Photo: Aleksei Vasilyev (Courtesy Photo)
Hey, you’re busy! We know rferl.org isn’t the only website you read. And that it’s just possible you may have missed some of our most compelling journalism this week. To make sure you’re up-to-date, here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL’s team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.
Pressed in Geneva on his political crackdown at home and cyberattacks against U.S. companies, Putin spoke of the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, U.S. restrictions on foreign media, and U.S. cyberattacks. Analysts say this “whataboutism” has characterized the Kremlin’s narrative for years. By Matthew Luxmoore
A host city for the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, St. Petersburg, has introduced new anti-COVID-19 restrictions as daily case loads in Russia reach their highest levels since February. The move follows a decision by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to declare a weeklong public holiday to stem the surge and a raffle to boost low take-up rates on vaccines. By Ray Furlong
At the beginning of the 20th century, Ludwig Wonago created a visual chronicle of life in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. By Svetlana Khustik
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, is considered the second most powerful person in Ukraine, wielding more influence than even the prime minister. And many in the West who question his ties to Russia and reform credentials are not happy with his rise. By Todd Prince
Russia recently took journalists on a PR tour of what it calls an “ecological” military base on a remote Arctic island, complete with MiG jets and missile defense batteries. In 2020, the United States sent destroyers into the Barents Sea for the first time since the 1980s, raising its military profile in the region. Once far removed from diplomatic tensions, the Arctic has become another potential flash point between Moscow and the West. By Ray Furlong
Deep in Siberia, in one of the world’s coldest inhabited regions and a place so remote that it’s closer to Alaska than to the golden domes of Russia’s capital, a plucky movie industry is spotlighting indigenous culture and increasingly garnering plaudits internationally. “We’re finally getting noticed,” says one local filmmaker. By Matthew Luxmoore
Collaboration between Western and Iranian researchers on the the world’s oldest livestock genomes helps pinpoint when humans first tamed goats and otherwise sparked the Neolithic Revolution. Andy Heil
Tajik rider Malika Rajabova is used to being the only woman on the field when she plays buzkashi, a Central Asian sport in which competitors on horseback fight to grab a goat carcass. She says some men have told her she shouldn’t play, but that has only heightened her motivation to win. By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
In tsarist Russia, it was a women’s prison, but now it’s home for poor families with nowhere else to go. Although it’s supposed to be temporary accommodation, residents spend years amid its crumbling, ill-lit corridors, waiting for permanent housing. By Stanislav Feofanov, Ray Furlong, and Current Time
