I build most on my Friday news recap from mainstream media sources, in and out of Russia. But the Internet has opened news-gathering and opinion-offering to a wide range of other voices. Here are some interesting ones that I have discovered recently. This is not an endorsement, but merely an acknowledgement that reporting on Russia--and indeed any topic--now comes in many forms.

"La Russophobe" wears its opposition to President Vladimir Putin pretty openly, complete with a countdown counter to the end of his term. There are lots of links to other opposition blogs on the right side of the page.

"Scraps of Moscow" has been chronicling the changes in Russia since 2004. It, too features a Putin countdown counter, but it is somewhat more moderate in its viewpoint. It also casts a broader net across more of the countries and regions of the former Soviet Union.

Another blog with a broad view to politics in the former Soviet Union is "Sean's Russia Blog". He also had some interesting comments recently on the profusion of Russian billionaires on Forbes magazine's list of the world's wealthiest people.

Vilhelm Konnander, a Swedish-based consultant on politics and security in Eastern Europe also actively tracks opposition politics. His blog also features plenty of links to a wide variety of books and research reports on Russia.

Then there is "Johnson's Russia List", which is supported by the World Security Institute, a Washington, D.C. think-tank. "Johnson's Russia List" is something of a bibliography of links to other pieces, mostly analyses of Russia's politics and its relations with the West.

Also in the middle of the road is Regnum, a Russian federal news agency covering news from Russia and neighboring countries. You can read the stories in English, or follow the links back to what I am presuming was the original Russian version of the story. The best thing about Regnum is that it organizes information by region, so you can read only about Russia, Ukraine or Kazakhstan for example.

Joining Regnum is "Russia Profile", an English-language Web site, blog and magazine on politics, economics, society and culture. It is published by Independent Media, the same company that puts out The Moscow Times, The St. Petersburg Times and the business newspaper Vedomosti. It did an interesting series of articles on charity in Russia over the course of several days this past January, including "Moscow’s Orthodox Community Reaches Out to Those in Need". You can find links to them at the top of this page.