Russia

Russia violated the rights of a schoolteacher who was sacked in 2014 over social media posts including photos of her kissing other women, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The teacher, AK, began working as a music teacher in a state school for children with special needs in her home town

Russian abuses of ant-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation have escalated dramatically since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, according to Amnesty International. A new eight-page briefing titled “Terrorising the dissent” shows how the Russian authorities have

The UK government has set out plans for a fresh crackdown on companies dodging strict trade sanctions, including those imposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. A new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) is to be established in early 2024 with responsibility for the civ

Russia's top court has banned the "international LGBT movement" as an "extremist organisation" at the behest of the Russian government in a move widely condemned by human rights and LGBT+ organisations. Judge Oleg Nefedov approved the Russian justice ministry's request after a four-hour hearing yest

Russia's Wagner Group – the private military company whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led an abortive rebellion against Vladimir Putin before being killed in a plane crash last month – is to be proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has today laid

More than 21,000 people in Russia have been the target of repressive laws and practices by the Russian authorities to suppress the country’s anti-war movement, said Amnesty International today. Russian authorities are using a wide range of repressive tactics to crack down on anti-war activists

Russia is to prohibit all forms of gender transition, with allies of President Putin arguing the move is necessary to safeguard the nation against "western anti-family ideology". A bill approved in its initial reading by lawmakers in the Duma will forbid “medical interventions aimed at changin

The European Commission has confirmed that it will bring legal proceedings against the Polish government over a controversial new law ostensibly aimed at curbing Russian influence in the country. The decision comes two days after Poland's justice minister condemned the Court of Justice of the Europe

Russia has been censured by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for failing to provide legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples. In a Grand Chamber judgment handed down on Tuesday, the court held by a 14–3 majority that Russia had violated Article 8 of the European Con

Over £18 billion worth of Russian assets have been frozen as a result of UK sanctions, according to the first official figures. The figures have been published by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in its first annual review since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which led to

Russia is to make LGBT advocacy a criminal offence in an effort to fight western "decadence". There will be heavy fines for anyone spreading LGBT "propaganda", including “non-traditional relationships”.

Russia has officially ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In a statement, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) said Russia formally ceased to be a party to the ECHR on Friday 16 September 2022 following its expulsion from the Council of Europe in March.

A Moscow court has sentenced an opposition councillor and lawyer to seven years' imprisonment for criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in what is the first sentence to be given for such offences. Alexei Gorinov, a deputy at Moscow’s Krasnoselsky district council, was arrested in April and

The Russian state likely assassinated rogue spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. In the case of Carter v Russia, the court held that there had been: unanimously, a failure by the Russian government to comply with their obligations under Article 38

Dmitry Dedov, Russia's judge at the European Court of Human Rights, gave a partly dissenting opinion in today's long-awaited judgment in the case brought by the widow of Alexander Litvinenko against the Russian state. Mr Litvinenko, a Russian defector and dissident, was fatally poisoned with poloniu