CIS (ex-USSR)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent KIEV/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- One year after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, Ukrainian Christians say they are still facing persecution there by pro-Russian separatists who already killed several believers.

Listen to BosNewsLife via Vatican Radio:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife MOSCOW/SIMFEROPOL (BosNewsLife)-- Russia and Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula have agreed to make Crimea part of Russia, despite Western outrage and threats of more sanctions.  Tuesday's announcement came while pro-Russian forces reportedly attacked a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, killing one officer.

BosNewsLifeRadioJournalist Listen here to the BosNewsLife Radio News report via Vatican Radio By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International correspondent MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Tributes are paid Sunday, October 7, to Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was killed exactly six years ago by a still unknown gunman in an attack that critics have linked to her journalistic work.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife, reporting from Budapest MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- The Russian Orthodox Church enthroned Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Sunday, February 1, the 16th patriarch of at least an estimated 75 million followers, amid pressures to overcome internal divisions and to reach out to non-Orthodox believers.

BosNewsLife Asia Service BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- There were concerns Wednesday, December 10, that Chinese authorities would launch a nationwide crackdown on the growing 'house churches, after the Ministry of Civil Affairs ordered the "abolishment" of a major umbrella group.

By BosNewsLife News Center with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos MINSK/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Christians say a pastor in southeast Belarus may face criminal charges after police raided his church venue during a Sunday worship service as part of a wider government crackdown on devoted believers in the autocratically-ruled former Soviet nation.

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report via Vatican Radio:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife MOSCOW/BERLIN/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Former billionaire tycoon and Kremlin critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has flown to Germany after being pardoned by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.  Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, arrived in Berlin, ending a decade in Russian prisons for what many in the West believe were trumped-up offenses.

The day Soviet tanks crushed democracy, and the bitter battle over its legacy By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife in Budapest. A co-production with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife/ABC)-- Millions in Europe have been remembering Soviet forces storming the streets of Budapest, killing thousands and crushing Hungary's fight for freedom in 1956. But as the country lurches to the political right under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the revolution is being recast as a patriotic fight against foreign domination … with the EU villainised as the new oppressor.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV/MOSCOW (BosNewsLife)-- The European Union and Ukraine have signed a landmark agreement on forging closer political and economic ties, in a show of support following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The accord was signed while, in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally absorbed Crimea into Russia.