A well-known Russian human rights defender, Vitaly Ponomaryov, has been detained upon his arrival at the main airport in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. The chairwoman of the One World Kyrgyzstan human rights group, Tolekan Ismailova, told RFE/RL that the director of the Memorial Human Rights Center's Central Asian program was detained on November 14 due to a 2017 decision by the Kyrgyz government to bar him from entering the country. The ban was extended in 2020. Kyrgyz officials have yet to comment on the situation. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Kyrgyz service, click here.
