Russia’s rights situation has dramatically worsened since its expanded war in Ukraine began, according to a new UN expert report, decrying “endemic” torture and medical professionals participating in the abuse. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in Russia, Mariana Katzarova, said in her latest report that Moscow had launched a systematic crackdown on critics since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of its western neighbour in February 2022. JOIN US ON TELEGRAM Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “The human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, constituting a seismic decline,” she concluded in the report, which she published last week and will present to the Human Rights Council on Monday. Over the past three-and-a-half years, “Russian authorities have intensified their use of criminal prosecution, long-term imprisonment, intimidation, torture and ill-treatment to silence opposition to the war,” the report said.