Corey Flintoff

It's the first systematic documentation of the practice in the republic of Dagestan. Reactions from a mufti, a priest and a rabbi have sparked a charged debate.

Russia is racing to build a bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed in 2014. The strategically vital project is beset by charges of near-slave labor for workers and engineering concerns.

Russia recently introduced a new warship in the Black Sea, an area of heightened tension since Russia's seizure of Crimea two years ago. NPR's Corey Flintoff was invited on board.

The poster at a Moscow bus stop read: "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although Obama kills a lot of people. Don't smoke! Don't be like Obama!" No one has claimed responsibility for it.

The Russian protest group skewers Russia's prosecutor-general, Yuri Chaika, who's accused of corruption. The video stars one of two Pussy Riot members jailed in 2012 for "hooliganism."

Kazakhstan lost its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing, but a number of Kazakhs see this as an opportunity, not a loss.

Russia's seizure of Crimea has been widely criticized. But what if Crimea was given away illegally to Ukraine back in 1954? Russian lawmakers are hard at work on their own version of history.

The eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk has been under siege and subject to artillery and rocket attacks for months — residents are living in stressful conditions and the separatist militia is jumpy.

A new legal measure will place a host of restrictions on Internet companies and users. One provision will require bloggers to register with the government if they get more than 3,000 hits a day.

Moscow is demanding that Kiev's new constitution give so much autonomy to its diverse regions — particularly the Russian-speaking ones — that they could even conduct their own foreign policy.