Corruption and violence between clans in the Republic of Ingushetia, a province of 300,000 people nestled in the explosive Northern Caucasus, bordering troubled Chechnya and North Ossetia, have contributed to a recent deadly rise in violence.
In troubled Chechnya, separatist Islamist rebels are fighting Chechen special forces. President Kadyrov has launched an all-out war on the rebels and is also implementing ‘collective responsibility’ across the region to families of the rebels.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s cautious reaction to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has underlined a crucial question: What can the international community do to respond to the crisis in Iran? France 24 correspondents report.
Recently, the European Union judged its policy of isolating Belarus counter-productive and decided to lift some of the sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko (pictured). But what has really changed in Belarus?
Gus Khrustal, a small town situated 270 km east of Moscow, used to be the centre of the country's glass-making industry. But after the 1990s and the crash of 1998, the global financial crisis has been the coup de grace for its factories.
While young Moldovans are protesting the recent electoral results, others across the country are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to leave their homeland.
Having lost her job, Louisa Inozemtseva can no longer pay her debts. She is being harassed by Russian debt "kollektors", some of whom do not hesitate to use psychological pressure and threats of reprisals.
Is Khodorkovsky a martyr of the Putin administration or only a man who made his fortune from the ruins of the Soviet Union? The debate rages in Russia.
A Moscow girls school is providing dozens of young pupils with a very patriotic education. Pupils learn how to be a well-rounded modern Russian women, including basic military training and cooking.
In Russia, contract killings are so common that even the keenest observers are losing count. And the struggle against the threat to human rights defenders is far from being a priority for the authorities.
