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Press Release

A crackdown on peaceful protests across Russia in which hundreds of people were arrested and numerous others beaten by police demonstrates the authorities’ utter contempt for fundamental human rights, Amnesty International said today.

June 12, 2017

Press Release

Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, responds to today’s detention of five LGBTI activists as they were trying to deliver a petition to the Office of Russia's Prosecutor General on Chechnya.

May 11, 2017

Press Release

Russian opposition leader, Aleksei Navalny, and all the peaceful protesters detained after the mass demonstrations across Russia on Sunday, must be immediately released, said Amnesty International, after he was today sentenced to 15 days in jail.

March 27, 2017

Press Release

Ahead of the second reading of a bill to decriminalize some forms of domestic violence in the Russian State Duma, Anna Kirey, Deputy Director for Campaigns for Russia and Eurasia at Amnesty International, said: “This bill is a sickening attempt to trivialize domestic violence, which has long been viewed as a non-issue by the Russian government. Far too often victims find they cannot rely on the law for protection and their abusers are let off the hook, with only a tiny fraction imprisoned for their actions. “The authors of this legislation, chillingly dubbed the ‘slapping bill,’ are betraying the victims…

January 19, 2017

Report

The Crimean Tatar community has been subjected to systematic persecution by the Russian authorities since the occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

December 14, 2016

Report

More than a hundred organizations have seen their funding shrink, their reputations tarnished, and their staff intimidated under Russia’s draconian “foreign agents” law, said Amnesty International ahead of the fourth anniversary of its coming into force on November 21, 2012.

November 17, 2016

Press Release

While yesterday’s surprise sealing of Amnesty International’s long-term office by Moscow city authorities will hamper day-to-day work, its staff will continue to stand up against human rights violations and abuses committed in Russia and abroad, the organization said.    Attempts to resolve the issue have so far been stonewalled by municipal authorities, who falsely claimed that Amnesty International was in arrears on its rent, and terminated the organization’s lease in a clear abuse of process.    “If the authorities remain unwilling to solve this issue, it will soon start to look ominously like a deliberate move to obstruct our work…

November 3, 2016

Press Release

Staff at Amnesty International’s Moscow office arrived at work this morning to find their office unexpectedly sealed with a notice from municipal authorities warning people not to enter.

November 2, 2016

Press Release

Two Ukrainian men jailed in Russia after being tortured into confessing to a series of murders are the victims of a travesty of justice, Amnesty International said after they lost their appeals against lengthy prison sentences today. Stanislaw Klykh and Mykola Karpyuk were convicted of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya in the 1990s, despite both providing credible evidence that they were not in the unstable region at the time. Moscow’s Supreme Court today upheld sentences of 22 years in jail for Karpyuk and 20 for Klykh. “Russia’s case against these men defies reason. The numerous fair trial violations and the…

October 26, 2016

Press Release

The detention of Ruslan Sokolovsky, a Russian blogger from Yekaterinburg (Urals region) who was sentenced to administrative arrest for two months after posting a video of himself   playing Pokémon Go in a church is a farcical attack on freedom of expression, said Amnesty International.   “The absurdity of the case of the Russian blogger jailed for playing Pokémon Go in a church highlights what happens when authorities hold the freedom of expression in such low regard. Even if Sokolovsky’s behaviour may have been regarded as disrespectful by some, states should not be jailing people simply for offending religious sensibilities,”…

September 6, 2016

Press Release

Fresh details of secret detention by the Ukrainian authorities have emerged following the release of 13 people from a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) compound in Kharkiv, said Amnesty InternationaI and Human Rights Watch today. The release comes after Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch exposed the use of torture and secret detention by both Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists during the conflict in eastern Ukraine in a joint report “‘You Don’t Exist.’ Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture in Eastern Ukraine” published on 21 July. The organizations have now written to the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine with fresh…

August 26, 2016

Press Release

The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office Thursday designated two more US–based organizations as “undesirable” under a draconian law adopted last year, as it continued to turn the screw on Russian civil society and cut off potential avenues of foreign funding. The International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based non-profit group funded by the US Congress, and the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) are just the latest in a list of organizations to be blacklisted in this way. “This move is designed to send  yet another unmistakable message:  Russian NGOs and independent media should steer clear of foreign funders – and…

August 18, 2016