Level of Repression in Russia Increased at a More Rapid Rate in 2025 than in 2022, ‘Re-Russia’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 10 – Few were surprised when repression in Putin’s Russia increased markedly after the Kremlin leader launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022; but many will be by the fact that repression, already at a higher base, increased even more rapidly during the course of 2025, the Re-Russia portal says. 

            The portal has maintained an index of repressiveness over the last half dozen years, one that is based on the number of people convicted of political crimes and on the severity of their sentences. After an increase of 35 percent in 2022, it says, repressiveness remained “relatively stable” in 2023 through early 2024 (re-russia.net/analytics/0358/).

            “But from the second half of 2024, there began a new sharp growth in the number of sentences,” Re-Russia says. “As a result for 2024 as a whole, their number increased 30 percent from the level of 2023 and in the first half of 2025 by 80 percent relative to the number of the first half of 2023.” The severity of sentences also followed the same path.

             It is thus entirely fair to speak about “a second wave” in the growth of repressiveness in Russia from the middle of 2024, one which exceeds the dimensions of the first” both in terms of the number of convictions for political crimes and the seriousness of the sentences for these convictions.