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Vladimir Putin's 'foreign agents' law has become the authorities' go-to malign tool for their war of attrition against civil society (Photo: kremlin.ru)

The Kremlin's repressive decade

Ten years ago, I had the honour of speaking at news conference in Moscow with several of Russia's venerated human rights defenders. We were sounding the alarm that a draft law on "foreign agents," which Russia's parliament had just started debating, would be used to demonise independent voices.

A week later, president Vladimir Putin signed the bill into law and Russia's human rights landscape has become almost unrecognisable since.

The foreign agents' law became the authorities' ...

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Vladimir Putin's 'foreign agents' law has become the authorities' go-to malign tool for their war of attrition against civil society (Photo: kremlin.ru)

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Author Bio

Rachel Denber is the deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

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