RFE/RL's Russian Service is a multi-platform alternative to Russian state-controlled media, providing audiences in the Russian Federation with informed and accurate news, analysis, and opinion.
Four bags of potatoes and a tub of lard. That’s what Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka reportedly handed over to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as a Christmas present.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has announced a ban on Ukrainian goods, including agricultural and industrial products, days after adding Ukrainian firms and individuals to Russia's sanctions list.
A rights group in Russia says that authorities are investigating allegations of "systematic" beatings and torture at a second prison in the Yaroslavl region.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has asked prosecutors to open a criminal case into allegations of slave-labor conditions among female convicts at a prison in Mordovia.
Yaroslav Lobanov, a Russian activist in the Urals city of Kurgan, has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for publicly burning a copy of the Russian Constitution.
The trial of Yury Dmitriyev, a Russian historian charged with sexually assaulting his adopted daughter, has started in the northwestern region of Karelia.
Russian police have arrested seven people protesting outside the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, an independent group that monitors crackdowns on demonstrations.
A Kremlin-backed candidate for governor of Russia's Far East region of Primorye has won a repeat election for the post after officials nullified an earlier ballot over electoral irregularities.
A prominent Kremlin critic says Russia has been rapidly losing its standing on the world stage due to President Vladimir Putin’s “aggressive” policies.
Russians have been saying farewell to Lyudmila Alekseyeva, a human rights activist who challenged Soviet and Russian leaders for decades.
Russians and others have paid their final respects to Lyudmila Alekseyeva, including Russian President Vladimir Putin whose rule was criticized by the Russian human rights veteran.
A Russian court has reduced the sentence of Lev Ponomaryov, a prominent human rights defender and critic of President Vladimir Putin, from 25 days to 16 days in jail for organizing a protest against the arrests of activists -- drawing strong criticism from campaigners.
The embezzlement trial of Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov has been adjourned for five days due to the hospitalization of a co-defendant in the case.
A lawyer for one of the Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia on November 25 off the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea has said the case against the seamen was "a political trial."
Nearly 160,000 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in Europe last year -- and two-thirds of those cases were in Russia. Researchers say the stigma surrounding the disease makes it harder to share prevention and treatment information with the public.
The Russian authorities are preventing performances by popular artists who channel the political and economic frustrations of young Russians.
An activist with Russian human rights group Vesna (Spring), Valentin Khoroshenin, has been detained over a demonstration of support for Ingushetia residents in their tug-of-war with Chechnya regarding the delimitation of the border between the two Russian republics in the North Caucasus.
Twenty years after democratic reformer Galina Starovoitova was assassinated, her sister says she does not believe that an infamous alleged crime kingpin who was implicated in the slaying was in fact behind it.
An umbrella organization of groups representing Russian military veterans has appealed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the alleged mercenary activities of Russian private security firms.
A renowned biochemist, Medvedev was the most prominent critic of biologist Trofim Lysenko, a favorite of dictator Josef Stalin who rejected genetics and created a pseudoscientific concept dubbed Lysenkoism.
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