Corey Flintoff

Stalin ordered the Tatars on the Crimean Peninsula rounded up and sent to the deserts of Central Asia in 1944. Nearly half died. Today, an estimated 250,000 Tatars have returned and are organizing.

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.

On Sunday, Russian voters will choose members of the lower house of parliament. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the last such elections. They say they are too afraid to protest now.

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.

As the Supreme Court weighs the fate of President Obama's health care law, several European countries are also debating the future of their health care systems.

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.

Lithuania fears it could be overrun by Russian forces in a matter of hours. The NATO member state is training thousands of young people to resist a Russian incursion until help can arrive.