At least four people have been detained in Tajikistan in connection with the June 23 abduction and disappearance of Shuhrat Ismatulloev, the deputy chairman of one of the country's leading banks, sources told RFE/RL on July 2.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on July 3 it had thwarted an assassination attempt on Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, the Interfax news agency reported.
Kyrgyz activist Altyn Kapalova wrote on Facebook on July 2 that the Constitutional Court had ordered the government to legalize matronymic names following her long-running battle to allow children to choose to use their mother's name instead of their father's as part of their full legal names.