(Berlin, January 11, 2024) – During the second year of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government increased war censorship, imprisonment of vocal critics, and the crushing of human rights activism, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024.
“As the Kremlin continues its war, it redoubled efforts to eradicate the mere possibility of public criticism of its foreign and domestic policies,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “At the same time, they are spewing homophobic and xenophobic tropes in an apparent attempt to distract public attention from the accumulating domestic social and economic challenges.”
In the 740-page World Report 2024, its 34th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In her introductory essay, Executive Director Tirana Hassan says that 2023 was a?consequential?year not only for?human rights suppression and wartime atrocities but also for selective government outrage and transactional diplomacy that carried profound costs for the rights of those not in on the deal.?But she says there were also?signs of hope, showing the possibility of a different path, and calls on governments to consistently uphold their human rights obligations.
Russian authorities continued to expand and harshen already extensive and repressive legislation. This includes laws on ‘foreign agents’ – now dubbed ‘foreign influence’ – “undesirables,” war censorship, and other measures to outlaw, silence, and imprison people who publicly oppose the Kremlin’s foreign or domestic policies. These especially target opposition leaders, activists, independent journalists, and human rights defenders.
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https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/11/russia-new-heights-repression
