Tom Balmforth covers Russia and other former Soviet republics from his base in Moscow.
The Russian State Duma appears to be taking aim at Germany, once Moscow's closest ally in Europe.
Ukrainian university students last week appealed on YouTube for Russian students to question Kremlin propaganda. Now they've received a response -- a video lecture about their country from a youth group in Russia.
A headline for a popular current events program on Russia's Channel One claimed that Vladimir Putin could destroy NATO with a phone call. And Twitter users have been giggling ever since.
More Western sanctions? Bring 'em on, says a four-term lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church used a historic speech to parliament to call for restrictions on abortions and press the country to embrace conservative values to counter what he described as the erosion of morals in a "post-Christian" world.
For some Russian officials, annexing Crimea wasn't enough. Now some want to change its name.
A St. Petersburg performance art group this week staged a mock exorcism at Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square.
Under Russia's tough laws targeting anti-Kremlin protesters, those caught at unsanctioned rallies four times within a six-month period now face stiff prison sentences. And the first person to face the new penalties is a 75-year-old pensioner.
A New Year's expedition to Antarctica by two Russian lawmakers has turned into a fiasco -- and a big headache.
A State Duma proposal to commemorate the day Russian troops entered Paris at the end of the Napoleonic Wars has been shot down by the government.
Lawmakers from Chechnya's regional parliament have proposed national legislation for Russia that would formally impose criminal accountability upon relatives of militants who commit acts of terrorism.
Russians who took out dollar-denominated mortgages in better times are now feeling the crunch as a weak ruble becomes the new normal.
Russia's national currency sank briefly to new lows against the dollar and the euro despite the central bank dramatically raising a key interest rate overnight.
Some blamed the Europeans. Some blamed the Americans. Some blamed the falling oil price. And nearly all blamed Western sanctions. Here's a snapshot of how Muscovites viewed the ruble's dramatic slide.
Russians have been snapping up luxury cars before the plummeting ruble forces producers to dramatically hike prices. But experts say the uptick won't last.
Migrant laborers in Russia will soon be required to pass Russian language, history, and civics tests. And now the Russian Orthodox Church wants to teach them how to behave.
A citizen-funded commemorative project run by liberal journalists is aiming to install memorial plaques across the country in honor victims of Soviet repression.
Since 2013, the support group Children-404 has been providing an online safe haven for gay Russian teens to discuss their hopes and fears. And now the authorities want to put a stop to that.
One year after the beginning of the Maidan protest movement that changed the course of Ukraine's history, RFE/RL went back to talk to some of the memorable people who were heavily involved in those tumultuous events.
Nationalists paraded in Moscow and other cities on November 4 in an annual event called the Russian March, while the Kremlin held patriotic celebrations of the National Unity Day holiday created by President Vladimir Putin.
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