For Russians, the past year saw a national vote to approve changes to their constitution … including an amendment granting longtime leader Vladimir Putin the right to remain president through the year 2036
As Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny fights Novichok poisoning in a Berlin hospital, his teams are continuing their battle against election fraud in a series of municipal votes across Russia. Navalny was poisoned after campaigning in Novosibirsk, and his team there has also been attacked
The state provides cover for state terror via a “state-private partnership,” in the sense that those who carry out these deeds may not formally be representatives of state structures but mercenaries. Those who order the hits are not people right at the top, but mid-level functionaries, carrying out their official duty in this rather “particular” way
In Russia, a second effort is underway to hold a weeklong national vote to change the country’s constitution. The Kremlin was forced to scuttle an earlier April vote amid the outbreak of the coronavirus
Activists dressed as corpses gathered at a St. Petersburg cemetery in a bizarre protest against Russia’s nationwide vote on changing the constitution. They’re not the only ones arguing that voting could be dangerous in a country with the third-highest COVID-19 caseload in the world. Hundreds of local voting officials have signed an open letter refusing to work at polling stations
Russian police detained dozens of activists outside a St. Petersburg courthouse where a trial was under way for two defendants accused of belonging to a terrorist organization…Members of the Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vucic celebrated at their headquarters as preliminary election results came in late on June 21
Most concerning is that the Central Investigative Committee, and later the court, did not even seek to answer the question that is key to any murder or assassination: What was the motive? Why was former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov killed?
Serbian activists held a “protest performance” in Belgrade, demanding better institutional protection for women from violence….Hundreds of supporters of Russian activist blogger Yegor Zhukov greeted him on the steps of a Moscow courthouse after he received a three-year suspended sentence for inciting extremism
Riot police detained dozens of people in Moscow following a protest on August 10 demanding that officials allow independent candidates on the ballot in upcoming municipal elections. Ahead of the sanctioned demonstration, police raided the office of opposition leader Lyubov Sobol and detained her