Claire Bigg covers Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Soviet world, with a focus on human rights, civil society, and social issues.
A large portion of Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 10 state-of-the-nation address was dedicated to Russia's growing demographic crisis, which he branded Russia's "most serious problem." Putin noted that Russia's population is falling by an average of 700,000 people every year and offered women financial incentives to have more babies. But are such words enough to encourage Russian families to produce more offspring?
A three-day conference on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia opened today in Moscow. Among the topics discussed today were the rising numbers of children orphaned or abandoned because of the diseases. RFE/RL correspondent Claire Bigg reports from Russia's only clinic for abandoned children living with HIV, near the city of St Petersburg.
The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad has adopted a historic recommendation that would accept the Moscow patriarch as its head. If it receives final approval from its leaders, the resolution will end more than 80 years of bitter separation.
It has been one year since Uzbek government troops gunned down hundreds of unarmed protesters in the city of Andijon. But, the pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted today, no one has yet been held accountable for the crime. The organization is joining forces with other rights groups to urge the international community to do more to ensure justice for victims of the May 13, 2005, massacre.
President Vladimir Putin's state-of-the-nation address was expected to focus on foreign policy, but instead he delivered a plan for reversing Russia's drastic demographic decline, and pledged to boost defenses against global and local threats.
To mark the 150th anniversary of Freud's birth, RFE/RL looks at the rebirth of psychoanalysis in Russia. "Russians are definitely very inward-looking," psychoanalyst Viktoria Potapova says. "They have this capacity not to live in denial. When I talk about my cases to my foreign colleagues, they say with envy: 'What interesting, vibrant patients you have.'"
A report by the human rights watchdog Amnesty International says Russia needs to take comprehensive steps to stem an upsurge in violent racism.
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has voiced concern over the unimpeded circulation of extremist, racist, and pornographic material on the Internet.
Senior diplomats from the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia -- plus Germany are meeting in Moscow in the latest attempt to break the Iran nuclear impasse.
MOSCOW, April 17, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Some 1,500 protesters rallied in central Moscow on April 16 to protest the Kremlin’s clampdown on independent media, particularly television, and to call for greater media freedom.
Attacks on foreigners have become particularly common in St. Petersburg. The latest victim, a Senegalese student, was shot dead last week with a hunting rifle decorated with a Nazi swastika.
Kabardino-Balkaria Culture Minister Zaur Tutov was beaten in Moscow on April 1 in what he described as a racially motivated attack. The Tutov case is just one more example in a distressing litany of similar attacks in Russia. "Let this problem, the 'fascization' of the country, become mainstream," said activist Lyov Ponomaryov. "Let officials talk more about this. It is a serious problem."
A court verdict handing short prison terms to a group of teenagers accused of being involved in the killing of a Tajik girl has sparked public outrage. The father of the slain girl has joined members of the Tajik and Muslim communities and rights advocates in filing a letter of protest to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials.
Ivan, a smiley, outgoing 13-year-old boy, says his older brother gave him some alcohol about a year ago. Before social services sent him to the Kvartal treatment center last week, he was drinking about 1 1/2 liters of vodka every day.
WHO Director-General Jong Wook Lee presenting the 2006 TB report on March 22 in Geneva (epa) The World Health Organization (WHO) marked World Tuberculosis Day, held every year on March 24, by urging its member states to intensify efforts to fight tuberculosis (TB) in the WHO European region. Thanks to increased funding and attention, the TB epidemic in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Romania is receding. But WHO says the spread of multi-drug-resistant forms of TB, combined with high HIV-infection rates, are seriously hampering efforts to fight the disease in this region.
Russia on Monday lambasted the latest version of the White House's "National Security Strategy," published March 16. In this 49-page foreign-policy blueprint, Washington criticizes Russia's democracy record and warns that U.S.-Russian relations will depend directly on the Kremlin's policies both at home and abroad.
While Western leaders have openly expressed their distaste for authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently supported his regime, both politically and economically. But how far will Russia's support go?
The lower house of Russia's parliament on March 15 lashed out at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, blaming it for the death of late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and calling for its dissolution. What is behind Russian anger at Milosevic's death?
http://d20kg6w9p5l4dg.cloudfront.net/60A70D3F-D2BD-41AC-9BCE-930398411407.bmp --> http://d20kg6w9p5l4dg.cloudfront.net/60A70D3F-D2BD-41AC-9BCE-930398411407.bmp An oil pipeline in the Russian Far East (ITAR-TASS) Russia is awash in oil and gas revenues, with tens of billions of dollars in energy windfalls pouring into the state coffers every year. Yet, at least every fourth Russian lives below the poverty line -- and the wealth gap is steadily widening. This is fuelling growing calls for the government to put more of the oil money into the hands of the population. But many economists say this is not necessarily a good idea.
A 15-year-old Russian schoolgirl has filed a court action to demand that creationism feature in the school biology curriculum, alongside Darwin's evolutionary theory of the origins of life.
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