Human Rights Watch Vows to Keep Investigating Russia Despite Ban

Russia’s Ministry of Justice designated Human Rights Watch as “undesirable” on Friday, in a move that the international non-profit organization described as “yet another mark of the Kremlin’s repression.”

The “undesirable” designation represents a complete ban on the organization operating in Russia. Affiliation with an undesirable organization carries a penalty of up to four years imprisonment under Russian law.

In a statement, Executive Director Philippe Bolopion said that his organization had been pressing post-Soviet Russia to uphold human rights and freedom for over three decades.

“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,” he said.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office did not announce the designation, as is the usual procedure, as per The Moscow Times. Instead, Human Rights Watch appeared on an updated version of the Russian Ministry of Justice’s register of “undesirable” organizations on Friday.

Russian authorities closed down the organization’s Moscow office shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, it continued to launch investigations – into everything from Russian war crimes in Ukraine to the repression of Russia’s LGBTQ+ community.

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Despite this latest crackdown, Human Rights Watch said on Friday that the “undesirable” designation would not prevent it from documenting human rights abuses committed by Russia.

“We are actually going to work even harder to expose the staggering crackdown by the Kremlin on Russian civil society and to report on Russian crimes in Ukraine,” Tanya Lokshina, one of the organization’s leads for Europe and Central Asia, told AFP.