DASHA LITVINOVA

Russia and CIS correspondent

Litvinova is an Associated Press correspondent covering Russia, Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus. She is part of the team that covers the Russia-Ukraine war. She has covered Russia and the region for over a decade.

In this photo released by Sputnik news agency on Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin, Pool Photo via AP, File)

How the Kremlin weaponized Russian history — and has used it to justify the war in Ukraine

In an effort to rally people around their world view, Russian authorities have tried to magnify the country’s past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters of its history.

In this grab taken from video provided by the Navalny Team on Tuesday. Feb. 20, 2024, Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya speaks, near the prison colony in the town of Kharp, Russia. The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appealed to President Vladimir Putin to intervene and turn her son’s body over to her so she can bury him with dignity. Lyudmila Navalnaya, who has been trying to get his body since Saturday, appeared in a video outside the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died on Friday. (Navalny Team via AP)

Navalny’s mother appeals to Putin to release her son’s body so she can bury him with dignity

The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appealed to President Vladimir Putin to intervene and turn her son’s body over to her so she can bury him with dignity.

FILE This photo taken from video released by Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via SOTAVISION shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears via a video link from the Arctic penal colony in Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenetsk region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, where he is serving a 19-year sentence, in Kovrov, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2024. Shortly after Navalny's death was reported on Friday Feb. 16, 2024, the Russian SOTA social media channel shared images of the opposition politician reportedly in court yesterday. In the footage, Navalny is seen standing up and is laughing and joking with the judge via video link. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via SOTAVISION via AP, File)

Who are other Russian dissidents besides the late Alexei Navalny?

The sudden death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable antagonist has left an open wound in Russia’s political opposition.

A woman places flowers as people pay tribute to Alexei Navalny at the Memorial to Victims of Political Repression in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. Russians across the vast country streamed to ad-hoc memorials with flowers and candles to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny, the most famous Russian opposition leader and the Kremlin's fiercest critic. Russian officials reported that Navalny, 47, died in prison on Friday. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Over 300 detained in Russia as country mourns the death of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest foe

A prominent rights group says over 300 people have been detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony.

A portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and flowers are pictured as people gather near to Russian embassy to France, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 in Paris. Alexei Navalny, Russia's top opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, died in prison on Friday, a statement from the Federal Penitentiary Service said. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Nerve agents, poison and window falls. Kremlin foes have been attacked or killed over the years

Kremlin critics, turncoat spies and investigative journalists have been attacked or killed in a variety of ways.

Photos of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, with flowers and candles are laid on a ground in front of the Russian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, died Friday in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia's prison agency said. He was 47. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Western officials and Kremlin critics blame Putin and his government for Navalny’s death in prison

World leaders and Russian opposition activists wasted no time in blaming the reported death of Alexei Navalny on President Vladimir Putin and his government.

FILE - Alexei Navalny speaks to journalists after being released from a police custody on the outskirts of Moscow early Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. Russian authorities on Friday, Feb. 16, 2023, say Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison. He was 47. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

Protests, poisoning and prison: The life and death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s top opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, has died in prison. That’s according to the Federal Penitentiary Service.

FILE - In this handout photo taken from a footage provided by Moscow City Court, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny shows a heard symbol standing in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP, File)

Alexei Navalny, galvanizing opposition leader and Putin’s fiercest foe, died in prison, Russia says

Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence, felt unwell after a walk, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to revive him, but he died. It said the cause of death was “being established.”

FILE - A protester raises a banner during a rally against same-sex marriage, at central Syntagma square, in Athens, Greece, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. Greece is becoming the first majority-Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. At least for the near future, it will be the only one. The Eastern Orthodox leadership, despite lacking a single doctrinal authority like a pope, has been unanimous in opposing recognition of same-sex relationships. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, File)

Greece just legalized same-sex marriage. Will other Orthodox countries join them any time soon?

Greece has become the first majority-Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. At least for the near future, it will almost certainly be the only one.

Boris Nadezhdin, a liberal Russian politician who is seeking to run in the March 17 presidential election, laughs during a meeting of the Russia's Central Election Commission in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. Russia's Central Election Commission holds a meeting where it decides whether an opposition presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin is qualified to run in the March election. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian election officials reject antiwar politician’s bid to oppose Putin in next month’s vote

Antiwar politician Boris Nadezhdin was rejected as a candidate in next month’s presidential balloting by Russian election officials, a strong signal from the Kremlin that it won’t tolerate any public opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Boris Kovalchuk, chairman of the Management Board of Russia's energy export and import operator Inter RAO during their meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

First Russians are fined or jailed over rainbow-colored items after LGBTQ+ ‘movement’ is outlawed

Russian media and rights groups say the first publicly known cases have emerged of Russian authorities penalizing people under a court ruling that outlawed LGBTQ+ activism as extremism.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears via a video link from the Arctic penal colony where he is serving a 19-year sentence, provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service during a hearing of Russia's Supreme Court, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Kremlin foe Navalny urges election day protests in Russia next month by voting at a specific hour

Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging Russians to show their protest of President Vladimir Putin during next month’s presidential balloting by voting at a specific time on election day.

FILE - Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 31, 2023. Supporters of prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. say on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 he has disappeared from the Siberian prison where he was behind bars. The 42-year-old Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year sentence for treason. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov, file)

Russian opposition figure Kara-Murza is moved to another prison and returns to solitary confinement

Lawyers for Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, say he has been transferred to another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement again over an alleged minor infraction.

FILE - Darya Trepova, a suspect in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger, attends a court hearing in the Basmanny District Court, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 1, 2023. The Russian authorities on Friday sought a 28-year prison sentence for Trepova over the bombing at a St. Petersburg cafe that killed a prominent Russian military blogger and injured over 50 others. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russian prosecutors seek lengthy prison terms for suspects in cases linked to the war in Ukraine

A Russian court in Siberia has sentenced a man to 19 years in prison for shooting a military enlistment officer in an attack last September linked to the war in Ukraine.

Hundreds protest and clash with police in a Russian region after an activist is sentenced to prison

Media reports and rights groups say hundreds of protesters clashed with police in the Russian region of Bashkortostan in a rare display of public outrage after a court convicted a local activist and sentenced him to prison.

FILE - In this photo taken from a footage provided by the Babuskinsky District Court on Feb. 16, 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center smiles as he talks with his lawyers Olga Mikhailova, left, and Vadim Kobzev during a hearing on his charges for defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. Mikhailova, a lawyer for imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that the authorities charged her with participating in an extremist group in absentia. (Babuskinsky District Court Press Service via AP, File)

Another lawyer for Kremlin foe Navalny faces extremism charges. She had left Russia

A lawyer for imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny says that Russian authorities have charged her with participating in an extremist group.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a TV screen as he appears in a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service from the courtroom in Kovrov, Vladimir region, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Navalny, 47, is jailed on charges of extremism. He had been imprisoned in the Vladimir region of central Russia, but was transferred last month to a "special regime" penal colony — the highest security level of prisons in Russia — above the Artic Circle. His allies decried the transfer to a colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence. (AP Photo/Antonina Favorskaya)

Kremlin foe Navalny, smiling and joking, appears in court via video link from an Arctic prison

A smiling and joking Alexei Navalny has appeared in court via video link from the Arctic penal colony where he is serving a 19-year sentence.

FILE - Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia on Feb. 29, 2020. Russia’s prison agency says that imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died. He was 47. The Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday Feb. 16, 2024 and lost consciousness. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

Kremlin foe Navalny says he’s been put in a punishment cell in an Arctic prison colony

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says officials at the Arctic prison colony where he is serving a 19-year term have isolated him in a tiny punishment cell over a minor infraction.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in the opening ceremony of the Vostok (East) M-12 motorway to Kazan, via videoconference, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. Putin on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024 signed a decree allowing for a quicker path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country's army amid the special military operation in Ukraine. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Putin speeds up a citizenship path for foreigners who enlist in the Russian military

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine.

FILE - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a TV screen as he appears in a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service from the colony in Melekhovo, Vladimir region, during a hearing at the Russian Supreme Court in Moscow, Russia, on June 22, 2023. The Kremlin on Tuesday Dec. 12, 2023 bristled at the U.S. voicing concern about Navalny who has vanished from his prison colony, denouncing it as “inadmissible interference” in the country's domestic affairs. Worries about Navalny, who has been serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism in a penal colony in western Russia spread Monday after prison officials said he was no longer on the inmate roster, possibly indicating his transfer to another penitentiary. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Kremlin foe Navalny was moved from a prison east of Moscow, his allies say, but new site is unclear

Allies of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny said his lawyer was told in court that he had been moved from the penal colony east of Moscow where he has been serving time but was not told where he was taken.

FILE - Oleg Orlov, a member of the Board of the International Historical Educational Charitable and Human Rights Society 'Memorial' (International Memorial), speaks to journalists at the monument, a large boulder from the Solovetsky islands, where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established, near the building of the Federal Security Service (FSB, Soviet KGB successor) in Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023. A court in Russia on Thursday, Dec. 14, overturned a fine handed to Orlov for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sent Orlov's case back to prosecutors, who have sought to imprison him for three years instead. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov, File)

Court voids fine given to Russian activist for criticizing war and sends case back to prosecutors

A court in Russia has overturned a fine handed to a veteran human rights advocate for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

FILE - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a TV screen, as he appears in a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in a courtroom of the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 18, 2022. Allies of Navalny are sounding the alarm and saying that neither they nor his lawyers have heard from him in six days. Navalny is serving a 19-year prison term on the charges of extremism. He was due to appear in court Monday, Dec. 11, 2023 via video link but didn’t. (AP Photo, File)

Navalny’s whereabouts are unknown and a Russian prison says he’s no longer there, a spokeswoman says

The whereabouts of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are unknown and a spokeswoman says that officials at the penal colony where he was serving his sentence told a lawyer that he’s no longer on the inmate roster.

FILE - Participants watch Russian President Vladimir Putin's addressing a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, Friday, June 17, 2022. Most Russian opposition figures are either in prison at home or are in exile abroad. But they vow that they will still put up a fight against President Vladimir Putin as he seeks yet another term in office in an election scheduled for March. (AP Photo, File)

With Putin’s reelection all but assured, Russia’s opposition still vows to undermine his image

Most Russian opposition figures are either in prison at home or are in exile abroad. But they vow that they will still put up a fight against President Vladimir Putin as he seeks yet another term in office in an election scheduled for March.

FILE - Masha Gessen attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street on Nov. 15, 2017, in New York. Russian police has put Masha Gessen, a prominent Russian-American journalist, on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on the charges of spreading false information about the Russian army. It is the latest step in in an unrelenting crackdown against dissent in Russia that has intensified manifold after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine more than 21 months ago (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Russia puts prominent Russian-US journalist Masha Gessen on wanted list for criminal charges

Russian police have put prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.

FILE - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at photographers from inside a glass cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 20, 2021. Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed new charges by Russian prosecutors. The 47-year-old is already serving more than 30 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes including extremism — charges that his supporters characterize as politically motivated. In comments passed to his associates, Navalny said he had been charged under article 214 of Russia’s penal code, which covers crimes of vandalism (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Kremlin foe Navalny’s lawyers to remain in detention at least through mid-March, Russian court rules

A Moscow court has extended the pre-trial detention of three lawyers who once represented imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In this photo provided by The Federation Council of The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council, Russian parliament's upper chamber, background center, leads the session of Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. Russian lawmakers have set the date of the 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin closer to a fifth term in office. (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation via AP)

Putin moves a step closer to a fifth term as president after Russia sets 2024 election date

Lawmaker’s in Russia have set March 17 as the date for the country’s 2024 presidential election. A scheduling decree unanimously approved by the upper house of the Russian parliament Thursday moves Vladimir Putin closer to a fifth term in office.

FILE - Gay rights activists carry rainbow flags as they march during a May Day rally in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism, in the most drastic step against advocates of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the increasingly conservative country. (AP Photo, File)

Russia’s Supreme Court effectively outlaws LGBTQ+ activism in a landmark ruling

Russia’s Supreme Court has effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism, in the most drastic step against advocates of gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the increasingly conservative country.

FILE - LGBT activists hold their flag at a rally to collect signatures to cancel the results of voting on amendments to the Constitution in Pushkin Square in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. The Russian Justice Ministry says it has filed a lawsuit with the country's Supreme Court to outlaw the LGBTQ "international public movement" as extremist. (AP Photo, File)

Russian authorities ask the Supreme Court to declare the LGBTQ ‘movement’ extremist

The Russian Justice Ministry says it has filed a lawsuit with the country’s Supreme Court to outlaw the LGBTQ “international public movement” as extremist.

Sasha Skochilenko, a 33 year-old artist and musician cries standing behind bars in the court room in the Vasileostrovsky district court in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. Skochilenko has been convicted of spreading false information about the military and sentenced to 7 years in prison after replacing several supermarket price tags with slogans criticizing Russia's military action in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Russian artist who protested Ukraine war gets 7 years in prison in latest crackdown on free speech

A Russian court has convicted an artist and musician for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans and sentenced her to seven years in prison.

FILE - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at photographers from inside a glass cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 20, 2021. Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed new charges by Russian prosecutors. The 47-year-old is already serving more than 30 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes including extremism — charges that his supporters characterize as politically motivated. In comments passed to his associates, Navalny said he had been charged under article 214 of Russia’s penal code, which covers crimes of vandalism (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russia jails an associate of imprisoned Kremlin foe Navalny as crackdown on dissent continues

An associate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed by a court in the Siberian city of Tomsk pending trial.