Russia: same old, same old

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s Deputy Secretary General Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal and Advisor Inna Sangadzhiyeva have recently visited Russia. NHC was invited by its partners in St. Petersburg, Citizen Watch and HRC Memorial to take part in a training seminar for representatives of Public Observation Commissions from regions in North West Russia. These commissions are mandated to conduct prison observations and recommend measures to strengthen compliance with Russia’s human rights commitments in the penitentiary system. NHC members also visited Moscow where they met members of several NGOs to discuss human rights issues and future of democratic reforms in Russia.

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NHC met with several of its project partners to discuss current challenges and human rights issues in the Russian Federation, including with Liudmila Alexeeva, Head of Moscow Helsinki Group; Svetlana Gannushkina, Head of Civic Assistance Committee; Oleg Orlov, Head of HRC Memorial and Tatiana Kasatkina, Director of HRC Memorial; Alexander Verkhovsky, Head of Analytical Bureau on nationalism and extremism in Russia “Sova”; Boris Timoshenko, editor of Glasnost Defence Foundation; and Naum Nim, editor of a magazine on prison conditions and reforms, “Nevolya’’. As a preparation for the 4 December 2011 Parliament elections in Russia, NHC met with the director of the non-profit organization “In Defence of Voters’ Rights GOLOS”, Lillia Shibanova. During the meeting, the challenges related to the elections and possibilities of cooperation on election observations have been discussed.

NHC confirmed the same as, in the recent years, countless reports and articles published on human rights situation and prospect for democracy in Russia have pointed to. Several key areas where Russian government has yet to make a progress if the country wants to be more democratic remain to be a core issue with regard to human rights within Russian Federation.

The North Caucasus: atrocities

The Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia appeared to intensify from time to time in 2010 and 2011. Casualties among civilians and law enforcement and security forces increased. Counterterrorism operations continue to involve grave human rights violations such as torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions. Impunity for these abuses is rampant. Collective punishment against people with suspected rebel ties became a pronounced trend. Well respected Russian NGO Memorial and Human Rights Watch documented at least 30 cases in which such individuals’ homes were deliberately burned, apparently by Chechen law enforcement personnel. No one has been held responsible for the house burnings. High-level Chechen officials, including President Kadyrov, made public statements stressing that insurgents’ families should expect to be punished unless they convince their relatives among the insurgents to surrender.

The atrocities committed in Caucasus region have been at the centre of attention for human rights organizations all around the world. Within Russia the issue of Islamic insurgents remains highly sensitive. Perhaps the most famous Russian journalist A. Politkovskaya, who was reporter for Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and had written extensively on abuses during the Chechen conflict, was killed several years ago. Murder in 2006 and the subsequent delay in delivering justice exposed the impunity, lawlessness and violence against journalists and human rights defenders in Russia. Rustam Makhmudov was detained on 31 May 2011 in Chechnya and charged two days later for the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. This news comes almost 5 years after she was brutally shot at point-blank range while entering the elevator of her apartment building in the centre of Moscow where she lived in October 2006.

Another prominent civil activist – Natalia Estemirova, from the Russian human rights organization “Memorial”, was one of the leading human rights defenders in the Northern Caucasus. She played a crucial role in exposing abuses committed by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s militia and Russian forces in the Chechen Republic. Natalia Estemirova’s work in defence of human rights has been acknowledged with international awards. She was the first receiver of the Anna Politkovskaya Award (2007), winner of the Prize of the Swedish Parliament “Right to Existence” (2004) and European Parliament’s Robert Schumann Medal (2005).

On July 15, 2009 Natalia Estemirova was abducted by four men near her home in Grozny, the capital of Chechen Republic. Hours later, Russian officials announced that her body had been found in Ingushetia with gunshot wounds in the head and chest. Members of the Human Rights House Network from Russia and other countries sent a letter of concern to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with a call for immediate and proper investigation of the murder.

Civil society

A prominent Russian human rights activist of Uzbek origin Bakhrom Khamroev was attacked and beaten in his Moscow apartment block on 6 May 2011. He was hospitalized, police have launched an investigation into the incident. Bakhrom Khamroev is a citizen of the Russian Federation based in Moscow, who has been involved in the protection of human rights both in Central Asian republics as well as in Russia through Memorial’s Central Asia Program. In 2009, the NHC brought up Khamroev’s detention and deportation while carrying out monitoring work in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. In December 2010, an attack on him by Russian security officers in Moscow was given wide international attention. Over the past year, Human Rights Watch has documented five cases of attacks against and harassment of lawyers in Dagestan. Human Rights Watch urged Russian authorities to foster a normal working climate for lawyers in Dagestan in line with international standards.

Human rights activists and independent journalists in Dagestan have been subjected to violence and intimidation. On August 20 an arson attack burned the office of the Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights (MDHR), an independent organization that documents abusive counterterrorism practices. The fire followed the shooting death on 11 August of Abdumalik Akhmedilov, a newspaper editor who had criticized law enforcement officials for suppressing political and religious dissent in their campaign against religious extremism. In September several local activists, journalists, and lawyers received leaflets with explicit death threats.

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