Newsletter Sep 24, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #139 In Russia, organizers of an international youth festival reportedly created multiple versions of the internet, including an unrestricted network for foreign visitors and a censored one for Russian citizens.
Newsletter Sep 18, 2026 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #18 This week, China’s top civilian intelligence official warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a security threat to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. He pointed to risks including AI-generated political content against the CCP, AI-powered cyberattacks, and sensitive data leaks, while calling for tighter state control over AI.
Report Sep 17, 2026 Manipulation of Sustainable Development: Framing of the UN SDGs by Authoritarian Regimes The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are global sustainability benchmarks adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to guide an inclusive and sustainable transformation by 2030.
Human Rights Dispatch Sep 14, 2026 Venezuela Digital Blackout, Cuba Rearrests Dissidents, and WP Engine Blocks HRF Tracker HRF condemns the Cuban regime’s systematic persecution of critics and dissidents and its ongoing revictimization of former political prisoners. Andy García and all other prisoners of conscience held on politically motivated charges must be released immediately.
Newsletter Sep 10, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #137 El Salvador’s $1.4 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan is moving forward after officials reduced the government’s role in Bitcoin infrastructure. Majority ownership and control of the state-backed Chivo wallet have shifted to a private operator, while the IMF says recent additions to the country’s Bitcoin holdings came from private donations rather than public funds.
Press Release Sep 9, 2026 HRF Condemns WP Engine for Blocking the Tyranny Tracker in Russia at the Kremlin’s Behest NEW YORK (Sept. 9, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the decision by Austin-based WP Engine to block access from Russia to tyrannytracker.org, the website of HRF’s Tyranny Tracker, at the demand of Roskomnadzor, the Russian Federation’s censorship agency.
Human Rights Dispatch Sep 9, 2026 WP Engine Geo-Blocks Tyranny Tracker in Russia On Sept. 3, Roskomnadzor notified WP Engine that HRF’s Tyranny Tracker “violates the national laws of Russia” and demanded that access to the site be restricted in Russia.
Newsletter Sep 3, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #136 In Russia, officials sentenced a senior programmer to a four-year suspended sentence for donating $21 to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF). Leonid Stepanov was convicted using his own bank statements, showing how the Kremlin weaponizes financial surveillance and demonstrating precisely why alternative payment rails like Bitcoin matter in the struggle for democracy.
Newsletter Aug 13, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #133 In Russia, Putin’s dictatorship officially designated the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) as an “undesirable” organization.
Human Rights Dispatch Aug 11, 2026 HRF Counter-Repression Toolkit, Russia Bars Yabloko Party, Belarus Marks Stolen Election Today, HRF launched a new resource to help activists and diaspora communities confront China’s transnational repression (TNR).
Human Rights Dispatch Aug 7, 2026 Thailand Hosts Burma Junta Chief, Russia Labels HRF “Undesirable”, and more. Russia has designated HRF an “undesirable organization,” criminalizing our work inside the country and threatening anyone who engages with us with fines and imprisonment.
Press Release Aug 6, 2026 Russia designates HRF as “undesirable” in response to Tyranny Tracker’s “fully authoritarian” assessment NEW YORK (Aug. 6, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the decision by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to officially designate HRF and its work as “undesirable.”
Newsletter Aug 6, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #132 In Syria, the transitional government replaced the Assad-era pound, which lost more than 99% of its value since 2011. The new pound removes two zeros from the old currency, but the process has created new barriers for Syrians holding old banknotes outside the formal economy, especially those who are unbanked, far from Damascus, or reliant on cash.
Press Release Jul 16, 2026 HRF and Reporters Without Borders Submit Urgent UN Updates on Imprisoned Crimean Citizen-Journalist Iryna Danylovych Arbitrarily detained by Russia since 2022, independent Crimean journalist Iryna Danilovych is enduring inhumane detention conditions and serious violations of her fundamental rights.
Op-Ed Jun 17, 2026 Roman Abramovich Can Talk to Moscow and Kyiv. But He Can’t Change Putin’s Mind. Earlier this month, a familiar name re-entered the ongoing push for a negotiated settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine: sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Human Rights Dispatch Jun 16, 2026 Uganda Military Abducts Lawyer Erias Lukwago, Russia’s Regional Influence Collapses In a @WSJ op-ed, @cjcmichel, Director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation, argues that Russia’s influence across the former Soviet space has collapsed – as have its pretensions about being the leading regional power.
Op-Ed Jun 15, 2026 Russia Has Lost Its ‘Near Abroad’ As Ukraine fights back, every other ex-Soviet republic but Belarus distances itself from Moscow.
Op-Ed Mar 23, 2026 Russia Is Failing Its Allies When It Matters Most The war in Iran, and especially the quick decapitation of the country’s leadership structure, has been a swift, remarkable display of American power and Israeli determination. But there is one other fact it has proven: an alliance with Moscow counts for little when a regime faces its greatest threat.
Op-Ed Feb 27, 2026 We’ve overestimated Russia for too long The recent anniversary of Russia’s expanded invasion, which is now stretching into its fifth year, is as good a time as any to take stock of the state of the war itself.
Op-Ed Jan 30, 2026 Don’t Forget the Many Ways Russia Tried To Justify Invading Ukraine As negotiations continue to drag on between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow, the Kremlin’s narrative about the war has centered on one potential solution: evicting Ukrainian forces from the Donbas.
