Russian repression now links wartime rule at home with persecution abroad: UN expert

The report says military training now takes up around half of school teaching time, compared with about one-fifth before September 2026.

A UN human rights expert told the General Assembly that repression in Russia has become part of ordinary governance, closely tied to the war against Ukraine and used to reinforce authoritarian rule. Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova said authorities portray people exercising their rights, including journalists, lawyers, Indigenous Peoples, LGBT people and anti-war activists, as enemies of the state. Her latest report warns that the crackdown is becoming more militarised and increasingly reaches beyond Russia's borders.

By September 2026, 4,968 people faced politically motivated prosecutions in Russia, with 2,178 in detention. Average prison sentences have risen from under seven years in 2021 to 11 years, and treason and espionage convictions reached 468 in 2025, a 30 per cent increase with no acquittals. The government's "terrorists and extremists" register now lists 22,000 people, including nearly 1,100 who were added as children.

Katzarova also described how authorities pursue critics who have left Russia, using prosecutions in absentia, INTERPOL notices, extradition requests and extremist listings that can be copied into foreign financial institutions' compliance databases. Sentences in absentia rose from four in 2022 to 157 in 2025, and a law targeting critics abroad can strip them of civic rights while putting pressure on relatives at home. The Special Rapporteur said repression inside Russia and aggression abroad are parts of the same policy.

Pressure on critics reaches across borders

In a separate September report, Katzarova examined the targeting of political opponents, journalists, human rights defenders, anti-war critics and dissidents outside Russia. She warned that the system is state-sponsored, deliberate and adaptive, and called for transnational repression to be stopped. Her latest report urges governments to preserve evidence for future courts, use universal jurisdiction, sanction responsible officials, reject politically motivated extradition and INTERPOL requests, and protect people who have fled Russia.

The report says military training now takes up around half of school teaching time, compared with about one-fifth before September 2026. Children face pressure toward military recruitment, and criminal responsibility for terrorism begins at age 14. Katzarova said the system pushes children toward military service at one end and criminal courts at the other.

Children and foreign recruits caught in the crackdown

Katzarova raised concerns about foreign nationals being trafficked into the Russian armed forces from more than 45 countries. Kenya has reported that more than 1,000 Kenyans were recruited, and Peru identified 459 recruits, including 11 reported killed and 114 missing. The report says people are drawn in through poverty, debt, prisons and torture, with poor regions and Indigenous and minority communities in Russia targeted before migrants and other foreign nationals.

The Special Rapporteur described torture in Russia as widespread and systematic, and said Russia's withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture takes effect on 1 November. At least 55 political prisoners have died in detention since 2022, and Ukrainian authorities report that 438 Ukrainian detainees have died in Russian captivity. Katzarova said accountability should proceed without waiting for a change of government in Moscow.