>> The UN’s cultural agency, UNESCO, has added ancient Georgian wine-making techniques to its list of “intangible heritage” in need of preservation. The Romanian and Moldovan Christmas rituals, the Feast of the Holy 40 Martyrs spring festival in Macedonia and decorative paintings in Ukraine’s Petrykivka village were also added to the list.
>> Russia is set to lose one of its few relatively objective news outlets as Kremlin moves to tighten its grip on the country’s media. On December 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the closure of RIA Novosti news agency and the creation of a new global news agency, Rossia Segodnya, to be run by one of the most pro-government figures in the media, Dmitri Kiselyov.
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