WASHINGTON — The State Department reported Thursday that an increasing number of governments were suppressing political opponents and restricting the freedom of assembly.

In Russia, the State Department said in its annual human rights assessment, “the government continued its crackdown on dissent that began after Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency.”

In Iran, there has been no measurable improvement in the bleak human rights situation there since Hassan Rouhani became president in August, the State Department said, and in Egypt, human rights abuses that were prevalent under President Mohamed Morsi have continued since he was deposed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, now a field marshal.

The report is a sobering assessment of the prospects for the spread of democracy. “A growing number of countries are cracking down on civil society,” said Uzra Zeya, the senior State Department official who supervised the preparation of the report. “Evidence of this reality is apparent in every corner of the globe.”