April 2025. What We Achieved Thanks to Your Support

A call to OVD-Info hotline or a message to our Telegram bot are the easiest ways to report persecution and get a free consultation. Specialists will advise on how your situation may develop, and instruct about the next steps.

In April 2025 we:

• received 237 calls on our hotline and responded to 4,439 messages in our Telegram bot.
• by the end of the month, 184,603 active users were connected to our Telegram bot.
• provided 91 legal consultations by phone and via e-mail legal@ovdinfo.org;
• our legal instructions were viewed 13,434 times;
• our legal team held seminars for human rights defenders, including one as part of the Elena Bonner Human Rights School.

If you or your loved ones are facing political persecution, contact us via our bot or call the hotline: 88007070528 (for calls from Russia).

Legal Assistance: Lawyers, Attorneys, and Defenders

We provide and coordinate legal assistance in cases related to the restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly or freedom of speech. Our attorneys visit those detained in police departments, and support defendants in Russian administrative and criminal courts.

In April, our legal team helped 125 people in administrative and criminal cases. Our attorneys and lawyers:

• took 14 trips to police departments, assisting 15 detainees in 5 cities;
• defended 8 people in administrative court cases;
• filed 3 lawsuits, submitted 2 appeals, and participated in 3 cassation hearings to mitigate the sentences of our clients;
• achieved 1 administrative case being dismissed;
• accompanied 5 clients during detentions;
• took on 7 new criminal cases for 7 defendants;
• our lawyers represented 100 defendants in 89 criminal cases.

We consider all these charges and criminal cases unlawful and politically motivated.

We helped politically persecuted people get medical assistance

In April, the Emergency Assistance, launched with the support of OVD-Info, went into full operation. Here’s what was done over the month:

• 14 new requests for medical assistance were processed (3 of them new cases);
• Full medical treatment was paid for in 4 cases, totaling €1724;
• Lawyer fees were fully covered in 3 cases, totaling €1519,92;
• In 4 cases, «Emergency Assistance» staff provided legal and logistical consultation.
  

Thanks to the project’s work:

• One politically persecuted person was transferred from a prison cell to a prison hospital;
• Another person was returned from a hospital to the colony and is already feeling much better;
• One person was scheduled for a medical examination following a complaint;
• Another received necessary diagnostics.

Any politically persecuted person can get help from the Emergency Assistance project — as long as a lawyer or close relative contacts us on their behalf. Requests can be sent to: med@ovdinfo.org.

Media and Awareness

We believe that information protects, and that media and social attention can prevent violations and change the whole picture. This is why a major part of our work is monitoring news on human rights violations in real time and publishing them as swiftly as possible. Besides news, we publish comprehensive studies, interviews, and now even investigations.

In April we prepared and released:

• 205 breaking news reports on political persecution across 58 regions;
• 56 updates covering detentions, trials, anti-war statements, LGBTQ+ repression, protests against mobilization, and government pressure under «moral» pretexts;
• 5 in-depth articles on political persecution.

We’ve released two comprehensive materials on repressions in Russia:

• «Memory Wars»: Alexey Uvarov highlights how civil society across Russia — not just in Moscow — has long driven efforts to remember victims of Soviet repression. By the mid-2010s, Russian authorities began suppressing independent commemoration of Stalinist repressions — blocking memorials, removing plaques, and pressuring NGOs like Memorial.

Grassroots projects like Last Address and sites like Sandarmokh and Perm-36 became targets of this «war on memory.» Historians such as Yuri Dmitriev faced politically motivated prosecutions, while museums were shut down or co-opted by the state to promote alternative narratives.

Despite this, local communities across Russia continue to honor victims through informal gatherings, independent research, and personal memorials. These efforts face growing hostility but reflect enduring resistance to state attempts to rewrite history.

• «The strangling of Crimea»: Comprehensive report on how freedom of speech was destroyed in Crimea. The repression in occupied Crimea has evolved through three main phases: initial adaptation (2014–2015), full operational repression (2016–2021), and escalation driven by the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia imported and intensified its authoritarian tactics, targeting pro-Ukrainian activists, Crimean Tatars, independent media, and religious groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Enforced disappearances, fabricated terrorism charges, and draconian prison sentences became common, with repression peaking after the invasion. From 2022 onward, new laws criminalizing anti-war speech, widespread administrative detentions, and extrajudicial pressure — including forced confessions — turned Crimea into one of the most repressed regions under Russian control. This transformation made Crimea both a showcase and a testing ground for Kremlin repression, later exported to other regions of Russia.

Sharing Knowledge on Political Persecution

Data and analytics

At our organization, we examine emerging problems from various angles, which helps us work out present-day tactical solutions and lay the strategic foundation for future systemic change. The results of our analyses are published as reports, data sets, or special projects.

We published a new report: Raids, Political Cases, and Procedural Violations — How Conscription Became a Tool of Repression.

OVD-Info analyzed statistics from organizations that defend the rights of conscripts. We explain how and why military enlistment offices have increased pressure on potential draftees, and how military service is being used as a tool of repression.

This report was prepared with the support of the organizations Get Lost, Call to Conscience, Conscription School, and The Movement of Conscientious Objectors.

No Laughing Matter: A Full Timeline of Pressure and Persecution Against Comedians in Russia

As public figures — with stand-up comedy gaining rapid popularity over the past 15 years — comedians have often faced harassment, and around seven years ago, law enforcement began putting pressure on them because of their statements.
We’ve compiled a full chronology of the pressure placed on comedians in Russia, showing how law enforcement’s interest in their work began and what it has led to.

Our research team is very active, and it is difficult to put all of their work into one letter. Therefore, we have a newsletter available in English. You can subscribe to follow our news and publications of upcoming reports and datasets: Subscribe to the newsletter.

International advocacy

Appeal to the UN Regarding the Case of Maria Ponomarenko
In April, we submitted updated information to the UN concerning the case of Maria Ponomarenko — a journalist sentenced for anti-war statements and imprisoned for nearly three years. We reported a critical deterioration in her mental health, ongoing punishments, isolation, suicide attempts, and the lack of access to professional help.
We demanded an end to arbitrary disciplinary measures, restoration of her contact with the outside world, and regular visits from a civilian psychotherapist.

UN Complaint in the Case of Igor Baryshnikov
We also submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, asking it to recognize that the criminal prosecution of Igor Baryshnikov violates the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In the complaint, we emphasize that:

• Prosecution for anti-war posts contradicts the right to freedom of expression;
• Repression for pacifist views is part of war propaganda, which is prohibited by the Covenant;
• Igor was also denied the right to a fair trial, including the right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses and receive a reasoned verdict.

This is not the first time we’ve addressed the UN about Igor Baryshnikov’s case. In the summer of 2024, the Committee already obliged the Russian authorities to provide him with surgery — a demand that was fulfilled.

On our website, there is a special page dedicated to international advocacy. There, we share reports and other communications with international institutions, as well as the outcomes of such communications.

How much was spent

Total project expenses for April amounted to 375 411 €.

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€97 471 — payment for legal assistance. Our lawyers, attorneys, and defenders assisted detained individuals in police stations and courts throughout the month and coordinated support for criminal cases. The expenses include:

• Payment for lawyers, legal professionals, and defenders working on administrative offense cases (first and second instance courts);
• Payment for lawyers traveling to police stations to assist detainees;
• Payment for lawyers participating in criminal case processes;
• Payment for lawyers in juvenile cases commissions;
• Payment for lawyers attending interrogations;
• Search, training, and coordination of lawyers, defenders, and attorneys in different cities, as well as the operation of the legal hotline — these tasks are handled by our legal assistance team.

€28 792 — support for new or friendly initiatives. To make the project more sustainable and flexible, we invest in the development of new projects that help us in the fight against political persecution. Sometimes we do this together with new small partners, strengthening each other with expertise, knowledge, and resources. Other times, we launch new directions in test mode, such as medical or humanitarian assistance to politically persecuted individuals.

€32 744 — work of hotline operators and news writers. Our monitoring group answers calls on the hotline, messages in the Telegram bot, and writes news daily, helping detainees not only during large actions — detentions in Russia occur every day.

€29 328 — work of the media team. We believe that information protects. To make information about political rights violations publicly accessible, we prepare and publish in-depth articles, guides on major criminal cases, launch special projects, conduct interviews, and share this information on social media. The media team’s tasks also include launching campaigns and running the «Lifeline» project.

€18 576 — data projects, reports, and research. To make the right decisions here and now and to assist journalists and researchers in understanding what is happening, we collect and analyze data on political persecution, publishing datasets. Based on the collected data, we prepare reports that analyze how legislative practices and repressive laws make political persecution possible.

€17 788 — international advocacy. We defend the freedom of assembly, speech, and association both inside Russia and internationally, striving to make Russian repression visible and influence changes in laws and practices that violate international standards. To do this, we prepare reports and analytical materials, participate in events and conferences, and hold our own meetings to publicize violations and obtain independent assessments from international institutions such as the UN, OSCE, and Council of Europe. Legal support in preparing complaints for submission to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as well as work by lawyers on strategic cases, also falls under this direction.

€26 233 — work of the IT team. We develop services that help protect ourselves and others, ensure the stable operation of the entire system of tools and developments, and share our developments with other initiatives.

€10 450 — volunteer coordination. Volunteers are our support and the best team of like-minded people. We actively work on expanding the community, attracting volunteers to solve tasks that are not only important for the project but also interesting for them, and we try to involve them more in our work and life, as well as in helping other initiatives.

€24 520 — care for team members. We have allocated a separate area for the care of team members, which includes psychological support, compensation for medical expenses, development of participants’ competencies, and their safety. Until August 2024, this part of the expenses was included in the operational support of the project.

€43 029 — operational support of the project. Thanks to this often unnoticed work, we continue to assist those in need and use our resources and efforts more efficiently. These expenses include the costs for team members who ensure the daily operation and planning of the project’s activities, as well as those responsible for the long-term sustainability of OVD-Info, budget planning, strategic goals, communication with donors, and financial transparency.

€46 479 — infrastructure expenses. Since October 2023, we have included the payment for key services (such as telephony) in the expenses of the respective areas. Infrastructure expenses now include those parts of the infrastructure related to the work of the team and the project as a whole (such as the office, accounting, and commissions for infrastructure partners who assist us). This also includes taxes and commissions from payment systems that we use for receiving and processing donations.

Thank you for staying with us!