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February-March 2022: War, censorship, increased repression

Details: Human Rights

February-March 2022: War, censorship, increased repression

Details: 29 March 2022; Diana Fishman

The results of the past two months have been devastating for Russian civil society: basic constitutional rights have been severely restricted; military censorship and the state’s monopoly on the truth have been officially introduced; and freedom of speech and assembly has been completely destroyed. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gave a powerful boost to the Putin regime’s repressive machine. Anti-war protesters are being detained and beaten en masse in police stations, and the courts continue to hand down harsh sentences on trumped-up charges. IMR compiled a list of the most egregious cases of suppression of human rights and freedoms recorded in Russia in February and March 2022.

January 2022: Zarema Musayeva, Pavel Krisevich, “palace case” anniversary

Details: Human Rights

January 2022: Zarema Musayeva, Pavel Krisevich, “palace case” anniversary

Details: 11 February 2022; Diana Fishman

The beginning of the year was marked by outrageous lawlessness on the part of Chechen security forces who virtually kidnapped Zarema Musayeva, wife of a retired federal judge and mother of outspoken Chechen activists. Artist and activist Pavel Krisevich remains illegally held in a temporary detention center for his performance against political repressions. After a year of several large protests in support of Alexei Navalny, Russian courts continue to sentence people in the so-called “palace case.”

December 2021: the Ingush Case, Memorial and OVD-Info, Yuri Dmitriev

Details: Human Rights

December 2021: the Ingush Case, Memorial and OVD-Info, Yuri Dmitriev

Details: 07 January 2022; Diana Fishman

December 2021 saw an increase in repressions against civil society in Russia. Defendants in the politically motivated Ingush case received lengthy prison sentences. Historian Yuri Dmitriev, head of Memorial’s Karelia office, received a harsher sentence. Memorial itself was slated for liquidation per the ruling of Russia’s Supreme Court.

November 2021: Memorial, Sergei Zuyev, Yuri Khovansky

Details: Human Rights

November 2021: Memorial, Sergei Zuyev, Yuri Khovansky

Details: 09 December 2021; Diana Fishman

November was marked by the Russian government’s renewed attacks on civil society. The Prosecutor General’s Office ordered the liquidation of International Memorial and its structures, including the Memorial Human Rights Center. The Moscow City Court changed the pre-trial restrictions of Sergei Zuyev, the provost of the Moscow School for Social and Economic Sciences, who is facing fraud charges, from house arrest to detention, despite his critical health condition. In St Petersburg, video blogger Yuri Khovansky is being persecuted for alleged public justification of terrorism as a result of what was, in his own words, an “ill-fated joke.”

October 2021: Sergei Savelyev and torture in prison colonies, Ivan Safronov, Vyacheslav Yegorov

Details: Human Rights

October 2021: Sergei Savelyev and torture in prison colonies, Ivan Safronov, Vyacheslav Yegorov

Details: 08 November 2021; Diana Fishman

In October, several events simultaneously highlighted the cruelty and illegitimacy of the Russian judicial and penitentiary systems. The Gulagu.net human rights advocacy project published video recordings from the archives of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) that show the torture and rape of Russian prison colony inmates. The materials were provided by whistleblower Sergei Savelyev, a Belarussian programmer and former FSIN prisoner, who is already facing criminal charges. Pressure is also increasing on journalist Ivan Safronov, a Russian citizen accused of treason. Civic activist Vyacheslav Yegorov has been convicted under the controversial “Dadin article” of the Russian Criminal Code.

September 2021: Chelyabinsk anarchists, Navalny, Valentina Chupik

Details: Human Rights

September 2021: Chelyabinsk anarchists, Navalny, Valentina Chupik

Details: 07 October 2021; Diana Fishman

In September, the Russian government continued its persecution of two anarchist movement members: a Chelyabinsk court handed down prison sentences to Dmitry Tsibukovsky and Anastasia Safonova for displaying a banner opposing the FSB. New criminal cases on bogus charges of extremism were opened against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his associates. And human rights activist Valentina Chupik, who had been living in Russia under refugee status, was expelled from the country for criticizing corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

August 2021: Liya and Artem Milushkin, Idrak Mirzalizade, the “sanitary case”

Details: Human Rights

August 2021: Liya and Artem Milushkin, Idrak Mirzalizade, the “sanitary case”

Details: 08 September 2021; Diana Fishman

In August, in the runup to Russia’s State Duma elections slated for mid-September, the pressure on opposition activists increased. Former members of the Open Russia movement Liya and Artem Milushkin were given lengthy sentences in a fabricated drugs case. Several defendants in the so-called “sanitary case” were handed down guilty verdicts. For “undesirable” jokes about xenophobia in Russia, standup comedian Idrak Mirzalizade was expelled from Russia.

July 2021: Attack on the media, Alexei Pichugin, Jehovah's Witnesses

Details: Human Rights

July 2021: Attack on the media, Alexei Pichugin, Jehovah's Witnesses

Details: 06 August 2021; Diana Fishman

July was marked by increased government pressure on independent journalism in Russia. The investigative publication Project was recognized as “an undesirable organization,” The Insider as a “foreign agent,” more than a dozen journalists were also included in the list of “foreign agents.” As part of the Yukos case, Alexei Pichugin, political prisoner and the company’s former head of security, was transferred to Moscow, presumably to testify against his ex-boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Meanwhile, the mass persecution of followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses continues in the Russian regions..

June-2021: Purges of the opposition, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the “palace case”

Details: Human Rights

June-2021: Purges of the opposition, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the “palace case”

Details: 08 July 2021; Diana Fishman

In June, the Russian authorities focused on purging the political space ahead of the September elections: Criminal cases were opened against oppositionists Maxim Reznik, Ketevan Kharaidze, and Dmitry Gudkov. New guilty verdicts were given to participants in the January protests in support of Navalny and against the arbitrariness of the authorities. Persecution of Muslims associated with the Hizb ut-Tahrir party—an organization recognized as terrorist in Russia—continued in the regions.

May 2021: Activists of the Perpetual Protest, Nikolai Platoshkin, Daria Polyudova

Details: Human Rights

May 2021: Activists of the Perpetual Protest, Nikolai Platoshkin, Daria Polyudova

Details: 06 June 2021; Diana Fishman

In May, the Russian state continued to put pressure on civil society activists, as several cases against them ended in guilty verdicts on trumped-up charges. The Perpetual Protest activists Olga Missik, Ivan Vorobyevsky, and Igor Basharimov were convicted of vandalism; the opposition politician Nikolai Platoshkin of inciting mass riots and spreading false information about the coronavirus; and the Left Resistance movement leader Daria Polyudova of public justification of terrorism.

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