Tom Balmforth covers Russia and other former Soviet republics from his base in Moscow.
Russia's Constitutional Court has ruled that officials can ignore judgments by the European Court of Human Rights if they are found to contravene the Russian Constitution.
The legend of a group of Soviet soldiers hailed as heroes after they died resisting an onslaught of Nazi tanks bearing down on Moscow in 1941 has been exposed by Russian state archivists as fiction.
The United Russia lawmaker who recently called for rainbow flags to be outlawed in Russia has unveiled a flag in support of “traditional” values -- only to be accused of stealing the design from a French organization.
The Dynasty Foundation, a leading private donor of Russian science and education that was branded a “foreign agent,” says it will close in what academics and politicians called a severe blow to Russian science and civil society.
A Russian lawmaker and friend of President Vladimir Putin is arguing that sugary drinks and fast food are dangerous and should not be allowed to advertise in Russia.
The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to consider two central parts of a case filed against Russia for its handling of the bloody school hostage taking in Beslan over 10 years ago that claimed 334 lives.
Russia's Constitutional Court has upheld the legality of early parliamentary elections, clearing the way for lawmakers to vote on bringing forward next year's State Duma elections by three months.
Russia is set to boycott a session of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly in Helsinki next week after Finland said it would block Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin and five other Russian delegates from attending.
Its greatest adversary has legalized same-sex marriages, and Russia doesn't quite know how to react to the United States' 'gayification' movement.
Angry residents say the Russian Orthodox Church pulled a fast one as part of its push to build 200 new churches in Moscow, and are waging a pitched battle to keep their park.
A Russian consumer-protection group lambasted by President Vladimir Putin as a "foreign agent" over cautionary advice to Russians traveling to annexed Crimea has accused Putin of "paranoia" and called him "badly informed."
As the Kremlin pumps up patriotism amid war in Ukraine and a confrontation with the West, a mania for all things military is penetrating deep into civilian life in Russia. It's a boon for a Defense Ministry looking to burnish its reputation, but the country's liberals accuse the authorities of dangerously "militarizing" the national conscience.
Moscow’s Election Commission has authorized a referendum on restoring a notorious statue of feared secret police chief Feliks Dzerzhinsky to its Soviet-era spot outside the former KGB headquarters. The city legislature must still give its approval, and Dzerzhinsky remains a polarizing figure despite Russia's rehabilitation of the Soviet past.
Investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta has appealed to the Kremlin and Russian police to step in after Chechnya's main government news agency printed what the newspaper described as a "direct death threat" aimed at one of its reporters.
A giant statue of the ruler of Kievan Rus is to be built this year at a prominent spot above the Moscow River in Russia's capital. The plan has plenty of opponents -- some of whom say Russian President Vladimir Putin is co-opting a symbol of Kyiv at a time of great strife between Russia and Ukraine.
Prominent Russian Ksenia Sobchak could face prosecution over an Instagram post that showed her wearing a priest's robe and a flowing fake beard. Investigators are checking whether the photo violates a blasphemy law passed amid the uproar over Pussy Riot's "punk protest" in a Russian Orthodox cathedral.
The Russian authorities are trying to bring forward parliamentary elections due in December 2016 and calling snap elections in the provinces this year in a bid to minimize possible fallout from the economic crisis, which could present an opportunity to the opposition.
Russia's new state-backed search engine is named after the pioneering Soviet satellite Sputnik, but a year after its launch it has not gotten far off the ground.
Before the Kremlin commented on the shocking legal drama unfolding over alleged activities at global soccer authority FIFA, the Russian Internet and other media lit up as Russians reacted to news of investigations that could cast a harsh light on Russia's successful bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Rights groups named as potential targets of a new law allowing the government to brand international organizations "undesirable" and shutter their Russia operations have criticized the legislation, calling it a "dangerous" new weapon in a Kremlin campaign to suppress civil society.
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