The headline reads, “Russia’s Oldest Rights Group Loses Appeal Against Liquidation.” That group is the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG). The article notes that the liquidation of MHG “is the latest in a series of moves by the judiciary in Russia to silence rights groups, independent media, and the opposition.” Yes. “During the crackdown, many Kremlin critics have been jailed, while dozens have left the country fearing persecution.”

The article further notes that “the rejection of the appeal came a day after MHG announced the winners of its annual awards for their contributions to human rights activities in Russia.”

A bit of history: The Moscow Helsinki Group, says the article, “was established by prominent Soviet dissidents Yury Orlov, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, Andrei Amalrik, Natan Sharansky, Mikhail Bernshtam, Yelena Bonner, Aleksandr Ginzburg, Pyotr Grigorenko, and others in the Moscow apartment of legendary rights defender and physicist Andrei Sakharov.”

And just something personal: These were all heroes of mine, when I was young. When I was a student. They still are. And so are their successors.

• Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his allies have issued a declaration — a “Declaration by Russian Democratic Forces,” published in Berlin on April 30. See it here. I admire these people enormously.

In 2019, I interviewed Khodorkovsky and wrote about him in two installments: here and here. An excerpt:

Four times, Khodorkovsky went on hunger strike — in order to secure better treatment for his fellow (and less famous) prisoners. One of these was Vasily Alexanian, another former executive at Yukos, who was dying of AIDS. The authorities were brutalizing him.

“In a Russian prison,” Khodorkovsky tells me, “the only way you’ll get anywhere is if you’re ready to gamble your life. If you’re not ready to gamble your life, you will never get anywhere. You should be prepared to say, ‘Do this or I’m ready to die.’ And you must be ready to die, if you want them to do it. If they don’t do it and you don’t die? Then you’ve lost all your weaponry — your whole arsenal. I gambled my life four times like that in prison and won each time.”

What are the rest of us doing?

• Talk about a “bakery case”:

Police in Moscow have charged confectioner Anastasia Chernysheva with “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces involved in the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The charge against Chernysheva stems from slogans calling for an end to the Ukraine war that she inscribed on cakes she sells via Instagram. Chernysheva was detained for questioning on April 28 and released after the charge was officially filed against her. She faces a fine or weeks of imprisonment if found guilty.

(Article here.)

• In 2017, the Russian government banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Obviously, there is not religious freedom in Russia, as there is not press freedom or other freedoms. It is a police state, a dictatorship. (Like all such states, it has many supporters and apologists in free countries.) Here are three names to know: those of Sergei Korolyov, Rinat Kiramov, and Sergei Kosyanenko. They are Jehovah’s Witnesses and each has been sentenced to seven years in prison. (For an article, go here.)

Some people suffer, terribly, for their beliefs. They ought to be remembered.

• Vladimir Kara-Murza is suffering for his beliefs. He is a Russian political prisoner and patriot. Twice, the state tried to kill him, with poison. Twice, he survived. He has now been sentenced to 25 years for “high treason.” He criticized Putin’s war on Ukraine.

His wife and three children are in exile, here in the United States. Here is something shared by Evgenia (Mrs. Kara-Murza):

And here is one more: