MOSCOW( Reuters)-Russian authorities said on Wednesday they had fired five senior prison officials and opened a slew of criminal investigations into alleged torture and sexual assaults at a jail in the Saratov region. The authorities acted after a prisoner rights group, Gulagu. net, began publishing what it said was graphic video evidence of orchestrated sadism at the prison, located around 700 km( 450 miles) southeast of Moscow.... It said it had received a massive leak of documents, photos an

The Kremlin has insisted that Russia’s defence minister – who had not been seen for 13 days – has “ a lot on his plate ”, amid reports of whistleblower claims of the growing possibility of a coup against Vladimir Putin as the Ukraine war drags on. Sergei Shoigu, a close ally of the Russian president, was a prominent voice during the early days of the invasion of Russia’s sovereign neighbour, echoing Mr Putin’s claims of acting to “ demilitarise and de-Nazify ” Ukraine. But the defence minister w

Read ourprivacy notice Thanks for signing up to theBreaking News email{{# verifyErrors}}{{ message}}{{/ verifyErrors}}{{^ verifyErrors}} Something went wrong.... Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?... Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Subscribe Already subscribed?...