Rights groups, activists and independent media in Russia and Belarus endured increased government scrutiny, repressive laws and even were shut down and forced to operate from exile abroad.

Of all the Russian dissidents freed in the historic East-West prison swap on Aug. 1, Andrei Pivovarov spent the most time behind bars – three years.

When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed “Russian oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers.

Mikhail Gorbachev has been buried at a Moscow cemetery where he's once again next to his wife Raisa.

Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against a prominent opposition activist and remanded him in pre-trial detention for allegedly spreading “false information” about the country’s armed forces.

Russia has unleashed a harsh crackdown on dissent over the past year by imprisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny and silencing his supporters and his organization.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the global community of wealthy Russians who have built luxurious lives in the West while keeping close to the Kremlin.

The prison sentence imposed a year ago on leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was a severe blow to Russia’s opposition.

The Dutch Supreme Court has handed Russia at least a temporary victory in its appeal of a $50 billion arbitration award to former shareholders of bankrupted oil giant Yukos.

In the months before Sunday's parliamentary election in Russia, authorities unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition, making sure the best-known and loudest Kremlin critics didn’t run.

Two Russian news outlets and a legal aid group backed by a leading Kremlin critic have shut down after authorities blocked their websites.

A Russian court has sent a prominent opposition activist to jail pending a criminal probe as authorities continue to crack down on dissent ahead of the country’s September parliamentary election.

Russian authorities are cracking down on dissent before a crucial parliamentary election in what a leading Kremlin critic has described as an attempt to sideline opponents.

A key legal adviser to the Dutch Supreme Court has recommended dismissing Russia’s appeal against the reinstatement of a $50 billion compensation award to former shareholders of the Yukos oil company.

A man stands near a police bus after he was detained in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Russian police on Saturday detained about 150 participants of a forum of independent members of municipal councils, an action that comes amid the authorities' multi-pronged crackdown on dissent. They included Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician who leads one of Moscow's municipal districts; former Yekaterinburg mayor Yevgeny Roizman; and Moscow municipal council member Yulia Galyamina. The police crackdown on Saturday's forum follows the arrest and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.

(AP Photo)MOSCOW – A Russian court on Thursday handed a suspended sentence to an activist accused of membership of an “undesirable” organization, part of the authorities’ effort to tighten control over the nation's political scene. Anastasia Shevchenko, 41, was accused of engaging in political activities under the aegis of Open Russia, a group funded by self-exiled Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Prosecutors had asked the court in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia to sentence Shevchenko to five years in prison, but the court handed her a four-year suspended term. About 30 groups, including Open Russia, have been branded “undesirable” by the Russian government. The designation has been widely criticized as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to stifle dissent, but the Russian authorities have described it as a due response to the alleged Western efforts to undermine the country.

MOSCOW When Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny collapsed in an airplane bathroom Thursday, his supporters immediately suspected poisoning. If true, he wouldnt be the first prominent, outspoken Russian to be the target of toxic attack. A British inquiry found that Russian agents had killed Litvinenko, probably with President Vladimir Putin's approval. At the time of Litvinenkos poisoning, he had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya three weeks earlier. PYOTR VERZILOVVerzilov, a member of Russian protest group Pussy Riot, ended up in an intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning in 2018 and had to be flown to Berlin for treatment.