Culture & Customs

Russian playwright Alexei Zhitkovsky has been detained for suspicion of engaging in "extremism."

The Russian government has begun instituting martial law and evacuating residents in its newly-"annexed" Ukrainian territories.

"I'm a fool. I didn't just cross the line, I erased it unintentionally... I think about every child, every mother, and every family. And I also think and suffer about every child on the other side, I dream that there would be no deaths, that children would not die. Believe me, the tear of every baby is my pain, my nightmare. I don't wish death on anyone, anyone."

– Anton Krasovsky, head of the Russian-language directorate of RT Russia

The Russian State Duma has announced that parents of three or more children can have their draft deferred.

The governor of the Moscow Region has vowed social support for those mobilized in his constituency and their families.

A plane was turned around when it was discovered that the co-pilot had been drafted.

The Russian military has assured local governments that they don't need to worry about canceling New Years' festivities because of the mobilization and conflict in Ukraine.

Our correspondent was offered a business trip to Odesa, Ukraine. He took it and brought this back.

Conviction of a journalist, regional dissent, and voices raised against the war.

When circumstances force you to leave the country, what do you do with your beloved pets?

A mother in a remote village grapples with past, present, and future losses to war.

We are all daily shaken and unsettled by the fire hose of bad news from Russia and Ukraine, and we all would love “something good, loving, and light from Russia to counterbalance the darkness, the senseless brutality, and the horrors perpetrated by Russian hands in Ukraine.”