Claire Bigg covers Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Soviet world, with a focus on human rights, civil society, and social issues.
High energy prices have filled government coffers. But this has yet to trickle down to real improvements in many ordinary citizens' lives. As the presidential election approaches, many voters are not thinking about politics, but survival. Is the Kremlin listening?
North Ossetia's Voice of Beslan believes federal forces are to blame for the deadly violence that ended a three-day school siege with 330 men, women, and children dead. Prosecutors, however, have countered the group's claims with accusations of their own: extremism.
The appointment of nationalist politician Dmitry Rogozin as Russia's representative to NATO, coming at a time of strained ties between Moscow and the Western military alliance, has been cautiously welcomed by NATO officials.
Heroin has hit Russia hard since the Soviet collapse, and the future is bleak for most of the country's estimated 5 million drug addicts. Official negligence and social stigma mean hard drugs continue to kill tens of thousands of Russians every year.
Just days ahead of the OSCE change of leadership, Moscow got stingy. Now, with a Russian presidential election approaching and Kosovo poised to declare independence from Serbia, mutual tensions are only likely to increase.
The European Union has lifted border controls in nine of its newest members. But for post-Soviet neighbors just to the east, the system may feel like a new Iron Curtain.
Russian presidential hopefuls are actively registering their candidacies ahead of a looming deadline. Only the most prominent candidates are having much luck.
In mid-November, members and supporters of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), one of the world's best-known rights watchdogs, converged on the Finnish capital to mark the group's 25th anniversary.
Coal production is a growing industry in Ukraine, but safety standards are steadily weakening. The mounting death toll in a weekend coal mine blast in eastern Ukraine has made it the worst mining catastrophe in the country's post-Soviet history.
Germany's state-owned airline Lufthansa is fighting what it says are illegal fees from Russia, as Moscow tries to push the carrier to open a hub in Siberia. Russia says the dispute is purely economic, but EU officials see political motives and further evidence of cooling ties.
From separatist conflicts to economic sanctions, Russian pressure on Georgia is hard to deny. President Mikheil Saakashvili says his violent crackdown on opposition protesters was in response to Kremlin meddling. But is Tbilisi overplaying the Russia card?
Nearly a century after Lenin led the overthrow of the Russian regime and ushered in the Soviet age, the events of 1917 have lost much of their luster. Instead, the Kremlin is distancing itself from the chaos of the past to boost its image as the one and only guarantor of Russia's present stability.
Georgia's highly eventful week has not gone unnoticed by its fellow post-Soviet neighbors. Some fear the president's response to the protests will set a bad example for other, less democratic leaders.
As Russia prepares to celebrate People's Unity Day, foreigners and ethnic minorities are bracing for the threat of violence.
Laika, a mongrel plucked from the streets of Moscow, died just hours after becoming the first being to reach orbit on November 3, 1957. But 50 years on, her sacrifice remains a victory for mankind.
October 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The story is a familiar one in the postcommunist world.
October 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In a televised meeting in early October, Russian President Vladimir Putin received the head of the country's Supreme Court, Vyacheslav Lebedev, in his Kremlin office.
For nine days, police tortured Aleksei Mikheyev for a nonexistent crime. While perhaps common, what happened next was not: he took his case to the European Court of Human rights -- and won.
October 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Pro-Western parties that together won a narrow majority in last month's Ukrainian parliamentary elections have struck a tentative deal on forming the next government.
CIS, CSTO, GUAM. The dizzying assortment of regional alliances -- together with their perplexing acronyms -- is one of the legacies of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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