The latest forecasts show that central Asia and the Caucasus are the fastest-growing economies in the former Communist bloc, writes a leading analyst.
“Yet, given the low level of income and relatively high population growth of these countries, the numbers …
Russians are “now observing the end of an epoch that began with Gorbachev’s perestroika,” says a prominent analyst.
“These are simply the last remnants of freedom, freedom of scholarship and freedom of information,” said Lev D. Gudkov (above), the director …
Laws on blasphemy and apostasy are being used to silence political dissent and suppress government critics, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual report, which documents a pronounced decline in religious liberty that has generated growing religious intolerance and …
Fidel Castro called on the late President Hugo Chávez to stop holding elections, according to a recording of a telephone conversation between a pro-government TV host and a senior Cuban intelligence officer. The TV anchorman agrees with the former …
Russia’s NGO law branding overseas-funded groups as foreign agents is impeding the country’s civil society development, says a former Finance Minister.
“The law on NGOs as foreign agents that the Duma has passed is a clear restriction of …
Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s north-east have been forced onto the defensive, says the country’s military, adding that the Islamist group is “in disarray” and retreating in large numbers as a result of the current offensive.
The insurgents …
State-controlled media reveled in embarrassing the U.S. over an alleged attempt to recruit a Russian intelligence agent, highlighting the summoning of U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul (right) to the Russian Foreign Ministry to receive a formal protest.
“In the Russian elite …
A group offering support to Russians suffering from cystic fibrosis is one of hundreds of civil society groups to have been subject to official warnings and intrusive inspections under the Kremlin’s “foreign agents” law, a leading human rights group …
Russia should revise a law that is having “obstructive, intimidating and stigmatizing effects” on the country’s non-governmental organizations, three United Nations experts said today. The report coincides with growing concern that a former Kremlin ideologue’s resignation signals that the regime …
Tunisia’s Islamist-majority government has cracked down on the operations of Ansar al-sharia, the hardline Salafist group suspected of involvement in the attack on the US embassy in Tunis last year.
The initiative coincides with expressions of concern by international and …