; Whereas, investigative journalist and former editor of the independent newspaper Noviye Kolyosa, Igor Rudnikov has been in pretrial detention since November 1, 2017, for alleged extortion charges; Whereas Igor Rudnikov’s detention and charges were criticized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and Reporters without Borders, calling them clearly trumped-up and an act of political revenge , respectively; Whereas opposition activist Konstantin Kotov was sentenced to 1.5 years’ imprisonment on April 20, 2020, for participating in peaceful demonstrations, in a ruling Amnesty International has described as a profound injustice ; Whereas Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist in the Open Russia movement, has been held under house arrest since January 23, 2019, on the charge of belonging to an undesirable organization and has been designated by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience; Whereas Yuri Dmitriev, a leader of Memorial Human Rights Center’s branch in the Republic of Karelia region of the Russian Federation who has worked to document mass burial sites from Stalin-era executions, is being held in pretrial detention on charges of child pornography that Human Rights Watch has described as bogus and part of an ongoing smear campaign ; Whereas Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness and a Danish citizen, was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment on February 6, 2019, in a decision condemned by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom as part of the broader pattern of the Russian Government engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom ; Whereas, on February 10, 2020, seven activists from Russia’s Penza Oblast were sentenced to terms of six to eighteen years for alleged membership in a terrorist group following a detention marked by torture, ill-treatment to extract confessions, and periods held incommunicado