Russia's Foreign Ministry said on March 12 it has banned 347 citizens of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, including ministers, lawmakers, public figures, and journalists, from entering Russia over the three Baltic nations' "hostile policies toward Russia."
Russia's ambassador to Chisinau says Moscow will not reverse its move to open six polling stations in separatist Transdniester for presidential elections in Russia this week despite an official protest over the move by Moldova.
As the year draws to a close, Russia’s motley landscape of civil rights defenders, election monitors, environmental campaigners, anti-war activists and others is more beleaguered than ever before. Confronted with the increasingly oppressive machinery of the Russian state, scores of activists and the organizations to which they belong have gone into survival mode, with many forced into exile abroad, where they strive to continue their work. The first year of Russia’s invasion saw an explosion of new activist organizations and civic campaigns, from the Feminist Anti-War Resistance movement and the emigre support network Kovcheg to myriad decolonial initiatives and projects created to help Russian men evade military service. For much of Russian civil society whether at home or abroad 2023 has been a year of continuous adaptation, developing new ways to persist despite the Kremlin’s relentless efforts to stamp them out completely. Down but not out Amid unprecedented polit