The Week's Best: 10 RFE/RL Stories You Need To Read (Or Watch)

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.

An RFE/RL photo correspondent was part of a group of journalists escorted into Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region by government minders. The territory was recently seized back from ethnic Armenian forces after a war over the regions in and around Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in September.​ By RFE/RL

Serbian sculptor Nikola Macura turns weapons and military equipment into musical instruments. He’s used handheld mortars, Kalashnikovs, and helmets as part of a new sound installation called From Noise To Sound.​ By RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, Ljudmila Cvetkovic, and Neil Bowdler

People in Abkhazia are infuriated by rolling power outages that are disrupting daily lives. They’re also angry at the cryptocurrency “miners” who are sucking the electricity grid dry. By Mike Eckel, Izida Chania, and Anaid Gogoryan

After the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, scientists who claim to have worked on its chemical weapons program spoke publicly about a nerve agent they had named Novichok — Russian for “new guy” or “newcomer.”​ By Carlos Coelho and Kristyna Foltynova

A Russian court cleared the head and deputy head of a prison in the Russian city of Yaroslavl of involvement in the brutal torture of an inmate. Lower-ranking officers received sentences ranging from three to more than four years. Video footage of the beating emerged in 2018, provoking a public outcry.​ By Current Time and Neil Bowdler

The relatives of some of the hundreds killed in the state crackdown on antiestablishment protests last November say they have been threatened and prevented from holding memorials to mark the one-year anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths.​ By Fereshteh Ghazi and Golnaz Esfandiari

The situation in many Ukrainian hospitals is critical, doctors say, after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. There’s a shortage of beds, intensive-care units are overcrowded, and many seriously ill patients have to wait for ventilators.​ By Current Time and Neil Bowdler

Over two weeks after a cease-fire, an untold number of Azerbaijani families can only guess whether their sons, brothers, and nephews are still alive. By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service and Andy Heil