Pete Baumgartner is the editor for Central Asia and China for RFE/RL's Central Newsroom in Prague.
Mercurial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is urging young couples in his southern Russian republic to do everything possible to preserve their families and not get divorced.
Moscow has embraced Beijing's massive plans for One Belt, One Road despite signs that its investment plans largely appear to bypass Russia.
That the director of Azerbaijan's controversial Formula One race happens to be the son of the country's sports minister is powering renewed suspicions over the organization of the prestigious event.
The reported snatching of a dissident Azerbaijani journalist living in Georgia and his deliverance to officials in neighboring Azerbaijan a day later has caused outrage and questions about Georgian officials' possible involvement.
Vladimir Bizik, an analyst for the European Values think tank in Prague, spoke with RFE/RL about the ongoing WannaCry ransomware attack on computer operating systems around the world.
A group of intellectuals is stoking antiglobalization sentiment in Serbia by calling for creationism to be taught in schools, alongside Darwinism.
Polls have opened in France's May 7 presidential election runoff that could determine whether their country embraces its status as a leading member of the European Union or sets it on the path to a "Frexit."
A U.S. government commission on religious freedom is recommending that Russia be designated as a "country of particular concern" (CPC), putting it in a group of the world's worst offenders of basic rights on religious worship.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says new media technologies make censorship more difficult, but are also increasingly utilized by repressive governments as the number of journalists imprisoned and killed continues a recent upsurge.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has suddenly turned on Vepaly, the canine mascot for the multimillion-dollar Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
Conscious of its image as a leading source of Islamic State recruits in the Middle East, Kosovo tries to stem religiously fueled radicalization in its prisons.
Attorneys for the family of Rakhat Aliyev, an influential former lieutenant and son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, insist there are too many signs of foul play to ignore, despite Austrian officials' characterization of his death in custody as a suicide.
Authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov appears certain to extend his rule for seven more years in a presidential election in hermetic, gas-rich Turkmenistan on February 12.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Hungary for his second visit in two years, a development that has many in the European Union looking on with concern.
Controversy persists as questions pile up over the cargo in a Turkish plane that crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people.
Medical bargains are luring patients from across the rest of the former Soviet Union to Belarus.
A new crop of diaspora Uzbeks hopes its desire for democracy can translate into change in Uzbekistan, no matter what an aging generation says.
Some prominent dissidents are cautiously optimistic that Shavkat Mirziyaev will bring reforms to beleaguered Uzbekistan, but they're also nearly all still in exile.
The mayor of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, has pledged to publicize the names of those who apply for divorces in an attempt to keep married couples together.
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!["Those [couples] who get divorced for trivial reasons or no reason at all, bringing tears into the eyes of their children, obey the commands of the [evil] genies," Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says in an Instagram video. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/fdd765cf-d974-4a45-8d31-63677a72a2d8_cx0_cy19_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
!["Those [couples] who get divorced for trivial reasons or no reason at all, bringing tears into the eyes of their children, obey the commands of the [evil] genies," Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says in an Instagram video. (file photo)](https://gdb.rferl.org/fdd765cf-d974-4a45-8d31-63677a72a2d8_cx0_cy19_cw0_w66_r1.jpg)
