Corey Flintoff

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.

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.

Some 100,000 Lithuanians live in the U.K. — a huge percentage of the tiny EU nation. We hear from one young Lithuanian, back in Vilnius for the summer, whose future is now in question after Brexit.

The leaders of the international body that regulates track-and-field is to decide on Friday whether Russian athletes will be allowed in the Rio Olympics. This comes in the middle of a doping scandal.

European soccer officials say they will kick Russia out of the European Championship if there is any repeat of the violence involving Russian fans during the rest of the competition, currently underway in France.

New U.S. bases are located on Cold War relics — areas that once belonged to Warsaw Pact forces. The U.S. is trying to reassure the Russians that the defense systems are not a threat.

The Russian protest group skewers Russia's prosecutor-general, Yuri Chaika, who's accused of corruption. The video stars one of two Pussy Riot members jailed in 2012 for "hooliganism."

Alexander III's remains have been exhumed for DNA tests to confirm the identities of two grandchildren. Historians say the Russian Orthodox Church wants to reaffirm its ties to the imperial family.

French President Francois Hollande meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. The visit is part of Hollande's efforts to create a more effective global coalition to fight ISIS.