Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to secure his fifth term in power this month on the heels of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in prison.

Over the last decade, Vladimir Putin’s government has evolved from tolerating dissent to ruthlessly suppressing any activities or people who dared challenge it.

A veteran human rights campaigner who criticized the war in Ukraine was convicted Tuesday by a Moscow court of discrediting the Russian military and sentenced to 2½ years in prison.

Kremlin critics, turncoat spies and investigative journalists have been attacked or killed in a variety of ways.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says officials at the Arctic prison colony where he is serving a 19-year term have isolated him in a tiny punishment cell over a minor infraction.

Associates of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say he has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle nearly three weeks after contact with him was lost.

Russia’s Justice Ministry has added President Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister who later became an opponent to its register of “foreign agents.”.

Over the years, Kremlin political critics, turncoat spies and journalists have been killed in a variety of ways.

The 25-year treason sentence imposed on prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday was a particularly severe show of authorities’ intensifying intolerance of criticism of the war in Ukraine and other dissenting opinions.

A court in Russia has ruled to remand a prominent opposition politician in custody pending an investigation and trial over his public criticism of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

Moscow is trolling both the U.S. and the U.K. by officially renaming the streets in front of their embassies for the two separatist regions of eastern Ukraine where fighting is now the fiercest.

One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018.

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’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.

Russians in cities spanning from Moscow to Siberia have taken to the streets again to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some Russian prisons might be mistaken for vacation destinations based on their nicknames, which include animal appellations such as the Black Dolphin and the Polar Owl.

In this photo taken from video, Alexei Navalny kisses his wife Yulia as he is detained by police at the passport control after arriving at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Russia's prison service says opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained at a Moscow airport after returning from Germany. The service earlier said that it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3 1/2-year sentence behind bars. Navalny decided to leave Berlin of his own free will and wasn’t under any apparent pressure to leave from Germany. Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia. The German hospital treating Russian dissident Alexei Navalny says tests indicate that he was poisoned. But Merkel rejected the idea that the Navalny case should be linked to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea. Our opinion is that Nord Stream 2 should be completed," she said, adding: I don't think it is appropriate to link this business-operated project with the Navalny question." The U.S. argues the project will endanger European security by making Germany overly dependent on Russian gas.

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.

MOSCOW The United States on Monday slapped the regional strongman leader of Russia's republic of Chechnya with sanctions over human rights violations. Ramzan Kadyrov, 43, has run Chechnya like his personal fiefdom, relying on his security forces to quash dissent. International human rights groups have accused Kadyrov and his lieutenants of abductions, torture and killings of their opponents. Chechen authorities have denied those accusations, and federal authorities said a probe found nothing to support the charges. The Kremlin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two separatist wars, providing generous federal subsidies and dismissing international criticism of his rule.