It should have been Boris Nemtsov’s 56th birthday on Oct 9. Instead it is the first birthday since Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic was gunned down outside the Kremlin, and two days after the ninth anniversary of the killing of another bitter critic of Putin and his regime – Anna Politkovskaya. Novaya Gazeta marked these anniversaries by “comparing the fingerprints”.

In the latest of a number of ‘spying’ cases brought by Russia in the months following its annexation of Crimea, Viktor Shur, about whom virtually nothing is known, has been convicted of ‘spying for Ukraine’ and sentenced to 12 years maximum security imprisonment.

As well as an FSB officer (or not) in make-up and a wig, a witness was heard whose account is alleged by the defence to be a lie from beginning to end but who was protected by the court and allowed to conceal information that would have immediately confirmed that his story was false

The division between us versus the enemies has only grown in Russia to give birth to overwhelming tones of propaganda. Anna’s country lives under what PEN has called “a tsunami of anti-free expression laws emerging in Russia, which include treating international NGO’s as foreign agents; anti-gay laws; a law permitting the blocking of websites without a court order; laws against discussing Russian history; a Religious Defamation law.”

Journalist Oleg Kashin’s letter is an indictment of what he portrays as Putin’s corruption-ridden 15-year reign that has been "a monumental moral catastrophe for our generation" and "left the nation demoralized and disoriented."

On October 3, state-run television channel Rossiya-24 aired an exhaustive weather bulletin describing the current climatic conditions in Syria as "very favorable" for a bombing campaign.

Oleg Shevkun lost his post as Chief Editor of the Russian Blind Society’s Internet radio service after honestly criticizing Russia’s forced annexation of Crimea. He is one of an ever-increasing number of Crimeans and Russians who have faced dismissal or prosecution for stating the undeniable truth that Russia is in breach of international law

Agreement, as now suggested, to ‘extradition’ if Ukraine accepted the Russian court’s verdict could have serious implications for applications to the European Court of Human Rights whose findings in this gross case are otherwise entirely foreseeable

Mystery Ukrainian Alexander Malofeyev has been sentenced to 24.5 years maximum security prison, after ‘confessing’ and claiming that he fought in Chechnya together with Russia’s Ukrainian prisoners Mykola Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh, as well as Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and other prominent Ukrainians.

The hearing on Sept 29 in the trial of Nadiya Savchenko confirmed the degree to which prosecution and the court are working in unison  and indicated the courage shown by Nadiya Savchenko in captivity which has probably resulted in this universally condemned judicial travesty

The explanation provided by Russia’s Ambassador to Venezuela for why the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept 17 was not an invasion is disturbingly similar to the arguments presented by Vladimir Putin as justification for Russia’s annexation of Crimea 

Lev Shlosberg, a lawmaker in Russia’s north-western Pskov region known for his relentless criticism of the Kremlin has been expelled from the local legislature, a move denounced by the opposition as politically motivated.

Nadiya Savchenko is probably facing a 25-year sentence at the end of the ‘court trial’ which began on Sept 22., but the customary “if she is found guilty” seems entirely out of place. Nobody seriously believes that Leonid Stepanenko and two other judges, seemingly from the Russian Donetsk City Court, are any more than actors in the spectacle unfolding

The trial has begun in Moscow of Vladimir Ionov who is facing criminal charges over supposed administrative infringements during peaceful protests. The 75-year-old civic activist is the first person to be tried under a new article of the Criminal Code which envisages up to 5-year sentences if a court has issued three rulings on administrative offences within 180 days.

Gennady Kravtsov, a 36-year-old radio engineer, has been convicted of state treason and sentenced to 14 years maximum security prison because of a letter he wrote in search of a job having waited the requisite five years after leaving his post his post in military intelligence

Thousands of Russian opposition activists and their supporters rallied in Moscow, in the wake of regional elections that saw the ruling party trouncing opposition candidates in voting criticized as rigged

Russia’s endorsement of “the right of nations to self-determination” begins beyond its borders, including those that it has illegally redrawn. A congress of separatists from around the world is due to take place in Moscow on Sept 20, with participants’ travel costs paid for by the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia whose only disclosed income is from a Kremlin-patronized fund.

Among the applications from Nadiya Savchenko’s defence rejected on Tuesday was for one Kremlin-backed militant leader to be called for questioning over the total discrepancy between his testimony and that of another leader and the prosecution.

A Russian court has sentenced 56-year-old Rafis Kashapov to three years imprisonment over social network posts criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine. It is the first trial on charges under a new article widely believed to be aimed at silencing opposition to, among other things, Russia’s occupation of Crimea (updated)

The 10 thousand rouble fine on Andrei Margulev for holding vigil at the place where Boris Nemtstov was gunned down was imposed by the same Moscow court that four days earlier fined two religious activists 1 (one) thousand roubles for destroying an art exhibition which they claimed offend Russian Orthodox believers.