The Latest Breaking News from Mediazona

A former Russian schoolteacher has been sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony for remarks he made online about President Vladimir Putin and Russian "fascism" in Ukraine, his fiancee said on Thursday.

A prosecutor in St. Petersburg has requested a three-year suspended sentence for a woman who left a note with an "insulting inscription" on the grave of President Vladimir Putin's parents, human rights group OVD-Info said on Wednesday.

Authorities allege Latvia-based publication threatens Russia’s constitutional system and security.

Death rate reported to have been particularly high as Moscow grappled with logistics and communications issues during first weeks of invasion

That's Maria Volokh, a municipal government candidate in Moscow (not the one in Idaho), being prosecuted for speech critical of the war in Ukraine (see Mediazona, in Russian). Volokh's and her codefendant Sergey Smirnov's speech apparently consisted of walking through the center of Moscow with black tape over their mouths…

Goods must be paid for in foreign currency, a practice reminiscent of Soviet-era beryozka stores

A group of independent Russian reporters are in Ukraine and attempting to break the Kremlin’s stranglehold on information