We are 30 days into the New Year and already Putin’s regime provides signalled that it will ratchet up its suppression from the Russian people – decided on add further to the litany of human rights violations evidenced in the Moscow Mechanism report last year. On the 25th of January, the Ruskies Federation landed another whack to freedom of association in Russia. Moscow Town Court ruled to liquidate the Moscow Helsinki Group – Russia’s oldest human rights organisation; an organisation doing much-needed work holding Russia to account against its OSCE commitments. The particular non-profit, human rights company, the Sakharov Center seemed to be targeted last week – with an eviction notice on environment linked to the “foreign agent” law. Additionally , we hear worrying reports of mandatory military schooling being rolled out in schools across Russia, and of students taught classes within “patriotism” to justify Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. Thank you. We stand united in condemnation of Russia’s intense repression of human legal rights at home and abroad. We call on the Russian professionals to reverse these decisions, to release all political prisoners including Vladimir Kara-Murza plus Alexei Navalny. I give thanks to the OSCE’s autonomous organizations – particularly ODIHR and the Representative on the Freedom from the Media for their vigilance within exposing the human rights infractions being committed time and time again. Thanks Mr Chair. Over the past 11 months we have witnessed the horrendous suffering inflicted upon the Ukrainian people subsequent Russia’s barbaric and illegal invasion. However , we are not able to become blind to those in Russia who also live in fear due to oppression plus Russia’s authoritarian policies. The link between the repression of fundamental freedoms in Russia, and Russia’s aggression against the sovereign, democratic neighbour is certainly clearer than ever. I will end with a commitment towards the brave, tireless and fearless human rights defenders across Russia – we listen to you. Human dimension obligations are matters of immediate and legitimate concern to any or all OSCE States – since reaffirmed by all participating States at the 2010 Astana Summit. We will not quit raising the injustices you face. On the 26th of January, the Prosecutor General’s Workplace in Russia targeted an additional fundamental freedom – the particular freedom of the media. Outlawing the independent media electric outlet Meduza and declaring it an “undesirable organization”. It can now be significantly harder for Meduza’s reporters, most of whom are based in Latvia, to reach individuals inside Russia. Plus yesterday, on February first, a Moscow court sentences journalist Alexander Nevzorov within absentia to 8 years in prison for publishing the truth on social media regarding Russia’s shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol. These are the latest move by the Kremlin to tighten censorship and control discourse over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We have been greatly alarmed by the quick deterioration of the independent mass media space in Russia. The repression of opposition voices and of those condemning the illegal war in Ukraine is a transparent attempt by Putin to hide the truth of the war from the Russian people, disguise the horrors the Kremlin has inflicted in the people of Ukraine plus mask the rising variety of Russian casualties. It will not succeed. The Russian people ought to be free to understand reality beyond Putin’s false version.
