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Russia Uses Soviet-Era Psychiatry to Silence Anti-War Voices, UN Report Says
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Russia is reportedly turning back to Soviet-era psychiatric methods to silence anti-war voices, according to Reuters citing a UN report on September 22.
The findings come from Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, who said authoritarianism in the country has intensified since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Punitive psychiatry has returned as an instrument against anti-war voices,” Katzarova said, noting that dissenters face not only forced psychiatric confinement but also torture and criminal prosecution.
According to the report, Russian authorities have used forced psychiatric measures an average of 23 times per year since 2022. Between 2015 and 2021, the figure stood at just around five cases annually.
The Special Rapporteur emphasized that these repressive practices are being systematically reinforced under the guise of national security laws and other state measures.
“This is an old Soviet tool of cracking down on dissidents—in this case, anti-war activists and journalists,” Katzarova added.
Human rights defenders warn that the Kremlin’s reliance on these methods signals an increasingly entrenched system of repression.
Previously, it was reported that the Russian government proposed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin formally withdraw from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, including all its additional protocols.
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