Corey Flintoff

Most of Russia's opposition has been greatly weakened or eliminated. As Russians elect a new parliament, it's expected to be a rubber-stamp body that follows the wishes of President Vladimir Putin.

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.

What's behind Russia's apparent hacking into the Democratic National Committee — and what could it gain by meddling in the U.S. election? "It's all about Hillary Clinton," says a Russian journalist.

Russia is racing to build a bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed in 2014. The strategically vital project is beset by charges of near-slave labor for workers and engineering concerns.

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.

Individual sports federations will decide whether each Russian athlete can compete in the Olympics, stopping short of banning the entire Russian delegation from competing due to a doping scandal.

The possibility of the entire Russian team being banned from next month's Rio Olympics increased Thursday. A court of arbitration upheld a specific ban on Russian track and field athletes attending the games, after allegations of the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs.

The international track and field body, the IAAF, has upheld the ban on Russian athletes, ruling they should be barred from the Rio Olympics because of far-reaching doping conspiracy.

European soccer officials say they will kick Russia out of the European Championship if there is any repeat of the violence involving Russian fans during the rest of the competition, currently underway in France.

Olympic officials are investigating allegations that Russia ran a state-sponsored doping operation at the 2014 Sochi games and are threatening to ban Russia from the Olympics in Rio.