Month: January 2024

washington — Alsu Kurmasheva, an American journalist jailed in Russia on charges that press freedom groups say are politically motivated and baseless, marked 100 days in detention on Thursday, as her employer and family renewed calls for her immediate release. “To be honest, it’s all becoming slowly but surely less bearable,” Kurmasheva wrote in a January 13 letter. Kurmasheva is a longtime Prague-based editor at the Tatar-Bashkir service of VOA’s sister outlet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. A dual U.S.-Russian national, Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May 2023 for a family emergency. Her passports were confiscated when she tried to leave the …

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The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are fueling Turkey’s interest in a new China-Europe trade route known as the Middle Corridor. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, Turkey’s support for the corridor is growing as Ankara makes a big turnaround in its previously frosty relations with Beijing. Dorian Jones reports. …

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Baku, Azerbaijan — Efforts to free investigative journalist Hafiz Babali from prison in Azerbaijan failed last week when the Baku Court of Appeal denied a motion to release him to house arrest.   Babali, an editor at the independent Turan News Agency, was detained on December 13 on charges of “smuggling foreign currency” and ordered to be held in pretrial detention for three months.   His lawyer, Rasul Jafarov, told VOA that Babali denies the accusations and believes the case against him is related to his investigative journalism. Babali is editor of Turan’s economy section.   Since late 2023, accusations of …

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Tallinn, Estonia — A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a woman to 27 years in prison for a cafe blast that killed a prominent pro-war blogger after he was given a bust of himself that later exploded. In a separate proceeding, a Moscow court convicted a former leader of separatist rebels in Ukraine who called President Vladimir Putin a coward of extremism and sentenced him to four years. Darya Trepova, 26, was convicted by a court in St. Petersburg of carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and forging documents in the April 2 blast at the cafe …

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LONDON/WASHINGTON — Britain and the United States on Thursday said they had sanctioned four senior Houthi officials for their roles in supporting or directing attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping and stoked fears of global inflation. They have also deepened concern that fallout from the Israel-Hamas war could destabilize the Middle East. Those sanctioned were Houthi Defense Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Atifi, Commander of Houthi Naval Forces Muhammad Fadl Abd Al-Nabi, coastal defense forces chief Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri and Muhammed Ahmad al-Talibi, who the two governments described as the Houthi forces director of …

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal has asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight against Ukraine and repatriate the bodies of those who died in the conflict, Nepal’s top diplomat said Thursday.  The Russian army is estimated to have recruited more than 200 Nepali nationals to fight in Ukraine and at least 14 of them have died there, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said in an interview with The Associated Press.  “We have asked Russia to immediately stop the recruitment of Nepali nationals in their army, immediately return those who are already serving in the …

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