http://www.rferl.org Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is an international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Balkan countries http://www.rferl.org/img/rssLogo.gif http://www.rferl.org en-US Copyright 2009 - RFE/RL, Inc. 60 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:26:30 +0000 Pangea CMS – RFE/RL The recent shooting death of Kazakh boxer Yermek Serikov is the latest in an ugly series of sports-related crimes. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 20 prominent sportsmen in former Soviet republics have died under suspicious circumstances. Are organized crime and a new generation of highly paid athletes contributing to the wave of deadly incidents? http://www.rferl.org/content/Shooting_Death_Of_Kazakh_Boxer_Highlights_Series_Of_Suspicious_Deaths/1802109.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Shooting_Death_Of_Kazakh_Boxer_Highlights_Series_Of_Suspicious_Deaths/1802109.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:12:16 +0000 Features http://www.rferl.org/content/Shooting_Death_Of_Kazakh_Boxer_Highlights_Series_Of_Suspicious_Deaths/1802109.html#relatedInfoContainer On March 30, 2007, Oralghaisha Omarshanova, a journalist with the Astana-based weekly newspaper "Zakon i pravosudie," disappeared. She had just published an article focusing on a violent clash two weeks earlier between Chechens and Kazakhs in two villages in southern Kazakhstan. Most media coverage of the incident focused primarily on the ethnic nature of the violence. Omarshanova was the first journalist to ask a different set of questions. http://www.rferl.org/content/Two_Years_Later_Kazakh_Journalists_Disappearance_Remains_A_Mystery/1564541.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Two_Years_Later_Kazakh_Journalists_Disappearance_Remains_A_Mystery/1564541.html Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:35:13 +0000 Features http://www.rferl.org/content/Two_Years_Later_Kazakh_Journalists_Disappearance_Remains_A_Mystery/1564541.html#relatedInfoContainer There are, to put it simply, no signs of any easing of restrictions on religious practices by non-Muslims in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, or Kazakhstan, even though the constitutions of all four countries "guarantee the rights and freedoms" of their citizens, including freedom of belief and religion. http://www.rferl.org/content/No_Matter_What_The_Constitutions_Say_Religious_Intolerance_Persists_In_Central_Asia/1508070.html http://www.rferl.org/content/No_Matter_What_The_Constitutions_Say_Religious_Intolerance_Persists_In_Central_Asia/1508070.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:07:21 +0000 Commentary http://www.rferl.org/content/No_Matter_What_The_Constitutions_Say_Religious_Intolerance_Persists_In_Central_Asia/1508070.html#relatedInfoContainer Three years ago, Kazakhs were shocked by the news that an opposition party leader had been found shot dead, execution-style, in an Almaty suburb. Altynbek Sarsenbaev had been considered the leading potential challenger to President Nursultan Nazarbaev, the former head of the Kazakh Communist Party who has served as president since 1991. But what happened next was even more shocking. http://www.rferl.org/content/Three_Years_On_Kazakh_Politicians_Killing_Haunts_Nazarbaev_Regime/1492719.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Three_Years_On_Kazakh_Politicians_Killing_Haunts_Nazarbaev_Regime/1492719.html Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:28:42 +0000 Commentary http://www.rferl.org/content/Three_Years_On_Kazakh_Politicians_Killing_Haunts_Nazarbaev_Regime/1492719.html#relatedInfoContainer Following the historic election of Barack Obama as U.S. president on November 4, we asked some of our broadcasters and other contributors to offer the next president their advice in a series of articles on how to proceed in some of the key regions of the world for U.S. policy. http://www.rferl.org/content/Obama_Victory_Sparks_Hopes_For_Change_In_US_Policy_In_Central_Asia/1339448.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Obama_Victory_Sparks_Hopes_For_Change_In_US_Policy_In_Central_Asia/1339448.html Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:38:59 +0000 Commentary http://www.rferl.org/content/Obama_Victory_Sparks_Hopes_For_Change_In_US_Policy_In_Central_Asia/1339448.html#relatedInfoContainer The results of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, held in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, this week, were very different from what Russian President Dmitry Medvedev confidently predicted beforehand. http://www.rferl.org/content/Central_Asian_Leaders_Balk_At_Opening_Pandoras_Box_Of_Separatism/1194838.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Central_Asian_Leaders_Balk_At_Opening_Pandoras_Box_Of_Separatism/1194838.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:27:53 +0000 Commentary http://www.rferl.org/content/Central_Asian_Leaders_Balk_At_Opening_Pandoras_Box_Of_Separatism/1194838.html#relatedInfoContainer For the majority of those who call themselves former Soviet citizens, the death of the acclaimed but controversial Russian writer Aleksander Solzhenitsyn and Russia's armed conflict with Georgia have nothing in common. But for citizens of at least one former Soviet republic, these two tragic events are somehow related. http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1192632.html http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1192632.html Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:54:17 +0000 Commentary As Central Asia suffers the effects of global climate change, seeing less rainfall each year, the water shortage in the region is generating progressively greater attention -- and greater tensions between the region's governments. http://www.rferl.org/content/Commentary_Water_Crisis_Central_Asia/1185586.html http://www.rferl.org/content/Commentary_Water_Crisis_Central_Asia/1185586.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:21:20 +0000 Commentary