Neil Bowdler is a multimedia editor at RFE/RL.
There have been clashes with police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, after a controversial new law passed its first reading in the national parliament. The law would require companies with over 20 percent funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents."
Afghan musician Farida Tarana's new song, Group Sex, in which she criticizes polygamy and Taliban restrictions on women, has caused an uproar in Afghanistan since it was released three months ago. She told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi she's only just getting started.
There has been a wave of mass brawls on streets and at shopping malls in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus involving members of the Ryodan youth group and their rivals. The Ryodan "private military company" is thought to have originated in Russia and draws on the Japanese manga series Hunter x Hunter.
Vyacheslav Yalov's mother died in his arms after she was hit by Russian shelling as they walked home together in the village of Verkhnotoretske in Ukraine's Donetsk region in 2022. Yalov, who has just turned 19, is now the guardian of his four siblings.
A new exhibition of anti-war posters in St. Petersburg by the veteran Russian artist and activist Yelena Osipova has been closed the day after it opened after police confiscated all the works. Speaking to RFE/RL, she said her protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine would continue.
A Russian restaurateur with terminal cancer is dedicating what remains of her life to feeding pensioners and poor families in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Irina Guzova runs a "social canteen" where about 40 people come each day to eat for free.
A man who wheeled books around Kabul and gave them out for free in response to a Taliban ban on higher education for girls and women was arrested on February 2. The day before, RFE/RL interviewed him as he made his rounds through the Afghan capital.
Buda Munkhoyev and Vladimir Popov moved from the Siberian region of Buryatia to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to avoid mobilization and the war in Ukraine. In Kyrgyzstan, they started making videos about local life and culture there, notching up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
A hospital in the city of Balaklia in Ukraine's Kharkiv region has reopened after state and international funds were used to repair and reequip it. Medical staff say the hospital was shelled by Russian forces.
Damian Duda is a military paramedic from Poland who has volunteered to save lives on the front line near the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar. He volunteered to work in Ukraine in 2014 and returned in 2022.
A memorial service was held in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on January 29 to remember Briton Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw, a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The two aid workers were killed on January 6 near the city of Soledar in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
With temperatures plummeting to -20 degrees Celsius in January, Kyrgyzstan's Naryn region is ideal for winter sports. Despite being scarcely populated and lacking investment, the region offers winter activities like ice fishing, skating, and skiing thanks to a few family businesses.
With temperatures falling as low as -30 degrees Celsius in Astana, stray cats and dogs struggle to survive on the streets of the Kazakh capital. Shelters are full and animal-welfare groups are asking locals to provide food and warmth for strays who risk freezing to death.
Lyudmil Yordanov is a third-generation maker of traditional Bulgarian "kuker" masks. He returned from doing menial jobs in the United States to develop the family craft.
A song by Tajik rapper Suhrob Soliev about a Tajik man sent to fight in Ukraine with the Russian Army has become popular on social media. The song is based on a conversation with a real Tajik soldier who contacted the rapper from a hospital. The injured soldier was later killed in action.
Since the first day of the Russian invasion, Ukrainians have been uploading videos online about how they are experiencing war, devastation, and blackouts. Many use humor to help lighten spirits amid the tensions of war.
Volodymyr Yezhov was killed defending the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region on December 22. He was one of the developers behind the successful video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, which was released in 2008. One of the game's characters, Loki, was based on Yezhov's face.
Vyacheslav Kolokoltsev, an 81-year-old retired geologist, lives in the village of Gorneshno in Russia's Novgorod region. He hangs posters outside his house against the war in Ukraine and denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Umeda Ghanieva, 14, and her sister Amina, 16, from Kulob in southern Tajikistan, have already won several boxing competitions. Just a year ago, the sisters and their widowed mother were collecting scrap metal to survive, but can now pursue their passion.
A Ukrainian police evacuation group called White Angel is still working to get local residents out of the city of Bakhmut, which is under attack from Russian forces. Before evacuating some elderly residents, they brought a St. Nicholas Day present to Hanna, a young girl living in a basement.
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