Yoko Ono to Honor Pussy Riot, Bishkek Calls Russian Partnership Crucial

1. Jailed dissident rockers to receive international peace award from Ono

Yoko Ono is honoring the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot with a peace prize in New York on 21 September, RIA Novosti reports, citing Amnesty International.

The LennonOno Grant For Peace will be presented to the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the three band members imprisoned for performing an anti-Putin protest song in Moscow's largest cathedral. A court convicted the trio of "hooliganism" in August and handed down a two-year sentence, inspiring an international solidarity movement of celebrities, activists, and ordinary citizens.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova during the Pussy Riot trial in June. Photo by Denis Bochkarev/Wikimedia Commons.

Sponsored by Amnesty International, the awards ceremony comes 10 days before the Pussy Riot case comes up for appeal, RIA Novosti points out. The young women have also been nominated for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after the scientist and legendary Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.

The LennonOno award will also be given to four others, including the late writer Christopher Hitchens.

2. Putin, Atambaev discuss bilateral cooperation in Bishkek

Russia and Kyrgyzstan are cementing ties after a 20 September meeting between their presidents, Vladimir Putin and Almazbek Atambaev, Radio Free Europe reports.

In a joint press conference, Putin said Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Tajikistan contribute to stability in Central Asia. Before the meeting, which took place near Bishkek, Russian media reported that a lease extension on the Kant military base outside Bishkek was ready to be signed. Moscow will continue to pay $4.5 million in annual rent, RFE reports.

Almazbek Atambaev, left, meets with Vladimir Putin in Kyrgyzstan earlier this week. Photo from www.kremlin.ru.

For his part, Atambaev called cooperation with "the great nation of Russia" crucial to Kyrgyzstan, RFE reports.

The leaders agreed that Moscow would write off all of Kyrgyzstan's $489 million debt by early 2016. They also confirmed that Russian firms will complete the stalled construction of a network of hydropower plants in Kyrgyzstan, RFE reports.

"I want to emphasize that these are large, serious, multibillion [ruble] projects that will help develop [Kyrgyzstan's] economy, create new jobs, and improve the well-being of Kyrgyz citizens," Putin said, according to RFE.

3. At least five dead, dozens hospitalized from mosquito-borne virus

The West Nile virus has claimed at least five lives in the Balkans over the past month, Reuters reports, citing health authorities in Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Croatia. Dozens of others have been hospitalized.

On 19 September, Kosovo announced its first fatality from the mosquito-borne disease. West Nile is the suspected culprit in two other recent deaths there, according to a Kosovo Health Ministry official quoted by Reuters.

Serbia has seen three deaths and 35 hospitalizations since August, and in Macedonia one woman is reported to have died of the disease. Croatia has reported five suspected infections. All of the victims were over 50, Reuters notes.

The United States is suffering one of the worst West Nile outbreaks since 2003.

4. Pre-Olympic eviction in Russia vioolates international law, rights group says

Russia has violated international law by allowing local officials to destroy a family’s home to make room for construction of facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Human Rights Watch said.

On 19 September, bailiffs supervised as heavy machinery took down the home of Sergei Khlistov, who had lived there for 16 years. He shared the house with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren, according to Human Rights Watch.

The family will not receive compensation, as the authorities say the house was an illegal structure. That stance contradicts permits issued for the building and the annual property taxes paid by the family, the rights group notes. The local prosecutor had deemed the building legal and urged authorities to include the family in a program that offers compensation to those whose houses are being destroyed for the Olympic construction. But the authorities won the point in court, in proceedings about which the family was not notified.

Yulia Gorbunova, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Moscow, told Radio Free Europe that this week’s demolition was part of a trend that has been going on since Russia was awarded the Olympics in 2008. The rights group says the evictions violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory.

The group also blasted the International Olympic Committee for not intervening.

5. Tirana finally lifts immunity provision for top officials

Brussels and Washington are cheering a constitutional amendment eliminating prosecutorial immunity for Albanian legislators, judges, and other public officials, Balkan Insight reports. Parliament passed the measure, long stalled by political infighting, 18 September.

"The adoption of this law is an important step in strengthening Albania's legal framework for fighting corruption," Ettore Sequi, head of the European Union's delegation to Albania, said, according to Balkan Insight.

He added that such bipartisan cooperation will help the country achieve EU candidate status.

Brussels has rejected Albania's candidacy twice since the country applied in 2009, according to Balkan Insight. It wants more progress on the fight against corruption and organized crime, among other key areas that will be evaluated in the European Commission's annual progress report on EU aspirants, published in October.

The U.S. Embassy in Tirana emphasized that there is still time to impress Brussels before the report's publication, Balkan Insight reports.