The 5+2 group tasked with negotiating a settlement to Moldova’s breakaway Transdniester region is expected to conclude a second day of talks Friday (May 24) with few, if any, results. The latest talks come as Transdniester has raised alarm in the region with a proposal to move its parliament from Tiraspol across the Dniester River to the historically symbolic city of Bender.

In a new report, the global rights group Amnesty International documents abuses in 159 countries and territories that it says were "inflicted by those in power on those who stand in the way of their vested interests."

Stefan Fuele, the European Union commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy, has called on the EU-hopeful countries of the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkans to do more to prove their commitment to democratic values. Correspondent Daisy Sindelar spoke to Fuele during his visit to RFE/RL headquarters in Prague on May 9.

A popular Russian TV host has publicly apologized for joking about the Soviet-era massacre of Ukrainians during a cooking show. Ivan Urgant sparked furor in Ukraine by likening the chopping of vegetables to the slaughter of Ukrainian villagers by the Soviet security services.

The dramatic drop in life expectancy in Russia and much of the former Soviet Union has yet to be reversed, according to a recent study.

Misha Alperin is a jazz pianist and composer who was born in Kamenez Podolsky, Ukraine, in 1956. He lived and studied in Moldova and Russia. Since 1993 he has been an associate professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. RFE/RL correspondent Lucian Stefanescu met with Alperin to discuss diversity, the avant-garde, poetry, and, of course, jazz from Soviet times to the present day.

It was 22 years ago that Yelena Goltsman and her family made the difficult decision to leave Soviet Ukraine and build a new life in the United States. Setting off with only $450 to their name, they lived hand-to-mouth for years. But the journey eventually ended in prosperity and, for Yelena, personal liberation.