420, give or take: Meduza talks to Memorial’s Sergey Davidis about Russia’s growing number of political prisoners

The number of political prisoners in Russia today is nearly five times higher than it was five years ago, according to the latest report from the Memorial Human Rights Center. Activists began maintaining a list of Russian political prisoners in the late 2000s, and for a long time it was made up of a few dozen names. But this tally has increased sharply since 2015. Today, the country has 420 political prisoners and is poised to catch up to the numbers seen during the twilight years of the USSR. All of these people are being persecuted for their political or religious beliefs. To find out more about the nature of political persecution in Russia today, Meduza spoke to prominent human rights activist Sergey Davidis, who leads Memorial's "Support for Political Prisoners" program. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/10/27/420-give-or-take