Two news outlets and a human rights rights group linked to exiled former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky have announced that they are shutting down following the Russian federal censor's decision to add their websites to the government's blocklist.

Election officials in Murmansk have refused to register opposition politician Violetta Grudina as a candidate in the upcoming elections. Grudina, who was formerly the head of Alexey Navalny's Murmansk campaign office, said the election commission cited her links to Team Navalny as the grounds for rejecting her candidacy.

The trial of Belarusian opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova (Maryia Kalesnikava) began in Minsk on Wednesday, August 4. Along with opposition lawyer Maxim Znak, she stands accused of calling for actions that threatened the national security of Belarus. The exact content of the charges remains unknown and the trial is taking place behind closed doors. Before the start of the hearing on Wednesday, Maria Kolesnikova danced inside the courtroom cage and made a heart sign with her hands - one of the symbols of the opposition movement. The independent Russian television network Dozhd interviewed Kolesnikova ahead of her trial. Here's what she said, in brief.

A Moscow court has fined Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK) for failing to include "foreign agent" disclaimers on its website "ECHR Search."

The St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Justice Ministry is taking the city's bar chamber to court over its refusal to take disciplinary action against prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov.

American national Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on espionage charges, hasn't been in touch with his family or the U.S. Embassy in more than four weeks, his lawyer Olga Karlova told Interfax.

A year after protests swept Belarus and nearly forced long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko from office, the nation's politics has followed Belarusian athletes to Tokyo. On August 1, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya appealed directly to the Japanese police at Haneda Airport and asked for help from the International Olympic Committee, saying that she was being forced suddenly onto a flight bound for Minsk. The 24-year-old sprinter says the pressure started after she criticized Belarusian sports officials for deciding without her knowledge that she would run a relay race for which she hadn't trained, in order to fill in for a disqualified team member. In a message shared on social media, Tsimanouskaya said she now fears criminal prosecution if she returns to Belarus. International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams later told journalists that Tsimanouskaya is being protected by the Japanese authorities. The U.N. refugee agency is reportedly involved in her case, and both the Czech Republic and Poland say they are ready to offer the Belarusian Olympian a visa. According to the BBC, Tsimanouskaya is now considering seeking asylum in Europe.

In an exclusive interview with talk show host Vladimir Solovyov, the Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (the SVR) Sergey Naryshkin claimed that a number of independent Russian news outlets are part of a "network" allegedly linked to Western intelligence services via the investigative outlet Bellingcat. Naryshkin also reiterated claims that the August 2020 poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny was orchestrated by the West, and said that the SVR is anticipating "new provocations" in the lead up to Russia's fall elections. Meduza summarizes Sergey Naryshkin's "Solovyov Live" interview here.

After months spent under house arrest and restrictive pre-trial measures, Russian opposition politician Lyubov Sobol was given a 1.5-year parole-like sentence on August 3, as part of the so-called "Sanitary Case." State investigators launched the criminal case against Sobol and nine other well-known activists and politicians back in January, in connection with a demonstration in support of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny. According to the investigation, the defendants in the case called on Navalny's supporters to attend the rally and thereby incited violations of public health regulations amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sobol's lawyer says his client - who is already on probation in connection with a felony trespassing case - plans to challenge the verdict.

Ukrainian police have opened a murder investigation after finding missing Belarusian activist Vital Shyshou hanged in a Kyiv park on the morning of August 3. Shyshou, who left Belarus in the fall of 2020, was reported missing a day earlier after he went out for a morning jog and never returned. Ukrainian police suspect his death was a suicide or a murder framed as suicide. However, Shyshou's colleagues and loved ones believe he was killed. Fellow activists from the NGO "Belarusian House in Ukraine" (BDU), which Shyshou founded to help Belarusians fleeing political persecution, said that his face showed signs of having been beaten. BDU also said that sources in Kyiv and Belarus told its members about a network of Belarusian KGB agents allegedly working in Ukraine, and warned about the possibility of "kidnappings and liquidations." A week before his death, Vital Shyshou noticed that he was being followed and asked friends to "take care" of his loved ones.