When Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was suddenly moved to a detention center in Moscow from his Siberian prison, he thought he was being taken from his cell to be shot.

The U.S. and Russia completed on Thursday their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, a deal involving 24 people, many months of negotiations and concessions from other European countries who released individuals in their custody as part of the exchange.

The United States and Russia have made their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history.

One prisoner has spent over 5½ years behind bars in Russia while other, higher-profile detainees were released ahead of him.

Members of Congress on Tuesday are calling for the immediate release of Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. The renewed calls from lawmakers have come on the second anniversary of his imprisonment, part of the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on critics of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For political prisoners, life in Russia’s penal colonies and labor camps is a grim reality of physical and psychological pressure, insufficient food, poor health care, sleep deprivation and arbitrary rules that are impossible to obey.

A Moscow court has fined Google for failing to store personal data on its Russian users.

Alexei Navalny will spend his 47th birthday Sunday in a tiny prison cell with hardly any natural light.

The 25-year treason sentence imposed on prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday was a particularly severe show of authorities’ intensifying intolerance of criticism of the war in Ukraine and other dissenting opinions.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on five Russian officials and an expert witness involved in the incarceration of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician who has been imprisoned in Moscow since April for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.