Russians are voting in regional and local elections in a scattering of locations across the country, choosing governors or legislators in the first vote to be held since the Ukraine invasion nearly seven months ago.

The balloting on September 11 is not expected to yield major political shifts on either the national or local level, and the war in Ukraine featured only in isolated cases in pre-election campaigns. Rather, local issues such as public transit investments or environmental concerns, or decrepit housing stock, topped the list of campaign issues in many places holding votes.

In all, 15 regions -- scattered from the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad to Buryatia, in southern Siberia -- will choose new governors or top executives for their regions. Voters in six regions were also choosing new members of local legislatures.

In Moscow, voters were allowed to cast ballots as early as September 9 to choose members of 125 district councils: local legislative councils that mostly decide on extremely local issues such as new playground equipment, trash removal, or other quality-of-life concerns.

With voting under way, Russia's Central Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said she had sent a letter to regional election commissions recommending they submit vote tallies no sooner than September 14.

Usually, election results in Russia are announced either immediately after polls close or the next day.

Pamfilova said this extra time would allow her commission to "carefully" consider any filed voter complaints, although she also noted so far only 10 of the 82 regions holding elections had registered any such reports.

People interviewed on the streets of Moscow this week by RFE/RL’s Russian Service had mixed feelings about whether to vote and whether it served any purpose.

"If you personally feel like voting, why not go ahead and participate?" one man, who did not provide his name, said standing out the Universitet subway station. "Personally, I’m not going to bother."

"There are rules and we live in this system, we work here, so we need to live by the rules of the system," said another man, who also did not provide his name. "Therefore, if they tell me I should go, I'll go and vote."

Since before the Ukraine invasion, the Kremlin has slowly squeezed independent opposition parties and good-governance civil society groups. The result has been a tightly controlled electoral process dominated by United Russia, the Kremlin-linked political party, and roughly three other so-called systemic political parties -- the Communists, the Liberal Democratic Party, and A Just Russia. All routinely vote in favor of Kremlin initiatives. United Russia candidates were expected to win handily in most of the races in the September 11 voting.

The main independent opposition force remains the network set up by Aleksei Navalny, the anti-corruption crusader who nearly died after being poisoned with a toxic nerve agent and who is now serving a prison sentence in central Russia on charges widely considered to be politically motivated.

Prior to last September's national parliamentary vote, Navalny's group set up a system called Smart Vote, which aimed to undermine United Russia's chokehold on politics by directing voters to alternatives with the biggest chance of causing an upset.

The group rolled out a Smart Vote program for the September 11 election; however, Leonid Volkov, a leading Navalny deputy who now lives outside of Russia, said it was only targeting Moscow, where voters tend to be more liberal and often more politically engaged.

The reason, he said in an interview with the online newspaper Novaya gazeta, is that many of the would-be candidates endorsed by Smart Vote support the ongoing war in Ukraine.

"Any action aimed at weakening the Putin system is correct and is the duty of a citizen," Navalny's supporters said in a statement on his YouTube channel. "Participation in elections is although not the most effective today, but the easiest way to fight."

Activists in Iran have disrupted a live state television broadcast by airing images and messages in support of continuing protests against the government and the country's strict hijab law requiring women to wear head scarves.

Islamic Republic TV footage of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meeting state officials was interrupted briefly on October 8 and replaced with images of slain protesters and 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody last month after being arrested for not wearing a head scarf sparked protests across the country.

An image showing Khamenei in crosshairs and in flames was also aired during the interruption, for which the hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali took credit. The images were accompanied by the words "join us and rise up."

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency confirmed that the state TV news broadcast "was hacked for a few moments by anti-revolutionary agents."

Hassanein Haddad, a spokesman for Iran State Radio and Television, said that the incident was not a hack, but an act of "vandalism and infiltration" from within the channel itself.

The protests, which erupted around the country after Amini's death on September 16, continued in Tehran and other cities on the night of the broadcast.

Labor strikes were also reported in Kurdish-majority regions on October 8, including in the city of Sanandaj, where two protesters were reportedly shot dead. Security forces were also accused of opening fire in Saqez.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says that more than 90 protesters have been killed by the security forces as the protests enter their fourth week, while other groups have placed death figures at 160 or more, with hundreds more injured and thousands arrested.

Russian divers were expected to begin examining the Crimean Bridge on the morning of October 9 after the vital supply route was damaged a day earlier by an apparent truck-bombing.

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

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the October 8 blast that sent one span of the 19-kilometer bridge's highway section tumbling into the Kerch Strait and damaged the rail section.

The bridge, constructed by Russia after its seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, is seen as a key route for supplies to the territory and for supporting Russian forces fighting in southern Ukraine. The bridge has also been used by the Kremlin as a symbol of its control over Crimea.

Russian news agencies have reported that divers would begin work in the morning of October 9 before an inspection above the waterline is conducted later in the day.

Amid news that one lane of traffic had been reopened and repairs allowed for the resumption of rail transportation, Crimea's Russia-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said that the "situation is manageable -- it's unpleasant, but not fatal."

"Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge," he added.

Kyiv, which has made significant military gains in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories in recent weeks, has demanded that Russian forces leave the Crimean Peninsula.

Russia last month annexed the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson in Ukraine's south and east and has since pulled back its forces in multiple regions in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

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On October 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Federal Security Service to take charge of security measures for the Crimea Bridge and other infrastructure on the peninsula.

It remains unclear who was behind the bridge explosion or if it did involve a truck. Russian authorities have alleged that the truck they say carried the bomb was traveling from Russia's Krasnodar region to Crimea.

A top official in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya has said that rockets fired by Russian forces overnight have killed at least 17 people.

Zaporizhzhya city council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said on October 9 that five homes were destroyed and around 40 were damaged in the attack on the city in the Ukrainian-held part of the region, which was annexed by Russia in violation of international law last week.

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

Images posted on social media by Ukrainian military authorities in the Zaporizhzhya region showed significant damage to residential buildings in the regional capital.

Zaporizhzhya was also hit by major shelling on October 6, killing 11 people, and Moscow recently seized control of the nearby Zoporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Russian-held territory.

The fresh attack came after a key bridge to the Crimean Peninsula that was constructed by Russia following its seizure of the Ukrainian territory in 2014 and was a symbol of Russia's control of the southern region, was heavily damaged on October 8.

After the apparent truck bombing took out one lane of the highway section of the Crimea Bridge and damaged the rail section, Moscow made changes to the command of its war effort in Ukraine and the security of key infrastructure in Crimea.

On October 8, Russia's Defense Ministry named General Sergei Surovikin as the new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine who have suffered territorial losses in areas of the east and south of the country that were occupied shortly after the Russian invasion in February. Surovikin had led Russia's Aerospace Forces since 2017.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, issued a decree ordering the Federal Security Service (FSB) to take charge of security of the Crimea Bridge and other infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian forces have continued to make gains in a weeks-long counteroffensive in the south and east that has led Russian forces to retreat in many areas. Ukraine has said it has liberated more than 770 square kilometers of territory once occupied by Russian forces.

Russian losses have continued after Moscow announced last month that it was annexing the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, and Luhansk partially held by Russian forces.

Pro-Russian forces announced overnight on October 7-8 that they had retaken several villages near Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, in what was the first Russian territorial claim of a territorial gain since Ukraine's counteroffensive was launched more than a month ago.

On October 8, Russia-imposed authorities in the Kherson region said they were facing “a difficult period” and authorized a partial evacuation in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has blasted Russian accusations of high treason against prominent opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza as "the third baseless charge" since his detention six months ago.

The group described it as "a blatant attempt to quash any criticism of the Kremlin and deter contact with the international community."

“It is painfully obvious that the Kremlin sees Kara-Murza as a direct and imminent threat," HRW quoted its Europe and Central Asia director, Hugh Williamson, as saying. "These charges against him and his prolonged detention are a travesty of justice. Russian authorities should immediately and unconditionally free Kara-Murza and drop all charges against him.”

Russian media last week quoted unnamed law enforcement officials and sources as saying that the high treason charge against Kara-Murza stems from his alleged cooperation with organizations in a NATO member for many years. If convicted on the charge, the staunch opponent of the Kremlin faces up to 20 years in prison.

The 41-year-old politician was detained in April and sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of disobedience to police. He was later charged with spreading false information about the Russian Army while speaking to lawmakers in the U.S. state of Arizona.

Kara-Murza has rejected the charge, calling it politically motivated.

His lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, reportedly said the treason charge stems from "open criticism" in speeches Kara-Murza gave at events in Lisbon, Helsinki, and Washington.

HRW noted Kara-Murza's friendship with slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and two near-fatal poisonings in the past seven years that open-source sleuths Bellingcat have blamed on Russian security services.

Kara-Murza's arrest in April came amid a mounting crackdown by Russian authorities on opposition figures and any disagreement with the ongoing war in Ukraine that Moscow launched against its neighbor on February 24.

In August, Kara-Murza was additionally charged with carrying out activities of an undesirable organization for taking part in organizing a conference in Moscow last year to support political prisoners in Russia that was sponsored by the foreign-based Free Russia Foundation. That group has been recognized as "undesirable" in Russia.

The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.

PODGORICA -- Hundreds of LGBT supporters marched without apparent incident in the 10th annual Pride event in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, amid opposition from supporters of the Orthodox Church.

Holding flags and signs bearing slogans such as "No more homophobia" and "Our freedom is also your freedom," participants marched through the closed streets of the city center on October 8, with police monitoring the gathering with the use of drones flying overhead.

Pride organizers said hatred for the LGBT community was still spreading but that supporters were now standing up for their rights in the conservative Balkan nation of 620,000 people.

"We gathered here for the 10th time to show we are human beings of flesh and blood, hopes, and dreams, but we are rejected and trampled upon because of love," said Stasa Bastrica of the Kvir Montenegra group.

"[Opponents] incite our fellow citizens to hate us. Death to fascism, death to religious extremism," Bastrica added.

Activist Danijel Kalezic said that "we have seen decision-makers who are against Pride. There are more of us than those who want to deny us our rights. They cannot defeat us in any way."

The government of Montenegro was represented at the event by Human and Minority Rights Minister Fatmir Djeka, Urban Planning Minister Ana Novakovic Djurovic, and Economy Minister Goran Djurovic.

Foreign diplomats, members of parliament, activists from other organizations, Podgorica Mayor Ivan Vukovic, and Montenegro's top tennis player, Danka Kovinic, also attended.

On October 7, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro held a rally in the capital to protest against the Pride event.

About 1,000 supporters gathered in front of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ to pray "for the sanctity of marriage and the preservation of the family."

A proclamation deplored the "the depraved values that propagate mock Christian traditions, undermining the family, the people, and the state."

The first Pride parade in Montenegro was held in Budva on July 24, 2013, amid fierce clashes between LGBT supporters and opponents.

Several hundred protesters shouting "Kill the gays!" threw stones, bottles, and other objects at police and several dozen activists marching in support of gay rights in the coastal town. Violence also disrupted a second march in Podgorica later that year, but processions have been held in mostly peaceful conditions in subsequent years.

Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 and has long sought membership in the European Union.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said during a visit to Lithuania that NATO must do more for common security to protect itself against any aggressive actions by Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

"The fact is that we, NATO, must do more for our common security because we cannot know how far Putin's delusions of grandeur can go," Lambrecht said while visiting German troops deployed in the Baltic nation.

"We've heard Russia's threats to Lithuania, which was implementing European sanctions on the border with Kaliningrad. [These are] not nearly the first threats, and we must take them seriously and be prepared," she said.

"The security of Lithuania is the security of Germany. It is this promise of common security that we are recommitting ourselves to today," she said at Lithuania's Rukla military base.

Germany heads an international combat brigade of 3,000-5,000 soldiers stationed in Lithuania.

The force is part of NATO efforts to bolster its eastern flank amid recent aggressive actions in the region by Moscow.

Lithuania has borders with the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad as well as with Kremlin ally Belarus.

With its forces struggling against a dramatic Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia's Defense Ministry on October 8 named General Sergei Surovikin as the new overall commander of Kremlin forces engaged in Ukraine.

The move marked the first official announcement of a single overall commander for all Russian forces fighting in Ukraine since its February 24 invasion of the country.

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

The announcement also came just hours after a blast and fire suspended traffic and damaged a key bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula early on October 8 in a fresh blow to Moscow's prestige, although the origin of the blast has not been determined.

"By the decision of the defense minister of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Surovikin has been appointed commander of the joint group of troops in the area of the special military operation," the statement said, using the Kremlin's term for the invasion of Ukraine.

Since 2017, Surovikin has led Russia's Aerospace Forces -- an office created in 2015 when the Russian Air Force, the Air and Missile Forces, and the Space Forces were placed under one command.

In June, Surovikin was placed in charge of Russian troops in southern Ukraine. He had previously served in Tajikistan, Chechnya, and Syria.

In April, the BBC and CNN, citing Western officials and sources, reported that General Aleksandr Dvornikov had been appointed overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. The latest announcement did not mention Dvornikov.

Dvornikov has a notorious reputation for his conduct in the war in Syria, where Russia bombed civilian districts. Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Dvornikov the Hero of Russia medal, one of the country's highest awards, for his work in Syria.

Moscow in recent weeks has faced increasing -- and unprecedented -- criticism for the mounting losses in Ukraine, much of it from those with close ties to the Kremlin.

Many pro-Russia military bloggers have slammed the progress in the war, and the leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has vocally called for replacement of many of the military’s top generals.

As Ukraine continues to liberate settlements in its eastern region from occupying Russian troops, Moscow has in fact replaced other top commanders in its armed forces.

The head of Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Sergei Melikov, wrote on Telegram on October 7 that North Caucasus native Lieutenant-General Rustam Muradov had been appointed to lead the Eastern Military District.

The district is based in Russia's Far East, but much of its personnel is currently taking part in Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Muradov, who among other Russian officials has been slapped by Western sanctions, led troops in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, parts of which have been under Russia-backed separatists' control since 2014. He also commanded Russian peacekeepers in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

RBK news agency on October 7 cited sources close to the Russian military as saying Muradov replaced Colonel-General Aleksandr Chaiko without giving any details.

There has been no official confirmation of the report.

WATCH: An early morning blast and ensuing fire hit a section of the dual road-and-rail Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait and a span of the road bridge collapsed into the sea on October 8.

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On October 3, RBK reported that the commander of the Western Military District, Colonel-General Aleksandr Zhuravlyov, had been replaced shortly after dramatic Russian losses in northeastern Ukraine in September and Ukraine's recapture of the strategic city of Lyman in the Donetsk region.

In September, General Dmitry Bulgakov, deputy defense minister in charge of logistics, was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who is accused by the European Union of orchestrating a siege of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol early in the war that killed thousands of civilians.

In August, state media outlets in Russia said the commander of the Black Sea fleet had been fired after Ukraine carried out several successful attacks, including the sinking of Russia's missile cruiser Moskva and the loss of eight warplanes in an attack on a Russian base in Ukraine's Crimea that was seized by Moscow in 2014.

Germany's state-owned railway operator blamed "sabotage" to its cables for an hours-long stoppage of all rail traffic in the north of the country on October 8, and launched an investigation into who was behind the interference.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) didn't say who it suspected and said service had since restarted.

But the outage follows a warning from the NATO military alliance and the European Union of the urgency of protecting critical infrastructure after sabotage was blamed for at least four sudden and sizable leaks last month in the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run from Russia to Western Europe.

Russia has responded to suspicions it was behind those gas leaks by calling such sabotage "unthinkable."

"Due to sabotage on cables that are indispensable for rail traffic, Deutsche Bahn had to stop rail traffic in the north this morning for nearly three hours," the German railway operator announced on October 8.

Earlier, it cited a technical problem with radio communications.

Der Spiegel magazine quoted anonymous security sources as saying cables for DB's communications network had been sliced in two places.

Rail service was affected through Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein in addition to Bremen and Hamburg, and international rail journeys to Denmark and the Netherlands were also delayed as a result.

DB said no long-distance trains were running between Berlin, in the east of the country, and Hanover and North Rhine Westphalia in the west.

DB tweeted later that while many trains were running, "There are still impairments. Unfortunately, you still have to expect train and stop cancellations and delays."

The Swedish Security Police on October 6 said its initial probe confirmed that "detonations" caused "extensive damage" to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines last week.

Russia supplies around one-third of Europe's natural gas, which has been at the center of sanctions-related trade disputes since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February.

Before the alleged sabotage to the Nord Stream pipelines, Russia's gas provider several times cited technical holdups that it said prevented its deliveries to the West.

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An early morning blast and ensuing fire hit a section of the dual road-and-rail Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait and a span of the road bridge collapsed into the sea on October 8. A helicopter helped extinguish the blaze of several oil-carrying train carriages. The three-year-old, 19-kilometer bridge -- whose construction was launched by Moscow soon after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 -- became a symbol of Russian revanchism and has been used to transfer troops, weapons, equipment, and fuel from Russia to Ukraine during the current invasion. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an official investigation into the bridge incident, and Russian Investigative Committee representatives were seen on the bridge hours later.

BELGRADE -- President Aleksandar Vucic says France and Germany have encouraged Serbia to allow its former province Kosovo to join international institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, in exchange for early membership in the European Union.

He quickly added that such a solution was unacceptable to Belgrade and contravened Serbia's constitution.

Neither Paris nor Berlin has confirmed the offer of any such quid pro quo deal.

"The bottom line is that Serbia allows Kosovo to join all international institutions and organizations, including the UN," Vucic told a press conference in Belgrade on October 8. "For that, Serbia would get quick entry into the EU and probably significant economic benefits."

Vucic and his ruling Progressive Party (SNS) consistently reject Pristina's 2008 declaration of sovereignty and have waged a decade-long campaign to discourage others from recognizing Kosovo, which fought a war of independence from Serbia in 1998-99.

Serbia's constitution declares that the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian Kosovo is part of Serbia, although more than 100 countries recognize its independence.

But he also acknowledged damage that Belgrade's position might be doing to Serbia and the possibility that the costs might eventually outweigh Serbian objections.

"We will stick to [our Kosovo policy] until the the damage caused to Serbia is so much greater that we would have to accept a different reality," Vucic said. "Maybe a future government will make a different decision."

Vucic said Serbia would face consequences if it recognized Kosovo and he regretted accepting EU facilitation of efforts to resolve Kosovo's final status, a process that has been continuing intermittently for a decade.

"Since then, regardless of the signed Brussels agreement, we have not been able to put the formation of the Union of Serbian Municipalities on the agenda," Vucic said in reference to Pristina's continuing opposition to formalizing structures in majority-Serb northern Kosovo supported diplomatically and financially by Belgrade.

Vucic said Serbia's position on Kosovo was increasingly complicated "because the Western countries will try, as they think, to solve the problem of Kosovo in one way or another by Kosovo joining UN and because they think that way they would solve intra-European matters."

He also said the West is seeking to eliminate an argument frequently cited by President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials to defend Moscow's actions.

Russia has leveraged its diplomatic support for Belgrade in the Kosovo dispute into trade, weapons, and other ties, in addition to citing it in criticism of Western decisions or justification for Moscow's actions.

Vucic said Serbia will maintain its refusal to impose sanctions on Russia, a position that has raised tensions given Serbia's candidate status for EU membership and ongoing accession talks.

A handful of EU countries including Spain, Slovakia, and Romania also don't recognize Kosovo.

Vucic suggested EU member and sometimes ally over ethnic issues in the former Yugoslavia Croatia was an "unreliable partner" as evidenced by events around an eighth EU sanctions package against Russia.

The Serbian president earlier accused Zagreb of removing a paragraph that would have granted Serbia and other landlocked Western Balkan countries an exemption allowing them to continue receiving Russian seaborne crude oil.

He said as part of its energy-diversification efforts, Serbia planned to build a $100 million oil pipeline toward Hungary, whose nationalist populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused of democratic backsliding and cozying up to Putin.

Another plan would see a pipeline via North Macedonia the Albania's Drac port.

Vucic said on October 8 that "at the moment Serbia has eight notes on the withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo."

He noted that Kosovo's admission process to the Council of Europe is expected to begin next month.

More scattered protests and crackdown violence struck Iran on October 8 as demonstrators angry over the death of a young woman detained over the dress code continued to defy officials' warnings of tough punishments to stem weeks of unrest.

Videos posted on social media from trusted sources showed small protests in Tehran, Karaji just outside the capital, and a few other cities.

There were also reports of striking workers in several cities in heavily Kurdish areas, where public outcry was initially strongest when word spread that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died three days after being picked up in the capital by Iran's morality police.

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group said at least 92 protesters have been killed by the security forces, although other groups cite death figures of 160 or more, along with hundreds more injured and thousands arrested.

A Norway-based network of human rights campaigners which monitors abuses in heavily Kurdish northwestern Iran said Iranian riot police opened fire on people in at least two cities on October 8, with the protests in their fourth week.

"Security forces are shooting at the protesters in Sanandaj and Saqqez," said the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

They also used tear gas against crowds, the group said.

The group later said clashes were continuing into the night in Sanandaj and Saqez, along with Kermansha, Bukan, and Fardis.

A widely followed Twitter account called Tavsir1500 reported shootings at protesters in Sanandaj and Saqez..

Videos shared by Hengaw showed young women or girls chanting "Woman, life, freedom!" at a school in Saqez, Amini's hometown in Kurdistan Province.

Others waved their mandatory Islamic head scarves in the air in a daring challenge to the strict hijab laws that have been part of systemic discrimination against women and girls under Iran's religious leadership since the 1979 revolution.

In another video it shared, a group of girls could be heard chanting the same phrase -- the catchcry of the protests -- as they entered a school in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province.

Another video Hengaw claimed was from Sanandaj showed a driver slumped at the wheel after the group claimed he was shot dead while honking amid a street demonstration.

AFP confirmed the presence of a large banner on an overpass in central Tehran that read, "We are not afraid anymore. We will fight."

Iranian expulsions, censorship, and interrupted communications make reporting inside the country difficult.

Eyewitness accounts said Amini had been beaten during her arrest, while her father has said she suffered bruises to her legs and has held the police responsible for her death.

The state-controlled ISNA news agency said on October 7 that Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization had determined "underlying diseases" were the cause of Amini's death, while making no mention of whether she had suffered any injuries. A report on state television added that the forensic report showed Amini's death was related to "surgery for a brain tumor at the age of 8."

The street protests quickly spread after officials denied the dress-code enforcers were responsible before any investigations were done, and senior leaders including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have since suggested that foreign elements are behind the unrest.

Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi has made similar charges, including at a ceremony on October 8 at Tehran University to mark the start of the new academic year.

After Raisi addressed professors and students at the female-only Alzahra University in Tehran, women students were seen on video posted on social media chanting "Raisi get lost" and "Mullahs get lost."

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said young women on the campus were seen shouting "Death to the oppressor."

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved an additional $1.3 billion in emergency funds for Ukraine stemming from hardships from the Russian invasion and related gaps in grain production and sales.

The UN financial agency said in an announcement that the financing "will help close a financing gap from shortfalls in grain exports."

It was disbursed under a new "food shock window" under a rapid-financing instrument set up to help Ukraine meet an "urgent balance of payment needs," the IMF said.

"More than seven months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the humanitarian and economic toll remains massive, resulting in large and urgent fiscal and external financing needs," the IMF said.

It also credited Ukrainian authorities with "having maintained an important degree of macro-financial stability in these extremely challenging circumstances" since the unprovoked Russian invasion began in late February, following eight years of lower-level conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukraine's government in the eastern part of the country.

A Russian blockade on Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea coast has further hurt Ukraine, and a Turkish- and UN-mediated deal to enable Ukraine to renew its wheat and other grain shipments has foundered.

The IMF said it predicted that Ukraine's economy will contract by around 35 percent in 2022 year on year, compounding financial woes.

Bulgaria could be forced into new elections yet again after the victorious center-right GERB party was rebuffed by what many regarded as its last hope for coalition talks in a hung parliament days after its fourth elections in just 18 months.

The head of We Continue The Change (PP), Kiril Petkov, said on October 8 that his centrist, pro-Western electoral alliance is not interested in a coalition with Boyko Borisov and his GERB allies.

Most analysts saw PP as the only potential kingmaker for GERB after most other groups dismissed talk of cooperation with Borisov, who spent three stormy and divisive tenures as prime minister between 2009 and 2021.

Borisov and his GERB party have been the target of widespread corruption accusations, but he pledged recently to organize a "Euro-Atlantic" government with or without himself as prime minister.

Petkov served as prime minister from December to August largely on the strength of the PP's opposition to perceived corruption and other failures under Borisov's governments.

Petkov said his idea of a Euro-Atlantic government that supports the European Union and NATO is one "without corruption."

His PP co-leader, Asen Vasilev, said after a national party meeting this week that "we will not go to talks with GERB for the first term" but "will be a constructive opposition and will not hinder the formation of a cabinet."

Bulgarians voted in national elections in their Balkan country for the fourth time in 18 months on October 2 and gave GERB a plurality of around 25 percent, or 67 deputies in the 240-seat National Assembly, with PP placing second with just over 20 percent and 53 seats.

The southeastern EU member country of nearly 7 million people has been plagued by political gridlock since 2020 when it was rocked by nationwide protests, as public anger over years of corruption boiled over. Much of the ire was directed at Borisov and his GERB party.

The Bulgarian Rise party, a seemingly pro-Russian party that won 12 legislative seats this month, is the only party whose leader has expressed a willingness to enter coalition talks with GERB.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree installing a new operator for a massive international oil-and-gas project in Russia's Far East, affecting billions of investment dollars from major U.S., Japanese, and Indian companies.

The maneuver and decree on October 7 appear to repeat a strategy that the Kremlin has used recently to seize other foreign-owned energy assets.

Putin ordered that authority be given to the Russian government to decide whether foreign stakeholders in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project may retain their holdings in the joint venture.

The move toward nationalization further complicates U.S. Exxon Mobil's efforts to exit Russia since international sanctions were imposed over Putin's order of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. Exxon has a 30-percent stake in the operations of Sakhalin-1.

It also sets up possible disputes with Japanese Sodeco, which has a 50-percent stake, and India's ONGC Videsh.

Neither Exxon nor Sodeco immediately responded to Putin's decree.

The Kremlin order cites the establishment of a Russian company under Rosneft subsidiary Sakhalinmorneftegaz-shelf to control investors' rights in Sakhalin-1.

It sets a one-month deadline once that company is established for foreign partners to request shares in the new entity via the Russian government.

The United States has helped lead the unprecedented trade and other sanctions since Russia's full-scale invasion began, while Japan stopped buying Russian oil in June.

New Delhi has mostly remained silent on the Russian aggression against its post-Soviet neighbor, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested in September at his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the invasion that "today's era is not one for war."

The Sakhalin-1 project off Sakhalin Island on Russia's eastern coast operates three fields in the Okhotsk Sea, using advanced extended-reach technology for some of the longest wells in the world.

Putin used a July decree to seize full control of a sister project in the Far East, Sakhalin-2, in which Shell and Japan's Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp were partners.

Russia on October 7 declared Oxxxymiron, one of the country's most popular rappers, to be a "foreign agent" as it updated its registry to add activists, writers, and journalists, including some who work for RFE/RL.

Oxxxymiron, 37, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, has called the Kremlin's Ukraine offensive a "catastrophe and a crime." He canceled a Russian tour in protest of the invasion, subsequently left Russia, and gave a series of concerts titled Russians Against the War in Turkey, Britain, and Germany.

Fyodorov, human rights activist and feminist politician Alyona Popova, and journalist Irina Storozheva of Khabarovsk were added to the list of so-called foreign agents. Oxxxymiron lists Ukraine as a source of funding, while Popova and Storozheva, in addition to Ukraine, list RFE/RL.

Writer Dmitry Glukhovsky and journalists Evgenia Baltatarova of Buryatia and Iskander Yasaveev of Mari El were also included in the updated register of media outlets that are deemed foreign agents. Yasaveev collaborates with Idel.Realii, a project of RFE/RL.

Glukhovsky is one of the most widely read science fiction writers in Russia. He is the author of the post-apocalyptic fiction novel and bestseller Metro 2033.

After the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Glukhovsky repeatedly published anti-war posts on his social media accounts. He also talked about the killing of Ukrainian civilians and the losses suffered by the Russian Army.

In June he was placed on the federal wanted list by the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry in a criminal case of discrediting the Russian army.

The Justice Ministry also labeled the Yekaterinburg Resource Center for LGBT an unregistered foreign-agent organization.

Russia's foreign agents registry has been used extensively against opponents, journalists, and human rights activists accused of conducting foreign-funded political activities.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Federal Security Service (FSB) to take charge of security measures for a strategic bridge after an apparent truck bomb damaged the structure linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin’s prestige.

Meanwhile, on October 8, Kyiv tallied gains in its ongoing counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine over the past week, while pro-Russia forces claimed their first gains in over a month in the eastern Donetsk region around Bakhmut.

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

In his decree, Putin also put the FSB -- the successor to the Soviet-era KGB -- in charge of security for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia.

"The FSB will be given the power to organize and coordinate protective measures for the transport route across the Kerch Strait, for the Russian Federation's power bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, and the gas pipeline from [Russia's] Krasnodar region to Crimea," the decree said.

The blast on the Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait caused the partial collapse of the structure, which serves as a crucial conduit for supplies to Crimea, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.

It remains unclear who was behind the bridge explosion or if it did indeed originate in the truck.

A senior aide to Ukraine's president initially suggested it was a fresh blow by Kyiv targeting operational support for Moscow's 7-month-old full-scale invasion.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, sent a tweet suggesting Ukrainian involvement and calling the bridge incident "the beginning" but stopping short of a claim of responsibility by Kyiv.

"Crimea, the bridge, the beginning," Podolyak tweeted, in English. "Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled."

However, Kyiv appeared to somewhat walk back Podolyak’s remarks. The Ukrainian presidency later released a statement attributed to Podolyak saying the answer to questions about the origin of the blast should come from the Russian side.

"It is worth noting that the truck that detonated, according to all indications, entered the bridge from the Russian side. So the answers should be sought in Russia," he was quoted as saying.

In a video address, Zelenskiy did not mention the incident directly, but he said that "today was a good and mostly sunny day on the territory of our state. Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea."

Ukraine is seeking a future "without occupiers. Throughout our territory, in particular in Crimea," he added.

A video shared on pro-Ukrainian social media showed a raging fire on the rail section of the dual road-and-rail Crimea Bridge and a collapsed span on the nearby road segment.

"Today at 6:07 a.m. on the road traffic side of the Crimea Bridge...[a bomb] exploded, setting fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea," Russian news agencies quoted the national antiterrorism committee as saying.

Russian authorities said three people were killed in the blast and that the bodies of a man and a woman -- likely passengers in a car passing near the explosion -- were recovered from the water.

Moscow identified the owner of the suspected truck as a resident of Russia's southern Krasnodar region and said a search was being conducted at his residence, although it was not known if he was the driver of the truck.

The 3-year-old, 19-kilometer bridge became a symbol of Russian revanchism and has been used to transfer troops, weapons, equipment, and fuel from Russia to Ukraine during the current invasion.

Russian media and Telegram channels reported that traffic was halted on the bridge after Ukrainian reports of a huge explosion there at around 6 a.m. local time.

Hours later, the Russian Transport Ministry said limited road traffic had resumed on undamaged lanes of the bridge and that train service was starting up again as well.

Shared images showed black smoke billowing from a huge blaze at one end of the road-and-rail bridge, which was completed in 2019 at a reported cost of nearly $4 billion.

The Crimea Bridge is Europe's longest and was intended to consolidate Russia's control over Crimea, which it invaded and annexed in 2014.

Reports of intense fighting in many areas of Ukraine continued.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly address late on October 7 that Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 770 square kilometers and 29 municipalities in the past week since Russia's "sham" referendums in four regions of Ukraine.

But pro-Russian forces said overnight on October 7-8 that they had recaptured ground in the area around the strategic city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in the first Russian claim of a territorial gain since Kyiv's counteroffensive began more than a month ago.

Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk said they retook several villages near Bakhmut, including Otradovka and Veselaya Dolina.

Russian forces reportedly attempted to storm Bakhmut, a city of around 70,000 people before the war that has been under Russian shelling attacks for several weeks.

A Current Time correspondent on the front lines in northern Donetsk said late on October 7 that Ukrainian fighters appeared to have repelled the Russian forces trying to break through a defense line near the town.

RFE/RL cannot independently verify claims by either side in areas of intense fighting.

On October 8, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region announced a partial evacuation of civilians from the region as Ukrainian forces continued their counteroffensive.

Kirill Stremousov told Russia’s RIA Novosti that young children, their parents, and older persons could travel to two regions in southern Russia because the Kherson area was getting "ready for a difficult period."

Four days ago, Stremousov told residents there was no reason to panic amid the fighting: "Our artillery and fighter jets are hitting enemy forces that enter the sovereign territory of Russia."

Russia has said it is annexing parts of Ukraine's Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions even as its forces are being pushed back in many areas. The West has condemned the illegal annexations, saying they will never be recognized, and have slapped those involved with further sanctions.

The Ukrainian military has liberated 29 settlements and more than 770 square kilometers in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on October 7 as Russian and Ukrainian human rights organizations were awarded a share of the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 70th birthday.

The liberated Ukrainian settlements include six in the Luhansk region -- one of four that Russia illegally annexed after conducting what Zelenskiy said were "pseudo-referendums" on the question of joining Russia.

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

"In total, since the beginning of this offensive operation, 2,434 square kilometers of our land and 96 settlements have already been liberated," Zelenskiy said, adding up the gains in a counteroffensive that began several weeks ago. "There are also good results in the south of Ukraine this week. Every day we are liberating our land and our people there from the pseudo-referendum. We will certainly reach the lands that were occupied by Russia before," he said in his nightly address.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on October 7 that its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region and had retaken three villages elsewhere in the region. The ministry also claimed Russian forces had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the southern Kherson region. Reports from the battlefield could not be independently confirmed. They came on the same day that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Russian rights group Memorial, Ukraine's Center For Civil Liberties, and a human rights activist jailed in Belarus. The awards were seen as a repudiation of Putin, who marked his 70th birthday on October 7. Activists marked the milestone in various ways. In the Georgian city of Batumi, he was "gifted" a ticket to The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is located.

In the Russian city of Samara, activist Vladimir Avdonin conducted a solo picket holding a poster with the words "Putin is a criminal." He stood at one of the busiest intersections in the city for about half an hour, according to Idel.Realii. The activist has been "congratulating" Putin on his birthday in this way for several years and has been subjected to searches and fines more than once but was not detained this time. In a show of support for Putin, students in St. Petersburg stood in a formation on a main city square spelling out the phrase "Putin is my president." They were reportedly driven to the square and handed posters and Russian flags before they marched onto the square. Back in Ukraine, an official in the city of Zaporizhzhya said the number of people killed as a result of an attack on October 6 had increased to 14.

WATCH: Russia has resorted to using Shahed-136 drones from Iran in its war on Ukraine. Ukraine says it's already downed many of the drones, which work by slamming into their intended target, laden with explosives.

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"Disappointing news continues to come to us from the analysis of debris on the houses that were affected by yesterday's attack," said city council secretary Andriy Kurtev on October 7, expressing condolences to all those who lost relatives and friends. Moscow denies carrying out targeted attacks on civilians despite numerous testimonies to the contrary. An official in the eastern town of Lyman, which was recently liberated by Ukrainian troops, said 200 graves and a mass grave had been discovered there. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, published photos on his Telegram channel showing emergency personnel in white protective suits working in a cordoned-off area. Exhumations had already begun, Kyrylenko wrote.

According to initial findings, the dead could be both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Ukrainian troops took control of Lyman on October 2 after Russian forces withdrew a day earlier. A mass burial site was found last month near the eastern city of Izyum after Ukrainian troops took over towns in the Kharkiv region. Hundreds of bodies were exhumed, including 30 with signs of torture.

The English city of Liverpool will hold the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC has reported, after Britain stepped in on behalf of Ukraine, which won this year's contest on a wave of support following Russia's invasion.

The BBC's Eurovision show presenter, Graham Norton, announced the selection of Liverpool, saying the show will be held on May 13 in the northwestern English city that is home to the Beatles and other world-famous bands.

Ukraine had been due to host the contest after its folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 Eurovision crown under a decades-long tradition that the winner gets to host the show the following year.

The group beat 24 competitors in the final in May in Turin, Italy, with Stefania, a rap lullaby combining Ukrainian folk and modern hip-hop rhythms.

But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision, ruled in June that Ukraine could not guarantee the safety of the more than 10,000 people involved in the production of the annual show plus tens of thousands of fans.

Britain was invited to host based on the second-place finish of British singer Sam Ryder with his song Space Man.

The government in Kyiv vowed to fight the decision but agreed to a U.K.-hosted event after assurances that it would have an "extremely high integration of Ukrainian context and presenters."

Eurovision is the world's biggest live music event, featuring performers from across Europe and Central Asia as well as Israel and Australia.

The BBC will stage the event, which normally draws a television audience of close to 200 million. Ukraine will automatically qualify to the grand final of the competition, the EBU said.

Shelling has damaged a power line providing electricity to one of the reactors at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said as it announced that its director will travel to Moscow early next week.

The shelling forced the reactor to temporarily rely on its emergency diesel generators to run cooling systems, the IAEA said on October 7 in a news release.

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

The UN's nuclear watchdog said it was informed of the shelling, which took place on October 6, by senior Ukrainian operating personnel at the site.

The diesel generators supplied power to the reactor after its connection to the backup line was cut during shelling that occurred in an industrial area outside the power plant's perimeter. The high-voltage external power line is the only one available to the plant.

The generators operated for about 90 minutes, while an alternative source of power from four of the other reactors was connected to the unit, whose core cooling was maintained at all times, the IAEA said.

"The incident once again underlined the precarious nuclear safety and security situation at Europe's largest nuclear power plant -- now located in an active war zone -- and especially the fragile and vulnerable supplies of external power that are needed for cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions," the IAEA said.

Oleksandr Starukh, the Ukrainian governor of Zaporizhzhya, said earlier on Telegram that the Russian military launched a missile attack on the regional center and its immediate surroundings.

He added that there was a risk of repeated shelling and warned people to stay indoors.

Russia seized control of the Zaporizhzhya plant shortly after it launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The plant's Ukrainian operators have remained on site to run the plant.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has praised the operators as "courageous, skilled, and experienced," saying they have been finding solutions to overcome problems that keep occurring because of the conflict.

"However, this is not a sustainable way to run a nuclear power plant. There is an urgent need to create a more stable environment for the plant and its staff," Grossi said.

Grossi visited Kyiv on October 6 for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the situation at the plant and the IAEA's proposal to set up a nuclear safety and security protection zone around it.

He described his meeting as "excellent," saying on Twitter that there was progress toward a setting up the safety zone.

Grossi will travel to Russia early next week for further consultations on the plant, the IAEA said. The agency had previously said Grossi would travel to Kyiv and Moscow this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 5 ordered the Russian state to seize complete control of the power plant after he signed decrees that Moscow claims absorb into Russia four regions that it only partially controls.

Ukraine's state nuclear energy company, Enerhoatom, dismissed Putin's move and said Russian documents regarding the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant were "worthless, absurd, and inadequate."

The IAEA on October 7 also expanded its presence at the power plant when four IAEA nuclear safety experts arrived to replace two colleagues who had been at the site since September 1.

The experts are providing independent and impartial observations and assessments of the situation at the plant. They would also provide support to the nuclear safety and security protection zone if it is established.

"Today's rotation underlines our determination that the IAEA will stay at the plant as long as it is required," Grossi said in the IAEA news release. "Their presence is necessary to help stabilize the situation, which remains very difficult and volatile."

As Ukraine continues to liberate settlements in its eastern region from occupying Russian troops, Moscow has reportedly replaced another top commander in its armed forces.

The head of Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Sergei Melikov, wrote on Telegram on October 7 that North Caucasus native Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov had been appointed to lead the Eastern Military District.

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

The district is based in Russia's Far East, but much of its personnel is currently taking part in Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Muradov, who among other Russian officials has been slapped with Western sanctions, led troops in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, parts of which have been under Moscow-backed separatists' control since 2014.

He also commanded Russian peacekeepers in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

RBK news agency reported on October 7, citing sources close to the Russian military, that Muradov replaced Colonel General Aleksandr Chaiko, without giving any details.

There has been no official confirmation of the report.

On October 3, RBK reported that the commander of the Western Military District, Colonel General Aleksandr Zhuravlyov, had been replaced shortly after dramatic Russian losses in northeastern Ukraine in September and Ukraine's recapture of the strategic city of Lyman in the Donetsk region.

In September, General Dmitry Bulgakov, deputy defense minister in charge of logistics, was replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, who is accused by the European Union of orchestrating a siege of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol early in the war that killed thousands of civilians.

In August, Russian state media said the commander of the Black Sea fleet had been fired after Ukraine carried out several successful attacks, including the sinking of Russia's missile cruiser Moskva and the loss of eight warplanes in an attack on a Russian base in Ukraine's Crimea that was seized by Moscow in 2014.

DUSHANBE -- Tajik blogger Daleri Imomali has gone on trial in Dushanbe on charges human rights organizations call unfounded.

Sources close to prosecutor's office in Dushanbe told RFE/RL on October 7 that The Shohmansur district court in the Tajik capital started the trial behind closed doors on that day.

Imomali is charged with illegal entrepreneurship, premeditated false denunciation, and cooperating with the banned Group 24 opposition movement, which was officially designated in the country as a terrorist organization in 2014.

In March 2015, the movement's founder, Umarali Quvatov, was assassinated in Istanbul, Turkey.

Imomali pleaded guilty to the illegal entrepreneurship charge, but rejected the other two. If convicted, Imomali faces more than 10 years in prison.

Known for his articles critical of the government, Imomali was detained along with noted journalist Abdullo Ghurbati on June 15 and sent to pretrial detention three days later.

Ghurbati was sentenced on October 4 to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges of publicly insulting an authority, minor assault of an authority, and participating in the activities of an extremist group. Ghurbati pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists have demanded Tajik officials immediately release Imomali and Ghurbati.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has been criticized by international human rights groups for years over his disregard for independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

Russian human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and a Ukrainian delivery nurse from Mariupol, Tetyana Sokolova, have won an international award for their efforts to help people affected by Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Gannushkina and Sokolova were honored as the winners of the London-based organization RAW in WAR's (Reach All Women in War) Anna Politkovskaya Award on October 6.

Gannushkina, chairwoman of the Moscow-based Civil Assistance rights group, has been involved in assisting Ukrainian refugees who had to leave their homes after Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in late February and for those Russian citizens who are not part of the war in Ukraine.

The 80-year-old human rights activist was detained by police in Moscow in February during a protest against the war in Ukraine.

Sokolova continues to work in a maternity hospital in Mariupol despite constant shelling of the building by Russian armed forces. She said 27 children were born in the maternity hospital's basement in 45 days at the time.

WATCH: Tetyana Sokolova recalls not only working under fire, but also the everyday dramas of war: women breastfeeding other babies amid a milk formula shortage, and a heartbreaking stillbirth in the basement.

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The award is named after Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who exposed human rights abuses in Chechnya and was assassinated on October 7, 2006.

Prominent digital rights and Internet freedom activists Amir (Jadi) Mirmirani and Milad Nouri have reportedly been arrested by security forces in Iran along with several other activists.

The arrests, reported on social media by friends and family members of those detained, come amid weeks-long nationwide anti-government protests sparked by the death last month of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested by Iran's morality police for "improperly" wearing the mandatory head scarf, or hijab.

As protests continue, the Iranian government has imposed a near-total Internet shutdown.

Mirmirani has informed the public many times about Iran's partner companies cutting off the Internet in recent years.

His arrest comes after he repeatedly accused Iranian IT companies SahabPardaz and ArvanCloud of being involved in cutting off Internet access in order to facilitate the suppression of protests.

Four other digital activists -- Arian Eghbal, Mohsen Tahmasbi, Adel Talebi, and Meysam Rajabi -- are among other digital rights activists who have reportedly been arrested for protesting the Internet shutdown in recent days.

Videos published on social media overnight on October 6 by other activists showed protests being held in at least five cities of Iran, including Tehran, Rasht, Islamshahr, Bokan, and Kermanshah.

A video obtained by Radio Farda purportedly shows security forces in Tehran attempting to detain a young man while what appear to be bystanders intervene and help him escape.

Another video, apparently shot in the northern Iranian city of Rasht on October 7, shows a group of schoolgirls coming into the street and chanting slogans against the Islamic republic.

International support for Iran’s protests continues, with prominent personalities taking a stance in favor of the protesters.

After French Oscar-winning actresses Juliette Binoche and Marion Cotillard posted videos of themselves cutting their hair in support of women in Iran, British author J.K. Rowling has once again voiced her backing of Iranian women protesters.

"We must see justice for #MahsaAmini, #NikaShakarami, and all Iranian women currently being killed, beaten, and raped for standing up for their human rights. This is femicide," Rowling tweeted.

The head of a Ukrainian human rights group that has won the Nobel Peace Prize says Russian President Vladimir Putin should face an international tribunal for launching his ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that has claimed thousands of lives.

Oleksandra Matviychuk, who leads Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), said hours after the group was named as a Nobel Peace Prize winner on October 7 that to "give the hundreds of thousands of victims of war crimes a chance to see justice...it is necessary to create an international tribunal and bring Putin, (Belarus ruler Alyaksandr) Lukashenka and other war criminals to justice."

"The UN and its member-states should conduct international peace and security reform to create guarantees for all countries and their citizens, regardless of their participation or non-participation in military blocs or military capacity. Russia should be excluded from the UN Security Council for systematic violations of the UN charter," Matviychuk added in a post on Facebook.

The CCL shared this year's Nobel with Russian human rights group Memorial and jailed Belarusian dissident Ales Byalyatski, who founded the rights group Vyasna.

ASTANA -- The former deputy secretary of Kazakhstan's Security Council, Marat Shaikhutdinov, has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of high treason and espionage.

The Committee of National Security (UQK) said on October 7 that Shaikhutdinov's verdict and sentence had been announced on September 21.

The UQK added that two other men in the case, Leonid Skakovsky and Oleg Zhdan, had also been handed prison terms.

Skakovsky was sentenced to 11 years and three months on a high treason charge, while Zhdan got 11 years in prison after he was convicted of espionage.

The KNB statement did not give any other details.

The 63-year-old Shaikhutdinov had served as deputy secretary of Kazakhstan’s Security Council since 2009. In 2015 he was promoted to the post of first deputy secretary.

In late March this year, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev removed him from the post.

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