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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Ray Furlong
Russia’s Supreme Court removed Afghanistan's militant Taliban rulers from its list of banned terrorist groups in a step toward recognizing the group that seized power in 2021 as international forces withdrew from the war-torn country.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Ray Furlong
High-level officials from key European countries, the United States, and Ukraine are gathering in Paris, days after the latest direct talks between Washington and Moscow that are aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe's biggest conflict since the end of World War II. The talks tee up a first chance for a face-to-face meeting between senior European and Ukrainian leaders and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff since his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Reid Standish
A Russian drone attack killed young woman and an elderly woman and injured at least 16 others on April 16 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said. Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram that among the16 people injured were three children. Five people were being treated in hospital, he said.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi
Serbia has appointed a new government led by Duro Macut, a doctor and academic with no prior political experience, amid street protests that have rocked the Balkan nation. The 61-year-old Macut was backed by 153 lawmakers in the 250-seat parliament during the April 16 vote. Macut’s cabinet will include 30 ministers, including 10 newcomers. A total of 199 MPs voted, with 46 against. Macut was handpicked by President Aleksandar Vucic, who has led the country since 2017.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Ray Furlong
Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said there has been "significant progress" in negotiations with the United States toward a comprehensive economic partnership agreement that includes a deal on rare earth minerals.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Reid Standish
Serbian university students who have been on a cycling tour across Europe for nearly two weeks to draw attention to protests against corruption in their home country arrived on April 15 in Strasbourg, France, seat of the European Parliament. Around 80 student cyclists rode on to Strasbourg's main square and were greeted with shouts of "Pump, pump" before bottles of champagne were uncorked in celebration.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Reid Standish
The United States on April 15 lifted sanctions imposed in January on the head of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet, Antal Rogan, over accusations of corruption and cronyism. A statement posted on the Treasury Department website said Rogan had been deleted from the sanctions list. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 15 spoke with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and informed him of the move, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Merhat Sharipzhan |Rikard Jozwiak |Pablo Gorondi |Reid Standish
Four Russian journalists have been sentenced by a Moscow court to 5 1/2 years in prison each for their activities linked to the late opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which Russian authorities have designated as an "extremist organization." The journalists -- Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, and Artyom Kriger -- were convicted after a closed-door trial for their contributions to YouTube channels affiliated with FBK before it was...
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Ray Furlong |Nathan Hodge |Merhat Sharipzhan
In a rare moment of international visibility, Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko welcomed Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for an official visit to Minsk on April 10, hailing it as a significant milestone in bilateral relations. The visit, which continued on April 11, resulted in multiple agreements spanning military cooperation, food security, and trade. Most notably, Lukashenko offered to accept up to 150,000 Pakistani workers to help address Belarus's deepening labor shortage.
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1 week ago | 
rferl.org | Ray Furlong |Nathan Hodge |Merhat Sharipzhan
A senior aide to US President Donald Trump has landed in Russia amid a flurry of diplomatic activity around the war in Ukraine that includes US-Ukrainian talks in Washington and a meeting chaired by Britain and Germany in Brussels. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had arrived on April 11. He stopped in Moscow on his way to high-level talks with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program scheduled for April 12 in Oman.
