Charles Recknagel is standards editor for RFE/RL.
Sanctions on Tehran have eased slightly. That's enough to set off a rush of Western businesses to Iran.
A clash between Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards around the village of Vorukh is again focusing attention on the problem of cross-border exclaves in Central Asia. What's behind the tensions?
With an interim deal on Iran's nuclear program and talk of involving Tehran in a Syrian peace conference, there is increasing room for Iran and the West to work together to solve crises. Could that lead to a U.S.-Iranian detente?
Turkey's prime minister is dismissing police to stop a corruption investigation targeting his allies. How does he get away with it?
Out with the old, in with the new. For Iran, 2013 saw the departure of an embattled president, and the arrival of a new one offering promises of economic revival, moderation, and an end to the country's international isolation
A government doesn't usually accuse police officials of "political plotting" when they open a corruption investigation. But that is what's happening in Turkey.
Russia has offered Kyiv financial aid and cheaper natural gas in an apparent attempt to keep Ukraine in its sphere of influence. But how much financial sense does the deal make for Moscow itself? Here are five questions to consider.
A new video showing a Kyrgyz woman being assaulted in Russia by two of her countrymen for allegedly shameful behavior has appeared on the Internet. It is the latest of several similar postings that is raising fears of abuse among Kyrgyz migrant workers.
As many expected, Vladimir Putin made Viktor Yanukovych a generous offer when the two met in Moscow on December 17. Nonetheless, Moscow has a long track record of making lofty promises of aid that are never fulfilled in the end.
It's no secret that oil wealth plus autocracy often equals secrecy and corruption, despite international efforts to fight the problem through greater business transparency. A new report on Azerbaijan's oil industry underlines the challenge.
Ukraine's economy was already fragile before the country plunged into its latest political crisis. Now, things only look worse.
Usually talk of the Iran nuclear standoff concerns uranium enrichment. But with a deal reportedly within reach with six world powers and Tehran meeting again in Geneva on November 20, attention turned to Iran's potential to produce weapons-grade plutonium. RFE/RL looks at why the completion of Iran's Arak heavy-water research reactor is a source of concern.
Polonium is back in the news as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's wife says Swiss forensic tests show he was poisoned to death by it in 2004. Here are five things to know about the radioactive substance sometimes called the "Perfect Poison."
India this week successfully launched a spacecraft to Mars. It is a measure of how much space exploration no longer belongs to the first generation of pioneering space powers: the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the European Union.
Iran's new government may be winning praise for showing a softer face to the West. But it remains as hard-line as ever in dealing with opponents at home.
There are not many states in the world where the population is constantly mobilized for mass celebrations. But Turkmenistan is one.
Every year, nearly 4 million people die worldwide from the effects of inhaling smoke as they cook with traditional clay stoves. Now, inexpensive new clean stove technologies offer a safe alternative.
For a few years it looked like Turkmenistan was sticking by its laws forbidding the use of children in the cotton harvest. But this year they're back.
Washington wants its soldiers to be immune from Afghan courts if they remain after 2014. Kabul isn't sure. Here are five things to know about what makes immunity for foreign soldiers so complicated.
If the United States defaults on its debt, the results for the global economy would be catastrophic. Here are five things to know about the U.S. debt ceiling crisis now playing out in Washington.
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