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Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Human Rights Watch an ‘undesirable organization’ Friday, effectively banning the group and criminalizing any association with it.

The designation escalates Russia’s crackdown on critics, journalists and activists that has intensified since its full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s blacklist of “undesirable organizations” now includes more than 275 entities, including media outlets like Radio Free Europe and groups such as World Wildlife Fund.

Russian authorities Friday outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organization,” a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

The designation

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