Russian police on Saturday detained more than 170 participants of a forum of independent members of municipal councils, an action that comes amid the authorities’ multi-pronged crackdown on dissent.

After receiving its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine, Ukraine found itself in a new struggle against the pandemic - persuading its widely reluctant people to get the shot.

The Armenian government said the dismissal of a top army general at the centre of a political crisis had come into force on Wednesday almost two weeks after PM Nikol Pashinyan fired him as he accused the military of a coup attempt, Reuters reported.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said he would be ready to hold snap parliamentary elections if the opposition agreed to certain conditions, as thousands joined rival street rallies in the capital Yerevan on Monday, Reuters reported.

Russian media report that a Boeing 777 plane made an emergency landing in Moscow in the early hours of Friday after the pilot reported a problem with the engine.

Georgian police on Tuesday arrested a top opposition leader and used tear gas in a violent raid on his party headquarters, further deepening a political crisis sparked by last year's disputed parliamentary elections, AFP reported from Tbilisi.

Armenia would welcome the expansion of a Russian military base on its territory and the redeployment of some Russian forces closer to its border with Azerbaijan after a conflict with its neighbour last year, its defence minister said on Monday.

A Belarusian court sentenced two Belarusian journalists from Poland-based TV news channel Belsat to two years in prison on Thursday, after authorities arrested them for live filming protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, Reuters reported.

Georgia’s PM Giorgi Gakharia announced his resignation on Thursday following a court ruling that ordered the arrest of a man who leads the ex-Soviet nation’s top opposition party. Gakharia said in a televised address that he was stepping down because of disagreements within his own team over the decision to arrest Nika Melia, chairman of the United National Movement opposition party, AP reported.

The number of Covid-19 cases in Eastern Europe surpassed 10 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, as countries across the region aim to increase vaccine procurements from multiple suppliers to accelerate inoculation programmes.