Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
The editor of the municipal newspaper in the Sakhalin Island town of Uglegorsk has been fired, publication suspended, and the paper's website taken offline. Journalists say the shutdown was retribution for the paper's critical reporting on the coal producer that dominates the remote region.
A prominent St. Petersburg legal-aid group that focuses on cases involving state secrets has shut down following months of intense persecution by the state. Its lawyers say that "the risks have become too great for many people."
Analysts say Moscow is looking for ways to maintain influence in Moldova without being overly involved.
The strong victory for the center-right party founded by President Maia Sandu in Moldova’s parliamentary elections has raised hopes that years of debilitating political gridlock may be coming to an end. But serious challenges from what citizens say is an entrenched kleptocracy remain.
A hastily assembled world "congress" of Chechens has met to unanimously "demand" that Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the region since 2007 despite numerous allegations of gross human rights violations, run for a fourth term as head of the Russian North Caucasus republic in September.
The move to list a small U.S. college running an active exchange program with St. Petersburg State University as an "undesirable" foreign organization has left Russians wondering what the government is thinking -- and worrying about what's next.
Citing "the importance of a free press and freedom of speech" in comments after a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden raised the issue of Moscow's designation of RFE/RL as a "foreign agent" media outlet.
A gay Moscow man has fled Russia and is facing the prospect of losing custody of his disabled 10-year-old adopted son in a Kafkaesque confrontation with the authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is notoriously tight-lipped about the lives and even the number of his children. But two women widely believed to be his eldest daughters made appearances at a St. Petersburg economic forum, leading to speculation they might be poised to play a more public role.
Sergei Mokhnatkin died one year ago of complications from injuries sustained while he was in the Russian prison system. Nonetheless, he is still on trial in Arkhangelsk, accused of "disrupting prison routine" with his demands for humane treatment.
The Russian authorities continue to pressure opposition figures in the run-up to parliamentary elections in September. In two prominent cases, the official reasons were events from months or even years ago, sending a chilling signal through the democratic opposition.
Organizers of a conference of independent Russian lawmakers have been sentenced after police broke up the event, claiming it violated new anti-COVID restrictions. The lawmakers deny they broke the rules, and say they were put in place at the last minute to stop the opposition from organizing.
Young people have grabbed most of the attention in Russia's pro-democracy protest movement. But a few resolute pensioners have joined their ranks. “I live by the principle: Do what you must and come what may,” one elderly activist said.
After the fatal school shooting in Tatarstan's capital on May 11, some Russian officials are arguing that the best way to avoid a repetition is by keeping closer tabs on young people and further strengthening the authoritarian government's "ideology."
Demographer Aleksei Raksha, who was fired from Russia's state statistics agency after disputing its coronavirus numbers, says officials in Russia's regions are just making up pandemic statistics "out of their heads."
Ahead of a verdict on controversial criminal vandalism charges. Russian teenager Olga Misik maintains her innocence -- and her unrepentant final speech in court has rippled through social media.
Colleagues of St. Petersburg lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who is under criminal investigation for purportedly revealing state secrets, have declared a "state of emergency." President Vladimir Putin's security forces "are trying to show us they can do anything they want without consequences," they warn.
President Vladimir Putin has declared the week between the May Day holiday and the Victory Day holiday to be a nonworking period, meaning many Russians will have a rest from May 1-10. Many social-media commentators welcomed the move, although some saw it mostly as a preelection populist gesture.
With dozens of detentions and arrests of people who participated in the April 21 demonstrations in support of Aleksei Navalny, and with his organizations likely to be tarred as "extremist," Russian authorities seem determined to quash the most effective opposition movement since Putin took power.
The Russian government's drive to have groups tied to imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny banned as "extremist" is spearheaded by Moscow's chief prosecutor, who himself was the subject of a Navalny investigation that alleged his family owned undeclared property worth millions of euros.
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!["We don't cooperate with [the Czech NGO]. We don't have any ties to it. But if we continue working in our previous way, it will create enormous risks for members of our team as well as for journalists and people who cite our information," a member of the group said.](https://gdb.rferl.org/b4463b6e-6bbe-4e4f-b95d-44e33fb08807_cx0_cy9_cw0_w100_r1.jpg)
!["We don't cooperate with [the Czech NGO]. We don't have any ties to it. But if we continue working in our previous way, it will create enormous risks for members of our team as well as for journalists and people who cite our information," a member of the group said.](https://gdb.rferl.org/b4463b6e-6bbe-4e4f-b95d-44e33fb08807_cx0_cy9_cw0_w66_r1.jpg)
