“We have operated in full transparency with the Russian authorities about our programs. Over the last year, our employees have had increasing problems getting visas to the Russian Federation. This time we went through an extensive process with the Russian Embassy in Oslo to get the formalities done. It is difficult to interpret the incident in Murmansk last Saturday as anything other than harassment. The police in Murmansk asked us detailed questions about our contacts and business in the Russian Federation,” says Secretary General Bjørn Engesland.
The journey to Murmansk was part of the Helsinki Committee’s Barents Program. Last week a seminar for prison staff in Arkhangelsk and a seminar for journalists and human rights activists in Murmansk county were conducted. The Barents program has received considerable positive attention from a number of players in the region. Its purpose is to disseminate information about the international human rights standards and to encourage their use in daily work. The seminar for journalists and human rights activists was the seventh seminar organized by the Helsinki Committee in the last three years. It was done in cooperation with the Murmansk regional human rights committee and Barents Press.
Helsinki Committee also visited a number of human rights organizations in St. Petersburg and in Moscow earlier this week. One of the organizations the Helsinki Committee met in St. Petersburg was the Research and Information Center Memorial. On 6 December, this organization faced a police raid under accusations of extremism. All material on their work was confiscated.
