A Russian court in Oryol has sentenced Dennis Christensen to six years’ imprisonment for practising his faith

Three Russian judges have confirmed the four-year sentence passed on Oleksandr Shumkov, ignoring not only compelling evidence that he was abducted to Russia, but also at least two basic legal principle

Vladimir Putin has stated that Russia will “do everything to defend” the rights of believers in Ukraine.  His words, coming almost five years after Moscow began  ‘defending’ the rights of Russians and Russian-believers in both Crimea and Donbas, felt more like a threat than a promise.

A Russian court has ordered a check to be carried out into Pavlo Hryb’s allegations of torture after viewing a video showing injuries which the 20-year-old Ukrainian student says were caused by having his hands bound for a long time in fishing line.

The sudden firing on 31 January of Zurab Alasania, CEO for Ukraine’s Public Broadcaster just two months before the presidential elections has elicited alarming headlines about censorship and attempts at political influence

The FSB in Russian-occupied Crimea are not just ignoring the fact that Edem Bekirov, a 57-year-old amputee with grave medical problems could not have committed the actions he is accused of.  They are also refusing to consider Bekirov’s alibi which debunks the testimony of the FSB’s anonymous ‘secret witness’

While Russia erects memorials to mercenaries and imprisons Russians only if they fight for Ukraine in Donbas, a number of EU countries are prosecuting citizens who fight for the Russian-backed militants on terrorist charges.

The mother of slain rights activist and lawyer Iryna Nozdrovska has publicly accused a Ukrainian MP of being behind the murder of her daughter.  The allegations are very serious, and need to be checked, but they have yet again highlighted doubts that this horrific murder really has been solved

Earlier reports that the European Court of Human Rights had restored the ‘priority status’ assigned to the case of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko were, as suspected, premature.  One mistake was rectified, yet the Court is still refusing to consider the men’s applications until it has examined Ukraine’s intergovernmental case against Russia over Crimea. 

Earlier reports that the European Court of Human Rights had restored the ‘priority status’ assigned to the case of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko were, as suspected, premature.  One mistake was rectified, yet the Court is still refusing to consider the men’s applications until it has examined Ukraine’s intergovernmental case against Russia over Crimea. 

Earlier reports that the European Court of Human Rights had restored the ‘priority status’ assigned to the case of Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko were, as suspected, premature.  One mistake was rectified, yet the Court is still refusing to consider the men’s applications until it has examined Ukraine’s intergovernmental case against Russia over Crimea. 

Russia has made it “a thousand times more difficult to write freely” in occupied Crimea than in its own country, according to one Russian journalist who warns that the situation is likely to deteriorate still further after a new dangerous legislative initiative

Russia has made it “a thousand times more difficult to write freely” in occupied Crimea than in its own country, according to one Russian journalist who warns that the situation is likely to deteriorate still further after a new dangerous legislative initiative

Although Yuri Dmitriev and Sergei Koltyrin are purportedly facing ‘non-political’ charges, it was no accident that, after Koltyrin’s arrest, a public discussion on the subject both men were involved in, was cancelled. Documenting the crimes and the perpetrators of Stalin’s Terror has become dangerous in Putin’s Russia .

It is indicative of the questionable nature of all such prosecutions that Russian-controlled reports of this sentence used identical video footage to that shown in reporting another alleged arrest of a ‘battalion member’ on that very same day.

It is indicative of the questionable nature of all such prosecutions that Russian-controlled reports of this sentence used identical video footage to that shown in reporting another alleged arrest of a ‘battalion member’ on that very same day.

The Lviv Regional Council had imposed a “moratorium on the public use of Russian-language cultural products throughout the Lviv Oblast until the full cessation of the occupation of Ukraine’s territory”.

The Lviv Regional Council had imposed a “moratorium on the public use of Russian-language cultural products throughout the Lviv Oblast until the full cessation of the occupation of Ukraine’s territory”.

PACE has called on Russia to release all 24 Ukrainian servicemen seized on 25 November 2018, and has insisted that their treatment must be in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, one of which regulates treatment of prisoners of war. 

PACE has called on Russia to release all 24 Ukrainian servicemen seized on 25 November 2018, and has insisted that their treatment must be in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, one of which regulates treatment of prisoners of war.