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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Life in the Russian army

Documentaries

Life in the Russian army

07/10/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Life in the Russian army

Debt, missing equipment and reports of extortion: life as a Russian soldier

Debt, missing equipment and reports of extortion: life as a Russian soldier.

BBC Russian journalist Olga Ivshina shares the findings of her investigation into the reality of life for soldiers serving in Russia's armies, from crowd-sourcing to buy their own equipment, to why it’s so hard to leave. 

Iran protest:  'For...’
The lyrics to 'Baraye', which translates as ‘for’ or ‘because’, by Shervin Hajipour were taken from ordinary Iranians posting on social media to explain why they are protesting, each line beginning "for...".  BBC Persian's Saba Zavarei explains how the protest song has evolved.  

Venezuelan migrants in Martha's Vineyard 
The Republican governor of Florida staged a political stunt to confront politicians far away from the southern border with the reality of uncontrolled migration. They flew 48 undocumented Latin Americans from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, close to Boston, where many liberal and democrat politicians have summer houses.  Luis Fajardo has been following the story for BBC Monitoring in Miami.

Afghan women chasing their Olympic dreams in Italy
BBC Uzbek's Firuz Rahimi, and producer Ivana Scatola, joined five women from Afghanistan’s cycling team who fled the country and are now training in Italy, pursuing their dream to represent their home country in the Olympics.   

Pakistan floods and the karahi commute
Pakistan's catastrophic floods in the past month, have been challenging to report for BBC Urdu. When Rubab Batool saw an intriguing video of locals using karahis - essentially huge cooking vessels - as transport on the floodwaters, she has to use her own creativity to work out how to film it.

(Photo: Russian recruits gather outside a military processing center. Credit: Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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