A founding member of the Pussy Riot protest group, Maria Alyokhina, has revealed in an interview that she fled Russia after a Moscow court changed the remainder of her one-year parole-like sentence to real prison time last month, saying she violated the terms of her punishment.

Alyokhina's whereabouts were unknown for weeks after the Russian Interior Ministry added her to its registry of wanted persons on April 26, five days after a Moscow court approved the change in a sentence she was handed last September for violating coronavirus safety precautions by calling on people to protest against the detention of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. The court ruling meant that Alyokhina was going to have to serve the remaining 21 days of her sentence in a penal colony. In the interview with The New York Times, published late on May 10, Alyokhina said she escaped by disguising herself as a food delivery courier while leaving her mobile phone behind so police couldn't track her. She managed to reach Belarus and after two failed attempts to cross into neighboring Lithuania, a European Union member, she made it through on a bus on the strength of a travel document arranged by Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson, a friend who convinced a European country to issue Alyokhina a travel document that essentially gave her the same status as an EU citizen. "I was happy that I made it because it was an unpredictable and a big 'f**k-off'" to the Russian authorities, Alyokhina said after becoming one of thousands of Russian citizens who have fled the country after Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Alyokhina's partner and fellow Pussy Riot member Lyusya Shtein, who also fled Russia in April, posted photos of herself on Twitter dressed in a green Delivery Club uniform and wearing a food delivery backpack, describing the pictures as "the easy way to pass cops next to your apartment block."

Shtein tweeted that Alyokhina did not flee Russia but "has gone on tour," adding, "And I, let us say, have freed myself." Alyokhina, Shtein, and other members of the protest group have been sentenced to up 15 days in jail several times in recent months over taking part in protest actions and unsanctioned rallies. Pussy Riot came to prominence 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.

Internationally recognized Iranian documentary filmmaker Mina Keshavarz is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison on unknown charges, a reliable source with knowledge of the case has told RFE/RL in response to questions about Keshavarz's whereabouts.

The information follows reports of security raids involving Keshavarz and another documentarist and the disappearance of another prominent Iranian, all in the past week.

Iranian authorities have not commented on the presumed arrests.

Previous reports said Keshavarz and fellow documentary filmmaker Firouzeh Khosravani were arrested on May 10 in Tehran after their homes were raided by security forces who confiscated personal belongings.

Those reports suggested Khosravani was also taken to Evin prison, where authorities routinely take political prisoners and a source of years of allegations of torture and other prisoner abuse.

On May 9, photographer Reihaneh Taravati was reportedly arrested in the Iranian capital, also on unclear charges.

Taravati had been arrested in the past, including in 2014 after appearing in an amateur video of her and other young Iranians dancing to Pharrell Williams' hit song Happy.

Iranian authorities frequently detain people without providing the public, or often families, information about their detention or specifics of their suspected wrongdoing.

Heidi Bash-Harod, executive director of the nonprofit organization Women’s Voices Now, has worked with Keshavarz.

She told RFE/RL she was worried about Keshavarz's well-being in Evin prison, where rights groups say prisoners are routinely subjected to coercion by their interrogators.

"I want no harm to come to Mina. She is an artist and filmmaker, a culture bearer who transports us to a place many of us will not have the chance to visit," Bash-Harod said.

Keshavarz has directed films like Profession: Documentarist, about seven women filmmakers; Braving The Waves, about an Iranian woman who helps other women find jobs but runs up against a corrupt local politician; and The Art Of Living In Danger, about her own grandmother's tragic life and suicide after being forced to marry at a young age.

"Mina has often expressed how frustrated she is by the inaccurate representation of women in Iran by mainstream media outlets and her work seeks to challenge those inaccurate representations," Bash-Harod said, adding that she hopes Keshavarz will be released soon to continue to create films.

Keshavarz's documentaries have been screened and awarded in several international film events, including the Women's Voices Now Film Festival and the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The White House has accused Moscow of "wrongfully" detaining American basketball player Brittney Griner and put its envoy for hostage affairs on the case after a Russian court extended the WNBA star's pretrial custody since her detention at a Moscow airport in February.

Griner's lawyer, Aleskandr Boikov, said the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury star's custody was extended by a month by a Khimki court outside Moscow on May 13. Griner, 31, could face a 10-year jail sentence on possible charges over traces of cannabis or hashish oil in a vape device allegedly uncovered in a security check at Sheremetyevo Airport. Like a number of WNBA players who augment their salaries by playing in Russia in the off-season, Griner has played for the UMMC team in Yekaterinburg since 2014. "She is OK," Boikov said of Griner after the procedural hearing on May 13, at which the court rejected her request for transfer to house arrest. A U.S. Embassy consular officer who spoke to Griner at the hearing "was able to confirm that Brittney Griner is doing as well as can be expected under what can only be described as exceedingly difficult circumstances," State Department spokesman Ned Price added. Price said Washington was watching Griner's case closely. The White House said the Russian system wrongfully detained her and it was putting its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens, on the case. Griner's detention came as Washington was warning of imminent orders by Russian President Vladimir Putin for an all-out invasion of Ukraine, but was not announced until the launch of that war a week later deepened the gulf in U.S.-Russia relations. Bilateral diplomatic channels are still open. But there are fears that one of women's basketball's winningest players could become a bargaining chip in increasingly rancorous relations, a fact that has contributed to her family and others remaining unusually silent on the case. Griner is now due to be held until at least June 18 as the Russian investigation continues, according to the court ruling. Russia and the United States swapped prisoners in April, with Moscow releasing ailing former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019, in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking. Russian authorities still hold U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, another former Marine detained in 2018 on subsequent espionage charges he and the U.S. government deny.

The Finnish subsidiary of Russian state-owned energy provider Inter RAO has announced a halt in electricity supplies to Finland as of May 14 over unpaid bills.

But the timing of the cutoff points to Moscow anger over its northwestern neighbor's sudden abandonment of neutrality to join the NATO alliance since Russia invaded Ukraine. The Finnish subsidiary, RAO Nordic, said it hadn't received payments for energy provided through the Nord Pool power exchange since May 6. "This situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over 20 years of our trading history," RAO Nordic said. The import cutoff will go into effect at 1 a.m. local time on May 14 (2200 GMT/UTC on May 13), according to Finnish grid operator Fingrid, which warned weeks ago of the possibility of a suspension. Fingrid said Finnish households and other consumers were safe and that Russian power accounts for only around 10 percent of the country's consumption. "Missing imports can be replaced in the electricity market by importing more electricity from Sweden and also by domestic production," Fingrid said. Unprecedented sanctions against Russian financial, diplomatic, and commercial interests over the unprovoked aggression against Ukraine have crippled many trade and other flows between Russia and the West. Last month, Russian officials announced a cutoff of natural gas supplies to EU and NATO members Poland and Romania, which have lent considerable support to Ukraine since the invasion began in late February. It cited their refusal to pay in rubles for supplies contracted in euros or other non-Russian currencies. RAO Nordic has cited problems collecting payments from Nord Pool, according to Fingrid. "Nord Pool is the one paying for them. Fingrid is not a party in this electricity trade. We provide the transfer connection from Russia to Finland," Reima Paivinen, a Fingrid executive, told Reuters. A Nord Pool spokesman confirmed that settlements had always been in euros or Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish currencies but never rubles, "in line with our standard procedures."

The de facto leader of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia has set a date of July 17 for a referendum on uniting with Russia that is bound to be dismissed as a sham by Tbilisi and most outsiders.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and another region, Abkhazia, as independent countries after fighting a brief war against Georgia in 2008. Moscow maintains thousands of troops in both regions. "Anatoly Bibilov signed a decree on holding a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia," the de facto leader's office said in a statement. It cited the people's "historic aspiration" to join Russia. Bibilov had said on March 30 that the mountainous region of around 60,000 people would take imminent measures to join Russia, which it borders. Bibilov was defeated by the leader of the Nykhas party, Alan Gagloyev, in a May 8 runoff election for the leadership of South Ossetia in a vote that Georgia, the European Union, and the United States all dismissed as bogus.

Russian has warned its citizens not to travel to Britain, citing what it called London's "unfriendly course" toward Russia.

In a statement on May 13, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said that Russian citizens had been facing problems in recent days when trying to get British visas to enter the United Kingdom. According to the ministry, the British Embassy in Moscow told Russian officials that its visa section was mainly working with visa applications filed by Ukrainian refugees, delaying the processing of visa applications filed by Russian citizens. The ministry added that following the sanctions imposed against Russian financial institutions by the West, it is impossible to pay visa fees with VISA and Mastercard payment cards, which adds to the complexity of the process of obtaining the British visas. Western countries slapped Russia with sanctions over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that started on February 24. "Taking into account the extremely unfriendly course of Great Britain towards our country, and to avoid financial losses and other possible problems, we recommend Russian citizens abstain, if possible, from trips to Great Britain and attempts to obtain British visas. Until the normalization of the situation, we will act in the same way towards English people," the statement said.

President Joe Biden has stressed "close security and defense cooperation" between the United States, Finland, and Sweden in a joint call with those countries' leaders in which he also encouraged their looming NATO bids amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.

A White House readout of the call said Biden also "reiterated their shared commitment to continued coordination in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people affected by the war" to Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

The White House and Pentagon later said they were seeking clarification on potential objections by NATO ally Turkey to Finnish and Swedish membership. The Swedish and Finnish governments this week have laid out plans to commit their countries to applying for NATO membership as soon as this weekend, a result of the threat projected from Moscow. "President Biden underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy, and security arrangements," the White House account said of the call. Many members of the alliance have already expressed support for applications from Sweden and Finland, both of which have traditionally remained neutral. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 13 said he did not have a "positive opinion" of their membership. Longtime NATO member Turkey has repeatedly criticized Sweden and other Western European states for their handling of groups deemed terrorists by Ankara, including the Kurdish militant groups PKK and YPG, and the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. "Scandinavian countries are like a guesthouse for terror organizations," Erdogan said after Friday Prayers in Istanbul. Erdogan says "Gulenists" carried out a coup attempt in 2016 and his administration has detained tens of thousands over their alleged support or sympathies for the group. Gulen and his supporters deny the accusation. Erdogan's opposition could pose a problem for a process otherwise seen as clear sailing, since new NATO members need unanimous agreement. Hours after Erdogan's comment, the White House and Pentagon said they were "working to clarify Turkey's position" regarding Sweden and Finland. "Nothing changes about their standing in the NATO alliance," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. "We're working to better clarify [their] position." Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border and a turbulent past with Russia, said on May 12 that it must apply to join the NATO military alliance "without delay." Sweden's becoming a NATO member would have a stabilizing effect and would benefit all Baltic sea states, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on May 13.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used his first conversation with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu since the start of the Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine to call for an immediate cease-fire there, the Pentagon has said.

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"Secretary Austin urged an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication," the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement on May 13. The Pentagon provided no other details of Austin and Shoigu's first direct talks since February 18, nearly a week before tens of thousands of Russian troops poured across the Russian and Belarusian borders into Ukraine. The invasion has been met with fierce and surprisingly effective Ukrainian defenses supported by Western military shipments and funding, and sparked unprecedented trade, financial, and diplomatic sanctions against Russia as well as Western girding of areas that border Russia. The Pentagon and U.K. military briefers have said they believe the Russian military planners wildly overestimated possible local sympathy for Moscow and that the invaders' military aims are weeks behind schedule. Russian officials have hinted at a campaign to control major eastern and southern swaths of Ukraine and possibly try to seize Ukraine's entire Black Sea coast.

Thousands of protesters have blocked government buildings in the Armenian capital as nearly two weeks of opposition-led demonstrations continued in an effort to force Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian from office. The protests and an ongoing disobedience campaign began after Pashinian suggested the international community wanted Armenia to "lower the bar" on its claims in the breakaway Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. They have also been fueled by public outrage over the death of a pregnant woman struck by Pashinian's motorcade as it traveled through Yerevan. "With this we are showing that Nikol [Pashinian] has no power in the country," Ishkhan Saghatelian, deputy speaker of the National Assembly, was quoted as saying among flag-waving protesters. Some of the protesters briefly blocked access to a medical university on May 13. Armenians have been forced to recalibrate some of their security priorities since six weeks of intense fighting with Azerbaijan ended in defeat in 2020. Pashinian has survived multiple opposition efforts to unseat him since then. The region has also been rattled by the proximity and potential implications of Russia's recent invasion of another post-Soviet state, Ukraine. Yerevan's battle against Azerbaijani forces over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts more than a year ago ended in a humbling cease-fire that acknowledged Azerbaijani control of swaths of territory held for decades by ethnic Armenians and left Russian troops there to monitor the peace. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently signaled a desire for peace talks but said Yerevan must renounce some territorial claims. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on May 3 that Yerevan and longtime foe and Azerbaijani ally Turkey had agreed to move forward with efforts to normalize relations "without conditions," a move that could lead to the reopening of their shared border.

Moldova's foreign minister says there are "internal forces" in the country seeking to "destabilize the region" in the shadow of Russia's war on Ukraine but that Chisinau is working to ensure that such efforts don't spread the conflict.

Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu acknowledged that the situation in Moldova was "fragile, but it is nevertheless calm." He also said his country's rightful place is in the European Union and he hopes Moldova's accelerated EU bid gets quick acceptance from the bloc "in the next few weeks and months." "We do not face an acute military crisis today," Popescu told reporters on the sidelines of a three-day G7 foreign ministers' meeting on Germany's Baltic coast focused largely on the war and its ripple effects on food and energy supplies. Moldova and its tiny breakaway region of Transdniester share a roughly 1,200-kilometer border with Ukraine and fears of a spillover have intensified since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in late February. The European Union on May 4 pledged to boost military aid to Moldova, a poor nonmember where around 1,500 Russian troops still guard a Soviet-era military depot over Chisinau's objections. The pro-Russian leadership in Transdniester has pointed fingers across the border at Ukraine for some of a string of explosions and other minor incidents in recent months. On May 13, it said two attacks with Molotov cocktails targeted a fuel depot and conscription center in the regional capital, Tiraspol. The resulting fires were quickly extinguished, it said.

In a Reuters interview, Popescu said he couldn't assign blame but he linked the Transdniester blasts to the ongoing war in Ukraine. He expressed Chisinau's commitment to resolving the Transdniester problem "through peaceful dialogue and diplomacy." He said an "absolute majority of citizens in the Transdniestrian region doesn't want to live in a war zone and want peace, but there are forces inside that want to fuel destabilization." "They are limited, but want to play games stoking up tensions, provoking, [making] the population of Transdniestria hysterical and making nervous the population of Moldova," Popescu said. "There are internal forces that want to destabilize this region and bring war closer to our homes. We are working to make sure this is not happening." Post-Soviet Moldova is a poor and mostly Romanian-speaking country that remains hugely dependent on Russian natural gas. Nearly half a million refugees have fled to Moldova from Ukraine during the current fighting, with most continuing on but around one-quarter of them staying. Popescu said his country needed financial resources and "to adapt everything" to cope with the influx.

Transdniester is a narrow strip of land between the rest of Moldova and Ukraine. It declared independence from Chisinau in 1990 and the two sides fought a brief war in 1992 that was quelled by Russian troops intervening on th side of the separatists. Popescu cited Moldova's decision in the first week of the Ukraine war to submit its EU application and said its leadership was working hard on judicial and other reforms to make it an attractive candidate. "We believe that we are a country that has a European history, language, society, and a relatively consolidated democracy," Popescu said. "We believe our place is inside the European Union...and hope that in the next few weeks and months the EU will recognize our European aspirations." Nearby Georgia, which fought a five-day war in 2008 with Russian troops backing two of its breakaway regions, also submitted its EU application soon after Russian troops poured over Ukraine's border on February 24.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A court in Russia has sentenced another group of Crimean Tatars to lengthy prison terms on charges of being members of a banned Islamic group amid an ongoing crackdown on representatives of such groups. The Crimean Solidarity human rights group said Russia's Southern District Military Court in the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don on May 12 sentenced Tofik Abdulgaziyev, Vladlen Abduklkadyrov, Izzet Abdullayev, and Medzhit Abdurakhmanov to 12 years in prison each. Bilyal Adilov was handed a 14-year prison term. All had pleaded not guilty. The five men, all of whom are activists of the Crimean Solidarity group, were arrested in March 2019 along with more than a dozen other Crimean Tatars in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed the region from Ukraine in 2014. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamic group banned in Russia but not in Ukraine. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar condemned the court ruling, calling it "further proof of Russia's deliberate policy of the annihilation of Crimean Tatars in Crimea." "Russia must cancel the decision of the so-called 'court,' release all illegally held Ukrainian citizens, and stop the political persecution and repression of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people," Dzheppar wrote on Twitter. Since Moscow seized Crimea, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to the Islamic group. Moscow's takeover of the peninsula was vocally opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region. Exiled from their homeland to Central Asia by Soviet authorities under the dictatorship of Josef Stalin during World War II, many Crimean Tatars are very wary of Russia and Moscow's rule.

Iranian authorities have arrested at least 22 demonstrators protesting against price hikes in subsidized food staples in two cities in the southwest of the country.

President Ebrahim Raisi this week announced a series of economic measures, including cutting subsidies and increasing the prices of several staples, such as flour and cooking oil. Iranians reacted to the expected price hikes by taking to the streets in several cities in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the official government news agency IRNA reported on May 13, where the government has reportedly imposed a near-total shutdown of mobile Internet for the past week. Amateur videos posted on social media showed protests in Dezful and Mahshahr, where protesters chanted against Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

No media source currently available

Some reports suggested that security forces used tear gas to disperse the protesters. Street protests were also reported in Andimeshk, the capital city of the western province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. IRNA said 15 people were arrested overnight in Dezful in Khuzestan, as well as seven others in the city of Yasuj in Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad Province in the south. Demonstrators in the southern city of Izeh attacked shops and tried to set fire to a mosque, the report claimed. Rallies also took place in other cities and in the Fashapuyeh district of Tehran Province, it added. Speaking on May 9 on state television, Raisi pledged that the price of traditional bread, gasoline, and medicine would remain unchanged. In order to compensate for the rise in prices, Raisi said direct payments equivalent to approximately $10 or $13 would be disbursed for two months for each family member of low-income households. Later, he said Iranians will be offered electronic coupons that would allow them to access a limited amount of subsidized bread. Reports suggested that the price of cooking oil had almost quadrupled since Raisi's announcement, while the price of eggs and chicken nearly doubled. Many Iranians are struggling to make ends meet amid a poor economy crushed by U.S. sanctions and years of mismanagement.

KYIV -- The first trial of a Russian soldier accused of war crimes for killing a Ukrainian civilian during Moscow's unprovoked invasion has opened in Kyiv.

Dozens of journalists packed inside a small courtroom in the Ukrainian capital, where the suspect appeared in a small glass cage for the start of a trial that has drawn international attention amid accusations of repeated atrocities by Russian forces.

Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is accused of killing a 62-year-old civilian who was riding a bicycle in the village of Chupakhivka in the northeastern region of Sumy, a crime for which he could get life in prison.

The killing occurred just days after Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Shishimarin, a member of a tank unit that was captured by Ukrainian forces, admitted that he shot the civilian in a video posted by the Security Service of Ukraine.

“I was ordered to shoot,” said Shishimarin, of the February 28 killing. “I shot one (round) at him. He falls. And we kept on going.”

Shishimarin’s video statement is “one of the first confessions of the enemy invaders,” according to the Ukrainian security service.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova last month identified 10 soldiers of the 64th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Russian armed forces, saying that they are suspected of "cruelty toward civilians and other war crimes," adding that Ukrainian investigators are continuing to gather evidence and those named were just the first.

She also said at the time that investigations were under way to find out if the 10 Russians took part in the killing of civilians in Bucha.

The retreat of Russian forces from Bucha and other towns near Kyiv revealed harrowing evidence of brutal killings, torture, mass graves, and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians in the fighting.

On May 12, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) overwhelmingly approved a resolution to set up an investigation into allegations of abuses by Russian troops in areas of Ukraine they temporarily controlled.

The UNHRC's resolution cited apparent cases of torture, shootings, and sexual violence, along with other atrocities documented by a UN team on the ground.

KAZAN, Russia -- A court in Kazan, the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, has extended the pretrial detention for activist Andrei Boyarshinov, who was charged with terrorism over his calls to stop Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Boyarshinov's lawyer, Rim Sabirov, told RFE/RL that the Vakhitov district court ruled on May 13 that his client must stay in pretrial detention until at least August 18.

Boyarshinov was placed in custody on March 18 and charged with public calls for terrorism and justifying terrorism.

The charges stem from unspecified online posts Boyarshinov made before and during unsanctioned rallies in Kazan where demonstrators demanded a halt to Russia's war in Ukraine.

The court initially sent Boyarshinov to house arrest, but after prosecutors appealed the ruling, the pretrial restriction was changed and the activist was sent to pretrial detention.

Boyarshinov has told RFE/RL that he considers the case against him to be politically motivated, emphasizing that "I am, and will be, against this war."

Sabirov told RFE/RL that he will appeal the court's May 13 ruling.

Many activists, journalists, and others have left Russia for other countries since Moscow launched a wide-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24.

On March 5, President Vladimir Putin 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" has a punishment of up to 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.

Russia’s Federal Security Service has said that almost 4 million Russian citizens left the country in the first three months of 2022 .

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Another Kazakh activist has been released from prison after a court replaced the remainder of his five-year sentence with a parole-like penalty amid an outcry by human rights groups over political prisoners in the Central Asian nation.

Abai Begimbetov was released from a penal colony in the town of Zarechny, near Almaty, on May 13, civil rights activist Rakhilya Beknazarova told RFE/RL.

The Qapshaghai City Court decided to replace Begimbetov's prison term with parole-like sentence on April 27. The ruling took force on May 13.

Last month, the same court replaced the remainder of prison terms with parole-like sentences for two other activists, Qairat Qylyshev and Askhat Zheksebaev, who were released on April 27 and May 3 respectively.

The three men, along with a fourth activist, Noyan Rakhymzhanov, were sentenced to five years in prison each in October last year on charge of having links with the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and its affiliate Koshe (Street) party.

The activists, who were recognized as political prisoners by human rights organizations in Kazakhstan, pleaded not guilty and claimed during their trial that they only participated in peaceful protests and exercised their constitutionally protected rights.

The case sparked protests by rights defenders and opposition activists in Kazakhstan, who said the harsh sentences handed to the four activists do not go along with President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's current campaign "to build a new democratic Kazakhstan," a move to distance himself from his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbaev. Nazarbaev, along with his clan, lost control over the oil-rich nation following deadly anti-government protests in early January.

Many activists across the tightly controlled former Soviet republic have been handed prison terms or parole-like restricted freedom sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and the Koshe party and for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

The DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch criticized the Kazakh government for using anti-extremism laws as a tool to persecute critics and civic activists. Several hundred people have been prosecuted for membership in the Koshe party.

Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the country.

Britain has added a dozen people to its list of sanctions over Russia's war against Ukraine, this time targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and the network of those around him, including his ex-wife and cousins.

Foreign Minister Liz Truss said in a statement on May 13 that the fresh sanctions are aimed at "Putin’s ‘wallet’ of family and friends– those whom he rewards with state positions and wealth in return for their undying loyalty."

While Putin officially lists owning just a few minor assets such as a small apartment in St. Petersburg, a couple of Soviet-era cars, a camping trailer inherited from his late father, and a small garage, his critics and activists say he has amassed a huge personal fortune and spread it out through relatives and close associates.

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Those added to the list include Alina Kabaeva, a retired Olympic gymnast who is rumored to be the mother of two of Putin's children, Anna Zatseplina, Kabaeva's grandmother and an associate of longstanding Putin ally Gennady Timchenko, and Putin's former wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya.

Alina Kabaeva has risen to head the board of directors of the National Media Group, reportedly the largest private Russian media company. Putin and Kabaeva have been pictured together on several occasions, but they have never publicly admitted to having a relationship.

"We are exposing and targeting the shady network propping up Putin’s luxury lifestyle and tightening the vice on his inner circle. We will keep going with sanctions on all those aiding and abetting Putin’s aggression until Ukraine prevails," Truss said.

Since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the United Kingdom has sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and 100 entities, including hitting oligarchs with a net global worth of over $143 billion.

The European Union, the United States, and several other western allies have also slapped sanctions on Putin, the Russian economy, and many of the country's billionaires.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says jailed Turkmen journalist Nurgeldy Halykov is facing retaliation in prison following coverage of his case and called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Halykov, a correspondent for the Netherlands-based Turkmen.news website, was arrested in July 2020 and sentenced to four years in prison in September that year on fraud charges, which his colleagues have described as trumped-up by the authorities as retaliation for his journalistic activities.

"Turkmen authorities should cease retaliating against imprisoned journalist Nurgeldi Halykov, and should release him immediately and unconditionally." the New-York based CPJ said in a May 12 statement.

Turkmen.news director Ruslan Myatiev told CPJ that, during his imprisonment, authorities have placed Halykov in punitive solitary confinement three times, each time after Turkmen.news reported about his case.

According to Myatiev, at the time of his arrest, authorities offered Halykov the choice of admitting to fraud charges or facing rape charges, which are subject to longer prison terms.

"Halykov is already serving a wholly unjustified sentence in retaliation for his work, and further punishing him when his employer raises his case is the height of injustice,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program coordinator.

“Turkmen authorities must cease placing Halykov in a punishment cell and must also overturn the trumped-up charges against him and release him without delay."

In November, a group of U.S. lawmakers urged then-Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to release Halykov and other political prisoners.

Myatiev expressed hope that there could be a change in the handling of Halykov’s case after Serdar Berdymukhamedov succeeded his father as the country’s president on March 19.

Officials at the Turkmen Ministry of National Security and the Interior Ministry, which oversees the prison system, were not available for immediate comment, CPJ says.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says the bloc will provide an extra 500 million euros worth of military aid to Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations (G7) in northern Germany on May 13, Borrell said the military support would be for heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery and take EU aid for Ukraine to about 2 billion euros.

"A new impetus for military support. (It will be) more pressure on Russia with economic sanctions and continuing the international isolation of Russia and countering misinformation," he said.

He also said he was confident that an agreement could be reached in the coming days on an embargo on Russian oil.

"I am sure we will have an agreement. We need it and we will have it. We have to get rid of the oil dependency from Russia," he said.

"If there is no agreement at the level of ambassadors, then on Monday [May 16] the ministers when they gather they have to provide the political impetus."

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss called for more weaponry to be delivered to Ukraine.

"It's very important at this time that we keep up the pressure on [Russian President] Vladimir Putin by supplying more weapons to Ukraine, by increasing the sanctions," Truss said on the sidelines of the meeting.

"G7 unity has been vital during this crisis to protect freedom and democracy and we'll continue to work together to do just that," Truss said.

Authorities in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region said on May 13 that two attempted attacks were carried out on a fuel depot and conscription center in the regional capital, Tiraspol.

The incidents were the latest in a series of alleged attacks reported by Russia-backed Transdniester over the past weeks amid mounting fears of a spillover from the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.

"At around 4:15 in the morning, a car stopped near an oil depot of one enterprise, from which an unidentified man got out, threw a Molotov cocktail toward the building and fled," the self-styled Interior Ministry said in a statement.

It said that some grass caught fire but it was "quickly" extinguished.

Around 30 minutes later, "two Molotov cocktails were thrown" at a conscription office in Tiraspol.

"One bounced off onto the sidewalk, the other got stuck in window grates. The fire was promptly extinguished by security," the ministry said.

Transdniester is a narrow strip of land between Moldova proper and Ukraine. It declared independence from Chisinau in 1990 and the two sides fought a brief war in 1992 that was quelled by Russian troops intervening on the side of separatists.

Russia still maintains some 1,500 soldiers in Transdniester who are said to be guarding a huge Soviet-era arms depot.

Besides the troops ostensibly guarding the depot, Russia has another 400-500 soldiers in Transdniester that have been labeled as peacekeepers since the end of the 1992 war.

Fears of a spillover from the Ukraine conflict grew after a Russian general said Moscow's invasion had the goal of creating a land corridor through southern Ukrainian territory to Transdniester.

The European Union pledged on May 4 to boost military aid to Moldova.

Ukraine says it has foiled an attempt by Russian forces to cross a key river in the east, costing Moscow a sizable number of troops and important armored equipment in another setback for the Kremlin in its invasion of Ukraine as Germany urged President Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire as soon as possible.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry on May 13 released pictures of what it said was a damaged Russian pontoon bridge over the Siverskiy Donets River, with several destroyed or heavily damaged Russian military vehicles nearby.

Britain's Ministry of Defense confirmed in its daily intelligence bulletin on May 13 that Ukrainian forces successfully prevented an attempted Russian river crossing in the east.

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It said that Russia lost "significant" elements of at least one battalion tactical group -- about 1,000 soldiers -- as well as equipment used to quickly deploy pontoon bridges, adding that Russian forces had failed to make any significant advances in the area. "Conducting river crossings in a contested environment is a highly risky maneuver and speaks to the pressure the Russian commanders are under to make progress in their operations in eastern Ukraine," the ministry said in its update. Russian forces have struggled to advance even after diverting troops from other parts of the country to the Donbas, the ministry added. Ukrainian officials also claimed another success in the Black Sea, saying their forces destroyed another Russian vessel, though there was no confirmation from Russia. The Vsevolod Bobrov logistics ship was badly damaged but not thought to have sunk when it was struck while trying to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president. In its daily operational note on May 13, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces continued to bombard the embattled port of Mariupol, where the last Ukrainian fighters are holed up in the Azovstal steelworks. It said that in the Russian campaign in the east, villages were targeted near Donetsk, Lyman, Bakhmut, and Kurakhiv. The Ukrainian military chief for the eastern Luhansk region said on May 13 that Russian forces fired 31 times on residential areas the day before, destroying dozens of homes, notably in the Hirske and Popasnyanska villages, and a bridge in Rubizhne.

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On the diplomatic front, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine as soon as possible during a telephone call on May 13, a German government spokesperson said. During the 75-minute call -- the first between the two leaders since March -- Scholz reminded Putin of Russia's responsibility for the global food situation, the spokesperson added. Britain, meanwhile, added a dozen people to its sanctions list, this time targeting Putin and the network around him, including his ex-wife and cousins. The list also includes Alina Kabayeva, a retired Olympic gymnast who is rumored to be the mother of two of Putin's children. Putin and Kabayeva have been pictured together on several occasions, but they have never publicly admitted to having a relationship. In Stockholm, Sweden's parliament concluded that NATO membership for the Nordic country would have a stabilizing effect and would benefit all Baltic Sea states, appearing to be ready to follow in Finland's footsteps in pursuing membership in the Western military alliance. "Swedish NATO membership would raise the threshold for military conflicts and thus have a conflict-preventing effect in Northern Europe," Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on May 13 as she presented a parliamentary assessment on security.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced Sweden and Finland, which has a very long border with Russia, to reconsider their security arrangements after remaining neutral in the postwar era. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled a potential obstacle to the two Nordic countries' accession into NATO, saying he opposed it because they were "home to many terrorist organizations." Turkey has repeatedly slammed Sweden and other Western European states for their handling of groups deemed terrorists by Ankara, including Kurdish militant groups and the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan says that "Gulenists" carried out a coup attempt in 2016. Gulen and his supporters deny the accusation. Erdogan's opposition could pose a problem for Sweden and Finland, given that new members need unanimous agreement.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on May 12 that more than 6 million refugees have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24.

The agency said the count of those who'd left totaled 6,029,705 people as of May 11, 90 percent of them women or children.

Ukrainian authorities early in the conflict barred men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country in an effort to boost military, civil, and other defenses.

Many of the millions who've fled have gone to neighboring countries, with the highest number traveling to EU member Poland.

Eight million more Ukrainians have been internally displaced by the conflict.

The large-scale invasion follows eight years of lower-grade conflict since Russian forces invaded to annex Crimea and Russia-backed separatists wrested control of parts of eastern Ukraine in an area known as the Donbas.

The flow of Ukrainians abroad has slowed considerably from a high of around 3.4 million in the month of March, according to the agency.

Nearly half a million Ukrainians have left the country since the start of May, it said.

The United Nations predicted that some 8 million people would leave Ukraine this year if the conflict continued.

Its prewar population was around 44 million, including areas under Russian or separatist control.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian military in the southwestern Odesa region said on May 12 that a strike by Ukrainian naval forces damaged a Russian logistics ship in the Black Sea.

The claim could not be independently verified, and there has been no confirmation by the Russian side of damage to any of its naval vessels in the Black Sea.

Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, quoted Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the regional military command that includes Odesa, as saying in a Telegram post that the ship had been set on fire.

The agency reported that the Russian Navy had "lost" the Vsevolod Bobrov in the purported strike off Snake Island.

The FleetMon sea-tracking news website identifies the Vsevolod Bobrov as a 95-meter-long transport ship.

In April, Russian officials dismissed Kyiv's claim that Ukrainian forces had damaged the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet flagship, Moskva.

But they later reported that the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser that saw duty off Georgia, Crimea, and Syria, had sunk while being towed for repairs.

Foreign ministers and representatives from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations (G7) gathered on Germany's Baltic coast on May 12 for a three-day meeting dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its wider impact, including on food and energy supplies.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in the Baltic Sea resort of Weissenhaus, northeast of Hamburg, that the effects of the 11-week-old Ukrainian war on grain supplies have already made it a "global crisis."

Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, including of wheat and other grains. Russia has blockaded Black Sea and other trade routes in and out of its much smaller post-Soviet neighbor in the conflict, in addition to causing the death of thousands and widespread destruction through a military campaign widely employing massive aerial bombardment. Baerbock said 25 million tons of grain that could feed "millions of people around the world" was currently blocked in Ukrainian ports, "particularly Odesa,” a Black Sea city of around 1 million. “That's why we are discussing how the grain blockade exerted by Russia can be unblocked, how we can get the grain out to the world,” Baerbock said. In addition to its members from the world's leading industrialized economies, the G7 invited ministers from Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, where Russia has kept around 1,500 troops for years despite Chisinau's requests to withdraw them, to Weissenhaus. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with German lawmakers and welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government's decisions to step up military support for Kyiv. “We see a positive, positive dynamic,” Kuleba said, adding, "We have to make sure that this positive dynamic is maintained.” The attendees are also expected to discuss climate change, which is another contributing factor in the mounting global food crisis, and relations with China.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says authorities are negotiating with the Russian side on a possible evacuation of dozens of seriously wounded Ukrainian fighters trapped inside the Azovstal metals plant in the devastated southern city of Mariupol.

She cited a potential swap for captured Russian troops but said the talks are "very difficult." "Currently, we are negotiating only about 38 seriously wounded [Ukrainian] fighters," Vereshchuk said via Telegram. "There are currently no talks on the exchange of 500 or 600 people, as reported by some media." She discouraged public comments on any specifics of the talks or "interfering" to avoid misinforming or threatening progress. The intense seven-week siege by Russian forces surrounding Azovstal has become a powerful symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Many of the civilians trapped inside Azovstal -- women, children, and elderly -- have been evacuated, although the government in Kyiv has suggested that 100 or so noncombatants may still be hiding in the warren-like tunnels and infrastructure of the nearly 90-year-old steel plant. Vereshchuk said on May 10 that more than 1,000 Ukrainian fighters remained in the sprawling facility, the last pocket of resistance after more than two months of Russian encirclement and heavy fighting that has leveled large parts of the city. She added in comments to the AFP news agency that "hundreds...with serious injuries who require urgent evacuation" are inside, with the situation "deteriorating every day." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week acknowledged his forces couldn't unblock Mariupol militarily and said preparations were under way for a second stage of evacuation to get the wounded and medics out.

Russian news agencies have cited purported Lithuanian plans to withdraw Vilnius's ambassador to Moscow and shut down its consulate in St. Petersburg next month over Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

They quoted Lithuanian national radio as saying a Lithuanian government resolution made public on May 12 describes the withdrawal of Ambassador Eitvydas Bajarunas on June 1 and the consulate's closure on June 7. The decision to withdraw the ambassador was initially made by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on April 4. He also said Lithuania had expelled Russia's ambassador to Vilnius, Aleksei Isakov, in response to reports that Russian forces killed dozens of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Photographs showing the bodies of some of the dead civilians in Bucha, northwest edge of Kyiv, with their hands bound have shocked many and prompted calls for stepped-up sanctions against Russia and the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) voted overwhelmingly on May 12 to set up an investigation into allegations of abuses by Russian troops in areas of Ukraine where they have since withdrawn, leaving signs of torture, execution-style killings, and sexual violence, including in Bucha. It cited the documentation by a UN team on the ground of apparent Russian atrocities.

Russian poet and longtime RFE/RL Russian Service journalist Aleksei Tsvetkov has died in Israel at the age of 75.

In a Facebook post, Tsvetkov's friend and New York-based poet Bakhyt Kenzheyev posted news of Tsvetkov's death in a hospital on May 12. The cause of death was not immediately clear, but last week Tsvetkov announced on social media that he was hospitalized with a fever and pneumonia-like symptoms. Tsvetkov was born in Ukraine and studied at universities in Odesa and Moscow. He was a strident critic of Russia's invasion of his native Ukraine. In the 1970s, Tsvetkov participated along with Kenzheyev, Aleksandr Soprovsky, and Sergei Gandlevsky in the underground group of poets known as Moscow Time. Tsvetkov left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1975, after his arrest in Moscow and forced move to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya. Tsvetkov worked at RFE/RL in Munich and Prague from 1989 to 2004. He anchored the RFE/RL Russian Service programs The Seventh Continent and The Atlantic Diary. After leaving RFE/RL in 2004, he lived in Washington and New York. He continued to contribute to RFE/RL’s Russian Service programs as a columnist and analyst. In 2018, Tsvetkov moved to Israel. He was the author of 10 books of poetry and translated Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

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