Ten years ago Ukrainian investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze was murdered. Various officials were named as suspects, one of whom died subsequently in unexplained circumstances. The Yanukovych regime’s clampdown on freedom of speech may mean no satisfactory conclusion will ever be reached, explains Alexa Chopivsky

Engaging religious communities is a way forward for promoting democracy, human rights, and religious freedom around the world. “Failure to engage" will leave secular fundamentalists, along with the rest of us, on the outside looking in

In Chechnya there is official support for attacks on women when they are considered to have ‘flouted’ Islamic rules by not wearing a headscarf or covering up enough. Tanya Lokshina listened to some of the women’s despairing accounts.

The recent arrest of Ukrainian museum director Ruslan Zabily provoked an outcry. Did he actually leak state secrets or is the Yanukovych regime just trying to undo all Orange achievements, including the revival of Ukrainian historical memory?

Next year's presidential elections offer a real opportunity of disposing a tired, weakened and unpopular Lukashenka, says Presidential hopeful Yaroslau Romanchuk. In this interview with David Marples, Romanchuk outlines a strategy for election and why his candidature offers the best prospect for the country's stalling economy.

Six months into office, Yanukovych has moved swiftly to strengthen government. Indications are mounting that his intention is comprehensively to curtail the freedoms won by Ukraine since the fall of communism. But there is reason to hope that civil society may prove robust enough to withstand the pressure

Some weeks ago Kaliningrad achieved a first in Russia by getting its governor Georgy Boos fired by the Kremlin. On 21 August thousands gathered to protest at the state of Russia and to demand the resignation of Putin and his government.

When Putin sat down to tea with artists and musicians before a charity concert last month, he could not have expected difficult questions, writes Olga Sherwood. He had not counted on DDT's Yury Shevchuk, who found the courage to stand out from the crowd and launch a memorable and principled criticism of the current political course. The article was first published on July 1st, 2010

Last month amendments were passed to the law codifying the FSB’s surveillance of those citizens deemed to be threats to national security. Nicolai Petro, unlike some Western commentators, sees these as potentially making Russia's domestic security procedures among the world's most transparent.

Vakhtang Komakhidze was an investigative journalist in Georgia with a nose for a story and a record of annoying the authorities. His revelations of official corruption ended in the death threats which forced him to seek asylum in Switzerland. Robin Oisín Llewellyn talked to him about the limits of media freedom in Georgia.

Court scrutiny of the British security services is to be welcomed; we can't debate properly our security needs without openness.

For the last 12 months Russian cities have witnessed regular demonstrations to protest restrictions on the right to assemble enshrined in Article 31 in Russia’s Constitution. 31 May was no exception in Moscow, with particularly brutal police involvement. Strategy-31 is spreading: will the authorities crack down even further or will they have to compromise? First published: April 26.

In their remote forest republic 400 miles east of the Moscow, the pagan Mari people are once again being harassed by the authorities. While the administrative lever used today is different — charges of “extremism” — their approach is more than reminiscent of the way their Soviet counterparts dealt with dissent.

The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people.

The imprisonment of military researcher Igor Sutyagin for alleged espionage has long troubled Russian human rights campaigners, writes Zoya Svetova. He is now free, but only after agreeing to agree he was a spy. Those familiar with Russian prisons will understand why he acted as he did, but he faces a difficult task persuading others of his integrity.

At the recent Kinotavr film festival — "Russia's Cannes" — the main competition featured no less than three films dealing with the hitherto ignored plights of Russia’s migrant workers. For various reasons, all three films fell short of painting a realistic picture of the situation. But their production is just the start: many more Russian gastarbeiter movies are just around the corner.

On 15 July 2009 Natasha Estemirova was kidnapped outside her flat in Grozny, bundled into a car, driven away and shot. One year later Tanya Lokshina still grieves for her, reflecting how difficult it is to come to terms with her death

With hustings for the Labour Party Leadership well underway, the five candidates have been busy battling to distance themselves from the era of Blair and Brown. But what have they had to say about electoral reform, civil liberties, human rights and Iraq, and how does each of their respective voting records stand up to scrutiny?

On 12 July, the judge found Andrei Erofeev and Yurii Samodurov, organisers of the exhibition Forbidden Art – 2006, guilty of inciting hatred and enmity, and insulting human dignity. Samodurov was fined 200,000 roubles, and Erofeev 150,000 (some $12,000 in all). But they have not been sent to prison. The poet Tatiana Shcherbina, disgusted, sees a people in mourning for the Good Old Days when the state controlled everything

Three years ago an exhibition at Moscow’s Sakharov Centre of previously banned work entitled Forbidden Art led to the trial of its curator Andrei Erofeev and the director of the Centre, Yuri Samodurov. The prosecutors want them sentenced to three years in prison for ‘debasing the religious beliefs of citizens and inciting religious hatred’. The verdict is due on 12 July. If they are found guilty, it will not only change the political climate in Russia, argues Prof.Andrei Zorin. It will destroy the country’s reputation. Sign the petition..