Issue’s topics:
LEGISLATION
The NGO law takes effect
State Duma reinstates the property confiscation mechanism and in absentia trials
FSB not allowed to have remand prisons
THE RIGHT TO A FAIR HEARING
Sentence on Svetlana Bakhmina
Trial of human rights activist Osman Boliyev
Trial of animals’ rights activist
Jury acquits defendant accused of terrorism
Participation in unauthorized pickets recognized non-punishable
Volga courts make the police pay for despotism
Railroad police responsible for despotism and robbery
Designers win their right to work in litigation with FSB
LAW-ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES
OMON fusillades a protest rally
Policeman beats suspect to death
Operative participates in extortion
CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS, AUTHORITIES, AND SOCIETY
“Human rights hotline” on the brink of being shut down
Russian registration authority fails to shut down “Migrant Organizations Forum”
Pressure against the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees continues
Omsk police beat up human rights activist
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Authorities of Bashkiria persecute editor of opposition newspaper
Student found guilty of having no sympathy for authorities
State Duma suggests newspapers be less scrupulous
Journalists remind of censorship and destruction of NTV
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
Priest penalized with utmost austerity
FSB threatens Islamic newspaper
Muslim prisoners forbidden to pray
Drunk crowd beats up “Pentecostal Evangelists”. The police and prosecution authorities ignore the massacre
Blessed by archbishop, Cossacks destroy Orthodox temple
FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY
For one day Tomsk becomes center of political actions
Omsk authorities “clean” the opposition
SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND LABOR RIGHTS
Machine builders stop their 40-day long hunger strike
MILITARY SERVICEMEN AND CONSCRIPTION
Military commissar suggests presumption of innocence be abolished
Ombudsman disagrees with discrimination against those who did not serve in the army
XENOPHOBIA
Armenian student murdered in subway
Attack against gypsy camp: details
Nazis salute to Russian anthem
Best country for Nazi propaganda
While the State Duma creates “International”, “Motherland” divides peoples by their roots
Every fifth Russian is afflicted with xenophobia
RIGHTS OF REFUGEES
Chechen authorities eliminate TPFs
EUROPEAN COURT ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Strasbourg demands explanations on Khodorkovsky case
One may not defend the rights of children for a living
Court to review the case of obdurate judge
Retiree complains to Europe about policemen
***
LEGISLATION
The NGO law takes effect
On April 17, the new law “On nongovernmental and noncommercial organizations” (NGOs), which had previously caused a lot of controversy and criticisms from Russian and foreign human rights activists, became effective. It provides for amendments to four currently effective pieces of legislation: the RF Civil Code and three laws – “On the closed administrative-territorial unit (ZATO)”, “On public associations”, and “On noncommercial organizations”.
The law specifies the procedure of state registration of Russian and foreign NGOs and provides for the list of documents required for registration. In particular, it provides for the notification-based nature of registration of foreign NGOs stipulating, however, that from now on they must register not with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as before, but with the Federal Registration Service. Re-registration of foreign NGOs is not required but they must submit notifications to the registration authority within six months of the enactment of the NGO law. Should an NGO, including a foreign one, be denied registration it may appeal this decision in the court of law.
Head of the administration of the Federal Registration Service, Alexey Zhafyarov, announced earlier that the purpose of the law was not to evaluate the effectiveness of public organizations. “We must understand if their operations go in line with the purpose for which they were established”, - he said. Zhafyarov said that FRS employees “will be as loyal as possible with respect to NGO representatives in the course of the registration procedure”. He also noted however that “no official will break the law to deserve favorable treatment from an NGO”.
Head of the State Duma committee on constitutional legislation and state development, Vladimir Pligin, claimed that the law would not restrict the rights of “traditional” NGOs in any fashion.
Meanwhile, representatives of public organizations disagree with the new NGO law. For example, human rights activists think that the new law enables the government to control them for no good reason and jeopardizes the development of the civil society. According to head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the new NGO law can negatively affect those public organizations that most actively criticize the authorities.
Today, there are approximately 2,000 human rights organizations in the country. Experts think that once the law takes effect not more than 500 will be able to survive. The authorities want to bring the human rights movement to naught by the time of the next elections in 2008, thinks the Chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alexeyeva: “The law itself and the precipitation with which it was adopted and with which the authorities intend to enforce it are accounted for by the proximity of the 2007-2008 elections. Frightened by the events in Georgia, Ukraine, and the Kyrgyz Republic, our authorities want to provide themselves with a colossal safety margin. By the way, public organizations of Georgia and Ukraine did play a noticeable role in those events as they joined their efforts with political parties – it was merely manifestation of normal civil activity”.
Meanwhile, according to head of the representative office of the European Commission in Russia, Mark Franco, the European Union intends to continue supporting human rights projects in Russia. Over the past several years, the European Union has supported approximately 220 human rights projects in Russia. This year, the EU intends to appropriate 1.5 million euros to support such projects in Russia.
Attorney Drew Patrick Holliner, the author of the analytical brief he wrote for the European Parliament on account of the new RF law on NGOs:
– The new version of the law on NGOs provides that a nongovernmental organization may be denied registration if “the purpose of its establishment contradicts the RF Constitution and legislation, poses a threat to the sovereignty, political independence, territorial inviolability, national integrity, originality, cultural heritage, and national interests of the Russian Federation. National integrity, originality, and national interests – all these are surely very good interests that need protection. But where are they specified in writing? I read “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, I watch the state television channel “Rossiya”, and I see a lot of people with their own individual understanding of the national interests of the Russian Federation. What does it mean? It means that these interests are not formally specified anywhere and any registration official can establish his or her own personal rules. If he or she thinks that a certain organization does not comply with the national interests of the Russian Federation, it should seek protection in court. And what will the court be guided by? What kind of legal norms? Apparently, by its very own understanding of the national interests of the Russian Federation as well.
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State Duma reinstates the property confiscation mechanism and in absentia trials
On April 19, deputies of the State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to a number of RF laws in connection with the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, as well as the adoption of the Federal Law “On counteracting terrorism”, having supplemented the RF Criminal Code with the “Confiscation of property” chapter.
Confiscation of property is considered to be a measure of criminal prosecution. The bill, in particular, provides for “compulsory confiscation” of cash, valuables, and other property acquired as a result of commission of an act of terror or designated for funding of terrorism, based on a court decision.
The intentions of the presidential administration to reinstate the property confiscation mechanism as a penalty for offences associated with terrorism and corruption have been known for quite a while. It was intended that modifications would be made to terrorism-related Chapter 24 of the RF Criminal Code, as well as Chapter 30 that covers offences against the state power (as applied to corruption manifestations).
But the authors of the bill decided that confiscation could be applied to other offences as well. Almost the entire scope of offences committed against property (theft, fraud, embezzlement or peculation, robbery, extortion, banditry, coinage, smuggling, and commercial bribery) can now be penalized with confiscation of property. Such offences as homicide, illegal imprisonment, enticement in prostitution, high treason, espionage, encroachment upon the life of a state or public official, forcible takeover of power, mutiny, and organization of an extremist group have also ended up in the said list.
Confiscation is not applicable to tax offences (Articles 198 and 199 of the RF Criminal Code), but entrepreneurs that are trialed for tax evasion are often incriminated with “fraud” or “theft”. For example, the bill of indictment issued in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky contained a count of fraud.
Another novelty proposed by the bill is to allow in absentia trials for individuals accused of terrorism. It will be possible to convict a person in absentia if he or she is outside of Russia and avoids appearing in court. A court sentence convicting a person for committing an act of terror or some other serious crime can also enhance the significance of the request on his or her extradition if the citizen resides abroad.
The State Duma committee on civil, criminal, arbitration, and procedural legislation opposed the adoption of the antiterrorist amendments. “Gazeta” reports that the bill was introduced by the State Duma security committee but it is known that it had been prepared by the presidential administration at the recommendation of the General Prosecution authority.
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FSB not allowed to have remand prisons
On April 17, Vladimir Putin endorsed a federal law that amends the RF laws “On the Federal Security Service” and “On the custody of suspects and individuals accused of commission of felonies”. The provisions enabling the RF Federal Security Service (a.k.a. FSB) to dispose of its own remand prisons were excluded from the said laws.
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THE RIGHT TO A FAIR HEARING
Sentence on Svetlana Bakhmina
On April 19, the Simonovsky court of Moscow found Deputy Head of the YUKOS Legal Department, Svetlana Bakhmina, guilty of theft and tax evasion and sentenced her to seven years in prison. During the pleadings the prosecutor announced that this was “one of the YUKOS cases – neither the first one, nor the last one”.
It took the court seven hours to read the sentence. Its text was almost identical to the speech of the state prosecutor. In the sentence, the court did not utter even a casual word about the line of defense only mentioning at the end that it “disagreed” with a couple of objections voiced by the defense. The court declined the civil suits presented as part of this case and ruled that they should be considered in a separate civil proceeding.
The court took into account the fact that the defendant has two small children, as well as the fact that she paid off her tax arrears in the course of the court proceedings, her health condition, and her positive references. “By partial summation of terms the court sentences Svetlana Bakhmina to imprisonment in a high security penitentiary facility for the term of seven years”, – announced judge Korneyeva, even though the Russian law allows to imprison women in general security facilities only. The court failed to find reasons to amnesty Svetlana Bakhmina as her defense requested.
Svetlana Bakhmina, who expressed her hope for a just court sentence in her last plea, was calm and composed as she listened to her sentence and took the prison term announcement with similar reserve. She does not consider herself guilty and does not intend to ask the Russian President for a pardon, advised her attorney, Alexander Gofstein, later. Bakhmina intends to submit a cassation appeal, i.e., use the remedies that she is entitled to as a subject of the criminal process.
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Trial of human rights activist Osman Boliyev
In the second half of April, the trial of human rights activist, Osmal Boliyev, continued in Khasavyurt. He is accused of possession, acquisition, and bearing of weapons.
Witnesses for the defense were questioned on April 17 - 21. Attorney Salimat Kadyrova petitioned that the court should question two police officers: the road police officer who came to see Boliyev on the day of his arrest and with whom he left home in the direction of the Khasavyurt city police department, and the assistant of the operative on duty of the Khasavyurt city police department. The latter was on duty that day and his testimony could be essential for the case. After the inquest of the police officers was over the court heard out the members of the defendant’s family who witnessed his departure from home in the company of the road police officer on the day of his arrest on November 15, 2005.
The court was also presented with police records that are used to register detainees and reports of offences committed in town. “We want to check at what time Boliyev was brought to the police station and the time when the message about his bearing a grenade was registered”, - says the attorney.
The road police officer confirmed that he did come to see Osman Boliyev at his house and that on his instruction Boliyev followed him in his car in the direction of the city police department. He claimed however that some time later he lost sight of Boliyev’s vehicle and was unable to say anything about the subsequent events.
The assistant of the operative officer on duty of the Khasavyurt city police department who on November 15, 2005 – the day of Boliyev’s arrest - was on the premises of the police station testified that on that day he did not see either Boliyev or the grenade that he was allegedly found bearing.
The proceedings on the criminal case initiated against the leader of the Dagestan public organization “Romashka”, a Khasavyurt resident, Osman Boliyev, resumed on March 16 following a month-long recess associated with defendant’s medical treatment. Earlier, on February 13, Osman Boliyev was released from custody in response to the petition submitted by the defense. Defendant’s counselor, Moscow attorney Sergey Brovchenko, is of the opinion that the human rights activist was illegally kept in custody.
Osman Boliyev was detained on November 15, 2005 by road police officers who pulled him over claiming they needed to check his vehicle because it resembled a car that was listed as stolen. On their way to the Khasavyurt police station Boliyev’s vehicle was pulled over by officers of the Mobile unit of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs. The road police officers handed Boliyev over to the Mobile unit officers and drove away. The latter put O. Boliyev in their vehicle, put a bag on his head, handcuffed him, and brought him to the Khasavyurt department of internal affairs. According to the human right activist, at the police station he was tortured for several hours. After that he was subjected to a search and a disassembled grenade was “found” on him.
A number of experts are of the opinion that repressions against Osman Boliyev were accounted for by his professional activities. His ROO “Romashka”, a public organization, had initiated court proceedings on the notorious case of abduction of a local resident of Dagestan by officers of the Khasavyurt district department of internal affairs. In addition, it was Boliyev who had published the fact of murder of a six-year old girl by law-enforcement officers of Dagestan.
On March 16, the “Memorial” human rights officer announced that “criminal prosecution of Osman Boliyev is clearly based on political motives”.
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Trial of animals’ rights activist
On April 27, the Ostankinsky court began criminal proceedings against Lidia Popova charged on three counts: affront of a power official (Article 319 of the RF Criminal Code), hooliganism aggravated with battery (Part 2, Article 116), and violent trespass against a power official (Part 1, Article 318).
On September 14, a resident of the North-Eastern administrative district of Moscow, Lidia Popova, witnessed illegal actions undertaken by representatives of the “Rostokino” district council and the police. In violation of resolution of the Mayor of Moscow No.819-PP of October 10, 2002, the head of the “Rostokino” district council called a group of stray dog capturers who started capturing previously neutered (at the expense of the state) dogs. The hunters were assisted by the police that was also called by the head of the district council (a former police officer). The State Wild Animal Capture Service confirmed to L. Popova that the capture operation in question was illegal since they had not dispatched a capture vehicle.
Being an animals’ rights activist and well familiar with the order of capturing stray animals for neutering purposes established by the government of Moscow, Popova attempted to explain to the police that the latter were grossly violating the rules of capture. Sh did not succeed in her attempt to protect the law and the stray dogs. The animals were dispatched in an unknown direction and L. Popova sustained physical injuries that were registered at the nearest hospital. Some time later, L. Popova was summoned to the local police department whereat she was informed of the fact that court proceedings on three criminal counts had been initiated against her. Lidia Popova, who may be facing an imprisonment term of up to five years, is represented by counselor Yevgeny Chernousov known for having defended a group of veterinary doctors in the “ketamine case”.
On the same day, the courthouse was picketed by representatives of the “Vita” Center for Animals’ Rights and the “Iduschiye Vmeste” movement. A total of 25 people took part in the action. Its primary slogans were: “No to violence against animals!”, “Lidia Vasilyevna, we stand by you!”
At the outset of the trial Lidia Popova
announced she did not admit herself being guilty. “I do not admit being entirely guilty”, - said Popova on Thursday as the Ostankinsky court of Moscow began to consider her case on the merits. When asked by the judge if she wanted to be amnestied on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Russian parliamentarism Popova answered: I do not consider myself a criminal therefore I will not agree to accept your amnesty offer”.
In the course of the proceedings the defendant provided a detailed account of how she was arrested. She advised that “on the instruction of the head of the Rostokino administration the police officers brought her to the police station and kept her in a cage for eight hours but never put together a detention protocol”.
The court sustained the attorney’s petition asking that the court should examine material evidence at the forthcoming session – two metal spoons and a bag of dry food, which, according to the plaintiff, Popova had used to injure a police officer.
Lidia Popova’s lawyer, Yevgeny Chernousov,
says that according to the law, the preliminary hearing in such cases should not last in excess of three months. But in this particular case the preliminary hearing took almost seven months to complete. “The investigation was clearly biased. The captors whose names are known were not even questioned. My client is charged with three criminal counts. The woman who was born in 1946 is accused of having beaten up 20-year old police officers”, - clarified the attorney. – One can only hope that the court will be able to see the absurdity of the situation and acquit the innocent”.
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Jury acquits defendant accused of terrorism
On April 21, the jury of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia acquitted Magomed Aspiyev accused of commission of crimes accounted for by Part 2, Article 209, Part 3, Article 285, and Part 3, Article 222 of the RF Criminal Code. Over the past several months the case was reviewed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia. Aspiyev was defended by an attorney invited by the “Memorial” human rights center.
In November of 2005, Aspiyev’s mother submitted a written petition to the Nazran office of the “Memorial” human rights center. She advised that on July 19, 2004, in Nazran, her 27-year old son, a special designation police officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia, was detained in the building of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was not until July 23 that his family found out about his detention. The Ministry of Internal Affairs advised Ms. Aspiyeva that her son was suspected of implication in an armed attack on Ingushetia that occurred on the night of June 22, 2004.
Aspiyeva argued that her son could not have been implicated in the attack against Ingushetia because on the night of June 22, 2004, having finished his shift, he was at home in the Troitskaya village which is confirmed by numerous neighbors’ testimonies.
It turned out that Magomed Aspiyev was also accused of participating in a stable armed group led by K. A. Malsagov. According to the investigation, this was proved by the videotape featuring K. A. Malsagov and M. M. Aspiyev together at a wedding reception, as well as by their family relationship.
This is the fourth case over the past several months that the jury acquits people accused of participating in illegal armed groups.
Note that the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, Nikolai Shepel, announced in late March that “criminal cases related to terrorism must be excluded from the list of criminal cases subject to review by the court of jury”. Shepel explained his position by the fact that family ties in the Caucasus are very tight. “It is very difficult to obtain a conviction sentence even if there is plentiful and unquestionable evidence proving one’s guilt”, – said the Deputy Prosecutor General.
The “Memorial” human rights center claims that cases akin to that of Magomed Aspiyev tend to “disintegrate” in court not due to the alleged family ties but as a result of complete absence of evidence proving defendants’ guilt apart from confessions extorted from the accused by torture at initial stages of investigation.
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Participation in unauthorized pickets recognized non-punishable
On April 24, in Barnaul, court proceedings against a group of young people arrested on March 25 for participation in an unauthorized human rights picket held on the Victory square and accused of committing administrative infractions accounted for by Article 20.2 of the RF Administrative Code, were completed. In the course of the picket the police had detained 15 young people most of whom were Komsomol members and National-Bolsheviks.
The proceedings were closed due to the fact that investigation had failed to identify corpus delicti in either of the cases. Most of the picket participants were acquitted although for some of them the photographs that they had dispensed and that ended up in the press played a negative role. Two of the young people were fined 500 rubles each for posing in front of the cameras.
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Volga courts make the police pay for despotism
On April 21, 2006, the Oktyabrsky district court of Samara began reviewing the suit filed by city resident Galina Yelovskikh against the RF Ministry of Finance. In her suit she demanded that she be compensated for moral damages in the amount of 10,000 rubles.
On May 17, 2004, two men broke into the apartment of Galina Yelovskikh and her family. Threatening violence, they took away valuables and escaped. On the next day, the victim went to the police to file a report. The police refused to accept the victim’s report. It was not until the victim appealed to the head of the police department that her report was accepted. Still, no criminal proceedings on account of robbery were initiated. As she kept receiving notifications denying initiation of said criminal proceedings Yelovsky would be surprised each time to find out that she, for example, had ignored a number of subpoenas and would not answer the phone.
For six months Galina Yelovskikh fruitlessly submitted complaints and petitions to various bodies on the account of poorly organized investigation and adoption of illegal decisions. It was not until seven months later that criminal proceedings on account of robbery (Clause “g”, Part 2, Article 161 of the RF Criminal Code) were initiated on December 20, 2004.
One week later, the prosecution authority of the Samara region advised the plaintiff that as a result of their examination a number of negligent police officers had been disciplined. Having decided to take advantage of her constitutional right to compensation of moral damages, Galina Yelovskikh petitioned to the Samara Human Rights center which at that time was administering a human rights campaign known as “Sue the state and get back what you think is yours!” that was implemented in Russian regions at the initiative of the “Public Verdict” Fund.
On April 25, the Civil Judicial Board of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional court reviewed the cassation appeal of the RF Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance of the Nizhniy Novgorod region contesting the decision of the Kanavinsky district court of February 28, 2006. On that day, the Kanavinsky district court passed its decision on the lawsuit filed by Sergey Oleinik. Judge Sysalova obliged the RF Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance of the Nizhniy Novgorod region to jointly pay 123,000 rubles to compensate citizen Oleinik for moral damages he sustained as a result of having been beaten up by police officers. The defendant on this civil suit – the regional Ministry of Finance – contests this decision, refuses to pay for the perpetration committed by the police officers, and insists that the court decision be revised.
On April 25, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan satisfied the claim of a 42-year old resident of Leninogorsk and decided he should be compensated for property damages in the amount of 104,000 rubles. The citizen had been accused of attempting to take the life of a police officer (Article 317 of the RF Criminal Code) and was acquitted by the jury of the Republic of Tatarstan. After the acquittal the citizen decided to exercise his right to reinstatement of his violated rights.
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Railroad police responsible for despotism and robbery
On April 25, the Karymsky district court of the Chita region began proceedings against a group of Novosibirsk police officers accused of abusing their authority (Part 3, Article 286, the RF Criminal Code) and perpetrating an open theft or property (Part 2, Article 161, the RF Criminal Code).
Preliminary investigation established that entrepreneur Koryagin was on a train and had a large amount of money on him that he intended to spend on buying a car. In the carriage, he drew attention of a railroad police officer, Yevgeny Krotov, who checked his identification documents and some time later invited him to follow him to the police compartment. Prior to entering the compartment the entrepreneur felt a painful blow on his neck and became unconscious. When Koryagin came to he realized he was handcuffed to the upper bunk inside the police compartment. In addition to police officer Krotov there were two other people in the compartment – police officer Yevgeny Lebedev and police officer Vasily Slyusarenko.
The guards of law and order started threatening Koryagin, submitted him to a search, and found him carry cash in the amount of 280,000 rubles. “The policemen behaved like bandits and I was extremely frightened”, - recounts the victim. While Koryagin remained in the police compartment he felt sick and lost consciousness several times. He was later identified to have sustained a concussion and displacement of a cervical vertebra.
Several hours later the policemen disembarked at the Shilka station, brought the entrepreneur to the local police station, and left. The entrepreneur was released from the station almost immediately and went back home. At home, Koryagin discovered that another 50,000 rubles were missing.
“I am very concerned about the fact that police officer Krotov has once again missed the court session. He is an important figure in this case and he could have provided the court with important testimony. At the preliminary inquest he provided a testimony that interpreted his colleagues’ actions negatively. As we know he has been listed as a missing person, his whereabouts is unknown, and there is really something to think about here. One cannot rule out that he could have been pressured by the defendants”, - advised Yevgeny Anisimov, a lawyer of the Chita Human Rights Center, when the court session was over.
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Designers win their right to work in litigation with FSB
On April 27, the Arbitration Court recognized that the actions of the Omsk regional FSB department which refused to issue a license required to work with a state secret to the special design bureau (OKB) “Karat”, were illegal.
OKB “Karat” insisted that the memorandum on identified violations issued by the Omsk regional FSB department had nothing to do with reality and should be recognized as illegal. The design bureau also claimed that the Omsk regional FSB department had broken the law having refused to issue a license required to work with a state secret. In the course of the proceedings the defendant managed to have the initial judge replaced under the pretext that he did not have access to classified information. Judge Lyubov Kreschanovsksya passed the decision on the case of the OKB “Karat” and sustained both lawsuits.
OKB Director General, Georgy Vikhorev, says that there is a structure in Omsk that is affiliated with former and current FSB officials and it has a license to work with state secrets. “Its owners and sponsors think that all other license seekers are their competitors, which is why we have all these problems”.
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LAW-ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES
OMON fusillades a protest rally
On April 25, almost 700 local residents were holding a rally not far from the settlement of Urukhchai demanding resignation of the district administration head. At the same time, the rally participants attempted to block the republican highway leading to the Akhtynsky and Rutulsky districts of Dagestan.
“The OMON troopers who arrived to unblock the road used their weapons. As a result of the skirmish one of the local residents died and one of the OMON troopers sustained a perforating wound”, - reported a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Dagestan.
Four persons who sustained bullet wounds were taken to the hospital. One of them was an OMON trooper and the other three – local residents. One of the victims from among local residents died on his way to the hospital. According to paramedics, ten other residents of the district received medical assistance on the spot and were sent home. Meanwhile, one of the rally organizers advised over the phone that several other people were also wounded.
“Today, approximately 300 people half of which are not residents of the Dokuzparinsky district organized a rally demanding resignation of the district administration head, the prosecutor, and the head of the police force. The rally was not officially authorized and was held not in the center of the district but in one of its largest settlements – Miskindzh”, - advised a representative of the district administration.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated and investigation is underway. Legality of application of firearms is also being verified. An investigation brigade of the Dagestan prosecution authority has been dispatched to the district. “According to my data, the OMON troopers used tear-gas”, - advised district prosecutor Feruzat Lagmetova. – The republican prosecutor initiated proceedings on four criminal counts – hooliganism, illegal possession and bearing of weapons, trespassing against the life of a law-enforcement official, and homicide. The investigation brigade of the republican prosecution authority is working on the site”.
63 participants of mass riots were detained on the night of April 26. The source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan reported that additional police squads for the neighboring district and city police departments had been drawn up to the district.
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Policeman beats suspect to death
On April 28, materials of the criminal case initiated against the chief of the department of district constables of the police department of the Karsunsky district of the Ulianovsk region, Alexey Dronin, were forwarded to court. The 25-year old police lieutenant is accused of concealing crimes and abusing his authority aggravated with violence and infliction of serious health injuries resulting in victim’s death. The other victim figuring in the policeman’s case, Nikolai Moiseyenko, sought assistance from the Human Rights Group of the Ulianovsk region. His interests will be represented in court by attorney Tulkin Utambayev who was commissioned by the human rights activists.
On November 5, 2005, Alexey Dronin was investigating theft of a cast-iron boiler. In the course of the investigation, at around 1 pm, in his own office, the lieutenant beat up regional residents, Yevgeny Malnev and Nikolai Moiseyenko, from whom he was trying to extort a confession. Yevgeny Malnev did not survive the beating. He died on the night of November 5 having sustained a closed head injury which resulted in cerebral hemorrhage and brain swelling. The policeman was arrested.
The investigation also established that during the period of 2003 - 2005 Alexey Dronin repeatedly “took advantage of his authority contrary to his service interests”.
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Operative participates in extortion
Criminal proceedings against a criminal investigation department officer have been initiated by the prosecution authorities of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. On April 28, the territorial prosecution authority reported that the criminal case had been initiated on the basis of Part 1, Article 286 of the RF Criminal Code – abuse of authority by an official.
The prosecution authority reported that on the night of March 28 office equipment worth approximately 70,000 rubles was stolen from an office in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Criminal proceedings were initiated on the said case. In the middle of April, the director of the victim company received a telephone call from a stranger who purported to be a police officer. The latter suggested returning the stolen property in exchange for 8,000 rubles. The director of the victim firm agreed to meet the stranger and pay him. As soon as the cash transaction was over the stranger was caught red-handed and was identified as an officer of the criminal investigation department of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur department of internal affairs. The property stolen from the victim company’s office was found in the detective’s office.
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CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS, AUTHORITIES, AND SOCIETY
“Human rights hotline” on the brink of being shut down
On April 17, the “Human rights hotline” operating in all of the federal districts of the Russian Federation announced it was about to be shut down. The situation was accounted for by the funding problem caused by the arrest of the bank accounts of the public organization “Open Russia”. The project lawyers decided to continue provision of their free round-the-clock legal telephone consultations to citizens during April – May, 2006 and until the end of 2006 – in the Central Federal District.
The “Public Verdict” Fund under whose auspices the “Hotline” project has operated since 2004 has addressed legal and physical entities asking for donations to further support operations of the “Hotline”. More than 25,000 people have benefited from the “Hotline” project since July of 2004. The Fund advised that operations of the “Hotline” project in one federal district of Russia costs only 20,500 rubles. Fund’s Director, Natalia Taubina, reported that “Open Russia” was the key donor of the Fund which otherwise “has no financial possibilities to support operations of the “Hotline” in the future”.
On March 16, the Basmanny court sustained the motion of the RF Prosecution General and issued a resolution requiring that all bank accounts of the interregional public organization “Open Russia” be arrested. Investigation is of the opinion that funds in the bank accounts of “Open Russia” belong to the MENATEP frontman, Platon Lebedev, as well as “other unidentified individuals” suspected of implication in the criminal case involving Mikhail Khodorkovsky. According to the General Prosecution authority, Lebedev and Khodorkovsky supported the organization with funds they obtained illegally.
“Open Russia” insists, in turn, that the funds were its legal property. Information and PR Director of “Open Russia”, Irina Savchenko, advised that there was approximately $6 million in their bank accounts. The money was designated to support civil educational, enlightenment, social, and human rights programs in 48 Russian regions. Among the earlier affected victims was the “Help with Advice” center (the Sverdlovsk subsidiary of “Open Russia”) which was forced to suspend its activities due to its inability to pay rent. Another project of “Open Russia” – the Public Policy School – is also running the risk of being shut down.
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Russian registration authority fails to shut down “Migrant Organizations Forum”
On April 28, the Meschansky court of Moscow refused to liquidate the international public movement of assistance to migrants and their association – the “Migrant Organizations Forum”.
The lawsuit demanding liquidation of the international public movement of assistance to migrants and their association, the “Migrant Organizations Forum”, had been filed by the RF Federal Registration Service. The lawsuit was filed on the grounds of the fact that while the “Forum” purported to be an international organization it had no representative offices properly registered in foreign countries. At the same time, the Federal Registration Service claimed that it did not pursue liquidation of any particular public organization.
The defendant’s representative
argued that the FRS demands were illegal and unjustified because according to law liquidation suits can only be filed if organizations go out of business due to bankruptcy or if they fail to provide documents reflecting their activities.
The association was registered in 1996. According to the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the “Migrant Organizations Forum”, Lidia Grafova, the lawsuit filed by the Federal Registration Service is not associated with the amendments to the law on nongovernmental organizations.
She specified that the lawsuit on liquidation of the “Forum” as a legal entity was filed in connection with the fact that in order to have its charter registered and support its international status the organization presented documents which proved that it had a representative office in the Republic of Abkhazia in 2000.
The FRS lawsuit was accounted for by a mix-up associated with the documents it required to register representative offices of the “Forum”. “I think that these legal proceedings are an insult to common sense, – says the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the “Migrant Organizations Forum”, Lidia Grafova. – Right now, our organization has no money at all and I do not see any sense in constantly protracting this process but the FRS keeps putting forth new demands. Our “Forum” has never established offices either in Abkhazia, or in Latvia. Those were separate organizations that later proclaimed themselves to be representative offices of our “Forum”.
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Pressure against the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees continues
On April 19, the executive secretary of the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees, Valentina Melnikova, advised she had received a subpoena from the Basmanny court of Moscow. The document says that the Ministry of Justice had filed a lawsuit demanding that the organization be banned. The hearing is scheduled for May 18. Melnikova emphasized that the Soldiers’ Mothers had not received a copy of the petition of the registration service and do not know therefore on what grounds the Ministry of Justice wants to ban the movement that has existed in the country for 17 years.
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Omsk police beat up human rights activist
The police operation undertaken in Omsk on April 24 affected a well known human rights activist, Yuri Shadrin. He was asked for assistance by the chairman of the transportation union “Yamschik”, Valentin Kuznetsov, who was seized near his house by unidentified individuals at 8:30 and brought to the Oktyabrsky district police department. Having found out his location (on the phone the police stubbornly denied the very fact of Kuznetsov’s detention), Yuri Shadrin went to the rally of taxi drivers.
On his way to the rally site, he was approached by several men in civilian clothes who refused to identify themselves and “suggested that he should follow them”. After he refused to comply with this clearly illegal demand he was brutally “seized and beaten up” and then taken to the Central district police department. At the station, the police officers who had long known who Yuri Yuriyevich was began the “identification procedure”. In the course of this identification they took away the document he presented that certified he was deputy chairman of the international organization “Our Right” commission for combating crime, corruption, and abuse of authority”.
According to Yuri Shadrin, the police forcibly extracted the identification document from his pocket and having claimed it was expired refused to return it to him. He was also denied being issued with documents that are mandatory in such situations: the ID revocation certificate, the detention protocol, or at least a summons.
After being released the human rights activist went to the hospital where he was issued with a doctor’s note certifying he had sustained a concussion as a result of battery. Yuri Shadrin intends to file a lawsuit with the prosecution authority.
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FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Authorities of Bashkiria persecute editor of opposition newspaper
On the night of
April 28, editor of the opposition newspaper “Provincial News”, Viktor Shmakov, was arrested in Ufa. His wife Lyudmila reported that the representatives of the law-enforcement authorities presented him with some documents according to which Shmakov was “accused of committing a felony accounted for by Part 2, Article 280 of the RF Criminal Code (propagation of statements encouraging overthrow of the current regime) and, as the representatives of the law-enforcement authorities put it, to prevent him from making attempts at concealing the trail or exacerbating the situation, my husband was taken into custody and sent to a temporary detention facility. He will remain in custody as a preventive measure that has been authorized by the decision of the Kirov court of Ufa”.
A day earlier, on April 27, as part of the criminal proceedings initiated on the basis of Part 2, Article 280 of the RF Criminal Code by the prosecution authority of the Republic of Bashkortostan, officials of the republican FSB department searched the offices of the coordination board of the united opposition of Bashkiria and the regional CPRF chapter located on October Prospect and Frunze Street respectively. The leaders of these political organizations were summoned to the FSB quarters and released on the night of April 27.
The house of Khasan Idiyatullin – an entrepreneur who ran for the office of the President of Bashkiria in 2003 and is also an activist of the coordination board of the united opposition of Bashkiria – was searched and part of the circulation of the latest issue of “Provincial News” that has been published since 2001 and is printed outside the republic was confiscated.
According to the data received from the law-enforcement authorities, most of the circulation of the newspaper’s latest issue which, according to the law-enforcement authorities, has published “materials encouraging forcible overthrow of the current regime in Bashkiria and, particularly, deposition of the President of Bashkiria, Murtaza Rakhimov”, was seized in the offices of these two parties and in the entrepreneur’s house.
Viktor Shmakov spent more than 30 years working for various republican newspapers. In 1989, he established the first independent newspaper in Bashkiria, “Vmeste”. Since 2001 he has been working as “Provincial News” editor. He is a winner of the Russian national journalist award. On the day following his arrest the health condition of the 64-year old editor drastically deteriorated.
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Student found guilty of having no sympathy for authorities
On April 26, the Leninsky court of Kemerovo sentenced a 21-year old fourth-year student of the philology and journalism department of the Kemerovo University, Konstantin Strokolsky, to two years of suspended imprisonment with a one-year probation period. The court found him guilty of committing offences accounted for by Part 2, Article 280 of the RF Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activities using mass media) and Part 1, Article 282 of the RF Criminal Code (incitement of hatred or enmity and disparagement).
According to the prosecution authority, Strokolsky was a member of the National Bolshevist Party and wanted to change the political system that currently exists in the Russian Federation. In January of 2005, the student placed the article entitled “The most constructive party” on his website that popularizes the NBP activities.
The author of the article, a resident of Belovo, Kemerovo region, Alexander Nikolayenko, was convicted in July of 2005 for publication of this article in the newspaper “Kurs”. The Belovo city court sentenced him to 6 months of custody in a correctional labor colony and deprived him of the right to engage in journalistic activities for 2 years.
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State Duma suggests newspapers be less scrupulous
In the second half of April, State Duma deputies G. Gudkov, A. Khinshtein, S. Baburin, and N. Bezborodov
submitted a bill to the lower chamber suggesting that mass media should be required to “facilitate more comprehensive and objective coverage of all candidates and associations” in the course of election campaigns. The bill also suggests that dissenting editors should be prosecuted.
The essence of the bill is that all mass media outlets must publish election information from all candidates and parties. State publications must do it on the pro bono basis, and private periodicals must do it for a fee. They do not have the right to deny provision of print space or airtime to election participants. It does not follow from the text of the bill, however, that this regulation only applies to those mass media outlets which have demonstrated their readiness to participate in the election campaign. If the bill passes all mass media outlets without exception will be required to publish information from all candidates regardless of their own views.
Opponents of the deputies who have initiated another “improvement” of mass media view these proposals as a gross violation of the RF Constitution and the freedom of speech. They remind that Article 58 of the RF Law “On mass media” provides for a liability (including criminal liability) for compulsion of journalists to spread information or to refuse to spread it.
According to the report published by the RF Union of Journalists
on April 27, central television channels dedicate their news programs almost entirely to the president, the government, the parliament, and the “United Russia” party. 90% of the airtime is dedicated to activities of these individuals and organizations. The monitoring also demonstrated that television covers the actions of authorities either positively or neutrally. As far as the opposition is concerned, it is barely visible on television screens.
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Journalists remind of censorship and destruction of NTV
On April 16, approximately 4,000 people took part in a rally against censorship in mass media that took place on the Pushkin square in Moscow. The rally was timed to the fifth anniversary of the change of the NTV proprietor. Among the slogans held by rally participants there were: “Censorship today – dictatorship tomorrow”, “Channel 1, stop lying!”, “Take the remote away from Putin!”, “Send Putin to work for Retro-FM!”, “Vova, the TV remote is no toy!”, “Putin – for mayor of Bobruisk!” Journalists who had been previously dismissed from mass media outlets took part in the rally. The rally was attended by Sergey Dorenko, Yevgeny Kiselyov, Viktor Shenderovich, Olga Romanova, Sergey Parkhomenko, and some others. Among other participants there were activists of the youth “Defense” movement, the youth segment of “Yabloko”, activists and the leader of SPS, Nikita Belykh, and member of the CPRF, Vasily Shandybin.
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FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
Priest penalized with utmost austerity
Father Sergiy who called Mikhail Khodorkovsky a prisoner of conscience has been defrocked . An order to that effect was signed on April 10 by the Bishop of Chita and Zabaikalye, Yevstafy. Thus, the clergyman was subjected to the most austere of all possible religious penalties. First, father Sergiy was banished to a remote parish in mountainous taiga. Next, he was forbidden to conduct religious services. Former clergyman Sergey Taratukhin identified the last radical decision of the church superiors as “blatant persecution”.
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FSB threatens Islamic newspaper
On April 17, it became known that in the city of Salavat (Bashkortostan) FSB officials exert pressure against Usman Ismagilov, editor of the local Islamic newspaper “Khidayat” whose second issue has been published recently: “FSB representative Ruslan Ismagilov keeps calling and inviting the editor to come see him in his office without providing any grounds for doing that”. According to human rights activist Ismail Saifullin, it was right after the first issue of the newspaper was published that the FSB started summoning Muslims of Salavat and threatening them with arrest. In this connection the believers petitioned to the prosecution authority.
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Muslim prisoners forbidden to pray
On April 28, Muslim inmates of the penitentiary facility IK-16 located in the city of Gromadsk, Uyarsky district, Krasnoyarsk territory, petitioned to the public and human rights activists asking for help. They claim being persecuted. The statement that they distributed claims that one day during the holy month of Ramadan inmates Gulmerza Rashidov, Rafik Aliyarov, Soduktan Abdurakhmanov, and Shaban Guseinov were in the middle of a prayer when “Captain A. A. Smolensky literally broke into the room that they chose for praying”. He demanded that they stopped praying and insulted the Muslims having called them “Wahhabies who only pray in prison but when they are at large they run around in the mountains carrying their machine guns”.
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Drunk crowd beats up “Pentecostal Evangelists”. The police and prosecution authorities ignore the massacre
On April 23, members of the “Reconciliation” Pentecostal Evangelic Church were beaten up in the Spassk settlement of the Tashtagol district of the Kemerovo region. Approximately 300 believers were attending the Easter service at the local culture club when in came a group of young people aged 18 - 25. They were all under the influence as they had just left a birthday party. They announced that Pentecostals were a sect and started molesting young female parishioners. The believers took the hooligans out into the street where a fight ensued. One of the young men brought another 10 people and six more arrived in a car. The total number of attackers is estimated to have been 20-25.
The believers attempted to lock themselves in the culture club but the attackers knocked out the door and started beating the men who were trying to shield the women and children who had come for the Easter morning service. After that, the attackers climbed onto the stage and announced to all the present that “The only Easter we have is Orthodox” and that the Pentecostals were all “sectarians” and “deuces”. After that, the intoxicated young men destroyed the sound equipment on the stage.
When a police squad arrived from Tashtagol the hooligans were already running out of the culture club. The police, according to the pastor, were only pretending that they were trying to capture the perpetrators. Several detainees were released as soon as the police vehicle moved a little further away from the club. The “Reconciliation” Church has filed a complaint with the prosecution authority but the latter has yet to respond.
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Blessed by archbishop, Cossacks destroy an Orthodox temple
On April 20, joined by Orthodox priest Vladimir Gusev (Moscow Patriarchate), a group of Cossacks raided the Temple of Holy Majestic Martyrs (jurisdiction of the Russian Truly-Orthodox Church, RTOC) in Pervouralsk. A split had occurred on the day before within the Cossack community itself as a result of which some of the Cossacks joined the Moscow Patriarchate. Having driven the RTOC parish out of the temple, the vandals took out the church paraphernalia and other property that belonged to the parish and personally to the dean, Viktor Babitsyn. The priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Gusev, advised he had taken part in the massacre with the blessing of archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, Vikenty (Morar).
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FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY
For one day Tomsk becomes center of political actions
In the second half of April, Tomsk became one of the centers of protesting actions due to the visit of the RF President, Vladimir Putin, and the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
Several peaceful rallies were held in Tomsk in the month of April all of which were dedicated to the same topic: “Responsibility of the society for the present and the future of the country”. These rallies were held on a common use territory next to the “1000 little things” store, on an open space near a fountain where there are no buildings or structures or historical monuments. The number of each rally’s participants usually did not exceed 100 people. As a rule, the rallies’ participants spoke about high utility prices and low pensions. Most of the rallies’ participants were indigent retirees. The rallies’ participants did not make any trouble or cause disturbances and they never called for overthrow of power which was recognized in the court of law by all the police officers who had been involved in maintaining law and order at the rallies.
Nevertheless, responsible officials of the Tomsk regional administration decided to ban peaceful rallies. For example, the rally held on April 8 was disrupted by the police who seized the organizer and the rally participants without warning and forcibly, without explanations, manhandled them all in their police vehicles. Two of the detainees had sustained damaged clothes and one more had one of his ribs injured. While the detainees were held in the administrative detention ward (ADW) they were deprived of food and tortured by hunger for 24 hours.
Rallies’ organizers were not frightened by the despotism of the authorities and in response held another two rallies, on April 15 and April 22. The last two rallies were organized by an activist of the United Civil Front, Sergey Zaikov, who is known in Tomsk for his being a man of principles and courage. But on the night of April 25, Zaikov was beaten up with baseball bats near his house by two unidentified men in masks who fractured his scull and leg.
On the morning of April 26, in downtown Tomsk, the United Civil Front held a rally timed to the visit of President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Several rally participants were detained. According to various sources, approximately 300 people, including several citizens of Germany, took part in the rally.
Several hours later, another group of oppositionists – activists of the United Civil Front and the National Bolshevist Party was detained in Tomsk. Approximately 20 activists of the UCF and several members of the NBP positioned themselves alongside the street down which the official cortege was to pass on its way to the Tomsk State University. The opposition representatives wanted to express their dissatisfaction with the politics administered by Putin. Shortly before the cortege was to come up the police started to push them back, took away their flags and slogans, used physical force and ultimately detained another 20 or so picketers and took them to a police station. The detainees were brought to the Kirov district police department where they were beaten up by the law-enforcement officers.
At 13:00 Moscow time, when President Putin and Chancellor Merkel were coming out of the Tomsk House of Scientists after their final press conference, several people attempted to light up torches and started throwing fliers in the direction of the heads of the states. It turned out later, that six NBP activists had attempted to force their way through the crowd towards the heads of the two states. They welcomed Putin and Merkel with the banner “Putin is the butcher of Beslan!” and yelled out such slogans as “Putin is a criminal!”, “Russia – without Putin!”, “Putin – out of the Big Eight!”, and “Putin is a fascist!” In the crowd, they dispensed fliers in Russian, English, and German. According to the press service of the former NBP, National-Bolsheviks did manage to hand a flier in German to Angela Merkel.
After that all four rally participants – Elena Borovskaya, Kirill Ananyev, Daria Isayeva, and Vladimir Zinkovsky – were apprehended by security officers. The fliers that the detainees had been throwing at the president and the chancellor were confiscated. At the Sovetsky district police department of Tomsk, FSB officers openly threatened the detainees saying they would “not make it to Moscow in one piece”. On the night of April 28, Borovskaya, Isayeva, and Ananyev who had just been released from the police quarters, were attacked by three unidentified individuals who arrived in a car. The National-Bolsheviks showed resistance and were ultimately assisted by a police detachment. After the attack, the National-Bolsheviks filed a police report with the Oktyabrsky district police department.
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Omsk authorities “clean” the opposition
On April 24, the Omsk police carried out a demonstrative “cleaning” of the opposition and the press. On that day, the independent transportation union “Yamschik” was to hold a rally of protest in front of the building of the Omsk regional government.
But detentions of rally participants began early in the morning. It was already by 10 a.m. on Monday that the entire downtown Omsk was blocked off by patrol units consisting of police officers clad in uniforms and robust young men in civilian clothes.
Union’s leader, Valentin Kuznetsov, and member drivers Anatoly Golonovsky and Viktor Makshakov, were brought to the Oktyabrsky and Central district police departments. At 12:50, the chief editor of the independent information agency, “DO-Info”, Viktor Korb, chairman of the Omsk chapter of the United Civil Front, human rights activist Igor Basov, and “DO-Info” editor, Tatiana Ilyina, were detained near the “Mayakovsky” movie theater.
A large group of aggressively acting men in civilian clothes surrounded them and without providing any legible explanations forcibly escorted them towards the movie theater. They manhandled the journalists and the union leader in one of the vehicles parked near the movie theater. Next, they were taken to the Pervomaisky district police department where the officer on duty decided to detain them “for identification and explanation purposes”. Taxi drivers who happened to be in the immediate proximity of the expected rally site were also brought to the same police station. According to “DO-Info”, several dozens of people detained within a matter of several hours ended up at the Pervomaisky district police department alone.
According to the union’s leader, human rights activist Valentin Kuznetsov, the drivers had decided to rally in front of the Governor’s residence and express their indignation with “violation of their constitutional rights and organization of a war against taxi drivers involving the administrative resource”.
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND LABOR RIGHTS
Machine builders stop their 40-day long hunger strike
On the morning of April 27, workers of the Yasnogorsk machine building plant (Tula region) stopped their hunger strike. According to the leader of the hunger-striking workers, Andrey Guan Tin Fa, several criminal cases have already been initiated and the General Prosecution authority now controls the situation which gives them a reason to hope that their wages will be paid out eventually.
28 people went on a hunger strike on March 22 and refused to take food for the next 35 days . The workers demanded that the company should pay them their wages in the amount of 42 million rubles. They yielded to no persuasion and expressed their resentment with respect to their colleagues who refused to support them.
On April 24, at 15.55, the prosecution authority of the Yasnogorsk district detained the son of the leader of the hunger-striking workers, Yevgeny Guan Tin Fa. He is 19 years old and he works at a pasta factory in Serpukhov. The prosecution authority suspects Yevgeny Guan Tin Fa of having committed a crime.
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MILITARY SERVICEMEN AND CONSCRIPTION
Military commissar suggests presumption of innocence be abolished
On April 17, the military commissar of Moscow, Vasily Krasnogorsky, suggested that the deputies of the Moscow City Duma initiate amendments to the federal legislation requiring that individuals of the conscription age should not wait for personal summons and report to the military commissariat of their own accord immediately after the publication of the presidential conscription order in the mass media. If such amendments pass all young men of the conscription age who fail to report to the military commissariat will be recognized as service evaders and will face two-year imprisonment terms.
Legal experts have labeled the idea proposed by the military commissar of Moscow as “abolition of the presumption of innocence”. Nevertheless, the deputies of the Moscow City Duma did not decline the idea of the military commissar but decided to think it over and discuss it at one of the sessions of the Moscow City Duma and determine if this legislative initiative should be communicated to the RF State Duma.
The RF Defense Ministry advised that the proposal of General Krasnogorsky was his personal initiative and regretted that he had not chosen a more propitious moment to put it forth: “Krasnogorsky violated the hierarchy and acted in defiance of the existing subordination procedure. Essentially, he announced he had the right to propose new legislation without asking his superiors for permission. Such arbitrariness is not very logical in the current situation when our ministry is just about to submit a piece of draft legislation to the State Duma seeking to abolish a number of conscription deferrals”.
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Ombudsman disagrees with discrimination against those who did not serve in the army
On April 18, the RF Human Rights Ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, announced that people who have not served in the army should not suffer from artificial limitation of their career growth. At the same time, he keeps insisting that the age of conscription should be raised from 18 to 20 years. Lukin is of the opinion that today’s 18-year olds are unable to entirely comprehend their responsibility when they are handed with combat weapons”. In particular, raising the age of conscription can help solve such problems as violence and disparagement with respect to younger soldiers. This issue is being currently discussed at the Public Chamber, but the Defense Ministry claims it is not considering such an option.
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XENOPHOBIA
Armenian student murdered in subway
On April 22, , in the “Pushkinskaya” subway station in downtown Moscow, an Armenian man was murdered. The murder was committed at around 17:50. The unidentified killer, head shaven, clad in everything black and having tall boots on, stabbed the Moscow resident, an ethnic Armenian, several times with a knife, and disappeared. The wounds were incompatible with life: the man died right on the platform.
The victim was a 17-year old student of the Moscow Management University, Vigen Abramiants. He and his friends were on their way to celebrate Easter. As a result of the assault one of the victim’s friends sustained serious injuries. The young men who attacked the group of friends had no time to deal with the second youth - the police managed to come to his rescue. The youth had his face cut.
Suspected of murdering the 17-year old Armenian, an 11th grade student of Moscow school No.674, Denis Kulagin, has been arrested. The Combat of Organized Crime Department is of the opinion that the murder was accounted for by the conflict that occurred between the two young men who were standing together on the subway platform. They knew each other and they both were supporters of “Locomotive”. The fight ensued spontaneously on account of a girl they both knew and ended with Vigen Abramiants being killed. The participants of the fight made up a story according to which the attack had been carried out by nationalists. “One can say with absolute confidence that the man was killed as a result of a quarrel and there is no nationalist connotation to it whatsoever”, - noted a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
On April 24, representatives of the Armenian diaspora held an unauthorized rally on Novy Arbat in downtown Moscow. At around 22:40, more than 100 people blocked the traffic on Novy Arbat at the intersection with Garden Ring.
According to the source, the rally participants protested against the conclusions drawn by the investigation of the Vigen Abramiants murder case. Several dozens of police patrol vehicles arrived at the scene and blocked off the protesters but no active measures were undertaken. Despite the demands of the police, the picketers formed a column consisting of several dozen vehicles and headed down Kutuzovsky Prospect towards the Moscow region.
Meanwhile, the lawyer of the murdered Armenian student’s family, Simon Tsaturian, announced that the investigation had attempted to conceal the nationalist motive behind the crime.
“Some interested parties are trying to make it look like an ordinary murder caused by some personal differences in order to prevent the plaintiff from resorting to dangerous ethnic issues”, - – said Tsaturian. He said that he doubted that “the murder episode had not been videotaped in the Moscow subway that is loaded with video surveillance equipment” and expressed his confidence in the fact that “the murder-related footage had been destroyed to conceal how it all really happened”. Another odd circumstance, according to Tsaturian, is that it is impossible to speak with the other victim who sustained a facial knife wound: “His whereabouts is known only to the law-enforcement authorities”.
On April 25, the Cheryomushki court of Moscow extended the custody term of 17-year old Denis Kulagin suspected of murdering Vigen Abramiants. The court held a closed session because according to law all issues related to the underage should be considered in closed court sessions. The court found that the representative of the prosecution authority had failed to provide sufficient proof that the youth would not disappear or impede the investigation.
In the meantime, the defendant’s mother insists that it was her who had convinced her son to confess in committing the murder in view of their having been threatened by the investigators. In addition, the weapon – the knife, has not been found, and the surveillance cameras had not videotaped the murder. Thus, all the investigation has is a confession of the underage youth who was interrogated in absence of his mother or a lawyer.
On April 25, Denis Kulagin repudiated his confession in having committed the murder. He did it after he had spoken with his lawyer, Alexander Yevdokimov. “A teenager may not be arrested without some very serious grounds. And talking a teenager into assuming responsibility for a crime – is a crime in itself”, - declared Yevdokimov.
Kulagin’s mother petitioned to the law-enforcement authorities. She filed a complaint with the prosecution authority of the Moscow subway in which she specified that her son had been interrogated for four hours without her being present and only after that the official inquest began.
On April 29, upon expiry of the 72-hour detention term, Denis Kulagin was released from custody in exchange for an undertaking not to leave town.
The lawyer of the victim’s family, Simon Tsaturian, confirmed that the investigation is now more inclined to favor the original version that fits the factual circumstances of the case more adequately: the murder was committed by a group of skinheads. The counselor advised that a parallel investigation of Vigen Abramiants’s death is underway: “The eyewitnesses who saw what happened with their very own eyes come to talk to us of their own accord. As a result, we can say with absolute confidence that the murder was committed by a skinhead… He was a well-prepared professional whose actions had been calculated with great precision. The fact that he disappeared from the subway together with his accomplices instantaneously and unimpeded, the nature of the strike in the heart’s area, and the width and depth of the wound that indicate that the killer had used a double-edged knife, all these factors compel us to claim that this was a specially prepared murder”.
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Attack against gypsy camp: details
On April 16, nine people suspected of assaulting a camp of gypsies in Volzhsky were arrested in the Volgograd region. According to the regional prosecution authority, all perpetrators have already been identified. Criminal proceedings on the count of “murder based on national hatred” have been initiated.
On April 19, the prosecution authority indicted seven teenagers suspected of the attack. The investigators do not exclude that two more suspects may be indicted in the nearest future. In addition, the investigators are currently trying to find out if the teenagers belong to nationalist or fascist organizations.
On the night of April 13, on the outskirts of the city of Volzhsky, nine individuals five of whom were school students attacked a gypsy family. A man and a woman were killed; a little girl and an 80-year old woman were hospitalized.
The teenagers had gathered together in the courtyard of the Modern Academy of Humanities. They drank beer and vodka. The gang consisted of two 18-year olds, two 17-yer olds, and school students aged 14 and 16. The leader of the gang, aged 18, works as a painter. The investigators subjected his residence to a search and found a pair of military-style boots and amateur video of Nazi gatherings, training sessions, street fights and beatings downloaded from the Internet.
On the same night the leader of the gang suggested that they go to the cemetery to beat up Satanists. But at the cemetery they discovered a group of people who were consuming liquor. They noticed the approaching crowd of intoxicated teenagers from afar and ran to the river.
When the skinheads arrived at the river they saw two gypsy marquees. 50-year old Grigory Maryenkov was sleeping in one of them, as were his 80-year old mother Polina, his wife Marina, and Galina Ponomaryova – a homeless Russian woman who had stuck to the nomads. Two boys and their 13-year old sister Rosa were sleeping in the second marquee. 15-year old Russian girl Tania from the Srednyaya Akhtuba settlement who had been collecting scrap metal together with the gypsies was sleeping outside of the second marquee.
The skinheads decided to beat up the gypsies. They pulled the stakes that supported the marquees out of the ground and started to beat the nomads with them. Marina, her son, her nephew, and the Russian girl managed to run away at once. Grigory Maryenkov tried to fight back but the skinheads threw him on the ground and never let him stand up again. When the gypsy man stopped resisting and the woman, the girl, and the old woman became quiet, the beating stopped. The teenagers dropped their sticks and took off. Having walked away for about 30 meters they heard someone cough. “We have to go back and finish them all”, - said the leader. One of the skinheads crushed Maryenkov’s skull with a large rock.
The gypsy woman who managed to run away called the police. Before the next night fell the crime had been detected. Only one member of the gang had a police record. All members of the gang except one were from the same school – No.28 in the city of Volzhsky. Five of them are current school students. Two of them had finished it earlier. Assistant to the city prosecutor, Yulia Nazarova, says that their school teachers characterized the gang members positively.
Stefania Kulayeva, leader of the “North-western center of social and legal protection of gypsies” project:
– This is not the first attack against Volga gypsies: last autumn, other gypsy camping sites were attacked and nomads were beaten up (on the vacant lot not far from the Volzhsky beach). No one was killed back then but the victims were afraid of reporting the assault to the police.
“Local gypsies view this situation as very dangerous for them. Meanwhile, the position of the police and the prosecution authority isn’t something to be happy about. Right after the murders, the police detained who was left of the victimized family. Beaten up, frightened, and suffering pain they were subjected to an inquest that lasted all night long. They were not released until the morning, nor were they taken to the hospital for examination and treatment. A couple days after the attack on the gypsy camp at Srednyaya Akhtuba, a group of law-enforcement officials arrived at the site again and suggested that all gypsies who were camping there should take off and leave having added that they did not want to be responsible for anything should something like what happened on April 13 happen there again.
Additional measures are required to prevent crime against gypsy residents, as well as additional examination of nationalist movements operating in Volzhsky and neighborhood and their activists. If no such preventive measures are undertaken again one should only expect that the situation in this region will deteriorate just like it is deteriorating, alas, in many others. Ever more often do local authorities support racism and gypsy-phobia, be that directly or obliquely, and by doing so they encourage nationalism and exacerbate ethnic discord”.
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Nazis salute to Russian anthem
On April 16, prior to the beginning of a football match in the capital of Adygea, supporters of the Taganrog football team celebrated the Russian anthem with a military salute characteristic of Hitler’s Germany. A statement to that effect has been made by a fan of the Adyg team: “They – about eight people – were standing on the opposite tribune with their arms extended forward while the anthem played from the beginning to the end, – he said. – And the police who were trying hard to ignore it forgot to salute”.
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While the State Duma creates “International”, “Motherland” divides peoples by their roots
On April 26, the “Motherland” faction of the State Duma suggested a new bill that divides peoples of Russia into indigenous and non-indigenous. The bill does not provide for a list of indigenous peoples but it does provide for the following definition: “An indigenous people of Russia – is a people whose historical territory of residence is located entirely or predominantly within the boundaries of the territory of the Russian Federation”.
The authors of the bill explain that “this notion is introduced into the RF legal system in order to protect the ethnic balance of the RF population from the effects of migration processes which may lead to deterioration of inter-ethnic relations”. It is assumed, that one’s association with fellow countrymen will be supported with a special certificate which may be obtained if applied for, provided that the applicant proves that he or she was a citizen of the Russian state at any stage of its historical development and is therefore a representative of one of the indigenous peoples of Russia or may be considered as a direct descendant thereof.
On April 26, a cross-factional group of deputies, “International”, appeared in the State Duma. “This is our direct response to the wave of nationalist violence that has smothered our country lately”, - said one of the group’s initiators, independent member of the parliament Vladimir Ryzhkov.
He said that a little over 10 deputies have so far demonstrated their intention to join the new association but Ryzhkov is confident that as soon as the group starts working its membership will grow. Independent deputies – representatives of the Republican Party of Russia, and a number of the “Motherland” faction members have demonstrated their intention to join the group. The key goal of the newly formed group will be to ensure comprehensive protection of ethnic minorities of the RF and equality of all citizens before the law. Once the “International” faction is formally established it will put together a list of legislative initiatives that its members will submit for consideration of the State Duma within the framework of the objectives that the new faction intends to achieve.
Ryzhkov is of the opinion that the crimes committed on the basis of nationalism “are becoming the key threat to Russia – another year of such violence and the country will disintegrate”.
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Every fifth Russian is afflicted with xenophobia
According to the “Public Opinion” Fund that conducted a survey in April of this year among 1,500 respondents, the share of Russians who dislike “aliens” is gradually decreasing. In 2002, every third participant (32%) of a similar survey said he was “annoyed by or had a dislike for representatives of one nationality or another”; in 2004, the share of such respondents dropped to 29%, and this year – to 21%.
At the same time, the survey identified that today most of the respondents (58%) are of the opinion that “representatives of certain nationalities” should be banned from entering their region or residential area, and only one third (32%) are against such restrictions. In 2004, these figures were 63% and 27%, respectively.
When asked if they would support the decision to deport “representatives of certain national groups” outside the boundaries of their region, should such a decision be made, 42% of the surveyed said that they would endorse deportation of “aliens”, 41% said they would not support it, and the rest said they were undecided.
The sociologists note that racism is a lot less popular in our country than ethnic intolerance. Only 7% of the respondents said they were annoyed by or had a dislike for “African natives or people with dark skin who came to live in Russia”, and 86% said they did not have such emotions.
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RIGHTS OF REFUGEES
Chechen authorities eliminate TPFs
On April 19, the Chairman of the government of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, demanded that the temporary placement facilities (TPFc) for refugees and forced migrants on the territory of Chechnya be entirely liquidated within the shortest possible timeframe. “The temporary placement facilities for displaced persons are source of crime, drug addiction, and prostitution and I will not let anything like this happen on the territory of the Chechen Republic, - said Kadyrov at a government session in Gudermes. – I have thoroughly examined the situation in these facilities and I have materials that support my statements. Most residents of these camps still have their houses and they can go back home. The problem is that over the past several years these people have become lazy and they do not want to work anymore. Women who live in those camps have forgotten all about housekeeping and no longer want to take a broom in their hands. I demand therefore that these people go back to their homes”. According to the Prime Minister, the refugees continue to live there because of the humanitarian aid provided by various organizations. “They receive those paltry kilograms of flour and macaroni instead of doing an honest work to earn them”, - Kadyrov thinks.
The government session under discussion was held specifically to discuss the issue of refugees. Session participants included leaders of law-enforcement authorities, heads of administrations, and commandants of the temporary placement facilities for refugees located on the Chechen territory.
At the moment, there are 32 temporary placement facilities on the territory of the Chechen Republic, as well as 14 compact residence areas for forced migrants most of which are located in Grozny. The overall number of forced migrants residing on the territory of the republic exceeds 60,000 people.
On April 20, human rights activists stood up for the refugees. “The temporary placement facilities (TPFs) were the only enticement used during the liquidation of refugee camps in Ingushetia. People had hoped they would live in homes, not in tents, that they would have gas in their kitchens where they could cook mush, – comments Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairperson of the Refugees Assistance Committee, “Civil Assistance”, on Kadyrov’s statement. — I know who lives in these camps, I saw it myself. It is mostly old women, mostly even Russian old women who have no one at all to take care of them, and women with lots of children. If they are ousted from there right now they will end up in the streets, simple as that. I did not see any drug addicts in TPFs. Maybe there are drug addicts in there but then again they can be found everywhere. I did not see any shelters for bandits out there either. And if they did live there it would be very convenient in my opinion because it is rather an attractive prospect – to do a night-time check and catch Basayev in a TPF in downtown Grozny”.
“We cannot know if there are any bandits living in TPFs because there is no mechanism we could use to inventory bandits. But logically the temporary placement facilities for refugees are less convenient for strangers to be around. They are guarded by the police. These sites are a lot more heavily regulated than neighborhoods with private houses. There are check points at entrances that are not that easy to pass”, – supports his colleague Alexander Cherkasov, member of the board of directors of the “Memorial” human rights center.
“TPFs belong to that very small group of buildings in Chechnya that have been restored. I think that officials want those building for themselves”, - sums up Gannushkina.
Nevertheless, on the same day, Kadyrov instructed that a special commission be put together in Chechnya to monitor compliance with TPF residence norms and rules. “The special commission that will inspect the TPFs consists of heads of district administrations, heads of district police departments, representatives of the migration service, and deputies of the parliament, – advised a source in the presidential and governmental administration of the republic. – Apti Alaudinov, head of the economic crime investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, was appointed commission’s leader. Ramzan Kadyrov will exercise personal control over activities of the special commission”.
The Chechen law-enforcement authorities almost immediately started raiding the TPFs looking for infractions. According to official sources, these raids identified that in some TPFs only 30% of the registered residents were found on the premises at the time of inspection. It was also established that some of the refugees have houses of their own and they only show up in the camps to receive humanitarian aid. Numerous infractions committed by TPF administrations were also identified.
The “cleanings” of the Chechen TPFs may have been accounted for by the fact that this year the Chechen authorities plan to return 10 thousand Chechen refugees from Ingushetia. Presently, these people reside in TPFs on the territory of the neighboring republic.
“Some of them will be settled in compact residence areas (CRAs); others will be assisted with rent money. They will also be able to receive food and other humanitarian aid, – says the source in the presidential and governmental administration of Chechnya. – Presently, a little over 9,000 people reside in TPFs in Ingushetia. Another 13,000 live in private residences. This applies only to those individuals who were officially registered by the RF Federal Migration Service (FMS) in the Republic of Ingushetia”.
Surprising as it may be, but it was around the same time that the Danish Refugee Council announced it intended to reduce the number of humanitarian aid recipients in Ingushetia. The DRC office in Nazran advised that these changes would take effect in May. According to the new rules, refugee families in which there are no invalids, people older than 50, orphans, etc., will be excluded from food lists. This decision was adopted by our donor – the UN World Food Program – and is primarily accounted for by reduction of funding. These reductions will primarily affect approximately 9% of the total number of refugees.
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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Strasbourg demands explanations on Khodorkovsky case
On April 17, the Strasbourg Court demanded that Russia should provide explanations on account of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky case in connection with the complaint filed by the attorney of the former head of YUKOS. The complaint has been communicated, i.e., accepted for examination. This does not mean however that the complaint has been accepted for review. This may become possible if examination of the complaint finds it acceptable for review. No such decision has been made with respect to the complaint filed by Khodorkovsky’s attorney yet.
It has been reported earlier that the European Court of Human Rights expedited the review of the complaint filed by the former head of YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky’s attorneys filed the complaint with the European Court of Human Rights on March 21. They refused to disclose the essence of the complaint. “Mikhail Borisovich did not wish to speak about his complaint. We respect his decision”, - said Khodrokovsky’s attorney, Karina Moskalenko.
Attorneys of the head of the IFO MENATEP, Platon Lebedev, have also submitted a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. The complaint was filed by attorney Yevgeny Baru who specified all the infractions committed in the course of the proceedings in the court of the first and cassation instances. Meanwhile, attorney Baru refused to provide any comments on the primary points of the complaint. “Disclosure of any information about the essence of the complaint is unacceptable – it is the law and we abide by it”, - said Baru.
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One may not defend the rights of children for a living
On April 26, the European Court of Human Rights adopted two decisions on the complaints filed by residents of the Voronezh region. In the first case, 58 parents had complained against noncompliance of local authorities with court decisions on payment of child benefits (the case of Alyokhin). In the second case, the number of parents who had complained about the same was 46 (the case of Agibalov). The European Court of Human Rights has found Russia guilty of violating the right to a fair trial (Article 6) and the right to peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions (Article 1 of Protocol No.1 to
