Year after year, authorities increasingly cracked down on the rights and freedoms in Russia. Independent media have been deprived of a voice. “Foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations” have been progressively stigmatised. The right to peaceful protest has been taken away.
Russia used new laws to whitewash its Soviet past and justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The last wave of war-related legislation has silenced the remaining dissenters or forced them to flee.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) prepared a report about 50 repressive laws that were adopted in Russia in the last 5 years. Mediazona presents an interactive version of this report.
We are in a difficult position: we still haven’t recovered our pre-war funding levels. Our goal right now is to reach 7,500 subscriptions from international supporters. Only you, our readers, can save Mediazona
“I am Russian! But not a Russian citizen”. A Ukrainian serviceman’s defiant address to a Russian court that upheld his 21‑year prison sentenceArticle 3 June 2026, 18:22
Russia’s sweeping LGBTQ+ visibility purge. Seven support groups outlawed this spring, one court ruling at a time, as “extremist organisations”Article 29 April 2026, 17:26
The fourth case of a Crimean blacksmith. Oleh Prykhodko, who has opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea for years, will be tried for “treason”Article 21 April 2026, 11:26