The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, denounced, on Saturday 11 March, the “ever increasing” oppression in Russia.
“The expansion of oppressive legislation, the absence of the Rule of law, political misuse of judiciary, state-sponsored wartime propaganda and disproportionate use of force by Russian authorities against any sign of opposing views leave no space for pluralistic debates and public protest”, he condemned in a statement.
Mr Borrell stressed the EU’s solidarity with all Russians who have dared to raise their voices and criticise Russia’s war and who have been detained, prosecuted or imprisoned for this. He also recalled that representatives of the Russian political opposition, human rights defenders, journalists and activists were kept behind bars as a way of persecuting them and intimidating Russian society as a whole.
“More than a year of escalating outward aggression and inward oppression have inflicted critical damage on Russia’s international image and on the moral, political and legal foundations of Russian society as a whole”, Mr Borrell warned.
He called on Russia to release all political prisoners, abandon its oppressive legislation, including the laws forbidding information about the truth regarding Russia’s war, the penalisation of so-called ‘discreditation’ of the Russian army and the laws on so-called ‘foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable organisations’ used to suppress civil society and independent voices.
“All those responsible for acts of aggression and oppression must be held to account, and Russia should respect the Rule of law, its own Constitution and uphold its obligations under international law, including in the field of human rights”, the High Representative warned. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)