The number of political prisoners in Russia has risen sharply this year in a trend that recalls late Soviet-era repression, according to Russia's leading rights group Memorial as it hosts a press conference with opposition leaders and activists on the issue. Sergei Davidis, head of a political prisoners' support program at Memorial, says that at least 420 people are now prisoners as a result of their political beliefs or foreign affiliation, whilst Alexander Porabinek, a Soviet-era dissident and journalist, says that the scale of imprisonment is comparable to the 'totalitarian past' of the USSR. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES