Eight people, tried in the largest Russian political trial of the past half-century, were jailed last week having been held for protesting the seemingly endless presidency of Vladimir Putin, writes Masha Gessen

A man helping to construct the stage for a major protest rally in Moscow has died after a column of sound equipment collapsed.

Several hundred demonstrators demanding a rerun of parliamentary elections are in a square in central Moscow for a second weekend of protests against the fraud-tainted vote.

Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in central Moscow to demonstrate against alleged voting fraud and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, in the largest public show of discontent since the end of the Soviet Union.