(Brussels, January 16, 2025) – The Kremlin has intensified its crackdown on all forms of dissent inside Russia during the third year of a large-scale abusive war against Ukraine, Human Rights Watch said today in its Global Report 2025. Russian authorities have continued their pernicious crusade in favor of “ traditional values ”, have further strengthened the toxic laws on “ foreign agents » and the “ unwanted organizations “, and have actively used their vast arsenal of repressive tools, including wartime censorship laws, to stifle critics of the regime, including those living in exile.
In the 35th edition In its 546-page World Report, Human Rights Watch analyzes human rights practices in nearly one hundred countries. Across much of the world, executive director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments have wrongly repressed, arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists and journalists. Armed groups and state forces have unlawfully killed civilians, forced many from their homes and prevented them from accessing humanitarian assistance. In many cases among the more than 70 national elections held in 2024, authoritarian leaders have gained ground based on discriminatory rhetoric and political agendas.
« The Kremlin has stepped up its efforts to impose public support for the war against Ukraine and so-called “traditional Russian values,” and has passed more repressive laws to make it even easier to penalize those who do not fall into line. said Hugh Williamson, Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch.
- In Ukraine, Russian forces indiscriminately bombed and shelled civilian infrastructure, killing civilians and causing significant destruction. Targeted attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have caused power outages across the country. Russian authorities have held incommunicado and tortured or otherwise mistreated thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians. In occupied regions of Ukraine, Russian authorities have imposed the Russian state curriculum in schools, suppressed the Ukrainian language, and threatened parents whose children follow Ukrainian state lessons over the Internet.
- The list of political prisoners, now numbering 804 according to the rights organization Memorial, continued to grow, even after Russia released 15 people in a detainee exchange. Among the prisoners involved in this exchange were Russian political and civic activists whose imprisonment was politically motivated.
- A law passed in March banned advertising in media described as ” foreign agents ”, with the aim of depriving these groups of sources of income. A May law banned people described as “ foreign agents » to run for public office or sit on electoral commissions. Prosecutors have investigated at least 25 criminal cases for alleged violations of the law on foreign agents ».
- Authorities censored content depicting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and fined bookstores, streaming services, and individuals who distributed such content. Following the Supreme Court’s designation of the LGBT movement as ” extremist prosecutors brought criminal charges against employees of a bar frequented by LGBT people, and judges imposed fines and administrative detention on people who displayed the rainbow flag.
Russia should release all political prisoners and promote an environment in which civil society can function freely, Human Rights Watch said. Russian authorities should repeal all laws incompatible with fundamental human rights, including laws relating to war censorship, foreign agents “, to foreign organizations “ unwanted “, to the ” gay propaganda » and “ propaganda for a child-free lifestyle “. The authorities should end indiscriminate attacks on civilians, torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war, respect occupation law and hold to account forces responsible for war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law.
Canada
Related News :