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A police officer in Bulgaria has established a group to protect the rights of LGBT officers, a first in the largely conservative Balkan country. While officers he works with have largely shunned him, others across the country have reached out to find out more.

People in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan region are in shock after a series of brutal attacks on protesters by security forces.

Iran has replaced the intelligence chief of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces, in a major shakeup of its intelligence apparatus after recent killings of IRGC members inside Iran, some of which Tehran has blamed on regional foe Israel.

The Kremlin is optimistic the Russian economy can withstand the pounding from Western sanctions imposed in response to the Ukraine invasion. Some pragmatic voices within Russia aren’t so sure.

As Vladimir Putin’s political star rose, journalist Anatoly Levin-Utkin was a key researcher behind one of the Russian media’s first articles digging into the former KGB officer’s past. Then he was beaten to death.

The United States and Europe are discussing the idea of a price cap on Russian oil to cut Kremlin revenue for its war in Ukraine. Experts say it could be difficult to pull off. 

Georgetown University's Margarita Konaev explains why it’s difficult to foresee an early end to the war in Ukraine and how Western support for Kyiv is more important than ever.

Iran is planning to manufacture airliners in an attempt to skirt U.S. sanctions and upgrade its decrepit fleet of passenger aircraft. But Iran has a tragic history when it comes to producing passenger planes, with the last attempt grounded by a lack of engineering expertise and a string of crashes.

The Russian dental industry is almost entirely dependent on European and U.S. imports of equipment and materials. Now, facing a virtually frozen supply chain, dentists are scrambling to weigh the alternatives of potentially inferior treatments for patients -- and having to raise prices.

A group of Iranian campaigners who were planning to sue the authorities, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for their mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic have been sentenced to prison. The five lawyers and rights defenders were convicted of threatening national security.