Awaiting trial in Belarus and facing a minimum of six years in prison, Russian national Sofia Sapega has already asked Alexander Lukashenko to grant her a pardon, her stepfather Sergey Dudich told the radio station Ekho Moskvy on Tuesday, December 21.

A Russian court has rejected a petition from the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) to transfer student journalists Alla Gutnikova and Vladimir Metelkin to a remand prison.

The Prigorodny District is a disputed territory on the border between the Russian republics of North Ossetia and Ingushetia. Violence broke out there 30 years ago -- and to this day, Ingush and Ossetian neighbors in Prigorodny avoid speaking to one another and send their children to separate schools. In a dispatch from Prigorodny, Meduza special correspondent Sasha Sivtsova examines why the conflict, which was triggered by state repressions, is still going on after so many years.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has declared two German diplomats persona non grata in a "symmetrical response" to Berlin's expulsion of two Russian diplomats last week, according to a ministry statement released on Monday, December 20.

Activists from Gulagu.net (No to the Gulag) have obtained and released new footage further evidencing the torture and abuse of inmates in Russian prisons.

Exiled human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov has launched a new legal group that specializes in defending those accused of treason and espionage in Russia. Pavlov, who fled abroad to escape criminal charges in September, previously led Team 29 -- a similar human rights initiative that tackled some of Russia's most challenging political prosecutions. The group disbanded in July 2021, to protect its members and supporters from persecution. Pavlov's new project, dubbed "Pervy Otdel" (which translates as "First Department" or "Department One") also aims to take on cases that are handled "behind closed doors" and will function in cooperation with colleagues working "on the ground" in Russia.

Russian rapper Noize MC dropped the second part of his new album "Exit to the City" ("Vykhod v gorod") on December 17, adding another ten tracks to the first ten released last month. Exit to the City is the 36-year-old musician's tenth album -- and it's his most serious and tragic record to date. Since the very beginning of his career, Noize MC (whose real name is Ivan Alexeyev) has been actively involved in public life, showing support for political prisoners and speaking out on current affairs -- and paying for it in concert cancellations and threats of criminal prosecution. In a review for Meduza, the rapper's contemporary and long-time acquaintance, journalist Alexander Gorbachev, interprets Exit to the City as an honest look at the fate of the generation that grew up in Russia in the 1990s -- and an attempt to find some value in this experience.

Russia's censorship agency is threatening to restrict access to YouTube after the video platform shut down yet another German-language channel run by the Russian state-controlled television network RT (Russia Today).

Moscow's Tverskoy District Court has jailed Pussy Riot activists Maria Alyokhina and Lyusya Shtein (a municipal deputy) for 15 days and 14 days, respectively, under the administrative article prohibiting the display of Nazi symbols.

On Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry published two documents asking for legally binding security guarantees: a bilateral treaty with the United States and a multilateral agreement with NATO members. The proposal follows weeks of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West, precipitated by a large build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. Western analysts say the military maneuvers signal Moscow's intentions to expand Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while the Kremlin says it is merely responding to Kyiv's new deployments in the Donbas.