The verdict is due on 22 July in what a huge number of prominent Russians have called one of the grubbiest political trials in the country

There is bemused indignation among relatives of the Kremlin’s many Ukrainian political prisoners at police reports that two Russians working for the FSB and believed to have been planning to commit grave crimes in Ukraine have merely been deported from the country

Russia’s cynical rerun of its trial of world-renowned historian of the Soviet Terror, Yuri Dmitriev, is coming to an end with the prosecutor on 7 July demanding a 15-year sentence in a maximum security prison

Not only is a memorial complex of national and international importance in private hands, but the main financial player is a Russian oligarch seen as close to the Kremlin

With around 90 Ukrainian political prisoners illegally imprisoned in occupied Crimea and Russia, many for several years, now is surely the perfect time to show them that they are not forgotten

It is impossible to overstate the vital role that Crimean Tatars played in upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity on 26 February 2014, and in preventing Russia from achieving a coup without the open use of soldiers

Delegates from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have cited supposedly ‘positive moves’ from Russia as their excuse for removing sanctions, an excuse dismissed by both Ukrainian and Russian human rights groups t

Failure to defend the huge number of Crimean Tatar political prisoners is tantamount to betrayal, as a major factor in Russia’s persecution has been Crimean Tatars’ unwavering identification with Ukraine, and the role many have played in highlighting rights violations

Rosfinmonitoring, a body involved in Russia’s systematic persecution of Ukrainians from occupied Crimea and Russians for their religious or political views appears to be working in cooperation with the Council of Europe http://fedsfm.ru/ )

By changing its maps, whether in Russia alone, or everywhere, in order to retain Russian business, Apple is collaborating with an aggressor state which has brought grave human rights violations and untold suffering to occupied Crimea

Oleg Sentsov drew a standing ovation from members of the European Parliament on 26 November with a speech in which he warned Europe to distrust Russian President Vladimir Putin and stressed the need to keep fighting for the release of about 100 Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners whom Russia is illegally imprisoning

200 prominent Russians have come out in defence of Russian historian of the Soviet Terror, Yuri Dmitriev, and the child whose life the FSB is destroying for the sake of a grubby and politically-motivated trial

The Memorial Human Rights Centre traditionally marks the Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression on 30 October by publishing updated lists of political prisoners (see below for our updated list)

The case of Ruslan Zeytullaev, one of the ‘oldest’ of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners, stands out for the relentless cynicism with which the Russian FSB obtained the huge sentence they needed for their records and, probably, bonuses or promotion

Although Oleksandr Shumkov’s four-year sentence is not as monstrously long as those imposed on many Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners,  it is certainly shocking, given that the young Ukrainian serviceman was abducted from Ukraine to face surreal charges of involvement in a legal organization in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Balukh has finally been able to publicly reveal details about the torture and ill-treatment he was subjected to while in Russian captivity for the Ukrainian flag he had refused to remove from his home and his open opposition to Russian occupation

One of the men who did not step off the plane from Moscow on 7 September was 36-year-old Valentin Vyhivsky, whom Russia has held in total isolation for five years after abducting him from Crimea and brutally torturing him

Two of the Crimean Solidarity activists whom Russia arrested on 27 March and quickly moved out of occupied Crimea have been brought back to Simferopol, and are being held in conditions that amount to torture

The oldest of the Kremlin’s Ukrainian political prisoners is now 62 and will be 70 before he is released if Russia has its way.  Viktor Shur has been imprisoned since December 2014, after being held without access to a lawyer or his family until he had ‘confessed’ to spying charges

For the 24 Ukrainian POWs who spent nine long months imprisoned in Moscow, the support they received from Konstantin Kotov was of enormous importance. On their release, the men learned that Kotov himself has now been imprisoned and their response was immediate