The United States and 37 other countries invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism a third time since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The first two invocations focused on Russia’s conduct of the war and documented serious violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights in Ukraine by Russia’s forces. This most recent invocation will establish an expert mission to review the human rights situation within Russia itself.

The invocation responds to the recent actions by Russian authorities to restrict the exercise of freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association within Russia, as well as reports of torture and other mistreatment of Russian Federation citizens and others held in detention within Russia. The mission of experts will have a mandate to assess whether Russia is violating its OSCE Human Dimension commitments and how the Russian government’s actions have affected civil society, media freedom, the rule of law, and the ability of democratic processes and institutions to function in Russia.

This mission will prepare a report to share with all OSCE participating States and the general public in September. The United States and our allies and partners will continue to hold the Russian government accountable for human rights violations and abuses.