The COVID-19 pandemic exposed chronic under-resourcing in health care. The authorities used the pandemic as a pretext to continue the crackdown on all dissent, including through amendments to a vaguely worded law on “fake news” and tightening restrictions on public gatherings. Peaceful protesters,...

Reacting to the news that Russian law enforcement officers have searched the homes of members of Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights organization and Nobel Peace Prize awardee, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “By raiding the homes of members of Memorial, the...

Responding to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of...

In response to the Investigative Committee of Russia’s announcement that three Ukrainian prisoners of war, including human rights defender Maksym Butkevych, have been “convicted” of war crimes by “supreme courts” in Russia-occupied Luhansk and Donetsk and given long prison sentences, Denis...

Reacting to the sentencing of student and blogger Dmitry Ivanov to 8.5-years’ imprisonment for his vocal opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “Dmitry Ivanov’s case is another demonstration of the brutal repression of anti-war...

The international community must develop a robust plan to secure justice for victims of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Amnesty International said today, marking one year since the invasion.  On 24 February 2022, Russian military forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a...

Responding to the ongoing enforced disappearance of opposition activist Andrei Pivovarov, who was deprived of his liberty in Russia on politically motivated charges and whose whereabouts have been unknown since 18 January when he was undergoing transfer to a penal colony, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty...

Reacting to the sentencing of Maria Ponomarenko, a journalist from Barnaul in Western Siberia, to six years in a penal colony for posting on social media about an attack by Russian forces on a theatre in Mariupol in which civilians were killed, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for...

The ongoing blockade of the Lachin corridor is endangering the lives of thousands of people in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Amnesty International said today. The human rights organization called on Azerbaijan’s authorities and Russian peacekeepers to immediately unblock the route and...

Reacting to the news that a court in Russia has upheld a Ministry of Justice request to liquidate Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights organization in the country, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “Russia is rapidly plunging ever...

In the two years since mass protests in Russia against the politically motivated detention of prominent opposition activist Aleksei Navalny, the Russian authorities have been relentless in their attempts to dismantle the opposition movement and to create a more fearful environment for those...

Reacting to the news that the Russian media regulator is poised to censor online content containing references to LGBTI people or rights, including banning movies and TV series featuring LGBTI characters, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “The Russian authorities are...

The Russian armed forces’ continued attacks against Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure, are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and are endangering the lives of civilians with freezing temperatures setting in, Amnesty International said today, as it calls for Russia to end...