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 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.

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.

One Siberian city is tackling the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis with a health program affectionately named for an earlier Russian innovation. In the modern Sputnik program, teams of nurses travel around the sprawling city of Tomsk, finding and treating the TB patients who are the hardest to reach.

Russia has struggled for decades to control deadly forms of tuberculosis among inmates. A clinic inside a Siberian prison is finally having some success against the disease by teaching inmates to care for themselves — and their families.

The challenges include mild winter weather, high costs and residents who have lost their homes. But Russia says it will put on a great show when the 2014 Winter Olympics come to Sochi next February.