Environmental Watch on North Caucasus

On Evgeny Vitishko, multilateral development banks and the criminalisation of public criticism

September 26, 2014

The recent rejection to release Evgeny Vitishko’s, an imprisoned environmental activist in Russia, illustrates the backlash against fundamental rights and freedoms in some countries. Multilateral development banks need to take notice of this trend and be more wary of the risk that their lending may strengthen authoritarian regimes.