Grain exports from three Ukrainian ports made possible under deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey will halt on November 2 after Moscow pulled out of the deal, Ukraine said on November 1 as Turkey attempted to find a way to get Russia to reverse its decision.

Russia announced it was pulling out of the deal on October 29, accusing Ukraine of misusing the humanitarian shipping corridor set up under the deal for an attack on Russian ships in Crimea. Kyiv has dismissed this as a "false pretext" to withdraw from the deal.

The Turkey and UN-brokered deal is crucial to easing a global food crisis and providing food to people in poor countries in Asia and Africa.

Turkey stepped up diplomatic efforts to salvage it on November 1.

In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded "real guarantees" from Kyiv that it was "not using the humanitarian corridor for military purposes."

Putin also said a resumption of the deal could only take place after it received these guarantees and after a "thorough investigation" into an alleged attack on its ships at the Crimean naval port of Sevastopol by drones.

Putin also reminded Erdogan of what he said was a failure to fulfill the second part of the agreement -- the unblocking of the export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to world markets, a Kremlin statement said.

Erdogan said he was "confident" the issue of grain exports from Ukraine could be resolved, according to the Turkish presidency.

No grain ship movements were planned for November 2, the body overseeing the export deal said.

With millions at risk of starvation unless exports continue, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Russia's decision to exit the deal "which again harms global food security" in a call with Zelenskiy on November 1, his office said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, meanwhile, accused Russia of deciding to let the developing world go hungry.

Price said the Kremlin's decision to scuttle the deal shows that “Moscow doesn't care if the world goes hungry. Moscow doesn't care if people starve."

Price said the United States supported efforts by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to restore the agreement and would do whatever "he deems useful."

Zelenskiy said the corridor needs a long-term means to defend it, and the world must provide a firm response to any Russian attempt to disrupt it.

"Russia must clearly be made aware that it will receive a tough response from the world to any steps to disrupt our food exports. At issue here clearly are the lives of tens of millions of people,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Despite Russia’s statements on withdrawing from the grain export agreement, the United Nations, Turkey, and Ukraine continued to implement the deal.

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, two days after Russia's withdrawal from the grain agreement, 17 ships passed through the humanitarian corridor in both directions, two of them were on their way to Ukrainian ports for loading.

In the three months since the signing of the agreement, 422 ships have exported about 10 million tons of agricultural products, the ministry added.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A Russian hacker who was convicted for his leading role in one of the largest data thefts in U.S. history has been released from prison after serving most of his 12-year sentence.

Vladimir Drinkman was released from a Pennsylvania jail on October 28, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons told RFE/RL.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to an RFE/RL request for comment on whether Drinkman had been turned over for deportation, a process that can take up to several months. Drinkman's lawyer, Igor Litvak, declined to comment. RFE/RL could not immediately reach Drinkman.

Drinkman was a key member of a criminal hacking group that penetrated major U.S. corporations, including Heartland Payment Systems, which at the time it was breached in 2008 was one of the biggest U.S. payment-processing firms. The Heartland attack -- the largest breach in history at the time -- cost the payment company more than $200 million in losses.

Varonis, a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, ranks the attack on Heartland among the 10 largest data breaches of all time.

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Chuck Brooks, a cybersecurity expert and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, said the Heartland hack was a "wake-up call" for the payments and financial industries to enhance their cyberdefenses.

He said the breach led to stronger security policies, including a better understanding by CEOs and CFOs of the threats to business sustainability and reputation.

"After the breach, many companies added more stringent data and security policies, including encryption, multifactor authentication, and monitoring of systems and networks," Brooks told RFE/RL.

Heartland also later established the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council (PPISC), which serves as a forum for banks and payment processors to share information about breaches and compliance issues, he noted.

In addition to breaking into Heartland, the hacking gang also breached Nasdaq OMX Group, 7-Eleven, JC Penney, JetBlue Airways, and others, according to prosecutors. In total, they stole the data of more than 160 million credit cards, leading to more than $300 million in damages.

Greg Hunter, a Virginia-based lawyer who has represented cybercriminals from the former Soviet Union, said the Heartland case demonstrated the sophisticated evolution of Russian-speaking hackers.

"This was the beginning of specialization," Hunter told RFE/RL. "Rather than an individual hacker spending a lot of time stealing credit card data and then trying to monetize it, you had guys specializing in breaching the security apparatus of a site, others selling the data."

The appearance of hacker forums was critical to the phenomenon of a division of labor, he said.

Hacker sites "allowed these guys to find each other and work together. A guy who breaches banks could just focus on that, knowing he could find others to either help him know what to get and how to use it, or just buy his services outright," Hunter said.

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Several of the most commonly used forums where hackers bought and sold stolen credit card data and traded tips included Cardplanet and Direct Connection. A Russian man, Aleksei Burkov, was extradited from Israel to the United States and later pleaded guilty in 2020 to U.S. charges related to his oversight of those forums.

He was deported to Russia last year.

According to U.S. court filings, Drinkman and another co-conspirator, Alexandr Kalinin, specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate data systems. Drinkman along with a third man, Roman Kotov, also focused on mining the networks to steal valuable data.

Another Russian man, Dmitry Smilyanets, then sold the stolen credit card information on forums for $10 to $50 each and distributed the proceeds of the scheme to the others, according to prosecutors.

Kalinin and Kotov, both of whom are Russian citizens, are believed to still be in Russia.

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Iran's Atomic Energy Agency Says Its E-Mail Server Was Hacked

Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands in June 2012 at the request of the United States, along with Smilyanets.

While Smilyanets cooperated with U.S. authorities and arrived in the United States a few months after his arrest, Drinkman fought his extradition for more than a year.

Ultimately, Drinkman pleaded guilty in 2015 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, including time served since his arrest. It is one of the harshest sentences given to a Russian hacker.

Drinkman served a total of 10 years and four months, or 86 percent of his sentence. U.S. federal prisoners earn credit each year for good behavior and typically serve 85 percent of their sentence.

Smilyanets was sentenced to just time served, or less than six years, and currently resides in the United States, where he works as a cyberthreat intelligence analyst.

He declined to comment when contacted by RFE/RL.

Protesters in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan have halted operations at a gold mine in the city of Taftan for a second time.

The RasadBalochistan news site published photos and videos of people gathering in front of the mine, adding that the crowd had succeeding in shutting down the site.

The Taftan gold mine is one of the biggest sources of gold in Iran. The semiofficial ILNA news agency has reported that the mine has 24 million tons of proven gold reserves.

However, Sistan-Baluchistan is still one of the poorest provinces in Iran.

Government officials have yet to react to the news, which comes amid widespread demonstrations in Iran sparked by the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

Sistan-Baluchistan has been the scene of one of the harshest crackdowns on the protests following the death on September 16 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

It has also seen deadly violence when security forces raided the central mosque and the nearby Great Mosalla and opened fire on worshippers. Rights groups say live ammunition was used in the raid, "revealing a clear intent to kill or seriously wound" by security forces.

At least 94 people were killed and 350 wounded on the day, referred to as "Bloody Friday," according to the U.S.-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. At least 13 minors were among those killed.

Activist Atena Daemi wrote on her Twitter account that the closure of the Taftan gold mine by the people and the denial of mining permission to the Islamic republic is "very important news that we should not ignore" as it will send a message to the authorities that people won't back down.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Ukraine does not have an effective means of defense against Iranian-made ballistic missiles, which Russia is likely planning to deploy north of the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said. Speaking at a briefing on November 1, Ignat said it would be theoretically possible to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles, but it would be very difficult to do it "with the means that we have in our arsenal today." The Washington Post reported last month that Iran had agreed to supply Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, citing sources in U.S. security agencies. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

BISHKEK -- RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, has asked a bank in Bishkek to explain its move to freeze RFE/RL's account without warning.

Representatives of Demirbank on October 31 informed Radio Azattyk that they had received a notification from the State Committee on National Security to freeze the account. The move came just after Kyrgyz authorities blocked Radio Azattyk's websites for two months when the broadcaster refused to take down a video of one of its news programs that reported on clashes at the border with Tajikistan.

RFE/RL President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Fly condemned the move to freeze Radio Azattyk's bank account in a statement on November 1.

"This escalation by Kyrgyz authorities appears to violate Kyrgyz law. We will fight this attempt to silence our journalists," Fly said. "Radio Azattyk is a trusted source of news and should be allowed to continue to operate unimpeded."

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Kyrgyz Government Freezes Bank Account Of RFE/RL's Radio Azattyk Without Warning

According to the law on bank and banking activities in Kyrgyzstan, banks can freeze accounts only after a court decision, and an official request from law enforcement cannot lead to the freezing of bank accounts.

The Kyrgyz government made the decision to block the Radio Azattyk website on October 26 after RFE/RL refused to take down the video, produced by Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. Officials claimed the segment "predominantly" took the position of the Tajik side.

The decision was based on the Law on Protection from False Information, a piece of legislation that drew widespread criticism when adopted in August last year.

In solidarity with RFE/RL, independent Kyrgyz media outlets on October 28 posted a black screen on their webpages for several hours with the caption "No news today. Media under pressure in Kyrgyzstan" and refused to cover news stories about the government for the whole day.

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Independent Kyrgyz Media Post Dark Page To Protest Government's Blocking Of RFE/RL Websites

The Kyrgyz government's decision has also been criticized by some Kyrgyz lawmakers and rights activists who have called for the government to repeal it.

Earlier this month threats were made against RFE/RL journalists during a demonstration in Bishkek at the office of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.

Most of the participants of the action covered their faces, avoided the camera, and refused to answer questions about their demands.

Ilimbek Israilov, the organizer of the demonstration, threatened to spray gasoline on RFE/RL reporters and use force against them.

Israilov is known for his involvement in the organization of numerous rallies to support the former deputy chief of the Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov.

In 2019, an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan.

Iranian professor Dariush Farhud, known as the "father of Iranian genetic science," has confirmed he was forcibly kidnapped by unknown security agents and interrogated for more than a day before being released.

The 84-year-old scientist told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that as he was leaving his house on the morning of October 30, two men wearing black clothes and "who looked like agents" greeted him and then "got into my car."

"Then they took me to a place and put me in another car," he said.

The genetics clinic staff headed by Farhud reported he was missing after he openly supported the current wave of anti-government protests that has rocked the country.

Farhud is also a critic of the human population planning policies of the Islamic leadership. Earlier in April, he described parliament's plan to ban fetal screenings and prevent legal abortions as an affront to human rights and a move that sets the country back 200 years.

Iran has seen daily protests since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died on September 16 while in police custody. She had been detained for an alleged dress code violation over how she was wearing a head scarf.

As the demonstrations broadened across the country, officials responded with a harsh crackdown that rights groups say has left more than 270 dead and seen thousands detained.

Farhud said his abductors asked him about his contacts and also asked why he had been critical of the government.

Iran has a record of targeting scientists and intellectuals who don't toe the official line and who touch on topics deemed as sensitive.

Several Iranian professors have been interrogated after voicing support for the anti-government protests.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

The U.S. Treasury Department last month repelled cyberattacks by a pro-Russian hacker group, preventing a disruption, a U.S. Treasury official said on November 1. The Treasury Department has attributed the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to Killnet, the Russian hacker group that claimed responsibility for disrupting the websites of several U.S. states and airports in October, said Todd Conklin, cybersecurity counselor to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. The DDos attacks were previously not reported. Conklin spoke at a financial services industry and regulator conference on cybersecurity. To read the original story from Reuters, click here.

Bishkek police detained Kyrgyz journalist Semetei Talas Uulu on November 1 on the charge of preparing and disseminating extremist materials. The journalist's lawyer, Askat Jakupbekov, told RFE/RL that his client's pretrial restrictions will be decided in 48 hours. The 41-year-old investigative journalist's detainment comes days after he covered on social networks a mass rally held on October 23 protesting the nation's deal on handing of the Kempir-Abad water reservoir to Uzbekistan in exchange for larger lands. Twenty-six politicians and activists have been detained since then. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been placed in punitive solitary confinement for the seventh time since August for what he says are politically motivated reasons. In a statement that appeared on his Twitter account on November 1, Navalny said he was sent back to punitive confinement for 11 days for failing to properly sweep a yard and wrongly addressing a guard. Navalny's new punitive confinement comes six days after he served 14 days in the same confinement. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

Former basketball star Vlade Divac, one of the first Europeans to play in North America's National Basketball Association, has been granted Montenegrin citizenship. Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic personally handed Divac, who also holds Serbian citizenship, his Montenegrin passport at a ceremony on November 1. Divac won two world championships with Serbia, as well as two Olympic silver medals. He ended his NBA career in 1998 and now spends much of his time in Montenegro, where he says his family's roots are located. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Balkan Service, click here.

A mural of cartoon character Marge Simpson cutting her hair in solidarity with Iranian women has reappeared on a wall in front of Tehran's consulate general in Milan less than a month after it was removed by "unknown agents."

Italian artist aleXsandro Palombo told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the new work is called "The Cut 2" and was designed and painted after "The Cut 1" was removed from the wall in front of the consulate general less than 24 hours after it went up.

While both murals show Marge cutting her trademark blue beehive hairdo, she is noticeably angrier in the second, showing her middle finger while scowling.

"Every action has a reaction, and this second painting was my reaction," the Milanese artist said.

"Iran is a country that has always inspired me because of its extraordinary beauty, and seeing Iranians oppressed like this is unacceptable to me. The freedom of these young people is my freedom," he added.

Women cutting their hair has become a symbol of protests sweeping Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16. Many women -- including celebrities and feminists around the world -- have chopped their locks in solidarity with the protesters in Iran.

The act is a powerful symbol as it is mentioned in the Shahnameh, a 1,000-year-old Iranian epic and one of the main cultural foundations of Iran, written by Ferdowsi. The book is one of the most important literary works in the Persian language. In this epic work, women cut their hair as an act of mourning.

Palombo told Radio Farda he doesn't know who removed the first mural, but when the second painting was unveiled, members of the consulate general came out and tried to stop photographers from documenting it.

"Their behavior was not friendly at all," he said.

“Art scares the [Islamic republic] regime, but the city of Milan is in a democratic country, and we will not let anyone scare us, and that's exactly what I tried to remind them.”

In his interview with Radio Farda, the Italian artist said his grandparents were killed during the Italian dictatorship and said Iranian protesters need to "be strong: Sooner or later this regime will fall and your courage will lead you to the light."

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original interview by Hooman Askari at RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Kyrgyz authorities have arrested two Kazakh opposition activists who are seeking political asylum in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz lawyer Zarifa Baruzova told RFE/RL on November 1 that Askhat Zheksebaev and Diana Baimaghambetova had been charged with illegal border-crossing and arrested for two months. A year ago, Zheksebaev and Baimaghambetova were convicted in Kazakhstan of having links with banned opposition groups. Zheksebaev was sentenced to five years in prison but released on parole in May. Baimaghambetova was handed a parole-like sentence. It remains unknown why the two activists decided to seek asylum in Kyrgyzstan. To read the original story from RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, click here.

Iran’s currency dropped to its lowest value against the dollar on November 1 after weeks of nationwide unrest have roiled the country. Traders in Tehran exchanged the rial at 338,000 to the dollar, up from 332,200 the previous day. The rial’s new low comes amid protests first sparked by the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country's morality police. She was detained for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women. To read the original story from AP, click here.

Kosovo's authorities have begun implementing a plan to phase out old vehicle license plates issued by Serbia by handing out warnings to owners -- a move seen as a softening of the government's initially hard-line stance on the matter following international pressure.

Drivers with old Serbian plates were issued first warnings at the Jarinje border crossing with Serbia on November 1 and were invited to report to the reregistration center in order to get new Kosovo plates.

Kosovo and Serbia fought a bloody war in the late 1990s, with Kosovo eventually declaring independence from Serbia in 2008.

Belgrade -- as well as Russia, China, and five EU member states -- has not recognized its former province's independence and accuses Pristina of suppressing the rights of minority Serbs, who account for 5 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, which is 90 percent Albanian.

Kosovo has attempted several times this year to require its Serbian minority to change their old car plates from before 1999, when Kosovo was still part of Serbia.

The attempts have been met with strong and sometimes violent resistance by ethnic Serbs who live in the northern part of the country. On July 31 and August 1, Serbs in the north set up barricades in protest.

Following a postponement, the last deadline was November 1, when around 10,000 owners had to switch their old car registrations.

But after Western warnings that such a move could raise tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, Prime Minister Albin Kurti on October 28 announced a watered-down, gradual phaseout.

Kurti said drivers would first be given warnings during an initial three-week period starting on November 1. That is to be followed by a two-month period when 150-euro ($149) fines will be issued. There will then be another two-month period during which temporary license plates will be valid.

If drivers do not change their plates by April 21, their vehicles will be confiscated, according to the government decree.

Furthermore, to stimulate drivers to get give up their Serbian plates, the government also announced that it will forfeit an additional customs tax for imported used vehicles whose owners switch to new Kosovo license plates.

In addition, they will also benefit from waivers of the license-plate costs and registration fees that altogether amount to 57 euros ($56).

Kurti announced the compromise plan a day after minority Serbs threated to again block roads if authorities in Pristina did not agree to delay implementation of the phaseout.

Despite the deal sweeteners announced by Kurti, RFE/RL journalists on the ground at the Jarinje crossing reported that some drivers whose vehicles had old plates said they were confused and still did not know how to proceed.

The European Union has told Kosovo and Serbia that they must normalize ties if they want to eventually join the 27-country bloc.

The EU and the United States recently have stepped up mediation efforts, fearing that uncertainties over the war in Ukraine and Serbia's close ties with Russia could lead to a flare-up of tensions in Kosovo.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

A Moscow court has fined the owner of Wikipedia 2 million rubles ($32,600) for failing to delete two entries on its website describing Russia's ongoing, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In April, the same court ordered Wikimedia to pay 5 million rubles in two separate hearings on similar charges. In recent months, Russian courts have fined Twitch, TikTok, Google, Facebook, and Twitter for refusing to delete content. President Vladimir Putin has accused social-media platforms of flouting the country's Internet laws. To read the original story from RIA Novosti, click here.

A court in Moscow has stripped an activist of his Russian citizenship after he protested against the war in Ukraine. Arshak Makichyan, who is currently in an EU country but officially stateless, wrote on Facebook on October 31 that his father and two brothers were also deprived of their Russian citizenship. The activist, who is originally from Armenia but has lived almost all his life in Russia, said the court's decision was politically motivated and linked to his position against the war. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus, click here.

A majority of members of the UN Security Council have condemned Belarus for issuing a bomb threat "under a false pretext" to justify the diversion of a commercial passenger flight to Minsk to arrest dissident Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend.

The Security Council session late on October 31 was called to hear a report from the president of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the May 2021 incident, when Belarus scrambled a military jet to escort an Athens-to-Vilnius flight to land in Minsk just before it was to leave Belarusian airspace.

"The pilots were invited to divert to land in Minsk and deliberately left with no other option, and despite their multiple requests to be put in contact with their operations center in order to coordinate a decision, no attempt was made by the Minsk Area Control Center to do so," ICAO President Salvatore Sciacchitano told the meeting.

"The additional information and materials gathered helped to fill some of the remaining gaps and led to the conclusion that Belarus senior officials orchestrated the deliberate diversion of the flight under the false pretext of a bomb threat," he added.

Belarusian authorities have claimed they acted because of a bomb threat from the Palestinian militant group Hamas that turned out to be false.

Once the plane was on the tarmac in Minsk, Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were detained to face charges related to civil disturbances that followed a disputed presidential election in August 2020 that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office despite opposition claims the balloting was rigged.

Following Sciacchitano's testimony, several Security Council members decried the move by Minsk.

"So the Lukashenka regime has broken international law, created a major risk to the safety of innocent passengers, and undermined aviation safety more broadly -- proving itself to be entirely irresponsible on the issue of international peace and security," Barbara Woodward, the U.K. permanent representative to the United Nations, told the meeting.

"And for what? All to silence an opposition journalist, further stifling any semblance of free speech left in Belarus," she added.

U.S. adviser Jeffrey DeLaurentis said the diversion was not the action of "a responsible international actor" and that "there must be consequences for those responsible."

"The United States calls on Belarus to release Sofia Sapega, to cease the intimidation and harassment of opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich, and for the unconditional release of the more than 1,300 political prisoners currently held by the regime," he said.

Among the 15 members of the Security Council, only Russia and China came to Belarus's defense.

Beijing's permanent representative to the council said the ICAO should not be used as a political tool and that sanctions imposed on Belarus's aviation sector over the diversion "have no basis in law" and must be rescinded "immediately."

Pratasevich, who fled Belarus in 2019, worked as a key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta-Live, which covered mass protests denouncing the official results of the election. He has yet to go on trial and the status of the investigation against him is unclear.

After a trial behind closed doors, a court sentenced Sapega in May to six years in prison for inciting social hatred.

Former Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov has been hospitalized in Moscow with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured leg after falling under mysterious circumstances.

Media reports quoted Karpov's daughter, Sofia, on October 31 as saying that the 71-year-old former world champion, who is a lawmaker representing the ruling United Russia party, had accidentally fallen near the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, two days before.

The newspaper Izvestia reported that Karpov was put on a ventilator after being diagnosed with a cerebral edema and multiple head injuries. The report also said Karpov sustained a closed fracture of the left femur.

Karpov's daughter's account of what happened conflicts with that of Andrei Kovalyov, chairman of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs, who wrote on Telegram on October 31 that Karpov was attacked by an unknown individual and is now in a medically induced coma.

Meanwhile, several media reports said Karpov was drunk when found unconscious near the parliament building.

None of the reports were officially confirmed and Karpov's daughter rejected them, saying that "nobody attacked" her father. Karpov's aide, Albert Stepanyan, said Karpov's injuries were not inflicted by another person and that the chess grandmaster was in stable condition.

Karpov became the world chess champion in 1975 after U.S. chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.

Later, in 1978 and 1981, Karpov defended the title while playing against ex-Soviet chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected to the West in 1976.

In 1985, Karpov defended his world chess champion title, but shortly after lost it to Garry Kasparov.

Karpov has been elected to parliament as a member of the ruling party three times. He is currently under Western sanctions over Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Kasparov, who currently resides in the United States, is known as a staunch critic of the Kremlin's policies, including Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

With reporting by Izvestia, Mash, Baza, RIA Novosti, TASS, SOTA, and Interfax

Three ships left Ukrainian ports by midday on November 1 under the Black Sea grain export deal, the United Nations-led coordination center said, the second day of sailings after Russia suspended participation in the initiative. The statement said the ships' movement was agreed by the Ukrainian, Turkish, and UN delegations at the Istanbul-based center and that the Russian delegation had been informed. It said the UN coordinator for the grain initiative, Amir Abdulla, continued discussions with all three member state parties in an effort to resume full participation at the center, which oversees the safe passage of vessels. To read the original story from Reuters, click here.

Experts from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog on November 1 were inspecting two sites where Russia has made unfounded claims that Ukraine is manufacturing “dirty bombs.” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement that inspections had begun at two locations in Ukraine and would soon be completed. The inspections had been requested by Kyiv in the wake of the Russian allegations. Top Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have made unsubstantiated accusations that Ukraine is preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb, an explosive laced with radioactive materials. To read the original story from AP, click here.

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on November 1 urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership in the NATO defense alliance. Hungary and Turkey are the only two remaining NATO members to not yet have ratified the applications. "All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later," Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders. Finland and Sweden did not pursue NATO membership for decades but were prompted to do so in May by Russia’s unprovoked massive invasion of Ukraine in February. To read the original story from Reuters, click here.

The mayor of Kyiv says electricity and water supplies have been restored after a day of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, including hydroelectric power stations, that caused blackouts, mobile phone outages, and reductions in water supplies.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"The water supply to the homes of Kyiv residents has been fully restored. Thank you to the experts of Kyivvodokanal and DTEK, who worked for almost a day to restore water and electricity [supplies] to the residents of the capital," Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram early on November 1.

Klitschko said that the electricity supply in the Ukrainian capital had also been restored but that blackouts are inevitable because of the extensive damage to the power system after the Russian attacks.

In Mykolayiv, regional military administration chief Vitaliy Kim said on November 1 that Russia fired four S-300 missiles overnight, demolishing half an apartment building in the city and killing one person.

Russia has been targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other civilian buildings with missile, drone, and artillery attacks for weeks amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has driven Russian troops out of the northeast and pushed them back in the east and southeast.

In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's air defenses did a good job shooting down most of the missiles, but that strengthening the country's air-defense capabilities remains a top priority.

"Our air force and everyone involved in protecting the sky did a very good job today," Zelenskiy said late on October 31. "Most of the objectives that the terrorists identified as targets were saved. This morning alone, terrorists used 55 cruise missiles for a massive attack. Forty-five of them were shot down. We will continue to strengthen our air defense."

Zelenskiy added that restoration work was still ongoing in regions targeted by Russian missiles.

Russia launched missiles into several Ukrainian cities on October 31, including the nation’s capital, Kyiv, as the Kremlin continues its relentless assault on critical Ukrainian infrastructure in the hopes of wearing down the population’s will to resist.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko called on the Group of 20 major economies to expel Russia and rescind President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to a G20 summit in Bali next month.

Nikolenko said in a tweet on November 1 that Putin's public acknowledgement that he ordered missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure meant "his hands [are] stained in blood" and that "he must not be allowed to sit at the table with world leaders."

With its eight-month invasion failing and the prospects of a defeat rising, the Kremlin is seeking to terrorize and demoralize the Ukrainian population in an attempt to break it, Western and Ukrainian officials have said. Russia has destroyed more than 40 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in a few weeks, causing electricity cuts in Kyiv and other places as winter approaches.

Separately, in eastern Ukraine, the military command said there were fierce battles near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region and that Ukrainian forces had held back Russian assaults on two other areas in the region, around Avdiyivka and Uhledar.

Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on November 1 that Russia struck more than 50 settlements in the Donetsk region.

Russia is also expanding the forced evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from occupied Kherson as its forces seek to hold the region.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed head of Kherson, announced on October 31 that citizens will be evacuated from another seven districts. Just three days earlier, the Russia-installed officials had announced that the evacuation process in the Kherson region had ended.

The Ukrainian military reported that Russian troops are mining evacuated residential areas in the Kakhovka settlement.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on November 1 that about 87,000 of 300,000 reservists who were mobilized since September have been deployed for combat in Ukraine.

About 3,000 military instructors with fighting experience in Ukraine are training them, said Shoigu, speaking on a conference call.

Some of the fresh troops have reportedly been sent to Kherson in southern Ukraine to help with the evacuation.

Russia also reinforced its fighting force with an annual fall draft of 120,000 men. Russian military officials have said conscripts to be called up over the next two months will not be sent to fight in Ukraine.

Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a report on October 30 suggested conscripts for the autumn draft could be sent to war with Ukraine in the spring.

This year's fall draft was delayed because of the mobilization of 300,000 reservists that President Vladimir Putin ordered on September 21 to bolster his Ukraine invasion force.

While Russian officials have declared the mobilization complete, it be done with an official decree from Putin, and critics have warned it could resume after military enlistment offices are freed up from processing fall conscripts.

Shoigu admitted shortcomings were revealed in the work of military registration and enlistment offices at the beginning of the mobilization. They have now been eliminated, according to Shoigu.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled Russia since Putin declared the military mobilization.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office has appealed a decision by the Sverdlov District Court of Bishkek to acquit investigative journalist Bolot Temirov. Temirov was acquitted on September 29 of drug charges that he and his supporters called politically motivated. Temirov and traditional bard singer Bolot Nazarov, who performed his anti-corruption songs on the YouTube channel Temirov Live, were arrested in January for allegedly possessing illegal drugs, which the two men say were planted by police. To read the original story from RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to try to broker a settlement to a long-standing conflict between the two countries, but announced no breakthrough.

The meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on October 31 comes a month after the worst clashes erupted between the Caucasus neighbors since they fought a bloody war in 2020.

After meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said sticking points remained to reaching a final peace agreement but gave no details.

Nonetheless, he described the meetings as “very useful.”

A joint statement released after the talks said the two sides pledged to refrain from the use of force, to negotiate issues based on respect for each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. It said Armenia and Azerbaijan would work to normalize relations and foster peace and stability, as well as the security and economic development of their region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

The two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks and killed thousands of people on both sides before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region, which is part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent districts.

Under the cease-fire, Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

Ahead of the talks, Pashinian said he was "ready" to extend the Russian peacekeepers' presence by up to another two decades at the Sochi talks.

"I am prepared to sign a document in Sochi extending the peacekeepers' mandate for 10, 15, or 20 years," Pashinian said on October 29, according to Russian agencies.

Last month, 286 people were killed in a flare-up of the conflict.

Moscow and Chisinau exchanged diplomatic expulsions after a Russian missile shot down by Ukrainian air defenses fell on a village in northern Moldova on October 31.

Following the incident, which caused minor damage but did not injure anyone, Moldova announced it was expelling a Russian diplomat. Moscow followed suit hours later, announcing it was kicking out a Moldovan diplomat.

The windows of several homes in Naslavcea were smashed when the missile landed at the northern end of the village, the ministry said in a statement.

Naslavcea lies on the border with Ukraine in the north of Moldova.

Authorities temporarily closed down several border crossings in the north "for security reasons," the ministry said.

Russia fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine on October 31, pounding energy facilities, causing blackouts, and cutting off water supplies in some parts of the country, Ukrainian officials said.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP