Russian law enforcement authorities refused to launch a criminal investigation into the death of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his widow said Thursday, citing a letter she received from investigators.

In February, Navalny died under unclear circumstances at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence on a

Veteran human rights defender Oleg Orlov was one of the 16 prisoners freed by Russia on Aug. 1 in a historic exchange between Russia and the West.

Orlov, 71, a vocal critic of the invasion of Ukraine, had been imprisoned this year for “discrediting” the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine.

A co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Memorial human

The Russian division of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank will suspend foreign currency transfers for nearly all of its clients in the country starting next month, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

“From Sept. 2, 2024, outgoing cross-border transfers in foreign currencies will no longer be available for our clients except for a limited number of t