Week-ending 5 December 2025
“In preparation for the September 2026 parliamentary election, Russian authorities are steadily dismantling what remains of peaceful political opposition. It is clear they want to purge the political landscape of any groups which are not under the Kremlin’s control and do not share its agenda, including its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. The pressure on Yabloko’s leadership is relentless. Deputy Chair Lev Shlosberg, convicted under the “foreign agents” law, faces a new criminal case opened today. Another Deputy Chair, Maksim Kruglov, was arrested in October, and party leader Nikolai Rybakov is farcically convicted for “extremism.” These reprisals are a deliberate effort to silence the last organized political force in Russia that consistently calls for peace and speaks out against human rights violations. Criminalizing calls for a ceasefire and prosecuting individuals for peacefully expressing views on Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine are blatant attacks on freedom of expression. The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally overturn these convictions and drop all the baseless charges against the Yabloko leadership, as well as release all those detained solely for their anti-war views, and repeal war censorship legislation that criminalizes dissent.”
– Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, reacting to the Kremlin’s latest abuse of the criminal justice system to target Yabloko, the last remaining officially registered political party in Russia that has been openly calling for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
– source: Russia: Authorities step up criminal reprisals against anti-war Yabloko party,’ Amnesty International, 5 December 2025
Background from Amnesty International: On 5 November 2025, Lev Shlosberg was sentenced to 420 hours of community service for “violation of foreign agent’s duties”. The authorities claimed that he had not marked five videos posted on social media with the “foreign agent” disclaimer. The second criminal case against him – under the “discreditation of Armed Forces” charge – is ongoing. On 5 December 2025, authorities opened a third criminal case against Lev Shlosberg for “spreading false information about the Armed Forces” over a repost from February 2022. It happened just days before he was due to be released from six months of house arrest that could no longer be legally extended, under a previous “discreditation” case. A day earlier, in two separate cases, St Petersburg courts fined party Chair Nikolai Rybakov RUB 1,500 (USD 19.5) and senior politician, Boris Vishnevsky, RUB 15,000 (USD 195). Rybakov was fined for “sharing extremist symbols” – namely, a photograph of the late opposition figure Aleksei Navalny which Rybakov posted on the day of Navalny’s death. Vishnevsky was fined for allegedly “cooperating with an undesirable organization” in an interview with the elections-monitoring group Golos, which authorities claim is linked to the banned European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations. These fines serve as pretexts for further reprisals: Rybakov’s “extremism” case already bars him from running in the September 2026 parliamentary election, while the case against Vishnevsky paves the way for subsequent criminal prosecution if he is accused of “cooperation with an undesirable organization” again. On 2 October 2025, Yabloko’s Deputy Chair Maksim Kruglov was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention over two 2022 Telegram posts referring to UN estimates of civilian casualties in Ukraine and the killings of civilians in Bucha. At least five other Yabloko party regional leaders and members have been prosecuted. Around 50 administrative cases have been initiated against Yabloko members across Russia’s regions. Eleven Yabloko members, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and veteran human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina, have been designated “foreign agents.”
“This ignoble move not only further threatens and endangers our Russian members, partners, their staff, and ordinary Russian citizens supporting our human rights work. It also sends a clear message that Russia is no friend of the global human rights movement“, “This designation of FIDH as an ‘undesirable organisation’ demonstrates the importance of our commitment to supporting those who defend human rights, whether in Russia or in exile. FIDH will continue to pursue this commitment more than ever.”
– Alexis Deswaef, FIDH President.
“We are not surprised by the designation“, remarked “FIDH has repeatedly denounced Russia, which has assembled and applied an arsenal of repressive measures that have been gradually used to destroy its vibrant civil society, among others by restricting its ability to cooperate with international partners. In the end, it is ordinary Russians who now remain without any protection from government overreach and abuse.”
– Ilya Nuzov, Head of FIDH’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk.
– source: Russia bans the oldest worldwide human rights movement,’ FIDH, 3 December 2025
Background from FIDH: The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), one of the world’s oldest human rights movements comprising of 196 civil society organisations, has been declared “undesirable” by the Russian Federation. The undersigned FIDH member organisations strongly condemn this designation, which bans FIDH from undertaking any activities in Russia and criminalises any cooperation with the Federation by a Russian national or organisation.The designation was made by the Prosecutor General of Russia on 13 November, and on 1 December, Russia’s Ministry of Justice included FIDH in its register of “undesirable organizations“, which currently contains 281 entities.
‘Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its media has experienced an unprecedented crackdown. Hundreds of journalists have been forced into exile, where they continue to face transnational legal persecution, and their families have been harassed back home. Meanwhile, reporting from inside Russia has become increasingly difficult, with journalists and media outlets often silenced by laws criminalizing independent coverage.’
– source: Russia’s repression record,’ CPJ, 5 December 2025
Background from CPJ: Since February 24, 2022, CPJ has documented:
- 27 journalists imprisoned on criminal charges: 15 Russian, 10 Ukrainian, and 2 American. Of these, 4 released, 2 exiled, and 1 killed. (To see CPJ’s 2022-2024 prison data by most recent, click twice on Date column. For 2025, see Ekaterina Barabash, Sasha Aleksandrova, and Svetlana Khustik.)
- Charges against those jailed: 9 for “fake” news; 14 for terrorism, extremism, and other anti-state crimes; 4 were undisclosed.
- 21 exiled journalists sentenced to jail in absentia.
- 341 journalists and media outlets branded “foreign agents.”
- 24 media outlets banned as “undesirable.”
- 14 journalists added to Russian financial intelligence agency Rosfinmonitoring’s “terrorists and extremists” list
- More than 25,000 websites blocked in connection with war reporting.
Source: CPJ, OVD-Info, Roskomsvoboda
‘As negotiations continue over a peace plan to end the Russian war on Ukraine, Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and partner organisations strongly oppose any proposals to grant amnesty for potential war crimes committed in the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion, especially for those against journalists. [Our organisations renew our demand that those responsible for the killing of at least 16 journalists, the serious injury of dozens more, as well as for other attacks on media infrastructure, are identified and held accountable for potential war crimes under international law and relevant domestic law. Investigations should rely, among other sources, on the expertise of Ukrainian journalists and media, who have already contributed to uncovering facts linked to potential war crimes targeting journalists. […] We therefore strongly urge all parties involved in peace deal discussions – including the United States and the European Union – not to agree to any measures granting amnesty for war crimes committed against journalists as civilians. Any such concessions would dramatically undermine international treaties and international humanitarian law, set a dangerous legal precedent, and send a signal to the world that attacks against journalists and civilians go unpunished.’
– International Press Institute (IPI), European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), Institute of Mass Information (IMI), Reporters sans frontières (RSF) / Reporters without Borders, Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), ARTICLE 19 Europe
– source: ‘Ukraine: Peace plan must ensure accountability for crimes against journalists,’ Article 19, 4 December 2025
Background from the text of the statement: ‘We make this call in reaction to the initial 28-point plan proposed by the Trump administration that contained a provision giving ‘full amnesty’ for all acts committed during the course of the war. While later reports suggest that this provision is no longer on the negotiating table, MFRR partners stress that any attempt to introduce blanket amnesty that covers potential war crimes committed against journalists, or civilians, would represent a severe breach of international law including international humanitarian law and relevant human rights obligations. All warring parties must protect journalists as civilians during times of armed conflict, according to international humanitarian law. The deliberate targeting of journalists as civilians, as well as media infrastructure, constitutes a war crime, and must be investigated as such under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and relevant domestic law. Any form of amnesty for such violations would lack legal grounds. In addition to supporting war crimes investigations by the ICC and the Ukrainian judiciary, our organisations endorse efforts by the Council of Europe (CoE) to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which would facilitate the investigation of crimes not covered by the mandate of the ICC. We urge CoE member states to accelerate the process of the creation of this tribunal, which should have all means at its disposal to conduct investigations into crimes committed in Ukraine, including those committed against journalists and the media. Due to Russia’s full-scale invasion, at least 16 media workers have been killed while carrying out their professional duties covering this conflict – including Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died after being tortured while in Russian captivity in 2024. Of these 16 media workers, some were executed, while others died from artillery fire or lately due to Russian first-person view (FPV) drone attacks. This includes French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, who was killed by a Russian FPV drone in eastern Ukraine in October 2025, and Ukrainian reporters Aliona Hramova and Yevhen Karmazin, who were killed in another Russian drone attack in Donetsk region weeks later. As of November 2025, the MFRR has also documented 53 cases in which Russian armed forces destroyed Ukrainian media infrastructure. We further note that peace discussions this month follow one of the deadliest periods for journalists in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. As reported by monitoring bodies in Ukraine, this increase in targeted attacks on journalists wearing vests marked ‘PRESS’ has created an increasingly dangerous security situation for journalists and media workers reporting from the front lines.’
