Merhat Sharipzhan is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL who focuses on developments in the former Soviet Union.
Russia's top Islamic body has approved a religious edict that allows Muslim men to practice polygamy, which contradicts Russian law that prohibits individuals from entering multiple registered marriages simultaneously.
Russian lawmakers have approved a bill that restricts how "foreign agents" can access their income inside the country as the government continues to clamp down on political opponents amid the war in Ukraine.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov submitted his resignation on December 16 amid an unfolding scandal surrounding the detention of senior officials from the State Tax Service.
Police and security officials have cordoned off a large area near Dusanbe after a drone resembling a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in a nearby town in a region where there are both Tajik and Russian military bases.
The Russian state-run Channel One television company in Germany said the government has ordered two of its journalists to leave the country, prompting Moscow to revoke the accreditations of two correspondents from German media group ARD.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on November 19 that Ukraine used six U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles in its attack on the Bryansk region overnight, claiming that Russian forces managed to shoot down five of the missiles and damage one.
The European Union's top court has ruled that member states must accept changes of first name and gender obtained in other countries in the bloc, a landmark ruling brought about by a case involving Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, a transgender man with dual citizenship in Romania and Great Britain.
Vidadi Isgandarli, an Azerbaijani opposition figure in exile well-known for his fierce criticism of the government, has died in France after being brutally beaten and stabbed in an attack at his apartment that his family says was politically motivated.
A week after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said his country is nearing the "point of no return" with the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty (CSTO), Yerevan has boycotted a key meeting of foreign ministers of the alliance and its troops the latest training exercises.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reiterated Beijing's readiness to "firmly support Kazakhstan's efforts to defend its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."
In an apparent attempt to prevent possible ethnic clashes, Kazakh authorities have deployed special forces to the town of Zaghambar in the southern region of Turkistan, where tensions are running high following the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl.
Amid ongoing efforts to further weaken former President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his associates, the Kazakh government has initiated amendments to the law on the Pantheon that would remove Nazarbaev's relatives from the list of individuals who deserve to be buried at the pricey public site.
Rustam Ibragimov, a former officer of Kazakhstan’s elite law enforcement unit who is serving life in prison for the kidnapping and murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly and two associates 18 years ago, has asked for a retrial.
Kazakhstan's authorities have unexpectedly allowed an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the birth of the late opposition politician Zamanbek Nurqadilov, an outspoken critic of the Central Asian nation's former president, Nursultan Nazarbaev.
A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says prison officials told a court in Vladimir that the Kremlin critic had been transferred on December 11 from the IK-6 facility located in Vladimir region to a correctional facility outside the region.
The son of a Kazakh opposition leader whose death in 2005 was officially declared a suicide has demanded a new probe into his father's death.
Relatives, friends, colleagues, politicians, journalists, civic activists, and rights defenders have honored the memory of Altynbek SarsenbaiulyRelatives, friends, colleagues, politicians, journalists, civic activists, and rights defenders have honored the memory of Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly
Relatives of Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly have demanded that President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev allow investigators to question his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbaev and his daughter Darigha Nazarbaeva, the current Senate speaker, over the 2006 assassination of the opposition leader.
Rights defenders and lawyers for Chechen human rights activist Oyub Titiyev, who is on trial for alleged possession of marijuana, have said his case is "a warning" to all journalists and human rights activists working in the North Caucasus.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says his country will never be part of the Russian Federation.
Load more
