The Russia Situation

From Tallinn, Estonia, Mari-Ann Kelam writes:


Opinion on the Klebnikov murder.

"Contract killing from any number of sources. It could have been revenge from one of the oligarchs, it could have been someone who Klebnikov was investigating for a future article. Since the last of the independent media's been shut down in Moscow, it could have been a zealous SVR/FSB agent who saw Klebnikov as a leader among the Russian emigres who could rally support for independent media in oscow. A few newspapers continue to publish, but even NTV is now fully under Kremlin censorship as of two weeks ago when Putin closed down their last two talking heads programs (one run by RFERL's former Moscow bureau chief who's no democrat), just shows you the lack of tolerance for dissenting views in Putin's Russia. The next step for Putin is to go after the foreign-owned Moscow Times which is run by a bunch of Americans and has a gutsy editorial on Putin's "orders to his diplomats."
(Putin told his diplomats on July 12 to work to improve Russia's image abroad.)

It mainly shows that contract killings are still the order of the day in Moscow, and that even "foreigners" are not immune. We'll just have to see how things develop. The Moscow correspondent for Radio Free Afghanistan was knifed in the landing of his apartment building last week because he refused to move from the building even though it was under new ownership. He's in the hospital in a coma, don't know if he'll recover enough to work, again. This attack appears non-political; he just was foolish not to listen to the warnings to move out."

Note: Sorry to be sending so much at once, but I am catching up on a great deal of information which has accumulated over the last few weeks. Please note that the situation in Putin's Russia is really worrisome! Russia is carrying out a renewed and intensified propaganda campaign on many fronts against the Baltic States. Unfortunately this campaign seems to be getting more than just lip service from leaders of various European organizations who respectfully express their willingness to pursue the Russian allegations but who maintain silence on ever increasing Russian violations of rule of law, freedom of expression and human rights. Don't these organizations even read their own newsletters and reports??? (See below for the latest DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) newsletters, for example.) And, for example, renewed and intensified Russian pressure on Georgia - is anyone
paying any attention?


EUROPEAN UNION DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA

European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Moscow, 9 July 2004
Newsletter No. 25/2004
Democracy & Human Rights in Russia, 3- 9 July 2004


Federal Programme on Tolerance to stop from 1 January 2005

Human rights defenders protested against the announcement by the Russian overnment of their intention to stop financing the federal programme promoting tolerance and combating extremism from 1 January 2005. This programme, with an annual budget of RUB 25 million (EUR 692,000), was created on President Putin’s initiative in 2001. Taking into consideration the raise of xenophobia and extremism in the Russian society, Ludmila Alekseeva, director of the Moscow Helsinki Group, considered this decision to be “suicidal”. In a press conference on 8 July, Alekseeva outlined that
foreign donors continue to invest “millions and millions” of dollars per year in similar programmes in Russia. Ella Pamfilova, Head of the Presidential Human Rights Commission, appealed to the Government, insisting on a revision of this “political and ideologically absurd” decision (www.regnum.ru).



First issue of EHRAC Bulletin

The first edition of the EHRAC Bulletin was published (in English and Russian) by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) in conjunction with Memorial Human Rights Centre. The publication is part of the EIDHR project “Strengthening capacity for support for women and men making complaints against the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights”. The EHRAC Bulletin will be published twice a year and is intended to provide NGOs and lawyers with information about recent developments in human rights fields that have significance for Russia. For more information about the project and contact details, click here. For free subscriptions to the bulletin please send your requests to: e.volkova@londonmet.ac.uk


European Commissioner for Human Rights and Russian Ombudsman to talk in Moscow seminar

A seminar on “Law, Politics, Economy and Mass Media” will be organised by the Moscow School of Political Studies on in Golitsyno from 25 to 31 July 2004. Alvaro Gil-Robles, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin will take part in the session dedicated to human rights. The Moscow School for Political Studies was founded in 1992 and is partially financed by the EIDHR (www.msps.ru).



Human rights activists call for “immigration amnesty”

Activists from the Forum of Migrants’ NGOs and Migration and Law Programme called on the Russian government to grant an “immigration amnesty” for migrants already integrated into Russian society. According to the Interior Ministry, there are 5 million illegal migrants in Russia (www.izvestia.ru).



Afghan Radio Liberty reporter attacked in Moscow

Farid Omar, an Afghan reporter for Radio Liberty’s Moscow bureau, was attacked and stabbed by a group of unidentified assailants on 2 July. Among other issues the journalist was covering political events in Russia. According to his colleagues, the attack was most likely racially motivated (The Moscow Times).


EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA
European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Moscow, 2 July 2004
Newsletter No. 24/2004
Democracy & Human Rights in Russia, 25 June- 2 July 2004


Jury acquits officers accused of murdering Chechen civilians On 29 June, two interior troops officers, Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergey Arakcheyev, who had been charged with murdering three Chechen construction workers, were acquitted in a jury trial in Rostov on Don. Deputy chief military prosecutor Anatoly Romashko said the verdict will be appealed. A jury of the Rostov-on-Don court had also acquitted several Special Forces officers charged with the murder of Chechen civilians last May (Kommersant, Novye Izvestia).



The Helsinki Federation for Human Rights warns Putin about religious intolerance in Russia

In an open letter sent on 28 June to President Vladimir Putin, Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
(IHF), expressed his “deep concern” about the recent ruling of the Moscow City Court to ban the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow. According to the IHF, the ruling reflects a serious failure of the Russian Judicial System to abide by international provisions on freedom of religion to which the Russian Federation has committed itself, and can be seen as a sign of profound intolerance towards religious minority groups. Mr. Rhodes warns that “all attempts by the Russian authorities and courts to restrict peaceful religious activities seriously undermine Russia’s obligations under international human rights law and adversely affect Russia’s reputation in the international fora” (International Helsinki Federation).



Conflict between human rights activist and believers

Speaking at a roundtable on Orthodox and liberal views of freedom and dignity on 1 July, archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the external church relations department of the Moscow Patriarchate, pointed to the conflict and misunderstanding between human rights activists and Orthodox Christians. According to the Orthodox spokesman, unlike most human rights leaders, the Russian Orthodox Church assigns more priority to public values than to human rights and freedoms. “Such values as faith, Fatherland, and protection of the homeland and its shrines are also important for Orthodox believers. Usually they don't rank private interests above public values,” he said. “Take the situation in Chechnya. Is it possible to give up Russia's territorial integrity to save people? I don't know. But most human rights activists are convinced that life is above all,” Vsevolod Chaplin added. According to Mr. Chaplin, “there are greater values than human life and freedom”. “State and society can survive only through harmonizing individual and public values,” he stressed (Ria Novosti).



Court decision hailed as breakthrough in defense of human rights

The Constitutional Court has banned the country's law enforcement agencies from putting State Duma and Federation Council deputies under house arrest without the consent of the chamber of parliament they belong to. On 29 July, answering an inquiry from the Duma, the court ruled that several articles of the new Criminal Procedure Code conflict with the Russian Constitution. According to the court, prosecutors and investigators are required to proceed in their work from the presumption of the innocence of the accused and may file charges only after all circumstances in the case have been investigated. Yabloko party member and State Duma Deputy Sergei Popov (independent) called the court’s decision a “breakthrough” in the provision of citizens’ constitutional rights (Interfax).



Human rights groups open hot line for victims of law enforcement bodies
arbitrary actions

On 1 July, the Institute of Regional Press, together with NGOs Open Russia
and Public Verdict, started the project “Human rights for citizens through a
hot line”. The project’s main objective is to provide citizens with information on their rights and possible actions when abused by law enforcement agents. A team of legal experts will attend all citizen’s queries. Hot line: (812) 273 4733 (www.hro.ru).




EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA
European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Moscow, 28 June 2004
Newsletter No. 23/2004
Democracy & Human Rights in Russia 18-25 June 2004


Expert on ethnic-related crimes murdered in St Petersburg Nikolai Girenko, prominent human rights defender, and expert on racism and discrimination in the Russian Federation, was shot dead on 19 June 2004 in his home in St Petersburg. He was aged 64. Nikolai Girenko was well known and widely respected for his work and research on racism and discrimination. He was Head of the Minority Rights Commission at the St Petersburg Scientific Union and had conducted several studies for Moscow and St Petersburg authorities on neo-Nazi and skinhead groups in the Russian Federation and had repeatedly warned that such groups were on the rise. The
anthropologist testified as an expert witness in court cases against extreme
racist groups. A St Petersburg-based extremist organisation assumed
responsibility for the murder. The group Russkaya Respublika (Republic of
the Russians) published a statement on its website saying it had condemned Nikolai Girenko to death for crimes against “Russian patriots” and for helping organize the “genocide” of the Russian people. The group says the government discriminates against ethnic Russians in favor of the country’s sizable ethnic minorities from other former Soviet countries (Kommersant, Izvestia, Nezavisimaya gazeta, Gazeta, Amnesty International, Reuters, The Times).



Amnesty International says human rights situation in Chechnya is far from
“normal”

On 23 June, Amnesty International made public a report on the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic, based mainly on the findings of a mission to the region in March-April 2004. According to AI, despite of repeated claims from Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen officials that the situation is “normalising”, there seems to be no end in sight either to the conflict itself or to the accompanying human rights abuses. Russian and Chechen security forces continue to carry out human rights violations with impunity, including extra judicial killings, “disappearances”, torture, rape and ill treatment. In addition, Chechen armed opposition groups target civilian members of the Chechen administration and are suspected of being responsible for a number of bombings, which have caused indiscriminate harm to civilians. Such violations and abuses, many of which constitute war crimes, are overwhelmingly committed with impunity, as very few perpetrators are ever identified and brought to justice. According to the report, human rights abuses which previously occurred almost exclusively in Chechnya are
increasingly spreading across the border to neighbouring Ingushetia. To see the full text of the report, click here (Amnesty International).



Duma member criticises new Amnesty report on Chechnya

The chairman of the Duma’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin
Kosachev, called the recent Amnesty International report on Chechnya “superficial and biased”. “Unfortunately, the report says nothing to condemn terrorism in Chechnya, the main violation of human rights in that region”, Kosachev said. According to Amnesty International, the situation in Chechnya has not normalised to the degree that it no longer required critical attention from the international community (Interfax, Novye izvestia).


FM Lavrov meets representatives of 48 NGOs

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told representatives of 48 mostly pro-Kremlin NGOs that the government sought a “platform of cooperation” with the country’s NGOs, and said that their views on human rights and economic and social issues were valued. According to the Moscow Times, the Foreign Ministry’s might have plans to form a common front with Russian NGOs at organisations such as the UN and the Council of Europe, as a move apparently aimed at deflecting international criticism of the Kremlin’s human rights record (The Moscow Times).



FM Lavrov urges EU to enforce its human rights standards in all member
states

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the EU to enforce its human rights standards in all member states, including the rights of Russian speakers in Latvia and Estonia. “The EU as well as Europe as a whole cannot have persons of a second sort, non-citizens”, Lavrov said at the end of a meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja in Moscow. Fradkov voiced hope that the Baltic States’ accession to the EU will improve the observance of world standards in their attitude towards ethnic Russians (The Moscow Times, Interfax, Kommersant, Vremya novostei).



EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA
European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Moscow, 18 June 2004
Newsletter No. 22/2004
Democracy & Human Rights in Russia, 11-18 June 2004


Freedom of religion: city court backs ban of Jehovah's Witnesses

The Moscow City Court on Wednesday upheld a ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses in a case that has now lasted for six years. The court decision prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses from engaging in religious activity, under a provision that allows courts to ban religious groups considered to incite hatred or intolerant behaviour. “Religious freedom has just turned back to where it was in Soviet times,” the organisation’s Canadian lawyer, John Burns, said outside the courtroom. Burns and his colleagues argued that the lower court was biased, taking into account evidence provided almost exclusively by prosecutors. There are about 10,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow, according to the group. The case is already being considered by the European Court of Human Rights (Associated Press, The Moscow Times).


Freedom of expression: 3 human rights activists go on trial for organising religious exhibit On Tuesday, three human rights advocates connected to the Andrei Sakharov Museum went on trial on charges of inciting religious hatred with a
controversial art exhibition. Lawyers defending the human rights activists said however that they won a small victory next day when a judge sent the case back to prosecutors. The Tagansky District Court acknowledged problems with the indictment and gave prosecutors five days to correct them. The “Caution, Religion” exhibit angered members of the Russian Orthodox Church, who called it blasphemous and insulting, and resulted in charges against museum executive director Samodurov and his associates Lyudmila Vasilovskaya and Anna Mikhalchuk. If found guilty of inciting religious hatred, they face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. For details on the case, see web page of For Human Rights (Associated Press, The Moscow Times, For Human Rights).



European Court of Human Rights to hear complaints from Chechnya

The European Court of Human Rights will have hearings in autumn to consider six complaints from Chechen residents who suffered during the Chechen campaigns, the Memorial Human Rights Centre said on Wednesday. Memorial is working together with the London Metropolitan University on the EIDHR project “Strengthening capacity for support for women and men making complaints against the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights”. (For information about the project and contact details, click here.) Memorial said the six complaints had been merged into three cases and would be considered simultaneously (Interfax).




I will try to re-post some more of this material later. DM