As one of numerous examples, the judge has refused to call a ‘witness’ whose testimony is being used to undermine Nadiya Savchenko’s alibi, despite strong evidence that the man is a fraud

The authoritative Memorial Human Rights Centre considers Natalya Sharina, Director of the Ukrainian Literature Library a political prisoner and calls for her immediate release and for termination of the criminal charges against her. Her lawyers have also pointed to quite staggering irregularities in her arrest

Zarina Yunusova has been deported to Tajikistan, despite the investigation theoretically still underway in Russia into the death of her 5-month-old baby Umarali who died after the police took him away from his mother

Ukrainian Hennadiy Afanasiev is facing reprisals in a Russian prison for retracting testimony given under torture against Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko.

Russia’s Justice Ministry has accused the renowned Memorial Human Rights Centre of undermining the foundations of the Russian Federation’s constitutional order and calling for the overthrow of the regime.

Lawyers representing Mykola Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh have called on Ukraine’s Prime Minister and government to help ensure the men’s acquittal. Not through political pressure, but by simply providing the facts to refute testimony obtained through torture

Blaming the tragedy of Metrojet Flight 9268 on the West might work at home. But that will do little to change the dynamic that Moscow has set in motion with its Syria campaign.

“A huge blow for all those involved in remembering the victims of the Soviet Terror” is how the decision by Russia’s Justice Ministry to forcibly add the St Petersburg Memorial Research and Information Centre to its register of so-called ‘foreign agents’ has been described

Russia’s sudden change of policy towards Ukrainians in Russia, and likely flood of people forced to return just as winter is setting in is yet another reminder that Russia’s bombs may be falling elsewhere, but its hybrid war against Ukraine is not over.

Crimean political prisoner Gennady Afanasyev turns 25 in Russian prison on Nov 8, Oleksandr Kolchenko will be 26 on Nov 26. Show them & Moscow that they’re not forgotten!

Two Russian satirists have publicly demanded the immediate release of Darya Polyudova, jailed for 15 days for reposting their video clip, and pointed out that prosecution of anti-fascist activity “constitutes defence of fascism” and is punishable under both Russian and international law.

A young Tajik couple is looking for answers after their infant son died in police custody while Russian authorities were investigating his mother’s legal status.

A vital defamation hearing is finally taking place on Nov 2, brought by Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov against Russia’s FSB & media. While it has little or no chance of success, it is important in highlighting the way in which the FSB presented four Crimeans as ‘terrorists’, with this obediently parroted by most Russian media

On Oct 29, while some Muscovites gathered on Lubyanka Square to remember by name victims of the 1937 Terror, a 58-year-old librarian was spending her second day in custody, without food or water, and facing interrogation, including at night, over books allegedly held in the library

Natalya Sharina, Director of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow, has been detained for 48 hours, and the Investigative Committee is seeking to have her remanded in custody on new charges of ‘inciting hatred’ over books found during Wednesday’s armed search of the library (see end for updated information)

A Moscow court has rejected Mikhail Anshakov’s appeal against an absurd criminal investigation lodged against him less some 3 months after his civic organization warned Russian tourists of the legal consequences of visiting Crimea under Russian occupation.

Nadia Savchenko and Svetlana Alexievich have voiced deep admiration for each other and share a strong distaste for Russian President Vladimir Putin, including for the macho stunts he regularly pulls on Russian television

(Updated) The respected Memorial Human Rights Centre has analysed the prosecution’s case against two Ukrainians accused of fighting against federal forces in Chechnya and found it lacking in everything but lurid ‘confessions’

The members of two pro-Kremlin organizations, NOD and SERB, who attacked an elderly pensioner holding a single-person picket outside the History Museum in Moscow on Oct 24 threatened to do the same to “all those who insult Putin, insult Russia”.

Each hearing in the trial of Nadiya Savchenko is filled with absurdly implausible details and raises inconvenient questions, such as why some witnesses for the prosecution should be top secret and why the court should have rejected, as ‘premature’, the defence’s application to interview the most crucial witness, namely Nadiya Savchenko’s sister, Vera.