In its annual report, Amnesty International says vladimir poutine is among the leaders it describes as “predatory, ” alongside Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. The rights group says many world leaders showed “cowardice” in 2025 when they should have stood up and resisted. Speaking in London, Amnesty’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, said these leaders are deepening a global pattern in which force is overtaking diplomacy.
The report paints a stark picture of a world where institutions built after the Second World War are being challenged by states that act in defiance of international rules. Amnesty says this is not an isolated trend but a widening political climate in which governments, international bodies and civil society are being pushed to choose between appeasement and resistance.
“In 2025, Donald Trump, vladimir poutine and Benjamin Netanyahu, to name only them, have continued a strategy of economic and political domination through destruction, repression and large-scale global violence, ” Agnès Callamard said during the report presentation in London. She added that almost all international leaders showed cowardice, including in Europe, and urged states to reject conciliation at any price.
Amnesty’s case against vladimir poutine and other leaders
Amnesty says the conduct of these leaders reflects a broader contempt for rules and institutions created after the war. The organization argues that the result is a world in which war replaces diplomacy and where attacks on human rights protections are becoming more normal.
The report also says international institutions have faced their worst attacks since 1948. It points to U. S. sanctions on some judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and the U. S. withdrawal from dozens of conventions, including one linked to climate work.
Amnesty also says the current conflict in the Middle East shows a slide toward disregard for the law, moving from what it calls illegal attacks by the United States and Israel to indiscriminate retaliation by Iran. The organization adds that Iranian authorities massacred protesters in January 2026 in what it says was likely the deadliest crackdown of this kind in decades.
What Amnesty says is happening on the ground
The report extends beyond the major powers and highlights other severe abuses. In Myanmar, Amnesty says the military used motorized paragliders to drop explosive munitions on villages, killing dozens of civilians. In Sudan, it says the Rapid Support Forces committed massacres of civilians and sexual violence during the siege of El-Fasher, which lasted 18 months before the city fell in October.
Callamard said the central answer must be collective resistance. “States, international bodies and civil society must reject appeasement at all costs and resist these attacks together, ” she said.
That message places vladimir poutine within a broader warning from Amnesty: the group is not only naming leaders, but urging governments to stop normalizing their behavior. The organization says the pressure now falls on states to defend the institutions and rules that are under strain.
What happens next
The report is likely to intensify pressure on governments already divided over how to respond to abuses tied to major powers and armed conflicts. Amnesty’s framing suggests the next test will be whether states act on the call to resist, or continue what it sees as a pattern of caution and silence.
For Amnesty, the central warning is clear: the international order is under stress, and the choices made now will shape whether that pressure deepens further. In that sense, the spotlight on vladimir poutine is part of a wider alarm about how far the world is willing to let predatory leadership go.
