Senior Uzbek officials are in New York City pitching their economic reform plans to Wall Street. President Shavkat Mirziyoev signed a decree to privatize dozens of state-owned companies earlier this year in a bid to attract foreign money and foreign expertise, and some believe the country could avoid mistakes made post-Soviet states which underwent economic liberalization immediately after the USSR's collapse. However, questions remain as to how far the authoritarian government will push its reform agenda.

https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbekistan-wall-street-investors-reforms/30073584.html

Ukrainian authorities have seized a Russian tanker that Moscow allegedly used to block Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait last November. Russia has been holding 24 Ukrainian sailors since then.

As "political terror" grips Moscow, Putin calls for calm in Kyrgyzstan — the country's former president, in hot water in his own country, fled to Russia and was taken in. How much influence does Russia retain over the former Soviet republic? And what does the situation there have in common with the recent protests in Moscow?

https://www.rferl.org/a/the-week-in-russia-unity-or-terror-putin-seeks-political-stability-in-moscow-and-bishkek/30077169.html

This weekend’s Moscow protests appeared to catch many offguard: the authorities, by the size of the turnout; the opposition, by the violent police response. If opposition groups manage to muster a similar mass next weekend, as promised, the reaction by authorities could be even harsher.

https://www.rferl.org/a/analysis-why-the-official-response-to-the-moscow-protests-may-be-a-turning-point/30081904.html

The last remaining treaty limiting the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals is due to expire in 2021. Are we in for a new nuclear arms race?

Latest on Navalny: lab tests for poisoning came out negative, according to a Moscow medical center.

Navalny himself, his lawyer and his personal doctor suspect poisoning.

This would not be the first time someone tried to poison a Kremlin critic.

"I said that the Chechens are infidels. I regret this very much. I was deceived on the Internet. I will try not to do it again. I apologize to all Chechen people," said tearful 16-year-old Magomed Akhmatov on TV. It's not the first time Chechens have made very public apologies.

So what happened in Moscow over the weekend?

Over a thousand people were detained on Saturday.

The actions of the police, the brutal beatings and the arrests, have received international condemnation.

Yet the protesters don’t seem to have thrown in the towel yet.

We have three pieces for you to help make sense of the latest wave of violence in Russia.

Firstly, a video review of what commenced on the streets of Moscow on Saturday:

Second, our Week Ahead in Russia host Steve Gutterman and senior correspondent Mike Eckel give more context to what happened and what to expect. https://www.rferl.org/a/podcast-more-protests-more-beatings-more-arrests/30093119.html

Lastly, Mike Eckel’s analysis on how the Russian media blames the protests on foreign-funded provocateurs. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-moscow-protests-foreign-plot-intelligence-spin/30093494.html

Moscow's authorities say a couple that brought their 1-year-old son to a protest and gave him to a third party put the boy in danger and caused him "physical and moral damage."

In a statement, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office also implied that the father, Dmitry Prokazov, should not have been at the protest at all, as he does not have the right to vote in the city's elections due to his temporary registration status there.

Police detained over 1,300 protesters at the rally that the couple attended on July 27. The baby's status was not immediately clear.

https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-prosecutor-s-office-wants-to-remove-parental-rights-from-protesting-couple/30095224.html

Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy, who has ties to the new Ukrainian President, says the two chat via WhatsApp sometimes but don't discuss anything important. He denied financially supporting Zelenskiy's campaign but said the President did have a contract with his 1+1 television channel, which he called "the only help" Zelenskiy got from him.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-oligarch-kolomoyskiy-says-in-interview-he-plans-on-being-a-nuisance-to-many/30097688.html

Attorney Marcus Cohen told RFE/RL he paid nearly $70,000 of his own money to a Washington lobbying firm for work on behalf of then-presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom he met in Kyiv but says never asked him to do it.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-zelenskiy-cohen-lobbyist-washington/30100141.html

Last month, it was a deadly fire on a secretive Russian surveillance sub. This week, it was an explosion at a White Sea missile test site. In both cases, the information released by civilian and military authorities has been less than persuasive.

https://www.rferl.org/a/radiation-rocket-fuel-nyonoksa-white-sea-explosion-russia/30101978.html

Iran is set to allow women to attend men's soccer matches, lifting a decades-long ban following pressure from FIFA. But women will still not be given completely free access to stadiums, with Iranian officials saying there would be separate entrances and seating areas.

https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-fifa-demands-allow-women-into-soccer-stadiums/30104333.html

John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were unable to stop Kremlin energy pipelines to Europe. Under Donald Trump, can the United States stop Nord Stream 2?

https://www.rferl.org/a/us-efforts-stop-russia-pipelines-will-nord-stream-2-be-different/30107938.html

What blew up last week and caused a spike in radiation in northern Russia? Donald Trump and the U.S. intelligence community believe it was likely to have been a nuclear-powered cruise missile. But the case is far from closed.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-nuclear-accident-nyonoksa-arkhangelsk/30111691.html