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The 1 May many May Day rallies and demonstrations were held across the Russian Federation. Overall, 1297 different mass actions took place in 83 regions of the Russian Federation and 1.5 million people participated in rallies and demonstrations. This year the holiday was characterized by sharp political tension. Not only communists and labour activists gathered in rallies but there were also representatives of right forces, nationalists, monarchists and the United the Russian Federation members. During May Day holidays a few protest actions against homosexuals were held by nationalists. (05-MAY-06)

From Apri, 14 to May, 11 an exhibition “Human rights in Russia” organized by the Russian Research Center for Human Rights under the aegis of the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation is being held in the Museum of Contemporary History of the Russian Federation in Moscow. The exhibition is a part of the big project “Getting the younger generation involved in protection of human rights, due to development the volunteer movement” carried out by the Center with the help of the European Union. (28-APR-06)

On Sunday, 16 April, in the center of Moscow on Pushkinskaya Square, about 4,000 citizens gathered in a rally against censorship in mass media and in support of freedom of speech. The protest was attended by well-known journalists, most of whom were dismissed from TV and major media outlets for their truthful reports and criticism against the authorities. (21-APR-06)

On 10 April the Basmanny Municipal Court of Moscow rejected the claim of the Federal Registry Service of the Ministry of Justice, which wanted the Russian Research Center for Human Rights to be liquidated as a legal entity. Is this a definitive victory, or is the Federal Registry Service preparing a new blow against human rights activists? Will the new NGO law become a grave digger for all civil initiatives in Russia? (13-APR-06)

The 30 March the Government approved the abolition of 9 out of 25 present draft deferments. The Ministry of Defense promises to shorten the term of military service to 12 months from 2008.  The 1 April mass protest actions against cutting draft deferments were held all over the country. Demonstrators demanded a building up of the professional army and resignation of Minister of Defense, Sergey Ivanov. Human rights activists call on to distrust the Ministry of Defense and the Minister himself. (05-APR-06)
 

The informational Internet-portal “Human Rights in Russia”, hro.org, became a winner of the III International Festival of the non-commercial Internet-projects in the nomination “Human rights activist”. We sincerely congratulate activists of HRO.org on their success! (02-APR-06)

Russian authorities support the President of Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and don’t express any protest against mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators in Minsk, including Russian citizens.  In Moscow police has broken up participants of the protest actions against violation of human rights in the Republic of Belarus. The Russian human rights community has expressed solidarity with actions of the Belarussian opposition and has demanded to release all the detained.  (02-APR-06)

6-7 March there was a 2-days seminar “Security of information on the activities of human rights organizations” in Kazan’, organized on the initiative of the Interregional group “Human Rights Network” belonging to the Russian Research Center for Human Rights. Today the problem of personal data  security in the human rights community is extremely important in connection with the preparation of a new bill “On information, informational technologies and protection of information” and because of  increasing number of hackers attacks and attempts of authorities to control human rights web-sites. (25-MAR-06)
 

From the 22 February to the 2 of April an exhibition “Political ‘Justice’ and Political Prisoners in Contemporary Russia” takes place in the museum and Public Center of Andrey Sakharov.  The personages of the exhibition are people, who have fallen a prey to the politically motivated state despotism. The organizers of the exhibition believe that the existence of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in the country is a menacing sign of present civil disaster. (20-MAR-06)