Plotnikov had been detained in Dagestan in December 2010 on suspicion of having ties to the militants and during his interrogation was forced to hand over a list of social networking friends from the United States and Canada who like him had once lived in Russia, Novaya Gazeta reported.

NPR: Russia Had Elder Boston Suspect Under Surveillance

His wife, Irina Khalip, a journalist for Russia's Novaya Gazeta, says he has been tortured.

ECONOMIST: Belarus under fire

In 2001, she fled briefly to Austria after a particularly vivid death threat scared not her, but her editors at Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's few remaining independent papers.

ECONOMIST: Anna Politkovskaya

On Thursday, Novaya Gazeta, liberal newspaper in Moscow, published unprecedented material: complaints from dozens of young people hired by United Russia to vote multiple times at multiple polling places for not getting paid.

FORBES: Will Charges Of Election Fraud Prompt A 'Russian Spring'?