Watchdog

The health of Kazakh lawyer Zinaida Mukhortova, who was forcibly put into a psychiatric clinic, is reportedly deteriorating.

Mukhortova's sister, Natalya Abent, told RFE/RL on July 25 that the lawyer has red eyes and is not able to properly move because her body is swollen.

Abent said her sister's health problems were caused by medication administered to her in the clinic.

Mukhortova was detained and placed in the clinic on July 2 after she had returned to Balkash from self-imposed exile in Russia.

Mukhortova, 56, fled Kazakhstan in December after a Qaraghandy regional court rejected her appeal to cancel her forced psychiatric treatment.

Mukhortova was forced to undergo psychiatric treatment twice in 2012 and 2013.

She insisted the legal actions against her were politically motivated.

Mukhortova said authorities investigated her mental competence only after she filed complaints against a high-ranking local official.

A Russian court has sentenced two Russian opposition activists -- Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev – to 4.5 years in prison each.

The Moscow City Court announced the sentences on the evening of July 24 after the same court earlier in the day found both men guilty of organizing mass disorder.

Udaltsov, the coordinator of the Left Front movement, and Razvozzhayev were accused of preparing mass riots in Russian regions and organizing an anti-Putin rally on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in May 2012 that turned violent and left scores of protesters and police injured.

Razvozzhayev was also accused of illegally crossing the border.

Investigators say the protest was orchestrated by a Georgian politician, Givi Targamadze, who is not in Russia.

The two went on trial in February and pleaded not guilty.

On July 7, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev to eight years in jail each.

Udaltsov has already declared he was going on a hunger strike to protest the court decision.

Based on reporting by Reuters, ITAR-TASS, and Interfax