At least 17 murderers were pardoned in the Russian Federation for participating in the war. Among them, for example, Sergey Khadzhikurbanov, convicted of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. Meanwhile, the artist Sasha Skochylenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for anti-war price tags.

The artist has been imprisoned since April 2022 after replacing price tags in a supermarket with stark facts about Russia’s war against Ukraine and war crimes in Mariupol

As Oleg Orlov notes, the prosecutor’s office have themselves exposed the political nature of this ‘trial’, by claiming that the 70-year-old should be “isolated from society” for three years for criticising the regime

Oleh Prykhodko is currently imprisoned for his condemnation of Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea and could be facing a further long term of imprisonment

Alexander Byvshev has refused to be silent about Russia’s aggression despite persecution since 2014. He is now, however, facing a likely long term of imprisonment for no more than naming Russia’s war crimes

Russia’s persecution of Oleg Orlov is part of its attack on Memorial, an organization that played an invaluable role in speaking out against all Russia’s crimes against Ukraine and in defence of its political prisoners

Russia is already using ill-defined ‘extremism’ legislation as a weapon against Ukrainians in occupied Crimea, with the new bill further broadening the scope for repression

The sentence is especially chilling as Russia is presently applying the same measures to instil an entirely false version of its war of aggression against Ukraine

The ‘trial’ and sentence against Aider Muzhdabaev over strong words on Facebook would be easier to take seriously if state-employed propagandists did not call to murder Ukrainian children and destroy Ukrainian cities on television

It will soon be a year since 25 Leniye Umerova was seized by Russian border guards, and first held prisoner on entirely different administrative pretexts, before the FSB came up with absurd ‘spying’ charges

There are fears that Russia may be planning to fabricate new charges against Hennady Lymeshko who is already serving an 8-year sentence on surreal charges

There was no fake information in the social media texts Olga Smirnova posted, merely information that clashed with the standard lies issued by the Kremlin and Russian defence military

A substantial majority of Russians view mass murderer and dictator Joseph Stalin “with respect, admiration or approval”. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, just 4% of Ukrainians give such a response

Even before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian regime was actively encouraging anonymous denunciations of neighbours or workmates for supposed ‘extremism’ or ‘anti-Russian views’.

Oga Smirnova is accused of ‘fakes’ because she wrote the truth about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on eight social media posts

There is every reason to believe that the appalling treatment that Ivan Yatskin is facing in Russian captivity is, like his very arrest, linked with his firmly pro-Ukrainian position

It is almost 9 years since Russia’s FSB abducted Valentyn Vyhivsky, held him incommunicado and savagely tortured him into ‘confessing’ to mystery spying charges

Russia's seizure and charges against Leniye Umerova have been described as one of the most overtly fabricated cases to date, and the competition since Russia began its aggression against Ukraine has been fierce

The ‘trial’ is underway at the court Russia uses for political trials of Ukrainian citizens of Hryhory Sinchenko who almost died from the torture he was subjected to by Russia’s proxy ‘Donetsk republic’

Russia has reached “a new level of lawlessness” with its imprisonment of human rights defender Bakhrom Khamroev, with sinister methods that could well be used in occupied Crimea