Russia bans Human Rights Watch in widening crackdown on critics

Russian authorities have outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organisation”, a label that, under a 2015 law, makes involvement with it a criminal offence.

Friday’s designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organisation to prosecution.

HRW has repeatedly accused Russia of suppressing dissenters and committing war crimes during its ongoing war against Ukraine.

“For over three decades, Human Rights Watch’s work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms,” the executive director at Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said in a statement.

“Our work hasn’t changed, but what’s changed, dramatically, is the government’s full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies, its staggering rise in repression, and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine.”

The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in a crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate statement on Friday, the office said it was opening a case against Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot that would designate the group as an “extremist” organisation.

Separately, Russia’s Supreme Court designated on Thursday the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by the late opposition activist Alexey Navalny as a “terrorist” group.

The ruling targeted the foundation’s United States-registered entity, which became the focal point for the group when the original Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government in 2021.

Russia’s list of “undesirable organisations” currently covers more than 275 entities, including prominent independent news outlets and rights groups.

Among those are prominent news organisations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, think tanks like Chatham House, anticorruption group Transparency International, and environmental advocacy organisation World Wildlife Fund.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors human rights violations in various countries across the world.

WhatsApp might be ‘completely blocked’

Meanwhile, Russia’s state communications watchdog threatened on Friday to block WhatsApp entirely if it fails to comply with Russian law.

In August, Russia began limiting some calls on WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, and on Telegram, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of refusing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and “terrorism” cases.

On Friday, the Roskomnadzor watchdog again accused WhatsApp of failing to comply with Russian requirements designed to prevent and combat crime.

“If the messaging service continues to fail to meet the demands of Russian legislation, it will be completely blocked,” Interfax news agency quoted it as saying.

WhatsApp has accused Moscow of trying to block millions of Russians from accessing secure communication.