The Kremlin intensified its crackdown on any form of dissent inside Russia in the third year of its abusive full-scale war against Ukraine, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. Russian authorities continued their harmful "traditional values" crusade, further expanded the toxic legislation on "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations," and actively used their vast arsenal of repressive tools, including war censorship laws, to stifle critics, including those in exile.
For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.
"The Kremlin has doubled down to require public support for the war against Ukraine and so-called "Russian traditional values" and adopted more repressive laws to make it even easier to penalize anyone who doesn't fall in line," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
- In Ukraine, Russian forces have indiscriminately bombed and shelled civilian infrastructure, killing civilians and causing massive destruction. Targeted attacks on Ukraine's energy grid, caused countrywide blackouts. Russian authorities held incommunicado and tortured or ill-treated thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians. In areas of Ukraine that they occupy, Russian authorities imposed the Russian state curriculum in schools, suppressed the Ukrainian language, and threatened parents whose children learn the Ukrainian state curriculum online.
- The list of political prisoners, now at 804 according to the rights group Memorial, continued growing, even after Russia freed 15 people in a prisoner swap. The exchange included Russian political and civic activists whose imprisonment was politically motivated.
- A March law prohibited advertising in "foreign agent" media to deprive these groups of revenue. A May law banned individuals labeled "foreign agents" from running for public office and serving on election commissions. Prosecutors opened at least 25 criminal cases over alleged violations of "foreign agents" legislation.
- Authorities censored content that included depictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and fined bookstores, streaming services, and individuals for showing such content. Following the Supreme Court's designation of the LGBT movement as "extremist," prosecutors brought criminal cases against workers at an LGBT-friendly bar, and judges imposed fines and administrative detention for displaying the rainbow flag.
Russia should release all political prisoners and foster an environment in which civil society can operate freely, Human Rights Watch said. Russian authorities should rescind all laws incompatible with fundamental human rights, including the laws regarding war censorship, "foreign agents," "undesirable" foreign organizations, "gay propaganda," and "propaganda of child-free lifestyle." The authorities should end indiscriminate attacks on civilians, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war, abide by the law of occupation, and hold accountable forces responsible for war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law.
