Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russia ceased to be a member state of the Council of Europe on the 16th of March 2022. This date marked the end of over two decades where Russian citizens could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after exhausting their domestic legal options.
In July 2025, the State Duma passed legislation officially restoring Federal Security Service authority to operate its own detention centers following years of documented abuse including the Elephant Method and Supermarket Method. The Television method involves forcing victims to stand in a mid-squat holding stools until gangrene sets in due to restricted blood flow.
Since 1992, forty-seven journalists have been killed in Russia for their professional activity according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Thirty died during President Boris Yeltsin's reign while the rest were killed under Vladimir Putin.
Ksenia Karelina was arrested in Yekaterinburg on the 1st of March 2022 and charged with treason for sending fifty-one dollars and eighty cents to Razom. Her trial began on the 20th of June 2024 and she admitted guilt on the 7th of August before being sentenced to twelve years in prison.
On the 1st of March 2022, Russian authorities blocked access to Echo of Moscow and TV Rain, the country's last independent television station, claiming they spread deliberately false information about military personnel actions. By February 2023, journalist Maria Ponomarenko received six years in prison for publishing details about the Mariupol theatre airstrike.