In May 2011, police arrested Irina Brovkina for organizing a one-person picket outside the Sochi mayor's office. Although a one-person protest does not require official permission, prosecutors charged her with organizing an unsanctioned gathering and disobeying police orders. She was sentenced to three days' detention after a rushed, late-night court hearing at which she had no lawyer. Brovkina was protesting the compensation the authorities offered for the apartment she and her husband owned, which was less than half of what they had paid for the apartment three years earlier. Local authorities evicted Brovkina's family and other residents and demolished the apartment building to make way for construction of a railroad, a component of the Olympics transportation infrastructure.

© 2012 Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty Images for Human Rights Watch