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.
Russians completed the second day of voting late on March 16 in a three-day presidential election that has seen sporadic protests as some people, defying threats of stiff prison sentences, showed their anger over a process set up to hand Vladimir Putin another six years of rule.
About a dozen Russians, defying threats from authorities of long prison sentences, have vandalized ballot boxes and polling stations across the country in protest of a presidential election that is almost certain to hand Vladimir Putin six more years as president.
Russians began voting on the first day of a three-day presidential election that President Vladimir Putin is all but certain to win, extending his rule by six more years after any serious opponents were barred from running against him amid a brutal crackdown on dissent and the independent media.
The Khoroshevsky district court in Moscow has sentenced two members of late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team on extremism charges.
Russia's border regions of Belgorod and Kursk have been targeted again in a series of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes that killed at least two people, wounded several others, and caused material damage.
Russia's Supreme Court on March 13 rejected an appeal filed by well-known Ukrainian human rights defender Maksym Butkevych against a 13-year prison term he was handed by a Russian-installed court in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region after making a confession he says was preceded by torture.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited sources on March 13 as saying a probe was launched against the self-exiled writer and former chief editor of Dozhd television, Mikhail Zygar, for spreading false information about Russia's military.
The European Union on March 12 lifted sanctions imposed in 2022 against the co-founder of Russian Internet giant Yandex, Arkady Volozh, over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin, speaking two days before the start of an election he is expected to easily win, has issued his latest of many warnings that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened, saying he hopes Washington will not do anything to trigger such a conflict.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) was behind a sweeping wave of drone attacks on several Russian regions on March 13 that reportedly set a Rosneft refinery on fire and targeted other economic and military objectives, a Ukrainian intelligence source told RFE/RL.
Russian police have searched more homes of artists and performance artists as part of an investigation of Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the Pussy Riot protest group and the former publisher of the Mediazona website.
Ukrainian drones were used to hit multiple targets in a sweeping attack on Russia that reportedly ignited fires at two major oil facilities and saw armed groups cross into Russian territory.
A former Russian tycoon who made a fortune in retail and banking has been forced to end his philanthropy projects aimed at fighting leukemia after Moscow designated him a "foreign agent."
The Moscow City Court on March 11 canceled the verdict and sentence of Pyotr Verzilov, the former publisher of the independent media website Mediazona, citing procedural violations, and sent the case back for retrial.
Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone was shot down on March 10 in the Leningrad region near the village of Fornosovo after operations were suspended at the nearby Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city.
A district court in St. Petersburg has sent Yevgeny Smirnov, a local resident accused of painting the words "Putin killed Navalny," to serve a month in pretrial detention on hooliganism charges.
The governor of Russia's southwestern Kursk region has said a fire broke out at a local oil depot due to a Ukrainian drone strike.
President Vladimir Putin sent a mixed message to Russia's women to mark International Women's Day, lauding their contribution in the war against Ukraine while emphasizing that the most important duty for women is the "relentless care of children."
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned Americans in a security alert posted on its website late on March 7 of an imminent threat of attacks on large gatherings in the Russian capital in the next two days.
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch took to a stage in London on March 6 to read a letter from Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died last month while being held in an Arctic prison on a conviction he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
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