The Russian Federation (Russia) is physically the largest country in the world, covering 6.6 million square miles and nine time zones over its 6,000 mile length.   Its population of about 147.5 million includes more than 100 ethnic groups, the current majority of whom are Slavic.  Once an underdeveloped, peasant society, Russia made considerable economic progress under Communist rule, mainly by the force of a centralized command economy and basic industrialization. 

As the successor to the Soviet Union, Russia traces its membership in the OSCE back to the organization’s roots in the Cold War and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was originally a Soviet bloc-led initiative.  The collapse of communism and Soviet rule in 1991 forced Russia into a difficult transition toward a democratic state and market-based economy.  That transition continues today, with a constitutional approach to governance that was initially well-defined and democratic in concept, if not in practice, suffering a series of setbacks.  As a result, Russia has eliminated much of the space for civil society and free media, reduced access to justice, and imposed severe restraints on political pluralism. 

Today, Russia is failing repeatedly to live up to its commitments of the 1975 Helsinki Act, such as respecting territorial integrity, refraining from the treat or use of force, respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, or fulfilling obligations under international law.

The Helsinki Commission is particularly concerned about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and deeply disturbed by Russia’s culture of legal impunity that has resulted in unsolved murders of activists, whistleblowers, and opposition politicians such as Sergei Magnitsky and Boris Nemstov. The Commission played a central role in drafting the 2012 Magnitsky Act to impose sanctions of Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s murder, as well as other human rights abuses and corruption.  In October 2015, the Commission held a hearing to shed light on Russia’s violations of the rule of law across all three dimensions of the OSCE: security, economic, and human rights, including Russia’s abrogation of arms control commitments, illegal expropriation of international investments, and cross-border kidnapping and unjust imprisonment of non-Russian citizens.