A Russian court has sentenced seven Ingush leaders, including two men in their late sixties and a woman, to terms of imprisonment from 7.5 to 9 years for organizing peaceful protests in 2019

Since the arrest of Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Nariman Dzhelyal, there has been a sharp escalation in mass detentions, and in toxic hate speech against Crimean Tatars in general

(UPDATE) A Russian-controlled ‘court’ in occupied Crimea has sentenced Crimean Solidarity Coordinator Mustafa Seidaliev to a further ten days’ imprisonment over a video dated 2012 and posted on a VKontakte page which he last looked at back in 2016

Dilyaver Memetov, one of the coordinators of the important civic initiative Crimean Solidarity, was jailed for 12 days on 27 November, after a Russian-controlled ‘court’ made essentially no pretence of considering the charges against him

A court in Russian-occupied Crimea has jailed 21 Crimean Tatars, including five civic journalists, for up to 14 days after they were detained on 23 November while trying to report on the release of lawyer Edem Semedlyaev , also imprisoned for his work

Among those seized on 23 November were ten women and four civic journalists, reporting on the release of lawyer Edem Semedlyaev for Crimean Solidarity

Even Russia's repressive legislation does not prohibit people from trying to attend open court hearings.  Unless they are Crimean Tatars and the hearing is on political prisoners, in which case they can now expect to be detained and, at very least, fined.

‘Judges’ in Russian-occupied Crimea spent 26 October imposing a huge number of fines for entirely fabricated ‘infringements’ by Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists, as well as by the lawyer who had arrived to represent them

A ‘court’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has imposed large fines on three mothers who separately stood in silent vigil, with placards in defence of their sons, all of whom are recognized political prisoners

The mothers of three Crimean Tatar political prisoners are facing administrative prosecution for silent single-person pickets in defence of their sons

A Russian-occupation ‘court’ has found Venera Mustafayeva guilty of infringing regulations during the pandemic over her solitary picket on the day that her prisoner of conscience son, Server Mustafafayev was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment

In the middle of a pandemic, Russia can find nothing better to do than try to intimidate Crimean Tatar activists by warning against ‘offences’ that not one of them has committed

On 9 March, police in Russian-occupied Crimea prevented Ukrainians from singing Ukraine’s national anthem near the monument to the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko on the 206th anniversary of his birth

While cheering that the Rivne Court of Appeal has agreed that 16-year-old Darya Kotsyuruba did not infringe the law by standing on Rivne’s Independence Square with a placard calling for the impeachment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it is disturbing that this absurd ‘case’ should have reached appeal level

Two young Rivne residents ended up at the police station facing administrative charges on 25 May over their peaceful protest with four placards, one of them calling for President Zelensky’s impeachment. The President has himself now intervened

On 8 April, Zarema Mamutova and her daughter-in-law Aliye, were detained in Bakhchysarai while the elderly lady stood with a placard reading: “My son is no terrorist.  Why 17 years?”.  This was the horrific sentence passed on her 43-year-old son Enver Mamutov, a recognized political prisoner, on 23 December. 

Ukraine’s ‘Communist Party# has announced that it is putting forward its leader Petro Symonenko as presidential candidate in the coming elections.  The announcement has aroused bemusement, since it comes over three years after a much publicized ruling banning this very same party.  

Activists for transgender rights were forced to disband a demonstration in Kyiv on November 18 after counterdemonstrators assaulted several protesters and attacked a Canadian journalist trying to cover the event.

In the first week after Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, a protester was seen holding a banner with the words: ‘Supporters of Putin!  Under Putin, you won’t speak Russian, you will be SILENT in Russian! Within months, such protests had become inconceivable

One of the main factions in the governing coalition is planning to table a bill on registering ‘foreign agents’ in Ukraine.  The move is purportedly aimed at protecting ‘national interests’, however human rights groups are unconvinced