The Moscow Times: Russia on Monday confirmed 23,210 Covid-19 infections and 937 deaths.
The Guardian: A Russian court has increased a jail sentence for the Gulag historian Yury Dmitriyev to a total of 15 years on charges his supporters say are punishment for his work exposing Stalin-era crimes. Supporters say Dmitriyev, 65, is being targeted because of his efforts to expose the horrors of the Soviet era under Joseph Stalin.
RFE/RL: An investigative reporter for the BBC’s Russian-language service in Moscow says he has left Russia for London after noticing that he had been placed under “rather unprecedented surveillance” by the authorities. Andrei Zakharov made the announcement in a video released on December 27.
