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my latest:

the number of political prisoners in Russia keeps growing, and their life behind bars is anything but easy. I interviewed some of them and their loved ones to get a glimpse of what it’s like: apnews.com/article/70485f…

Russian MPs gave initial their OK today to a bill that would outlaw gender transitioning procedures. this is another blow to the country's beleaguered LGBTQ+ community as the Kremlin's "traditional values" campaign continues. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

some convicts recruited by Russia's private military contractor Wagner to fight in the war in Ukraine are coming home and committing new -- often violent -- crimes. that has raised fears in communities where they are returning. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

From the left bank of Kherson, to Russia, Baltic states to Poland, and back to Ukraine. Hundreds of Ukrainians are traveling across vast sweeps of land to escape occupation, only to settle within sight of their abandoned homes. w the great Hanna Arhirova. apnews.com/article/russia…

Russian MPs took their crackdown on LGBTQ+ people a step further today. they approved a bill outlawing gender transitioning and added clauses annulling marriages in which one person “changed gender” and banning adoption for transgender people. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

Russian czars vacationed on its beaches. it hosted history-shaking meetings of world leaders and was the site of repressions. as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages, Crimea is again a battleground, with Kyiv seeking to dislodge Moscow’s hold on it. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

Navalny feels optimistic and “absolutely believes in what he’s doing,” and “it certainly helps him cope with all that and keep doing what he’s doing,” Кира Ярмыш told me today.

The Ukraine war, propaganda-style, is coming to Russian movie screens. It’s the narrative the Kremlin has been promoting since the first days of its war — all packaged up in a motion picture. By ⁦Dasha Litvinova⁩ apnews.com/article/16fa6e…

pressure mounts on Russian political prisoners. many are held in isolation in their prisons for months on end; no calls, few letters. visits from lawyers are often the lifeline; but today, Navalny's lawyers were detained, raising concerns. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

abortion in increasingly conservative Russia is still legal and widely available, but govt in recent years sought to curtail access to the procedure by imposing various restrictions. more restrictions are in the works, and women are concerned. my latest: apnews.com/article/aborti…

Kremlin foe Navalny was moved from a prison east of Moscow, his allies say, but new site is unclear. apnews.com/article/9b777a…

Some of what Putin told Tucker Carlson missed the bigger picture. This fills in the gaps apnews.com/article/russia…

veteran human rights advocate Oleg Orlov, 70, was prosecuted over an article he wrote denouncing Russia’s war in Ukraine. last year, he was convicted and fined; but prosecution appealed, prompting a re-trial that ended with a prison sentence. apnews.com/article/853951…

my latest on the Russian prison system, political prisoners and the harsh conditions they have to endure. first in a series of stories on crackdown on dissent in Russia.

“Russia is no longer an authoritarian state -– it is a totalitarian state,” Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, told me in January. a month later Orlov, 70, was handcuffed and hauled out of a courtroom after being sentenced to 2.5 yrs in prison. my latest: apnews.com/article/russia…

Navalny's top strategist Leonid Volkov attacked in Lithuania. nearly a month after Navalny's death in an Arctic penal colony and just days before a presidential election in Russia. apnews.com/article/russia…

Those among the largest civilian prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War included journalists, veteran political activists and those simply opposed to the war in Ukraine. bit.ly/4c8ttQk

“It is very difficult to shake (the feeling) of absolute surrealism of what is happening,” Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic handed 25 years in prison, said. He, Илья Яшин and Андрей Пивоваров vowed to keep fighting for a free Russia they could one day return to. apnews.com/article/russia…

in a memoir released eight months after he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny never loses faith that his cause is worth suffering for while also acknowledging he wished he could have written a very different book. our latest: apnews.com/article/navaln…