Russia’s main security agency says it has arrested two Belarusians who it said were preparing a plot to overthrow Belarus’ government and kill authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.One of the men arrested, Aleksandr Feduta, is a former Lukahsenko spokesman who later joined the opposition. The other, lawyer Yuras Zyankovich, has dual Belarusian-U.S. citizenship.The Federal Security Service said Saturday that the two had been handed over to Belarus. Russian authorities were alerted to information about the men’s plans by the Belarusian security service, the KGB.The Russian agency said the two suspects came to Moscow to meet with opposition-minded Belarusian generals, whom they told that “for the successful implementation of their plan, it was necessary to physically eliminate practically the entire top leadership of the republic.”Alleged details”They detailed the plan for a military coup, in particular, including the seizure of radio and television centers to broadcast their appeal to the people, blocking the internal troops and riot police units loyal to the current government,” the Russian agency said.Lukashenko told Belarusian television Saturday that investigators found evidence of foreign involvement in the alleged plot, “most likely the FBI, the CIA.”When nationwide protests against Lukashenko broke out last year after his disputed election win, he repeatedly alleged that Western countries were  plotting his downfall or even preparing for a military intervention.The protests, some of which attracted as many as 200,000 people, started in August after an election that official results say gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Opposition members and even some poll workers said the results were fraudulent.Security forces then cracked down hard on the demonstrations, arresting more than 34,000 people, many of whom were beaten. Most prominent opposition figures have fled Belarus or have since been jailed.
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A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said Saturday that test results he received from Navalny’s family showed him with sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys.”Our patient could die at any moment,” he said in a Facebook post.Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that “action must be taken immediately.”Navalny is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most visible and adamant opponent.His personal physicians have not been allowed to see him in prison. He went on a hunger strike to protest the refusal to let them visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs. Russia’s state penitentiary service has said that Navalny is receiving all the medical help he needs.Navalny was arrested on January 17 when he returned to Russia from Germany, where had spent five months recovering from Soviet nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials denied any involvement and even questioned whether Navalny had been poisoned, though it was confirmed by several European laboratories.He was ordered to serve 2½ years in prison on the ground that his long recovery in Germany violated a suspended sentence he had been given for a fraud conviction. Navalny said that case was politically motivated.
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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is urging Western governments to criminalize any insulting remarks against Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and treat offenders the same way they do those who deny the Holocaust.Khan spoke Saturday after violent nationwide protests this week by a radical Islamist party demanding expulsion of the French ambassador over the publication of cartoons in France depicting the prophet, an act condemned as blasphemous.Khan tweeted: “Those in the West, incl extreme right politicians, who deliberately indulge in such abuse & hate under guise of freedom of speech clearly lack moral sense & courage to apologize to the 1.3 bn Muslims for causing this hurt.”He also called on Western governments that have outlawed negative comments about the Holocaust “to use the same standards to penalize those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet.”I also call on Western govts who have outlawed any negative comment on the holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet PBUH.— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) FILE – A supporter of the Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan Islamist political party hurls stones toward police during a protest against the arrest of its leader in Lahore, Pakistan, April 13, 2021.Khan on Saturday defended the ban on TLP and vehemently dismissed suggestions the move had stemmed from international pressure on Pakistan.“Let me make clear to people here & abroad: Our govt only took action against TLP under our anti-terrorist law when they challenged the writ of the state and used street violence & attacking the public & law enforcers,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter. “No one can be above the law and the Constitution.”TLP leaders have recently organized several major street protests, disrupting routine life and business in the country.Along with demonstrations against France, the extremist group has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes.French urged to leaveOn Thursday, France advised citizens and companies to temporarily leave Pakistan, citing “serious threats to French interests” in the South Asian nation.Most of the French nationals are said to have ignored the advisory, however, and have chosen to stay in Pakistan, the AFP news agency reported Saturday.Pakistani officials insisted there were no safety concerns for foreign nationals in the country.“We are aware of the advice, which appears to be based on their own assessment of the situation,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said. “For its part, the government is taking enhanced measures for the maintenance of law and order and preventing any damage to life and property.”
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Iran’s top negotiator at talks to rescue a nuclear deal said Saturday progress had been made but that much work remains to be done before a final agreement is reached.
 
Iran and world powers resumed talks in Vienna that began earlier this month to revive a 2015 nuclear deal the U.S. abandoned three years ago.
 
“A new understanding appears to be emerging and there is a common ground between the parties on the ultimate goal,” Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi told state media. “But the path ahead is not an easy one and there are some serious disagreements.”
 
China’s representative at the negotiations said the other parties to the 2015 deal agreed to accelerate efforts to resolve issues, such as which sanctions against Tehran the U.S. will lift, and actions Iran must take to regain compliance with the deal.
 
Reaching an agreement was potentially complicated by Iran’s announcement this week it would enrich uranium at 60% purity, three times higher than before.
 
Tehran’s announcement to ramp up its enrichment program came in response to last week’s attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that it blames on Israel, a longtime foe that says Iran poses an existential threat.
 
As talks resumed in Vienna, Iranian state television named 43-year-old Reza Karimi as a suspect in the attack and said he fled the country “hours before” the incident.  
 
State television showed a passport-style photograph of a man identified as Karimi that said he was born in the Iranian city of Kashan.
 
“Necessary steps are underway for his arrest and return to the country through legal channels,” the state television report said.
 
The European Union said Saturday’s negotiations would involve EU officials and envoys from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran.
 
The 2015 agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, provided Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. The deal was reached in Vienna between Iran, Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: China, France, Russia, Britain and the U.S.  
 
The U.S. withdrew in 2018 and began unilaterally ratcheting up sanctions on Iran under then-President Donald Trump, who criticized the deal negotiated by his predecessor as not doing enough to stop objectionable Iranian behavior. Iran retaliated a year later by exceeding the JCPOA’s nuclear activity limits. 
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Hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen marched into place Saturday at Windsor Castle, where Prince Philip was being remembered as a man of “courage, fortitude and faith” at a funeral that salutes both his service in the Royal Navy and his support for Queen Elizabeth II over three quarters of a century.Philip, who died April 9 at the age of 99 after 73 years of marriage, will be laid to rest in the Royal Vault at Windsor Castle after a funeral service steeped in military and royal tradition — but also pared down and infused with his own personality.Coronavirus restrictions mean that instead of the 800 mourners included in the longstanding plans for his funeral, there will be only 30 inside the castle’s St. George’s Chapel, including the widowed queen, her four children and her eight grandchildren.Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat for the funeral of Britain’s Prince Philip, at St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor, Britain, April 17, 2021.Under spring sunshine, some locals stopped outside the castle to leave flowers on Saturday, but people largely heeded requests by police and the palace not to gather because of the coronavirus pandemic. The entire procession and funeral will take place out of public view within the grounds of the castle, a 950-year-old royal residence 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of London. It will be shown live on television.Philip’s coffin was moved from the royal family’s private chapel to the castle’s Inner Hall on Saturday morning to rest until the mid-afternoon funeral procession. The coffin was draped in Philip’s personal standard, and topped with his Royal Navy cap and sword and a wreath of flowers.The funeral will reflect Philip’s military ties, both as a ceremonial commander of many units and as a veteran of war. More than 700 military personnel are taking part, including army bands, Royal Marine buglers and an honor guard drawn from across the armed forces.A hearse, a specially modified Land Rover, carrying the coffin of Britain’s Prince Philip, is seen on the grounds of Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 17, 2021.Those marching into place included soldiers of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, who were firing a gun salute, Guards regiments in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats, Highlanders in kilts and sailors in white naval hats.Philip was deeply involved in the funeral planning, and aspects of it reflect his personality, including his love of the rugged Land Rover. Philip drove several versions of the four-wheel drive vehicle for decades until he was forced to give up his license at 97 after a crash. His body will be carried to the chapel on a modified Land Rover Defender that he designed himself.The children of Philip and the queen — heir to the throne Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — will walk behind the hearse, while the 94-year-old queen will travel to the chapel in a Bentley car.Grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry will also walk behind the coffin, although not side by side. The brothers, whose relationship has been strained amid Harry’s decision to quit royal duties and move to California, will flank their cousin Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne.Queen Elizabeth II watches as pallbearers carry the coffin of Britain’s Prince Philip during his funeral at St. George’s Chapel, at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, April 17, 2021.As Philip’s coffin is lowered into the Royal Vault, Royal Marine buglers will sound “Action Stations,” an alarm that alerts sailors to prepare for battle — a personal request from Philip.Former Bishop of London Richard Chartres, who knew Philip well, said the prince was a man of faith, but liked things kept succinct.“He was at home with broad church, high church and low church, but what he really liked was short church,” Chartres told the BBC. “I always remember preaching on occasions which he was principal actor that the instruction would always come down: ‘No more than four minutes.’”Along with Philip’s children and grandchildren, the 30 funeral guests include other senior royals and several of his German relatives. Philip was born a prince of Greece and Denmark and, like the queen, is related to a thicket of European royal families.Mourners have been instructed to wear masks and observe social distancing inside the chapel, and not to join in when a four-person choir sings hymns. The queen, who has spent much of the past year isolating with her husband at Windsor Castle, will sit alone.Ahead of the funeral, Buckingham Palace released a photo of the queen and Philip, smiling and relaxing on blankets in the grass in the Scottish Highlands in 2003. The palace said the casual photo was a favorite of the queen.Handout image released by Buckingham Palace of a personal photograph of the Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, at the top of the Coyles of Muick, taken by the Countess of Wessex in 2003 and obtained by Reuters April 16, 2021.For decades, Philip was a fixture of British life, renowned for his founding of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards youth program and for a blunt-spoken manner that at times included downright offensive remarks. He lived in his wife’s shadow, but his death has sparked a reflection about his role, and new appreciation from many in Britain.“He was a character, an absolute character,” said Jenny Jeeves as she looked at the floral tributes in Windsor. “He was fun, he was funny. Yes, he made quite a few gaffes, but it depends which way you took it really. Just a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather, and a good example to all of us, really.”
 
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Queen Elizabeth will bid a final farewell to Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, at a ceremonial funeral on Saturday, with the nation set to fall silent to mark the passing of a pivotal figure in the British monarchy.While the ceremony will include some of the traditional grandeur of a significant royal event, there will be just 30 mourners inside St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle for the funeral service because of COVID-19 restrictions.There will be no public procession, all the congregation will wear masks, and the queen, who says the death has left a “huge void,” will sit alone.”She’s the queen, she will behave with the extraordinary dignity and extraordinary courage that she always does. And at the same time, she is saying farewell to someone to who she was married for 73 years,” said Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will help officiate at the service.He said he expected the funeral to resonate with the millions of people around the world who have lost loved ones during the pandemic.”I think there will be tears in many homes because other names will be on their minds, faces they’ve lost that they don’t see again, funerals they couldn’t go to as many haven’t been able to go to this one because it is limited to 30 in the congregation,” he said. “That will break many a heart.”He called on the British public to pray for the monarch.Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had been by his wife’s side throughout her record-breaking 69-year reign, died peacefully at the age of 99 last week at the castle where the royal couple had been staying during a recent lockdown.A decorated Royal Navy veteran of World War II, his funeral, much of which was planned in meticulous detail by the prince himself, has a strong military feel, with personnel from across the armed forces playing prominent roles.Army bands, Navy pipers and Royal Marine buglers will take part, while his coffin will be conveyed from its resting place inside the castle to the chapel on the back of a specially converted Land Rover that he helped design himself.At 1400 GMT, before the service starts, there will be a minute’s silence.The congregation will be limited to members of the royal family and Philip’s family, with no place for political figures such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will watch the event on television where it will be broadcast live.The entire event will be held within the walls of Windsor Castle and the public have been asked not to congregate outside or at any other royal residences to show their respects.CrisesWith a reputation for a tough, no-nonsense attitude and a propensity for occasional gaffes, Philip was credited with helping his wife, who he married in 1947, modernize the monarchy in the changing postwar period, and to deal with the many crises that befell the institution.Last month, the royals faced their greatest such tumult in decades when Prince Harry, grandson of Elizabeth and Philip, gave an explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey with his wife, Meghan, who is not attending the funeral as she is heavily pregnant and was advised not to travel.The couple, who moved to Los Angeles and quit royal duties last year, accused one unnamed royal of making a racist comment and said Meghan’s pleas for help when she felt suicidal were ignored.Much media attention will focus on the royals’ behavior towards Harry, as it will be his first public appearance with his family since that interview.He will walk apart from his brother Prince William in the procession behind Philip’s coffin, separated by their cousin Peter Phillips.A knitted top cover for a post box depicting Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, in Windsor, England, April 16, 2021. It shows some of Philip’s favorites: the Royal Yacht Britannia and his hobby of carriage driving.Mourners will eschew the tradition of wearing military uniforms, with newspapers saying that was to prevent embarrassment to Harry.Despite serving two tours in Afghanistan during his army career, he would not be entitled to wear a uniform, having been stripped of his honorary military titles.”We’re not going to be drawn into those perceptions of drama, or anything like that,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said. “This is a funeral. The arrangements have been agreed, and they represent her majesty’s wishes.”‘Grandfather of the nation’The palace has emphasized that while the occasion would have the due pageantry that marks the passing of a senior royal, it remained an occasion for a mourning family to mark the passing of a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.The couple’s second son, Prince Andrew, has said his mother was being stoic in the face of a loss that she had described as “having left a huge void in her life.””It’s a great loss,” he said. “I think the way I would put it is, we’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation.”
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Following are details of the funeral this Saturday of Britain’s Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, who died on April 9 aged 99.The funeralThe funeral, which will be broadcast live, will take place at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).As planned, it will be a ceremonial royal funeral, rather than a state funeral, with most of the details in keeping with Prince Philip’s personal wishes.However, it has had to be scaled back because of COVID-19 restrictions. There will be no public access, no public processions and the funeral will take place entirely within the grounds of Windsor Castle.The service will begin with a national minute of silence. At the end of the service Philip will be interred in the chapel’s Royal Vault.Who will attend?Only 30 mourners are permitted because of COVID-19 rules. These will include the queen, all senior royals including the duke’s grandchildren and their spouses, and members of Prince Philip’s family including Bernhard, the Hereditary Prince of Baden, and Prince Philipp of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.Members of the Royal Family will be wearing morning coat with medals, or day dress. The congregation will adhere to national coronavirus guidelines and wear masks for the 50-minute service.A choir of four will sing pieces of music chosen by the prince before his death and there will be no congregational singing. The queen will be seated alone during the service.The details(Note: all times local, GMT is one hour behind British Summer Time.)At 11 a.m., Philip’s coffin, covered by his standard (flag), a wreath, his naval cap and sword, will be moved by a bearer party from the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards from the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle — where it has been lying in rest — to the Inner Hall of the castle.At 2 p.m. the ceremonial aspect begins, and within 15 minutes military detachments drawn from Philip’s special military relationships such as the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Grenadier Guards, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, the Intelligence Corps and the Highlanders will line up in the castle’s quadrangle.The Foot Guards and the Household Cavalry will line up around the perimeter of the quadrangle.Between 2:20 p.m. and 2:27 p.m., the royals and members of Philip’s family not taking part in the procession will leave by car for St George’s Chapel.At 2:27 p.m., a specially converted Land Rover that Philip helped design will enter the quadrangle.At 2:38 p.m., the coffin will be lifted by the bearer party from the Inner Hall.Bands in the quadrangle will stop playing at 2:40 p.m. and the coffin will emerge from the State Entrance one minute later.The royals in the procession including Philip’s four children — Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward and Princess Anne, along with grandsons William and Harry — will leave the State Entrance behind the coffin, which will be placed onto the Land Rover.At 2:44 p.m., the queen, with a lady-in-waiting, will leave the Sovereign’s Entrance in a car known as the State Bentley. The national anthem will be played and as the car reaches the rear of the procession, it will pause briefly.At 2:45 p.m., the procession will step off with the band of the Grenadier Guards leading. The Land Rover will be flanked by pallbearers.As it moves to the chapel, Minute Guns will be fired by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and a Curfew Tower Bell will sound.The queen’s Bentley will stop outside the Galilee Porch, where she will be met by the dean of Windsor, David Conner, who will escort her to her seat in the quire of the Chapel.The coffin will arrive at the foot of the west steps of St George’s Chapel at 2:53 p.m. to a guard of honor and band from the Rifles. Positioned in the Horseshoe Cloister will be the Commonwealth defense advisers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago.The west steps will be lined by a dismounted detachment of the Household Cavalry. A Royal Naval Piping Party will pipe the Still once the Land Rover is stationery at the foot of the steps. A bearer party from the Royal Marines will lift the coffin from the Land Rover as the Piping Party pipe the Side.The coffin will pause for the national minute of silence at 3 p.m. A gun fired from the East Lawn will signify the start and end.The coffin will then be taken to the top of the steps where it will be received by the dean of Windsor and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. As the chapel doors close, a piping party will pipe the Carry On.The coffin will move through the nave to the catafalque in the quire, with senior royals processing behind.Philip’s “insignia” — essentially the medals and decorations conferred on him, his field marshal’s baton and Royal Air Force Wings, together with insignia from Denmark and Greece — will be positioned on cushions on the altar.The funeral service will then be conducted by the dean of Windsor. After the coffin is lowered into the Royal Vault, Philip’s “Styles and Titles” will be proclaimed from the sanctuary.A lament will then be played by a pipe major of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and The Last Post will be sounded by buglers of the Royal Marines.After a period of silence, reveille will be sounded by the state trumpeters of the Household Cavalry and then the buglers of the Royal Marines will sound Action Stations at the specific request of the Duke of Edinburgh, as Philip was officially known.The archbishop of Canterbury will then pronounce the blessing, after which the national anthem will be sung.The queen and the other mourners will then leave the chapel via the Galilee Porch.
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Russia announced late Friday it will expel 10 U.S. diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to Washington’s decision to send 10 Russian diplomats packing under a wide-ranging U.S. sanctions package levied against Moscow earlier this week.Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the retaliatory moves during a press conference with his Serbian counterpart in Moscow.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, April 16, 2021.”Ten diplomats were included in the list that was sent to us with a request that they leave,” said Lavrov in announcing the expulsions. “We will respond to this measure in kind.”In Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a meeting via video conference outside Moscow, Russia, April 15, 2021.Less clear is what effect the diplomatic fallout will have on a U.S.-proposed summit between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Biden suggested during a phone call with Putin earlier this week that the two leaders meet in a neutral third country.Following the sanctions announcement, he also suggested the two sides seek to deescalate tensions.”The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia,” Biden said. “We want a stable, predictable relationship.”On Friday, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov signaled that Russia was weighing its options but had not yet ruled out a meeting.Putin “has repeatedly said we’re ready to develop dialogue as much as our counterparts are ready to do so,” said Peskov in comments to journalists.”In this sense it is probably positive that the views of the two heads of state coincide,” he added.  
 
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A Rwandan priest was arrested in France this week on charges of providing, among other things, food to militiamen who massacred members of the Tutsi minority in his church during the 1994 genocide in the African country, authorities said Friday. Marcel Hitayezu, who was born in 1956, was charged on Wednesday with genocide and being an accomplice to crimes against humanity, according to the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office. He was arrested the same day at his home in Montlieu-la-Garde, southwestern France, a source close to the case said. Prosecutors said Hitayezu was the priest at a church in Mubuga, in southern Rwanda, when the genocide took place and in April 1994 withheld food and water to Tutsis who had sought refuge in his church. He instead gave food to extremist Interahamwe militiamen who attacked the refugees, prosecutors added. “Marcel Hitayezu denied the charges at his initial appearance before a judge,” the prosecutor’s office said. Extradition requestRwanda had sought to extradite Hitayezu, but France’s Cour de Cassation, the country’s highest criminal court, in 2016 rejected the request, as it did similar requests by Kigali for others suspected of having taken part in the genocide that saw around 800,000 people slaughtered, mainly from the ethnic Tutsi minority. The genocide between April and July 1994 began after Rwanda’s Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana, with whom Paris had cultivated close ties, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on April 6. Extremist Hutu militias went on rampage, killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus, in a bloodbath that came after decades of tensions and violence between the two communities. French authorities had launched a probe into Rwanda’s accusations against Hitayezu in July 2019, three years after the extradition request. “He was until Wednesday vicar to the priest at the Montlieu-la-Garde church,” the regional archdiocese told AFP. ‘Excellent news’According to the daily La Croix, Hitayezu spent three years in refugee camps in eastern Congo before arriving in France in 1998 or 1999. He was given refugee status in France in 2011. “It’s excellent news,” Alain Gauthier, who has spent years hunting down people living in France suspected of having taken part in the genocide, told AFP on learning of the arrest. Gauthier in 2001 also co-founded an association, the Collective of Civil Plaintiffs for Rwanda. “The church must examine how it gave responsibilities to people suspected of having taken part in the genocide,” Gauthier added. Another priest who has taken refuge in France, Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, was also accused of being implicated in the 1994 massacres. But his case was dismissed by the courts in France. 
 
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NATO is accusing Russia of again ramping up tensions, calling Moscow’s plans to limit access to the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait starting later this month “an unjustified move.”
 
In a statement, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the planned restrictions appear to be part of “a broader pattern of destabilizing behavior.”
 
“Russia’s ongoing militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov are further threats to Ukraine’s independence, and undermine the stability of the broader region,” Lungescu said. “We call on Russia to ensure free access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov and allow freedom of navigation.”
 
NATO, along with the United States and other Western allies, has been calling on Russia to de-escalate following what it has described as the Kremlin’s biggest military build-up since it seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
 
The top commander for U.S. forces in Europe, Air Force General Tod Wolters, said Thursday there is a “low to medium” risk that Russia will launch some sort of military operation against Ukraine in the next week or two.
 
“There is a very large ground domain force … There’s also a sizable air force, and there’s a notable maritime force,” he told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing in Washington. “It’s of great concern.”
 
Ukraine’s foreign ministry first expressed alarm Thursday at Russia’s move to shut down some access to the Black Sea and Kerch Strait, while also accusing Russian boats of trying to block Ukrainian ships in the Azov Sea.#Russia illegally closing part of the Black Sea near the Kerch strait for foreign warships from next week until October, according to @MFA_Ukraine. https://t.co/eNd4buu5vw— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 15, 2021Russia’s RIA news agency reported Friday that Moscow plans to suspend access to the Black Sea for foreign warships and “other state ships” starting next week, and that the restrictions will remain in place for about six months.
 
RIA, citing a statement from the Russian defense ministry, said the restrictions would not affect the Kerch Strait, which is a critical transit point for regional trade. 
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“How can we cope with this?” That was Patrick Bury’s thought after attending his first in-country briefing in 2008 at the headquarters of British forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
 
Then a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment, Bury wrote in a subsequent memoir that he was left reeling by the three-hour briefing. “The situation is so complicated, there are so many tribal, cultural, political, religious and military dynamics, that I am overwhelmed,” he noted.
 
He added: “It seems that we soldiers, primarily trained to fight conventional wars, need to be friendly police, social workers, government representatives, aid workers, bomb detectors, engineers, killers, medics …the list is as endless as the problems we face.”   
 
The announcement this week by U.S. President Joe Biden that he intends to withdraw all American armed forces from Afghanistan has brought back the war memories for Bury and other British war veterans, and the American leader’s decision is drawing mixed reactions, with some questioning the whole mission, others saying it was worth the effort.   
 
President Biden said this week that it was time to end America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan.  
 
The drawdown will be completed on September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Britain says it will work in tandem with the U.S. and withdraw its remaining 700 troops. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance will withdraw about 7,000 military personnel from the country.
 
Britain sent forces to Afghanistan to contribute to the U.S.-led mission to root out al-Qaida and to prevent future terrorist attacks against the West being planned from Afghanistan, say British officials. At the height of the Afghan war, NATO had more than 130,000 troops from 50 nations deployed in Afghanistan.  About 9,500 of those were British.
 
Bury thinks the effort in retrospect was a “noble” one, despite the doubts he harbored while serving there when he struggled with the question of whether it was a country worth saving. “It is a deeply, deeply fragmented and troubled society, even if you can call it that,” he says. “The idea we could fix it was unrealistic. It is beyond the power of the West,” he adds.
 
Now an academic at Britain’s University of Bath, he told VOA that the announcement brought back memories of “what we went through.” Above all he thinks about the Afghans who he encountered during his tour. “I do remember the Afghan people and the kids especially, and the ones we tried to help.” And he is left wondering: “How are the cadets we trained, and the soldiers we worked with, and the decent people going to get on?”FILE – British troops prepare to depart upon the end of operations for U.S. Marines and British combat troops in Helmand, Afghanistan, Oct. 27, 2014.He adds: “But now, you know, you have to move on. Unless you want to go and live there, you have to let it go.” He accepts it is time for Western forces to leave. “You have to draw a line at some point, don’t you? Otherwise, it would just go on forever. There is never a perfect moment,” he says.
Bury’s reaction to the withdrawal announcement is echoed by other British veterans, including Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army commander who specializes in chemical and biological warfare.  
 
“I think it is probably correct as the greatest threat to the UK is jihadists in Syria and Iraq and our focus should be there,” he told VOA. “Like many military people I’ve lost friends and colleagues in Afghanistan and it’s a sad time but we must focus where the threat is highest now,” he says.  
 
He worries, though, that the Afghanistan experience is leading Western leaders to draw the wrong conclusions about Western interventions. “It appears that politicians are unwilling to get involved in Syria and Iraq and this would be an error in my opinion,” he says.
 
“It’s the Afghan interpreters and soldiers who I fought and patrolled alongside who I’ll be thinking of in the coming months …whose livelihoods and families will be at risk,” Robert Clark, another British veteran tweeted. Clark, now a research fellow at Britain’s Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank, fears the gains made in the past 20 years by the Western intervention in Afghanistan likely will be undone when the allies withdraw in September.
 
He is not alone in forecasting the Taliban will be quick to exploit the weakness of Afghanistan’s government.  
 
Toby Harnden, author of the book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan, says many British veterans believe this “withdrawal will lead to further bloodshed in Afghanistan, and the deaths of brave Afghans who worked with the U.S. and NATO forces.” That in turn is prompting a “sadness and a questioning of what all the sacrifices were for,” he told VOA.
 
“There’s also a fear that by leaving no residual force, there will be a vacuum that could be filled by al-Qaida and eventually lead to attacks on the U.S. — the very thing the invasion after 9/11 was designed to stop,” he says. “Soldiers have not forgotten how the hasty withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIS,” he adds.  
 
He and others are predicting that the U.S. and Britain will still be involved, by drone strikes and special forces, after September, especially if there are signs of an al-Qaida resurgence. “You can bet good money, they’ll get walloped,” says Bury.  
 
The Afghanistan campaign claimed the lives of 454 British servicemen. Several British veterans mentioned to VOA that on Saturday they will watch the funeral of Britain’s Prince Philip and it is lost on them that the “Last Post” bugle call for the queen’s husband will be sounded by Sergeant Jamie Ritchie. The 31-year-old Ritchie performed the Last Post for fallen comrades during his four-month tour of Afghanistan.
 
And as the Last Post sounds Saturday at Windsor Castle, they say, they will remember their fallen friends.
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U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is asking the European Court of Human Rights to block Russia from enforcing penalties that could cost the broadcaster millions of dollars.
    
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor last year ordered broadcasters designated as foreign agents to add a lengthy statement to news reports, social media posts and audiovisual materials specifying that the content was created by an outlet “performing the functions of a foreign agent.”
    
The law, which applies to non-governmental political organizations and media receiving foreign funding, has been widely criticized as aiming to discredit critical reporting and dissent. The term “foreign agent” carries strong pejorative connotations in Russia.
    
Since October, Roskomnadzor has filed 390 violation cases against RFE/RL and was expected to announce more Friday. The broadcaster says the fines could total the equivalent of $2.4 million.  
    
RFE/RL said it is asking the human rights court to order Russia to refrain from enforcing the fines until the court can make a full ruling on Roskomnadzor’s moves, which the broadcaster contends violates the European Convention on Human Rights.
    
“We are hopeful that the European Court of Human Rights will view these actions by the government of Russia for what they are: an attempt to suppress free speech and the human rights of the Russian people,” RFE/RL president Jamie Fly said in a statement Thursday.
    
Russia recently has stepped up actions that appear to be aimed at stifling dissent. Criminal charges were filed this week against four editors of an online student magazine that had posted a video connected to the nationwide protests in January calling for the release of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.  
    
A court last week fined Twitter 8.9 million rubles, about $117,000, for failing to take down posts in which users called for minors to take part in unauthorized protests.
    
The statement that Roskomnadzor has ordered RFE/RL to place on its material reads: “This report (material) was created and (or) disseminated by a foreign mass medium performing the functions of a foreign agent and (or) a Russian legal entity performing the functions of a foreign agent.” 
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Tensions between Greece and Turkey reached a new high this week when the two countries’ foreign ministers traded accusations during a live, televised news conference. The two NATO allies have been trying to rebuild relations after a dispute over a Turkish drilling ship pushed them to the brink of war last year.
 
At first, the talks looked like they were going well and the chances of re-booting relations between Greece and Turkey appeared positive.
 
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, in fact, got a surprise invite to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Dendias’ trip to Ankara, and at a later news conference, said his country was keen to support Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
 
But then, the climate instantly turned sour, when Dendias said Greece’s position was clear in that Turkey was violating international law and maritime rules in the Aegean Sea, adding that Ankara had to finally lift its threat to go to war with Athens if it moved to extend its territorial waters beyond the current six-mile range in the sea that divides them.
 
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shot down the remarks, calling them unacceptable and a provocation. He said Turkey had never infringed on Greek sovereignty in its search and drilling work in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. And then he lashed out at Athens for allegedly pushing back more than 80,000 migrants in the Aegean over the past year.
 
In addition, Cavusoglou warned that if Greece wanted to continue lodging accusations and fanning tension, Turkey was ready to reciprocate.
    
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide range of issues, ranging from competing claims in the Mediterranean, air space, energy resources, and the status of some uninhabited islands in the Aegean Sea.
 
Tensions flared dangerously high last year when Turkey dispatched a drilling ship in contested waters in the Mediterranean – a move that brought the navies of the two countries to the brink of war.
 
The European Union and the United States have since pushed both sides to the negotiating table, but the talks have made little progress.  
 
Dendias’ trip to Ankara was intended to give the talks a boost.
 
But as sparks flew at the heated news conference Thursday, analysts in Athens, like Alexis Papachelas of the Kathimerini daily, wondered, “now what?”
    
Two scenarios, he said, can play out. Either both sides find a way to keep the talks moving, to show the West they are committed to the process without making any substantial concession. Or, Papachelas said, things can get ugly.
 
Greek intelligence officials contacted by VOA say they are already picking up chatter through social media that Turkey is mobilizing migrants and refugees to push into Greece – a move that strained relations between the two countries last year when President Erdogan lifted border controls for millions of refugees trapped in his country and seeking refuge in Europe.
 
Whether a new wave of migration materializes remains to be seen. Until then, Greece says it hopes to see Cavusoglu in Athens in the coming weeks for a second round of high-level talks.
 
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The Biden administration on Thursday imposed tough sanctions targeting the Russian economy to punish the Kremlin for the SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign against the United States and efforts to influence the 2020 presidential election. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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The head of a Serbian investigative news outlet being attacked for its work uncovering corruption says his country needs to do more to protect media. During a visit to the U.S., Stevan Dojcinovic, editor in chief of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), met with journalist rights organizations and investigative outlets to discuss recent attacks on his news website and the overall situation for press freedom in Serbia. KRIK has been subject to a smear campaign by pro-government media as well as some politicians in recent months, who falsely accuse it of having links to the head of an organized crime group.FILE – Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic addresses the media in Belgrade, Serbia, June 21, 2020.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his culture minister have both called for an end to the harassment, with Vucic saying “no one has the right to threaten journalists.” The attacks reflect a wider decline in Serbia’s press freedom rankings. Reporters Without Borders ranks the country at 93 out of 180 countries, where 1 is the most free, in its annual press freedom index. In its 2020 Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House said the government has “steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition and civil society organizations.” The “abusive language, intimidation and slandering campaigns” that seek to portray KRIK and others as being associated with criminal groups were also condemned by the European Parliament. In an interview with VOA Serbian, the award-winning Dojcinovic discussed the challenges for Serbia’s media and what he believes can be done to protect media freedoms in his country. “It seems to me that, for the first time, clear and powerful messages have been sent that this must stop. The government has to respect the media,” Dojčinović said, adding that it was a good sign that the “world is aware and wants to react” to what has been happening. Following are excerpts from a VOA interview with Dojčinović. Questions and answers have been translated and edited for length and clarity. VOA: On several occasions, President Vucic has called on members of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to stop attacking KRIK in public. Have Vucic’s calls helped stop the attacks? Stevan Dojcinovic: I think that he can stop the pro-government media and members of the National Assembly from attacking us. The attacks continued, even after his calls, so it doesn’t seem to really work. Immediately after the president’s address, [Aleksandar] Martinović, [the head of SNS in Serbia’s National Assembly] accused us of laundering money. They just keep going. VOA: Why do you think that is the case? SD: I don’t think the pro-government media, tabloids and [members of Parliament] do anything that isn’t approved from the top — by the president or the people close to him. That’s how things work in Serbia. I think they are allowed to attack us. The reason for it is because of our job. Because we are engaged in investigative journalism. We investigate corruption, alleged links by state officials to crime and corruption, which the authorities do not like. That’s why they use pro-government media to incriminate us. It is not how things should work. VOA: You have said those behind the campaign against KRIK are being allowed to attack the outlet. Who do you believe provides that approval? SD: I think it is clear that pro-government media in Serbia is releasing content that the government orders them to publish. I suppose that the president does not have to do it personally. Influential associates around him have the power to delegate topics that pro-government media and tabloid press may or may not publish. And I think this is very clear. VOA: In 2020, KRIK’s fact-checking portal Raskrinkavanje found that five of Serbia’s daily papers published 1,172 headlines containing false news. The majority of Serbians consume media from these sources. What can be done to prevent the spread of false news? SD: The audience should not be held responsible. The problem is in the establishing and financing of tabloid newspapers and magazines. These papers are cheap to buy, which is why they can reach a huge number of people. The papers can sell for low prices because they receive large amounts of money through the state financing media projects. Raskrinkavanje has found that the tabloid newspapers producing the most fake news get the most money through financing by the state, or advertising from state-owned companies. In my opinion, this is what needs to be changed about Serbia’s media scene. VOA: How can this issue be resolved? SD: The government is the only party capable of doing that. But it won’t because the pro-government media are in its service. The European Union, which is interested in resolving issues around Serbia’s judiciary and media scene, could have influence. I hope that more pressure will be put on it. One of the major concerns is media ownership: the significant presence of the government in the ownership structure of many media, and the influence ruling parties have on both state and private-owned media outlets. Political influence and concentration distort the media market. The lack of plurality can be detected in television and radio, but also with the printed press. An investigative project by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Reporters Without Borders reached the same conclusion. This article originated in VOA’s Serbian Service.
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The United States cannot allow a foreign power to intervene with impunity in American elections, President Joe Biden said Thursday, after he took action to punish Russia for that and a major cyberattack.  “Today I’ve approved several steps, including expulsion of several Russian officials, as a consequence of their actions,” Biden said at the White House. “I’ve also signed an executive order authorizing new measures, including sanctions to address specific harmful actions that Russia has taken against U.S. interests.” Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a meeting via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, April 15, 2021.Biden said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call earlier this week that he could have gone further but chose to be proportionate and does not seek to escalate tensions between Washington and Moscow.  “If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I’m prepared to take further actions to respond,” he added.  Thirty-two entities and individuals linked to Moscow are being sanctioned for disinformation efforts and interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.   Ten personnel from Russia’s diplomatic mission in Washington were expelled, including ”representatives of Russian intelligence services,” according to the White House.   The Biden administration is formally blaming the SVR, the external intelligence agency of Russia, for the massive cybersecurity breach discovered last year involving SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company that allowed access to the systems of thousands of companies and multiple federal agencies.   The Russian flag flutters on the Consulate-General of the Russian Federation in New York City, April 15, 2021.The Russian spy agency reacted by calling the accusation “nonsense” and “windbaggery.”    The Russian Foreign Ministry said it told U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan that the new sanctions are a serious blow to bilateral relations and that Moscow’s response to them will follow soon. The Foreign Ministry, in a statement, added that it was entirely inappropriate for Washington to warn Moscow against further escalation.  Besides Thursday’s widely anticipated moves by the Biden administration, ”there will be elements of these actions that will remain unseen,” said a senior U.S. official speaking to reporters on condition of not being named.  Biden, during his seven minutes of remarks in the East Room on Thursday afternoon, said he believed he and Putin would meet for a summit this summer somewhere in Europe.  At that meeting, the president said, the two countries “could launch a strategic stability dialogue, to pursue cooperation in arms control and security,” as well as address such issues as reining in nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea, the coronavirus pandemic and “the existential crisis of climate change.”   Congressional reaction  U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said the president’s actions demonstrate the United States ”will no longer turn a blind eye to Russian malign activity.” But Schiff, in a statement, predicted sanctions alone will not be enough to deter Russia’s misbehavior.   Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., looks on before a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 15, 2021.”We must strengthen our own cyber defenses, take further action to condemn Russia’s human rights abuses, and, working in concert with our allies and partners in Europe, deter further Russian military aggression,” Schiff said.   “I am glad to see the Biden administration formally attributing the SolarWinds hack to Russian intelligence services and taking steps to sanction some of the individuals and entities involved,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner. “The scale and scope of this hack are beyond any that we’ve seen before and should make clear that we will hold Russia and other adversaries accountable for committing this kind of malicious cyber activity against American targets.”   Numerous Republican members of Congress, while praising the president’s action, are calling for more measures — particularly to halt the controversial Nord Stream 2 project.  “If the Biden administration is serious about imposing real costs on the Putin regime’s efforts to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and weaken our allies and partners, then it must ensure the Russian malign influence Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is never completed,” House Foreign Affairs Committee lead Republican Michael McCaul said in a statement.   FILE – Workers are seen at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, June 5, 2019.Nord Stream 2 is a multibillion-dollar underwater gas pipeline project linking Russia to Germany. Work on the pipeline was suspended in December 2019 after it became a source of contention between Russia and the West.   Nord Stream officials said Russia resumed construction on the gas pipeline in December. The United States has opposed the joint international project because of possible threats to Europe’s energy security. Nord Stream 2 is intended to double the annual gas capacity of an existing Nord Stream pipeline.   “Nord Stream 2 is a complicated issue affecting our allies in Europe,” Biden replied to a reporter following his speech. He said that he has been opposed to the project for a long time and it is “still is an issue that is in play.”  US sanctions  Biden’s administration had already sanctioned seven Russian officials and more than a dozen government entities last month in response to Russia’s treatment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.   The U.S. actions taken Thursday expanded prohibitions on primary market purchases of ruble-dominated Russian sovereign debt, effective June 14.   “There’s no credible reason why the American people should directly fund Russia’s government when the Putin regime has repeatedly attempted to undermine our sovereignty,” said a senior administration official in explaining the move. ”We’re also delivering a clear signal that the president has maximum flexibility to expand the sovereign debt prohibitions if Russia’s malign activities continue or escalate.”   Russia has largely ignored previous U.S. sanctions, which were narrower and primarily targeted individuals.   “These are ’unfinished business’ sanctions that telegraph the Biden administration’s more forceful approach to dealing with Russia. The measures are dialed to make good on Biden’s promise to significantly impose costs on Russia without provoking a downward spiral in relations,” said Cyrus Newlin, associate fellow with the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.   A street sign marking Boris Nemstov Plaza is seen at the entrance of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington, April 15, 2021.”I think we could continue to see targeting against the Russian intelligence agencies, potentially against Russian government figures and their families, which is something that many sanctions experts have been pushing for,” according to Nina Jankowicz, a Wilson Center disinformation fellow. ”This is only the tip of the iceberg of the full range of responses available to the U.S. government, both public and nonpublic, that we can take in response to Russia’s malicious cyberactivity.”  “The economic consequences for Russia will be fairly minor: The Russian financial system is much more insulated from sanctions than it was in 2014, and new restrictions on sovereign debt don’t extend to secondary markets. I suspect Moscow will respond reciprocally with diplomatic expulsions, but preserve political space for a bilateral summit, which the Kremlin places high value on,” said Newlin, of CSIS.   “The Biden administration has reserved more punishing sanctions options in the event of further Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Newlin added. ”These could be an expansion of sovereign debt restrictions to secondary markets or measures targeting Russian state-owned companies and banks. Against the backdrop of Ukraine, today’s measures also serve as a warning shot.”  Jankowicz said she agreed with that assessment, noting ”the timing of this is pretty significant, because we’ve seen a buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border, the most significant buildup since 2014.”  According to Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, this package of sanctions does not really relate to what is going on with Ukraine. She terms it the Biden administration’s way of wrapping up unfinished business with other issues, allowing a pivot ”to a more proactive, future-oriented relationship with Russia.”   VOA’s Katherine Gypson and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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U.S. allies including Britain have announced they too will begin pulling their troops out of Afghanistan, following Washington’s announcement it intends to withdraw all American armed forces personnel by September 11 – the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    Produced by: Henry Ridgwell, Rod James
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U.S. allies have announced they will begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan following Washington’s confirmation that it intends to withdraw all its armed forces by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which triggered the U.S.-led invasion.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kabul Thursday for talks with the Afghan government following the announcement. “We’ve achieved the objective we set out nearly 20 years ago. We never intended to have a permanent military presence here,” Blinken told reporters at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.“The threat from al-Qaida in Afghanistan is significantly degraded. Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice. After years of saying that we would leave militarily at some point, that time has come. But even when our troops come home, our partnership with Afghanistan will continue,” Blinken said.Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, center right, walks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Sapidar Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15, 2021.Britain, which has 750 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission to train Afghan forces, confirmed it would begin withdrawing from the country next month.Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement Thursday, “The people of Afghanistan deserve a peaceful and stable future. As we draw down, the security of our people currently serving in Afghanistan remains our priority and we have been clear that attacks on Allied troops will be met with a forceful response. The British public and our Armed Forces community, both serving and veterans, will have lasting memories of our time in Afghanistan. Most importantly we must remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, who will never be forgotten.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Relatives of three Czech soldiers, who were killed by a suicide bomber in eastern Afghanistan, mourn at the Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Czech Republic, Aug. 8, 2018.Among Afghans, the withdrawal of foreign troops provokes mixed feelings. “What we saw during the Taliban, it doesn’t even exist in my memory anymore. I don’t want to think about it because our country is moving toward development, it is moving toward peace,” said Mohammad Karim, a kite maker from Kabul.Fellow Kabul resident Sayed Ahad Azizi also hopes for more stability. “Peace is the only thing that all people want but if foreign troops stay here, the realization of peace in Afghanistan will be impossible,” he said.The Afghan withdrawal is a watershed moment for Afghanistan – and for the West, said Norman. “The initial mission was simply to rout out al-Qaida which have had a haven in Afghanistan under the Taliban. And that mission kind of changed and grew over time to be one of deposing the Taliban, trying to help Afghanistan transition to a more equal democracy et cetera. And I think Western powers, and the U.S. in particular, is seeing the limits of that kind of engagement.”The U.S. and its allies will reflect on what has been achieved in two decades of conflict. For Afghanistan, the fight for democracy and freedom is far from over. 
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Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan was released from prison on Wednesday, his lawyer said, after the top appeals court overturned a verdict against him following a ruling by a European court that his rights had been violated.
 
The 71-year-old Altan has been in prison in western Istanbul since September 2016, on charges related to an attempted coup in July 2016.
 
He was detained over allegations that he disseminated subliminal messages related to the coup attempt during a TV program, as well as articles he had written criticizing the government.
 
He denied the charges, which he and his lawyer said were politically motivated.
 
Altan’s case was one of those considered to be symbolic of the crackdown on dissent under President Tayyip Erdogan following the attempted coup. Ankara says the measures were necessary given the security threats facing Turkey.
 
He was sentenced to life in jail in 2018 without parole for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Cassation, the top appeals court.
 
Altan was then re-tried and sentenced to more than 10 years for aiding a terrorist organization. He was briefly released due to time served but re-arrested after the prosecutor objected.
 
Altan was released again on Wednesday due to time served after the Court of Cassation overturned the second ruling, his lawyer Figen Calikusu said.
 
“This has been a judicial persecution that went on for longer than four years and seven months. Ahmet Altan was held with a completely empty file,” she said.
 
“He was considered the perpetrator of the coup attempt for articles he wrote,” Calikusu added.
 
His case will now return to the lower court, which could decide to resist the ruling by the Court of Cassation but Calikusu said she expected Altan to be acquitted.
 
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Altan’s right to liberty and security, as well as his freedom of expression had been violated since he was accused without reasonable suspicion.
 
Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, welcomed the ruling by the Court of Cassation, adding that all charges should be dropped.
 
Turkey accused Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the coup. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement. 
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France advised its citizens and companies Thursday to temporarily leave Pakistan, citing “serious threats to French interests” in the South Asian nation.The move follows violent protests this week across large parts of Pakistan by activists of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which has been demanding that Islamabad expel the French ambassador over the publishing of anti-Islam cartoons in France.“Due to the serious threats to French interests in Pakistan, French nationals and French companies are advised to temporarily leave the country,” France’s embassy said in an email to its estimated 500 citizens in living in Pakistan.  “The departures will be carried out by existing commercial airlines,” it said.Police officers guard a road blocked with shipping containers, near the French consulate, in Karachi, Pakistan, April 15, 2021.There was no immediate reaction by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.Pakistani officials said Wednesday that three days of clashes between TLP supporters and police killed two law enforcement personnel and wounded nearly 600 others, including dozens of protesters.The unprecedented attacks against police prompted the Pakistani government to declare the TLP a banned organization under the country’s anti-terrorism laws. TLP members took to the streets in major cities Monday, shortly after authorities in the eastern city of Lahore detained their leader, Saad Rizvi. They blocked highways across major cities, paralyzing business and daily life.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, left, and Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, give a press conference addressing anti-France violence, in Islamabad, April 15, 2021.Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said police and paramilitary forces had dispersed the protesters in most, but not all, places.Ahmed defended Rizvi’s arrest, saying Rizvi was planning to lead a march on Islamabad to besiege the capital in connection with the TLP’s demand for the expulsion of the French ambassador. The interior minister dismissed the demand as illegitimate, saying entities like the TLP cannot be allowed to dictate terms to the Pakistani state.The TLP has risen to prominence in Pakistan in recent years. Along with demonstrations against France, the party has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes. 
  
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Russian authorities on Wednesday charged four editors of an online student magazine with encouraging minors to take part in illegal activity for a report about the nationwide protests supporting jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.All four were ordered by a court not to leave their residences for the next two months and were banned from using the internet and communicating with anyone other than immediate family, lawyers and law-enforcement agencies.The charges, which carry a potential sentence of three years in prison, come amid heightened pressure on independent news media.Police raided the Moscow apartments of the four DOXA magazine editors as well as the apartments of two of the editors’ parents and the magazine’s offices before taking the editors in for questioning, according to DOXA and a human rights group involved in their defense. DOXA said the actions were connected to a video the magazine ran about the protests calling for Navalny’s freedom, which took place throughout the country on two consecutive weekends in January, among the largest shows of defiance in a decade.The video talked about the pressure that school and university students faced before the protests and described threats of expulsion, which it said were unlawful, for participating in the demonstrations.Russia’s media and internet watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that DOXA delete the video. The magazine complied, but filed a lawsuit contesting the order.DOXA said Wednesday that the video contained “no calls for unlawful actions — we were saying that young people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinion.””The pressure the journalist community has faced recently is unprecedented, but we won’t stop our work. We will continue to cover what’s important for young people and will continue to stand up for their rights,” the magazine’s statement read. Navalny’s chief strategist, Leonid Volkov, faces similar charges, although he left Russia in 2019. On Wednesday, he expressed “unconditional respect and support” on Facebook for the four DOXA editors: Armen Aramyan, Natalya Tyshkevich, Vladimir Metelkin and Alla Gutnikova.As the four appeared one-by-one in front a judge on Wednesday evening, dozens of supporters gathered near the courthouse in central Moscow. Some carried banners saying “We are DOXA” and “Get your hands away from DOXA.” Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most visible foe, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. He was later sentenced to about 2 1/2 years in prison on the grounds that his long stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence on a previous conviction for financial misdeeds. The crackdown on DOXA came several days after police searched the apartment of a prominent investigative journalist, Roman Anin, chief editor of the Vazhniye Istorii website. The website said the raid was likely linked with a 2016 story Anin wrote for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta that alleged a lavish super-yacht belonged to Igor Sechin, head of Russian state oil company Rosneft.Novaya Gazeta was ordered to retract the story as a result of a civil court case, but a criminal case on the matter has been pending for years.”Coverage of some important issues — protests, corruption, and so on — is perceived as hostile criminal activity, so none of the journalists who honestly do their job can feel safe now,” said Damir Gainutdinov of the Agora human rights organization that is providing legal support to three of the DOXA editors.
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The United States will announce sanctions on Russia as soon as Thursday for alleged election interference and malicious cyber activity, targeting several individuals and entities, people familiar the matter said.The sanctions, in which 30 entities are expected to be blacklisted, will be tied with orders expelling about 10 Russian officials from the United States, one of the people said.The White House, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The action will add a new chill to the already frosty relations between Washington and Moscow, which has tested the West’s patience with a military buildup near Ukraine.The wide-ranging sanctions would come in response to a cybersecurity breach affecting software made by SolarWinds Corp. that the U.S. government has said was likely orchestrated by Russia. The breach gave hackers access to thousands of companies and government offices that used the company’s products.Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack, which was identified in December, as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.”The United States also intends to punish Moscow for alleged interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In a report last month, U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the election to then-President Donald Trump and away from now-President Joe Biden.Washington’s expected action is likely to exacerbate tensions in a relationship that slumped to a new post-Cold War low last month after Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer.”In a call on Tuesday, Biden told Putin that the United States would act “firmly” to defend its interests in response to those actions, according to U.S. officials’ account of the call.Biden also proposed a meeting with Putin “in a third country” that could allow the leaders to find areas to work together.In the past few weeks, Washington and its NATO allies have been alarmed by a large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.”The hostility and unpredictability of America’s actions force us in general to be prepared for the worst scenarios,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week, anticipating the new sanctions.    
 
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Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney is expected to press his British counterpart, Dominic Rabb, this week during a meeting in London to convene an emergency British-Irish intergovernmental conference to discuss a recent outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland. But British ministers are reluctant. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the British government would “look for an appropriate time for a future meeting” but did not commit to do so as a matter of urgency, despite a growing clamor in the British Parliament for a summit, which would include Northern Irish politicians. Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland deny they have been behind an eruption of street violence in the British-ruled province, but they have warned that politicians in London, Dublin and Brussels are playing with fire, saying they underestimate the impact Brexit is having on the sectarian balance. The sustained nature of rioting in largely Protestant neighborhoods of Belfast and Londonderry is prompting rising alarm in government circles in Dublin and London, with fears mounting the province risks being dragged back into its dark past of sectarian violence between pro-British, mainly Protestant Unionists and mostly Catholic Irish nationalists. Loyalists are seen as Unionist paramilitaries. FILE – Rioters throw burning bottles at the police on the Springfield Road as protests continue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 8, 2021.The rioting has been among the worst seen since the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement was struck in April 1998, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Many politicians and analysts agree that fury over the Brexit deal — which has left Northern Ireland inside the European Union’s single market and customs union, resulting in a regulatory “sea border” between it and the United Kingdom mainland — is the source of the rioting. Customs inspections are required under the Brexit agreement between London and Brussels on goods and agricultural produce to ensure compliance with EU standards. The imposition of a sea border meant a land border between the two halves of Ireland could be avoided, which would have risked sparking a violent reaction from nationalists and the paramilitary Provisional IRA. The reverse has happened — an outcome that some Unionists warned was likely. FILE – Graffiti in a loyalist area of south Belfast, Northern Ireland, against an Irish sea border is seen Feb. 2, 2021.Authorities say more than 90 police officers have been injured in the rioting, including 14 on Friday when youngsters lobbed bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs. The riots in Loyalist strongholds also have involved sectarian clashes along a peace wall in west Belfast with children as young as 13 years old participating. A burning car Monday was placed on the tracks of the Londonderry-to-Belfast rail-line. The engineer managed to bring her train to a standstill to avoid a collision. The unrest has cooled in recent days, but observers fear it will flare again. FILE – Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin speaks to the media in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 16, 2020.Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, has been urging his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to agree to the intergovernmental talks, according to Irish officials. Martin has also asked the White House to lobby for an emergency summit, insisting Northern Ireland must not be allowed to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord.” U.S. President Joe Biden has echoed the appeal for calm. Northern Ireland’s Unionists worry the Brexit deal Johnson struck with Brussels will in effect start peeling the province away from the U.K., and they say it affects their cultural identity. Analysts are concerned it will inexorably lead to reunification of the island of Ireland and feed into a psyche of political grievance. Reaction to the Brexit trading arrangements has revealed how fragile peace in Northern Ireland remains, according to observers. Some blame politicians in London and Belfast for neglecting to build on the Good Friday Agreement and do more to dilute the province’s toxic sectarianism. The presence of youngsters in the rioting is especially worrying, they say. “More than 600,000 young people have been born in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement was signed,” lamented Abby Wallace this week in the Irish Times, using another term for the Good Friday Agreement. “But under the broad umbrella of the ‘peace generation,’ not all young people have felt this peace in the same way. This is because our leaders have failed to build on the Belfast Agreement in a way which would allow all of Northern Ireland’s youth to feel that we are no longer living in the past. “More than 90 percent of Northern Ireland’s young people are still educated in segregated schools,” noted Wallace, a radio journalist and postgraduate politics student at Belfast’s Queen’s University. FILE – Pro-Union Loyalists demonstrate against the Northern Ireland Protocol implemented following Brexit, on the road leading to the Port of Larne in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, April 6, 2021.Northern Ireland’s police chief says there is no evidence rioting has been sanctioned by Loyalist leaders. “We feel that there may be some people who could have connections to proscribed organizations, who have been present at the scenes of violence,” he said, but added in a statement that “we don’t believe it’s been sanctioned and organized by proscribed organizations.” Others are less sure. Irish news outlets have reported that much of the trouble has been in neighborhoods where criminal gangs and drug traffickers linked to Loyalist paramilitaries have a strong presence. The rioting came after a recent police crackdown on crime in some Loyalist areas. “The motivations of the rioters appear to be an inchoate mix of criminal aggression and political grievance, their anger stoked by the manipulations of drug gangs and a climate of instability, all underlaid by decades of community neglect,” the Irish Times newspaper said in an editorial. FILE – A police officer walks behind a police vehicle with flames leaping up after violence broke out in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, April 3, 2021.British officials say the unrest is being fueled by several factors — among them the impact of Brexit, which Lewis told the British Parliament overlaps “with wider questions about national identity and political allegiance and comes at a time of economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.” The poisonous brew of disillusionment got an added ingredient last month when Northern Ireland officials declined to prosecute politicians from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional IRA, for attending the funeral of former IRA leader Bobby Storey, despite the funeral breaking pandemic restrictions. “To date there has been a spectacular collective failure to understand properly the scale and nature of unionist and loyalist anger,” Loyalist paramilitaries said in a joint statement last week. “Indeed, there is a complete failure to understand loyalists as people and equal citizens.” British and EU officials are now scrambling to see if they can tweak the trading arrangements to make them less intrusive, and they say they are making progress. But it remains unclear whether that will be a long-term cure. Sinn Fein, which always saw the Good Friday Agreement as a steppingstone to eventual Irish reunification, is pushing for a so-called border poll on the future of the British-ruled province, to the increasing frustration of Northern Ireland’s Unionists.
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France’s once-powerful Communist Party is fielding its first presidential candidate in years for the 2022 elections, a choice some consider vital for its very survival. It’s one of Western Europe’s last relevant Communist parties, whose latest move paradoxically risks further fracturing an already weakened French left.  The French Communist Party’s presidential hopeful is Fabien Roussel, a former journalist with a reputation as a bon vivant and amateur fisherman, who has been at its helm since 2018. He got strong backing at a party meeting last weekend, although the movement’s base must still endorse his candidacy next month.  A new poll finds France’s Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel would score only a tiny percentage in the next presidential vote. But some say a run is key if the party is to stay relevant. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Announcing his run Sunday, Roussel said he wanted to offer the French people a program of hope — not only in defeating the coronavirus pandemic but also unemployment, poverty and inequality. 
 
France’s century-old Communist Party was once a major political force. In the 1970s, it was the country’s most powerful leftist party, with about 20% popular support. It also governed a raft of working-class towns around Paris nicknamed the Red Belt, with streets named after communist icons like Marx and Lenin.  
 The French Communist Party headquarters in northeastern Paris, designed by leading Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1965, when the party was a major player in French political life. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Today, it’s a shadow of its former self — although it’s among a handful of Communist parties across Europe with deputies in the European Parliament. Here in France, center- and far-right candidates have pierced the Paris-area “Red Belt” and the Communists now control just one French department.  FILE – French Communist Party (PCF) deputy Marie-George Buffet attends a session of questions to the Government at the French National Assembly in Paris, Apr. 14, 2020.The party’s last presidential hopeful, Marie-George Buffet, got less than 2% of the vote in 2007. Roussel was partly elected on his call for another run.   Political analyst Jean Petaux says Roussel’s move is almost an existential decision for the party. If the Communists don’t field a candidate they risk disappearing altogether. If they do, they risk another humiliating defeat.  
 FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a press conference, in Paris, France, Feb. 25, 2021.An IFOP poll Sunday found President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading in voter intentions for next year’s elections. It found no leftist candidate would score more 13% — and Roussel only capturing 2.5%.   FILE – Leader of France’s National Rally Party Marine Le Pen speaks during a news conference in Milan, Italy, May 18, 2019.Analyst Petaux says it’s a paradox, since the coronavirus crisis has left some French hungry for the kinds of messages the Communist Party has long embraced — like the return of the protector state. Yet even among the working class, the party has lost its shine. Many have turned instead to Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.  
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