The Week's Best: 10 RFE/RL Stories You Need To Read (Or Watch)

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.

The Guns Of April: Six Questions About The New Russia-Ukraine Tensions

Intimidation? Imminent invasion? Signals to the Biden Administration? What’s up with the Russian troop movements near eastern Ukraine and in Crimea? By Mike Eckel

Ukraine Targeted At European Court In Hail Of Claims From Russia, Donbas, RFE/RL Investigation Finds

Soon after Russia seized Crimea and began supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine, the European Court of Human Rights began being flooded with complaints about alleged rights violations by Ukraine in the Donbas. By Valeria Yehoshyna

Kazakh Activism Against China's Internment Camps Is Broken, But Not Dead

A government crackdown in Kazakhstan has nearly silenced the guerrilla activism that turned the Central Asian country into an unlikely window on China’s human rights abuses. By Reid Standish and Aigerim Toleukhanova

Operation Punishment: The Nazi Bombing Of Belgrade 80 Years Ago

Photographs from then and now at the scenes of April 1941 air strikes by Nazi Germany that forever changed the face of Serbia's capital. By Amos Chapple

Russian Man Turns Tables On Police, Releases Video Of Apparent Drug-Planting

Russian Man Turns Tables On Police, Releases Video Of Apparent Drug-Planting

Igor Krainov was detained on drug-possession charges in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod in 2019. But CCTV footage helped him get the charges dropped and turn the tables on the police, who appeared to plant evidence in his pocket. Three officers lost their jobs and are facing a criminal investigation. By Current Time and Margot Buff

Ukrainian Parents Of 13 Children Die Of COVID-19 A Week Apart

Ukrainian Parents Of 13 Children Die Of COVID-19 A Week Apart

A Ukrainian couple with 13 children have both died of COVID-19 in quick succession. The funeral was held for Diana Rodikova on March 31, just days after her husband, Volodymyr, succumbed to the virus. Eleven of their children are under 18. The family moved to Kyiv in 2014 after Russia-backed separatists seized their home city of Makiyivka in eastern Ukraine. The family's eldest daughter, Oleksandra Slyusarenko, 21, and her husband, are to become the remaining children's legal guardians. By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Neil Bowdler

A Bulgarian Showman Could Be The Country's Election Kingmaker

"In every parliamentary election in Bulgaria there is a party that comes out with this [anti-establishment] message, because there is a chronic distrust of the entire political elite." By Todd Prince

Missing Woman And Kidnapper Found Dead, Setting Off Protests In Kyrgyzstan

Missing Woman And Kidnapper Found Dead, Setting Off Protests In Kyrgyzstan

Demonstrations have broken out in Kyrgyzstan after the bodies of a young woman and her suspected abductor were discovered after a two-day search. The woman was abducted on a city street by several people in an apparent instance of "bride kidnapping," a banned but still common practice in which victims can be forced into marriage. Authorities say they suspect a murder-suicide. By RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service and Margot Buff

From Tehran To Tbilisi, An Iranian Free Spirit Seeks A Different Life

From Tehran To Tbilisi, An Iranian Free Spirit Seeks A Different Life

Twenty-five-year old Pegah plays music on the street, gathers with friends in the park, and dresses as she pleases -- all things that were difficult or impossible in her native Iran. She fled to Georgia following repeated arrests for violating Iran's dress code, and after she appeared in a documentary that put her on the authorities' radar. By RFE/RL's Georgian Service and Margot Buff

'We May Have Public Dismemberments': Body Worlds Exhibition Under Attack In Moscow

'We May Have Public Dismemberments': Body Worlds Exhibition Under Attack In Moscow

Critics from the ruling United Russia party, the Communist Party, and the Orthodox Church have all attacked the controversial Gunther von Hagens exhibition in Moscow. By Ray Furlong and Current Time