More from: Life and Public

Renowned theater producer Yevgenia Berkovich and scriptwriter Svetlana Petreychuk face up to seven years in jail.

The population of the far northern Russian border municipality once counted almost 60,000. By January 2024, the number had dropped to below 30,000.

While soldiers from the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade in Sputnik fight and die on the battlefields in Ukraine, their wives in the far northern home base hardly have access to hot water, heating and waste treatment.

The value of the shares owned by the Norwegian Oil Fund has dwindled to less than 5 percent of their former level. But the Norwegians still own shares in 52 Russian companies, among them several leading tech and communications companies.

Mikhail Avdonin from Arkhangelsk in northern Russia was detained by FSB officers in September 2023. Investigators claim he sneaked into a military unit to set fire to military facilities on instructions from the Freedom of Russia Legion. His parents say that after Mikhail’s arrest the young man was beaten and charged with “attempted terrorist attack” and “preparation for treason”. The Barents Observer spoke with the young man's parents and also learned about possible provocation by the FSB.

Lyubov Cherepanova is member of the Murmansk regional Duma and former leader of the Pechenga municipality. She is one of several leading politicians from the north Russian region that is commissioned to the occupied Ukrainian town of Primorsk.

Following the announced closure of four border-crossing points in southern Finland, migrants are moving north to crossing points that remain open. Border police in northern Finland and neighbouring Norway is on high alert.

The 30 year old ship that used to shuttle along the coast of the Kola Peninsula with fish food for local sea farmers ended its life on a cliff near a Russian naval base.

According to Sergei Lavrov's men in Moscow, the adjustment of a Russian wreath at the local war monument in Kirkenes, northern Norway, is an "act of vandalism" and an expression of "russophobia."

In the center of Zaozersk now stands a monument shaped in steel by the letters Z, V and O, the symbols of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Amid growing tensions with Helsinki, Moscow now put an end to a deal supposed to support regional cooperation across borders.

The lawyer of the former Wagner warrior says the man was not planning a return to Russia. "He only wanted to visit the Norwegian-Russian border areas in connection with a documentary project."