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. And, once again, they are meeting intense opposition from those who say the law would be a Western cultural imposition that would undermine the traditional Russian family.
The sister of a convicted Belarusian murderer has told Current Time of her heartbreak after the country's Supreme Court upheld Viktar Paulau's death sentence for the killing of two elderly women. Paulau is one of three men sentenced to death this year in Belarus, which is the only European country still using capital punishment.
Ten years ago, a little-known Russian lawyer working for a Western financial firm died in custody in Moscow. Sergei Magnitsky's name is now enshrined in human rights laws in the United States and around the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin is still fuming.
The head of a prison in the Russian region of Karelia denied charges that staff had abused inmates -- until a video surfaced this month showing a brutal beating. Several prisoners say one of the attackers seen in the footage is the prison chief himself.
Leonid was born in a small town in Russia's Far East, where his mother beat him for being gay. When he finished school, he left home and met Aleksandr, with whom he now campaigns for LGBT rights.
Kazakh authorities have detained five prison officials and dismissed seven others after videos posted online showed guards apparently torturing inmates. An investigation has been launched into the incidents at the Zarechny prison near Almaty.
The daughter of Natalya Estemirova, the Russian rights activist who who was abducted and killed 10 years ago, said she blames President Vladimir Putin, the leader of Chechnya, “and the whole system that they have built” for her mother’s death.
A murder case against three sisters who killed their abusive father in Moscow has sparked a nationwide debate over Russia's treatment of domestic violence.
When people are accused of misdeeds in Chechnya, some relatives publicly denounce their own kin in an apparent bid to save themselves from retribution.
A bit of vandalism at the administrative border between two southern Russian republics prompts Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov to threaten violence over perceived insults.
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