Russian riot police detained hundreds of protesters at a Moscow courthouse where seven opponents of President Vladimir Putin were jailed from two and a half to four years over a demonstration that turned violent.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the braided darling of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution who went on to be prime minister, is wasting away in prison – weakened from a hunger strike, bruised from prison beatings and afraid she will be force-fed by her political foes, her family said.

Ukrainians began voting today in an early parliamentary election meant to bring an end to a months-long political stand off between the nation’s two feuding leaders.