15–17 March – Sergey Lavrov has announced that Russia will expel diplomats from the United Kingdom because of the expulsion of 23 Russian envoys due to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal.[1] The Russian foreign ministry is to expel 23 British diplomats amid tensions over the nerve agent attack in the United Kingdom.[2]
5 May – Thousand Protest rally in 97 cities including Moscow and St Petersburg, against Vladimir Putin for winning a fourth term in the Russian President Election.[6]
19 June – the Russian State Duma adopted a bill that made education in all languages but Russian optional, overruling previous laws by ethnic autonomies, and reducing instruction in minority languages to only two hours a week.[10][11][12] This bill has been likened by some commentators, such as in Foreign Affairs, to a policy of Russification.[10]
1 July – Several thousand people protested across Russia against a hugely unpopular government decision to hike the pension age that has led to a record slump in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings. No protests were held in World Cup host cities due to a regulation banning protest in the cities for the duration of the tournament.[13][14][15][16]
Russia knocks out Spain from the World Cup after winning a penalty shootout.[17]
11 September - Pussy Riot's manager Pyotr Verzilov mysteriously fell critically ill after a court hearing in Moscow. This was the same day that he was slated to have received vital information from 'foreign services' about the death of several journalists reporting on the Wagner Battalion's actions in the Central African Republic.[21]
11 September - Then Russian Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov announced an expansion on 'extremist' materials, including the addition of 4,507 books, videos, websites, social media pages, and musical compositions. This was recorded to be a seismic, 200 item increase from the prior year.[21]
26 October - Marking the first of approximately 36 public, Hip-Hop concerts, a three-month period of cancelled performances would begin.[22] Dmitry Kuznetsov, or Husky, had his concert in Togliatti cancelled following a letter from the Prosecutor's office rejecting some of the lyrics of songs that were to be performed that evening due to the presence of 'cannibalism.'[23]