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While the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has called upon Russian authorities to protect journalists, the journalists themselves have appealed to the authorities for permission to carry weapons.

Over the last few days, vigils, silent protests and commemorative meetings for Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, the two most recent victims of politically motivated murders, have taken place all over the Russian Federation. The participants demand a thorough, transparent and impartial investigation into the murders, and for the perpetrators to be brought to trial. Effective steps for the protection of human rights in the Russian Federation must also be taken.

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.