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On Sunday, 2 March 2008 the Russian citizens made their decision and elected a new President. The victory of Dmitry Medvedev, successor of Vladimir Putin, was predictable. According to the last information he gathered 70, 21% of the 98, and 78% counted votes. The European observers called the elections “not free and fair”. (03-MAR-08)
 

The Russian authorities claim to close the head office of the Russian Union of Journalist (RUJ) in Moscow due to violations of fire regulations. In its statement below, RUJ stresses that the claims are part of a united campaign which has been carried on almost one year against the Union, the biggest non-governmental organization in the Russian Federation. The Union has occupied the building since 1980. (20-FEB-08)
 

Well-known Russian human rights defenders adressed to Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, and Ella Pamfilova, Chairwoman of the Civil Society Institution and Human Rights Council of the Russian Federation, with an appeal to express their protest on the fact of prosecutors of Nazran (Ingushetiya) had opened a criminal investigation into the NGO “Voice of Beslan” on charge of extremism. (16-JAN-08)
 

The Human Rights House in Moscow (The Russian Research Centre for Human Rights) celebrated its 15th anniversary yesterday with a conference summing up the centre´s activities through a dramatic decade and a half in Russian history. The 60 people attending ´New challenges – new strategies´ concluded that the Centre has been vital for the human rights movement in the Russian Federation, but addressed also the fact that the Centre´s future survival is in the balance, with rents rising to levels no longer manageable. (14-DEC-07)
 

The Moscow City Psychology-Teacher´s Training University conducted a seminar this week on suicide prevention in the Russian Army. The issue is vital to Russian society: according to the General Office of the Public Prosecutor, more than 6,500 army personnel suffered from ‘dedovshina’ (harassment, humiliation, and other violations of soldiers´ dignity) last year. Of these, approximately 70 went on to commit suicide. (07-DEC-07)
 

Over the last couple of weeks, a digest of the independent Chechen journal ‘DOSH’ – ‘A word’ – has been launched in Brussels, Paris and Oslo. The journal has been published in the Russian Federation since March 2003. The Chechen journalists told European public figures, politicians, mass media representatives and human rights activists how hard it has become to be an independent journalist in the Russian Federation and what difficulties they face when democratic principles are not observed. (25-NOV-07)
  

2 December 2007 – for this date the elections in the State Duma of the Russian Federation are set. Many independent foreign observers from various international organizations were going to come on this period. Among them there was the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). But the Russian authorities did their best to frustrate participation of the observers from the OSCE. As a result, the OSCE has simply refused to participate in supervision over such “elections”. (23–NOV–07)
 

Early in October so called “Civil pool”, a coalition of public organizations, established to control the election process to the State Duma on 2 December, announced about its self-dissolution. It happened after Vladimir Putin made a statement to head the party “United Russia”. The “Pool” was created in spring 2007 by initiative of Ella Pamfilova, the Chairman of the Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation. (29-OCT-2007)
 

13 October, as a part of the official visit to the Russian Federation, the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (right) met with the Russian human rights activists and Media. On the agenda there were a discussion of contemporary situation with human rights in the Russian Federation and freedom of speech, vital issues in judiciary, a new law on NGOs and situation in the Northern Caucasus (23-OCT-07).