Russia’s FSB are preventing imprisoned Ukrainian student Pavlo Hryb from receiving vital medication, despite being fully informed of the rare blood circulation disease which the young man suffers from and the grave risk to his life posed by lack of proper medical care

Russia’s Investigative Committee has initiated new and serious criminal proceedings against Yuri Dmitriev after its first trial of the world-renowned historian and head of the Karelia branch of Memorial failed abysmally

Valentin Vyhivsky has been in Russian captivity since September 2014 because he responded to an acquaintance’s plea for money, purportedly needed for a relative’s cancer treatment.  The timing and manner in which Vyhivsky simply vanished after arriving in occupied Simferopol suggest that he may have been the victim of an FSB set-up, one of many such Ukrainian victims since Russia’s invasion of Crimea

Even according to Russia’s repressive legislation, Dmitry Kalinychev’s solitary pickets are legal, however the Kremlin has clearly ordered a crackdown on any protest during the World Cup, together with the removal of down-and-outs and slaughter of hundreds of stray dogs

A Russian court in Novorossiysk has sentenced Ukrainian Mykola Dadey to 18 months’ imprisonment for supposedly ‘encouraging participation in an extremist organization’.  The charges are linked to Facebook posts from 2015 when Dadey was in Ukraine where the organization he was seeking to help – the nationalist Right Sector -  is entirely legal . 

Russia has prevented Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Ludmila Denisova from visiting two recognized political prisoners, first Oleg Sentsov, and then Mykola Karpyuk.  The excuse given in Sentsov’s case is particularly cynical and of major concern since the renowned Ukrainian filmmaker has now been on hunger strike for well over a month

A rare moment of justice from a Russian court has proved all too fleeting. On 14 June, Karelia’s High Court overturned the acquittal in April of world-renowned historian Yuri Dmitriev and sent the ‘case’ back for retrial.

There are countless reasons why the 2018 World Cup should not provide its host country Russia with an image success, but one is extremely urgent.  Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has now been on hunger strike for over a month and has made it clear he will not give up until all Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia and occupied Crimea are released . 

Russia’s Investigative Committee has completed its ‘investigation’ into surreal charges laid against 28-year-old Oleksandr Shumkov, who was almost certainly abducted to Russia and is now facing ’trial’ and a possible 6-year sentence for involvement in the perfectly legal Ukrainian organization Right Sector

The Moscow City Court has found Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko guilty of mystery ‘spying’ and sentenced him to twelve years in a maximum security prison

Russia’s political persecution of Ukrainians coincided with its invasion and annexation of Crimea, and has continued unabated. Oleg Sentsov’s indefinite hunger strike has renewed demands for his release, however he has vowed to continue until Russia release all political prisoners [LIST and DETAILS]

Oleksander Kolchenko, the already desperately thin Crimean civic activist imprisoned in the same Russian show trial as filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has declared a hunger strike, demanding that Russia free Sentsov

Russian Foreign Ministry and state-controlled media have begun pushing an alternative reality version of the gunning down in Kyiv of Arkady Babchenko, Russian journalist and outspoken critic of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin

Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, imprisoned in Russia since September 2016 is facing a 14-year sentence on mystery spying charges after a ‘trial’ heard before a closed court.

As concern mounts over Oleg Sentsov’s indefinite hunger strike, Russians have been detained for legal single-person pickets in his defence and French President Macron has been called upon to act as intermediary in securing Sentsov’s release.

The Belarusian Supreme Court has found Pavlo Sharoiko guilty of ‘spying’ and sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment. The level of secrecy about this case, and the fact that Sharoiko has only had a state-appointed lawyer make scepticism about his apparent confession to the charges seem warranted.

The Czech authorities have found no grounds for giving Vladimir Luzgin political asylum, and say that they cannot “get into a discussion about historical facts”.  No ‘discussion’ is, in fact, required, since 38-year-old Luzgin was prosecuted in Russia for reposting a text that quite correctly states that both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939.

Russia has sent Crimean Tatar Nedim Khalilov against his will to Uzbekistan after illegally taking him from his Crimean home and holding him in a ‘centre for foreigners’ in Russia for 18 months.  This cynical deportation of a 58-year-old who has no links with Uzbekistan can be viewed as reprisal for Khalilov’s attempt to bring legal proceedings against Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea

Ukrainian filmmaker and Kremlin hostage Oleg Sentsov has declared an indefinite hunger strike with his sole demand being the release of all the Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia. It seems he has been planning this move for the last month and a half and he told his lawyer: “If I die before or during the World Cup, there will be publicity that can help other political prisoners”.  

53 international and Russian human rights, media and Internet freedom organisations, strongly condemn the attempts by the Russian Federation to block the Internet messaging service Telegram.