Pete Baumgartner is the editor for Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and the Balkans for RFE/RL's Central Newsroom in Prague.
Dirty Balkan Power Plants Pollute As Much As Rest Of Europe
There are still dozens of schools in Bosnia-Herzegovina where children are divided according to their ethnicity, a system referred to as “two schools under one roof.” Usually it is Croat and Bosniak students who are separated -- which includes fences on the playgrounds -- and attend different classes, all under "one roof." This video explainer by Balkan Service correspondent Ajla Obradovic takes a look at this issue and shows how an interethnic marriage created hope within the backward system.
The tension between Iran and the United States after Washington's assassination of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani has put a focus on Tehran's military capabilities.
The Dayton peace deal ending the horrific Bosnian War in 1995 was supposed to be temporary. But nearly a quarter of a century later, many still blame it for Bosnia-Herzegovina's dysfunctional society.
It has been one year since the October 7, 2018 general elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the country is still without a national and many lesser governments as the country's 148 parties(!) -- many of them ethnically based -- fail to form coalitions. Many people also blame Bosnia's elaborate, overlapping, and many-layered governments for the ongoing dysfunction. Here's an attempt to explain Bosnia's labyrinthian governmental system.
Activists in Kazakhstan are being drafted into the army after protesting ahead of the country's carefully managed June 9 presidential election.
Women "given" free townhouses during a visit to eastern Uzbekistan by President Shavkat Mirziyoev are angry at being told the next day to vacate their new homes
Despite official guarantees of his security, Armenian footballer Henrikh Mkhitaryan isn't in Baku for his team's Europa League final against Chelsea -- leaving questions about UEFA's choice to host the big game.
A Czech man has received death threats since the country's Constitutional Court this week backed his right to subject Russian hotel guests to a political litmus test over Russia's actions in Ukraine.
A Russian man is unbowed after being convicted for insulting President Vladimir Putin after calling the president an obscene word online.
The Turkmen government has issued restrictive new lists of which international universities it will recognize diplomas from and which degrees it will accept. It’s yet another blow to the country's students seeking to study abroad.
The man in charge of the cows that led Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to compare their treatment to conditions at a Nazi concentration camp isn't the only one questioning the president's judgment.
While longtime Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev is being widely credited for economic achievements since resigning on March 19, the dark side of his nearly 30-year rule is receiving far less attention.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev surprised many when he resigned in a special nationwide address on March 19. But since he's keeping several other influential positions in Kazakhstan, many wonder if he's really making a clear break from power.
The fact that a small group of LGBT supporters joined a Women's Day march in Bishkek has unleashed a storm of anger, with one lawmaker warning against turning Kyrgyzstan into "Gayistan."
A government commission will decide whether to release dozens of beluga and killer whales whose captivity in tiny pens in the Russian Far East drew outrage from Moscow to Hollywood. Even animal rights activists are divided over the best way to return the animals to the wild.
A Ukrainian-born composer invokes the iconic World War II-era Ukrainian independence leader Stepan Bandera in his "hiphopera" for Berliners.
Spectacular backlash over an Interior Ministry suggestion that gynecologists would be obliged to inform police if young patients appeared to have lost their virginity.
An Armenian politician stirs a long-simmering pot with a call for the country's national hymn to be replaced by its Soviet analog.
An archived document from Bulgaria's spy agency contradicts an Eastern Bloc buzz seemingly aimed at discrediting assassinated journalist Georgi Markov.
Load more
