(Berlin, November 28, 2025) – Russia‘s designation of Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable” foreign organization, made public by the Ministry of Justice on November 28, is yet another mark of the Kremlin’s repression, Human rights Watch said today. The designation bans the organization’s work in Russia.
“For over three decades, Human Rights Watch’s work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms,” said philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Our work hasn’t changed,but what’s changed,dramatically,is the government’s full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies,its staggering rise in repression,and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine.”
The Prosecutor General’s Office made the decision to ban Human Rights Watch on November 10, as follows from the Ministry of Justice’s register of “undesirable” organizations updated today.The official reasons for the designation are not known.
In 2022, six weeks after Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities revoked the registration for the Human Rights Watch Moscow office, which had operated in Russia since 1992. The office had to shut down as a result, but our work continued. Human Rights Watch started working on Russia in 1978, during the Soviet era.
The law on “undesirable” organizations is one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of repressive laws Russian authorities have adopted in recent years to silence all criticism of the government and incapacitate independent civic organizations.
under Russia’s 2015 legislation, the prosecutor’s office can designate as “undesirable” any foreign or international organization that allegedly undermines Russia’s security, defense, or constitutional order. “Undesirable” organizations and their materials are banned in Russia. Individuals who continue to engage with these organizations,either in Russia or abroad,may face administrative and criminal penalties,including a maximum six-year prison sentence. The authorities interpret “engagement” widely and arbitrarily.
In 2021, Andrei Pivovarov, a political activist, rece