Leadership of Protest Movement Harassed in Increasingly Widespread Crackdown on Russia Democracy

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Russia’s punk trial nears verdict as West watches

AFP – The trial of all-girl punk band Pussy Riot, who performed a song criticising President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s biggest church, resumed Monday with sentencing expected as early as this week. Western diplomats squeezed into the courtroom as day six of the trial got under way, with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.

Russia’s popular protest leader Alexei Navalny said Monday he had discovered a bug planted in the wall of his Moscow office and accused state investigators of illegally spying on his life. The 36-year-old corporate lawyer said his colleagues had found the listening device after scanning the office.