Academic freedom issues
There were no reported government restrictions on academic freedom and cultural events.I find it hard to believe that there are no restrictions. Considering that Tajikistan is an isolated country without any international monitor groups or truly independent media it would be safe to assume that if there are any incidents they simply won’t [...]

Here is an interesting twist, apparently, former President Niyazov’s poetry works are still necessary to learn in order to graduate in Turkmenistan. I am suprised that President Lukashenko didn’t follow the trend…yet.
Academic freedom issues
No master’s degrees or doctorates have been granted in the country since 1998. Government permission was required to study abroad and receive [...]

Here is the same summary, notable is a number of hate crimes that took place.
Academic freedom issues
The government did not restrict academic freedom, but academic freedom was an underdeveloped and poorly understood concept. Most major universities were state owned; while university rectors had a degree of autonomy; curriculum and degree standards were tightly controlled by [...]

Just like in a previous post, here is some selected topics from the Human Rights Report published by the US Department of State.
Academic freedom issues
According to the report published by the U.S. Department of State the government did not restrict academic freedom; however, human rights and academic organizations questioned whether the convictions of some individuals [...]

The US Dpartment of State released its Human Rights Report for 2007. Below is a summary of some issues. By no means it is a detailed summary, however, as soon as I get more time all topics will be updated and expanded.
Academic freedom issues:
The government restricted academic freedom, in part by requiring educational institutions to [...]

The Captive Nations Parade has been conducted every third week in July for the past 48 years. This event has been held annually since 1959. When Congress designated the third week of July as a time to remember once-independent countries which are now under Soviet rule. The Captive Nations Committee and approximately 50 supporters—mostly [...]

Oh, that lovely breath of the warm Black Sea. Unmatched nightlife. Crazy prices for the housing, quality of which would give a birth to an inexpressible confusion to anybody who ever cared about the difference between one-, two- and minus 5 star hotels. (By the way, there, in the place we are talking about, small [...]

I remember a day when I talked with a friend of mine regarding a chance to go to Vermont and spend a week or so on a slopes of the Okemo mountain.
-Do you want to ski or ride? My friend asked me. Of course I wanted to ride a snowboard for it is considered more [...]

PRAGUE, August 18, 2006 (RFE/RL) –Fifteen years after the failed coup that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union and transformed his own life, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev talks to RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service about the events of August 1991 and their legacy.
RFE/RL: In his annual address to the Federal Assembly in 2005, Russian [...]

Quiet honestly, I like “What If…” discussions. A week ago, I was talking with friend of mine about an impact of Allied Forces on the outcome of the WWII. Inevitably for such topic, we came to “What if” scenarios with one major question: What if the United States did not enter the WWII?
I can’t [...]