News Highlights

Six members of Russian punk rock collective Pussy Riot have signed an open letter insisting Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova not be billed as members.

Gay rights activists across the world have been holding a day of protests against the Russian government, just two days before the Winter Olympics begin in the southern resort of Sochi.

Two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was secure and private, were caught disparaging the European Union in a phone call that was apparently bugged, and U.S. officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation.

The St. Petersburg-based Freedom of Information Foundation has filed a complaint against the prosecutor office’s request that it register with the Justice Ministry as a “foreign agent.”

A prominent art expert was detained in Russia on accusations of misattributing a painting in a case that illuminates the murky complexities of Russia’s art market.

United Arab Emirates police are investigating the robbery of a jewelry store in Dubai in which Muslim Musayev, the brother of prominent Moscow attorney Murad Musayev, is a defendant, Izvestia daily writes on Wednesday.

Gay rights activists across the world are holding a day of protests against the Russian government, just two days before the Winter Olympics begin in the southern resort of Sochi.

A statue of the first leader of the Soviet secret police, who remains notorious for unleashing mass terror against opponents of the Bolshevik regime, may soon return to its place of pride in front of the former KGB headquarters.

More than 2,300 convicts have been released in Russia in accordance with economic crime amnesty passed in July 2013, according to a news release of business ombudsman’s office obtained by RAPSI.

An ill-conceived poll posted online for just 12 minutes is all it took to precipitate the latest turn of the screw on Russia’s constricted independent media scene.