Soldiers in Uzbekistan urge people to stay home due to the coronavirus crisis.
Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.
Romania
Romania on March 23 reported a steep increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths during the previous 24 hours, as President Klaus Iohannis implored the public to observe self-isolation to slow the spread of the outbreak.
Romania's Strategic Communication Group, the crisis body that deals with the outbreak, said 143 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the total to 576 -- a 45 percent single-day increase -- with three new deaths inside the country, bringing the total to five.
All those who died were elderly people who had previous health conditions.
Seven Romanians have so far been killed by the infection abroad -- six in Italy and one in Spain.
In a live televised address on March 23, Iohannis appealed to Romanians to avoid leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary.
Romania has been under a state of emergency due to the outbreak since March 16.
However, on March 22, hundreds of Romanians in Bucharest and other cities largely ignored the authorities' guidelines and took advantage of the warm weather to stroll in parks and have barbecues in forests.
"It's a cruel irony, but today and in the coming weeks, helping others means staying away from them," Iohannis said, adding that "social distancing is the way out of this incredibly difficult situation."
Tens of thousands of Romanians have been returning over the past week from Italy and Spain, the European countries worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, putting huge pressure on Romania's already overstretched social and health systems.
Russia
Russia confirmed 71 new coronavirus infections on March 23, bringing the country's official number of cases up to 438, as the country widened its ban on international flights.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on March 23 that the government is monitoring data coming from the ministries, agencies, and regions and is taking measures to prevent the coronavirus spread.
"I have ordered Roszdravnadzor (Russia's health watchdog) jointly with regions to provide the government with up-to-date information starting from March 24 on local medical facilities' readiness to treat coronavirus patients," Mishustin said.
As of March 23, Russian airlines will only service foreign capitals or large cities like New York and only from Moscow airports, state agency Rosavia said. Russia will continue to permit charter flights exclusively for the evacuation of citizens stuck overseas, it said.
Nearly 20,000 Russian citizens have been evacuated from countries suffering from a high number of coronavirus cases.
However, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the Russian capital will not close its metro, a step three Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, took where subways operate. The Moscow metro transports several million people a day to work and its closure would have severe consequences for the city's economy.
The Culture Ministry has recommended that all movie theaters be closed as of March 23. Earlier in the month, the ministry closed all theaters, philharmonics, circuses, and movie theaters that belong to it.
Russia, the world's ninth-most populous nation, has registered relatively few cases of COVID-19 on a per capita basis compared to its European neighbors, raising questions about the accuracy of the tally.
Moscow, Europe's second-largest city with about 12 million inhabitants, has registered just 137 cases of COVID-19. New York City, which has just over 8 million people, has registered more than 8,000 cases.
Russia also shares one of the world's largest borders with China, where the new coronavirus originated. China has registered more than 81,000 cases.
Montenegro
Montenegro has confirmed its first coronavirus-related death after a 65-year-old man died in a hospital in the capital, Podgorica.
Jevto Erakovic, director of the Clinical Center of Montenegro, said on March 22 that the man, who suffered from chronic lung disease, had been brought to the facility a day earlier.
Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic on the Adriatic coast with around 620,000 people, was the last European country to report a confirmed case of the coronavirus when it did so on March 17.
It now has 22 reported cases even though the government had sealed its borders, halted public transport, and closed schools and restaurants in an effort to stem the spread of the outbreak.
Iran
Iran has again rejected the United States' offer of humanitarian assistance, with President Hassan Rohani saying that Washington should lift sanctions if it wants to help Tehran fight the coronavirus outbreak.
"American leaders are lying.... If they want to help Iran, all they need to do is to lift sanctions.... Then we can deal with the coronavirus outbreak," Rohani said in a televised speech on March 23.
Iran is the Middle Eastern nation worst hit by the coronavirus.
The Health Ministry announced on March 23 that another 127 Iranians had died from the virus, bring the death toll to 1,812, with more than 23,000 confirmed cases, an increase of over 1,400 cases from the previous day.
Washington has offered humanitarian assistance to its longtime foe. But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the offer on March 22.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have been running high since 2018, when President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal Tehran reached with six world powers in 2015 and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
Iranian authorities have blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to curb the outbreak.
"You have blocked Iran's oil exports, you have stopped Iran's banking transactions.... Your offer of help is the biggest lie in history," Rohani said.
The United States has said the spread of the coronavirus will not save Iran from U.S. sanctions that are curbing its oil revenues and putting huge pressure on its economy.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan closed its borders on March 23 and announced it will effectively lock down its capital, Tashkent, from March 24 to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Uzbekistan has at least 46 confirmed coronavirus cases, all but one in Tashkent, a city of more than 2.5 million.
The government has already shut down public transit in the capital and ordered most businesses to switch to remote working. It also closed borders as of midnight, allowing only foreign nationals to leave.
Kazakhstan
In neighboring Kazakhstan, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev ordered state-owned companies on March 23 to start selling part of their foreign currency revenue on the domestic market.
The measure is meant to support the local tenge currency, which has continued to weaken sharply amid the coronavirus outbreak and the drastic global drop in the price of oil, the country's main export.
In a meeting with his cabinet, Toqaev also ordered state-owned companies to start converting their foreign-currency deposits into tenge and pay out up to 100 percent of last year's profits in dividends.
Toqaev also ordered a freeze on bank loan repayments by individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses for the duration of the state of emergency caused by the coronavirus outbreak, which is set to last until at least mid-April but may be extended.
Kazakhstan currently has 62 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Kyrgyzstan
Another Central Asian country, Kyrgyzstan, declared a state of emergency on March 22 over the outbreak. There have been 14 officially confirmed cases in Kyrgyzstan.
Foreigners have been banned from entering the country, while air and railway service has been suspended with an exception of weekly flights from Moscow to the capital, Bishkek, and Osh. Schools, universities, and kindergartens will stay closed until at least April 8.
Ukraine
Ukraine saw the number confirmed coronavirus cases rise to 73 as the capital, Kyiv, on March 23 is closing all public transportation for noncritical personnel.
The Health Ministry's Center for Public Health said that as of 10:50 p.m. local time on March 22, there were 26 new cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19 in nine regions and the city of Kyiv.
The ministry says it is further monitoring more than 360 suspected cases, including over 239 patients in hospitals.
Health Minister Illya Yemets said on March 22 that he supports declaring a nationwide state of emergency.
"I have been talking about this since the first day of my work in the government. It had to be done from the beginning. If it were to succeed, there would be no such [virus] spread, which is now developing geometrically," Yemets told 112 TV in an interview.
Meanwhile, one of several planned medical supply flights from China has arrived in Kyiv, the Ukrainian presidential office said on March 23.
It brought an unspecified number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests as well as 250,000 express tests including different kind of protective medical masks, disinfectants, and "artificial ventilation apparatus and other means necessary to combat the spread of COVID-19," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said.
Each regional laboratory on March 23 will receive the PCR tests.
The procurement was made with the assistance of large Ukrainian business owners.
"This is only the first batch of medical cargo from China. Several more flights are planned for this week," the presidential office said.
There are three deaths related to the virus in Ukraine as schools have remained closed nationwide. Eateries, bars, gyms, theaters, shopping malls, as well as subways operating in three cities, have been also been kept closed.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov the previous day called for a nationwide quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus as Ukraine's capital and largest city, Kyiv, said it would shut all public transportation for noncritical personnel.
Avakov, one of the most powerful officials in Ukraine, said the measures already put in place to fight the spread will be "significantly toughened" in the coming days. He said only "critical" industries should remain open and everyone else sent home.
"A total, full quarantine is my position, which I want to ask of each of you. And I will insist on it, according to the power of my position," Avakov said in a Facebook post on March 21.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said in a March 21 video post that only people whose work is vital to the city will be allowed to use public transport. The new measure goes into effect on March 23, he said.
Armenia
Armenia's parliament has backed a government proposal to introduce prison sentences for people found guilty of defying quarantine or self-isolation orders issued by health authorities in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.
The bill passed in its second and final reading on March 23, three days after it was initially approved by the National Assembly.
The government moved to impose penalties last week following the declaration of a one-month state of emergency in Armenia, which has so far reported 194 coronavirus cases but no deaths.
About 600 people in the country are being kept in quarantine and hundreds of others are in self-isolation, according to the authorities.
The legislation calls for prison sentences ranging from one year to five years and fines of up to 1 million drams ($2,026) for violating confinement orders.
It also envisages financial penalties for TV, radio, print, and online media outlets disseminating unauthorized information about the deadly virus.
The bill initially stipulated that all media reports and social-media posts regarding coronavirus must reflect information provided by government sources.
Opposition politicians, civic activists, and journalists have decried this provision, saying that it would legalize censorship and puts unnecessary curbs on press freedom.
At least two Armenian media outlets have been ordered to delete coronavirus-related stories from their websites in recent days.
The authorities have also forced several Facebook users to delete posts critical of the government's handling of the outbreak.
Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak, another sporting blow to the Caucasus nation.
The Formula One motor car race was to be held at the Baku City Circuit on June 7.
"The postponement was agreed upon after extensive discussions with Formula 1 as well as the FIA (the international racing-events governing body) and the government of the Azerbaijan Republic," organizers of the Baku race said in a statement.
"This comes as a direct result of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and has been based entirely on the expert guidance provided to us by the relevant authorities," they added.
With the move, Formula One racing has now postponed or canceled eight races this season, meaning the earliest the circuit can start is in mid-June.
The postponement comes on the heels of another disappointing sporting decision for Azerbaijanis caused by the global coronavirus outbreak.
Baku was to host four soccer games including one of the quarterfinals of the Euro 2020 championship over the summer.
UEFA, European football's governing body, has postponed the tournament until 2021.
Azerbaijan has reported 65 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with one death, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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