Corey Flintoff

The former Soviet republic of Georgia passed an important test of democracy last year. After a bitter campaign, the government changed hands peacefully in a free election. But the losing party says democracy in Georgia is threatened because the new government is arresting officials from the old government and putting them on trial for corruption and abuse of power.

Like the U.S., Russia has a large and unresolved problem with illegal immigration. Russia's working-age population is declining, and the country needs workers. But the influx of migrants, especially from Central Asia, is generating friction.

Priests of the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church led a recent attack on a group of people protesting against homophobia in Tblisi, Georgia. The incident in May raises questions about human rights and the balance of power between church and state in the religiously conservative former Soviet republic.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden remains in diplomatic limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, an irritant to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has little sympathy for Snowden, but doesn't want to appear to cave in to U.S. demands for his return.

The government says the largest exercises since Soviet days are to test Russian readiness. Some analysts think it is to remind China and Japan that Russia remains powerful.

A Russian court has convicted one of the country's most prominent opposition leaders of embezzlement. Alexei Navalny faces a sentence of five years in prison in a controversial case that he says was trumped up to derail his political career. Navalny was instrumental in organizing mass protests against the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Republic of Georgia is renowned for its cuisine, one of the highlights of which is shashlik, or grilled meat. The secret to seal in the juices, some say, is an ancient technique of grilling over burning grapevines to create intense, fragrant heat.

Russia is preparing for the 2014 Winter Games — turning a sleepy valley in the Northern Caucasus Mountains into an Olympic village, with brand-new facilities for every Alpine sport. Officials say it will be a world-class destination for winter-sports enthusiasts long after the Games are over. Environmentalists say it's an ecological disaster in the making.

In Moscow, a dozen people are on trial in connection with a protest last year against Russian President Vladimir Putin. They're accused of attacking police and participating in mass riots after the demonstration turned violent. Critics charge that the trial is part of an intimidation campaign against dissidents.

One Siberian city is tackling the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis with a health program affectionately named for an earlier Russian innovation. In the modern Sputnik program, teams of nurses travel around the sprawling city of Tomsk, finding and treating the TB patients who are the hardest to reach.

Russia has struggled for decades to control deadly forms of tuberculosis among inmates. A clinic inside a Siberian prison is finally having some success against the disease by teaching inmates to care for themselves — and their families.

The Russian parliament is expected to give final approval this week to a bill that would make it illegal to expose children to information about homosexuality. Russian law experts say the courts would likely rule against the legislation because it violates the Russian constitution's ban on discrimination. Even so, authorities could use it to harass specific organizations or visitors from abroad such as Madonna who spoke in favor of gay rights during a concert in St. Petersburg last year. And the legislation could curry favor among conservatives whom Putin has been courting since returning to the presidency.