The Jewish community in Yerevan said on June 10 that the only synagogue in the Armenian capital was attacked overnight, the fourth such attack since October. Unknown people threw rocks through one of the synagogue's windows. Armenian authorities launched a probe into the attack. Media reports in Israel expressed concerns over the lack of proper response to the attacks. Armenian authorities said earlier that one of the attacks may have been conducted by a Russian tourist but did not give any details. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A Moscow court on June 11 sentenced in absentia noted Russian lawyer and outspoken Kremlin critic Ilya Novikov to 8 1/5 years in prison on a charge of distributing false information about Russia's military, the court's press service said. Novikov, who currently resides in Ukraine, has openly criticized Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine. In June 2022, the Moscow Chamber of Attorneys annulled Novikov’s license to practice law. He was later added to the registry of "foreign agents." Novikov, who is also wanted in Russia on high treason charges, continues to work as a lawyer in Kyiv. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

A court in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya rejected a request by Zarema Musayeva, the imprisoned mother of three self-exiled outspoken Chechen opposition activists, for an early release over her state of health.

The Team Against Torture human rights group on June 10 quoted Musayeva's lawyer Aleksandr Savin as saying the court in the city of Shali backed up its decision by basing it on a new diagnosis made by state medical personnel.

In April, a medical commission in Chechnya replaced Musayeva's previous diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes with multiple complications with a revised assessment of type 2 diabetes without complications.

Musayeva, who is serving a five-year term in a colony settlement -- a dormitory-like penitentiary located near an industrial facility where convicts work alongside regular employees -- was hospitalized in late March after her eyesight deteriorated sharply and lumps appeared on her body.

Human rights groups have said Musayeva needs proper medical assistance as she has an acute form of diabetes, cataracts, and a constant pain in her knee.

Musayeva is the mother of Ibragim, Abubakar, and Baisangur Yangulbayev, all of whom have fled the country citing harassment from Chechen authorities over their online criticism of Kremlin-backed Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov.

Chechen police and security officers detained Musayeva in January 2022 in her apartment in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 1,800 kilometers from Chechnya, and forcibly returned her to the North Caucasus region's capital, Grozny.

In July last year, a court in Chechnya sentenced Musayeva to 5 1/2 years in prison on charges of fraud and attacking a police officer, which Musayeva and her supporters have denied.

In September, the Supreme Court of Chechnya shortened Musayeva's prison term by six months and said Musayeva must serve her term in a colony settlement instead of a correctional colony.

Kadyrov, other Chechen officials, and a member of the Russian Duma have publicly vowed to kill all members of the Yangulbayev family, calling them "terrorists."

Journalists, rights activists, and other Russians have urged the government to punish those who issued the threats.

Abubakar Yangulbayev has accused Kadyrov's law enforcement and security officers of "lawlessness on a daily basis in Chechnya" and said the case against his mother is Kadyrov's retaliation for his activities.

Ibragim and Abubakar have said they faced years of pressure from Chechen authorities over their online criticism of Kadyrov and the rights situation in Chechnya.

Many of their relatives have been similarly harassed in Chechnya and even deprived of their homes since Kadyrov and his people vowed to kill them and their families.

The activists' father, retired federal judge Saidi Yangulbayev, and a sister fled Russia in January 2022, following the threats.

Russian and international human rights groups have for years accused Kadyrov of overseeing grave human rights abuses, including abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the persecution of the LGBT community.

Kremlin critics say Putin has turned a blind eye to the abuses because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiment and violence in mostly-Muslim Chechnya.

A Moscow court on June 11 sentenced a 59-year-old resident to 10 days in jail for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Ukrainian symbols and the slogan "Glory to Ukraine." Andrei Yevseyev was found guilty of promoting extremist symbols. Police searched his apartment after he was detained on June 8 for wearing the T-shirt in question. A day earlier, the same court sentenced Viktoria Mumrina to seven days in jail on the same charge. Mumrina was accused of wearing a necklace with a pendant in the form of a Ukrainian trident. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

The United States has removed restrictions on the transfer of American weapons and training to the controversial Ukrainian military unit the Azov Brigade, the State Department said. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv confirmed the news to RFE/RL as as well. The move will help the unit, one of Ukraine's most effective and popular fighting groups, move beyond its reputation as a far-right movement that has been a constant target of Russian propaganda. The State Department said the Leahy vetting process was applied to the Azov Brigade, which has been taken into Ukraine's National Guard as the 12th Special Forces Brigade. The brigade said in a social media post that "the acquisition of Western weapons will increase the combat capability of 'Azov.'" To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

The Chelny-biz.ru website in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan said on June 11 that local officials have launched a second probe against self-exiled Tatar activist Rafis Kashapov. According to the website, Kashapov is now suspected of repeated violations of the law on "foreign agents." Tatarstan's officials have yet to confirm the report. Kashapov was previously charged in absentia with the justification of terrorism. He fled Russia in 2018 after serving a three-year prison term for openly criticizing the Russian occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Kashapov currently resides in London. He used to head the Tatar Public Center group that promoted Tatar language and culture. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, click here.

A court in Kazakhstan’s northeastern city of Oskemen handed prison terms to two local residents on June 11 on charges of separatism and calls to seize power. The Prosecutor's Office in the East Kazakhstan region said the two, whose identities were not disclosed, were sentenced to five years in prison each for statements they made online calling for a referendum on incorporating the region into the Russian Federation and to take power by force if the referendum's goal is not achieved. Several Kazakh citizens were handed prison terms on separatism charges since Russia launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in Berlin on June 11 to attend a two-day conference to plan Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and recovery once the war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion, which has left large swathes of the country in ruins, ends.

On the eve of the conference, Zelenskiy said he would hold talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz while joining the gathering that will bring together 2,000 people from politics, business, and other spheres.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

"Chancellor Scholz and I will discuss further defense assistance, the expansion of Ukraine's air defense system, and joint arms production," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

"In the face of Russia's air terror, urgent solutions for Ukraine's energy sector will be our top priority," said Zelenskiy.

Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid have forced Kyiv to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.

"Even during the current times of war, Ukraine needs to continually rebuild houses, water pipelines, hospitals, and power grids," German Development Minister Svenja Schulze said in a statement.

"People want to keep on living in their country, and to do so they need electricity, water and a roof over their heads."

Germany is the second-largest supplier of military equipment to Kyiv after the United States.

The Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin comes ahead of a G7 meeting in Italy on June 13-14 where Ukraine will be one of the main topics as countries discuss how to use profits generated by Russian assets frozen in the West to provide Kyiv with financing.

Following that, more than 90 countries and organizations will be represented at a peace summit in Switzerland over the weekend, although Russia was not invited and China will not attend.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continued attacks on Ukrainian targets, with Ukrainian authorities saying at least five people were injured in blasts in the city of Konstantynivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

The office of the regional prosecutor said on Facebook on June 11 that the victims sustained injuries "as a result of broken glass and a powerful blast wave."

At least, 13 residential buildings were damaged by the attack that occurred late in the evening on June 10, the statement added.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Germany is hosting a conference on June 11 to gather support for Ukraine's recovery from the destruction wreaked by Russia's war, sending a new signal of solidarity with Kyiv at the start of a week of intense diplomacy. The two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, following up on a similar gathering in London a year ago, comes ahead of the Group of Seven summit of Ukraine's leading Western allies in Italy and a global peace summit in Switzerland this coming weekend.

A Russian SU-34 bomber crashed in the Caucasus Mountains during a routine training flight likely due to a technical malfunction, killing the crew aboard, Russian news agencies reported on June 11, citing the Defense Ministry. "In the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, in a mountainous area, an Su-34 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed during a scheduled training flight," Russia's RIA state news agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying.

The United States and Poland on June 10 launched an international operation based in Warsaw whose mission is to help Ukraine counter Russian disinformation. James Rubin, a senior U.S. diplomat responsible for countering disinformation, and Tomasz Chlon, a Polish diplomat tasked with the same mandate, took part in a ceremony inaugurating the new Ukraine Communications Group. The group, which begins its work on June 11, will comprise representatives from 12 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, and Ukraine, Rubin said. The goal will be to try to detect and debunk Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at weakening support for Ukraine globally.

Poland will reintroduce a buffer zone at its border with Belarus, the Deputy Interior Minister Czeslaw Mroczek said on June 10. The zone will be introduced on June 13 and will span 60 kilometers along the two sections of the border with the highest number of illegal crossing attempts. Most of the buffer zone will extend 200 meters into Polish territory, but it will expand to 2 kilometers in the Bialowieza forest, Mroczek said. Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a plan to reintroduce the buffer zone following the fatal stabbing of a Polish soldier by a migrant along the border fence.

Hungary has detained 32 Ukrainian citizens who fled across the border in a truck, the Ukrainian border guard agency said on June 10. Hungary “reported that they had discovered a vehicle and detained 32 Ukrainian citizens,” Ukrainian border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told news site Ukrayinska Pravda. Demchenko said the truck is not believed to be from the Ukrainian military despite its green paint and black license plate. Martial law was imposed in Ukraine following the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and men of conscription age are barred from leaving the country, although many attempt to flee into neighboring EU states and Moldova.

The United States on June 10 announced sanctions on 10 individuals and vessels that the Treasury Department suspects of aiding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Yemen’s Huthi rebels through illicit oil transport. Among the sanctioned vessels are the Panama-flagged Bella 1 and Janet, which a Treasury Department press release said have supported the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Sanctions also again targeted Sa’id al-Jamal, who is suspected of running a shipping network and financing the IRGC-QF, the Huthis, and Syria. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said the U.S. government was “committed to disrupting and degrading the Huthis’ ability to engage in attacks.”

Iranian authorities have announced the commencement of the campaign season for upcoming early presidential elections amid a judicial crackdown on media outlets accused of misrepresenting election coverage.

State broadcaster IRIB said electoral debates are scheduled to begin on June 17, with five planned through June 25, three days before voters head to the polls in a snap election, which was called following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

This announcement of the campaign comes amid reports that the Tehran prosecutor's office has taken legal action against two local media outlets, Hashieh News and Bamdadno, on charges of distributing what the judiciary calls "false news" about the elections.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of Iran's judiciary, warned media and all candidates -- both the group of six who qualified to contest the election, and more than two dozen others whose candidacies were rejected -- of avoiding “actions” that could be “exploited” by foreign entities.

Furthermore, Ejei cautioned various media platforms against engaging in “defamatory speech, spreading lies, or disturbing public opinion,” as they could end up suffering legal consequences.

Last week, the Iranian government issued strict guidelines in which any content deemed to be aimed at discouraging voter turnout or promoting election boycotts, as well as organizing any form of unlicensed protest gatherings, strikes, or sit-ins, is now classified as "criminal."

The rules mimic previous election mandates and carry severe punishments, including the potential for as many as 74 lashes for those found in violation.

In a significant show of political dissent, Ali Larijani, a prominent figure and former speaker of parliament, publicly criticized the Guardians Council's opaque disqualification practices.

Larijani, who was disqualified from the 2021 presidential race allegedly due to his daughter's residence in the United States, penned an open letter expressing his grievances.

SEE ALSO:

Iran's 'Highly Engineered' Race For Presidency Dominated By Hard-Liners

The Guardians Council's list of approved candidates notably excludes several key figures from the current and former administrations, paving the way for a predominantly conservative slate of candidates for the upcoming election.

Five of the candidates are considered hard-liners and conservatives. Only one is a reformist candidate.

Observers said the vote is likely to be a straight fight between two hard-liners: parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative former chief nuclear negotiator and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative on the Supreme National Security Council.

The election comes against a backdrop of widespread public disillusionment, with decreasing voter turnout blamed on allegations of noncompetitive electoral processes.

In recent elections, the authorities severely limited the playing field by disqualifying most moderate and reformist candidates, which may have contributed to the low voter participation seen in recent balloting.

Rights groups have complained of an intensified clampdown on public expressions of discontent since Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others died in the helicopter crash in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran on May 19 while returning from an official visit to Azerbaijan.

Ursula von der Leyen will face some challenges to secure another five-year term as European Commission president, but her chances appeared good after her European People's Party (EPP) strengthened its grip as the largest faction in the European Parliament in elections across the European Union’s 27 countries that culminated on June 9.

As far-right parties celebrated big gains, Von der Leyen, speaking in Berlin on June 10, cast the results in a positive light for the EPP, which will remain the largest bloc in the 720-member parliament. The initial results show it is possible to "withstand the pressure from the extremes," she said.

Despite the shift to the right, von der Leyen, a member of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, was among the main winners in the election. The 65-year-old saw the center-right EPP increase the number of seats it holds in the European Parliament as centrist forces maintained an overall majority in the legislative branch of the 27-member bloc located in Strasbourg.

"We won the European elections," von der Leyen told her grouping as the results were announced, crediting the EPP's record of delivering for the public and managing crises for giving it "the strength to have this good result."

She appeared in prime position to secure another term at the helm of the European Union’s executive, the European Commission, but she will have to get a majority of European Union national leaders to support her and shore up enough support in the new parliament.

As the new parliament takes shape, EU leaders are preparing for a summit on June 17 at which they are expected to have an initial discussion on the nomination before deciding whom to nominate at another summit held in Brussels on June 27-28.

Vassilis Ntousas, an analyst with the German Marshall Fund, said there’s no question about the gains of far-right parties in four days of voting.

“What we saw was some key high-profile wins for the far right, no question about it,” Ntousas told RFE/RL. “France is perhaps the most pronounced of those examples.”

SEE ALSO:

Wider Europe Briefing: Unpacking The European Parliament Election Results

The far-right gains prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and announce new national elections immediately after his party’s losses to Marine Le Pen's National Rally were clear on June 9.

But Ntousas said the broader picture shows the far right had modest gains across the bloc and in some countries didn't do as well as preelection polling predicted. The centrist majority that has “really set the tone when it comes to EU policies has held,” he said.

On von der Leyen's chances to win reelection, Ntousas said the odds are with the incumbent, but it remains to be seen what effect the French parliamentary elections will have on the process.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni more than doubled her party’s seats in the European Parliament.

"It is a resounding result," Meloni said on June 10 of the gains made by the far-right Brothers of Italy despite a historically low turnout of 49.69 percent.

"It is very important politically and also moving personally," she told Italy’s RTL radio, noting that elsewhere in Europe governing parties had suffered in the polls.

"Italy is going completely against the trend," she said.

Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), which had been hounded by scandals, still rallied enough seats to sweep past the slumping Social Democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Scholz said the gains far-right parties made are worrying and should not become normalized. He added that Germany's coalition parties cannot "go back to business as usual" to win voters back.

The AfD on June 10 said its top candidate, Maximilian Krah, will be excluded from the party's delegation at the European Parliament because of the scandals.

Krah has been accused of having suspicious links to Russia and China, and he touched off a furor by making comments minimizing the crimes of the Nazis. Krah will still enter parliament, but the AfD delegation will be led by Rene Aust. The scandals surrounding the AfD resulted in the party's expulsion from the far-right group within the European Parliament.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters

More than a dozen tents blocked traffic on a main avenue outside Armenia's parliament on June 10 as supporters of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian pressed their demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's government over its territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

It is the evolving opposition's latest tactic in a confrontation that began in the northeastern province of Tavush in April as Armenia and Azerbaijan began the demarcation process of their heavily militarized border following an agreement announced by Yerevan and Baku.

"This is the first step of the no-confidence process or the first step of the impeachment process," Galstanian told journalists on June 10, one day after he called in front of thousands of people at a rally in Yerevan for four days of nonstop street protests. "I ask you to ask the deputies about legal solutions and steps."

Embed share

Protesters Camp Out In Yerevan, Calling For Prime Minister's Ouster

Embed share

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

---

width px height px

---

The URL has been copied to your clipboard

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:07 0:00

The National Assembly was set to open a new session later in the afternoon next to Baghramian Avenue where green tents were pitched under light rain.

Pashinian, whose Civil Contract party has a two-thirds majority in parliament, has remained defiant under nearly two months of pressure.

Under Armenia's constitution, at least one-third of lawmakers can initiate a no-confidence vote against the prime minister in parliament, provided they also name a candidate who will replace them.

Police have closed several streets leading to the anti-government encampment to avoid disruptions to parliament or a spillover in other parts of the capital.

Galstanian has vowed that the police presence won't intimidate protesters.

At one point late on June 9 a heated verbal exchange broke out between Galstanian, a nationalist priest from one of the embattled border regions who has bridged the divide between faith and government to lead the most serious challenge so far to Pashinian's six-year reign as prime minister.

The outspoken head of the Tavush Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church said that nonstop street protests were needed to "impose our will."

Armenia recently handed over four abandoned villages that used to be part of Soviet Azerbaijan but which came under Armenian control in the early 1990s during the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

The handover followed two intense flareups in the past four years in which Azerbaijani forces retook Nagorno-Karabakh from Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian forces as well as surrounding districts.

The demarcation, which was formally completed on May 15, alters the boundary in a way that affects the infrastructure of a number of Armenian border villages, which the Armenian government has pledged to fix within weeks.

Local populations have expressed fears of possible further Azerbaijani attacks after the Armenian military withdrawal from their positions held for over three decades.

But the Pashinian government insists that having a demarcated border in itself is an assurance against further conflict.

The chief of aviation in Ukraine's Air Force says some of the dozens of advanced F-16 aircraft pledged to Kyiv by Western allies will be stored abroad to avoid them being hit in Russian attacks in Ukraine.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Brigadier General Serhiy Holubtsov told Donbas.Realities of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in an extended interview that such warplanes abroad will help maintain an operational fleet corresponding to the country's Western-trained pilot corps.

"There are a certain number of aircraft that will be stored at secure air bases, outside of Ukraine, so that they are not targeted here," Holubtsov said, "And this will be our reserve in case of need for replacement of faulty planes during routine maintenance."

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have stepped up warnings since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 that they might target Ukrainian war assets stationed abroad, although doing so could risk escalation with NATO.

The storage abroad of planes or other Ukrainian military assets could "pose a serious danger of NATO being drawn further into the conflict," Putin said last year.

NATO and its members' leaders, including most recently German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on June 2, have repeatedly warned they are prepared "to defend every square inch" of alliance territory.

The head of the Russian Duma's Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, was quoted by RIA Novosti last week as saying NATO bases hosting Ukrainian F-16s would be regarded as "legitimate targets."

Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have combined to pledge more than 60 F-16s to Ukraine since Washington reluctantly gave approval for the U.S.-designed planes to be provided by allies.

But Holubtsov said more countries could do so as they gradually replace aging F-16s with F-35 aircraft.

The New York Times reported in March that Ukraine might receive just six out of dozens of the U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets promised by its Western allies by July, in part because Ukraine wasn't fully prepared to maintain or fly them despite the ongoing training of Ukrainian pilots in the West.

Holubtsov said his estimate of the number of F-16 squadrons needed to gain air superiority locally was evolving especially with the provision of U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missile systems playing "a major role" that could combine with F-16s as the latter became available.

Ukraine has struggled to defend the area around the northeastern city of Kharkiv since a new Russian offensive began there as Kyiv's allies ran into delays in hoped-for provision of weapons, artillery, and other military equipment.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration recently said it had changed its approach to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike at Russian forces and other legitimate military targets in Russia.

The chief of Ukraine's Restoration and Infrastructure Development Agency, Mustafa Nayyem, has resigned just a day before a major conference aimed at rebuilding the country once the war with Russia ends. Nayyem wrote on social networks on June 10 that he made the decision "due to systemic obstacles that prevent me from effectively carrying out my duties." He said that, since November, his team has faced "constant opposition" and "resistance" to carrying out the duties of the agency, including a decision by the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, to cancel his participation in the conference. An influential public figure and journalist, Nayyem had led the agency since January 2023. Before that he served as deputy infrastructure minister from August 2021. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

A Moscow court adjourned to an unspecified date the trial of theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriichuk, who are charged with justifying terrorism, after Berkovich felt unwell and an ambulance was called to the courtroom on June 10. The two women have maintained their innocence in the trial, which started on May 20. Berkovich and Petriichuk were arrested last year following a production of the play Finist -- The Brave Falcon. The play is about Russian women who married Muslim men and moved to Syria. If convicted, the women face up to five years in prison each. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A military court in Moscow on June 10 sentenced the former owner of the Saturn soccer club, Oleg Medvedev, to life in prison on charges of murder, banditry, and the organization of a criminal group. Medvedev is a kingpin, a person who holds the highest position in the criminal hierarchy in the former Soviet Union: thief-in-law. He is known in criminal circles as Shishkan or Oleg Ramensky. Three of his 17 co-defendants were also sentenced to life in prison, while others were handed various prison terms, including suspended ones. Medvedev's group was found guilty of killing a municipal lawmaker in the city of Ramesnakoye near Moscow, Tatyana Sidorova, and three members of her family in 2012. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

The lawyer for an Italian woman whose shackling in a Hungarian court over charges she attacked neo-Nazis whipped up tensions between Budapest and Rome has said her client will seek freedom from Hungarian house arrest after her apparent election to the European Parliament on the list of an Italian Left-Greens Alliance. Teacher and left-wing activist Ilaria Salis, 39, could face a long prison sentence in her ongoing trial over alleged violence to counter a radical right-wing rally in Hungary in February 2023. Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper quoted lawyer Eugenio Losco and Green Europe spokeswoman Angela Bonelli as saying a request for immunity was certain after her confirmation as a member of the Europan Parliament (MEP). Italy summoned Hungary's ambassador after Salis was led into the courtroom in chains in January in a move Rome said went "too far."

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktar Khrenin said in a statement on YouTube on June 10 that his country’s armed forces were taking part in the second phase of Russian exercises to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. Khrenin claimed that the drills were being held "to guarantee security" for Belarus and the Union State of Belarus and Russia. The first phase of the exercises, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, were held in southern Russia in May. Putin's move was seen as an attempt to deter the West from providing weapons to Ukraine to assist Kyiv's efforts to resist Moscow's full-scale invasion.

The former commander of NATO's bombing campaign to protect ethnic Albanians and force a withdrawal of Serb-led Yugoslav troops from Kosovo in the late 1990s has warned of ongoing obstacles to stability and dangerous Russian "ambitions" in the Balkans.

Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark told RFE/RL's Kosovo Service that Serbia and its former province Kosovo remain at cross purposes and "Serbia is a magnet, drawing Russian imperialist ambitions into Europe."

Serbia continues to reject the independence that Kosovo declared in 2008, and more than a decade of Western-mediated talks aimed at normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina have mostly stalled over recognition and representation for Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority.

"Serbia doesn't want peace, and Kosovo doesn't want to surrender its independence," Clark said in an interview coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the end of the 79-day NATO bombardment during Kosovo's war of independence.

Belgrade has worked with UN Security Council permanent member Russia to oppose partially recognized Kosovo's membership in international organizations, with support from China.

Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic has bolstered trade, energy, and diplomatic relations with Russia and avoided joining sanctions on Moscow since President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, irritating the EU candidate country's Western partners.

SEE ALSO:

'Sad, Shameful, And Terrifying': Anti-War Russians Fear Expulsion From Serbia

Belgrade's relations with Pristina have also soured further over cross-border violence, boycotted elections and walkouts, and currency and other crackdowns in Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo.

Russia has helped fuel resistance to postwar borders and institutions in the former Yugoslavia, including through appeals to Christian Orthodoxy and historical and linguistic ties particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

Clark warned that there cannot be stability between Kosovo and Serbia until "Moscow withdraws its imperialist ambitions from the region."

"Until then, you're not going to have stability and the chance for people to reconcile and move forward," Clark added.

He said Serbia was serving as "an agent of infection in the region, in North Macedonia, in Montenegro, and elsewhere" and he warned of the risk of further violence in the region.

SEE ALSO:

Serbian, Ethnic Serb Leaders Urge Unity, But Avoid Mention Of Separation From Bosnia

“The way out is Russia's defeat in Ukraine, to take the Russian backing of Serbia down to a different level," Clark said, "so Serbia understands its future's with the West. When Serbs understand that, there'll be no problem with Kosovo."

Clark was NATO's supreme allied commander Europe during the air campaign targeting mostly Serbian targets, including in Belgrade, that ended on June 10, 1999, after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement withdrawing then-Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and establishing an international peacekeeping force there amid accusations of ethnic cleansing.

Kosovo has been criticized by its Western partners over Prime Minister Albin Kurti's increasingly assertive policies, including a ban on dinar transactions despite wide use of the Serbian currency in mostly Serb-populated areas and expropriations of land.

SEE ALSO:

New Serbian Government To Keep East-West 'Two Chairs' Policy

Pristina has also refused to lay a legal foundation for an association of Serb-majority municipalities despite a pledge in the so-called Brussels Agreement in 2013.

Clark said that "nations have to do what's in their own interest" and appeared to question the essential need for such an association.

"I think for it to open the way to extraterritoriality for Serbia any more than it has north of the Ibar River is extremely damaging for the future of the people in Kosovo," Clark said, citing Serbs' past use of Orthodoxy as a "focal point for rebellion or repression or aggression."

"And so, I think it's better for everyone in the region if we don't push the association, but instead hope and work for these two governments to have normalized diplomatic relations," Clark said.

"There's always a mix of ethnic groups, but the best way for peace is to respect national boundaries."

Karim Masimov, a once-powerful politician who twice served as Kazakhstan's prime minister, has officially asked President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev for clemency from a treason conviction dating to when he was the chief of the National Security Committee (KNB).

Informburo.kz website quoted KNB officials on June 10 as saying that Masimov, who is serving an 18-year prison sentence on charges of high treason and attempting to seize power during unrest in 2022, had filed papers asking for a presidential pardon in March.

The officials added that Masimov still faces charges of bribe-taking and money laundering, which are currently under investigation.

Masimov, a close ally of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was jailed in April 2023 over his role in deadly events that followed unprecedented anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic in January 2022.

The protests began in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen in January 2022 over a sudden fuel price hike. But the demonstrations, fueled by anger over corruption, political stagnation, and widespread injustice, quickly grew.

Much of the protesters' ire appeared directed at Nazarbaev, who ruled Kazakhstan from 1989 until March 2019, when he handed over power to President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev. However, Nazarbaev was widely believed to remain in control behind the scenes.

The protests were violently dispersed by police and military personnel, including troops of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization whom Toqaev invited into the country claiming that "20,000 extremists who were trained in terrorist camps abroad" had attacked Almaty.

The authorities have provided no evidence proving Toqaev’s claim about foreign terrorists.

With reporting by Informburo.kz