Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
Before she was killed on October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya bemoaned the fate of journalism under President Vladimir Putin, saying independent journalists can expect "death, the bullet, poison, or trial." Fifteen years later, journalists say Politkovskaya was absolutely correct.
Pandora is not the first time the name of longtime Vladimir Putin insider Sergei Chemezov has been accused of lining the pockets of friends and relatives.
The Communist Party is set to gain about 15 seats in the new State Duma, and independent assessments suggest it fared even better than the official results from a tightly controlled election show. What is the explanation for the surge, and will it make any difference?
With unprecedented repressions and accusations of widespread fraud through a broad array of mechanisms, the controversial elections for the State Duma are seen as an indicator of what is to come when President Vladimir Putin's fourth term in the Kremlin comes to an end in 2024.
Russian monitors say that home voting is also likely being used to skew the results of the voting for the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, and local legislatures and posts.
Even though the Russian authorities no longer allow the public to see the live video feeds from polling stations as the country votes, many videos from polling stations across the country have emerged that seem to show flagrant ballot-box stuffing.
Russia has never held a post-Soviet election that met recognized democratic standards. But that does not mean that the fraud has been evenly spread across the country.
Repression and manipulation are nothing new for Russian elections. Ahead of the State Duma vote and local balloting that begin on September 17, what's new this time around is the use of "foreign agent" laws to silence independent voices and seek control over the process -- and Russia's future.
When a serious outbreak of COVID-19 struck a Russian ship in the remotest part of northern Krasnoyarsk Krai, the crew of 15 found their lives in the hands of a 25-year-old paramedic named Alyona Kirilovskaya.
YouTube has blocked RFE/RL's Russian Service and Russia's Dozhd television from using a clip from an August 30 debate shown on Russian state television in which candidate Maksim Shevchenko called for the release from prison of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and other "political prisoners."
Russian elections usually have their share of colorful characters, and the current campaign for the State Duma is no exception.
There are three Boris Vishnevskys running for seats on the St. Petersburg municipal legislature.
Hacking servers. Online blocking. Police raids. Information attacks. Weeks ahead of Duma elections, Russian authorities have stepped up efforts to stymie Smart Voting --the most successful political project of now-jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
Novaya Gazeta published leaked audio purportedly from a meeting of local government officials and election workers in a Moscow suburb. An administration official is heard instructing that a "certain party" must poll at least 42 percent in the upcoming elections.
In 2019, Anastasia Bryukhanova was disqualified from running for the Moscow City Duma because officials used dubious pretexts to invalidate many of the signatures she submitted. This time, she has taken extraordinary measures to get past this obstacle to run for the national legislature.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a state commission on historical education, to be headed by controversial former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky. Many historians fear the new body marks a shortsighted intrusion of ideology into the study of history.
Sergei Kovalyov, who died in Moscow on August 9 at the age of 91, was one of the last surviving members of the generation of Soviet human-rights pioneers whose selfless activism permanently placed human rights on the global political agenda.
The ongoing crackdown in Russia has targeted opposition activists, independent journalists, prominent civil-society organizations, lawyers, artists, academics, and more. Is it the prelude to another Kremlin-managed election or a sign the country is being reshaped for the long term?
In recent days, several Russian political activists from Murmansk to Khabarovsk have been sentenced to compulsory psychiatric or other medical treatment. Human rights groups have been warning for years about the increased use of such Soviet-style practices as a tool against dissent.
Russia's Federal Security Service has issued a draft list of topics that citizens could be branded "foreign agents" for discussing. Analysts say the restrictions, if adopted, would mark a significant increase in government opacity that could threaten society and the government itself.
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