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The start of criminal proceedings against the alleged mastermind of the murder of Novaya Gazeta’s journalist Igor Domnikov on April 22, 2009 brings hope that a precedent of putting to trial not only executors but the masterminds of crimes against journalists will be at last created in the Russian Federation. If the case goes all the way to court, it will mark a very meaningful step towards ending impunity for the perpetrators of crimes of the kind.

A lawyer for the family of a Chechen woman murdered by former army Colonel Yury Budanov was shot dead Monday in central Moscow after holding a news conference decrying Budanov’s early release from prison last week.

With the collapse of the Soviet system at the end of 1991, journalists felt freer to speak and act according to their conscience. That is a long time ago now. According to the findings of the Press Emblem Campaign, the Russian Federation is now a dangerous country to report from. The 2008 statistics illustrate the fact: four media workers were killed, and many more suffered attacks, including beatings, threats and other kinds of harassment.

The global survey and country-specific ranking of political rights and civil liberties carried out annually by the independent American organisation Freedom House now ranks the Russian Federation below both Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The war in South Ossetia is listed as a key reason for the drop and decline.

The Russian human rights community expresses anxiety on the proposed amendments of the “spying” articles in the Russian Criminal Code. In their opinion, the sum of the amendments adds up to a return to Stalin’s times, when anybody who dared criticize the authorities could be labeled “a spy” and brought to prison, often never to be seen again.

As protests and demonstrations move through the Russian Federation, in reaction to the current financial crisis, the Russian authorities respond by unlawfully detaining protesters and attempting to revise current criminal procedural laws under the pretext of anti-terrorism.

At Council of Europe’s third ‘Regional Congress of NGOs,’ Russian NGOs and civil society organizations from across Europe shared their good practices and most effective methods of interaction with the authorities. Some Russian NGOs stayed away from the Congress, claiming its agenda was too loyal to Russian authorities.

According to Novaya Gazeta, an attempt has been made in France on the life of Russian human rights lawyer and World Movement participant Karinna Moskalenko, right. On October 13, the prosecutor in Strasbourg launched an investigation into the placement of mercury, a potent poison, into Ms. Moskalenko’s car. Ms. Moskalenko noticed that her health, and the health of her husband and children, has been deteriorating over the past week, but she does not know for sure when the car was contaminated.

In 2008, the number of attacks owing to national intolerance in the Russian Federation declined. Deputy Director of the Information-Analytical Center “SOVA” Galina Kozhevnikova said it with reference to the monitoring data of the Center. 71 people were killed and 268 were injured as a result of racist attacks this year in the Russian Federation. (30-SEN-08)