Olga Beshlei is a senior writer and producer for Current Time TV.
In recent days, several Russian political activists from Murmansk to Khabarovsk have been sentenced to compulsory psychiatric or other medical treatment. Human rights groups have been warning for years about the increased use of such Soviet-style practices as a tool against dissent.
Protesters in Belarus are responding to police brutality by singing. The tunes they choose tell a story about the values the demonstrators stand for.
