Page 49 - Current Time News Today

Joint exercises this month between Belarusian and Russian armed forces renewed worries about a new offensive against Ukraine from the north. Even if that happens, a former Belarusian intelligence official says Belarusian conscripts aren’t likely to fight.

Exiles from Putin’s Russia have a powerful role to play in what comes next in their country. It’s happened before.

Amid relentless attacks on Ukraine, which received pledges of U.S. and German battle tanks, the Russian state ramped up its campaign against civil society at home yet again, with a court ordering the closure of a revered rights group and authorities tightening the vise on the Sakharov Center.

A demand from the Kyrgyz government for RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz language service to remove a video has escalated into a legal battle that could end Azattyk’s operations in the country altogether.

The ministry is seeking to shut down 'Radio Azattyk' because of a 2022 video report about clashes on the Kyrgyz/Tajik border in the Batken region. The media outlet's websites have been blocked since October.

A court in Bishkek has ordered the Kyrgyz Ministry Of Culture, Information, Sports, and Youth Policies to produce documents relating to its decision to block the local-language websites of RFE/RL.

Hundreds of workers at a joint Chinese-Serbian copper mine in Bor, in eastern Serbia, blocked access to the facility on January 26 to protest for higher wages and a new collective bargaining agreement with the mine's Chinese majority owners.

The closure of Radio Azattyk would be a deep and stark attack on the right to freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan adding to the continuing repression against journalists and other voices critical of the authorities

Read how Russia's stance as a security guarantor in the OUBZ format has been eroded to the point where members no longer wish to host troops.

More than 25 media organizations and journalists in Kyrgyzstan have urged the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Youth Policies to withdraw a court request to halt the media operations of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, warning of its effect on the free press.