Russia's repression of opposition voices at home and abroad has intensified, with a growing number of people sentenced in absentia for criticising Vladimir Putin or his government.
The country's most famous opposition figure was Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who faced frequent arrest.
Navalny received his final sentence in 2023 and was killed in prison the following year, believed poisoned by agents of the state.
Last year a Russian court designated punk collective Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation.
The group first acquired notoriety in 2012 with a demonstration in Moscow's famous orthodox cathedral against the Church's support for Putin.
In 2022, Pussy Riot founding member Maria Alyokhina escaped from Russia to a life in exile.
She was in Australia recently, speaking at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
She also spoke with 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson.
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