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Cyberexperts say Iran has been secretly implementing a widely criticized draft bill that would tighten state control over the Internet and give control of the country’s Internet gateways to the armed forces.

As electricity prices soar after a scorching summer and with the ongoing war in Ukraine, European leaders are scrambling to come up with a response to what is likely to be a tough winter ahead, with possible blackouts and fears of social and political unrest.

Vienna-based culturologist Alexander Etkind is known for his works on the perception of Russia’s history. In an interview with RFE/RL, he talks about how Russia’s Silver Age, fetishism, and waning power over oil exports have shaped its current state and ultimately led to the war in Ukraine.

An archive in Serbia holds rare images of the war that freed the Balkans from Ottoman rule 110 years ago. The photographer who made the striking pictures disappeared without a trace.

Daniil Deev is wanted in Ukraine for backing pro-Russian separatists but for the past month has been living in Tbilisi, apparently helping Russians trade cryptocurrency. While Georgia has looked the other way, some Kremlin critics have found the authorities to be less accommodating.

Xi heads to Central Asia and prepares to meet Putin; China joins Russian war games; a damning UN report on Xinjiang; and Ukraine’s Taiwan caucus.

Iran sentences two women to death for promoting homosexuality; efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal are “in danger”; and an Iranian filmmaker is released after five days in detention. 

In recorded calls obtained by Schemes, a Russian soldier described an assault on a village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in grisly detail. The investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service then reached the soldier himself, obtaining a denial -- and further evidence of possible war crimes.

So-called “de-Nazarbaevification” is providing President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev with momentum as he seeks reelection this fall in a snap election.

Last year, Russia’s Interior Ministry purchased 15,000 sets of shackles. Now the shackles – “new and shiny,” one lawyer says – are showing up on defendants in courts in Russia’s mid-Volga region.