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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)
 

On 24 September, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on behalf of the Russian Federation signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He also deposited the instrument of ratification by the Russian Federation the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the headquarters of the UN. (30-SEN-08)
 

The Russian Research Center for Human Rights subscribed to the Statement of Russian Non-Governmental Human Rights Organizations called the states and international and non-governmental organizations to make urgent arrangements for protecting human rights and resolving the conflict in Georgia. (12-SEP-08)
 

31 August Magomed Evloev he owner of an opposition website “Ingushetia.ru” as killed. Evloev died in a hospital of Nazran where he was taken after he had got a direct injury to the head, which he received during detention by law enforcement officers at the airport “Magas” in Nazran where he arrived from Moscow. (10-SEP-08)