Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
This month, Moldova will ban Russian broadcasting on its territory, a measure Chisinau says is necessary to fend off an existential threat to its national security.
Oyub Titiyev worked tirelessly but quietly to expose human rights violations in the Russian region of Chechnya. Although few people outside the region had heard of him, it seems agents of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov were displeased with his activism.
A respected patients-rights group in the Volga region city of Saratov could face closure as local authorities accuse it of violating Russia's notorious "foreign-agents" law.
The time when the United States acted on the global stage as "the indispensable nation" is coming to a close as the geopolitical environment shifts and diversifies. Can the Trump administration find a way to effectively navigate this perilous transition?
In October, a young man in Nizhnekamsk committed suicide after recording a video alleging horrific police brutality. The aftermath of that incident has rocked the city's police force as more, disturbingly similar allegations going back several years have come to light.
A young man in the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk committed suicide last month after being held nearly a day by police. He left a gruesome final video in which he alleged horrific police brutality.
In July, President Vladimir Putin said it was "impermissible" for regions of Russia to compel students to learn languages other than Russian. The comments inspired one woman in Tatarstan to sue for damages suffered by her son, who was compelled to study the Tatar language.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, an event that determined the course of the entire region and the world. Yet, Russians today seem unsure of what to think of the 1917 events and are increasingly unwilling even to attempt to assess them.
Authorities in Russia's North Caucasus say they no longer maintain a preemptive "extremism" watch list. But Arsen Gasanov, who has endured nearly weekly police harassment for 18 months, has a different opinion.
A woman in the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil says police tortured her brother for three days before delivering him to a local hospital with fatal head injuries. Three officers now face charges, and locals are coming forward with more accusations about their notorious precinct.
Last month, the World Bank suspended feasibility-study tenders for a controversial Mongolian dam project that environmentalists say endangers Siberia's unique Lake Baikal. The move could give activists a fighting chance at stopping or modifying the project.
When the Russian government's system for purchasing and distributing the vital drugs needed to combat the virus that causes AIDS breaks down, patients use social-media networks to give one another medicine and hope.
The details of the crimes of Stalinism in the Far Eastern region of Sakha are still kept secret by the Russian government. But a few locals are determined to make sure the victims who suffered and died there are not forgotten.
A Russian court on September 18 upheld the government's refusal to release unredacted documents that could shed light on how Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg -- who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust -- died in a Soviet prison.
A Communist lawmaker in the western Russian region of Mordovia says she witnessed organized election fraud that contributed to the reelection of the region's governor with 89 percent of the vote.
With some Russian conservatives threatening a "civil war" if a new film about the early life of Tsar Nicholas II is released, the film's director wonders why the government has been so passive.
The central Russian region of Bashkortostan has announced a two-pronged tourism-development plan targeting fans of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and acolytes of the region's 14th-century Imam Husseinbek.
Ravshan Rakhimov faces the prospect of deportation from Russia to his oppressive Central Asian homeland of Uzbekistan. The story of how he found himself in this situation is nothing short of surreal.
Across Russia, campaign workers for opposition politician Aleksei Navalny have faced violence and harassment from both the authorities and nationalist thugs. His Kazan campaign chairwoman, Elvira Dmitriyeva, says it is just "part of the job."
A leading expert on international law speaks to RFE/RL about the issue of statelessness as it pertains to the headline-grabbing case of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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