Aleksandr Litoi is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
With many in Russia skeptical about the government's information on the COVID-19 crisis, grassroots organizations are organizing to try to help neighbors help each other.
On the edge of greater Moscow, construction of a new infectious-diseases hospital is proceeding 24 hours a day, with the 500-bed facility expected to open next month. Locals realize the nature of the emergency facing the country, but are anxious about their new neighbor.
A Russian company wants to tap the market for Soviet nostalgia by highlighting the year when sparkling wine formally started production in the Soviet Union. The problem is, it’s the same year that Stalin’s Great Terror was nearing its horrific peak.
A Moscow Oblast student wants to decide for himself whether to participate in a demonstration to honor the 27 million Soviets who died fighting Nazi Germany.
A man who is wanted in Russia on suspicion of organizing a 2016 pogrom against Tajik migrant workers that left three dead is making a high-profile career for himself heading an anti-Western youth "army" in Ukraine's breakaway Luhansk region.