After failing dozens of times to pass a law criminalizing domestic violence because of resistance from socially conservative Orthodox Christian forces, Russian activists and their allies in the State Duma are mounting yet another try.

A 72-year-old woman in Belarus has racked up more than $16,000 in fines for taking part in decades of demonstrations and protests, many alone and holding the banned Belarusian first republic flag.

Russia's police and self-described "patriotic" groups have unleashed a campaign to shut down performances by rappers and experimental musicians, who, they claim, are bent on corrupting the country's youth.

Reports of Russian mercenaries taking part in the war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have dogged the conflict since its 2014 start. But how to distinguish between rumor and reality?

Decades after the end of the Cold War, experts are still debating whether the Soviet Union actually stored live nuclear warheads in three top-secret bunkers in Czechoslovakia.