In the past week, two Russian journalists have been placed in pretrial detention and a third Russian reporter put under house arrest. Two were associated with organizations run by the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and all three worked at some stage for international news outlets.

Two Russian journalists were arrested by their government on "extremism” charges and ordered by courts there on Saturday to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Russia has labeled the Alexei Navalny's anti-Putin foundation an “extremist organization." Navalny was a rival to Putin until his death.