One of the last remaining bosses of ‘old Russian mafia’ who used to operate on the U.S. East Cost in the 1990s has been convicted in New York. 70-year-old Boris ‘Biba’ Nayfeld has got another prison term, this time – for extortion. He has already served several terms, and every time he managed to read more

“Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy. It is not a side effect, but the central pivot,” wrote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Lenin compared religion to venereal disease. read more

On Friday nights, Zybitskaya street — or simply Zyba, as locals call it — turns into a vast party scene, filled with hipsters in bright shirts, tight dark jeans and black-rimmed glasses, showing how they can be carefree in a country that has been labeled the last dictatorship of Europe. read more

“We’re on a mission,” says Dimitri Grigorovich gesticulating his blue-sheathed hands in the air to a supermarket shopper who stopped to sample his Apiterra raw honey, “to eradicate processed sugars!” read more

As Russian forces leave Belarus, what are the main lessons to draw from the Zapad-2017 drills? read more

“Bored by Paris and Rome? Then try a weekend getaway to Tallinn or Minsk — for less than £250,” the British newspaper writes. read more

Ex-Soviet Belarus only began accepting visa-free tourists this year. I had to explore one of the hardest-drinking, most WWII-nostalgic countries on Earth. read more

The EU executive has urged Poland to halt logging immediately in one of Europe's last remaining areas of primeval forest, and has asked the European Court of Justice to act on it. read more

At the 11th hour, the United States renewed sanctions relief for Belarus, even as the country shows little sign of continuing its tepid shift toward the West. read more

Letters from Richard Carter, who says the reasons for institutional placement in former communist bloc countries are complex and varied, Norma Brier of Norwood, and Linda Walker of Chernobyl Children’s Project UK read more