As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine drags on more than three years after its onset, growing anti-war sentiment inside Russia has been met with an escalation of repression against dissenters. Experts from the United Nations warn that the Russian state is manufacturing “enemies of the motherland” and targeting anti-war activists, political opponents, lawyers, and human rights defenders with increasing intensity—a tactic designed to “deepen discrimination, normalize violence, and embolden impunity.” According to the Associated Press, nearly 4,000 people have been convicted for peaceful dissent, hundreds of children have been added to terrorist or extremist watchlists, and more than 1,000 people and organizations—many of them journalists—have been branded as foreign agents. PBS and AP have also reported that Russia is committing human rights abuses against detainees, including the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian civilians.

In a UN media briefing, Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation, declared that “political detainees … face torture and ill-treatment in harsh penal conditions,” emphasizing that they are “denied adequate medical care, subjected to psychological abuse, and placed in solitary confinement” for daring to oppose the war. A press release from the UN Human Rights Office further documented that even doctors and medical personnel have participated in abuses, subjecting detainees to starvation, electric shocks, rape, and sexual violence. Katzarova later asserted that “justice inside Russia is unattainable,” underscoring the severity of the crisis as the state works to “crush civic space, silence the media, dismantle the legal profession, eliminate political opposition, suppress culture, and distort historical truth,” according to reporting by Agence France-Presse.

The international community, she argued, must act decisively in response to this worsening human rights situation. Russia is a signatory to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, yet it has consistently and deliberately violated these treaties by abusing political opponents, dissidents, and prisoners—both foreign and domestic—without fear of serious consequences. If other signatory states fail to hold Russia accountable for its repeated breaches, it signals to governments worldwide that such abuses can be committed with impunity. Katzarova urged that “the international community must mobilize accountability frameworks, including universal jurisdiction, to prosecute perpetrators of torture and other serious crimes.”

Resistance inside Russia emerged immediately after Putin announced the launch of his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Protests erupted, and journalists and scholars quickly began publishing articles condemning the invasion, according to the New York Times. These early acts of dissent were swiftly crushed, with thousands of arrests carried out to stifle opposition. A month later, Russia enacted sweeping censorship laws banning all criticism of the “special military operation” and even forbidding the use of the word “war.” As the conflict dragged on with no resolution in sight, repression deepened, and the treatment of those who dared to resist grew harsher.

Today, as repression continues to escalate, it is vital that the international community enforce international laws and treaties in countries that have voluntarily agreed to them. Failing to do so undermines their authority, reducing them to little more than optional guidelines that states may disregard when convenient. By holding Russia accountable for its systematic human rights violations throughout the war, the international community can safeguard the integrity of international law, reaffirm the binding nature of treaties, and establish a precedent that future perpetrators of human rights abuses will face real consequences.