Andrei Klimov, who has already served long sentences for his opposition to Lukashenko’s regime, was charged with insulting the President and calls to seize power supposedly present in an article posted on the Internet

The Russian Supreme Court has upheld the Prosecutor’s appeal against a lower court ruling which found - in accordance with Russian law - that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev should be tried according to where the alleged offences took place, not thousands of miles away

Novosibirsk physicists demand an apology from the Russian FSB and compensation for the latter’s attempt to charge them with disclosing State secrets

After having been told to lower the number of estimated participants, Andrei Napetov was detained supposedly for the number being three times higher. "Too many people" came to remember the murdered journalist - ?

Trepashkin, not only widely believed to be a political prisoner, but by Russian law liable for release on medical grounds, has asked the Secretary General to intercede and to put the question of politically-motivated persecution in Russia on the agenda for the next UN session this month

Today begins three days of remembrance for the children and other victims of Beslan

For those familiar with the darker pages of Soviet history, recent developments in Russia are especially disturbing. Two days before what should have been Anna Politkovskaya’s 49th birthday, the Russian Prosecutor General suggested, without providing any substantiation, a foreign link in the journalist’s murder.

Novaya Gazeta does not agree with Chaika’s allegations of foreign organization of the crime which the latter claimed was part of a conspiracy aimed at discrediting President Putin and destabilizing the situation in Russian before the elections

The FSB has terminated their latest Novosibirsk spying investigation. How one would like to believe it could be their last …

On Wednesday 22 August the Belarusian police broke up … a theatre performance

A court in Brest has imprisoned the Belarusian youth leader Pavel Severinets for 15 days. He was charged with “repeated infringement of procedure for holding mass events”.

According to the Russian FSB Public Liaison Centre, a court expert assessment has found that the two Novosibirsk brothers Oleg and Igor Minin, both physicists did divulge State secrets in their book.

Pavel Severinets, a recent political prisoner and one of those detained during a book presentation commented that in today’s Belarus the division between the [penal] “zone” and life at liberty is gradually being eroded

After a considerable period when Yury Budanov’s whereabouts were unknown, another appeal for early release was announced today and then turned down by a court in the Ulyanovsk region

Human rights defenders have called on the Russian Prosecutor General to “have a criminal investigation which is absolutely absurd for civilized societyterminated in view of the lack of any crime.”

In Belarus NOTHING has changed:On this 16th day of the month, remember those imprisoned and persecuted in Belarus. Light your candles with people in Belarus and tell your politicians and media that by ignoring human rights abuse we are abetting it

The Russian police are now using anti-extremist legislation against their critics

Valery Shchukin was seeking money to pay a fine imposed as moral compensation to the Vitebsk District Electoral Commission which the activist had accused of vote rigging.

The European Court of Human Rights on 26 July 2007 has found Russia guilty of mass killing in Chechnya, in the case of Musayev and others v. Russia.

The law and its extremely vague definition of different types of “extremism” have aroused serious and well-founded concern among human rights and journalist organizations that the law could be abused