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.

Fans visiting the 2018 World Cup this summer are to be ‘protected’ by Cossacks similar to those who helped Russian soldiers invade Ukrainian Crimea in 2014.  Hardly an accidental choice of thugs considering that the Kremlin has tried to protect itself against criticism by hiding Ukrainian political prisoners like Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko thousands of kilometres away from Moscow. 

The authoritative Memorial Human Rights Centre has declared 28-year-old Oleksandr Shumkov a political prisoner, finding both the circumstances by which the Ukrainian soldier came to be in Russia, and the charges against him extremely suspect.  There are strong grounds for believing that Shumkov was abducted from Ukrainian territory, and the charges that Russia has brought are truly surreal.  

Russia’s “most falsified Ukrainian show trial” has taken on yet another cynical twist with Mykola Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh each ordered to pay 500 thousand roubles ‘compensation’ for a death that neither man had anything to do with in a country that neither had set foot in

38-year-old Dzmitry Halko was arrested on 22 April on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and is facing charges of ‘attacking a police officer’, with many assuming the arrest to be in fact linked with his role in Belarusian Partisan and other independent Belarusian publications.

Two Russian state-controlled channels have used shots from a 2016 feature film as part of ‘evidence’ to back Moscow’s claim that the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma was staged

Mark Feygin, the well-known Russian lawyer representing imprisoned Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, has been stripped of his lawyer’s status. Feygin asserts that the decision was politically-motivated and links it with his defence of Sushchenko

It is seven months since Russia’s FSB abducted Ukrainian student Pavlo Hryb from Belarus and since the 19-year-old, who has an extremely serious medical condition, saw the Ukrainian specialists treating him.  Russia has refused to allow Ukrainian doctors to examine him and is producing suspiciously ‘healthy’ test results to try to justify their refusal to provide him with proper medical care.

A year after Russia outlawed the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a first believer is on trial, facing a ten-year prison sentence and repressive measures are gaining pace.  These include armed searches and arrests, as well as the state theft of Jehovah’s Witness land and property.  It seems only a matter of time before Jehovah’s Witnesses join the ever-rising number of Ukrainians illegally imprisoned in occupied Crimea.

After concocting a ‘trial’ on truly surreal ‘spying’ charges to imprison Ukrainian Viktor Shur, Russia has since deployed any means to prevent him having contact with the Ukrainian consul and lawyers