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GENEVA: A UN expert monitoring human rights in Russia said Monday that “repression is escalating,” targeting civilians, journalists and even Ukrainian prisoners of war in an attempt to silence dissent and opposition to the war in Ukraine.
Mariana Katzarova, the UN special rapporteur focusing on human rights in Russia, presented her latest report that said Russian authorities have stepped up their use of “criminal prosecution, long-term imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment” to quell opposition to the war ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
“The repression is escalating ... and becoming massive,” Katzarova told journalists before presenting the report to the Human Rights Council, which created her post after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The masterminds of this repression are employing new elaborate tools against a total impunity for their actions: Torture is also part of this equation, as a tool,” she said.
Her report said that over the one year covered, starting in mid-2024, the number of prosecutions increased, “with at least 3,905 individuals convicted on administrative or criminal charges for peaceful dissent.”
Most recently, Katzarova noted that through July, more than 150 children aged 14 to 17 were added to the federal list of “extremists” and “terrorists,” she reported, adding that some were accused of treason and subjected to torture to extract confessions.
By mid-July, a total of 1,040 individuals and organizations — nearly one-quarter of them journalists — had been designated as “foreign agents,” including 133 added since January.
“Torture and ill-treatment in the Russian Federation remain widespread and systematic, affecting not only Russian citizens but also Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees,” the report said. “At least 258 cases of torture by law enforcement, prison staff, and inmates acting under orders of prison authorities were documented in 2024/25.”
Katzarova recounted how one Ukrainian man captured by Russian troops was interrogated and subjected to electric shocks. Then, a Moscow doctor had to operate on him to save his life.
“The surgery was perfect, but when the guy woke up, he saw that there were extra bandages on his stomach. And this Russian doctor has burned, with the medical tool: ‘Victory! Glory to Russia’ on his stomach,” said Katzarova, a Bulgarian who formerly headed investigations on human rights in Russia for Amnesty International.

MOSCOW: Russia denied on Monday that its aircraft were violating NATO airspace and warned that countries making such accusations risked “escalating tensions.”
Three Russian fighter jets entered NATO member Estonia’s airspace on Friday, remaining there for 12 minutes before being escorted out by NATO aircraft, Tallinn said.
The MiG-31 jets, which were overflying the Gulf of Finland, had their transponders switched off and did not engage with Estonian air traffic control, the Baltic country added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday denied Estonia’s version of events, saying the Russian military operates “strictly within the confines of international law, including those pertaining to flights.”
Russia considers Estonia’s statements “empty, unfounded, and a continuation of the country’s utterly unstoppable policy of escalating tensions and provoking a confrontational atmosphere,” Peskov told reporters.
NATO ambassadors will convene on Tuesday for talks on the incursion, after Estonia called for urgent discussions under Article Four of the alliance’s founding treaty.
Poland invoked Article Four earlier this month after around 20 Russian drones violated its airspace.