By July 1, Russians will decide whether or not 206 amendments that could transform the role of the president and the status of citizens’ rights should become part of the Russian constitution. Although all of these changes already have been approved by President Vladimir Putin and the legislature, President Putin has stated that they will become law only with Russian voters’ approval. Until July 1, Current Time will take a look each day at the most substantial proposed changes.
Chechen militants led by Shamil Basayev on June 14, 1995, took about 1,500 hostages in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk and seized a hospital. More than 100 died in the course of the five-day drama, many after failed attempts by Russian forces to free the hostages. It came just months after Russian forces launched the First Chechen War in December 1994.
A woman held hostage by Chechen separatists has spoken about it on camera for the first time, 25 years after a five-day siege that left some 150 people dead in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk.
Azerbaijani tradition dictates that women who have never been married should only live with their birth families. Though Azerbaijan stresses its support for gender equality, breaking with this practice does not come easy. But for some women in their late teens and 20s, the need can be paramount.
A shocking video spread online has highlighted the problem of domestic violence amid lockdowns in Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan, an activist says women have an "ingrained distrust" in the authorities, while a Kazakh crisis center is renting apartments for victims it can't house.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent constitutional amendments to the lower house of parliament for a crucial second reading.
The city of Prague has renamed a square in front of Russia's embassy in the Czech capital as Boris Nemtsov Square. The honor, on the fifth anniversary of the Russian opposition leader's assassination in Moscow, follows similar tributes in Washington and Vilnius.
Two brothers who killed their next-door neighbor in the town of Cherykau were sentenced to death this month by a Belarusian court. The country is the last in Europe to impose the death penalty. In interviews with Current Time, the convicts' mother and sister expressed their grief, saying that the sentence also inflicts a harsh punishment on the family.
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