Friday, September 12, 2014
Two Syrian rebels take sniper positions in a heavily contested neighborhood of central Aleppo. Internecine strife has now been raging in the country for 3 1/2 years, killing an estimated 190,000 people.

Syria's Ever-Growing Number Of Wars

Syria's conflict began as a revolution against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Now the country is the arena for multiple wars, with the U.S. plan to roll back Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria adding only the latest level of complexity. More

A 2013 YouTube video showed Kazakh jihadists active in Syria.

My Son The Jihadist

A Kazakh father recently got a first-hand view into his son's life as a jihadist in Iraq. More

Yelizaveta Bohutskaya

Self-Exiled Blogger: 'Crimea Is A Big Prison'

Crimea blogger Yelizaveta Bohutskaya says freedoms are dwindling in the annexed peninsula, which she fled this week after her home was raided by security forces. More

Vadim Dubovsky sings from the cab in one of his YouTube videos.

Singing Trucker Hits Kremlin On All Cylinders

Vitriol meets diesel oil when a professional Ukrainian singer turned American truck driver gets behind the wheel. More

While some see Johannes Hahn as little more than a caretaker commissioner, others believe he is the ideal candidate to keep EU neighbors enthused about remaining in Brussels' orbit.

Photogallery After An Era Of New Horizons, EU Turns Its Gaze Inward

The incoming European Commission has indicated that further enlargement will no longer be a priority for the 28-member bloc. What does that mean for EU hopefuls to the east and south? More

Recent Features

Following the sentencing of Azerbaijani youth activists in a Baku court in early May, supporters clashed with police.

Azerbaijan Tightens Screws On Civil Society, Independent Media

The government of Azerbaijan is carrying out an intense crackdown of civil-society organizations and nonstate media in what Baku says is a bid to stop "foreign forces" from undermining the South Caucasus country. "Apparently it is in Azerbaijan's national interest not to have critical media," says one worried journalist.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin crosses himself as he attends an Orthodox Christmas service at the Holy Face of Christ the Savior Church in the southern Russian city of Sochi early on January 7.

In Russia, Orthodox Radical Ponders Putin's Divinity

A radical Orthodox activist says God is inside Vladimir Putin, a claim that lies at the more extreme end of an often surreal grassroots personality cult surrounding the Russian leader.
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Two of the defendants are seen in court in Kabul on September 7, where the court needed just a few hours to sentence the seven men to death for the attack.

Is Rape Case A Turning Point For Afghanistan?

When a brutal multiple-rape case resulted in the prosecution of seven men in Afghanistan this week, it was widely seen as turning point for women's rights. But the fact that the perpetrators were sentenced for adultery and burglary tempers expectations.
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Mikhail Lashkevich, a researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, was detained by police in August after standing on a busy Moscow street holding a poster that referred to Vladimir Putin as a "raging idiot."

Profiles: Russians Who Dare To Protest Ukraine War

During the past several weeks, a handful of Russians have braved public disapproval and likely arrest to stage solitary protests against Moscow's actions in Ukraine. RFE/RL's Russian Service spoke to six of them.
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Tarfa Baghajati says young people who go to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq "do not see themselves as being part of this [Western] society: they were not brought up to blend in in a positive way."

Interview: Imam Discusses Islamic State's Recruitment Of European Muslims

Syrian-born Imam Tarfa Baghajati, chairman of the Austrian Muslims Initiative, speaks with RFE/RL about Islamic State's efforts to recruit young people in Europe following reports that hundreds of European-based Muslims have joined their ranks.
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Hundreds of residents of Zaporizhzhya dig a trench on September 6 in an effort to defend the city of Zaporizhzhya, whose region lies next to war-torn Donetsk.

As Renewed Fighting Grips SE Ukraine, Neighboring Region Braces For Violence

After renewed fighting erupted near Ukraine's southeastern cities of Donetsk and Mariupol, residents in neighboring Zaporizhzhya are making preparations should the conflict reach their province.
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Vladimir Putin (right) looks on as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico addresses a joint news conference after a meeting in Moscow in 2009.

NATO's Eastern Countries Fractured Over Response To Russia

The so-called Visegrad Four alliance -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia -- are each taking their own line on how to respond to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. And their divisions are crippling Europe's ability to act decisively.
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The leader and founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, waves from a Tehran balcony during the country's revolution, in February 1979.

Tehran In No Mood To Laugh At Khomeini Jokes

Jokes mocking Islamic republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spread widely on social media, have attracted the attention of the authorities.
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NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen presided over the Wales summit. "Things have changed dramatically inside NATO," Lauri Lepik, Estonia's ambassador to the alliance, tells RFE/RL.

News Analysis: NATO Upgrades By Going Back To Basics

At its summit in Wales, NATO rediscovered and reaffirmed its original reason for existence -- protecting its member states.
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A young girl was one of but a handful of participants in a demonstration in Saint-Nazaire in June against the sale of French-built Mistral warships to Russia.

In Europe, Plenty Of Outrage -- Just Not About Russia's Actions In Ukraine

Issues like electronic surveillance and the Israeli-Gaza conflict have drawn thousands of protesters to the streets of Europe in recent months. But when it comes to Russia and its actions in Ukraine, Europeans have been notably silent. Why?
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