to the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office. Authorities said that unknown individuals opened fire on a Range Rover. There were no injuries, the Prosecutor-General's Office said.

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Sources close to the investigation told RFE/RL at the time that the alleged attackers targeted Allamjonov, a prominent political figure in Uzbekistan with close ties to the presidential family.

Uzbek authorities have said little publicly about their investigation into what they have called an attempted assassination, and local media have been gagged from reporting any information not released through official channels.

The reports on the attack, initially thought to be a botched hit, have now spiraled into a tangled web of intrigue implicating powerful figures within Mirziyoev's inner circle.

Uzbek authorities arrested two suspects in Uzbekistan following the attack.

Allamjonov, once a key adviser to Mirziyoev and mentor to his daughter, Saida Mirziyoeva, recently resigned from his post in the presidential administration. His departure, though publicly framed as a move to the private sector, was widely seen as a prelude to a growing rift within the ruling family.

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Mirziyoeva, 40, is regularly mentioned in conversations about her father's long-term succession planning.

Authorities have remained tight-lipped, with no official explanation or details about the investigation released to the public.

Many in Uzbekistan suggest that the silence points to a deeper power struggle within Uzbekistan’s elite, one that may ultimately involve the highest levels of government.

More than a dozen wounded Russian contract soldiers who had fought in Ukraine fled a military unit near the city of Novosibirsk in southern Siberia when they were told they were being sent back to the battlefield despite their injuries, the Telegram channel Baza reported. The channel has ties to Russia's security services. The soldiers had signed contracts to fight in Ukraine in exchange for the termination of criminal prosecution for various offenses. Police managed to detain seven of those who fled, but the rest are still on the run. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

Theater director Anastasia Berezhinskaya has been sentenced to 8 years in prison by a court in Moscow over her posts and comments on the VKontakte social network in 2022, condemning Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and making calls to "kill" and "eliminate" President Vladimir Putin.

Judge Andrei Pluzhnikov from the Second Western District Military Court in Moscow on November 14 found Berezhinskaya guilty of "justifying terrorism," "distributing false information about the Russian military," and "discrediting Russia's armed forces."

Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence for Berezhinskaya.

The 43-year-old Berezhinskaya, who refused to testify during the trial, pleaded partially guilty.

When giving a final statement to the court, Berezhinskaya told the judge: "Your Honor, I do not have anything to say, anything to add. I will accept any decision of yours."

After the judge handed down his ruling, Berezhinskaya was immediately arrested. Before and during the trial, she was under orders not to leave Moscow.

Berezhinskaya, who is the mother of children aged 8 and 10 years, has been diagnosed with a personality disorder, but the court ruled that she does not need hospitalization.

Russian officials have increasingly used charges such as discrediting the country's armed forces or distributing false information about the military to stifle any dissent voiced regarding Moscow's aggression against Ukraine since the full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.

With reporting by Mediazona

DUSHANBE -- Eight former top officials, politicians, and public figures in Tajikistan have gone on trial behind closed doors on charges of plotting to forcibly seize power, calling for mass disorder, and inciting hatred.

The trial, which began on November 14 in a pretrial detention center in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, includes former Foreign Minister Hamrohkhon Zarifi, former Foreign Ministry spokesman Abulfaiz Atoi, and former parliament speaker Akbarshoh Iskandarov.

The Supreme Court officials who are hearing the case have refused to comment to RFE/RL, while the classification of the materials by the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office means the exact details of the charges brought against the eight defendants are not known.

The Tajik government has brutally cracked down on dissent in recent years, jailing opposition politicians or forcing them into self-exile. Dozens of independent journalists, activists, and government critics have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

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Senior politicians on trial in the case also include the ex-leader of the Democratic Party, Saidjafar Usmonzoda, Democratic Party of Tajikistan Deputy Chairman Ahmadshoh Komilzoda, and Social Democratic Party Deputy Chairman Shokirjon Hakimov.

Two former top officers of the State Committee for National Security, Nuramin Ghanizoda and Jamshed Boev, are also being tried in the case.

All of the defendants were arrested over the past year. It is unknown how seven of them pleaded. Associates of Hakimov, who is a lawyer, have said he has rejected the charges.

Relatives of the defendants were not allowed to attend the trial, while lawyers who arrived at the detention center refused to talk to journalists.

In 2015, Tajik authorities banned the main political opposition, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, as well as Group 24 -- an organization that had been gaining popularity among younger Tajiks.

Both parties were branded as “terrorist” and the government of autocratic President Emomali Rahmon continues to target their members and supporters both at home and outside the country.

The founder of the Group 24, businessman Umarali Quvatov was assassinated in Turkey in 2015.

The Social Democratic Party has been officially registered in Tajikistan, but it has been under constant political and financial pressure. Controlled elections have made it impossible for the party to ever win a seat in parliament.

Rahmon, who has run Tajikistan for almost three decades, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his regime's stifling of political pluralism, independent media, religious freedoms, and civil society.

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has urged Iran and its global partners to achieve "concrete, tangible, and visible results" in talks over Tehran's nuclear program as the return of Donald Trump to the White House may mean the window for diplomacy is closing.

Speaking to journalists in the Iranian capital on November 14 after a meeting with Iran's nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, Grossi said pressure was building for movement toward a solution with Iran-backed proxies at war with Israel and Trump, known for his hard-line stance against Tehran, taking over the U.S. presidency in January.

"We know that it is indispensable to get, at this point of time, to get some concrete, tangible, and visible results that will indicate that this joint work is improving (the) situation, is bringing clarification to things, and in a general sense it is moving us away from conflict and ultimately war," Grossi said.

“The fact that international tensions and regional tensions do exist...shows that the space for negotiation and diplomacy is not getting bigger, it is getting smaller," he added.

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Grossi's visit takes place about two months ahead of the inauguration of Trump, who during his first term in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers and reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic.

The 2015 deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had given Iran some limited relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program designed to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Grossi also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran on November 14.

Araqchi, Iran's chief negotiator during the negotiations to reach the JCPOA deal, which barred Tehran from enriching uranium above the level of 3.65 percent, said on X that the talks with Grossi were "important and straightforward."

He vowed to continue Iran's cooperation with the IAEA on nuclear nonproliferation "with courage and good will" and reiterated Tehran's longstanding assertion that its nuclear program was "peaceful."

Araqchi added, however, that Iran would not negotiate "under pressure."

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After Washington's withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran expanded its nuclear program and restricted IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites.

The IAEA and the international community have voiced alarm at reports that Tehran has substantially increased its stocks of uranium enriched to 60 percent -- considerably closer to the 90 percent level needed for a nuclear weapon.

Nuclear expert Eric Brewer told RFE/RL that the IAEA's lack of access to Iran's nuclear sites heightens the risk of it producing more enriched uranium.

"I suspect that to get Iran to provide some information on that front is at the top of Director-General Grossi's list," Brewer said.

He added that while the trip had been scheduled since before the U.S. election, Trump's re-election "will hang over the conversations."

The IAEA chief is expected to hold talks with Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian later in the day.

Ukraine's military says it has repelled a Russian assault on the town of Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, rejecting claims by Moscow that it had gained a foothold in the strategically important transport hub, as Russian attacks continued to claim civilian victims.

The General Staff of Ukraine's military said in a statement on November 14 that its forces pushed the attacking force back, causing considerable losses in material and manpower.

Vitaly Ganchev, a Moscow-installed regional official, had previously claimed that Russian forces had occupied positions on the outskirts of Kupyansk and were pressing ahead to the northeast and southeast of the town.

"The information about the occupation of the settlement of Illinka and about the supposed foothold of Russian troops in the town of Kupyansk is not true," the Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Center said on social media on November 14.

"The General Staff informs that yesterday Ukrainian soldiers stopped the enemy's advancement in Kupyansk, destroyed all its armor equipment and eliminated a large part of its manpower," it said.

Neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian claims could be independently verified.

Russian forces captured Kupyansk, a strategically important railway junction, soon after the start of Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but it was liberated by Ukrainian troops in a lightning counteroffensive in the fall of the same year.

In recent months, Russia has pressed ahead with an offensive in the Kharkiv region while regularly pounding Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, with missile strikes and artillery fire, causing numerous casualties among civilians and damaging civilian and energy infrastructure.

Russian forces have been pressing a slow but grinding offensive along the whole eastern front, making incremental advances as Ukraine's outgunned and outmanned troops struggled to hold their ground.

Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa was also targeted on November 14. Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said a Russian attack struck a residential building, killing one person and injuring two.

"Houses, a church and cars have been damaged," Kiper said on Telegram. "In some locations, fires broke out."

He added that emergency crews were tackling the aftermath of what he described as a "mass attack."

Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov said earlier that the strike knocked out a main pipeline for the supply of heat and forced the shutdown of one of the city's boiler plants.

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On November 14, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said the Kremlin was open to peace talks if the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump initiates them, as long as they take into consideration the "realities on the ground."

In recent days, Russians reportedly made territorial gains near the heavily damaged town of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region and are threatening to encircle it.

Early on November 14, air defenses shot down 21 out of the 59 drones launched by Russia at targets in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.

The other 38 drones were lost on location after their navigation systems were jammed by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems, the air force said.

Russian shelling killed two people and wounded eight over the past 24 hours in the village of Shevchenko in Donetsk, the regional prosecutor's office reported.

Damaged caused by Russian attacks and a spell of bad weather that saw early snowfalls cut the electricity supply to 43 settlements in the Poltava region, Ukraine's electricity grid operator Ukrenerho said in a statement on November 14.

Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defenses shot down two Ukrainian drones early on November 14, one over the Kursk region and one over the Belgorod region.

BELGRADE -- Russian celebrity chef and restaurateur Aleksei Zimin, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine who ran a restaurant in central London, has been found dead in Belgrade.

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade told RFE/RL that it was informed by the police about 53-year-old Zimin's death.

"An autopsy has been ordered and a toxicology report to determine the cause of death," the Prosecutor's office said.

RFE/RL learned from sources that the body of a foreign citizen born in 1971 was found on the evening of November 12 without any visible suspicious signs in an apartment in the central Belgrade municipality of Vracar.

In his last Instagram post on November 4, Zimin announced that on November 7 he would prepare a special dinner in a club in Belgrade and present his recently published book, Anglomania, a personal look at the cultural history of Great Britain.

Zimin hosted a cooking show on Russian television channel NTV that was discontinued after he posted anti-war messages on social media following Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"There will be no new episodes due to the anti-war position of the host. Do I regret it? No, I regret that we ended up going to war. I don't take part in the war, the war takes part in me," he said on Instagram at the time.

In London, Zimin ran the Russian restaurant Zima and published a magazine with the same name.

The restaurant confirmed Zimin's death on Instagram.

"For us, Aleksei was not only a colleague, he was our friend, a close person with whom we were lucky to go through a lot -- both good, kind and sad," the restaurant said.

He had started several restaurants in Moscow and was deputy editor in chief of the gastronomic magazine Afisha and editor in chief of Afisha Food.

He also wrote for the Russian publications Komersant and Vedomosti.

Kianoosh Sanjari, a journalist and political activist, has committed suicide to protest numerous arrests and interrogations of himself and other political activists. A relative of Sanjari confirmed the news in an interview with RFE/RL on November 13. Friends of Sanjari also confirmed his death in posts on X. Since returning to Tehran in 2015 to care for his elderly mother, Sanjari was repeatedly summoned and arrested by the security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic republic. Hours before committing suicide, Sanjari announced his decision to end his life on X. After an ultimatum demanding the Iranian government release four activists and journalists by a specified time was not met, Sanjari tweeted again: "My life will end after this tweet but let's not forget that we die for the love of life, not death. I wish that one day Iranians will wake up and overcome slavery." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.

The European Court of Human Rights has registered a complaint against Georgia's "foreign agent" law. According to the Young Lawyers' Association of Georgia, 16 media organizations, 120 civil society organizations, and four individuals made an appeal to the court regarding the law, which the Georgian parliament passed earlier this year. The legislation was vetoed by President Salome Zurabishvili, but parliament overrode the veto despite mass protests and calls from partners to stop the implementation of the law. After the law was adopted, the EU's ambassador announced that Georgian integration into the EU was suspended, as was some aid to the Georgian government. The law, which is similar to Russia's "foreign agent" law, applies to NGOs and media organizations that receive a significant amount of their funding from sources outside Georgia. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Georgian Service, click here.

The U.S. Justice Department has charged a man for allegedly leaking highly classified U.S. intelligence about Israel's plans for retaliation against Iran, according to U.S. media reports on November 13. The reports said that Asif W. Rahman was indicted earlier this month for willfully transmitting national defense information. He was arrested on November 12 in Cambodia by the FBI and was to appear in court in Guam. Court documents indicate that he was employed by the U.S. government. According to a person familiar with his employment, he was employed by the CIA. This employment gave him a top-secret security clearance and allowed him to access sensitive information. The New York Times, which first reported the story, said that Rahman was indicted on a charge related to the posting of the intelligence on Telegram in mid-October. The documents posted included Israeli plans for moving munitions and Israeli Air Force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles.

Raimbek Matraimov, the former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's Customs Service who was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal, has been transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest. The Birinchi Mai district court in Bishkek said on November 13 that the move was made two days earlier. Matraimov and three of his brothers -- Tilek, Ruslan, and Islambek -- were extradited to Kyrgyzstan in March from Azerbaijan, where they were in hiding. Raimbek, the most notorious of the brothers, was charged with money laundering and the abduction and illegal incarceration of unnamed individuals as part of the 2020-21 corruption scandal. In 2019, an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured Ukraine that U.S. support will be beefed up ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration early next year, as Russia launched its first missile and drone attack on Kyiv since August, forcing residents into bomb shelters.

Blinken, who met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on November 13, said the administration of President Joe Biden, who leaves office on January 20, would "continue to shore up everything we're doing for Ukraine" and "use every day" to support Ukraine and strengthen NATO.

“President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20,” Blinken said, adding that NATO countries must focus their efforts on “ensuring that Ukraine has the money, munitions, and mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025, or to be able to negotiate a peace from a position of strength.”

Trump has repeatedly questioned Washington's military backing for Kyiv and vowed to rapidly end the war started by Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But he has not said how he will put an end to the conflict, raising concern that he would try to force Ukraine to accept Moscow's terms for peace.

Blinken also said the deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia in the Ukraine war "demands and will get a firm response." More than 10,000 North Korean troops are engaged in combat in Russia's Kursk border region, according to the Pentagon.

Asked by RFE/RL if Washington intends to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range modern weapons to strike deeper inside Russia, as requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in his recently presented "victory plan," Blinken did not offer a direct answer, saying the United States will continue to "adapt and adjust" to Ukraine's needs.

"We're addressing many of the needs that are laid out in the victory plan. That's something that we discussed with allies and partners today," Blinken said.

"I am convinced that we will continue to adapt and adjust if necessary," he added.

Blinken also met in Brussels with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, who said Kyiv had maintained contact with both U.S. political parties and had worked with both Trump's team and Biden's.

Sybiha said he would discuss protection of critical infrastructure with Blinken, according to a State Department statement.

"Ukraine's defense cannot be put on hold and wait. Every day Russia is bombing our critical infrastructure -- energy, ports, hospitals, and schools," Sybiha said. "We need better protection for our people already now, not later."

He added that he was "confident that we can count on continued U.S. support and further decisive steps."

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Ukraine's whole territory was under an air-raid alert early on November 13 as Moscow launched a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones on Kyiv for the first time in 73 days.

"Putin is launching a missile attack on Kyiv right now," Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, wrote on Telegram.

Explosions shook Kyiv for hours as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged the Ukrainian capital's residents to take cover.

"More drones are entering the capital. The danger of missiles also persists. Don't leave the shelters!" Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that its air defenses downed two cruise missiles, two ballistic missiles and 37 drones over Kyiv and seven other Ukrainian regions -- Poltava, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Cherkasy, Zaporizhzhya, Chernihiv, and Kirovohrad. It said that 47 more drones lost their way as Ukrainian electronic defenses jammed their navigation systems.

Russia has stepped up its daily attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, causing further destruction to the country's already battered civilian and energy infrastructure as the cold season settles in.

The Taliban on November 13 executed a man convicted of murder in a sports stadium -- the sixth public execution since the radical Islamist group returned to power in 2022.

The execution was carried with a gun fired by a member of the victim's family in the city of Gardez, the capital of the eastern Paktia Province.

The practice of "qisas," or retributive Islamic punishments, which can include public killings at the hands of victims' families, were a trademark of the Taliban's first stint in power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban's Supreme Court said in a statement on X that a "murderer was sentenced to retaliation punishment," naming the condemned as Muhammad Ayaz Asad.

Media reports said Ayaz Asad was executed with three bullets to his chest.

The statement said Asad, a native of Paktia's Mirzak district, had killed a man named Saif-ul-Qatal using a Kalashnikov rifle. It was not clear whether Ayaz Asad had pleaded guilty or innocent to the charges.

The death sentence was approved by the Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada following "careful consideration" by three Taliban military courts, it said.

Senior members of the Taliban government, including acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, attended the execution.

Haqqani is the leader of the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist group considered one of Afghanistan's most violent factions.

The Taliban has revived the practice of "qisas" since the extremist group's return to power in August 2022 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from the war-wracked country after more than two decades.

In February, three men were executed publicly.

Two, Syed Jamaluddin and Gul Khan, were shot dead inside a soccer stadium in the southeastern province of Ghazni.

At a separate execution, an unidentified man shot Nazar Mohammad inside a sports stadium in the northern province of Jawzjan. The shooter was said to be avenging the death of his brother, Khal Mohammad, two years earlier.

Such practices have been condemned by Afghans and the international community, while experts have questioned their validity under Islamic law, saying they are mainly meant to instill fear.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the executions "are contrary to Afghanistan's international human rights obligations, and must cease."

"UNAMA urges Afghanistan's de facto authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on all executions with a view to abolition of the death penalty. We also call for respect for due process and fair trial rights, in particular access to legal representation," the agency said in a post on X.

Iran says it has measures in place to ensure it will continue producing and exporting oil even if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Tehran once he takes office in January.

During his first term in office in 2017-21, Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.

As a result, Iran’s oil production dropped from 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to 2.1 million bpd, while its exports plummeted to between 200,000 and 500,000 bpd from 2.5 million bpd.

But both production and exports have picked up in recent years despite U.S. sanctions, with Iran’s oil output reaching around 3.2m bpd. Exports, meanwhile, have hit a multiyear high of 1.7 million bpd.

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Why Are U.S. Sanctions Against Iran's Oil Exports Ineffective?

Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told reporters on November 13 that Iran has mechanisms in place “to continue selling our oil” regardless of who is in power in the United States.

“We have tried-and-tested methods and don’t have serious concerns about [selling oil],” he said, according to Iranian state-aligned media.

Without offering details, the oil minister said, “necessary measures have been taken by our colleagues in the oil sector in preparation for what is to come and there is no reason to worry.”

Trump is expected to launch a new-look "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic republic once he takes office on January 20, 2025.

Iran boosted its oil sales by circumventing sanctions through a variety of means, exporting mostly to China, which does not recognize U.S. measures against Iran.

The tactic involves the ship-to-ship transfer of oil, middlemen, clandestine money transfers, and the rebranding of the oil to mask its Iranian origin.

Iranian crude makes up about 13 percent of oil imports by China, the world's biggest purchaser of the commodity. Beijing says the purchases conform to international law.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine has told RFE/RL that Kyiv orchestrated an attack that killed a Russian Navy officer in Crimea. Captain Valery Trankovsky died in a car bombing incident in the city of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Russia-annexed peninsula. The city's Moscow-installed mayor described the incident as a possible sabotage action. Trankovsky commanded the headquarters of the 41st brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's missile boats, a unit actively involved in major deadly missile strikes in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The incident is part of a larger pattern where Russian military personnel, security officials, and Ukrainian collaborators in Russian-occupied territories are targeted in assassination attempts. Ukraine’s Security Service and military intelligence are often implicated by media in such operations, but the agencies rarely officially confirm their involvement. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says another attack on Israel would paralyze the Islamic republic's economy and cost billions of dollars that could be spent to the benefit of ordinary Iranians. In his second video addressed directly to Iranians in the last two months, which was released in English with Farsi subtitles on November 12, Netanyahu said that Iran's October 1 missile attack cost it $2.3 billion dollars, "valuable money that the Islamic republic wasted" as the "damage of that attack on Israel was insignificant." He added that the Iranian government is "obsessed" with the destruction of Israel but its theocracy fears its own people more than Israel. Neither the people of Israel nor ordinary Iranians want war, he said. Some analysts said the video could be a warning that if Iran were to attack again, Israel would hit back hard in an attempt to cause major damage to Iran's economy. There was no immediate reaction to the video from Iran. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here.

Georgia's pro-European opposition has withdrawn from the new parliament, officially renouncing its mandates obtained during the disputed October 26 elections that it refused to recognize amid accusations of widespread fraud and Russian interference.

Representatives of the two main opposition blocs -- the United National Movement (ENM) and the Coalition for Change -- filed an appeal on November 12 with the Central Election Commission (CEC) demanding the cancellation of their party lists -- a technical move that will make it impossible for the CEC to register the opposition candidates who won seats as lawmakers.

"On behalf of the United National Movement, we declare that we do not recognize the legitimacy of these elections and refuse our parliamentary mandates. Today, each of us who was on the parliamentary list officially sent a letter to the Central Election Commission so that none of the candidates would be registered," ENM head Tina Bokuchava told a joint news conference.

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Pro-EU Rally Held In Tbilisi As President Says Ruling Party 'Captured' Georgia

Nika Gvaramia, the leader of the Coalition for Change, said that all members of his bloc's list will officially sign off on their refusal for as many times as necessary if the CEC, under pressure from the authorities, tries to register them in parliament through bureaucratic procedures.

"This parliament is illegitimate, and our participation in its activities is excluded. We will not aid the authorities in legitimizing it with our presence," Gvaramia said.

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Georgia's Opposition Criticized For Sluggish Reaction To Flawed Election

In response, Georgian Dream said it would file a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to outlaw some opposition parties, directly accusing ENM of treason.

"We do not rule out that we will take care first and foremost of the ENM, which has committed treasonous acts against the country," Georgian Dream Secretary-General Kakha Kaladze said, adding that the authorities had "plenty of evidence" to outlaw the bloc, without elaborating.

The moves come after Georgia's pro-European president, Salome Zurabishvili, refused to recognize the validity of the results and called for fresh elections.

The opposition has been holding large daily protests in Tbilisi since the Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party, which has been in power for the past 12 years, claimed victory with 54 percent of the vote.

A group of women held the latest rally on November 13, appealing to the CEC to cancel the election results. Initially, only some of the women were able to enter the courtyard of the CEC building before police closed the iron doors of the entrance. Several journalists covering the rally were not allowed in.

Women In Tbilisi Protest Election Results

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"All criminals are afraid of witnesses, we are witnesses of their crimes and that's why they fight us like that. They won't succeed," Ana Natsvlishvili, one of the leaders of the Strong Georgia party, told RFE/RL.

Georgia has been a candidate for EU membership since last year, but moves by Georgian Dream to adopt legislation to curb foreign funding of NGOs mirroring Moscow's "foreign agent" law and anti-LGBT measures have sparked criticism from Brussels and Washington that the Caucasus country was backsliding on democracy.

Moscow residents who have failed to show up at military registration and enlistment offices after they received summonses are getting SMS notifications telling them they are banned from leaving Russia among other restrictions, the independent investigative website Important Stories reports. The messages say that "temporary measures" have been imposed on conscripts in accordance with amendments to Russia's law on military duty. Other restrictions refer to a ban on driving and registering vehicles, registering and selling real estate, receiving loans, and registering as a self-employed individual or entrepreneur. Since its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has reportedly suffered massive losses on the battlefield, although Moscow does not reveal the number of its war casualties. According to Britain's Chief of the Defense Staff Tony Radakin, an average of some 1,500 Russian soldiers were killed or injured daily in October alone, making it Russia's worst month for casualties since the beginning of the war. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Ukrainian activists on November 12 disrupted a speech by Yulia Navalnaya at an IT summit in Lisbon by setting off air-raid sirens and shouting "Stop the war" before Navalnaya said she opposes the war and told them their enemy was the same as hers.

Navalnaya was delivering her speech on Dictators and Digital Dissent at the Web Summit when several people in the audience set off the air-raid sirens in an attempt to drown out her words. They then began chanting "Stop Russia!" and "Stop the war!" in English.

The organizers of the action said its purpose was to remind the participants of the conference about the war in Ukraine and the inadmissibility of inviting citizens of the aggressor country to an international conference.

Navalnaya responded to the disruption by inviting a representative of the Ukrainian activists to come up on stage and ask a question. The activist who went to the stage asked whether she supports the war against Ukraine.

Navalnaya said she opposes the war and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the activists, "We have one enemy. And Ukrainians do not need to invent an enemy for themselves in the person of the Russian opposition."

Navalnaya, the wife of the late Russian corruption fighter Aleksei Navalny, said later on Telegram that she thought it was wrong to be asked if she supports Russia's war against Ukraine.

"I am fighting against Putin's regime and against the war. And I think that these are interconnected things,” she said on Telegram. “My husband, Aleksei Navalny, fought against Putin and against the war, and was killed in prison for it. He used every court hearing against him, including the one on February 24, 2022, as a platform for an anti-war speech.”

Navalnaya ally Leonid Volkov, who was also at the conference, said Navalnaya managed to finish her speech and confirmed that she invited the protesters to the stage and answered them in detail.

"After the applause, she returned to the podium and finished her speech," Volkov said on Telegram.

While in Lisbon, Navalnaya also took part in the opening of a ceremony to dedicate a plaque in memory of her husband opposite the Russian Embassy. The plaque is engraved with the words "Don't give up" -- the opposition leader's call to his comrades in case of his death.