At least one person has died and three were injured in an explosion at Moscow’s Central Children’s Store.

From its earliest days, the Soviet Union’s intelligence services — whether known as the Cheka or the names of any of its successor agencies like the KGB — kept the government in power by pursuing its opponents no matter where they lived.

A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated the network of the country’s main security agency and obtained access to personal files of over 8,600 staffers of the KGB, the security service that still goes under its Soviet name.

Russians commemorated the victims of Soviet state terror on Sunday, while the Russian government continues its crackdown on dissent in the country.

Lefortovo prison, where American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been jailed on espionage charges, has been a terrifying symbol of repression since Soviet times.

Belarusian authorities have blocked access to another news site, the latest in a series of steps restricting independent media in the country after it was shaken by a wave of mass anti-government protests.

On Aug. 19, 1991, a group of top Communist Party hard-liners declared they had removed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country.

In this photo taken from video released by Belarusian KGB, State TV and Radio Company of Belarus on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, Belarusian KGB officers detain Russian men in a sanitarium outside in Minsk, Belarus. (Belarusian KGB, State TV and Radio Company of Belarus via AP)MOSCOW The Kremlin demanded Friday that Belarus quickly release 33 Russian private security contractors it detained on terrorism charges, dismissing accusations of plots during the Belarus presidential campaign as bogus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects Belarus to quickly free the detainees. He frequently accused the Kremlin of harboring plans to incorporate Belarus with Russia and vowed to resist them. Belarus election officials have blocked his two main challengers from being registered to run against him.