Dmitry Volchek is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
On the second anniversary of Ukraine's groundbreaking law on opening the country's Soviet-era secret-police archives, RFE/RL spoke with archive Director Andriy Kohut about why such access is crucial and how the new law is being implemented.
Dmitry Grechukhin's descendants were horrified when they found out recently who he really was and why he was executed under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
After a Russian military plane crash kills 92 people, some lawmakers and media outlets call for a law to deprive Russians of citizenship for "taking joy in blood" at moments of national tragedy.
One man’s four-year search to learn the names of the Stalinist agents who executed his great-grandfather in 1938 has been surprisingly successful -- and has led to his reconciliation with the granddaughter of one of the gunmen.
For four years, Denis Karagodin has been immersed in a relentless mission to document the fate of his great-grandfather, who was executed by the Soviet secret police during dictator Josef Stalin's Great Terror. All that remains, he says, is to find the killers.
Controversial Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky says he was severely beaten by police who are holding him in custody during his trial for vandalism stemming from a 2014 protest in St. Petersburg.
It cost St. Petersburg businessman Maksim Freidzon a $10,000 "tax" to register his first business in the city in the early 1990s. He says the bureaucrat who named that fee was Vladimir Putin.
An extreme Russian nationalist who fought alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine says it is clear that Moscow has orchestrated the war, despite the Kremlin's claims to the contrary.
A teenage Lithuanian artist has sparked controversy after feeding an edible portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin to hens. Jolita Vaitkute says her work is intended to shine a spotlight on Putin's authoritarian rule.
Since President Vladimir Putin came to power, hundreds of activists have been forced from politics or pushed to the margins as the Kremlin has tightened its grip on Russia. RFE/RL spoke to three former activists who have chosen to fold up their banners.
As Moscow launches air strikes in Syria, a Russian volunteer says he and a band of like-minded men are setting off to fight alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) militants. Disillusioned with the rebels in eastern Ukraine, Bondo Dorovskikh says he is driven by an addiction to battle and the desire to combat the "evil" of IS.
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.
The migrant crisis is in Europe. But judging by the Internet, Russians are the most upset about it.
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.
Former Astrakhan police officer Elshad Babayev thought he was helping society by taking drunk drivers off the streets. But some of the police officers and other officials that he caught on video driving drunk think he's just a menace.
An Odesa court has banned a gay-pride festival that was originally planned for this weekend in the Ukrainian port city, saying the event could lead to violence.
Russian-language linguist Ilya Frank intends to join the growing number of disillusioned Jews leaving Vladimir Putin's Russia for Israel. He says he doesn't want his 6-year-old daughter to attend schools suffused with "Nazi propaganda."
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia is not involved militarily in Ukraine. A handful of resourceful digital-forensic investigators say they have enough evidence to say he's lying.
Russian and Ukrainian bloggers say their accounts on Facebook are being targeted by pro-Kremlin activists, and that the company's moderation policies are being exploited to silence them.
A teenager from a Moscow suburb has alienated his family and schoolmates and attracted the attention of the police for his criticism of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. "You are my enemy," his own grandfather told him.
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