Fifteen people were released from prison in Russia in a spectacular prisoner swap on 1 August, 2024, but hundreds and most likely thousands of political prisoners remain incarcerated. How many, exactly? The two well-known Russian organizations that keep count are Memorial and OVD-Info, whose estimates and criteria differ. Our colleagues explain what the numbers mean and why many more political prisoners remain unrecognized and uncounted.

A cassation appeal on the case of Mikhail Krieger, who was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony for his posts on Facebook was held in Moscow on July 4th. The decision of the court was to keep the previous decision unchanged. During his detention, Mikhail married Aisha Astamirova, a Moscow region Memorial member herself. We talked to Aisha about her activism and protest experience, Mikhail’s arrest and imprisonment, and how to care for oneself and not give up.

Yury Dmitriev is a historian from Petrozavodsk, head of the Karelian Memorial and political prisoner. He is currently serving a fifteen year prison term on fabricated charges.

Activist Mikhail Krieger, member of the Solidarnost movement and the board of Moscow Region Memorial, has been detained since November 3, 2022. He was sentenced to seven years of penal colony for posts on social media.

Human rights defender Bakhrom Khamroev has been in prison since February 24th, 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. He was wrongfully sentenced to 13 years and 9 months of imprisonment in a penal colony on “terrorist” charges.

The International Memorial Association is anxiously watching the violation of human rights in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. We call upon international communities, human rights activists in all the countries and the UN organs, to immediately demand the release of all political prisoners in Russia, stop prosecution for expressing anti-war opinions, and take all available legal and diplomatic measures to reach this goal.