Key headlines: Struggling for conscription deferrals; Competitors of the “United Russia” will be forbidden to unite; Top officials withdrawn from the “Blagoveschensk case”; Police batters a 12-year old; Federation Council to restrict mass media rights; Police breaks up a “Jehovah’s witnesses” meeting; Russian Orthodox Church concerned about human rights as it understands them.

This review describes the human rights situation in Russia: key events and the attitude of the human rights community with respect thereto. The review is prepared by the “Demos” Center with support of the OSI – Assistance Foundation.


Issue’s headlines:

LEGISLATION

Struggling for conscription deferrals

Mayors to be deprived of independence

Competitors of the “United Russia” will be forbidden to unite

LAW-ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES

Top officials withdrawn from the “Blagoveschensk case”

The police break people’s arms for lack of insurance

Ministry of Finance to pay for police’s laziness

Human rights activists advise prosecution authorities of the drawbacks in their activities

Preventative conversation of a police officer with adolescents: head against the table

Police officer feeds detainee with his shoulder straps

Police officers batter a 12-year old

One day in the lives of police officers: a robbery, a theft, a beating, and a rape

Road police officer kills a driver and claims he aimed at someone else

80% of Russians fear they may suffer from police despotism

NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Federal soldier kills three civilians and asks the court to consider his services

THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Federation Council to restrict mass media rights

Muslim society chairman demands compensation for moral damages inflicted by publication of “Danish” cartoons


THE FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

SOBR and FSB promise to break Muslims’ legs

Russian Orthodox Church concerned about human rights as it understands them

Police break up a “Jehovah’s witnesses” meeting


THE FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY

Court decides NBP is illegal


THE STATUS OF REFUGEES

Ministry of Justice wants to shut down the “Migrant organizations’ forum”

Refugees are driven out of Ingushetia eastwards and westwards


MILITARY SERVICEMEN AND DRAFTEES

FSB colonel who killed a soldier is found compos mentis


COUNTERACTING NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA

The beatings of singer Zaur Tutov and NTV producer Elkhan Mirzoyev

A Senegalese student is killed in St. Petersburg from a swastika-carrying gun

Skinheads attack a gipsy camp

Half of Muscovites are apartheid champions


EUROPEAN COURT ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Russian human rights activist to contest abolition of gubernatorial elections

Strasbourg court accepts lawsuit filed by a mother of three children against the RF President


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LEGISLATION

Struggling for conscription deferrals

The main legislative intrigue of the early April had to do with adoption by the State Duma of a document abolishing nine “social” and “creative” army conscription deferrals.

On April 1, a nationwide protest rally timed to the beginning of the spring army conscription session took place in the country. In Moscow, on the Pushkinskaya square, the rally demanding resignation of the Defense Minister, Sergey Ivanov, brought together almost 300 people. The rally participants called for institution of a professional army and protested against abolition of conscription deferrals. The Moscow rally was organized by the Republican Party but SPS flags, as well as flags of the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers’ Committees and other organizations fluttered above the crowd. This event was held within the framework of the nationwide action timed to the beginning of the spring army conscription session.

Similar rallies were held in more than 30 Russian cities, such as Omsk, Izhevsk, Voronezh, etc. In Barnaul, in the course of an hour-long picket, young people acted out the transformation of an ordinary youth into a private soldier. One of the rally participants was presented with a kit of army accessories – the military uniform, tarpaulin boots, and a shovel required to accomplish combat missions.

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And on April 2, the RF Minister of Education and Science, Andrey Fursenko, publicly advocated abolition of all conscription deferrals associated with one’s profession: “If we are to reduce the service term to one year and institute a fundamentally new army it would be right to completely abolish all profession-related deferrals to eliminate the temptation to make any exceptions”.

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Another method to solve the problem was suggested by the Public Chamber – to raise the conscription age up to 20 years. The PC members are of the opinion this would result in replenishment of the army with “mature individuals with professional skills who know how to advocate their own rights”. But the Defense Ministry has refused to even consider this option. “This topic does not even exist”, - declared the RF Deputy Defense Minister, Nikolay Pankov.

Simultaneously, however, the Public Chamber suggested changing legislation so that to deprive citizens who have not served in the military of their right to occupy top state offices and be elected to legislative bodies. Observers were surprised by the fact that the Public Chamber had made suggestions contradicting the RF Constitution. For example, pursuant to Article 32 of the Constitution, “Deprived of the right to elect and be elected shall be citizens recognized by court as legally unfit, as well as citizens kept in places of confinement by a court sentence”. The Constitution does not provide for any other restrictions.

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An attempt to defend the deferrals for “talented representatives of the Russian art” has been made by the RF Ministry of Culture. The Minister of Culture, Alexander Sokolov, claims that Russia indeed runs the risk of losing talented young people the way it once happened with the “brains”. “It is absolutely clear that the most talented and accomplished young people will simply leave the country. Understanding that their life goals are being jeopardized and having all the grounds to do so, because they are already in demand, they do have the right to make their choice”, - says the RF Minister of Culture.

Another deferral that draftees run the risk of losing in 2008 is the one for young fathers and those whose wives are at least 26 weeks pregnant. At the same time, the Minister of Health Care and Social Development, Mikhail Zurabov, seriously thinks that abolition of the deferral for young fathers – current and future ones – can help raise the birth rate: “The Ministry of Health Care has prepared proposals on amending the federal law on the status of military servicemen that account for monthly cash payments to family members of military servicemen. They will be paid out during the service term”. Later, the Ministry verbalized the ridiculous amount of these cash payments – approximately 2,000 rubles, the average wage of a man aged 18-20 throughout the country being approximately 7,000 rubles.


Mayors to be deprived of independence

On April 4, it became known that the Kremlin had found a way to build city mayors into the power vertical without formally violating the Constitutional provision on independence of local self-government from bodies of state power. On April 5, the State Duma Council reviewed draft amendments sponsored by the “United Russia” to two federal laws that will enable regional governors to exercise certain authorities of city mayors and gain control over utility and infrastructural objects.

The draft legislation allows the regions to “temporarily exercise certain authorities of local self-government bodies of settlements and city districts that are administrative centers of RF subjects in order to ensure consolidation of their life support systems, communications, and other infrastructure”. It will be possible to deprive mayors of up to ten most important authorities including organization of heating, gas, power, and water supplies, waste disposal, construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, transportation services, determination of land utilization and development rules, as well as control over land use. The regions will be allowed to independently determine the terms of “temporary” requisition of authorities and detailed justifications for such sanctions by passing respective laws.

Using these amendments the Kremlin will find justice for intractable mayors of rich cities who often openly conflict with governors. Local self-government representatives and experts have already labeled this bill as “political”. Mayors of large cities fear they will now lose their independence from regional authorities completely. And the governors will acquire an effective instrument to neutralize disloyal mayors.

Head of the Committee on self-government issues of the Federation Council, Leonid Roketsky, is of the opinion that this law “will bring us back to the Soviet power”. “We used to have local self-government that was part of the power vertical and subordinate to district and city committees, - said the Senator. – And we are returning to that again. It is unconstitutional and undemocratic. We were heading towards democracy to make everyone feel like a citizen and now we are being pushed back into the stalls again”.


Competitors of the “United Russia” will be forbidden to unite

On April 12, the State Duma Council reviewed a bill that forbids political parties to include members of other parties in their electoral lists of candidates. The explanatory note accompanying the bill clarifies that the draft legislation was developed to strengthen the multi-party system and enhance the role of the parties in the society. Most likely this initiative is designed to deprive party members of their right to form electoral alliances that were their almost only chance to compete with the “United Russia” in regional elections.

According to one of the amendments, a party may not nominate members of other parties as deputy candidates or to other elective offices in state power and local self-government bodies. The other amendment provides that a deputy elected as a member of a certain party may not become a member of another party or else he or she will be deprived of their mandate.

One of the bill authors, Alexey Mitrofanov, said that the initiative had already been discussed “outside the Duma” and that “the chance of its adoption is quite significant”. A source in the presidential administration has made it clear that the Kremlin approves the idea.

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LAW-ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES

Top officials withdrawn from the “Blagoveschensk case”

Court proceedings on the case of mass beatings of Blagoveschensk residents by the police continue. The plaintiff’s attorney, Stanislav Markelov, announced at a press conference on April 6 that the case is being deliberately sabotaged and it is likely that none of the top officials will be held liable.

As a result of multiple delays the number of individuals victimized by the police who are prepared to testify in the court of law has reduced from 60 to two. Eight others are escorted to the courtroom from places where they serve their penalties. A total of 341 individuals were found to have been beaten up by the police in December of 2004 in Blagoveschensk.

The decision to divide the case into two separate cases – for top officials and lay police officers – has caused a lot of indignation. Earlier, eight police officers had been charged with abuse of authority. Three top police officials are among the indictees: head of the Blagoveschensk city district department of internal affairs (GROVD), Ildar Ramazanov, his deputy, Oleg Mirzin, and commander of the operative company of the special designation police department (OMON), Oleg Sokolov. On March 13, judge Pisareva forwarded the criminal case to the prosecution authorities requesting it be divided into two separate cases.
Attorney Markelov is confident this division is designed to “wreck” the case of the top officials who will never be held liable for the mass beatings of Blagoveschensk residents.

The police break people’s arms for lack of insurance

On April 10, 2006, in Cheboksary, court proceedings began on the case of two officers of the Kanash road police department accused of having broken a driver’s arm. The indictees may be imprisoned for a term of 3 to 10 years for abuse of authorities aggravated with violence. On November 3, 2005, a driver was pulled over by a group of road police officers. Having checked driver’s documents they put together a protocol on administrative violation (his mandatory third-party liability insurance had expired) and towed away his vehicle.

On the same day, having renewed his insurance, the driver came to collect his vehicle and asked that his car be returned to him as prescribed by the law. But the police officers refused to return the vehicle. The driver began to insist. In response, without having any grounds to do so, the road police officers decided to take him to the district police department and put together a protocol on a case of petty hooliganism. Despite the fact that the victim did not resist, the police officers twisted his arms and began to forcibly shove him into their vehicle as a result of which they broke his right arm.

Ministry of Finance to pay for police’s laziness

On April 10, the Novo-Savinovsky district court of Kazan satisfied the claim of Rifkhat Nizayev against the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Tatarstan. Within three months of enactment of the court’s decision the said Ministry is to pay Nizayev 9,000 rubles to compensate for moral damages he had inflicted as a result of illegal actions of a police investigator.

Last September, Nizayev reported a theft to the police. In his report he clearly specified the possible perpetrators. Within the following two weeks no one advised Nizayev of the police decision which is a gross violation of regulations. Pursuant to the RF Criminal Procedural Code, the police are to notify the reporter of their decision within 24 hours of its adoption.

Nizayev took advantage of the “Accept, do not lose, and verify!” program administered by the Kazan Human Rights Center and petitioned to its lawyers seeking legal assistance. The lawyers helped him to put together a complaint against the actions of the police. The Sovetsky district court answered to the claim and found investigator’s actions illegal. Only after that did Nizayev find out that the police had refused to initiate criminal proceedings on his report.

Rifkhat Nizayev is content with the court’s decision and is of the opinion that regardless of the amount the very process is indicative.

Human rights activists advise prosecution authorities of the drawbacks in their activities

On April 11, the prosecution authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan held a Board meeting on results of the first quarter of 2006 with participation of city and district prosecutors of the republic. The discussion focused on the petition submitted by the Kazan Human Rights Center to republican prosecutor Kafil Amirov. The petition analyzes the situation with violation of citizens’ rights by representatives of law-enforcement authorities in 2005. Natalia Kablova, Chairperson of the Kazan Human Rights Center, took part in the Board’s session.

According to the human rights activists, upon the whole, the human rights situation in Tatarstan remains alarming. The main evil is incomplete verification or investigation of facts and utilization of the “selective approach”: prosecution authorities tend to “ignore” the role played by top police officials when they examine the legality of police actions.

The second most widely spread violation is the fact that law-enforcement officials, having received prosecutors’ injunctions and court decisions, are in no hurry to fully comply therewith. When a plaintiff receives no response he petitions to higher prosecution authorities or a court of a higher instance. The injunction or court decision is placed on the careless officer’s table once again and he fails to comply with it likewise.

In addition, the human rights activists pointed to the lack of appropriate supervision from the prosecution authorities, as well as violation of the procedure of consideration of citizens’ reports; procrastination in verification of facts and investigation of criminal cases, as well as the fact that prosecution officials are not held liable for legal infractions. The republican prosecutor disagreed with the latter accusation having noted that the number of employees of prosecution authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan who were held disciplinarily liable in 2005 increased by a factor of four.

“This is a second Board meeting in which our specialists participate, - said the Chairperson of the Kazan Human Rights Center, Natalia Kablova. – We see the emergence of a unique tradition of interaction between the public and state authorities which in this case listen and take into consideration the opinion and position of a human rights organization. Today we have a real possibility to impact the law-enforcement practice in Tatarstan”.

Preventative conversation of a police officer with adolescents: head against the table

On April 11, in the Stavropol territory, a former police officer was sentenced to three and a half years of suspended imprisonment for beating an adolescent. In December of 2004, while visiting the Regional Polytechnic College, the policeman delivered several strikes on the victim’s head and body with his hands and then hit him with his head against a table three times. “Half an hour later, in the course of a preventative conversation, the convict hit another adolescent on his cheek with his hand which resulted in significant violation of victim’s rights and legal interests”, - advised the press service. To compensate for the moral damages the former policeman will pay 5,000 rubles to each of the victims.

Police officer feeds detainee with his shoulder straps

On April 12, it became known that the prosecution authorities of the Novgorod region had initiated court proceedings on the criminal case involving a police lieutenant of the Novgorod regional department of internal affairs (ROVD) charged with abuse of authority . On July 11, 2005, he made a detained resident of the Novgorod district suspected of hooliganism to eat two shoulder straps and a condom. When the suspect asked for some water he was given a bottle of urine.

The suspect was detained when he called the helpline of the department of internal affairs of the Novgorod region and started insulting employees of the law-enforcement authorities using obscene language.

After the incident the victim sought medical assistance from a hospital and petitioned to the internal investigations department of the regional police department.

Police officers batter a 12-year old
On April 12, in downtown Moscow, in broad daylight, two officers of the extra-departmental security service of the Basmanny police department violently beat up a 12-year old school student, Nikita Gladyshev. The boy was captured in the entrance hall of the apartment building in which he lives, handcuffed, and escorted to the district police department. When Nikita’s parents arrived at the police department the officers said he had attacked them first. The boy was diagnosed with brain concussion and was all covered in bruises and abrasions.

“When I came out of the elevator I saw two police officers on the first floor, – says Nikita. – They asked me what I was doing there. I said that I lived in that house. The policemen then asked me which particular apartment I lived in, whether there were any adults at home and if I had my apartment keys on me. I moved back; at that moment I even thought those were bandits disguised in police uniforms – I had heard a lot about such cases on television”. Having captured the adolescent the policemen began to beat him up on his head and body using their fists and feet and alternating the execution with obscenities. Right in front of the eyes of his two classmates the boy was manhandled into the patrol vehicle and taken to the Basmanny district police department. According to Nikita, in the car, the law-enforcement officers threatened to strangle him and bury him on the dumping ground next to the “Lokomotiv” stadium if he does not stop crying about his innocence.

A retired woman who happened to be at the police station called Nikita’s parents. According to Kira Gladysheva, she was offered to settle the problem with a monetary compensation. But the mother, an employee of the court bailiffs department of the Central Administrative District, refused to even discuss the deal: “My duty is to monitor compliance with laws and I must act legally”.

Nikita’s mother called an ambulance. From the Basmanny police department he was taken directly to a hospital with the following diagnosis: “trauma of throat cartilages, multiple abrasions and contusions of head, body, and limbs, and concussion of the brain of medium severity”.

One day in the lives of police officers: a robbery, a theft, a beating, and a rape

On April 14, the Bogorodsk city court began proceedings on the case involving three police officers charged with robbery, theft of documents from a citizen, and deliberate infliction of light health injuries. On September 18, 2005, arguing with a resident of the Nizhniy Novgorod region, four intoxicated men beat up his 66-year old wife and his mentally ill daughter and openly stole a cellular handset and documents from them. After that, one of the men, according to the victims, raped the 30-year old mentally ill woman. Two of the suspects work in law-enforcement bodies: one is an officer of the convoy battalion of the Nizhniy Novgorod Chief Department of Internal Affairs, and the other is an officer of the extra-departmental security service of the same Department.

According to the 66-year old victim, when she and her daughter came to the Bogorodsk prosecution authority office to provide their testimony a relative of one of the suspects asked her to withdraw her report in exchange for 15,000 rubles. The victim declined the deal.

Road police officer kills a driver and claims he aimed at someone else

On April 14, the Borzinsky court of the Chita region sentenced a road police officer to four years in a general security prison. In addition, the court obligated the convict to pay 150,000 rubles as compensation of moral damages.

On a road in the Sherlovaya-1 settlement, the road police officer fusilladed a vehicle after its driver failed to stop as required by the road police. The victim – a father of three children and a driver with a 25-year driving experience – sustained a bullet wound in his head and a perforating bullet wound in his neck that damaged his spinal cord.

The road police officer did not plead guilty. He justified his actions with his attempt to secure pedestrians from a motorcyclist that moved at a high velocity. He allegedly intended to shoot at the motorcyclist but accidentally fired a shot at a different vehicle. Meanwhile, witnesses of the crime denied the presence of a motorcyclist and two pedestrians on the road at that particular moment.
Fearing that the road police officer would be able to avoid punishment as a result of the court proceedings the victim’s wife petitioned to the Chita Human Rights Center and asked to monitor the proceedings and provide information support to the case.

80% of Russians fear they may suffer from police despotism

On April 3, Yuri Levada’s analytical center published results of the sociological survey commissioned by the “Public Verdict” Fund and designed to identify the level of trust that the Russian citizens have with respect to the law-enforcement bodies (the police, the courts, and the prosecution bodies).

It turns out that almost 70% of the Russian citizens are apprehensive of the law-enforcement bodies. 75% of the citizens think that despotism of the law-enforcement bodies is a pressing problem in today’s Russia. 45% of the surveyed are of the opinion that authorities use the law-enforcement bodies to counteract their political opponents.

Almost 80% of the Russian citizens are afraid they may personally suffer from the despotism of the law-enforcement bodies. 55% of the citizens doubt that courts and prosecution bodies can protect their rights in case of arbitrary police actions. Approximately 60% of the surveyed think that it is impossible to legally reinstate one’s rights violated by court in Russia. Only 4% of the Russian residents trust the law-enforcement bodies.

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NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Federal soldier kills three civilians and asks the court to consider his services

On April 6, the North-Caucasus district military tribunal in Rostov-on-Don sentenced a contracted soldier, Alexey Krivoshonok, to 18 years in prison for killing three civilians in Chechnya last November. The tribunal levied a penalty on the military unit in which the convict had served in the amount of 200,000 rubles payable to the families of each of the victims – a total of 600,000 rubles.

According to the investigation, on November 16 of the last year, Alexey Krivoshonok, a contracted soldier, murdered the driver and the passenger of a vehicle he pulled over for inspection. In addition, he killed a local resident who happened to be around. According to case materials, Krivoshonok was under the influence of alcohol and narcotics.

In his final plea the defendant asked the court to consider his services he had provided to the country, his family situation (two children), and his positive characteristics.

The lawsuits against two other indictees involved in the crime – private Pavel Zinchuk and commander of the intelligence unit, Anatoly Pyatnitsky – were handed over to the Groznyy garrison court as separate cases.

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THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Federation Council to restrict mass media rights

On April 6, mass media published information that the Federation Council was preparing amendments to the Federal Law “On mass media” and to the RF Criminal Procedural Code that will enhance liability of journalists for materials that they publish.

Head of the Information Policy Commission of the Federation Council, Lyudmila Narusova, announced that the new amendments will affect some outdated provisions of the Law “On mass media” and particularly those articles that concern the status of private newspapers and television channels. In particular, emphasized Narusova, once the amendments are adopted Russian mass media will be obligated to broadcast or publish only information that has been verified in advance. In addition, the Federation Council and the State Duma plan to amend the RF Criminal Procedural Code to enhance liability of journalists for publication of false information and incitement of ethnic and religious discord in mass media.

At the same time, Narusova clarified that the freedom of speech as it is defined in the mass media law has been understood by many mass media outlets as permissiveness and as a result, according to her, journalists have begun to take revenge on the authorities for the “multi-year pressure” by expressing their cynical attitude towards everything that they do. There is no uniform information policy in today’s Russia and it is a shame because “the information policy is connected with ideology. It is impossible to live without an ideology”.

Alexey Simonov, Glasnost Defense Foundation: The Law “On mass media” is the primary object of protection for human rights organizations in the sphere of the freedom of speech. So far, all attempts of an enormous number of people who wanted to improve the law, re-write it from scratch, and amend it to make it more restrictive and fundamentally new have been successfully warded off.

But everyone who happens to assume a more or less influential position experiences a so-called “lung failure” and undertakes an attempt to somehow amend the law “On mass media”. For some reason, however, all such attempts turn out to be somewhat one-sided: so far, no one has offered an amendment that would somehow expand the possibilities and strengthen the positions of journalists. All of them attempted to establish additional types of censorship in one degree or another.

Muslim society chairman demands compensation for moral damages inflicted by publication of “Danish” cartoons
Chief editor of the Vologda newspaper “Nash Region” that reprinted the Prophet Mohammed cartoons can be fined for 300,000 rubles and sentenced to two years of suspended imprisonment. This is the penalty that the state prosecutor requested for Anna Smirnova on April 11 at the Vologda court. The journalist was indicted on the basis of Clause “B”, Paragraph 2, Article 282 of the RF Criminal Code – incitement of national, racial, or religious hatred aggravated by abuse of authority.

Chairman of the Muslim Society of the Vologda region, Ravil Mustavin, asked the court to oblige the defendant to pay 1 million rubles as compensation of moral damages and deprive her of the right to occupy top positions in mass media for five years.

On February 15, the regional newspaper “Nash Region” published an article entitled “War of cartoons: opinions”. Anna Smirnova clarified that all the quotations and cartoons had been borrowed from official Russian websites. Newspaper’s journalists left all the comments unchanged. The most insulting cartoons had been modified or reprinted only partially.

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THE FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

SOBR and FSB promise to break Muslims’ legs

On March 31, in the Republic of Adygea, the police detained Muslims who were heading towards the mosque in the Novaya Adygea settlement for a Friday prayer. Before the afternoon prayer, special designation units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs blocked all the roads leading in and out of the settlement. The operation was carried out by the republican Organized Crime Counteraction Department together with an FSB group.

The Muslim community of the Republic of Adygea claimed that the special services have a list of Muslims who frequent the mosque in this settlement; license plate numbers of their personal vehicles were also taken. “Two buses filled with SOBR officers were waiting at the entrance to the settlement. They only pulled over the cars of Muslims who were heading to the mosque for a prayer. They used their dogs to search them. None of them made it to the mosque”, - says a Novaya Adygea resident.

Everyone who was going to the mosque for a Friday prayer was detained and brought to the police station in the settlement of Yablonovskoye. “They had a tough conversation with us in there: they promised to break our legs if we keep going to the mosque, and then they let us go, - says of the detainees. – But first they took our names. It is hard to imagine what will happen to those who ended up in those lists”.

According to witnesses and detainees the operation carried out by special services had a demonstrative nature: everything happened at around noon in the presence of a large crowd of people.

Russian Orthodox Church concerned about human rights as it understands them

On April 6, the Russian Ecumenical Council adopted a “Declaration of human rights and dignity”. One of the principal authors of the document, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Kirill, appraised it as an “epochal” and “historical” document.

According to the authors of the declaration, “situations must not be allowed in which implementation of human rights could suppress the faith and the moral tradition and lead to intensification of religious and national feelings, respected sacred objects , and jeopardize the very existence of our Fatherland”.

The document identifies “the invention of such “rights” that legalize conduct condemned by the traditional morality and all historical religions” as dangerous. “…We deny the policy of double standards in the sphere of human rights, as well as attempts to use these rights to advance one’s political, ideological, military, and economic interests, to impose a certain political and social system”.

In other words, the clergy makes an attempt to convince the population that advocacy of the rights and freedoms secured by the Russian Constitution is nothing else but working for the enemy. Metropolitan Kirill obliquely confirmed it by saying that the West imposes upon Russia and the entire world its own concept of human rights which often serves to justify the lack of spirituality and morality.

Police break up a “Jehovah’s witnesses” meeting

On April 12, the Moscow police broke up a meeting of the “Jehovah’s witnesses” community in the capital’s South-Eastern Administrative District. At around 20:30, a group of citizens notified the police that a meeting attended by approximately 200 people was underway at Sovkhoznaya, 19.

More than 10 police detachments were sent to the above address. The police asked the crowd to break up and 20 organizers of the meeting were brought to the “Lyublino” police department. At the police department they were questioned on the purposes of the meeting and two hours later they were released without having been provided with any explanations.

The decision to shut down the “Jehovah’s witnesses” community in Moscow was made in March of 2004 by the Golovinsky court of Moscow and subsequently upheld by the Moscow city court.

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THE FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY

Court decides NBP is illegal

The Tagansky court of Moscow has upheld the decision of the RF Ministry of Justice to deny registration of the interregional public organization “The National Bolshevist Party” (NBP) as a political party. Thus, the court has declined the NBP’s petition claiming that the decision of the Federal Registration Service to deny the party official registration was illegal.

NBP’s leader, Eduard Limonov, said: “We had no doubts the court would decide against us. Still, we are not going to stop – next, we will submit a cassation appeal to the Moscow city court and courts of higher instances, if required… If our courts fail to adopt legal decisions we intend to petition to the European Court on Human Rights because we think that our position is based upon the law…. This is the fifth time that our party has been denied registration and again we protest against it and demand that the law be complied with when it comes to dealing with our party”.

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THE STATUS OF REFUGEES

Ministry of Justice wants to shut down the “Migrant organizations’ forum”

On April 13, the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the “Migrant organizations’ forum”, Lidia Grafova, advised that the RF Ministry of Justice intends to do all that it takes to terminate the activities of the country’s largest public association of migrants. The Meschansky court of Moscow is to consider the RF Ministry of Justice’s claim to that effect shortly.

Refugees are driven out of Ingushetia eastwards and westwards

It is planned that 10,000 forced migrants currently residing in temporary placement camps on the territory of Ingushetia will be returned to Chechnya in 2006.

“According to our data, a little over nine thousand people currently reside in temporary placement camps (TPCs) located on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia. Another 13 thousand reside in private homes. This applies to individuals that are officially registered by the Federal Migration Service, – says a presidential administration official who also represents the government of Ingushetia. – It is planned that this year all required conditions will be created to return at least 10 thousand forced migrants from Ingushetia to the republic, primarily those who reside in the TPCs”.

The total number of forced migrants residing on the territory of the republic exceeds 60 thousand people.

By April 10, more than 170 Ingush families from the “Maisky” refugee camp had been relocated to a new place of residence in Northern Ossetia. They were provided with land lots in the “Novy” settlement that is located not far from the administrative border between Northern Ossetia and Ingushetia. It is primarily those citizens who did not have housing of their own in Northern Ossetia, as well as people who had originally come from the part of Vladikavkaz that was included into the so-called “water protection zone”. At the moment, more than 40 trailers still remain in the “Maisky” refugee camp. Most of their inhabitants (primarily individuals coming from the so-called “closed” residential areas) want to go back to their original places of permanent residence and therefore refuse to accept the land lots that were specifically reserved for them.

“Those who agreed to relocate to the new lots have already done so but we want to go back to our homes and settlements where we had spent most of our lives and where our ancestors are buried. I cannot go back to my own house in the settlement of Oktyabrskoye because it is currently occupied by an Ossetian family. Local authorities promise to solve the problem and I hope that they really will be able to do so”, - says a forced migrant from the Oktyabrskoye settlement, Magomed.

Among the refugees who still remain in the “Maisky” camp there are people who have not decided yet where they want to live. They do not plan to go back to the Prigorodny district (first of all, out of security considerations), but they are not content with the living conditions in the new settlement either. People complain about the absence of elementary living conditions: there is still no gas in the settlement, nor are there any social objects, the roads are not paved, etc.

The Ossetian authorities insist nevertheless, that these inconveniences are temporary. According to them, the settlement is already on the map of Northern Ossetia and the institute of residential registration is already in force in there. Settlement authorities have already allotted 400 land lots. The settlement is supplied with electric power and water. The gas problem is being solved. To ensure order and safety a mobile police detachment has been established in the settlement.

The “Maisky” settlement occupied by forced migrants from various residential areas of the Prigorodny district was established after the tragic events of the autumn of 1992. It has been occupied primarily by the residents of the so-called “closed” or “problem” residential areas returning to which, according to the Ossetian authorities, is not possible yet, as well as citizens who used to reside in municipal housing. A total of 220 families of forced migrants found refuge in “Maisky”. At the moment, not more than 50 trailers still remain in the camp.

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MILITARY SERVICEMEN AND DRAFTEES

FSB colonel who killed a soldier is found compos mentis

FSB colonel, Sergey Stolba, who shot a term service soldier dead has been found compos mentis . This decision was made on April 4 by experts of the Social and Forensic Psychiatry Center named after Serbsky. Now the colonel is facing imprisonment for up to 15 years for “infliction of severe bodily injuries resulting in victim’s death” and “illegal possession of weapons by a group of people on previous concert”. At the moment, colonel Stolba is in custody at a remand prison in Tula.

On November 26, 2005, FSB colonel Sergey Stolba assigned to a military base in Tula fired a shot from his rifle at a term service soldier, Denis Zharikov. Several weeks later, Denis died in a hospital from the sustained wound.

On the day following the day of the accident colonel Stolba petitioned to the regional military hospital. The colonel referred to the head injury he had sustained a year before after which he allegedly often lost consciousness but never sought medical assistance. Fearing that Stolba can avoid liability by simulating a metal disorder, Zharikov’s mother and brother petitioned to the Ryazan’s chapter of the “Memorial” human rights society and the “Public Verdict” Fund and requested assistance in bringing the case to court and ensuring that Denis’s murderer is not left unpunished.

After the initial forensic examination Stolba was diagnosed with having been afflicted by the “twilight state” that “occurred suddenly and lasted for a short period of time”. This means that according to the physicians of the Tula hospital the colonel was insane only at the moment when the crime was committed and therefore he did not require compulsory treatment. Nevertheless, the experts of the Serbsky center who observed and examined the colonel for one month concluded that “at the time of commission of the incriminated offense Stolba did not show any signs of a temporary mental disorder but was simply intoxicated with alcohol”.

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COUNTERACTING NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA

The beatings of singer Zaur Tutov and NTV producer Elkhan Mirzoyev

On April 1, in the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, unidentified young people beat up a well-known baritone, people’s artist of Russia, the Minister of Culture of Kabardino-Balkaria, Zaur Tutov.

Victim’s wife advised that the children from the “Adygi” music band were attacked by approximately 15 young men in the lobby of a culture club. The attackers cried out the nationalist slogans “Russia is for Russians!” and “Go back to your villages!” Tutov attempted to defend the children and was attacked too. He was hospitalized having sustained a fractured jaw and concussion of the brain.

Tutov and numerous witnesses used their cell phones to call the police but the “police were in no hurry”. The prosecution authority of the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow authorized the internal affairs department to initiate criminal proceedings on the basis of Paragraph 1, Article 112 of the RF Criminal Code (deliberate infliction of health injuries of medium severity). The prosecution authority failed, however, to see the nationalist motive in the actions of the attackers.

Later, an official representative of the General Prosecution authority advised that his agency had demanded that the Moscow prosecution authorities change the grounds for initiation of criminal proceedings to Clause “e”, Paragraph 2, Article 112 of the RF Criminal Code, i. e., “deliberate infliction of health injuries of medium severity committed on the basis of national, racial, religious hatred or enmity”.

Shortly after that, five individuals suspected of having attacked Zaur Tutov were apprehended. Three of them were identified by the witnesses – they are unemployed young men aged 18 to 21. All of them are football fans. The suspects acknowledged their implication in the incident but they deny the battery accusation. As a result, only a 29-year old detainee suspected of having beaten up Tutov has remained in custody.

Literally on the next day, on the night of April 2, an NTV producer, Elkhan Mirzoyev, was attacked in the Moscow subway. His attackers cried out nationalist slogans. According to Mirzoyev, several young men drinking beer entered the train carriage he was traveling in at the “Park Kultury” subway station. One of them, with a short haircut, clad in camouflage uniform and tall black boots, sat down next to Mirzoyev and started explaining to the NTV correspondent, an Azerbaijani by nationality, “why he should not live in Moscow”. Another guy poured his beer over Mirzoyev’s head. A fight ensued. Mirzoyev’s attackers manhandled him out of the carriage at the “Okhotny Ryad” station and put their beer bottles to use. The attackers managed to return to the train carriage and go away. An ambulance took Elkhan to the Sklifosovsky Institute.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated on the basis of Clause “e”, Paragraph 2, Article 112 of the RF Criminal Code (“deliberate infliction of health injuries of medium severity committed on the basis of national, racial, religious hatred or enmity”. This Article provides for a penalty of up to 5 years in prison.

“As strange as it may be, the actions of bellicose youths are well protected by law, - explain representatives of prosecution authorities. – Article 282 of the RF Criminal Code can serve as the basis of criminal proceedings only in one case: if the physical attack was accompanied by certain remarks and shouts or other actions (e.g., writing of slogans on walls) that could encourage other citizens to engage in similar activities”. In addition, these remarks and shouts must be heard by other citizens.

A Senegalese student is killed in St. Petersburg from a swastika-carrying gun

On the morning of April 7, an unidentified man opened gunfire at a group of foreign students and killed one of them – a Senegalese citizen. The bullet hit him on his neck and he died on the spot. The murdered man, Lamzar Samba (born 1978), was a student of the Telecommunications University and was a member of the public human rights organization “African Unity” that assists African natives residing in the Russian Federation. In the neighboring courtyard operatives found a pump gun with a swastika on it.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated on the fact of the murder on the basis of Article 105.2 (murder committed on the basis of racial or national hatred). According to witnesses, the gunfire in the direction of six young men was opened for no apparent reason.

Note that another incident involving African students occurred on November 11, 2005 on exactly the same spot in St. Petesrburg – the intersection of Zhenia Yegorova and the 5th Krasnoarmeyskaya streets. A fight ensued between two St. Petersburg residents of Slavic appearance and a group of students from Cameroon all of whom were on their way home from a night club. Back then, the St. Petersburg prosecution authorities initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of Paragraph 1, Article 213 of the RF Criminal Code (hooliganism). The term of preliminary investigation of the case was extended till April 11, 2006.

On April 8, in St. Petersburg, approximately 200 people came to the site where Lamzar Samba was murdered and brought flowers in his memory. Among the people who came to pay homage to Samba there were his fellow students, officials of the Telecommunications University named after Bonsh-Bruyevich, members of the “African Unity”, and activists of the Antifascist Association of St. Petersburg. About 25 African students said a prayer in the memory of their murdered fellow African.

“We expect that the Russian authorities investigate this crime properly and apprehend and punish the culprits”, - said Ambassador of Senegal. According to him, victim’s mother, a Russian language teacher, studied at the Russian University of the Friendship of Peoples in Moscow and founded the chair of the Russian language and Slavic culture at one of the African universities.

The antifascist rally that took place at the Spas-na-Krovi Cathedral in St. Petersburg on April 11 and brought together almost two thousand people grew into an unauthorized march down the Nevsky Prospect. Upon completion of the rally its participants came out onto the Nevsky Prospect crying “No to fascism!” and started moving towards the Ploschad Vosstania. They carried the slogans “St. Petersburg is a cemetery for foreigners!”, “Valentina Ivanovna, you are a mother too!”, and “Was there a victory over fascism on May 9, 1945?”

The participants of the antifascist rally were forbidden to march down the Nevsky Prospect because this march was allegedly “discrediting the city”.

The march was organized by the “Nashi” movement but among the rally participants there were also representatives of the Antifascist Association of St. Petersburg, approximately 400 members of the “African Unity”, fellow students of the murdered Senegalese, school and university students, members of the city government, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the city, and intelligentsia of St. Petersburg.

Skinheads attack a gipsy camp

On the night of April 13, in the city of Volzhsky of the Volgograd region, a gypsy camp located on the bank of the Akhtuba river was attacked. The attackers beat up the gypsies with metal rods. As a result of the battery two people – a man and a woman – died, two more gypsies were hospitalized in a grave condition.

Three young people suspected of having attacked the camp were detained. They are thought to belong to the local skinhead group.

Half of Muscovites are apartheid champions

The express survey conducted on April 14 within the framework of the “Ricochet” program of the “Echo of Moscow” radio station showed that 57% of the surveyed were against apartheid. They think that proprietors of bars and restaurants who do not allow Caucasus natives into their establishments are wrong. This figure cannot help but alarm because it means that 43% of the listeners of the most liberal radio station share xenophobic views.

Sergey Kovalyov, the Human Rights Institute, the “Memorial” Center: Alas, not only have these facts become numerous but they also have become ordinary. And it is the most frightening thing. The succession of these terrible events has failed to attract attention of top officials. If I am not mistaken, Putin has not said a word about any of them. Additionally, it is not incidental, nor is it an initiative of the bottommost prosecution or law-enforcement officials, that all these bloody tragedies are written off either as football fanaticism or hooliganism. And then suddenly they started talking about fascism and national motives. Clearly, on command.

The question is: What is the matter? Various versions are being discussed. For example, the authorities want to demonstrate such a frightful danger to the lay citizens. So that they could give it a thought as they walk towards ballot boxes and decide which of the two evils is lesser: corruption or fascism. And so that they could give their preference to corruption and let those in power retain their offices, and so that they would want to stay in and not venture out. One does not have to be a smart political playwright to take advantage of such an instrument. Just like the Moscow explosions.

But this type of crime has irrational causes also. At some point, they were used to distinguish between the “socially close” and “socially alien” criminals. These murderers – they belong to the socially close criminals. They are socially close to our authorities, and are socially close, alas, to a significant portion of our people”.

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EUROPEAN COURT ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Russian human rights activist to contest abolition of gubernatorial elections

On April 3, the European Court on Human Rights agreed to review the grievance of a human rights activist from Nizhniy Novgorod, Sergey Shimovolos. In his petition he claims his electoral rights were violated as a result of abolition of direct gubernatorial elections.

In autumn of 2004, right after Vladimir Putin had announced the forthcoming abolition of direct gubernatorial elections and appointment of heads of the RF subjects by regional parliaments on recommendation of the President, an initiative group from Nizhniy Novgorod one of whose members was Sergey Shimovolos, an expert of the Moscow Helsinki group, decided to struggle for preservation of direct election of the head of the Nizhniy Novgorod region.

Initially, the human rights activists tried to preserve direct gubernatorial elections by holding a referendum. Having been denied the right to organize a referendum Shimovolos filed a lawsuit with the Sovetsky district court of Nizhniy Novgorod against the Legislative Assembly demanding that the Federal Law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to participate in a referendum” should be recognized to violate citizens’ rights, and a permission to hold a referendum. The district court declined the suit which decision was later upheld by the Nizhniy Novgorod regional court and the RF Supreme Court. After that, in late 2005, Sergey Shimovolos submitted a complaint to the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg. Given that this court only considers cases on violation of rights of particular persons or groups of people, the human rights activist had prepared a grievance on his own behalf and intends to prove that as a result of modification of the regional charter his electoral rights have been violated.

Strasbourg court accepts lawsuit filed by a mother of many children against the RF President

It became known on April 5 that the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg had agreed to review the lawsuit filed by a Russian woman against the Russian president. Yulia Bukhanova, a single mother of three children, demands that the Russian state should increase her child benefits.

“The fact that a mother of several children lives below the poverty level contradicts the RF Constitution. Paragraph 1, Article 39 of the RF Constitution guarantees every mother social assistance to help her to raise her children. Who is responsible for implementation of this provision? We think it is the guarantor of the Main Law, i.e., our President”, - says attorney Alexander Skovorodko.

Judge Elena Litvinenko of the Moscow’s Presnensky court, however, had refused to consider the claim of the single mother: in her opinion such serious issues fall within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court only. But the Supreme Court also refused to accept Bukhanova’s claim on the grounds of the fact that the president is immune from persecution.

“The woman was unable to find legal protection in her own native state which means she should proceed directly to Strasbourg. Therefore we were even glad that we had been turned down here so we wrote a complaint to Europe”, - advised single mother’s attorney.

Yulia Bukhanova demands that she should be paid child benefits per each of her three children and herself in the amount of four subsistence wages per person until her children reach the age of 18. Yulia also demands that the state should compensate for the moral damages she has sustained in the amount of 100 million rubles.

President shows interest in Russia’s losses in Strasbourg

Presidential administration shows an active interest in the decisions adopted by the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg on cases against the Russian Federation. A statement to that effect was made on April 12 by the head of the legal reform and institutional support section of the representative office of the European Commission in Russia, Pierre Dibman.

Dibman clarified that the head of the state legal department of the administration of the RF President, presidential aid Larissa Brycheva, had officially addressed the lawyers of the representative office of the European Commission asking to put together a compilation of documents concerning all the lawsuits that the Russian Federation had lost in Strasbourg over the past few years having explained that this is required to modify the Russian legislation in compliance with the European standards. It is expected that this compilation will be ready by June 15 of this year.

Last year, Russia lost 83 lawsuits at the European Court. According to the statistics of the RF Supreme Court, approximately eight thousand RF citizens petition to Strasbourg each year.

See also: Russian cases at the European Court: reviews

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