Page 36 - Features Blogs News Today

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who presided over the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, has died at the age of 91. RFE/RL looks back at the life and career of a leader who made world history.

Against a combustible backdrop of the kind of religious and ethno-nationalist tensions that are taking down its current government, Montenegrins shared markedly differing takeaways from a shocking mass shooting this month.

Communist emblems were seen on the streets of western Germany on August 27 as a Marxist political party unveiled a controversial monument.

Amid global concerns about the safety of a Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine, satellite images obtained by the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Schemes, show plumes of smoke over a nearby thermal plant and a forest.

A two-year study by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek found that China is focusing on influencing the information space in Kyrgyzstan and getting results in shaping the coverage around key political issues that matter to Beijing.

Cards Against Bulgarianness, a version of Cards Against Humanity, an adult party game, has been denied a license by the country's Patent Office, saying it contradicts "good manners and public order." The creators say the authorities' stonewalling is due to a crisis in national confidence.

Several people have been put behind bars in Tajikistan for driving their daughters-in-law to suicide through insults and abuse. Officials say they want to send a message to abusive in-laws in the country, where parents often meddle in their sons' marriages and treat daughters-in-law as unpaid maids.

Russia’s war on Ukraine shows no sign of letting up. Nor does the casualty rate in the Russian military, which by most accounts has lost more men in six months than the Soviet Army did in a decade in Afghanistan. Is that why President Vladimir Putin just ordered a big increase in the armed forces?

Six months after the February 24 invasion, a deadly rocket attack on Independence Day throws the horror of Russia’s war on Ukraine into stark relief -- again. A pair of car bombings underscores the vulnerabilities of the state that’s on the offensive, and the clampdown sweeping Russia continues.

A Russian fugitive's case shot to the top of Moscow's list of priorities after he burned his Russian passport to protest the invasion of Ukraine. Now, a Bulgarian court says it can't trust Russian assurances that he'd get a fair trial and he shouldn't be sent home.