Stanislav Feofanov is a correspondent for Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
The centuries-old town of Sebezh sits near the borders of both Belarus and Latvia in Russia's western Pskov region. Residents are proud of their well-preserved old houses and rich history, but they've seen little development in a struggling town that was once called the "window to Europe."
Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, an outpost on the Amur River in the Far East, was disputed by Russia and China for decades, but it has now been divided almost equally between the neighbors. The Chinese call it Heixiazi Island.
In tsarist Russia, it was a women's prison, but now it's home for poor families with nowhere else to go. Although it's supposed to be temporary accommodation, residents spend years amid its crumbling, ill-lit corridors, waiting for permanent housing.
Thousands of Moscow factory workers have been forced out of company housing over the years as plants closed their dormitories or shut down altogether. But some families have stayed on despite barely livable conditions, and are fighting in court for their right to decent housing.
Russians living near one of the country's largest landfills say they can barely breathe due to gas from the site, which has been growing without restriction for years. Locals hold frequent protests against unchecked dumping, but they say their complaints fall on deaf ears.
Current Time gained exclusive access to a closed village near a Russian military facility where five people died after an explosion and radiation leak. Residents of Nyonoksa have spent their lives in the shadow of a weapons test site, and while some are unworried, others say there's been a lack of information about possible health risks.
