The huge mercury mine at Aidarken in Kyrgyzstan once supplied the entire Soviet Union. It now produces a fraction of its former output, with many of its shafts still filled with floodwaters that took it out of service from 2009 to 2019.
The Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East is one of the world's wildest places, where researchers keep watch over active volcanoes and hunters come in search of big game. It's also home to a secretive military facility where ballistic missile tests disturb the pristine environment.
In May, a leaking pipeline spilled oil into a river and across a large area of the Komi region in northern Russia. Local officials and the LUKoil energy company said the cleanup work is now finished, but local environmentalists say the impact is greater than the company admits.
The Tisza River, a major tributary of the Danube, flows from Ukraine into Hungary -- and brings with it thousands of tons of garbage each year. Hungary has urged Ukraine to deal with its trash before it becomes an international issue, but there's no easy solution in sight.
Half of Russia's oil is produced in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District of Siberia, but the lucrative industry has meant nothing but trouble for the region's indigenous people.
The city of Krasnoyarsk is considered to have some of the most polluted air, not just in Russia, but on Earth. For several weeks each year, the city announces an environmental alert they call "Black Sky."
Inspector Adilet Imanbekov is a man with a mission: Warding off poachers from the 28 species of fish in Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul, the world’s second-largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. But he must rely on others for his boat. Asia 360° took to the water to witness his battles firsthand.
A snow leopard blinded by a shotgun, a fox that lost a paw in an attack by a jackal, a golden eagle hanging from a tree with its claws bound: These animals and others have all found sanctuary in the home of a golden-hearted veterinarian in Kyrgyzstan.
In the Siberian city of Kiselyovsk, locals live within a stone's throw of gaping open-pit coal mines. The operations within the city limits are technically forbidden, but residents say clever legal language has allowed the mining companies to keep digging close to their homes.
In the Tajik exclave of Vorukh, surrounded by Kyrgyzstan, residents have just one main road, a so-called “road of life,” that runs to Tajikistan. But, even with fighting with Kyrgyz over, most interviewed Tajik drivers say traveling it after sundown is "a big risk."
Just one main road connects the Tajik exclave of Vorukh, via Kyrgyz territory, with the rest of Tajikistan. But even after the end of the April 28-29, 2021 border fighting with Kyrgyzstan, Vorukh residents say traveling the road to the Tajik city of Isfara after sundown is "a big risk."
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