Lyudmila Savitskaya is a correspondent for the North Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service.
The first administrative cases have been filed in Russia against individuals designated under the so-called "foreign agent" laws. People who have been targeted tell RFE/RL about the consequences of the designation, such as a treadmill of legal obligations and the constant threat of prosecution.
Authorities in the large Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk may declare a state of emergency to combat an unprecedented plague of ticks and the illnesses they transmit to humans. Reported tick bites are up fourfold so far this year, a boom experts attribute to a mild winter, an early spring, and a government preoccupied with COVID-19. Even worse, locals are reporting shortages of the medicine used to reduce the risk of tick-borne infections, and scientists are tracking a hybrid tick that could be an even more daunting foe.
Two prominent opposition activists have been held in pretrial detention in Pskov since January on drug charges supporters say are trumped up and politically motivated.
Twelve-year-old Pskov youngster Tasya Perchikova's request for assistance for her desperate and impoverished mother has brought the family more trouble than they could imagine.
Wolves have been a growing problem in remote parts of Russia's Pskov Oblast. Already this year, dozens of dogs have been killed, and villagers are afraid to leave their homes after dark.
