Harutyun Mansuryan is a multimedia video producer for RFE/RL in Prague.
Russian peacekeepers have been deployed on the road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The deployment is among the terms of a Moscow-mediated truce signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan that put an end to 44 days of deadly fighting.
A Nagorno-Karabakh war refugee from Hadrut tells the story of two ethnic Armenian men whose execution in the town was filmed and distributed on social media.
A dangerous mountain trail is the only direct route that connects the remote southern Kyrgyz village of Zardaly to the outside world. Every year, people and cattle plummet from the cliffs, but locals continue to use the perilous path because they have no other choice.
In the southern Russian Daghestani village of Kvankhidatl, people extract salt using a unique ancient method. They claim they produce the purest and most delicious salt in the world.
After weeks of protests, environmental activists in Russia's central Bashkortostan region have won a battle to protect Kushtau Hill from mining. The Bashkir Soda Company had planned to mine limestone from the site. But activists say the hill is a natural treasure and home to many endangered species.
Anti-government protester Denis Hermanov secretly recorded brutal beatings and abuse inside a Belarusian police van with a camera he had fastened to his jacket pocket. Hermanov was among several people detained by police on August 10 in Minsk.
The Gamov Peninsula is an isolated region in Russia's Far East , with influences from neighboring Japan, China, and North and South Korea. But the hardy few who live there cherish their solitude and are glad to be off the authorities' radar.
In the Sulak canyon of Russia's Republic of Daghestan, farmers rely on a system of makeshift, hand-powered cable cars to transport their produce across a river.
A Siberian village, Tayezhnyy, was swamped with trash when Ilona Domracheva moved there. She didn't like what she saw and, in a short time, she mobilized the community to help clean up. She may have won a battle, but the war on waste goes on.
In Russia, the Committee Against Torture has recorded some 2,500 accusations of abuse by law enforcement personnel over 20 years. But, of the cases that have made it to a courtroom, just 147 police officers have received significant sentences. Rights defenders say the problem is far more widespread than the cases that have been brought to light.
Little has changed over the past century for timber raftsmen in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, who still rely on the same working methods that their grandfathers used.
A decade ago, Russia's Defense Ministry closed down a military base in Pskov Oblast, leaving hundreds of people unemployed. Without income or investment in infrastructure, the town began to collapse around its residents. (Current Time)
Thousands of Russians marched in Moscow on February 29, 2020, to mark the five years since the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. A reporter for state-run Channel One tried to conduct interviews but was repeatedly shouted down by opposition supporters.
The Nenets call themselves "the children of the reindeer." They number fewer than 50,000. In Russia's hostile tundra conditions, their lives are much as they were hundreds of years ago.
A Moscow woman was thrown out of her house without her possessions and watched as it was razed to the ground. Her home belongs to a small community that is slated to be redeveloped into luxury apartments, causing residents to be evicted with little warning and no recourse. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Valeria ran away from home, and now she's joined the circus. She's one of dozens of kids from tough backgrounds given a new start in life by a unique social project.
One man's obsession with the collective farm he ran for more than a quarter of a century led to the creation of a unique open-air museum in a village in southern Russia.
Paleontologists are struggling to salvage precious prehistoric bones discarded by mammoth-ivory hunters in Russia's remote Yakutia region. When hunters extract valuable tusks from the skeletons of the ancient buried animals, they also destroy evidence of past life on Earth. Scientists can't stop this illegal work, but they bargain and scavenge to preserve natural history.
Inspired by the popular TV series and a tourism initiative proposed by Ukraine's president, more tourists are visiting the Chernobyl exclusion zone than ever. Alongside the official guided tours, the abandoned area has also seen a rising number of illegal visitors entering at their own risk.
Massive wildfires are burning across Siberia. In the Irkutsk region, a lack of equipment and manpower to fight the blazes has left locals feeling abandoned by Moscow. They blame authorities for negligence and corruption.
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