The Week's Best: Stories You May Have Missed

We know that rferl.org isn’t the only website you read, and it’s possible that you may have missed some of our most interesting journalism from the past 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.

His two-term presidency (2005-13) was marked by human rights violations, including a violent crackdown on demonstrators protesting his disputed reelection, the arrests and harassment of prominent opposition figures and journalists — including RFE/RL correspondents. But in an often testy interview with RFE/RL, Mahmud Ahmadinejad says he has no regrets – although he avoided answering tough questions about his rule. By Golnaz Esfandiari

On July 22, 23-year-old Tamar Bachaliashvili was found dead in her car in a remote, rural area of southern Georgia, the victim of an apparent suicide. Her family disputes that version of events and have said her death is so troubling it warrants the involvement of the FBI. By Natia Arabuli and Luke Allnutt

Considered Russia’s first photojournalist, Karl Bulla created a vivid record of St. Petersburg on the brink of revolution, then left for an island on the Baltic Sea. By Amos Chapple

The Taliban is “close to achieving financial and military independence,” a scenario that could make the militant group resistant to compromise in peace talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, according to a secret NATO report seen by RFE/RL. By Frud Bezhan

Next year, Russia holds national elections for its lower house of parliament. Last weekend’s regional and local elections hold some important clues for how that vote may go. By Mike Eckel

Kazakhstan imposed a quarantine on its prisons as part of anti-coronavirus measures in March, suspending family visits for inmates and regular exercise that has left the country’s estimated 30,000 prisoners confined to their “old, overcrowded, and unsanitary” cells. By Farangis Najibullah and RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service

In the southern Russian Daghestani village of Kvankhidatl, people extract salt using a unique ancient method. They claim they produce the purest and most delicious salt in the world. By Harutyun Mansuryan, Yekaterina Ponomaryova, Ilya Odnoshevin, and Current Time

There is outrage among Iranians over the removal of the images of several girls from the cover of a math textbook. Authorities said the cover was “overcrowded” and erased the girls, though three boys are still on the third-grade textbook. Many on social media have reminded officials that the first woman to win the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in mathematics was Iranian. By Golnaz Esfandiari

Avto Sikharulidze learned how to make “ketsi” — traditional Georgian stone or clay cooking pans — from his father as a child. Now 70, he is the only person in the Guria region still making the pots in the traditional way and fears the craft will die with him. By RFE/RL’s Georgian Service