Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Russian article.
A Russian human rights group says at least 69 people subjected to political persecution have died in Russia or Russian-occupied territory since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
Speaking on the eve of Russia's Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, Sergei Davidis, head of the "Political Prisoners. Memorial" human rights project, said the most common cause of death was from illness and lack of medical care.
According to Davidis, the team has been compiling lists of political prisoners and monitoring political repression since 2008: 81 people whose imprisonment was politically motivated died during that time. "Of those," Davidis said, "69 died after the start of the full-scale war. The increase is enormous."
While Russian officials have not commented on this specific report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as recently as September, has denied reports that Russia holds political prisoners.
Davidis said since the war began, the numbers have increased substantially.
"When we began monitoring the situation, there were about 30 people on our list. Today, the number of political prisoners exceeded 1,800," he said.
He also said repression has become more severe.
"When we first began monitoring the situation, torture was not as widespread as it is now, for example, in cases involving Ukrainian citizens," Davidis said.
The longtime human rights advocate said deaths from illness and the denial or delayed provision of medical care have become a systemic problem. The report also states that "increasing numbers of young people, including minors, are being subjected to politically motivated imprisonment."
Davidis said political repression in Russia is not some isolated phenomenon carried out by judges or individual security officers.
"The brutality of this repression and the absence of any leniency toward prisoners are deliberate state policies, not simply individual abuses by officials," he said. "Those directly involved in the deaths of specific political prisoners bear responsibility and must be held accountable."