Tom Balmforth covers Russia and other former Soviet republics from his base in Moscow.
Charges of illegal missionary activity lodged against a yoga teacher in St. Petersburg have sharpened concerns that a new Russian counterterrorism law will be used to limit religious freedom.
Twenty-five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an elderly painter in Russia battles to commemorate people from his hometown who were targeted by Stalin-era repressions.
A factory that hoped to manufacture condoms in a Russian village acclaimed for its Christian heritage will forgo the contraceptives production after protests by Orthodox activists, says its managing partner.
Prominent Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has announced that he will run for president in an election due to be held in March 2018.
Social conservatives in Russia are suggesting that "baby boxes" -- devices that provide mothers with a legal and anonymous means of abandoning their unwanted infants -- should be banned.
A man in hiding from local authorities in Russia's Chechen republic has drafted an appeal to federal law enforcement to investigate the death threats he says prompted him to flee the North Caucasus last month.
The construction of a condom factory in a Russian village whose name translates literally as "God Lovers" is not going over well with locals.
The chairman of Sberbank is being accused of being cut off from reality after he tried to simulate for himself the difficulties encountered by the disabled in getting simple consultations at the bank.
Russians are skeptical that the recent arrests of top officials for alleged graft are part of a real campaign to snuff out rampant corruption.
When Russian news presenter Pavel Lobkov went public with his HIV status on live television last year, he had little idea that he was opening the door to a whole new world of possibilities to help himself and others.
Russian pop star Filipp Kirkorov is catching flak after an aging French disco star was detained by police at a Moscow bank in an apparent setup involving pro-Kremlin pranksters.
Russia's HIV epidemic passed a grim milestone in January as the country registered its millionth HIV-positive citizen -- double the number in 2010. About 200,000 of that million have died since HIV was first registered in Russia in 1987.
A group of former inmates and convicts' relatives has publicly alleged widespread abuse by staff at a prison in northwestern Russia currently housing a high-profile protester who claimed torture earlier this month.
As the news of Donald Trump's upset victory in the U.S. presidential election rolled into Russia, there was jubilation among many allies of President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin although some predicted the stunning result would have little effect on badly strained U.S. ties.
Russia’s most prominent state TV host piles venomous criticism on the U.S. presidential race and the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in a prime-time program two days before the November 8 election.
Separate crowds of nationalists and government supporters have marched through the streets of Moscow as Russia marked National Unity Day, a holiday established by the Kremlin more than 10 years ago to replace communist-era celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution anniversary.
Moscow authorities abruptly sealed off the office of Amnesty International (AI), barring staff from entry in what the head of the rights watchdog's Russian representation called an "unfriendly and even violent action."
President Vladimir Putin has called on lawmakers to immediately develop federal legislation on the "Russian nation," in an apparent effort to project an image of unity among Russia's peoples.
A jailed Russian opposition activist has accused a prison warden of overseeing the systematic torture of inmates and of threatening to kill him, allegations made in a desperate letter to his wife that he asked her to publish to save his life.
Russia's top security body is mulling whether to create a special center that would defend Russia from "information attacks" -- meaning attempts to distort Russian history.
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