They say predictions are difficult, especially about the future. A recent report on hate crime in Russia reveals that it's been "a contradictory year," and Russian analysts simply don't know what to expect in the coming year.

The SOVA Center's data shows a still-high level of...

By now, it seems that everyone has heard of the Russian female punk collective Pussy Riot. Yet the band's prosecution is but an episode in Russia's ongoing misuse of anti-extremism laws directed against dissenting voices. The government's approach to addressing hate crimes through the prism of...

Pussy Riot's Yekaterina Samutsevich is now free, but Moscow's city court upheld two-year sentences for bandmates Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. Samutsevich's newly appointed attorney successfully persuaded the appellate court that while she was present in the Christ the Savior Church she did not sing and dance on the...

President Putin says that the focus of this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is economics. The event -- which will bring together key global businesses and diplomats, including a delegation from the United States headed by Secretary Clinton -- is designed to showcase investment potential in Russia. The city...

September 1 is Knowledge Day in Russia, a big cultural holiday marking the beginning of the school year. Russian legislators prepared a special gift for the kids this year, introducing radical new ways to protect children and young adults from "detrimental information." Now, what this encompasses is not actually outlined...

The Russian Foreign Ministry continues to defend the court verdict against members of the punk band Pussy Riot. Last week, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Mariya Alyokhina, and Ekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to 2 years in prison for a 40-second performance in Russia's main Orthodox cathedral. The Ministry says that criticism of the...

The trial of Pussy Riot has concluded today as expected -- a "not guilty" verdict was not an option for the Kremlin-controlled court that happily engaged in a politically motivated circus in which canon law took precedence over the constitution.

The final verdict, which took almost three hours...