Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
Moldova and Georgia have adopted similar policies of reaching out to their pro-Russia breakaway regions. The response has been a series of provocative moves by the separatists and their patrons in Moscow.
Ten Georgian servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan in the last month. The appearance of a purported Taliban video threatening “jihad” against Georgia ignited a firestorm of political accusations among supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has earned a reputation as "Turkey's Vladimir Putin." Now with nationwide protests threatening the system he created, it is beginning to look as if Russian-style "managed democracy" is not the right model for Turkey.
Armenia has long been Russia’s most steadfast partner in the South Caucasus. So when the country’s president last week declined to travel to Kyrgyzstan for a summit of a Moscow-led security organization, people took note.
The U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Watch has slammed Azerbaijan for arresting political opponents on spurious drugs charges in the run-up to the country’s October presidential election. But it seems Baku is not alone in apparently using such tactics to muzzle dissent.
In societies across much of Eastern Europe, modernizing forces are making inroads. And in many of them, the Orthodox Church is trying to put on the brakes. RFE/RL takes a look at the role these churches are playing in countries struggling to reform.
The Georgian government of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is seeking to change the dynamic of Tbilisi's relationship with the breakaway region of Abkhazia. And the mostly ethnic-Georgian population of Abkhazia's Gali district is once again feeling the squeeze.
Gay and transgender activists in St. Petersburg are planning a small rally on May 17 despite the city's notorious law banning so-called "homosexual propaganda." It comes with authorities in the Russian capital, Moscow, holding out against a similar event there.
Georgia's influential Orthodox patriarch issued an Easter message urging the government to ban abortion to address growing demographic problems. While the government opposes the church's hard-line approach, lawmakers understand the need to address the growing problem of gender imbalance caused by sex-selective abortions.
A former Russian union leader who got in trouble after exposing official corruption was recently ordered held for several weeks in a psychiatric hospital. This case and other similar developments have raised concerns that prosecutors in Russia are returning to the notorious Soviet-era practice of using psychiatric treatment to punish dissent or resolve business disputes.
Deposed Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky leaves the ultimate ambiguous legacy -- he created President Vladimir Putin and then became Putin’s harshest critic. A day after Berezovsky was found dead of as yet undetermined causes in his London home, commentators in Russia are wondering whether Putin and Putinism can be the same without him.
Azerbaijan has been on the offensive against NGOs and has asked the OSCE to downgrade its Baku mission. Activists say the administration is preparing the ground for President Ilham Aliyev to win a third presidential term in October.
What exactly has changed in Washington’s plans in light of U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's announcement that Washington was restructuring its missile-defense plans, and what do those changes mean for relations with Russia and China?
Washington is due to decide next month whether to continue Ukraine's trade privileges, worth an estimated $50 million annually. The decision comes as a U.S. trade association is calling for the suspension of those privileges because Kyiv is doing too little to protect intellectual property.
Russia has done almost nothing to recover the $230 million that lawyer Sergei Magnitsky alleged in 2008 had been stolen from Moscow’s coffers. Other countries -- most recently Moldova -- are now trying to follow the 5-year-old trail of allegedly laundered money.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, instability, conflict, and even war broke out across the vast territory of Eurasia. Much of the violence -- which still largely defines the former Soviet space today -- is a direct legacy of the nationalities policies of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Traditionally, Bosnia’s Muslims have been known for their quiet moderation. But as the country becomes increasingly dysfunctional, radical Islamists are playing a more active role in the country’s political life, urging a potent blend of Shari’a law and Bosniak nationalism.
The government of Bulgaria has resigned. In the wake of the problems in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, is Bulgaria the next EU problem child?
The Kremlin's children’s rights ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, loves the limelight. And he has been getting a lot of it in recent weeks after claiming his office was combing foreign media reports, looking for evidence of crimes against Russian adoptees.
A firestorm of outrage has erupted among Russia’s political elites and state media after the country’s children’s rights ombudsman announced the death of a Russian child who had been adopted by an American couple.
Load more
