Firuza Mirkhamidova was visiting family in her native Tashkent in October when she received an unexpected phone call. Her husband, Abdulvosi Latipov, had unexpectedly been released from jail in Volgograd, where they lived.
MOSCOW -- From police harassment to labor exploitation to skinhead attacks, Karomat Sharipov knows better than most the problems ethnic Tajiks face in Russia.
As the head of a Moscow-based support group that assists them with everything from finding a job to battling fabricated criminal cases, he hears their tales of woe on a daily basis.
MOSCOW -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has outlined a grand vision for integrating ex-Soviet states in his first major policy initiative since he announced his intention to return to the Kremlin.
In an article on the front page of the daily "Izvestiya," Putin called for the creation of a "Eurasian Union" that would include Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Moscow is remaining conspicuously silent on the Egyptian crisis as the Kremlin worries about the possibility that the fall of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Cairo could create a ripple effect in the authoritarian-minded states of Russia’s near abroad, analysts say.
