An ethnic Kazakh from China has been welcomed back to Kazakstan by his family at Almaty airport after 17 years of captivity in China…Sergei Sazanakov was hunting in Russia’s Khakassia region when an accident left him trapped in the snow overnight. He lost his lower legs to frostbite, and later had to fight for his children in court after his wife left him
In an ethnic Tatar village in Russia’s Omsk region, drinking water comes from the ice of a local lake, which is cut in winter, carried, and stored for year-round use. It’s a good business for those who do the hard work of collecting the ice, and locals claim the clean water contributes to their longevity
It’s a new era for Russian women, at least if they’re aspiring truckers, boat drivers, or pilots. Russia’s government has opened up several hundred professions that previously barred women under late-Soviet-era labor restrictions
The Tiny Russian Village That Lives In A Five-Story Building Almost the entire population of the tiny village of Karmadon has lived for decades in a five-story building
Across global cities big and small, the coronavirus pandemic has forced a shutdown of cultural life. But that’s changing in the Russian capital, where a mass vaccination program is in full swing
Sunday’s Super Bowl could have an unexpected audience of fans — in Russia. The Federation of American Football in Russia says the number of enthusiasts of the sport there runs in the tens of thousands and there are teams playing American-style football in almost every region of the country
Syava was once a thriving town of 10,000 people some 730 kilometers east of Moscow. But it’s dying. After the main factory went bankrupt, rail service stopped, the main hospital closed, and the streets are lined with abandoned houses
After Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to prison, there’s now speculation about where he will serve his time — with one prison-reform campaigner raising fears for his life. More broadly, with mass protests across Russia being brutally suppressed, other opposition leaders are also considering both how to prepare for the future — and how to ensure their own safety-
Russian security forces arrested more than 200 people outside a Moscow court on February 2, according to OVID-Info, while a hearing with opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was taking place inside. The court heard arguments on whether to convert Navalny’s suspended sentence to real prison time for a years-old conviction widely seen as politically motivated. People took to the streets across Russia on January 31 and January 23, demanding that Navalny be freed and protesting government-connected corruption
Russian police gave protesters electric shocks and beatings, grabbed bystanders off the streets, and detained a record number of people — more than 5,000 — during nationwide protests on January 31