Freedom of association
Russia designates international LGBTQI+ movement as extremist
In November 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice issued a press release calling on the Supreme Court to recognise what it calls “the international LGBT movement” as a terrorist organisation. The statement claimed that the movement exhibited “various signs and manifestations of extremist orientation, including inciting social and religious discord.” However, as Russian activists pointed out in conversation with Meduza, no such organisation exists in reality.
In response, a group of exiled Russian activists and human rights defenders established an organisation called the “International Public LGBT Movement” to join the Supreme Court case as an interested party. Igor Kochetkov, founder of the Russian LGBT Network, explained to Meduza: “We believed it was necessary to force the Supreme Court to either do the right thing or acknowledge that the case is fabricated. If they refuse to let the ‘International Public LGBT Movement’ participate in its own case, it proves there is no case.” However, the Supreme Court rejected the intervention on the grounds that the rights and obligations of the plaintiffs were “unrelated to the rights and obligations of the administrative defendant.”
On 30th November 2023, the Supreme Court officially designated the “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organisation and prohibited its activities within Russian territory, according to RBC. The court announced that the decision to ban the LGBTQI+ movement came into force immediately and cannot be challenged, as the movement has no legal personality.
This decision follows a series of legal measures targeting the LGBTQI+ community in Russia. In December 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning “LGBTQI+ propaganda” in media, literature, cinema, advertising, and online platforms. The law prompted significant censorship and the removal of media content deemed non-compliant. In July 2023, Russia also passed legislation prohibiting gender reassignment, further curtailing the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals.
These developments occur against the backdrop of Russia's ongoing aggression in Ukraine, which has led to a broader tightening of legal measures restricting personal freedoms.
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Several rallies by families of mobilised soldiers banned
On 7th November 2023, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation held a rally in central Moscow to commemorate the October Revolution. During the event, a group of around 30 women displayed protest posters demanding the return of their mobilised husbands. Although the action was short and only lasted about five minutes, it attracted a great deal of attention as the first public demand by soldiers’ families for demobilisation.
On 12th November, the Telegram channel "Way Home" (Путь Домой) published a manifesto of the relatives and friends of the mobilised, citing a shared goal to bring the people called to the front back home “at any cost.” According to Sever.Realii, the manifesto does not have a clear anti-war position, but calls for compliance with the constitution and human rights, including the freedom of peaceful assembly. According to the same source, the channel had over 10,000 subscribers a few days after the manifesto was published. The channel later announced a list of regional groups and invited people to register for rallies. The list now includes 29 regions and is constantly being expanded.
Attempts to organise rallies calling for demobilisation faced continued restrictions:
On 11th November, authorities in Krasnoyarsk banned a rally by relatives of mobilised soldiers who were demanding the return of their loved ones, citing COVID-19 protocols. Officials warned the participants of administrative consequences if they proceeded.
In Novosibirsk, wives of mobilised soldiers attempted to organise a rally for 19th November. Since the authorities did not issue a refusal within the legally mandated three-day period, the organisers assumed it was approved. However, just days before the rally, the city’s administration issued a denial, claiming the event’s goal—demanding the return of mobilised soldiers—violated the “principle of legality” without providing further explanation.
In Chelyabinsk, authorities rejected a rally application because it was submitted electronically rather than on paper. In Novosibirsk, instead of the planned rally, a closed-door meeting between relatives and local officials took place at a cultural centre.
Over recent months, relatives of mobilised soldiers have increasingly called for their return from the frontlines. Despite this, officials have maintained that mobilised troops will only return at the end of the war. In December 2022, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that one of the Defense Ministry's priorities for 2023 was to increase the number of contract military personnel to 521,000 by year-end, replacing mobilised citizens and staffing new formations.
Protests by relatives of mobilised soldiers have intensified, but authorities have worked to suppress the movement, citing concerns over destabilisation. Banning rallies is one of the measures used to curb these protests.
Violent riots in the North Caucasus
In October 2023, several instances of mob violence and violent riots targeting Jewish people and Israelis took place simultaneously in Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. The rioters were incited through messages spread on Telegram in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where antisemitic sentiments were shared alongside calls for support to the population of Gaza.
The Caucasian Knot reported that anti-Semitic statements began to circulate in anonymous Telegram channels on 26th October, accompanied by the addresses of synagogues and the names and photos of rabbis in Stavropol, Krasnodar, Sochi, Nalchik and Derbent. The posts didn’t contain any direct calls for violence, but made mention of “Israeli terrorists” in the Caucasus who would allegedly “close mosques and build their own synagogues.”
According to the online publication Fontanka, on 28th October, several hundred people gathered at a hotel in Khasavyurt (Dagestan), demanding the expulsion of Jews from the premises. The reason was allegedly a rumour about several Israeli citizens who had supposedly fled from the war to relatives in Dagestan and had checked into the hotel. The police allowed the protesters to verify that no Israelis were in the building. In Cherkessk (Karachay-Cherkess Republic), protesters assembled in front of the government building, demanding that authorities bar visitors from Israel. Authorities charged 34 participants with administrative offences for violating rally organisation and participation rules.
On 29th October in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), unidentified individuals started a fire at a Jewish centre under construction.
Later that evening in Makhachkala (Dagestan), a mob of up to a thousand people gathered at the airport, blocking entrances and exits and forcing their way inside. They checked the documents of those present, stormed through the building, and even reached the airfield. The police did not intervene. Flights scheduled to land at Makhachkala were redirected to alternate airfields, and the airport was closed.
Dagestan investigators have since opened a criminal case under the charge of mass riots.
The head of North Ossetia suggested that the events in Dagestan were provocations orchestrated from outside Russia, with officials accusing Western secret services and Ukraine of orchestrating the events. An analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue traced an online campaign of misinformation on social media that preceded the violence and came to conclusions that “shed doubt on the claim that this was a coordinated social media campaign orchestrated by one foreign state actor.” The analysis found that antisemitic content and misinformation was spread by at least 35 unconnected channels on Telegram with a collective following of more than 726,000 and a number of accounts on Instagram in the weeks between the 7th October attacks and the riots.
Freedom of expression
Detention of Alsu Kurmasheva
On 18th October, authorities in Kazan, Russia, detained Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir Service. Kurmasheva, who holds dual Russian and American citizenship and resides in Prague, Czech Republic, was accused of failing to comply with Russia’s foreign agent laws, which could result in a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Kurmasheva had travelled to Russia in May for a family emergency. While waiting for her return flight on 2nd June, she was temporarily detained at Kazan Airport, where local authorities confiscated her U.S. and Russian passports. She was fined $103 for not registering her U.S. passport with Russian authorities. According to Radio Free Europe, before her passports were returned, new charges were announced on 18th October, and she was detained again. On 1st December 2023, her detention was extended to 5th February 2024.
Kurmasheva’s work focused on preserving Tatar language and culture, a sensitive topic as Russian authorities have increased pressure on the Tatar community in recent years. Both she and Radio Free Europe deny the charges against her.
Kurmasheva is the second U.S. journalist detained in Russia in 2023. As previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor, in March, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges, which both he and the newspaper strongly deny.
International organisations advocating for press freedom have condemned Kurmasheva’s detention, calling it a further escalation of censorship by Russian authorities during the war.
TV Rain (Dozhd) Declared a Foreign Agent in Russia for the Second Time
On 1st December 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice added the "Dozhd" TV channel to the "foreign agents" register for the second time. While TV Rain was first designated as a foreign agent in 2021, this latest decision applies to its new legal entity.
TV Rain’s journalists left Russia in 2022, shortly after ceasing their online broadcasts in the country. Earlier, on 17th November 2023, the Ministry of Justice also designated The Moscow Times, an English and Russian-language online newspaper, as a "foreign agent."