Russia - April 2026

Independent Russian media discovered in April 2026 that Russia’s Judicial Department, which operates under the Supreme Court, had removed public access to judicial statistics and failed to publish data for 2025 by its own reporting deadline. The withdrawn database had provided biannual information on convictions, sentencing patterns, defendants’ demographic characteristics, and prosecutions under specific articles of the criminal code. Officials stated that access was suspended because regulations governing publication were being revised, but provided no details regarding the scope of the changes or whether the data would be restored. Journalists, researchers, and human rights organizations had relied on the statistics to monitor judicial practices and track politically sensitive prosecutions, including cases involving extremism, treason, and anti-war activity. The removal of the database further reduces transparency and public oversight of the judiciary, part of a broader policy of restricting access to official data since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Sources: Meduza, The Moscow Times, Vyorstka