Margot Buff is a multimedia editor for RFE/RL.
In July, a planned LGBT Pride March in Tbilisi was called off after right-wing protesters attacked activists and journalists, whom they accused of spreading "anti-Georgian sentiments." In the wake of the violence, LGBT activists say their sense of purpose and solidarity is stronger than ever.
In 2020, 31-year-old Alyaksey Sanchuk joined a group of street drummers, part of a wave of mass protests over the presidential election in Belarus that was widely seen as rigged. He was arrested, charged with financing and organizing illegal protests, and sentenced to six years in prison.
Allyson Reneau, a mother of 11 and an expert in U.S. space policy, welcomed the Afghan girls' robotics team when they traveled to the United States in 2019 for a technology conference. In mid-August, as Taliban militants descended on Kabul, Reneau quickly helped the young engineers flee to safety.
Lithuanian officials say waves of illegal migrants arriving from Belarus have reached a new peak, with nearly 300 detentions reported in one day alone. Most of the detainees are Iraqis who crossed the border via Belarus with apparent ease.
As Afghanistan faces a resurgence of the Taliban, the hard-won rights of Afghan women hang in the balance. One young female reporter for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi says it's her mission to tell women's stories as they fight to defend their rights.
With Afghanistan facing a wave of coronavirus infections, oxygen is in short supply at the country's underfunded hospitals. To help meet the demand, faculty and students at Kabul Medical University have built an oxygen-concentrating machine that pulls the vital gas from the air.
Some 1,500 people have illegally crossed from Belarus into EU member Lithuania this summer -- more than 20 times the number in all of 2020. Lithuanian leaders say Belarus is allowing migrants from third countries to transit to the European Union as a form of retaliation against the bloc.
In August 1991, as Yugoslavia disintegrated, national army troops and paramilitary forces laid siege to the city of Vukovar in northeastern Croatia. One resident, Pavo Zivkovic, has spent decades trying to find his son Goran, who he believes was among the victims of a massacre near the city.
Fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban militants broke out in the southern city of Kandahar on July 9, leaving at least 18 people dead and more than 100 wounded. Government troops say the militants have seized homes in residential neighborhoods, forcing civilians to flee.
Bulgaria is set to hold early elections on July 11, following polls in April that resulted in a fragmented parliament and failed to produce a government. Here's a look ahead at a vote that could produce a similarly inconclusive outcome.
In May, a leaking pipeline spilled oil into a river and across a large area of the Komi region in northern Russia. Local officials and the LUKoil energy company said the cleanup work is now finished, but local environmentalists say the impact is greater than the company admits.
In March 2020, Uzbek President Shavkhat Mirziyoev launched a $1 billion fund to deal with the coronavirus crisis, a number that soon swelled to $8 billion. RFE/RL's Uzbek Service identified possible causes for some of the excess spending: no-bid government contracts for costly medical facilities.
On June 30, Russia's president is holding his annual televised call-in show. In previous years, he's used the program to lay out plans for the country's future. Here's a look back at some of the promises Putin has made to the Russian public but which he has failed to deliver on.
Taliban militants have seized dozens of districts across Afghanistan as fighting has surged in recent weeks. Civilians in some parts of the country have begun mobilizing into armed militias, vowing to fight alongside troops to keep the Taliban from taking more territory.
A newly released video shows police breaking into a safe house in Daghestan, southern Russia, and seizing Khalima Taramova. The Chechen woman had fled there with a person said to be her girlfriend after what she described as beatings and threats at home.
Moscow authorities announced this week that COVID-19 vaccinations will be compulsory for public-facing workers, including teachers, taxi drivers, and salespeople. The mandate is a response to surging case numbers in Russia and low vaccination rates.
Tajik rider Malika Rajabova is used to being the only woman on the field when she plays buzkashi, a Central Asian sport in which competitors on horseback fight to grab a goat carcass. She says some men have told her she shouldn't play, but that has only heightened her motivation to win.
On June 16, Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin for the first U.S.-Russian summit of Biden's presidency. The talks in Switzerland are not expected to produce a diplomatic breakthrough, but they allow Biden to take a firm stance toward Russia in a period of icy relations.
On North Macedonia's side of Lake Ohrid, new hotels, apartment buildings, and restaurants have been built quickly, and sometimes illegally, with little regard for the region's historical character. The boom has taken an environmental toll and driven UNESCO to threaten to revise Ohrid's status.
Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have halted in recent weeks as extremists launched a new wave of attacks. But two former combatants say they're still holding out hope for the peace process and an eventual end to the conflict.
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