Russia: Newspapers seized and people detained before ‘March of Dissent’

Based on a release from the UN-run Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), this article has been edited for republication here by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.

The reasons officially stated for the ban was that the city hall had already authorized another event, a folk art fair (allegedly of regional importance) on the same date in the city center and that additionally, the Russian Orthodox Church had appealed to the city administration to prohibit holding non-official events “in the vicinity of holy sites”. Also concerns about security were expressed. To note, the organizers of the march were offered Lenin Square with an enormous monument of Vladimir Lenin as an alternative site for their event, but they all considered this offer as absolutely inappropriate for moral reasons. The organizers appealed to court, but on 22 March the court upheld the ban.

60.000 copies of a newspaper promoting the prospective march were seized, and several people including the director of the printing house and a journalist reporting on the event, were questioned by the prosecutor’s office. “We condemn violations of the right to peaceful assembly in the Russian Federation, which are evidently on the rise. Recently, numerous peaceful assemblies have been forcefully dispersed by police. We appeal to the authorities not to interfere with the planned March of Dissent in Nizhny Novgorod,” stated Aaron Rhodes, right, IHF executive director.

Background
On 20 March 2007, a special detachment of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Ministry of Interior’s Department for Combating Organised Crime (UBOP) seized 60.000 copies of the second issue of a special edition of a newspaper registered by the United Civic Front and focused on the March of the Dissent, under pretext of checking the contents for signs of extremism. The confiscated issue included media items on the situation in Nizhny Novgorod with regard to such problems as the on-going destruction of the historical center of the city and the construction of a high-way therein, the unpopular housing and utilities reform, the lack of fail election guarantees et al. In conclusion, the newspaper appeals to “the free people” to meet up for the March of Dissent at the central square of Nizhny Novgorod.

The UBOP personnel arrived at the print house, “Nizhny Novgorod Pechatnik”, at the time when Yury Staroverov, a member of the steering committee and the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) member, was going to pick up the newspaper’s new print-run. Representatives of the Interior Ministry Department on Combating Economic Crimes, following up on alerts by human rights organisations and journalists, argued with the UBOP officers regarding the lawfulness of the print-run’s seizure, but their efforts proved futile. The commercial director of the publishing house, its manager, its chief of security service, as well as the driver, were taken to the police station of Sovetskiy district of Nizhny Novgorod together with Yury Staroverov, where they had to give their “explanations”. All of them stated that the newspaper was being published in full accordance with the Russian law.

The Nizhny Novgorod office of the newspaper “Kommersant”, received phone calls from the city administration and later its editor as well as journalist Yulia Sukhonina were summoned to the prosecutor’s office to provide “explanations” regarding an article about the planned “March of Dissent.”. Additionally, a member of the steering committee of the United Civic Front, writer and a journalist Evgeniy Prilepin (NBP party) was also called to the prosecutor’s office to give “explanations” about that article in the “Kommersant.”

On 21 March, four policemen came to the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance, a recently founded local human rights NGO which inherited from the banned Russian Chechen Friendship Society, with demands to search for the “headquarters” of the United Civic Front. In the afternoon of the same day, two UBOP officers came again to deliver a subpoena to one of the staff Stanislav Dmitrievsky, former executive director of the aforementioned Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, ordering him to come to the prosecutor’s office some one hour later in order to be questioned about his involvement with the newspaper as well as with the organization of the March. On 22 March at around 7 pm, Yury Staroverov, member of the steering committee of the United Civic Front, was detained in the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance. The policemen led by an UBOP officer first also wanted to take Stanislav Dmitrievsky, left, and another leading staff-member of the organization, Oksana Chelysheva, right, with them, but then reconsidered. On both days cars with plainclothes officers were surveilling the NGO office.

The week before, suspicious visitors came to see the parents of three leading staff members of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance. In two cases the unwanted guests showed police IDs, claiming that they were allegedly looking for a missing soldier. When the staff member of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance tried to verify that later on and made phone call to the local police with relevant inquiries, she was told that they were not involved into any thing of the kind. On 22 March, the mother of Stanislav Dmitrievsky received another visit by a policeman, who claimed to have a list of alleged skin-heads with him with her son being on that list, something which is quite absurd. After a longer conversation and some phone-calls he apologized and explained that he was following an order.

In addition, some counter-leaflets were put up in Nizhny Novgorod, evidently in attempt to discourage local resident from participating in the March. They said, in particular, “If you are against suppressing rights of sexual minorities and the ban on gay-parades, join us at the March of the Dissent on 24 March”.

The city authorities also started road construction work in the main street selected for the march. Incidently, an athletic marathon and a folk art fair were also announced for the same date and time. Teachers and art groups are encouraged to take children to five sites in the vicinity of the route of the March on that very day. All the staff of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Ministry of the Interior were allegedly ordered to stand on alert on 24 March. Additionally, Internal Troops of the Interior Ministry were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. Police vehicles, including armored ones, registered in Ingushetia, were seen in town. University students were warned by unidentified persons to stay home on 24 March because there was “a great likelihood of mass riots”. Similarly, also in shops and markets in the center of the city individuals dressed in plain clothes were talking to people and warning them to stay in on Saturday because “criminals and thieves from various regions of the Russian Federation will come to Nizhny Novgorod for their meeting and they are likely to be violent”.

Despite massive intimidation by the authorities, the organizers of the protest march remain resolved to hold it and asked the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, to evaluate the legitimacy of the authorities´ crackdown. The NGOs in Nizhny Novgorod fear that the authorities will undertake more unlawful actions or organize provocations.

To note, on 3 March, several thousand people participated in the “March of Dissent” in St. Petersburg to protest the policies of President Putin, thereby defying a ban on holding the event in the city center. Special police troops dispersed the rally, clashed with participants (some of whom fought back) and reportedly arrested and beat around 200 people. The rally was organized by the “Other Russia”, a broad opposition coalition. On 18 March, that public movement held another large demonstration in St. Petersburg, which was sanctioned by the authorities and reportedly went rather incident-free, though a number of participants were temporarily detained on unclear grounds. Another “March of Dissent” is planned in Moscow for April 14.