Hey, you’re busy! We know rferl.org isn’t the only website you read. And that it’s just possible you may have missed some of our most compelling journalism this week. To make sure you’re up-to-date, here are some of the highlights produced by RFE/RL’s team of correspondents, multimedia editors, and visual journalists over the past seven days.
Jailed Kremlin opponent Aleksei Navalny’s claims that prison authorities are deliberately harming him instead of healing him have focused attention on health care — or the lack thereof — in Russian penitentiaries. By Lyubov Chizhova, Igor Sevryugin, Alya Ponomaryova, and Robert Coalson
‘Am I Really Still Alive?’ A Hunter’s Story Of Survival In Siberia
Sergei Sazanakov was hunting in Russia’s Khakassia region when an accident left him trapped in the snow overnight. He lost his lower legs to frostbite, and later had to fight for his children in court after his wife left him. But Sazanakov has learned how to run his farm and care for his family with minimal assistance and has only modest wishes for a better life: comfortable prosthetics and perhaps a horse. By Harutyun Mansuryan, Yekaterina Ponomaryova, Ilya Odnoshevin, and Current Time
A family photo archive reveals life behind the public facade of Romania’s notorious communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. By Amos Chapple and Eugen Tomiuc
Vorkuta was once the center of a sprawling network of coal mines scattered around the Arctic city of 220,000 residents like the hour indicators on a vast clockface. Today, most of the settlements are ghost towns, and time is ticking away as a shrinking Vorkuta fights to avoid the same fate. By Matthew Luxmoore
An ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang has reunited with his family in Kazakhstan after a long detention in China, much of it spent in prison. Raqyzhan Zeinolla’s return provides hope for other ethnic Kazakhs campaigning for the release of relatives detained in northwestern China. By Farangis Najibullah and RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service
With pleas to Brussels for financial help rebuffed, a still-unfinished highway finds itself at the heart of a wider geopolitical contest over Chinese influence on the EU’s doorstep. By Reid Standish, Asja Hafner, Gjeraqina Tuhina, and Slavica Brajovic
The Armenian Holy Site Where Music ‘Rings Like A Bell’
One of Armenia’s medieval Christian sites hides an acoustic marvel that attracts pilgrims from across the Caucasus. For those who know where to find it, a chapel carved into the cliffs of the Geghard monastery rewards singers with extraordinary sounds. By Amos Chapple and Margot Buff
Lacking identification documents and insurance, the homeless and others in St. Petersburg struggle to get health care. Enter the Charity Hospital, whose volunteers deliver street medicine to those the hospitals won’t. By Artyom Leshko
After 120 years in business, the Yeliseyevsky luxury grocery store closed its doors on April 11. The store survived revolution, communism, and the collapse of the Soviet Union but has reportedly been forced to shut down due in part to the coronavirus pandemic. By Amos Chapple