Lyubov Chizhova is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
Jailed Kremlin opponent Aleksei Navalny's claims that prison authorities are deliberately harming him instead of healing him have focused attention on health care -- or the lack thereof -- in Russian penitentiaries.
Russia's Education Ministry and the Kremlin-created Russian Movement of Schoolchildren have announced plans to hire school counselors nationwide in 2022 in a bid, as the minister recently told parliament, "to prevent the possibility of anyone exercising a destructive influence on children."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed the tens of thousands of Russians who have protested the past weekends in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny as "hooligans and provocateurs." But eyewitnesses to the January 31 protests tell a different story.
One of the many laws that came into effect in Russia over the New Year's break was a measure to bring back drunk tanks for people found inebriated in public. Such institutions, which were notorious for their human rights abuses during the Soviet period, were abolished in 2010.
As the dust settled on the fourth straight evening of mass protests in Belarus over a disputed election, harrowing reports of ill-treatment and the torture of detainees are emerging. And relatives seeking information about their missing loved ones are being met with shrugs and smiles from police.
Russia's farming sector faces a major crisis during harvest season without migrant workers -- mainly from Central Asia -- experts warn, urging Moscow to allow foreign fruit and vegetable pickers to enter Russia despite the lockdown.
In late April, RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Lyubov Chizhova developed a fever and other symptoms of COVID-19. In a first-person account, she tells the story of her illness and her struggle for treatment.
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.
With an eye toward increasing production and leisure time, Russia's prime minister has ordered labor officials to explore the possibility of implementing a four-day workweek. But economists see Dmitry Medvedev's initiative as a populist measure amid more pressing issues and note there is nothing stopping Russian companies from changing policies on their own.
Moscow is moving to soften penalties for first-time violations of Russia's law on inciting ethnic and religious enmity. But activists say the government still has plenty of tools to keep a lid on political dissent and freedom of expression.
In September 2017, opposition candidates scored surprisingly well in local council elections in Moscow, picking up nearly 20 percent of the 1,502 seats. It was hailed at the time as a sign that President Vladimir Putin was ready to experiment with pluralism. But one year later, those deputies are facing harsh -- and sometimes terrifying -- obstacles.
With public discontent in Russia running at rarely seen levels because of the government's wildly unpopular pension-reform proposal, officials appear to be managing September 9 local elections carefully.
Activists fear excavation near the scene of Stalin crimes is part of a bid to discredit a prominent historian and rewrite the significance of the Sandarmokh killing ground.
Russian officials have held out the tantalizing possibility they might allow a national referendum on the government's much-hated proposal to raise retirement ages. But is it a red herring?
Before a blaze consumed more than 100 family homes in their delta city, residents had sought official protection from "black realtors" seemingly trying to push them out by force.
Former Kursk Oblast lawmaker Olga Li has been convicted of defamation in a case that she sees as revenge for her opposition positions in the legislature and her work editing a critical local newspaper.
Media monitors accuse the Moscow mayor's office of "deceiving Muscovites with their own money," clandestinely mobilizing influencers to drum up support for a controversial demolition plan and drown out its critics.
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.
A woman from Sochi has been sentenced to seven years in prison for sending two text messages that Russian security officials say contained military secrets. Her defense lawyers say they have learned of 10 similar cases emerging from the same local Federal Security Service branch since 2013.
The arrest of Russia's economic development minister could signal a significant victory for former KGB operative Igor Sechin -- and a costly defeat for investor confidence in the country's battered economy.
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![A sobering-up station in Moscow in 1999: "[So] many rights violations were committed there," said Moscow-based human rights activist Natalya Taubina. "That is why the system was shut down 10 years ago."](https://gdb.rferl.org/1ebbc1be-b74d-4791-ad0c-a8064de32973_cx0_cy8_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
![A sobering-up station in Moscow in 1999: "[So] many rights violations were committed there," said Moscow-based human rights activist Natalya Taubina. "That is why the system was shut down 10 years ago."](https://gdb.rferl.org/1ebbc1be-b74d-4791-ad0c-a8064de32973_cx0_cy8_cw0_w66_r1.jpg)
