Norway sanctions Russian judges, prosecutors responsible for repression

For many years, the Norwegian Correctional Service cooperated with Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service. With millions in grants from the Foreign Ministry in Oslo, the partnership on competence building was aimed to assist Russia's prison to implement "professionalism in the execution of sentences" and to ensure "safety" and "rehabilitation" for convicted persons while serving their time in jail.

Norway's cooperation, which started more than two decades ago, continued long after Vladimir Putin and the FSB escalated the witch-hunt against opposition, media and civil society activists in 2011-2012. In 2020, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry granted 2,3 million kroner (€198,000). 

The penitentiary service in Murmansk, a prison in Arkhangelsk and a women's prison in Moscow were among those who were supposed to learn from the Norwegians. So was the pre-trail detention centre "Vodnik" in Moscow.

Torture 

"Vodnik" is today known for its brutal conditions. This is the jail where Andrei Kotov, a businessman accused of running a travel agency catering to LGBTQ+ tourists, died under suspicious circumstance in January this year. A video circulating on Telegram shows how a half-naked, hand-cuffed Kotov was interrogated in a way that only can be described as torture. 

Another well-known political prisoner in "Vodnik" is Dmitri Ivanov. He is serving a 8 and a half years sentence for violating the so-called fake-news law as he allegedly used his Telegram channel to organise anti-regime protests. Ivanov was in 2023 recognised by Amnesty International as a political prisoner. 

All Norway's cooperation with Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service stopped with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Sanctions 

On March 14, 2025, the Norwegian Government took one step further and imposed restrictive measures against Russia's prison service. 

19 individuals were also sanctioned in the same package. 

Among them are several judges, prosecutors and members of the judiciary, who played a key role in the imprisonment and ultimate death of Alexei Navalny, as well as the sentencing on politically motivated charges of Oleg Orlov, one of the most respected and longest-serving human rights defender in Russia, one of the leaders of 2022 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation Memorial Human Rights Defence Center, and artist Aleksandra Skochilenko.

Norway's sanctions are similar to what the European Union imposed last May. 

"While Russia wages an illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, civil society and opposition are suppressed," Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement. 

He adds: "People are deprived of basic freedoms and democratic rights, and any expression of opposition to the regime and the illegal war of aggression is severely repressed. Norway condemns Russia's attacks on democracy and human rights both inside and outside its own borders and supports the EU's measures to counteract this."

In its statement, the European Union strongly condemned Russia's severe expansion of restrictive legislation, the systematic and intensifying repression against civil society and human rights defenders, as well as the unabated crackdown on independent media, individual journalists and media workers, political opposition members and other critical voices active throughout the Russian Federation and outside the country.

Ban on software and technology

In general, the new restrictive measures give Norway and the EU a legal reason to target also those who provide financial, technical, or material support for, or are otherwise involved in or associated with people and entities committing human rights violations in Russia.

Furthermore, the new sanctions regime introduces trade restrictions on exporting equipment, which might be used for internal repression, as well as on equipment, technology or software intended primarily for use in information security and the monitoring or interception of telecommunication.