More from: Democracy and Media

Ruslan Akhmetshin, an activist and photographer from Arkhangelsk in Northern Russia, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in October 2022, was released from prison on December 15. The reason for his conviction was several comments and shared posts on social media in which the activist did not agree that Victory Day is a holiday of fun. In an interview with The Barents Observer, Ruslan spoke about his feelings on his first day of freedom, prison life and plans for the future.

"I would not want anyone to sit in that jail," a former inmate says of the far northern penal colony that now houses Russia's leading opposition politician.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is presented as enemy of Russia in bizarre propaganda exhibition onboard naval vessel Ivan Gren.

"The justification for declaring me a "foreign agent" is ridiculous," says Georgii Chentemirov.

Nikita Tushkanov from the north Russian Komi Republic is called a ´terrorist and extremist´ by Russian authorities. This week, a military court prolonged his arrest with another month.

The Justice Ministry in Moscow has included reporter Georgii Chentemirov, who came to the Barents Observer last fall, on its register of so-called “foreign agents”.

The human rights organisation is accused of "extremist" activities and for "rehabilitation of Nazism."

The Barents Observer teams up with UiT The Arctic University of Norway in a project on exile journalism and knowledge development in the borderland between Norway and Russia

Chief draft officer Andrei Artemiev does not like Olga Tuzhikova's human rights activities. Tuzhikova, a member of the Petrozavodsk City Council, is trying to help mobilized and volunteer soldiers to return home.

A court ruling places Olesya Krivtsova under house arrest until her trial comes up.

“We all feel very sorry,” says Anna Kireeva, head of Barents Press Russia. Established 30 years ago, the journalist network today finds cross-border cooperation too risky to be continued.