Quotes of the Week

Week-ending 5 June 2026

“Russian schools are being converted from temples of knowledge into factories of compliance. It is the Russian state itself which defines what children must learn about Russia, its neighbours, and the rest of the world. While using schools for political propaganda is not unique to Russia, the intensity and scale of the Kremlin’s efforts to put indoctrination at the centre of the education system are systemic. Russian textbooks present a single view of history, which justifies any decision taken in Moscow to use force against its neighbours. They portray Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine as an historic necessity and a matter of national survival, while any alternative opinions are vilified as ‘hostile’ or ‘destructive’. […] Russian authorities have shown no limit to the lengths they will go to impose their deeply politicized, ideological narrative on the next generation, and to ensure those who do not comply are detected and disciplined. This violates children’s rights to privacy, freedom of expression and association, and undermines trust within schools and robs children of their individuality. A child’s mind is not the state’s property. Nonetheless, the Russian authorities appear to be treating classrooms as soil to be inspected for the first shoots of civic dissent, so that they can be uprooted before they grow.”

– Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Source: ‘Russia: Schools have turned into “factories of compliance” through state indoctrination and surveillance of children,’ Amnesty International, 1 June 2026

Background from Amnesty International: The Russian authorities are denying children their right to quality education by using propaganda-filled textbooks and lectures to indoctrinate children and justify Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, while suppressing free expression, independent thinking and access to information, Amnesty International said today. A new briefing, “Only Official Sources”: Indoctrination in the Russian Educational System, documents how children across Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine are being subjected to oppressive state ideology via a centrally controlled curriculum. It also details how teachers are instructed to monitor their students online, collect files with information about their opinions and report dissenting views on political and social issues to the authorities. […] Amnesty International is calling on the Russian authorities to ensure that the school curriculum, textbooks and other educational material do not stifle or prevent free expression and free exchange of views, contain disinformation or undermine respect for human rights. Students and teachers must be given access to a broad range of sources and be able to freely discuss history and current events without fear of reprisal. Authorities must repeal laws and regulations that punish peaceful expression or exclude dissenting voices from education; immediately stop unlawful monitoring and profiling of children and educators, destroy unlawfully collected data, provide effective remedies and reparation to those affected, and bring those responsible for violations to account. Amnesty International also calls on the international community to raise these issues with Russian authorities in all forums; support independent civil society’s work combating propaganda and persecution in education; help those facing such persecution, including by providing them visas where necessary; and ensure that development assistance is not used to perpetuate these violations.

“Russian authorities are increasingly targeting human rights groups with sham ‘extremism’ labels,” “The government should cherish the work these groups do, not demonize it. […] Russian authorities have long stopped respecting the right to peaceful protest as they crack down on all forms of dissent. They should stop misusing the ‘extremist’ legislation to decimate civil society and annul these absurd designations.”

– Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch

“By declaring our work ‘extremism,’ they are not outlawing a project, but society’s very ability… to document detentions, help those facing persecution, and call repression by its name. The state that rewrites the past cannot tolerate evidence of the present, and so it seeks to ban both at once. But you can’t ban people from knowing it. We will not shut down, and we will not stop our work.”

– Daniil Beilinson, OVD-Info’s co-founder

Source: ‘Russia: Rights Group OVD-Info Designated “Extremist” Human Rights Work Increasingly Penalized in Crackdown on Dissent, Human Rights Watch, 5 June 2026

Background from Human Rights Watch:  On June 4, 2026, Russian officials included a leading rights group, OVD-Info, along with 35 other Russian organizations, in its list of “extremists,” Human Rights Watch said today. A designation as “extremist” entails being barred from engaging in any activities for the group, under threat of a lengthy prison sentence. OVD-Info, named after the abbreviation for “police department,” was founded in 2011 in response to a mass crackdown on peaceful public protest. It has since provided legal help in freedom of assembly and expression cases to tens of thousands of people, run a 24/7 hotline for victims to report abuses and seek help, and documented rights abuses. It has helped over 2,300 applicants win cases before the European Court of Human Rights. […] The June 4 update of the federal terrorist and extremist list was apparently based on the Supreme Court’s April 9 decision to ban “International Public Movement Memorial” and its alleged branches as an “extremist” organization. The sham process concluded in one hearing, behind closed doors, and the case file was classified as “top secret.” The court did not allow Memorial’s attorneys to participate in the proceedings. Before the authorities liquidated the country’s leading human rights organization Memorial Human Rights Centre in 2021, it had been a key partner of OVD-Info, which operates without a legal entity. The 36 organizations added to the list on June 4 included independent Memorial-affiliated regional groups conducting historical research, and providing education, and legal aid to victims of rights violations, organizations based outside Russia operating under the Memorial brand, Memorial’s political prisoners project, and the Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre. In 2022, Memorial was granted the Nobel Peace Prize for its “outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power.” Participating in or financing an extremist organization in Russia is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. Symbols of “extremist” organizations are banned and displaying them is punishable with up to 15 days in detention for the first offense and up to 4 years in prison for a repeat offense. The authorities may include individuals suspected of involvement with an extremist organization in the countrywide “list of extremists” and freeze their bank accounts.

‘Russia has added the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group [KHPG], numerous organizations linked with Memorial, including the vital Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project, and OVD.info to its notorious register of so-called ‘terrorists and extremists’.   The move, like previous attempts to crush Memorial and other human rights organizations, is clearly aimed at silencing voices in defence of Russia’s ever-mounting number of political prisoners, including those from occupied parts of Ukraine,’

– Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group

Source: Halya Coynash, ‘KHPG, Memorial & OVD.info added to ‘List of terrorists & extremists’ for reporting on repression in Russia and occupied Ukraine,’ KHPG, 5 June 2026

Background from KHPG: Following the news on 4 June, the Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project noted that Rosfinmonitoring had added over 30 organizations, including theirs, to the ‘register of terrorists and extremists’, presumably viewing all of them as “structural sections of the non-existent ‘International Memorial Public Movement’.  The list of organizations has shown that the scale of the lawlessness is even greater than feared, with civic organizations and initiatives included that have nothing to do with Memorial. This is true of OVD-Info, whose many years of human rights, educational and information work “have well-earned them the gratitude and support of millions of people.” It is wrong also in the case of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, which is a completely separate organization.  That, however, is less important as KHPG is a Ukrainian civic organization existing in a country which does not use courts and criminal prosecutions to try to crush human rights activities and freedom. The seriousness of the situation and the danger people could be in because of the new developments are reflected in the disclaimer that the Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project has been posting on material and on its website since the 17 April ruling.   The statement reads that “All assessments of the criminal prosecution of specific people, including the recognition of people deprived of their liberty as political prisoners, express the position of our Project.  Such assessments are not based on the opinion and assessments of those persecuted themselves, nor their relatives, friends or lawyers, and do not assume their agreement or approval. Information about the factual circumstances of specific criminal cases, posted on our Project’s resources, were obtained from open sources, and similarly do not assume, nor require the consent of people mentioned in them, or their representatives.” The methods Russia uses to crush dissent and voices in support of victims of repression have long been seen in occupied Crimea, where the FSB have resorted to monstrous charges, resulting in sentences of up to 20 years, against members of the Crimean Solidarity human rights movement, and where some Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian civic activists were abducted and never seen again.  On other occupied territory, Russia has so clamped down on information and on any freedom of speech that it is often extremely hard to find out even the names of victims of persecution. This is very clearly what Russia is trying to achieve.  It is critically important that Russia is prevented from succeeding and that those living beyond the reach of Russian repression make sure that the victims are known and that pressure is brought to bear to secure their release. 

“By handing down a third sentence to Maria Ponomarenko, the Russian authorities are demonstrating their cynical determination to crush her, having already pushed her to breaking point during her imprisonment. “Russian authorities should immediately stop persecuting Ponomarenko and release her, along with all other jailed journalists.”

– CPJ program coordinator Gulnoza Said

Source: Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko sentenced to third prison term,’ Committee to Protect Journalists, 5 June 2026

Background from CPJ: A court in Russia’s southern Altai Krai on Wednesday convicted Maria Ponomarenko, an imprisoned correspondent for the independent news outlet RusNews, of using violence against prison staff and sentenced her to an additional 22 months behind bars. The ruling marks the third prison sentence given to Ponomarenko, who has been detained since April 2022 and convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military in February 2023, and on separate charges of using violence against prison staff in March 2025. With this new sentence, and the two previous ones — of six years and 22 months, respectively — she now has two years and three months left in prison. Ponomarenko was one of the first Russian journalists to be detained following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 for her critical coverage of the war.

“The detention of journalist Aleksey Seregin in Russia is further evidence of the authorities’ determination to crush what remains of independent local journalism in the country. Russian authorities must immediately release Aleksey Seregin and stop suppressing information they deem inconvenient.”

– Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator

Source: Journalist Aleksey Seregin detained in Russia’s Mari El Republic, Committee to Protect Journalists, 5 June 2026 

Background from CPJ: Russian authorities must immediately release journalist Aleksey Seregin and stop silencing independent voices in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday. On June 4, law enforcement officers in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El Republic in western Russia, detained Seregin after beating him, confiscating his phone, and searching his home. The authorities took him for questioning to the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial investigations. Seregin will be detained for at least 48 hours, according to independent, Russia-focused news outlet The Insider. According to independent news outlet 7×7, a regional newsroom, Seregin is being prosecuted for “justifying terrorism” because of a 2024 comment in a Telegram chat about former Soviet air force general Dzhokhar Dudayev, who led the Chechen independence movement in the 1990s and was killed in 1996. The authorities claimed the comment “justified illegal armed groups in Chechnya in the 1990s.”

‘On 4 June 2026, OVD-Info, a human rights media project, was added to Rosfinmonitoring’s so-called list of terrorists and extremists as an ‘extremist organisation’. On 5 June, Russia’s Ministry of Justice also added OVD-Info to its register of organisations designated as extremist.’

– OVD-Info

Source: ‘Russia’s financial watchdog has designated OVD-Info an ‘extremist organisation.’ Our statement,’ OVD-Info, 5 June 2026

Background from OVD-Info: The grounds for adding OVD-Info to the list are now clear: the authorities designated the project as a structural subdivision of the non-existent ‘International Memorial Movement,’ which Russia’s Supreme Court declared an ‘extremist organisation’ and banned on 9 April. The hearing was held behind closed doors, and the court’s ruling has still not been published. As a result, it remains impossible to say with certainty what was deemed to be a ‘structural subdivision’ of the ‘International Memorial Movement.’ We are not terrorists. We are not extremists. And we want to state clearly what this decision actually means.