Tom Balmforth covers Russia and other former Soviet republics from his base in Moscow.
A man reportedly faces a fine for putting a sack over the head of a controversial statue to Ivan the Terrible, in what appears to be the latest in a string of protest actions against the recently unveiled monument to the ruthless Russian tsar.
Russian opposition activist Aleksei Gaskarov has been freed after completing a 3 1/2-year jail term for his involvement in a mass anti-Kremlin demonstration against alleged election rigging that spiraled into clashes with police.
A group that has received financing from the Kremlin is under fire over a report that it has been secretly assessing the “protest potential” of students and staff at Russian universities and making its findings available to the authorities.
Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Nadia Savchenko has travelled to Moscow to attend a hearing in the case of two Ukrainian citizens convicted of fighting with Chechen separatists in the 1990s.
Legislation making its way through Russia's parliament aims to prevent parents from giving kids unusual names.
The son of a Russian oil executive has avoided prison for his part in a frenzied car chase with police that spawned a viral video showing him and a group of friends flouting traffic laws, including driving through a children's playground.
As Moscow cements its presence in Syria, it has also been dropping hints it is in talks to open military bases in Vietnam, Cuba, and Egypt. Analysts are not convinced it amounts to more than posturing aimed at audiences at home and in the West.
A decade after one of Russia's most courageous journalists was silenced, unanswered questions over who ordered the killing of Anna Politkovskaya draws parallels to the assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
Photographer Alyaksandr Vasyukovich says the vandalism and subsequent raid this week on an exhibition of his and a colleague's images of Ukrainian soldiers is a "sign of the times" in the Russian capital.
A series of denials by Russian officials and state-media allegations of bias and foul play present a view that is starkly discrepant with international criminal investigators' findings, announced this week, over the downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Russian officials have decried the interim results of an international investigation that found that the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that crashed in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 was shot down by an antiaircraft missile transported from Russia and fired from rebel-controlled territory in Ukraine.
The independent Russian station Dozhd (TV Rain) has aired a report alleging that a childhood friend of President Vladimir Putin's is worth an estimated $550 million and owned a substantial stake in the Gunvor oil-trading company between 2005 and 2010.
A Russian performance artist who built a career thumbing his nose at the authorities now says he supports President Vladimir Putin -- even as he seeks asylum in Europe and fears arrest if he returns home.
Prominent Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny has called on Central Election Commission (CEC) chief Ella Pamfilova to resign over alleged falsifications in the September 18 parliamentary elections, which gave the ruling United Russia party a constitutional majority in the State Duma and kept liberal Kremlin critics out of the lower parliament house.
Russian investigators say a prominent Ukrainian separatist has been shot dead in an upscale restaurant outside Moscow by a gunman disguised in a fake moustache and a panama hat.
A Russian media report suggests the Kremlin is considering creating a monolithic new security ministry that would effectively reconstitute the infamous KGB.
Opposition activists alleged a slew of violations during voting in Russia's parliamentary elections despite efforts taken by the authorities to give the appearance of a clean vote.
The appointment of Olga Vasilyeva as Russia's new education minister has outraged many educators and liberal commentators, who say that her defense of Soviet policies and ties to the Orthodox faith make her a questionable choice to head one of the biggest networks of secular academic institutions in the world.
Despite its showing on the medals table, Russian media have taken a positive spin on its results in Rio.
Forget duty-free vodka and "matryoshka" dolls: Travelers looking for a last-minute souvenir of Russia can now pick up an assault rifle -- well, a plastic replica -- before heading for flights out of Moscow's main airport.
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