Aleksandr Valiyev is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Siberia Desk.
Russia's state aid agency is urging students studying abroad to return home, citing growing anti-Russian sentiment in Europe. Russian students in England say such concerns are nonsense.
For a year and a half, 17 people have been facing trial in the Russian town of Kopeisk over what the authorities say was a prison uprising and defendants say was a desperate protest against torture and abuse.
Desperately in need of money, Vyacheslav Abdullin thought he had the answer when he found work building the Kerch Strait Bridge, a top-priority project for Moscow to link Russia with the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea. But after just one month on the job, Abdullin left -- penniless, fed up with what he said were inhuman working conditions, and furious at his employers' broken promises -- to walk the 600 kilometers back to his wife and children.
As Russia's economic crisis continues to drive up food prices, middle-class Russians are suddenly confronting hard choices at the supermarket. RFE/RL talks to residents in St. Petersburg, Samara, and other Russian cities about their dwindling mealtime options.
