Children in Kyrgyzstan rank as some of the most vulnerable in Central Asia. With their parents often working, kids in one slum in the capital, Bishkek, tend to just fend for themselves.
There's little work to be found in the dying villages of northwest Russia's Solovetsky Islands. But there's a rich crop of kelp just under the surface of the White Sea, and the farmers who harvest it say it's a tough but viable business. (From Vadim Kondakov's film The Gatherer (Ловец).)
Ford's joint venture in Russia, Ford Sollers, is closing three of its four factories in the country in response to a weakened local economy. As thousands of workers face unemployment, a few are protesting against what they say is an unfair severance package.
Poorly paid Russian health-care workers are pushing for higher wages and forming local branches of a union with the backing of anti-Kremlin activist Aleksei Navalny.
Residents of a housing estate outside Moscow are cooking food on portable stoves after their energy provider switched off electricity citing nonpayment. Turns out the head of their homeowners association is running a huge bitcoin mine in the garage.
Saratov in central Russia is considered the cradle of the Russian gas industry. But despite the city's wealth in resources, some locals still live in barracks built more than 70 years by German prisoners as temporary housing. Ceilings are supported by props, and sewage flows through the streets.
For many Latvians, joining the European Union on May 1, 2004 was all about reaffirming their European identity and leaving the Soviet past behind. Latvia’s population, however, has shrunk by some 365,000 people over the past 15 years. That trend, though, appears to be changing, as migrants start to return.
A small town in Tartarstan has struggled after losing two major sources of employment before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. Many residents have moved out of the place once called Tat Vegas.
In a remote desert near the border between Kazakhstan and China, a massive dry port has been built to develop overland routes for Chinese exports to markets in Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.
Hundreds were detained as three raids in two days targeted migrant workers from Central Asia in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.
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