Author: Steve Gutterman/RFE/RL

Gunmen entered a concert hall just outside Moscow on March 22 and opened fire, killing at least 139 people in the deadliest terror attack in Russia since the hostage crisis at a school in Beslan, in the North Caucasus, in September 2004. The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which came five...

In his first remarks following the assault on a concert hall outside Moscow on March 22, more than 18 hours after gunmen killed at least 139 people in the deadliest terror attack in Russia in 20 years, President Vladimir Putin made no mention of the extremist group Islamic State, which had already claimed responsibility. He...

For more than a decade, and even since his jailing over three years ago, Alexei Navalny, who Russian authorities say died in prison, had been a crucial driver of Kremlin policy – an uncompromising opponent whose vision for a different Russia has been a chief target of President Vladimir Putin’s ever-increasing efforts to quash protests,...

In his State of the Union speech, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has been a test for the ages” and suggested that the West had passed, at least for the time being. The test will continue – and it could get tougher. Speaking almost a year after Russian President Vladimir...

At the end of a bitter and bellicose speech in which he took aggressive aim at Kyiv and the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was recognizing the Moscow-backed separatist entities that control parts of eastern Ukraine as independent countries – and quickly signed a decree making it official. For years, and even in...