Aleksei Navalny and his allies had hoped "Smart Voting" could blunt, or thwart, the ruling United Russia party's bid for a Duma supermajority. That didn't happen, despite what the imprisoned opposition leader claimed was a big success for the strategy.
Tajikistan's national air carrier is on the brink of collapse. An RFE/RL investigation suggests the company's downfall has been orchestrated by its own top managers in an attempt to bolster the fortunes of the president's family.
Russia's Central Election Commission has broadcast a video it claims was recorded in a troll farm producing fake reports of election violations. The problem is that its participants were most likely paid actors, and critics say it is yet more evidence of the commission's lack of transparency.
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.
It’s been a messy and opaque election season in Russia, with the opposition largely barred from running and a crackdown on opponents showing no signs of abating. Here are five takeaways from the vote, and what it means for Russia going forward.
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.
Russian blogger and diver Yegor Lesnoi has been cleaning at least half a ton of tires from the bottom of Lake Baikal for several years now. He tells RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities how he became a volunteer, cleaning not only the legendary lake's bottom, but the shore as well.
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.
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Andrei Biryukov, a member of the regional election commission of Siberia's Kemerovo region, says he has discovered procedural violations in all 12 polling stations around the town of Guryevsk.
Budget-sector workers in Russia were pictured flocking to polling stations across the country as voting in nationwide legislative elections began.
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