The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine's occupied Crimea region was hit by a drone attack early on August 20, a Russia-installed administrator reported.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed administrator of the port city of Sevastopol, posted on Telegram that the drone crashed into the roof of the building and that there were no casualties.
A video showing a plume of smoke rising over the building was posted on social media.
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The same day, occupation official Oleg Kryuchkov posted on Telegram that "attacks by small drones continue" in various locations around Crimea and urged civilians to "remain calm."
“The goal is not military but psychological,” he wrote. “The explosives are minimal and not capable of inflicting significant harm.”
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-imposed governor of Crimea, later reported shooting down Ukrainian drones.
"Air defense systems successfully hit all targets over the territory over Crimea on Saturday morning. There are no casualties or material damage,” he said on Telegram.
The claims cannot be independently verified.
Local media reported anti-aircraft activity near the western Crimean town of Yevpatoria, the southern town of Bakhchysaray, and the Crimean capital, Simferopol, on August 20.
The incidents came just one day after Moscow confirmed that Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov had taken over as commander of the fleet in the wake of a spate of setbacks.
It was also the second time the fleet’s headquarters had been attacked by a drone. In late July, Sevastopol canceled its celebrations to mark Russia's Navy Day holiday after a bomb dropped by a drone injured six people.
In April, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser Moskva, sank near Crimea. Russia claimed a munitions explosion caused the damage that sank the ship, while Ukraine claimed it had sunk the vessel with a missile strike.
On August 9, a Russian military air base in Crimea was rocked by several explosions that destroyed at least nine military aircraft. Germany's dpa news agency on August 19 quoted Western military officials as saying the attack on the Saky air base had put more than half of the Black Sea Fleet's aircraft out of commission and forced the fleet into a defensive posture.
On August 19, Russian air defenses were activated in the eastern city of Kerch, which is the terminus of the Crimea Bridge (also called the Kerch Strait Bridge), a high-profile, $4 billion project to link the occupied Ukrainian region with the Russian mainland. No damage to the bridge or the city was reported in the incident.
Ukrainian officials have avoided publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions, but an unnamed senior Ukrainian official was quoted in The New York Times as saying an elite Ukrainian military unit operating behind enemy lines was carrying out at least some of the attacks.
Fighting Intensifies In Ukraine’s South And East
Fighting in southern Ukrainian areas just north of Crimea has stepped up in recent weeks as Ukrainian forces try to drive Russian forces out of cities they have occupied since early in the war.
Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling wounded 12 people, including three children, and damaged houses and an apartment block in the town of Voznesensk in the Mykolayiv region on August 20. Two of the children were said to be in serious condition.
Voznesensk is about 30 kilometers from the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, the second largest in Ukraine. There were no reports of any damage to the nuclear plant.
The Ukrainian military said on April 20 it had destroyed a prized Russian radar system and other equipment stationed in occupied areas in the southern Zaporizhzhya region.
“Tonight, there were powerful explosions in Melitopol, which the whole city heard,” the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Ferodov, said. “According to preliminary data, [it was] a precise hit on one of the Russian military bases, which the Russian fascists are trying to restore for the umpteenth time in the airfield area.”
The claims cannot be independently verified.
In the east, Ukraine’s military General Staff said that intensified combat took place around Bakhmut, a small city that has been a key target of Moscow’s eastern offensive for weeks.
A local Ukrainian official reported sustained fighting near four settlements on the border of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which together make up the contested Donbas region. The official didn’t name the settlements.
The U.S. State Department said Ambassador John Sullivan will attend the funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow on September 3.
Gorbachev died on August 30 at a Moscow hospital at age 91.
Gorbachev took over the Communist Party and Soviet leadership in 1985 and presided over six turbulent years that saw the fall of the Iron Curtain, the reunification of Germany, and ultimately the Soviet demise.
Then-KGB officer and current Russian President Vladimir Putin has since called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century."
The Kremlin said Putin will not be able to attend the funeral service because of his work schedule.
Putin privately laid flowers at Gorbachev’s coffin on September 1.
Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, following a ceremony at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, which has served as the site for state funerals since Soviet times.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on September 1 that while the last Soviet leader will not be honored with a full state funeral, the service will have an honor guard and some other elements that are usually part of such a ceremony.
He would not specify how it would differ from a full-fledged state funeral.
U.S. President Joe Biden is requesting $11.7 billion in emergency funds from Congress for Ukraine as the country battles against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The request is part of a larger $47.1 billion emergency spending package sought as the United States continues to cope with the COVID-19 and monkeypox crises and recent natural disasters affecting some states in the South.
Current financing for federal agencies will run out at the end of the 2022 fiscal year on September 30 unless extended by Congress. Lawmakers have not yet passed a 2023 funding bill, meaning they would likely need to pass a stopgap funding measure, allowing them more time to negotiate.
The new funds for Ukraine would be in addition to the $40 billion that was approved earlier this year.
The White House said that about 75 percent of that military and related support has been delivered or already been committed.
The new money would include funds for equipment, intelligence support, and direct budgetary backing for Ukraine.
The emergency funding request also includes $2 billion to address the impact of Russia's war on U.S. energy supplies.
BELGRADE -- The leaders of Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia vowed to work together to preserve peace and stability in the Western Balkans, with a specific focus on helping each other cope with possible food and energy shortages in the face of the war in Ukraine.
The comments came at the Open Balkan initiative summit on September 2 in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, attended by host President Aleksandar Vucic, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and the prime minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski.
They were joined by Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic; the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Zoran Tegeltia; Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu; Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto; and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Vargei.
The six Western Balkan nations -- Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo--– all aspire to join the EU, although some lingering issues, such as regional conflicts, corruption, and the rule of law, have slowed the process.
The Open Balkans initiative, launched in 2019, aims to encourage economic cooperation and to press the case of regional countries for eventual EU membership.
At the summit, Vucic, Rama, and Kovachevski agreed to form a body that would help the three governments share surplus energy and food supplies.
"Everything that is ours will be available to North Macedonia and Albania, and vice versa," Vucic told reporters.
“This was the right step at the right moment,” Kovachevski said. “We are here together to send a message of solidarity between our states and governments and readiness to jointly tackle the crisis and the tough winter that we are facing.”
The nations agreed to establish so-called "green corridors" in which citizens and trucks with goods will be able to cross borders in 15-20 minutes, instead of having to endure long waits, as was often the case previously.
Albania's Rama said the upcoming winter will be the most difficult from an energy point of view and said the three countries would ask the EU to help them during the rough times.
"The best scenario for Albania would be a half-billion euros ($498 million) [in additional aid] for...continuous electricity supplies," Rama said. "I call on the EU not to repeat the shameful behavior from the [COVID-19] pandemic, when Western Balkan countries had to turn to China, Russia, and Turkey."
Vucic said that “we are facing a hard winter, and anyone who says different would not be fair and would not be telling the truth.”
Iranian filmmaker Ali Ahmadzadeh has been arrested, the latest in a series of detentions of cultural and activist figures in Iran.
Sources told RFERL’s Radio Farda that Ahmadzadeh was arrested in Tehran on August 30, after being summoned to security agencies several times in recent months. The reason for his arrest is not clear. However, he had recently finished production of a film without obtaining a production license from the Cinematography Organization of the Ministry of Islamic Guidance. Ahmadzadeh has long been on the radar screens of the government.
His second film, Atom Heart Mother, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014, was only allowed to be shown in Iran in 2017 after modifications required by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance. Soon after it began showing in Iran, officials reversed their decision and the film was pulled from cinemas. Pressure on Iranian filmmakers has intensified in recent weeks.
Well-known figures such as Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have been arrested, while cases have been filed against other filmmakers such as Majid Barzegar, Mohsen Amiryousefi, and Mojtaba Mirtahmaseb. All were summoned to security agencies as a prelude to their cases. The pressure on filmmakers also comes amid a broader crackdown on dissent in Iran. Several journalists, activists, and lawyers have been summoned or arrested by authorities in recent weeks. At the same time, authorities have increased their pursuit of women who have pushed back on the compulsory hijab rules after the announcement of new restrictions on how women may dress at universities and government offices
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Zhanbolat Mamai, the jailed leader of the unregistered opposition Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, says an attack is being planned against him while he is being held in custody.
Mamai's wife, Inga Amanbai, told RFE/RL on September 2 that she received a written message from her husband who said that he had reportedly been contacted by an infamous criminal kingpin, Arman Zhumageldiev, known as Dikiy (Wild) Arman, who threatened to "physically retaliate" against him for an unspecified YouTube video.
In the letter to his wife, Mamai wrote that most likely Zhumageldiev, whom he openly criticized in the past, has nothing to do with the threat. Mamai fears the authorities may have decided to organize an attack against him and are using the criminal boss as cover.
"I openly state that the secret services and Kazakhstan's authorities will be behind any attack against me. I had no conflicts with anyone while in custody," Mamai's letter says.
Zhumageldiev was arrested in January following mass anti-government protests and charged with attacking police and abducting 24 persons during the protests.
Zhumageldiev’s lawyer, Talghat Esimov, told RFE/RL that his client is currently being held at the detention center of the Committee of National Security and has no way to send any messages outside of its walls.
The 34-year-old Mamai was arrested in late February. He faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots and knowingly disseminating false information during the protests in January, which he and his supporters reject as politically motivated.
Last week, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) called on Kazakh authorities to release Mamai and other political prisoners and stop the criminal prosecution of those who died during unrest in the Central Asian nation in January.
An explosion has rocked one of Iran's major oil refineries in the southwestern city of Abadan, but officials say there were no casualties.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency on September 2 quoted informed sources as saying one of the furnaces at the sulfur production unit at the Abadan refinery caught fire and exploded. Abadan is the oldest refinery complex in Iran and one of the largest, supplying around one-quarter of the country's fuel supplies. The press department at the Abadan Oil Refining Company said there were no casualties from the blast. No cause was given, although industrial accidents are common in Iran.
In the past, Tehran has blamed Israel for some incidents, including assassinations, sabotage, and cyberattacks. Iran’s steel industry was the target of a major cyberattack in June. Three major steel companies were hit, disrupting their operations. A group calling itself Predatory Sparrow claimed responsibility. The group also claimed a cyberattack in October on Iran’s fuel distribution system that paralyzed gas stations nationwide. Hacker attacks on important and sensitive infrastructure in Iran have increased significantly in recent years. Experts have said that many of the incidents bear the hallmarks of state-sponsored attacks.
DUSHANBE -- A Tajik activist from the Central Asian nation's restive Gorno-Badakhshan Region (GBAO) has reportedly been arrested in Moscow and may be extradited to Tajikistan, where his relatives say he faces illegal incarceration and arbitrary prosecution.
Relatives of Mamadbek Atobekov told RFE/RL on September 2 that the activist was detained in Moscow a day earlier, adding that two Tajik police officers were among the Russian law enforcement officers who took him into custody.
It is not known where Atobekov is being kept as Moscow police have not commented on his arrest.
According to the relatives, another GBAO native, Mansur Dildorbekov, was arrested along with Atobekov but released an hour later.
Two weeks earlier, another GBAO native, noted blogger Maqsud Ghayosov, was arrested in Moscow and has been held incommunicado since.
The Pamir Daily News website that monitors developments in the GBAO says at least 20 of the region's natives have been detained in Moscow and forcibly brought to Tajikistan in the last six months.
Relatives and rights defenders say that the arrests in Moscow were most likely linked mass protests in the GBAO that were violently dispersed by the authorities in May.
Deep tensions between the Tajik government and residents of the volatile GBAO have simmered since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Protests are rare in tightly controlled Tajikistan, where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.
The latest crackdown on activists in the GBAO followed protests initially sparked by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Khorugh Mayor Rizo Nazarzoda.
The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, 29-year-old Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting the authorities to launch what they called a "counterterrorist operation."
The escalating violence in the region has sparked a call for restraint from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.
Also, on September 2, sources close to law enforcement structures told RFE/RL that a Tajik activist, Emomali Kholov, who was arrested in Russia and extradited to Tajikistan in June, is suspected of having links with banned opposition Group 24 movement and may face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
Group 24 was labeled as extremist and banned in 2014. In March 2015, the movement's founder, businessman and politician Umarali Quvatov, was assassinated in Istanbul.
Iran's Navy said it briefly seized two U.S. surface drones in the Red Sea for the second time in recent days, saying the unmanned vessels jeopardized maritime safety.
"The [Iranian Navy] frigate Jamaran seized the two vessels on September 1 to prevent any possible accident after issuing warnings to the U.S. fleet. After international shipping lanes were secured, the two vessels were released in a safe area," Iran’s state TV reported on September 2.
It aired footage that appeared to show more than a dozen Iranian Navy personnel pushing two drones into the sea from the deck of their vessel.
A U.S. official told Reuters that Iranian personnel initially covered the drones with tarps and denied having them before returning them to U.S. warships that arrived at the scene.
On August 30, the Pentagon said an Iranian ship had seized an American military unmanned research vessel in the Persian Gulf but released it after a U.S. Navy patrol boat and helicopter were deployed to the location.
The Islamic republic has been building up its naval presence in the Red Sea over the past decade to protect Iranian oil tankers and merchant ships against piracy.
Tehran has repeatedly warned the United States about its military activities in the Gulf, saying that Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces have increased patrols to also secure the passage of Iranian ships and combat fuel smuggling.
The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations vowed to “urgently” move forward on implementation of a price cap on Russian oil imports as part of its "united" response to Moscow’s brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The G7 on September 2 said the long-discussed move would be aimed at depriving Russia of revenue needed to conduct its military operations and to help lower energy prices on world markets.
Following a summit in Elmau, Germany, G7 leaders “reaffirmed a shared commitment” to implement measures that would punish Moscow for its “brutal, unprovoked, unjustifiable, and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine."
G7 members said agreed provisions would allow maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products only if supplies are purchased at or below a price to be “determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap.”
Global service providers would only be permitted to do business related to Russian seaborne oil and petroleum products if the supplies were sold at or below the price cap.
The G7 -- which consists of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Japan -- said it would work to finalize measures within its own jurisdictions, but it did not give a time frame.
For such a price cap to have a significant impact, it would also need to be implemented by the European Union, which requires unanimity among its 27 members, some of which are reluctant to endanger domestic energy supplies with winter approaching.
Disruptions in energy supplies from Russia have caused prices to surge worldwide, causing particular hardship for poorer countries but also hitting the economies of the industrialized world.
The G7 said a price cap would limit the impact of Russia’s “war on global energy prices, particularly for low- and middle-income countries."
U.S. President Joe Biden has been outspoken in his call for a price cap on Russian energy products.
On September 2, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a price cap on Russian oil would serve Washington’s "dual goals” of fighting inflation and striking a blow against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance his “brutal” war in Ukraine.
The G7 statement came after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the EU that Moscow could halt the flow of natural gas to the bloc if it introduces a price cap on Russian supplies, as urged by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen on September 2 called for a price cap on Russian pipeline gas to prevent Moscow from manipulating the EU's energy market in retaliation for sanctions sparked by the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
Medvedev, who has taken a hard line against countries that have slapped sanctions on Russia over the invasion, said a cap would trigger a response and "there will simply be no Russian gas in Europe.”
The statements come as Russia on September 2 scrapped a deadline to resume gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany after saying it had discovered a fault in the pipeline during maintenance, further heightening fears in Europe as the winter approaches.
Russian state-controlled Gazprom said without giving a time frame that it could not safely restart deliveries until it had fixed an oil leak found in a pipeline turbine. Gazprom originally had said the pipeline, after a three-day pause for maintenance, would resume operations early on September 2.
Federal agents in the United States have searched several properties linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, whose superyacht was seized in Spain earlier this year at the request of the United States.
The FBI said on September 1 that its agents and officers of Homeland Security searched a Park Avenue high-rise apartment in New York, an estate in Southampton, New York, and the enclave of Fisher Island in Miami, Florida.
No further details were provided, while the mentioned properties are believed to be linked to the 65-year-old Vekselberg, who is known as a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. There was no immediate comment from either Vekselberg or his representatives. In April, Spanish police seized a superyacht worth around $120 million that belonged to Vekselberg following a request from the United States, which alleges the vessel violates U.S. bank fraud, money laundering, and sanction statutes. The U.S. investigation alleges that Vekselberg bought the yacht, named the Tango, in 2011 and has owned it since then. It also alleges that Vekselberg used shell companies to hide his interest in the Tango to avoid bank oversight into U.S.-dollar transactions related to it. Vekselberg, a billionaire with ties to Russia’s mining industry, and those working on his behalf made payments through U.S. banks for the support and maintenance of the Tango, the warrant for the seizure of the yacht said. This included a payment for a December 2020 stay at a luxury resort in the Maldives and mooring fees for the yacht. Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2018. More sanctions were added on March 12 of this year following the start of Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. It was one of several superyachts linked to a Russian billionaire to be impounded as part of Europe's efforts to pressure Russian President Putin to pull out of Ukraine.
Russian investigators have confiscated the passport of a former columnist at RFE/RL's Idel.Realities online project that covers news and developments in Russia's Volga and Urals area, a move that has blocked her from traveling to Israel to receive cancer treatment.
Marina Yudkevich wrote on Facebook on September 1 that after police searched her home on August 17, she and six other journalists whose homes were also searched that day in Tatarstan's capital, Kazan, were officially designated as witnesses in an extremism case related to an online post about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Yudkevich wrote that the journalists, including herself, were ordered not to leave Kazan and investigators confiscated her passport, computers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. "I see two variants for my future: either I am burdened with cancer in a detention center and later in a penal colony, or, if I am be a bit optimistic, I am allowed to die at home," Yudkevich wrote, adding that investigators will most likely change her witness status to that of a suspect. Yudkevich also wrote that she had an appointment at a clinic in Jerusalem on August 24 that she was forced to skip as she was unable to travel abroad without her passport, which investigators refused to return. The Setevyye Svobody group, which monitors the rights of online journalists, said in a statement on September 1 that it helped Yudkevich file an appeal against the home search and confiscation of her passport with Tatarstan's Prosecutor-General's Office. RFE/RL President and CEO Jamie Fly has condemned the searches of the journalists' homes. President Vladimir Putin in March signed a law that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine. The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian Army that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison. It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has reportedly recruited almost 1,000 inmates from two penal colonies in the southwestern Rostov region, promising them early release if they fight in Moscow's war against Ukraine.
Prigozhin is a businessman who is believed to be the leader of Russia's Vagner private paramilitary group.
The Vot Tak online television channel quoted inmates at a penal colony in the city of Bataisk on September 1 as saying that Prigozhin arrived at the penitentiary in recent days by personal helicopter along with his associate Dmitry Utkin. He then met with all of the inmates at the colony's central square. According to the inmates, the administration of the IK-15 penal colony ordered all guards to switch off their personal video cameras while Prigozhin and Utkin talked to the inmates. They said Prigozhin promised those who joined Russian armed forces in Ukraine will get early release in six months, adding that during the military operations in Ukraine, the inmates "can do anything they want with the Ukrainians."
The inmates also said Prigozhin warned that anyone attempting to defect or escape from the battlefield would be shot dead. In the end, about 700 inmates agreed to join the Russian armed forces, which is roughly a half of all the inmates at the colony. The television channel also talked to inmates at another penal colony in the Rostov region on condition that the penitentiary was not identified. They said Prigozhin managed to recruit around 300 more inmates there. Russia's armed forces have reportedly suffered heavy casualties amid stronger-than-expected resistance from Ukrainian troops since the Kremlin launched its invasion on February 24. Reports about the unofficial recruiting of inmates in Russian penitentiaries have circulated the country for months. Earlier reports said Prigozhin also recruited nearly 350 inmates from three penitentiaries in the Ivanovo region. Prigozhin rejected the report, reiterating his long-held claim that he has nothing to do with the shadowy Vagner Group.
The chief of the UN's nuclear watchdog said six inspectors remain at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant and that he plans to issue a report on the safety of the Russian-held site next week, even as heavy fighting was reported near Europe's largest nuclear facility.
Rafael Grossi, who led a 14-member team to the plant, said late on September 2 that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) on-site presence will be reduce to two staff members next week and that they would remain there for the longer term.
Separately, in a rare acknowledgment, Ukraine's military said it had conducted strikes against Russian military positions in around the town of Enerhodar, near the location of the nuclear plant.
"It has been confirmed that in the region around the towns of Kherson and Enerhodar, precise strikes by our armed forces destroyed three enemy artillery systems as well as a warehouse with ammunition and up to a company of soldiers," the General Staff said, without providing details.
Both sides in recent weeks have exchanged claims that the other has shelled the power plant, raising fears of a nuclear disaster and spurring the IAEA to demand that the Russian occupying force allow its inspectors access to the site.
Russia's ambassador to international institutions in Vienna earlier told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that six experts from the IAEA mission would stay at the site for several days, while two would be stationed there permanently.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has demanded that the plant be returned to Ukrainian authority and he lamented that the IAEA had failed to push for the demilitarization of the site and had not ensured access for independent media.
Ukrainian officials reported "constant mortar attacks" by the Russian forces that hit several civilian buildings on September 1. Local officials in Zaporizhzhya also said the Russians troops were shelling "the pre-agreed route of the IAEA mission from [the city of] Zaporizhzhya to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant."
In turn, Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of attempting to seize the power plant.
Enerhoatom said on September 2 that it had reconnected the No. 5 reactor to the grid after it was shut down due to the shelling.
"Currently, two power units are operating at the station, which produce electricity for the needs of Ukraine," it said.
The Zaporizhzhya plant has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say Russia is using the facility as a shield, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow denies the allegations and accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the area. Both sides say they fear a nuclear catastrophe due to shelling they blame on each other.
The European Union's foreign policy chief has received Iran’s response regarding a possible revival of the 2015 nuclear deal and sent it along to other members of the original accord, a spokesman said.
"Right now, everybody is studying this response," Josep Borrell's spokesman, Peter Stano, said on September 2.
"The way ahead will be -- as always -- discussed with all participants and the U.S.," he added.
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States signed the accord with Tehran in 2015.
Under the agreement, Iran curtailed its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The EU has served as an intermediary for the indirect talks after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear accord in 2018.
After the U.S. pullout, Tehran began to violate terms of the accord by rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Talks on reviving the deal appeared to progress earlier this year, but indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington broke down over several issues.
Earlier on September 2, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that “the sent text [by Iran] has a constructive approach with the aim of finalizing the negotiations.”
He gave no details about the content of the text.
The State Department confirmed it had received Iran's response through the EU.
"We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” the State Department said, also not elaborating on what Iran's proposal contained.
Iran insists it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said earlier this week that Tehran needs stronger guarantees from Washington for the revival of the deal. He also said the IAEA should drop its "politically motivated probes" of Tehran's nuclear work.
The United States has welcomed a United Nations report saying China may have committed crimes against humanity in its western region of Xinjiang.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on September 1 that the report by departing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet authoritatively described China's "appalling treatment" of Uyghurs and other minorities.
"This report deepens and reaffirms our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that [Chinese] government authorities are perpetrating against Uyghurs, who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang," Blinken said. Bachelet released the report excoriating Beijing for "serious human rights violations" and possible "crimes against humanity" on August 31. It cited "arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghurs and other Muslims in the western Chinese region. China has vigorously denied any abuses in Xinjiang, insisting it is running centers for vocational education designed to curb Islamic extremism.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the report "completely illegal and void" and told a regular briefing on September 1 that it "is a political tool which serves as part of the West's strategy of using Xinjiang to control China." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stood by the report and called on China to follow the text's recommendations to end "discriminatory" practices against the Uyghurs and others who have been sent to the detention centers. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said separately that the United States would work with allies and partners to demand an end to China's abuses. "It is critical that the full Human Rights Council membership have an opportunity to formally discuss the findings of this report as soon as possible and that the perpetrators of these atrocities are held accountable," she said in a statement.
China has been accused for years of detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims in the region. The UN Human Rights Office could not confirm how many people were affected by the centers but concluded that the system operated on a "wide scale" across the entire region. Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson said the "damning" findings showed why Beijing "fought tooth and nail" to prevent its publication. Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director Omer Kanat called the report "a game-changer" for the international response to the Uyghur situation, but Salih Hudayar, a Uyghur-American who campaigns for Xinjiang independence, said the document was missing the word "genocide."
Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka of Belarus after losing to her in the second round of the U.S. Open on September 1 as animosity among the players over the war in Ukraine crept into the grand slam tournament in New York.
Azarenka defeated Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 and opted for a racquet touch instead of the customary handshake after the match. Kostyuk said it was a way to express her frustration with Azarenka for not opposing the war more vocally.
Kostyuk said Azarenka had not personally told her her opinion about the war, adding: "I feel like she could have done more."
The 20-year-old from Kyiv said she felt that a handshake would not have been “the right thing to do in the circumstances I'm in right now."
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has allowed the Russian military to use its territory to launch attacks into Ukraine.
Azarenka, 33, said she wasn't surprised by Kostyuk's offer of her racket instead of her hand.
"I don't believe that making a big deal out of it is important. I always shake hands with my opponents," she said.
Azarenka also pushed back at the suggestion she had not reached out to Kostyuk, saying she had offered to many times through the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
The two-time grand slam winner, who is ranked 26th in the world, also said she had put out "a very clear message from the beginning that I'm here to try to help."
A court in Moscow has dropped a case against an independent municipal lawmaker over his post on Facebook related to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The Zyuzino district court ruled on September 1 that Konstantin Yankauskas’s post did not contain criminal elements.
He had been charged with discrediting the Russian armed forces involved in the invasion.
The post was a translation of Pope Francis's statement calling for prayers for peace in Ukraine, in which he also asked God to save residents of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that was heavily bombed and ruined by Russian armed forces during the invasion that started in late February.
"There can be no persuasive reasons to barbarically kill children, innocent and defenseless civilians," the translation of the pope's prayer by Yankauskas said.
Yankauskas did not add any thoughts or ideas of his own to the translation of the pope’s statement.
The court ruled to close the case, saying Yankauskas did not violate any law.
Jailed Iranian political activist Behnam Mousivand has reportedly gone on another hunger strike to protest the conditions of his detention.
Arash Sadeghi, a civil activist and former political prisoner, said in a tweet on August 31 that Mousivand recently stopped eating after he was transferred to solitary confinement. According to reports from human rights groups, Mousivand launched the hunger strike after authorities of Evin prison prevented him from being transferred to a medical center outside the prison despite his deteriorating health condition, with the warden even threatening to transfer him to another prison. Mousivand first went on a hunger strike in April after being beaten by prison guards for refusing to wear handcuffs and shackles while he was heading to receive medical treatment outside of the prison, where he is serving six years on convictions for "assembly and collusion against national security" and "propaganda against the system.” At that time, instead of transferring Mousivand to a health center for treatment, he was moved to a quarantine ward at the notorious Evin prison on the northern edge of Tehran, human rights groups quoted sources as saying at the time.
Mousivand, 35, has been arrested several times for his political activism.
A Russian billionaire of Armenian descent has decided to renounce his Russian citizenship and move to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ruben Vardanyan said he made the decision to move to Nagorno-Karabakh with an understanding of all the risks he may face.
“This was a difficult but right decision," Vardanyan said in his video statement issued on September 1.
Vardanyan stressed that after the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijan war over Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in Baku regaining control over big chunks of the disputed region and seven adjacent districts, "many people in Artsakh (the Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh) started feeling that they have been abandoned."
"I believe that after the 2020 war, we, Armenians of the whole world, must be together with Artsakh," Vardanyan said, adding that after settling in Nagorno-Karabakh he will move all his assets in Russia to his family fund.
Vardanyan's announcement comes less than a week after Azerbaijani forces took control over the key town of Lachin, linking the breakaway region with Armenia. The town had been under the control of Russian peacekeepers since the six-week war that left more than 6,500 dead ended in November 2020 with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire.
Baku last month forcibly took control of several strategic heights near the disputed region, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that people who "illegally settled" in villages in the Lachin district should leave the area "on their own will." He added that families of Azerbaijanis who had been forced to leave the territory 30 years ago would be returning.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which along with the seven adjacent districts had been under ethnic Armenian control for nearly three decades prior to the war in 2020, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Vardanyan, 54, was born in Yerevan. He is the former chief executive officer and shareholder of the Troika Dialog investment bank that was bought by Sberbank in 2011.
Last year, Forbes estimated Vardanyan's assets at $1 billion.
Since Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, many oligarchs and businesspeople have left Russia amid Western sanctions targeting some Russian tycoons close to Kremlin over its aggression against Ukraine.
Iranian security agents have raided the homes of dozens of Baha'i citizens in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, arresting 14 of them.
According to the Iran Human Rights news agency, the raids took place in the cities of Sari and Qaemshahr on August 31. The 14 people were arrested after their houses were searched, with agents confiscating some of their belongings, including mobile phones and religious textbooks.
All of them were transferred afterward to the Sari Intelligence Department for interrogation.
At the same time, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a court in southern Iranian city of Shiraz sentenced 25 followers of the Baha'i faith to prison terms ranging from two to five years. The charges included "holding promotional and educational meetings and classes with the presence of Muslim people and promoting Baha'i beliefs" in what the religion's leaders say is another sign of the persecution they face. In the verdict issued against the 25 Baha'i followers, the court said their activities are "completely organizational and propaganda and in line with the goals and documents of the Bayt al-Adl based in Israel and independent of personal beliefs." Bayt al-Adl (Universal House of Justice), located in the Israeli city of Haifa, is the nine-member supreme ruling body of the Baha'i faith. In an interview with Radio Farda, Simin Fahandej, the spokeswoman for the Worldwide Baha’i Community in Geneva, said the Iranian government is increasing pressure on Baha'is, including the issuance of stiff prison sentences against them, as part of a "new wave of persecution."
Baha'is -- who number some 300,000 in Iran and have an estimated 5 million followers worldwide -- say they face systematic persecution in Iran, where their faith is not officially recognized in the constitution. On several occasions, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa issued in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith. Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, hundreds of Baha'is have been arrested and jailed for their beliefs. At least 200 have been executed or were arrested and never heard from again. Thousands more have been banned from receiving higher education or had their property confiscated, while vandals often desecrate Baha'i cemeteries.
LUKoil, Russia's largest private oil company and one of the few to voice opposition to the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, says its chairman has died following a "serious illness," disputing local media reports that he had plunged to his death from a hospital window.
"We deeply regret to announce that Ravil Maganov...passed away following a serious illness," LUKoil said in a statement on September 1, hours after local media quoted sources and unnamed law enforcement officials as saying the 67-year-old fell out of the window of the Central Clinical Hospital in the Russian capital and died.
The state-controlled TASS news agency cited an unnamed law enforcement source as saying Maganov had committed suicide by jumping from a sixth-story window after being admitted to the hospital for a heart attack. The news site RBK also said police were investigating the possibility of suicide.
Maganov had worked for LUKoil since the early 1990s and was considered a Kremlin loyalist. He had been a member of the board of directors since 1993 and the chairman of the board since 2020. He served as the company's first executive vice president since 2006 and oversaw the exploration and production unit.
Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that Maganov died after falling from a hospital window, but the circumstances of his fall were still unclear. Moscow police referred questions about the death to the state Investigative Committee, according to Reuters.
His body was found on the grounds of the Central Clinical Hospital, Russian media reported. The hospital is known for having Russia's political and business elite among its patients.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the hospital on September 1 to lay flowers beside the coffin of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at the hospital on August 30.
LUKoil raised eyebrows in March -- just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine -- as one of the only companies to condemn the war, calling it “tragic” while urging for the “earliest [possible] end to the armed conflict.”
The LUKoil statement on September 1 gave no further details on Maganov in what is the latest in a series of mysterious deaths of Russian businessmen since Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In May, Russian media reported that a former top manager of LUKoil, Aleksandr Subbotin, was found dead in a basement in a house in the town of Mytishchi near Moscow.
According to the sources, the owner of the house where the billionaire's body was found, Aleksei Pindyurin, also known as Shaman Magua, testified to police that Subbotin came to his house under the influence of alcohol and drugs seeking a ritual he often asked Pindyurin to perform to relieve hangover symptoms.
Weeks before that, Vagit Alekperov, the founder and co-owner of LUKoil, resigned after he and other Russian tycoons were hit by sanctions by Australia and the United Kingdom over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The same day, media reports said a former top manager at Russian gas giant Novatek, Sergei Protosenya, his wife, and daughter, had been found dead in a rented villa in the town of Lloret de Mar near Barcelona.
Several other senior Russian businessmen and their families have also been found dead amid unclear circumstances.
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the funeral service of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who died earlier this week, because of his work schedule.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on September 1 that while Gorbachev will not be honored with a full state funeral, the service will have an honor guard and some other elements usually given during such a ceremony.
He added that Putin stopped by the Central Clinical Hospital earlier in the day to bid farewell to the man credited with helping end the Cold War, whose body remains there after he passed away at the age of 91 on August 30 following a prolonged illness.
"Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do that [attend the service] on September 3, which is why he decided to it today," Peskov said.
Gorbachev's daughter, Irina Virganskaya, has said her father's funeral will be held on September 3 at the historic House of the Unions, where all Soviet leaders, except Nikita Khrushchev, have laid in state. The site is just a short walk away from the Kremlin.
Putin's decision not to attend the funeral highlights the frosty response the Kremlin has had to the death of a man much of the West praised for ushering in political and economic changes known as "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring) that helped trigger the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, and ultimately the demise of the Soviet Union.
Putin, who had a strained relationship with Gorbachev and waited nearly a day before publishing a restrained message of condolence for the former leader, has called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century.
Gorbachev had carefully criticized Putin, at times, for rolling back democratic reforms and reintroducing elements of repression that seemed more at home during the Soviet era than post-perestroika Russia.
When Boris Yeltsin, who helped sideline Gorbachev to become Russia's first president after the Soviet Union collapsed, died in 2007, Putin declared a national day of mourning and, alongside world leaders, attended a grand state funeral in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The Gorbachev Foundation initially said Russians could bid farewell at a ceremony in the House of the Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on September 3. However, it later said, without explanation, that the service had been cut by two hours and would now run from 10 a.m. to noon Moscow time.
Gorbachev will be laid to rest at Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, who died in 1999 of leukemia at the age of 67.
A court in Switzerland has fined three members of Russia's Pussy Riot protest group for attempting to paint anti-war graffiti on the curb of a road in Bern.
Pussy Riot member Taso Pletner tweeted on August 31 that she and her two colleagues, Maria Alyokhina and Lyusya Shtein, were ordered to pay 400 Swiss francs ($410) each.
The trio was briefly detained by Bern police on August 30 while they were trying to paint graffiti protesting Russian's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In August 2021, Alyokhina and Shtein were handed parole-like sentences in Russia for calling on people to participate in unsanctioned rallies to support jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny after he was arrested at a Moscow airport upon his return from Germany, where he was convalescing from a poison attack.
In April this year, the two cut off electronic bracelets they were forced to wear and managed to flee Russia. Alyokhina, Shtein, and other members of the protest group have been known as ardent critics of Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine.
Last week, the Russian Embassy in Switzerland published a statement saying that Pussy Riot's actions criticizing the Kremlin are illegal both in Switzerland and Russia.
Pussy Riot came to prominence in 2012 after three of its members were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for a stunt in which they burst into Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral and sang a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time and campaigning for his subsequent return to the Kremlin.
Alyokhina and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova had almost completed serving their two-year prison sentences when they were freed in December 2013 under an amnesty. The two have dismissed the move as a propaganda stunt by Putin to improve his image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics that were held in the Russian resort city of Sochi.
Robert Mardini, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has warned that fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant must be halted immediately before a "massive incident" causes a humanitarian catastrophe.
"In the event of a nuclear leak, it will be difficult if not impossible to provide humanitarian assistance...and this is why fighting should stop," Mardini told a news conference on September 1 during a visit to Ukraine.
"It is therefore time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures to protect this facility, and others like it, from military any operations.... The slightest miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades," he added.
Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for shelling around Europe's largest nuclear power station, which Russian troops took control of shortly after invading Ukraine in late February. Ukrainian engineers have been allowed to continue operating the plant, under Russian supervision.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency were on their way to visit the plant early on September 1 despite ongoing shelling. The mission is set to assess physical damage to the plant, determine the functionality of safety and security systems, evaluate staff conditions and perform urgent safeguards activities.
"The scenario could be a massive incident, and...there is very little anyone can do to mitigate the dire consequences of this," Mardini said.
NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's president, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, has called for an early presidential election in the coming months in which he will seek a second term in office.
In an annual address on September 1, Toqaev also proposed increasing the presidential term to seven years from five years while barring future presidents from seeking more than one term.
"I propose that we hold early presidential elections in the autumn of 2022," Toqaev told parliament, saying measures were needed to "strengthen our statehood" and "maintain the momentum of reforms."
Toqaev also called for early parliamentary elections to be held in the first half of 2023. He said the elections will be held both for the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, and the maslikhats, local councils on all levels.
A presidential vote had been due in Kazakhstan in 2024 and parliamentary elections in 2025. To call an election, parliament must approve such a proposal and then pass it on to the Central Electoral Commission, which officially sets the date.
Toqaev's statement comes as human rights groups and political activists in the Central Asian nation demand a full investigation into violent nationwide protests that rocked the country in early January. Some 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed in the unrest.
Many in Kazakhstan, including relatives of those killed during the unrest, have been demanded an explanation from Toqaev on his decision to invite Russia-led troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization to disperse the protests, as well as his public "shoot to kill without warning" order.
The unrest occurred after a peaceful demonstration in the western region of Manghystau on January 2 over a fuel-price hike tapped into deep-seated resent over the country's leadership, leading to widespread antigovernment protests.
Thousands of people were detained by officials during and after the protests, which Toqaev said were caused by "20,000 terrorists" from abroad, a claim for which authorities have provided no evidence.
Human rights groups have provided evidence that peaceful demonstrators and people who had nothing to do with the protests were among those killed by law enforcement and military personnel.
In his September 1 address, Toqaev announced that all of those arrested or convicted for taking part in the January unrest, as well as law enforcement officers arrested for alleged beating and torturing the detained protesters, will be granted clemency.
"The amnesty will not affect the main suspects accused of organizing the unrest, as well as those charged with high treason and attempting to seize power," Toqaev said. He gave no further details such as naming such suspects or an exact number of those arrested during and after the unrest.
The former chief of Kazakhstan’s Committee of National Security, Karim Masimov, who was a close associate of Toqaev's predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, and three of his ex-deputies were arrested after the unrest and charged with high treason.
Karimov's fourth deputy, Samat Abish, who is a nephew of Nazarbaev, was interrogated and identified as a person on interest in the case.
Nazarbaev ruled Kazakhstan for nearly three decades before resigning in March 2019 and picking his longtime ally Toqaev as his successor.
Still, he retained sweeping powers as the head of the Security Council, enjoying substantial powers with the title of "elbasy" or leader of the nation.
In June that year, Toqaev was announced the winner in an early presidential election that was followed by protests in the country's financial capital, Almaty, and some other cities, saying the poll was rigged.
In the wake of the January unrest, Toqaev stripped Nazarbaev of his Security Council role, taking it over himself. Since then, several Nazarbaev relatives and allies have been pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some have been arrested on corruption charges.
In June this year, a Toqaev-initiated referendum removed Nazarbaev's name from the constitution and annulled his status as elbasy.
Kazakh critics say Toqaev's initiatives were mainly cosmetic and would not change the nature of the autocratic system in a country that has been plagued for years by rampant corruption and nepotism.
In his annual address, Toqaev said he will suspend until 2028 a program gradually raising the retirement age for women from 58 to that of men, which is 63.
That statement appeared to be a response to numerous protests by feminist activists in several major cities in recent weeks who demanded the program to be cancelled.
The upcoming election, the date of which is yet to be set, is expected to strengthen Toqaev's mandate as an independent leader, should he win.
Kazakhstan, a tightly controlled oil-rich former Soviet republic of some 19 million, has never held a presidential election deemed free and fair by western observers.
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