Vladimir Kara-Murza is a political prisoner in Russia. He was arrested last April for criticizing the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. He has been a friend of mine for years. A great man. This is a jolting report: “The Health Of Vladimir Kara-Murza In The Disciplinary Cell Has Deteriorated.”

• For 15 years, Kara-Murza worked alongside Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leader. Nemtsov was murdered on February 27, 2015, about 200 meters from the Kremlin wall. Kara-Murza himself was nearly murdered three months later. (By poison.) He went through the same ordeal in 2017.

Every February 27, people lay flowers on the bridge where Nemtsov was murdered. They pay tribute in other cities as well, as this report tells us. This year, one person was arrested, in Moscow — arrested for laying flowers at the bridge.

Here is a glimpse of those who laid flowers. They took a risk in doing so (obviously).

We are repeatedly told, by Western pundits, that Putin is popular in Russia. Okay. But if that’s true — why does he keep offing his critics and opponents? Could he have a better sense of his popularity than those Western pundits do?

• Western pundits will tell you that Putin assaulted Ukraine because he was spooked by NATO, poor baby. Because the U.S. State Department made him do it or something.

Here is what Boris Nemtsov said, after Putin’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014:

“Ukraine chose the European way, which implies the rule of law, democracy, and change of power. Ukraine’s success on this way is a direct threat to Putin’s power, because he chose the opposite course — a lifetime in power, filled with arbitrariness and corruption.”

Plain as day.

• Meduza is a Russian news organization, in exile — these journalists work out of Riga, because it is impossible to report news honestly in Russia. Last month, the Kremlin made it illegal even to share links to Meduza.

Julia Ioffe spotlighted a report from Meduza — something that illustrates the re-Sovietization of Russia:

• In the decades of the USSR, some of the bravest people on earth were Russians. So it is today. Along with Vladimir Kara-Murza, Alexei Navalny, and others, consider Maria Ponomarenko. Here is a report from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. It begins,

A Russian court has sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison on the charge of discrediting Russia’s armed forces for a social-media post highlighting a deadly attack on a Ukrainian theater last year.

Ponomarenko is the latest in a growing number of journalists, dissidents, and average citizens being prosecuted by the authorities under a law that criminalizes distributing or publishing material that the government considers to be discrediting of Russia’s military.

Ms. Ponomarenko made a final statement in court:

“Patriotism is love for the motherland. And love for the motherland should not be manifested in the encouragement of crime. Corruption is a crime. Attacking a neighbor is a crime.”

And “no totalitarian regime has ever been as strong as before its collapse.”