It is three and a half years since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of food products ‘smuggled’ into Russia despite Moscow’s ban on such imports in retaliation for western sanctions. Despite widespread outrage over the move when tens of millions are living below the poverty line, the barbaric destruction has continued unabated. .

It is three weeks since Yevhen Panov’s family received any information about the recognized political prisoner’s whereabouts

Little is known about the arrest in Moscow of US citizen Paul Whelan. Enough, however, to see disturbing similarities with Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko in 2016

Ukrainian political prisoner Valentin Vyhivsky has been held in a Russian punishment cell for the last 10 months in appalling conditions and without any telephone contact with his family

This is just the latest grotesque twist to what has been called Russia’s “most monstrously falsified trial of Ukrainians”.  It comes at a time when concerns about Klykh’s mental health after the torture he endured are compounded by worries that he may be suffering from cancer.

A court in Nizhny Novgorod has sentenced Ihor Kiyashko to  eight years’ maximum security imprisonment for supposed ‘spying’ and military contraband, all allegedly for Ukraine’s Security Service.

A Russian court has rejected a suit brought against Alexander Bortnikov over his claim, as Head of Russia’s FSB [security service], that mass executions during Stalin’s Terror were “local excesses”.

A court in Moscow has sentenced 37-year-old Denis Bakholdin to three and a half years’ imprisonment for allegedly belonging to the legal Ukrainian organization Right Sector while in Ukraine.  The prosecution had claimed that Bakholdin had gone to Ukraine to take part in the war in Donbas “to harm the interests of the Russian Federation”.

At least one of the recent legislative initiatives, which could jail for expressing ‘open disrespect of the authorities’ on the Internet, has received public approval from Putin and been described as in response to ‘public demand’ by Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsperson

The doctor who has treated Pavlo Hryb since childhood warns that his condition is worsening and there is a real danger to his life in Russian captivity

Russia’s Pyervy Kanal has been caught using a Belarusian fake for a propaganda program aimed at proving that Euromaidan brought only hardship and suffering to Ukraine, and that Kyiv is trying to attribute its problems to “Russia’s mythical aggression”.

The Euromaidan protests that overthrew Viktor Yanukovych’s regime are known as Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity.  Except in Russia, whose leaders are still fuming at Ukrainians’ refusal to accept a Moscow-controlled puppet, and venting spleen by imprisoning Maidan activists

Lev Ponomaryov has been jailed for 25 days for reposting a message about a protest in support of young political prisoners whom Russia is claiming were members of ‘extremist groups’

In court, Oleksandr Shumkov noted that by bringing criminal charges based on the assertion that such activities “threatened Russia’s interests”, “the Russian Federation is acknowledging its presence on Ukrainian territory

46-year-old Amir Gilyazov has suffered from a debilitating form of muscular dystrophy since childhood, and by now cannot get from his bed to the wheelchair or eat without assistance. This did not stop the FSB from bursting into his home on 23 October and arresting him on charges almost certainly linked solely with a video about the release of a political prisoner posted seven years ago on YouTube

Russia has brought grotesque new criminal charges against Russian rights activist Sergei Mokhnatkin, just three days before the 64-year-old was due to be released after serving the latest of several politically-motivated sentences

The best friend of the FSB’s chief witness in its ‘trial’ of 20-year-old Ukrainian Pavlo Hryb has testified in the young Ukrainian’s favour and has stated in court that she did not make the incriminating assertions claimed by the prosecution .

The appointment of Alexander Prokopchuk as Head of INTERPOL would have shown terrifying disregard by member states for the horrific torture used to fabricate the show trials of Ukrainian political prisoners, like Mykola Karpyuk and Stanyslav Klykh

The prominent Russian NGO ‘For Human Rights’ may be forced to cease its work after being denied a presidential grant, one of the chief forms of funding since the so-called law on ‘foreign agents’ made it near impossible to function through grants from abroad

Only a month after the Russian prison authorities finally allowed Pavlo Hryb to receive the medication that he needs for a potentially life-threatening medical condition, the medicines have disappeared while the 20-year-old was being moved between remand prison