Svetlana Prokopyeva is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
A Russian vocational college teacher tried to survive for a month on his take-home pay of just under $200. He gave up after two weeks, highlighting the fact that -- as prices rise -- base pay for teachers across the country remains far below the target set by President Vladimir Putin in 2012.
Russian media rights lawyer Galina Arapova has become the first person to be designated twice under her country's controversial "foreign agent" laws.
A prominent St. Petersburg legal-aid group that focuses on cases involving state secrets has shut down following months of intense persecution by the state. Its lawyers say that "the risks have become too great for many people."
Demographer Aleksei Raksha, who was fired from Russia's state statistics agency after disputing its coronavirus numbers, says officials in Russia's regions are just making up pandemic statistics "out of their heads."
Colleagues of St. Petersburg lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is under criminal investigation for purportedly revealing state secrets, have declared a "state of emergency." President Vladimir Putin's security forces "are trying to show us they can do anything they want without consequences," they warn.
A prominent liberal lawmaker has called on Russian authorities to properly investigate the two sudden near-fatal illnesses suffered by opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza while traveling in Russia.
Photographer Dmitry Markov explains how he made the photo of a masked policeman that became an instant classic during recent protests in Russia.
The Russian Orthodox Church is using a 2010 restitution law to push for ownership of the medieval Golden Gate monument in the historic city of Vladimir. It is just one of dozens of claims to high-profile or lucrative property that the church has filed in recent months that has many in the country worried about the church's growing secular might.
It's one of 11 Russian cities hosting next month's FIFA World Cup. And it's spent over $1 billion in preparations. But locals in Nizhny Novgorod are uncertain exactly what they'll be left with after the final whistle.
For six years, a school in Pskov Oblast begged local authorities for funds to build a perimeter fence required by federal law. Finally, they took matters into their own hands.
The Russian tradition of marching on Victory Day with portraits of relatives who fought against Nazi Germany was born from a conversation among friends in Tomsk in 2011. But more recently, the originators have been pushed aside as the Immortal Regiment procession has become a state-dominated public display of patriotism.
A Russian government report this spring savagely criticized the country's 33 "special economic zones," which have been created over the last decade to attract investment and create jobs. In the northwestern Pskov Oblast, one of these zones has been slow to get off the ground – and now finds itself in direct competition with a private business incubator on the other side of town.
Svitlana Moroz, her two sons, and her elderly mother have lived in the spartan Sport hotel in Pskov, in western Russia, for nearly a year and a half now. But they and hundreds more like them who fled the fighting at home in eastern Ukraine could soon be out on the streets after Moscow in November adopted tougher new rules for the refugees.
!["We don't cooperate with [the Czech NGO]. We don't have any ties to it. But if we continue working in our previous way, it will create enormous risks for members of our team as well as for journalists and people who cite our information," a member of the group said.](https://gdb.rferl.org/b4463b6e-6bbe-4e4f-b95d-44e33fb08807_cx0_cy9_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
!["We don't cooperate with [the Czech NGO]. We don't have any ties to it. But if we continue working in our previous way, it will create enormous risks for members of our team as well as for journalists and people who cite our information," a member of the group said.](https://gdb.rferl.org/b4463b6e-6bbe-4e4f-b95d-44e33fb08807_cx0_cy9_cw0_w66_r1.jpg)
