The year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency for a third term has seen the Russian authorities introduce a string of restrictions putting the strongest pressure on civil society in the past two decades, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Wednesday.
The report called the clampdown “unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history,” and claims new laws intimidate critical political activists and impose severe pressure on non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
“The new laws and government harassment are pushing civil society activists to the margins of the law,” Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement. “The government crackdown is hurting Russian society and harming Russia’s international standing.”
In the last year, the Russian authorities have introduced numerous pieces of questionable legislation that includes the so-called “foreign agents” law, the “Dima Yakovlev law” banning US adoptions of Russian children, the treason law and the assembly law.
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