Week-ending 16 May 2025
“The Russian strikes against hotels hosting journalists in Ukraine are neither accidental nor random. The targeted buildings are not ‘Ukrainian military bases,’ and the journalists inside are not ‘mercenaries,’ contrary to the disinformation narrative relentlessly pushed by all levels of the Russian state and pro-Kremlin outlets. These attacks are part of a larger strategy to sow terror and seek to reduce coverage of the war. By targeting civilian infrastructure, they violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes. Those responsible must be brought to justice.
– Pauline Maufrais, RSF regional officer for Ukraine
– Source: ‘In a new report, RSF and Truth Hounds reveal Russian strategy of bombing Ukrainian hotels to silence the press,’ RSF, 16 May 2025
Background from RSF: Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, both Ukrainian and foreign journalists have come under Russian fire — even in their hotels, which also function as their workspace. A new report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Ukrainian human rights organisation Truth Hounds (TH) documents these attacks, offences that amount to war crimes and must not go unpunished. Read the report “Last check-in: The Russian strikes on Ukrainian hotels silencing the press”
The list of political prisoners in Russia maintained by Memorial, a leading Russian human rights organization, currently includes over 950 people. The number of politically motivated criminal cases against government critics escalated sharply after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and new war censorship laws in 2022. Melkonyants is one of the few prominent rights defenders to be handed a prison sentence. Another, Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in February 2024 for repeatedly speaking out against Russia’s war on Ukraine and was released as part of a historic prisoner swap between Russia, the United States, and Germany in August. Melkonyants’s prison sentence sends another chilling signal to all Russian human rights defenders who continue their work despite great personal risks. The government should free him immediately and unconditionally put an end to politically motivated repression.
– Tanya Lokshina, Associate Director, Europe and Central Asia Division, Human Rights Watch
– Source: Tanya Lokshina, ‘Russian Court Convicts Rights Defender on Bogus Charges,’ Human Rights Watch, 14 May 2025
Background from Tanya Lokshina: A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced prominent Russian rights defender and election monitor Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison on charges of involvement with a foreign “undesirable organization.” It’s yet another hideous result of Russia’s perversion of the justice system to punish independent civic activism. Melkonyants, who has been in pretrial custody since August 2023, is a co-founder of Golos, Russia’s leading independent election monitoring group. In 2013, Golos was one of the first Russian civil society organizations that authorities designated a “foreign agent,” a smearing label that imposes absurd restrictions and penalties, incompatible with international law. Although the government eventually stripped Golos of its registration, that did not stop the group from continuing to monitor elections nationwide. The charges against Melkonyants stem from Golos’s former membership in the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which Russian authorities banned as “undesirable” in September 2021. Golos was no longer a member at that time, but when it comes to punishing civic activists, the authorities, as usual, have not let facts get in the way.
“The Russian authorities instigated this criminal case in order to silence one of the country’s most respected election observers. Grigory Melkonyants has committed no crime – his only ‘offence’ was defending the right to free and fair elections in Russia. This is nothing more than a brazen and politically motivated clampdown on peaceful activism. Grigory Melkonyants must be released unconditionally and his conviction quashed. The legislation that was used to target him must be repealed. The international community cannot remain silent – neither on this appalling verdict nor on the outrageous assault on civic space that is taking place in Russia.”
– Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director
– Source: ‘Russia: Sentencing of election observer Grigory Melkonyants a brazen attack on peaceful activism,’ Amnesty International, 14 May 2025
Background from Amnesty International: The Basmanny District Court of Moscow also imposed a 9-year ban on Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election watchdog Golos, participating in any civic activity. He was charged with purportedly organizing the activities of an “undesirable organization” – a nebulous term arbitrarily used by the Russian authorities to ban any organization they regard as a threat and to criminalize any association with said organizations. The charges stem from Grigory Melkonyants’s alleged links to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021. Melkonyants and Golos have consistently denied any institutional connection to ENEMO. Grigory Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience, prosecuted and imprisoned solely for his peaceful activism. Throughout its 25-year history, Golos and its activists have faced harassment and persecution by the authorities. In 2013, it became the first organization in Russia to be labelled a “foreign agent” and was dissolved in 2016. Following the “foreign agent” designation, a movement under the same name was founded, which also engaged in election monitoring. In 2021, the movement and 20 of its activists and coordinators were declared “foreign agents.”
“In their ruthless campaign against LGBTI people, Russian authorities have now come after book publishers, accusing them of ‘extremism’ for merely doing their job: bringing books to readers. This shameless heavy-handed use of state apparatus against literature is as absurd as it is terrifying. One thing is clear: no amount of bans, arrests or prosecutions will erase the existence of LGBTI people in Russia, or anywhere else. History has shown that attempts to supress identity and censor knowledge are ultimately futile. Love and knowledge will always endure over hatred and repression. The detained publishing professionals must be immediately released, the criminal charges against them dropped and the ongoing persecution of LGBTI people, organisations and initiatives in Russia must be brought to an end.”
– Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director
– Source: ‘Russia: Book publishers arrested in anti-LGBTI campaign,’ Amnesty International, 15 May 2025
Background from Amnesty International: On 14 May, Russian security forces detained at least 10 individuals in Moscow as part of a criminal investigation into alleged “involvement in the activities of an extremist organization,” “participation in the activities” of such an organization, and “organizing its work using official position” (Article 282.2(1.1), (2), (3) of the Criminal Code) for publishing LGBTI-themed books. At least 10 individuals were taken in for questioning, including Anatoly Norovyatkin, distribution director at EKSMO, as well as Popcorn Books co-founder Dmitry Protopopov and former sales director Pavel Ivanov. On 15 May, three people were formally charged, their names are not yet disclosed. If convicted under these charges, they could face prison sentences of up to 12 years.
“The Tribunal is an important breakthrough for the international justice community and especially for the millions of Ukrainians who have been harmed by the Russian aggression. For the court to be truly effective however, it must not become a remote and hollow entity that does not engage with the Ukrainian victims or give them access to proceedings“.
– Oleksandra Matviichuk, FIDH Vice-President and Head of the Center for Civil Liberties
– Source: ‘Ukraine: Establishment of the special tribunal for the crime of aggression must ensure victims-centered justice,’ FIDH, 14 May 2025
Background from FIDH: The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the undersigned organisations are encouraged by steps taken towards the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, although regrettably final details on the mechanism’s legal framework, including its Statute, have not been made public. In this regard, the organisations call on the Council of Europe to urgently publish the draft Statute of the Tribunal to ensure the transparent and inclusive participation of civil society, especially victims and survivors, as the Tribunal is established and, certainly, in its proceedings.
