In early 2017, stories began emerging on how Chechen authorities were persecuting the LGBTQ community. The World speaks to director David French on his new film, "Welcome to Chechnya," which gives an inside look at the abuse and torture faced by the republic's LGBTQ people and those who try to help them escape.
Expectations are pretty low for this week's Syria peace talks in Geneva. It will the first time that government and opposition representatives actually meet since the civil war began almost three years ago. But a third major player in the conflict will be missing: the Al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group that controls much of north-east Syria. Most of its fighters are foreign. Here's the story of one Syrian man who has been forced into exile by the very men he once helped bring into his country.
What has the role of women been in the long simmering ethnic conflict in Chechnya and Dagestan. And why do we expect different things from men and women?
Two suicide bombers have struck the Russian city of Volgograd in the last two days, leaving more than 30 people dead. But these terrorist attacks aren't isolated incidents — they have roots that go back to battles fought 200 years ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare effort at communicating with the American people through the New York TImes. In an op-ed, he confronted President Barack Obama's decision-making regarding U.S. intervention in Syria and called for the U.S. to hold back any strikes.
Author Anthony Marra talks with anchor Marco Werman about his debut novel "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena." Marra's story is set in modern Chechnya and delves into the moral dilemmas facing strangers thrown together in war.
The Boston Marathon bombings investigation has focused a big spotlight on Chechnya. The two suspects' family -- the Tsarnaevs -- have Chechen roots. Journalist Nathan Thornburgh blogs about the need to consider another side of Chechnya.
Brian Glyn Williams teaches Chechen history at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. That's the same college attended by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Williams had brief contact with him, when Tsarnaev was a high school student.
Laure Mandeville is now chief US correspondent for the Le Figaro. She came to Boston over the weekend to speak with members of the Chechen community here, and to friends and neighbors of Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.