Claire Bigg covers Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Soviet world, with a focus on human rights, civil society, and social issues.
The ongoing trial of a Russian conscript accused of murdering an entire family in Gyumri has renewed calls for the closure of the Russian military base stationed in this Armenian city.
For more than 20 years, Valery Podyachy lobbied for a Russian takeover of Crimea. But when Moscow finally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine, the activist found himself punished for his efforts.
Anger is mounting in Russia after more than 80 people whose cars were stranded on a snowbound highway waited 16 hours to be rescued, resulting in one death and numerous cases of frostbite. One of the survivors voiced his outrage in a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin.
A graphic video showing police beating up a transvestite has gone viral in Uzbekistan. But instead of sparking outrage, the clip is drawing praise from many people on social media in the former Soviet republic.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader has pledged to punish families of Chechen emigres who protested in Austria against his iron-fisted rule. Although collective punishment and public shaming are not new in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov's latest clampdown is causing dismay among many Chechens.
Crimeans are bracing for a dark, cold New Year's Eve as the peninsula is hit by yet another power outage.
Vlad Kolesnikov, a Russian teenager whose life unraveled after he publicly supported Ukraine, was found dead on December 25. RFE/RL's Claire Bigg had been corresponding with him in the weeks before his death.
A group of high-profile opponents of Russia's president are keen to do away with a handful of laws that they think enable some of Putinism's worst abuses.
A damning report by Human Rights Watch says the use of cluster munitions has soared in Syria since the start of the Russian-Syrian military offensive.
Crimea has been dealing with massive power shortages since unidentified saboteurs knocked down electricity pylons on the Ukrainian mainland last weekend. Residents of the region taken over by Russia last year are putting on brave faces, but frustration is mounting.
Twenty years after the Dayton accords ended the deadliest war spawned by the breakup of Yugoslavia, divisions drawn by the deal are etched deep in Bosnia-Herzegovina's landscape.
Pyotr Pavlensky's partner says the radical performance artist was merely highlighting widespread discontent with a Kremlin crackdown on dissent when he torched the iconic doors of Russia's spy agency.
A prominent Tibetan lama who has been ordered to leave Russia says he had been told by the security service to keep a lower profile.
Bloggers debunk a Russian state TV claim that "thousands" of people turned out for a patriotic flash mob in the capital.
Russia’s best-known human rights campaigner, 88-year-old Lyudmila Alekseyeva, reflects on the future of her country's embattled human rights movement and on the democratic prospects for her country.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has awarded its annual Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to veteran Russian activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva.
An opposition lawmaker known for his vocal criticism of the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine has lost his regional parliamentary seat amid a bitter political standoff with authorities in Russia's Pskov region.
A homosexual schoolteacher in St. Petersburg is waging a legal battle to reclaim her job. Her campaign, among others, challenges recent claims that all homosexuals have been "squeezed out" of Russia's second city.
Officials in Kyiv have renamed the street hosting the Russian consulate in honor of volunteer battalions fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The move is part of a long tradition of using street signs to rankle political foes.
Gay-rights activists in St. Petersburg say they have no intention of emigrating or going back into the closet despite claims by a Russian lawmaker that all gays have been "squeezed out" of the city.
Load more
