At least 69 victims of political repression have died in Russia during the full-scale war, report finds
Since February 2022, at least 69 people persecuted for political reasons by the Russian authorities have died in custody, during searches, under house arrest or shortly after release, according to a report by Memorial’s Political Prisoners Support project.
“Responsibility for these deaths lies with the investigators and courts who unjustifiably deprived people of their liberty, with the prison staff and doctors who refused medical care, with the security service operatives who tortured detainees and with the entire repressive judicial, investigative and penal system and the authorities of the Russian Federation as a whole,” the group said.
The group recorded 16 deaths so far in 2026 — more than in all of 2025, when 13 people died. The deadliest year was 2024, with 26 deaths.
At least 29 people died from illness or a lack of medical care, 10 of them in 2026. The authors note that prisoners’ health complaints are often ignored or dismissed as feigned.
Another 20 deaths are linked to “beatings, torture or their consequences”. That category includes documented cases as well as ones in which the circumstances point to a high likelihood of torture.
Ten people are believed to have died by suicide or in circumstances resembling suicide, though the group warns that some of these deaths may have been the result of torture or murder. The causes of eight more are unknown. The report singles out Pavel Kushnir, who died during a hunger strike, and Alexey Navalny, whose death the authors consider a deliberate killing.
Of those who died, 63 were men and six were women. The youngest were two Ukrainians, Danylo Dakhov and Pavlo Hrymak, both 18. The oldest, Valery Mitko, died of illness at 81. The average age was around 51.
The report does not count Ukrainians who were detained outside the context of criminal prosecution. The authors believe many more of them have died, but almost nothing is known about those cases.
