Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government has dramatically escalated its sustained assault on fundamental freedoms that began more than a decade ago.

Using new, repressive laws, Russian authorities have jailed or imprisoned hundreds of people and dismantled civic freedoms. Issues that would be part of the day to day discourse in many countries are taboo in Russia, and many dissenters, journalists, and activists have gone into exile out of fear of being caught in the crackdown. All of those released in the August 1 prisoner swap were jailed in Russia under these abusive laws.

Tripwires for Civil Society

A new HRW report details this wave of repressive legislation under Russian President Vladimir Putin and how the Kremlin has used it to suppress dissent and undermine civil society. The report shows how these laws severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and impose state-enforced narratives the public. 

Here are a few examples:

• The signature legislation in the government’s crackdown is the “foreign agents” law, which seeks to smear any person or entity that is critical of the government as “foreign,” and therefore suspicious or even traitorous. Russian authorities first enacted similar provisions in 2012 and are using them as a pretext for shutting down some of the country’s leading rights groups.
• War censorship laws, adopted after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, also ban spreading information or views about the conduct of Russian armed forces that deviates from official information. Penalties include long prison sentences, stripping people of their citizenship, and confiscating property. More than 480 people have faced criminal prosecution on war censorship charges.
• While LGBT people in Russia have long faced harassment and violence, recent legislative amendments mark a full-on attack as the Kremlin positions itself as a global defender of “traditional values.” A 2023 Supreme Court ruling designated the “International LGBT Movement” an “extremist organization,” sparking arbitrary prosecutions and imprisonment of LGBT people and anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them.

Resistance

With its sweeping and draconian restrictions on what people discuss and how they organize, the Russian government is testing the resilience of activists, journalists, and other civil society members like never before.

But they are persisting. As the Kremlin winds the clock back toward past tyranny, independent groups and media continue their work, providing hope that eventually Russia will become a country that protects and promotes fundamental rights instead of destroying them.

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