Claire Bigg covers Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Soviet world, with a focus on human rights, civil society, and social issues.
The Russian presidential human rights council has presented Vladimir Putin with its proposal for a sweeping prison amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's adoption of its post-Soviet constitution. Up to one-quarter of the country's inmates could walk free under the amnesty.
Videos showing the dramatic arrest of Orkhan Zeynalov, the Azerbaijani man suspected a killing an ethnic Russian in Moscow, are making the rounds on Russian television. The clips have fueled mounting tensions between ethnic Russians and Azerbaijanis.
Moscow lawmakers are denying they plan to return a monument honoring the founder of the Soviet secret police to a central Moscow square. The denial came after a senior Moscow Duma deputy said the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky could be restored to its "rightful" place in downtown Moscow.
The 30 people detained last month during a protest by environmental group Greenpeace in the Arctic remain in custody in Russia. Their families say they are increasingly worried about their fate.
A new mobile-phone application unveiled in Azerbaijan appears to have released presidential election results one day before the actual vote. Voters who downloaded the application on October 8 found out that incumbent President Ilham Aliyev had won the October 9 election in a landslide.
Residents in the Georgian village of Dvani are up in arms over efforts to put up a barbed-wire fence along the administrative boundary with breakaway South Ossetia, one of Georgia's two Moscow-backed separatist regions. Work on the fence appears to have been halted amid international criticism. But officials in Tbilisi remain prepared for a further escalation of the territorial dispute.
As Russia prepares to host the Paralympic Games next spring, the plight of the country's 13 million disabled people is coming under increased scrutiny. Russian authorities have taken some important steps to improve accessibility for all. But most Russians with disabilities remain deeply isolated from society.
Russia's state-owned railway company is compiling Christian-oriented audio programs to play to passengers on long-distance trains. The initiative, supervised by the Russian Orthodox Church, has met with some criticism, particularly in predominantly Muslim regions.
New legislation proposing to take children from homosexual parents has sent jitters through Russia's LGBT community. The latest step comes amid a growing government crackdown on sexual minorities. One St. Petersburg mother talks to RFE/RL about her fears.
A planned Russian film about Pyotr Tchaikovsky suffered its latest setback this week after its director announced he was returning government funds and denounced a mounting public debate over whether the composer was gay. Speculation has been rife on whether the film would run afoul of a new law banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations."
A video depicting a man being raped with a bottle has surfaced on social media, in what appears to be the latest assault on Russia's beleaguered homosexual community.
A court in Moscow has barred a jailed opposition protester from attending his mother's funeral. Prosecutors charge Mikhail Kosenko, who is currently held in the psychiatric ward of a pretrial detention center, with assaulting police during an opposition rally in May 2012. The case, in which 26 other protesters are on trial, has sparked international outrage.
A documentary film premiering on September 5 at the Venice Film Festival uncovers the instrumental -- and some might say controversial -- role played by a man in helping to build Femen, the Ukrainian feminist group famous for its topless protests.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is waging a campaign to have a Grozny mosque recognized as Russia's top symbol. He has urged Chechens to cast their votes for the mosque, named after his father, in a nationwide competition to pick Russia's 10 most popular symbols. But the campaign has irked many in Chechnya and beyond.
Police in St. Petersburg have seized four satirical paintings featuring high-ranking Russian politicians, including a portrait of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in women's underwear. Gallery owner Aleksandr Donskoi says police have shut down his Museum of Authorities.
Supporters held a rally in Moscow on Taisia Osipova's 29th birthday to call for the release of the jailed Russian opposition activist, who is serving an eight-year sentence on drug charges widely seen as fabricated.
A Russian composer has put the closing statement of jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, delivered at the end of her trial, to music. The result is a compelling work that was first performed in Italy this month after winning a prestigious composition prize.
Ukraine's Crimean Tatars are outraged at Russian actor Aleksei Panin over what they say are his deeply offensive comments about their ethnic group. The Ukrainian authorities have opened a criminal case against the actor, who hit and insulted a Crimean Tatar during a car accident.
As Europe marks its Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism on August 23, some Ukrainians are seeking to draw attention to a little-known wartime tragedy. In 1941, as Nazi German troops advanced through Ukraine, Soviet authorities blew up a hydroelectric dam in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya to slow the Nazi advance. The explosion flooded villages along the banks of the Dnieper River, killing thousands of civilians. But Ukrainian authorities are unwilling to honor the victims.
One year after Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were jailed for an anti-Kremlin performance, RFE/RL looks at how the women's children have been coping with their mothers' absence.
Load more
