Corey Flintoff

Russian performers who have criticized the country's role in Ukraine have been denounced on TV programs and had concert dates abruptly canceled.

Western sanctions are biting, oil prices are down sharply, and the Russian currency is tanking. The government now expects the economy to shrink in 2015.

A rooster crowing in the dead of night? A sinister ice-cream truck playing a creepy tune as it trundles through the streets of Moscow? No, it's the musical automaton clock at the Puppet Theater.

Nearly 30 percent of Russian children with disabilities end up in state orphanages, where they can suffer neglect and abuse at understaffed facilities, according to a human rights group.

Separatists in eastern Ukraine hold their own elections Sunday as part of an effort to create an independent state. Meanwhile, fighting for control of Donetsk's airport continues, despite a ceasefire.

Russia's parliament, the Duma, approved a bill on Friday that would limit foreign ownership of Russian media to less than 20 percent.

Russia's ban on imported foods hasn't stopped its trendiest restaurants from sourcing top-quality ingredients like Italian cheese and Norwegian fish. How? Just slap on a "made in Belarus" label.

It could be the next big spy movie: an Estonian intelligence agent nabbed by Russia on spy charges. Russia says he was spying on them; Estonia says he was kidnapped in a cross-border raid.

Ukraine and the West insist that the Russian army has been fighting in eastern Ukraine, a charge Russia denies. But reports from Russia now acknowledge that Russian soldiers are part of the battle.

There's some confusion in Ukraine, as conflicting reports surface about Moscow and Kiev's conversations on ways to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Obama is in Estonia, ahead of this week's NATO meeting.