Yury Schmidt , the crusading Russian human rights lawyer and the only Russian attorney to go head to head with the Russian Federal Security Service – the successor organization to the KGB – and win died Saturday in St. Petersburg after a long battle with cancer. He was 75.

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- In a Moscow hearing on Monday, prosecutors will ask the Russian Supreme Court to dismiss the December 29, 1999 acquittal of environmental activist Alexsandr Nikitin as a prelude to yet another new hearing on the case. The Sierra Club and Amnesty International are alarmed by the prosecutors' actions and believe this move violates the rule of law and the Russian Constitution.