Daisy Sindelar is the vice president and editor in chief of RFE/RL.
Crimean Tatars, the native inhabitants of the Black Sea peninsula, almost universally opposed Russia's 2014 annexation. A year later, they say their rights, safety, and traditions are under attack.
As Russia celebrates one year since its militarized annexation of Crimea, some residents on the peninsula are eager to remind the Kremlin that many people resisted the scheme -- and remain opposed to it today. The Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
A lawyer for Nadia Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot jailed in Russia for her alleged role in the death of two journalists, says he has video evidence proving his client is innocent. The latest claim comes amid a flurry of diplomacy aimed at her release -- and her own decision to give up a hunger strike after 83 days.
After years of isolation, the city at the heart of "Europe's last dictatorship" is suddenly refashioning itself as a center of global diplomacy. We look at the emergence of the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
The arrest of five North Caucasus men in the assassination of Russian oppositionist Boris Nemtsov has stirred suspicions the Kremlin may be attempting to use the restive region as a convenient scapegoat -- another instance where Chechens and other Caucasians take the heat for a high-profile crime.
Many historians are comparing the brazen murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov to the 1934 assassination of Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov, a Stalin rival whose death went on to serve as a pretext for Stalin's campaign of terror against the Bolshevik old guard.
A recent event at a St. Petersburg kindergarten that allowed students as young as 5 years old to hold automatic rifles and grenade launchers has set off a firestorm of criticism on Russian social media. But school administrators and military activists defend the project as a hands-on lesson in history and patriotism.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has published a dystopian novel about Russia in 2043 -- after it falls to a fascist, gay, Ukrainian nationalist junta.
Ukraine's western regions were a driving force behind last year's Maidan protests. Since the start of the war, however, they've been criticized for a growing reluctance to send their men to the front. Many fighting-age men say that loyalty to their country does not translate to loyalty to their government.
In the eastern Donbas region, volunteers delivering food and supplies to Ukrainian soldiers aren't leaving empty-handed. They're carrying out animals abandoned by their owners and left to fend for themselves in the war zone.
Officially, Russia has no soldiers in Ukraine. But it does have volunteers -- hundreds of men and women eager to take up arms in defense of "Novorossia." And the Kremlin's got no problem with that.
Authorities in Lithuania have begun distributing a 98-page booklet advising citizens how to react in case of natural disaster, major accidents -- and war. Officials say the information is urgently needed because of Russia's aggression against its neighbors.
Turkey has included Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian among a list of world leaders it hopes will attend a special World War I commemoration in the spring. There's just one problem -- the date.
Protesters in Armenia are calling for the Russian military to turn over a soldier suspected of murdering in cold blood six members of a single family. The demonstrations are the most serious test yet of Yerevan's renewed ties to Moscow.
Russians may have to resort to pirate copies to see Leviathan, a gritty award-winning film on political corruption that could fall foul of Kremlin censors.
It once was touted as an eastern alternative to the European Union and an attempt to resurrect the Soviet Union. But as the Eurasian Economic Union comes into existence with its three founding members -- Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan -- already squabbling, the future of the Kremlin's pet project looks uncertain.
Government officials in Europe and the United States have offered only muted criticism of Azerbaijan throughout a year of rampant human rights violations that included the arrest of journalists and activists and the closure of numerous NGOs. For a possible explanation, we look at Western strategic interests in the energy-rich Caspian nation.
Many people turn to sports as a welcome break from politics. But from the Olympics to Formula 1, the year 2014 revealed a growing connection between big-ticket sporting events and ugly political regimes.
Russians are fighting back against the dizzying dive of the ruble the best way they know how -- with humor. We look at some of the best jokes about the struggling Russian currency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 1 announced that Russia was abandoning plans for the South Stream natural gas pipeline meant to supply energy directly to Europe without transit through Ukraine. Who are the winners and losers if Putin makes good on his word?
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