Freed Russian prisoners urge action as UN expert condemns worsening repression By Reuters

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Freed Russian political prisoners on Tuesday appealed for the release of more than 1,000 others still incarcerated as a U.N. expert described a significant worsening of state repression in Russia that was endangering lives.

A group of political prisoners freed in August alongside U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich in a major prisoner swap called for states to ramp up pressure at a meeting of diplomats and rights groups at the U.N. in Geneva.

Russian officials say the West routinely exaggerates the extent of repression in Russia.

“Let us not forget about all the others who are left behind, who still have to wake up at 5 in the morning…and walk around in a small circle in the snow and just stare at a wall every day,” said Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza who was freed from a Siberian penal colony last month.

Kevin Lik, a 19-year-old German-Russian national imprisoned on treason charges became emotional when describing his solitary confinement in Russia’s far north-west where he said he was denied telephone calls to family and books.

“The only thing I can say now is that young political prisoners are not just statistics, they are the future of Russia and we must take actions to ensure this future is not stolen,” he told a room full of diplomats and rights activists.

Earlier, U.N. Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova told the U.N. Human Rights Council that oppression had intensified since the Ukraine war began in 2022, with the number of political prisoners up to more than 1,300.

Many were jailed on what she described as “Kafkian charges”, noting a priest’s seven-year sentence for a prayer against the war.

“They risk anything from death, like (opposition leader Alexei) Navalny, or really their health being completely taken away from them,” she said on Monday ahead of her speech to the U.N. council, noting greater use of torture and solitary confinement.

Katzarova’s mandate is unique since she is the only independent expert mandated by the global body to report on one of the five states with a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Russian authorities did not respond to Katzarova’s requests for comment, she said, so her research was based on interviews with rights groups, non-governmental groups, journalists and lawyers.

Russia’s seat was left empty at the U.N. council on Tuesday and its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment.

Russian authorities say Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic prison of natural causes. Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya has accused Putin of having him killed, an accusation the Kremlin rejects.