Michael Scollon is a senior correspondent in RFE/RL's Central Newsroom in Prague.
For five days now, Russian anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny has been comatose, medically induced into unconsciousness in an effort to keep his body from shutting down.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka is digging in as nationwide demonstrations threaten his 26-year rule as Belarus's president. But while images of him flying in a helicopter and toting a Kalashnikov sent the message that he's willing to fight, the imagery was met by mockery in some places.
Human rights activists in Belarus say at least 80 people have gone missing since the disputed August 9 presidential election. Police say the claims are "not fully accurate."
People protesting the purported falsification of Belarus's presidential vote are criticizing the teachers and school administrators who staffed many polling stations.
Embattled Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka stopped by a Minsk factory in a bid to shore up support following a major show of force by his opposition the night before. It didn't go well.
Some Belarusian police and security officers have walked off the job, amid mounting outrage over violence against peaceful protesters. A growing number of state media reporters and TV anchors are doing the same.
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.
A mother, a daughter, a mystic -- letters of desperation span the globe and echo across three generations
According to official results, only one region in Russia recorded a majority vote against the constitutional amendments that give President Vladimir Putin the option of seeking two more terms. Kremlin allies swiftly suggested that it was a protest vote over a local issue and not a rebuke to Putin, and the elections chief claimed the result proved that the vote count was credible.
The social-media reaction was swift when eagle-eyed viewers of Mordovian public television spotted a gloved hand appearing to stuff ballots during coverage of Russia's nationwide vote on constitutional amendments enabling Putin to seek 12 more years in office.
When a Moscow couple arrived at their local polling station to cast their ballots in Russia's weeklong vote on constitutional amendments, they were surprised to hear from election officials that their whole family had already voted, even though they hadn't. The incident has added to scrutiny of the vote, which has been marred by evidence of irregularities.
The controversial embezzlement case against internationally renowned Russian theater director Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been critical of the Kremlin and whose LGBT-friendly themes have made government and church officials squeamish, is drawing to a close. But while the charges against him have been described as "absurd" and politically motivated, the stage is set for a possible six-year prison sentence.
As the United States celebrated its return to space with the successful launch of a commercially owned and designed spacecraft, some in Russia shrugged their shoulders and said, in effect, "It's not like it's rocket science."
Volodymyr Zelenskiy entered Ukraine's presidency like a rock star, playing off comedic fame. After 100 days he looked like a hip young leader, speed-meeting groups of journalists over craft beers and avocado toast. At the one-year mark, under the cloud of COVID-19, he addressed reporters from a safe social distance on the lawn of the official presidential residence -- still saddled with some of the same problems he faced at the start.
With countries closed and borders shut due to the coronavirus pandemic, migrant workers whose livelihoods depend heavily on the remittances they send home are particularly vulnerable to economic ruin, health and safety risks, and discrimination -- even if they do manage to make it back to their countries.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power says a failure to produce a coordinated global response to the coronavirus outbreak has compounded the disaster and as long as the virus rages anywhere in the world no one is safe.
The front-runner came back from two mysterious bouts with pneumonia to continue his campaign to become de facto president of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region. Now the coronavirus pandemic looms over the election scheduled for March 22. RFE/RL takes a look at the developments that have complicated the campaign, and what's at stake in the vote.
Abkhazia's electoral race, which veered off course following inaccurate reports that the leading candidate to become the territory's de facto president had been poisoned, is back on.
Eighty years after Stalin signed off on the execution of 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia rounded up in Soviet-occupied Poland, the "Katyn lie" blaming the mass killing on Nazi Germany is enjoying new life on social media. And many who accept Soviet responsibility for the crime are in no mood to apologize as Moscow and Warsaw continue to wrangle over the narrative of World War II.
A pair of marmots at a St. Petersburg zoo surprisingly rolled out of hibernation in Russia this week, confirming predictions of a way-too-early spring made earlier in other parts of the country by several other animals that should be in deep slumber for at least another month.
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