VIDEO REPORTS
LIVESTREAM: Russia's Opposition Rallies In Moscow In Wake Of Election Losses
RFE/RL's Russian service live-streamed yesterday's rally in Moscow in which demonstrators associated with the country's political opposition protested last week's local elections as unfair, and called on Russian authorities to stop censorship, release political prisoners, fight corruption, and end the war in Ukraine.
Rural Girls Ride Past Bicycling Taboos In Tajikistan
Girls in Tajikistan are bucking local tradition by hopping on their bicycles. Some are peddling as much as 10 kilometers a day to travel to and from school.
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Duma Bill Proposes To Equate The Rehabilitation Of Stalinism With Extremism
Konstantin Dobrynin, a member of Russia’s Federation Council, the Duma’s higher body, introduced a bill that would invoke Russia’s law against extremism to ban attempts to justify crimes perpetrated under Stalin. (In Russian)
Russian Journalism Icon Slams Putin TV
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian service, Yasen Zasursky, who headed Moscow State University’s journalism department for more than 40 years, said of Russian TV, “Everything there is official announcements. There is nothing analytical, so you risk being turned into a person with blinders on."
Crimean Tatars Block Land Access To Crimea
A group of Crimean Tatars, backed by activists of the Ukrainian ultranationalist group Right Sector, blocked roads leading to Crimea in an effort to prevent supplies from reaching the region as a protest against "numerous violations of [Crimean Tatar] rights by the Russian authorities.”
Georgia Is Concerned With Russian Propaganda
Georgian State Minister for Diaspora Affairs Gela Dumbadze has expressed concern about the growing influence of Russian propaganda in the country. In one example, Tbilisi’s Russian-language schools now use of maps that portray Georgia’s breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. (In Russian)
Azerbaijani Taxi Driver Dead After Self-Immolation
Maqsad Suleymanov, 27, set himself on fire to protest alleged "misconduct" by local traffic police. This is at least the seventh self-immolation protest in Azerbaijan since the beginning of 2014.