Russia’s efforts to cultivate clout in Africa’s Sahel have been a mixed bag of successes and setbacks. Across the continent, however, on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, Moscow is making another...

A web of contractors, suppliers, and others with links to Russian state giant Rosneft’s big Arctic oil project includes a billionaire associate of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and the father of President V...

By most accounts, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is shaping up to be one of the largest shifts on the battlefield in months, possibly in a year.

With the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church, officials unearthed the remains of a warrior prince whose 14th-century battlefield victory is a seminal moment in Russian history. Fragments are now b...

Ukraine’s foreign minister is urging allies to provide more air defenses after a Russian drone strike on Pavlohrad killed at least five people and injured dozens. RFE/RL correspondent Roman Pahulych a...

Iranians studying in Russia often work on projects with military applications, an analysis by Systema shows -- and upon return, some join entities linked to Iran’s armed forces. These ties are growing...

A scientific facility on a secluded island that is closed to the public is affiliated with an institute accused of developing biological weapons for the Russian military, RFE/RL’s Russian Service and ...

A bent old woman stood motionless Tuesday in a store on Sretenka Street, staring at a grimy metal cooking oil dispenser that towered over her.

Russia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the Yabloko party, the sole officially registered party to openly oppose Moscow's war on Ukraine, against its removal from the ballot for September par...

Russian authorities are bringing treason charges against people for taking photos of war graves, a key indicator of the extent of the country's war dead. An activist has told Current Time that the pho...

Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, has identified a Russian prison doctor whom dozens of Ukrainian former captives have accused of subjecting inmates to frequent physical a...

Poland, steeped in bad memories of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet invasion and decades of dominance from Moscow after World War II, is a firm backer of Ukraine’s defense against Russia. But a flare-up over thei...

If Trump follows through on his pledge to give Ukraine a license to manufacture the Patriot interceptor missiles, it will be a major boost for Zelensky and Ukraine’s air defense systems. Experts are s...

There’s no gasoline for ambulances in one region. In another, they’ve suspended garbage pickup because there’s no fuel for trucks. There’s a robust black market where you can pay someone to hold your ...

A veteran of Russia’s war against Ukraine sparked a stir with a viral video post, demanding a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and warning of a rebellion – before retracting the threat. The episo...

A star of the rave scene in post-Soviet St. Petersburg, Gavriil Frolov dropped out of sight, adopted a new name, and became a monk. Now, he’s at the center of a deal that handed a billion-dollar ice h...

Pulling up at a gas station with no fuel for sale, a Russian woman is aghast: “What’s going on in this country?” What’s going on is that in the fifth year of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine is fighti...

When he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many warned Vladimir Putin that the offensive he claimed was meant to bolster Russia’s security would instead put it in jeopardy. Now, in a...

Two suspects in a corruption scandal that has shaken Ukraine and cut close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of a prominent lawmaker as someone who could advance their interests and protect cash ...

What’s the latest brick in Russia’s effort to build its Great Internet Firewall? A proposal to create a government-run Virtual Private Network, co-opting a tool that has been widely embraced by Russia...

As Russia struggles to replace soldiers being killed in high numbers in the fifth year of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these is mounting evidence of the military returning men to the war despit...

Frederick Flott, who died in 2006, was a longtime State Department diplomat around the world, as well as a CIA agent who worked under diplomatic cover. For years, the KGB tried to recruit him. Did it ...

Over the past eight years, at least 20 foreigners have helped raise and educate two boys believed to be the sons of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his purported partner Alina Kabayeva, most of t...

Over the past eight years, at least 20 foreigners have helped raise and educate two boys believed to be the sons of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his purported partner Alina Kabayeva, most of t...

The patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church is a vocal backer of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, examined how the country’s dominant religious organization goe...

US officials have proposed that Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine lift sanctions on Belarusian potash to allow the transit of the agricultural product – a major source of hard currency revenue for Minsk ...

Poor turnout for an online election underscores the daunting challenges faced by the largely exiled Belarusian democratic opposition six years after a groundswell of popular protests raised hopes for ...

In Chechnya, defying authority or tradition can carry consequences beyond life. Activists say domestic violence victims, LGBT people, and political dissenters are increasingly denied Islamic burial ri...

A corruption scandal closes in on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff Andriy Yermak. How badly could it hurt Ukraine’s wartime president?

For years, President Vladimir Putin has used Russia’s Victory Day parade to show off its weapons, accentuate his dominance, and deliver narratives on World War II and the present. This year is differe...

Oil production cuts, plumes of smoke, altered plans for President Vladimir Putin: Ukraine’s strikes on oil facilities, military installations, and air defense systems are taking a toll on Moscow’s cap...

The Czech Republic demanded an explanation after Russia’s Defense Ministry published a list of companies it claimed are helping produce attack drones for Ukraine and bellicose former Russian President...

In its war on Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry is on the offensive in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. Internally, it’s plagued by corruption, political infighting, firings, and bi...

In a non-descript warehouse on the perimeters of a Munich-area airport, a joint venture is marrying Ukrainian expertise with German capital, building drones for Ukraine’s military – and eventually glo...

After a bitter winter, there’s been uptick in battlefield operations by both Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks. Ukraine says it defeated a major mechanized Russian assault last week – but it’s unclea...

Authorities have spent years testing tools, building apps, trying to restrict how Russian use the Internet. Widespread Internet outages, and widespread confusion over messaging apps, is testing Russia...

In November, Systema revealed that the Kremlin was obscuring Putin's location by using three nearly identical offices in different parts of Russia. Until March 18, however, the Kremlin had posted no f...

The US-Israeli war on Iran has yielded some clear benefits for Russia: more oil revenues; fewer US weapons for Kyiv; a distraction from the Ukraine peace talks. But it isn’t all good for Moscow.

The principals behind two Moscow-based animated film studios -- one an Iranian man, the other the son of a former Afghan diplomat -- appear to be involved shadowy business interests, and possibly espi...

The mysterious Persian-language transmission began about 12 hours after the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. It was jammed five days later. Is it a coded message for US agents in...

Across Turkmensahra, a poor and isolated region in northeastern Iran along the Caspian Sea and the border with Turkmenistan, war brings tight security, price hikes, and a mixture of hope and concern a...

On March 2-3, the Kremlin published videos showing him meeting with officials and indicated the footage was fresh. In fact, both meetings were recorded earlier, Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative...

An analysis of satellite images captured by Planet Labs suggests that six installations of systems designed to protect facilities against attacks from the air now ring a site where Russia may have dep...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned plea for more Western weapons and for "real security guarantees," calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "slave to war" who will th...

A fresh satellite image obtained by RFE/RL shows that the development of a military installation is proceeding apace at a former Soviet airfield in Belarus. The image shows what may be vehicles from a...