Over the last several years, Russian authorities have systematically pursued measures to repress human rights and close civic space, in an effort to transform the country’s political and social landscape. They have adopted harmful legislation aimed at dismantling civic freedoms, eviscerating independent organizations, and imposing government-approved versions of history, public values, and politics. They have sought to isolate Russia from information critical of the government, and have relentlessly prosecuted peaceful critics in bogus administrative and criminal cases. In the lead-up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and in its aftermath, the government introduced a series of draconian laws that criminalized criticism and independent reporting of the war and that expanded the definitions of ‘foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable organizations’ in order to obliterate civil society and free expression.
In October 2022, the Human Rights Council responded by establishing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Russia, citing grave concern over “systematic crackdowns on civil society organizations”, “reported mass arbitrary arrests… , the deterioration of the rule of law,” and “mass forced shutdowns of civil society organizations and independent media outlets.” The authorities’ campaign of repression has accelerated in the two years since the establishment of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate, in many cases prompting statements of concern from the UN High Commissioner and Special Procedures mechanisms.
Human Rights Situation in Russia – an Ever-Worsening Crisis
Crushing of Any Political Opposition
- Russian authorities have long since eliminated any semblance of genuine political competition and used a range of measures to harass and persecute political opposition. They used vague and ambiguous anti-extremism laws to ban organizations and even symbols associated with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, for whose death in prison in February 2024 the Kremlin is responsible, and penalized involvement with these organizations or display of their symbols. The Russian Orthodox Church demoted the priest who led Navalny’s funeral and 40-day commemoration ceremony shortly after.
- Authorities banned people designated as “foreign agents” from running in elections while maintaining stigmatizing labelling requirements for those even loosely “affiliated” with them.
- Courts have sentenced many opposition supporters to long prison terms for anti-war speech and peaceful protest.
- Authorities barred the only two truly independent candidates from running in the March 2024 presidential election, and designated one of them a “foreign agent” two months after it.
- At least 30 people are facing criminal charges or serving prison sentences, mainly on extremism charges, for their affiliation with Navalny’s organizations.
- On August 1, Russia freed 15 people from Russian prisons as part of a historic prisoner swap, but the fact that the prisoners freed should never have been imprisoned in the first place, meant that they were effectively used as hostages for leverage by the government. Among those freed were Russian activists whose politically motivated imprisonment, UN human rights special mechanisms had deplored. However, many more remain behind bars on politically motivated charges. As of August 2024, Memorial’s political prisoners project recorded 776 political prisoners in Russia.
Repression of Anti-War Expression
- The number of administrative charges brought for criticizing Russia’s war against Ukraine surpassed 10,000 in 2024. 522 people have been criminally prosecuted on bogus charges of “false information” or “discreditation” of Russian armed forces. 146 have been convicted since October 2023, and 120 people remain imprisoned on these charges.
- An emblematic conviction was against one of Russia’s top human rights defenders, Oleg Orlov, in February. He received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence and was freed in the August 1 prisoner swap.
- Human rights and anti-war activists in Russia face arrest, criminal and administrative prosecutions, torture and other mistreatment in detention, intimidation, and brutal violence. In March 2024, the police detained election observer Vera Indienko for having an anti-war symbol on her profile picture on a social media platform. She said officers then put a bag over her head and beat her. In April, the cellmate of blogger Sergei Veselov, who remains in pre-trial detention on charges of criticizing Russia’s war, among others, beat him and poured boiling water over him. Also in April, unknown individuals attacked Stanislav Netesov, and knocked out a tooth. When he went to the police to report the assault, the police charged him with discrediting the military for having his hair dyed blue, yellow, and green.
Continued Decimation of Civil Society
- Authorities adopted further laws, adding to Russia’s arsenal of repressive legislation and making already existing legislation even harsher. These laws related to:
- Foreign agents.
- The state can designate any individual or entity a “foreign agent” if authorities deemed them to “under foreign influence.” Penalties for failing to comply with registration, reporting, and labeling provisions have stiffened and now include fines, imprisonment, and revocation of citizenship for naturalized citizens. Amendments adopted in 2022-2023 exclude alleged “foreign agents” from holding posts in the civil service, teaching, and other public positions.
- A March 2024 law prohibits placing advertisements in “foreign agent” media or advertising on their websites or social media.
- Undesirables. An August 2024 law expanded the scope of “undesirable” legislation allowing the authorities to designate as such any foreign or international organization, not just NGOs.
- Foreign agents.
- New penalties for dissent.
- A February 2024 law enabled authorities to confiscate property of those convicted under a range of charges, including “fake news” about Russia’s military, and increased penalties for public calls that undermine Russia’s security. This measure appears aimed to punish exiled critics, and their loved ones who remain in Russia.
- The July 2024 six-year prison sentence against theatre director Evgeniya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk for an award-winning play, for “justifying terrorism,” illustrates the shocking ways in which Russian criminal justice officials are distorting the law to punish people who have committed no crime.
- Under Russia’s draconian “undesirables” law, 188 media, civil society and human rights groups and their entities have been added to the “‘undesirables” register, 74 of which were added after October 2023. Authorities have blocked the websites of many of them, including Article 19, Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Moscow Times, the Feminist Anti-War Resistance, Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien.
- In recent months, at least two people were convicted on criminal charges for involvement with “undesirable” organizations, and at least seven new cases were opened. Among them is Grigory Melkonyants. He remains in pre-trial detention on charges of heading a prominent Russian election monitoring group, Golos, which authorities equate with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which is designated as “undesirable.”
- Since October 2023, 155 individuals or legal entities have been designated as “foreign agents,” of which two were subsequently removed from the registry, bringing the total number to 633. (An additional 216 individuals and entities have been removed from the registry since its creation in 2014). “Help Needed,” a prominent charitable foundation designated a “foreign agent” in January 2024, announced its closure due to the designation.
- In June 2024, Russia’s media and communications oversight agency Roskomnadzor said that it referred 45 people for criminal prosecution for failure to fulfil the “foreign agent” law’s labelling requirements, and 25 criminal cases had already been opened. Among those charged are Golos coordinators Sergei Piskunov, Artyom Vazhenkov and Vladimir Zhilinskiy, and Denis Kamaliagin, the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper.
- Russian authorities continued to prosecute activists who fled the country, convicting them in absentia on war censorship, extremism and other politically motivated charges. Authorities have been seeking to use bilateral and multi-lateral international legal cooperation agreements to forcibly return activists to Russia, where they face criminal prosecution for peaceful opposition to the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine.
Persecution of LGBT+ People
- In December 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled to outlaw “the International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organization.” Based on this ruling, authorities imposed administrative penalties on at least 27 people for displaying LGBT symbols, such as the rainbow flag, that they treat as “extremist”.
- In March 2024, authorities in Orenburg charged three workers at a bar that featured drag performances with “organizing” the activities of the LGBT movement based on the Supreme Court’s ruling. The workers face six to ten years in prison on these bogus charges.
- LGBT+ people in Chechnya are under threat of fabricated criminal charges, being kidnapped in other parts of Russia and returned to Chechnya, enforced disappearances, torture, and other violence.
Right to Privacy – Expanding the Surveillance State
- Over the past year, Russian authorities continued centralized aggregation of personal data of people in Russia by expanding the registry of websites that are obligated to collect, retain, and share users’ data to law enforcement, upon the latter’s request. This includes online services such as for purchasing flight tickets, booking hotels ordering taxis, and the other online activities.
- The authorities also continued the collection of biometric data by obligating banks to pass on their clients’ data to the state unless clients actively withdraw their consent.
- Sensitive personal data collected by Russian authorities, including that of children, have already been shown to be prone to corruption and leaks.
Freedom of Expression and Access to Information Online
- Over the past year, Russian authorities increasingly fined and partially or fully blocked Russian and foreign technology companies for failure to comply with draconian national legislation on internet censorship, data localization, and disclosure of users’ data. In July and August 2024 alone, Russian authorities announced the blockings of WhatsApp, Signal and YouTube. The authorities also continued to block VPNs that allow users in Russia to bypass internet censorship.
- The authorities amended legislation to deanonymize and ban advertisement on social media channels with more than 10,000 followers that are not registered with the authorities.
- Authorities continued expanding their control over the physical internet infrastructure in Russia by controlling the companies providing internet services and expanding the technology which allows the state to independently reroute, block and filter internet traffic.
The Role of the Special Rapporteur on Russia is Still Desperately Needed
As Russia’s human rights crisis deepens, renewing the Special Rapporteur on Russia’s mandate would mean the grave human rights abuses could be exposed and addressed in a holistic and systematic manner, engaging with Russian authorities and the UN system as well as with human rights defenders, activists, and civil society organizations.
The Special Rapporteur mandate would keep open an important point of contact for Russian human rights defenders, activists, and civil society organizations within the UN Human Rights architecture. Civil society in Russia is becoming increasingly isolated from the international community, and since Russia’s departure from the Council of Europe, Russians are losing important avenues for support and justice.
The mandate provides an expert and authoritative voice at the international level who can give voice to the situation of those in Russia facing intimidation, harassment, and harsh punishment for their human rights work, who are isolated and vulnerable in the face of an ever-tightening autocracy.
Renewal of the mandate by the Human Rights Council would signal to the Russian authorities that the international community remains engaged and vigilant not only with respect to Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, but also on the human rights crisis inside Russia.
It is critical that human rights defenders, journalists, and activists – whether in Russia or in exile – have an avenue for engagement and support in their courageous stand against serious violations of human rights committed at home or abroad. The UN Human Rights Council should send a strong message to civil society in Russia that their calls for international scrutiny of human rights are still being heard.
