Merhat Sharipzhan is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL who focuses on developments in the former Soviet Union.
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.
Opposition politicians, journalists, civic activists and rights defenders gathered in Kazakhstan's commercial capital, Almaty, on February 9 to honor the memory of Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, an opposition leader who was shot dead execution-style along with two associates 12 years ago.
Mikhail Zadornov, a stand-up comedian who got hearty laughs skewering the absurdities of life under Soviet rule and later targeted Washington, the West, and non-Russian ethnic groups, has died at the age of 69.
A Ukrainian teenager who was allegedly lured into Belarus by the Russian security services is being held in Russia on suspicion of terrorism-related crimes, according to a copy of an official Russian document seen by RFE/RL.
A commercial matchmaker has come under fire in Kazakhstan over efforts to recruit bachelorettes for wealthy Chinese customers willing to plonk down hard cash for a mate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed his deputy chief of staff, Vyacheslav Volodin, to be chairman of the new State Duma, a move that would further tighten Putin's control over the political arena after a massive election win for the ruling United Russia party.
Russia's confinement of a Tatar activist to a psychiatric clinic in Crimea is raising fears that Moscow is reviving a Soviet-era practice to intimidate opponents of the peninsula's annexation into silence.
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