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.

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.

Russians will go to the polls on Sunday to elect their lower house of parliament, the Duma. Accusations of blatant vote-rigging and fraud during the last vote in 2011 brought tens of thousands of protestors into the streets. The voting process on Sunday is expected to be cleaner, but analysts say President Vladimir Putin's ruling party has already made sure there won't be any real opposition.

Like other European Union countries, Lithuania has agreed to take in its quota from refugees from war torn countries. Many residents say they consider it a duty to accept refugees. But some potential migrants have balked at moving to Lithuania. They fear being isolated in a country they've never even heard of.

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.