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Alisa Ganieva talks about her award-winning story, Salam, Dalgat, which she wrote under a pseudonym when it first came out in Russia, suggesting she was a young Dagestani rebel, and the current young post-post Communist generation of writers she belongs to. The story is part of Squaring the Circle, a collection of New Russian writing.

Russia said today that it will support the United Nations envoy Kofi Annan's efforts to end the fighting in Syria. This could potentially be a break in the standoff over the violence in the country.

It’s incredibly dangerous to be a journalist in Russia – hundreds of reporters have been killed in just the last 15 years. Oleg Kashin knows that all too well, he’s a special correspondent for the Russian newspaper Kommersant and in 2010 he was viciously beaten into a coma by attackers outside his home. Kashin explains to Brooke the price of journalism in Russia and why he continues to pay it.

Oren Ambarchi - Salt

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia on Sunday, but Northeast-area Russians preferred another man for the job: Mikhail Prokhorov.

Vladamir Putin secured six more years as President of Russia after yesterday's presidential election. Putin, who served as president from 2000-2008, received more than 63 percent of the country's vote. Questions remain, however, about the fairness of yesterday's vote. The head of the major international election observer mission in Russia says there were "serious problems" in the vote, reports the AP.

Vladimir Putin scored a decisive victory in Russia's presidential election Sunday to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power for six more years. His eyes brimming with tears, he defiantly proclaimed to a sea of supporters that they had triumphed over opponents intent on "destroying Russia's statehood and usurping power."

Russians and Russian-Americans are casting their votes at two locations in New York City in an election Sunday that pits Russia's prime minister and former president against a slate of candidates, including the owner of the New Jersey Nets (soon to be the Brooklyn Nets).

Vladimir Putin has been called the accidental president. Putin, Russia's current prime minister, is in the midst of campaigning for his third presidential term, but his name was hardly known until 1999, when then-President Boris Yeltsin plucked the former KGB officer from obscurity and thrust him into the Russian spotlight. Russian voters will decide Putin's presidential fate at the polls this weekend, and a new book by journalist Masha Gessen exposes the secrets behind the meteoric rise of the man who has changed the course of Russian history. Gessen chronicles Putin's story through the story of modern Russia, exploring the leader's complicated relationship with the United States and with Russian business and media. 

There was a time when Vladimir Putin was so popular, Russians wrote pop songs praising him. It's not quite the same today. Steve Rosenberg filed this report for our partner the BBC.

Excerpted from "The Man Without a Face" by Masha Gessen

Encouraged by his former deputy’s meteoric rise, Sobchak decided to end his Paris exile and go back to Russia in the summer of 1999. He returned full of hope and even more full of ambition. As Sobchak was leaving Paris, Arkady Vaksberg, a forensics specialist turned investigative reporter and author with whom Sobchak had become friendly during his years in France, asked him whether he hoped to return to Paris as an ambassador. “Higher than that,” replied Sobchak. Vaksberg was sure the former mayor was aiming for the foreign minister’s seat: the rumor in Moscow’s political circles was that Sobchak would head up the Constitutional Court, the most important court in the country.

Former BBC Moscow correspondent Angus Roxburgh charts the fight for Russia’s future under Vladimir Putin. His book The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggles for Russia examines how the former KGB man changed from reformer to autocrat, how he sought the West’s respect but earned its fear, and how he cracked down on his rivals at home and developed a personality cult.

On today’s Backstory, we’ll look at the Nashi youth movement in Russia, which was started in 2005 and has close ties to the Kremlin. With thousands of members, the group rallies in favor of the government and harass the political opposition. Director Lise Birk Pedersen talks about her documentary “Putin’s Kiss,” which follows a young Nashi leader as she gradually becomes disenchanted by the movement—and the opposition journalists who risk their safety to criticize the Nashi. She's joined by Sasha de Vogel, program coordinator at Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought.

The uprising in Syria is the most serious threat the ruling Assad dynasty has faced since it first came to power more than 40 years ago. With the violence against civilians in Homs, the Syrian government is being criticized by much of the international community. The exception is Russia who has long been an ally of Syria in the Arab Middle East.

After more than 20 years of drilling through two miles of glacial ice Russian scientists have reached the surface of Antarctica's largest sub-glacial lake. The lake hasn't been touched by light in millions of years and may be home to cold-loving organisms that have been left to their own evolutionary devices for millennia. Joining us now is Richard Black, science correspondent for our partner the BBC.

Over the weekend, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have supported an Arab League peace plan for Syria, claiming the plan would have violated Syria’s sovereignty. On Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the veto during a speech in Sofia, Bulgaria, stating, "Faced with a neutered Security Council we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future."

The standoff between President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's opposition seems poised to spiral into a full-fledged civil war. In the wake of a failed intervention by the Arab League, protests have spread from Homs and Hama to the capital, Damascus. In a televised speech last week, al-Assad said "We will defeat this conspiracy without any doubt." There have also been reports of Russia supplying arms to the Syrian government. 

This week brought the end of the Iraq War and a Russia in turmoil after recent disputed elections. Also, the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucus was last night on Fox News. Joining The Takeaway for a look at this week's big stories are Jeff Yang, writer of the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal and bloger for WNYC's It's a Free Country, and Farai Chideya, journalist and blogger at Farai.com.

Last weekend, thousands gathered in Moscow to protest for new parliamentary elections after accusations of fraud and widespread vote falsification were made. On Monday, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov announced that he would challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the presidential election in the spring. And Wednesday, the speaker of Parliament—an ally of Putin’s—resigned. On today’s Backstory, Stephen Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy at Columbia University, talks about what this week’s events say about Russia’s political landscape.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes to return to the president's office in Russia, but he never really gave up any of the power that went with the office. Putin rules Russia with an authoritarian hand and has never been shy about raising it against his enemies, or those he perceives as enemies. William F. Browder knows that perhaps better than anyone.