On 1/12 Anastasia Zotova said her husband Ildar Dadin had been put in solitary confinement. On 5/12 Dadin was transferred from prison colony No. 7 in Karelia.

Freedom of expression 

On 2/12 Oksana Sevastidi’s lawyer said his client plans to appeal her sentence. On 8/12 head of Roskomnadzor Aleksandr Zharov said access to LinkedIn can be unblocked if LinkedIn localize data. On 12/12 Moscow Arbitration Court ruled RBC must pay 390,000RR damages to Rosneft. On 19/12 reports said police had arrested a 16-year-old school student for online comments about the Orthodox Church. On 20/12 blogger Aleksei Kungurov was convicted for criticizing operations in Syria. On 23/12 Aleksei Knedlyakovsky and Viktor Chirikov were jailed in Krasnodar for 15 days for allegedly affixing a crucifix to a monument to Dzerzhinsky. On 23/12 jailed blogger Andrei Bubeev was to be given harsher conditions. On 28/12 the Chuvash Republic Supreme Court upheld a two-year suspended sentence given to Nikolai Egorov for extremism. On 28/12 reports said Roman Grishin had been charged with extremism for a 2014 video clip on Russian actions in Ukraine.

Right of association 

On 13/12 a Chelyabinsk court ordered the NGO 'For Nature', designated a 'foreign agent', to be shut down. The Justice Ministry added Southern Human Rights Centre (on 27/12) and the Sova Centre (on 30/12) to the foreign agent register. On 16/12 a Moscow court dismissed an application by International Memorial Society to be removed from “foreign agent” list. On 7/12 Memorial was fined 300,000 roubles. On 14/12 Golos founder Lilia Shibanova was prevented from leaving Russia.

Right of assembly 

On 12/12 at least 15 people were detained in Moscow for reading the Constitution aloud. On 13/12 the ECtHR ruled rights of Garry Kasparov were violated at a 2007 Moscow rally. On 16/12 Moscow authorities banned a protest in support of jailed Turkmen journalists. On 20/12 Moscow police detained seven activists planning a protest outside FSB headquarters. On 28/12 a Moscow court extended pre-trial detention for Bolotnaya Square defendant Maksim Panfilov until 14/6/17.

North Caucasus 

In Dagestan law enforcement officers killed five militants on 3/12; shot and killed two police officers on 20/12; and shot dead two alleged militants on 24/12. On 18/12 relatives of Rustam Aptaev, detained on 13/12 in Ingushetia, alleged he was being tortured. On 18/12, Ramzan Kadyrov said security forces had killed 11 suspected militants. On 20/12 relatives and friends of people killed in Grozny on 17-18/12 were still in police custody. On 28/12 Umakhan Umakhanov was kidnapped by armed men in Dagestan. On 26/12 the Investigative Committee said allegations of kidnapping and violence against journalist Zhalaudi Geriev had not been confirmed. On 28/12 the Chechnya Supreme Court upheld the Geriev’s conviction for possessing marijuana. On 31/12 the remains of 109 people, buried in two mass graves near Grozny, were transported to Chechnya.

Ukraine 

On 2/12 President Putin refused to release imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. On 7/12 Crimean journalist Mykola Semena was charged with extremism. On 9/12 reports said imprisoned rights activist Emir-Huseyn Kuku is in a psychiatric clinic. On 12/12 a court in Crimea prolonged pretrial detention for Crimean Tatar activist Ahtem Ciygoz. On 14/12 the Supreme Court banned Mustafa Dzhemilev from Russia. On 15/12 Moscow City Court upheld the extension of pre-trial detention for Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko. On 21/12 Useir Abdullaev facing ‘terrorism’ charges said he was tortured. On 29/12 the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld on appeal the sentence of Stanislav Klykh to a month of corrective labour for insulting the public prosecutor.