20.11.2006 21:21 MSK State Duma repeals threshold on voter participation in elections and bans candidates from criticising opponents Russia, Moscow. On 17 November the Russian State Duma in its third reading passed an amendment to the bill on “the basic guarantees of the rights of voters and the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation to participate in referenda”. In particular, a clause was omitted from the bill, pronouncing elections void if less than 20 per cent of the voters on the electoral roll participated in them.
The bill also forbids registered candidates and electoral groupings from calling on voters to vote against other candidates or lists of candidates during televised political broadcasts; describing the possible negative results of a victory by other candidates or lists or candidates; distributing literature clearly dominated by information on a particular candidate or electoral grouping and accompanied by negative commentary, encouraging voters to form negative opinions toward ... >>full
22.11.2006 12:23 MSK Boris Stomakhin sentenced to 5 years Russia, Moscow. Boris Stomakhin was sentenced on 20 November by the Butyrsk district court to 5 years imprisonment for “public calls to change the constitutional basis of the Russian Federation through violence” and “inciting national, racial and religious hatred” (Article 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Stomakhin, editor of the “Radical Politics” bulletin with a circulation of a few dozen copies, was in fact accused of disrespecting the Russian Federation, criticising the authorities and showing sympathy towards the separatist movement in Chechnya.
Criminal proceedings against Boris Stomakhin were instigated in 2003 upon a complaint issued by V. Lavrova, calling the authors of the “Radical Politics” newspaper “Chechen bandits”. Lavrova sent her complaint to the deputy of the State Duma and Communist Party member, Viktor Zorkaltsev, who, in turn, passed it on to the Chief Prosecutor.
Information Agency PRIMA-News [2006-11-21-Rus-36] http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2006/11/22/37135.html
Russian Puppets Arrest Foreign Journalists in Chechnya Publication time: Today at 17:58 Djokhar time
An Austrian TV journalist, her cameraman and a sound technician were briefly detained Friday while filming in the restive southern Russia region of Chechnya, their station said.
State broadcaster ORF said its longtime Moscow correspondent, Susanne Scholl, and her two assistants were arrested and held by puppet police before they were released a few hours later. The station did not say whether the Chechen puppets gave a reason for the detentions or whether some foreigners' property was stolen, as usual, by Russian puppets.
ORF said the crew's video was seized, and general manager Alexander Wrabetz said the station would lodge a formal protest with the Russian Embassy in Vienna.
Editor: Reporters threatened at Russian newspaper where slain investigative reporter worked
Nov 27 2006, 14:29
MOSCOW (AP) - Two reporters at a small independent Russian newspaper that has been highly critical of Kremlin policies received death threats last week, a top editor said Monday. The threats made to the reporters at Novaya Gazeta come just weeks after one of the paper's most prominent reporters, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building. In a statement posted on its Web site, the paper's editors said the threats were made on Friday to two unnamed employees of the paper in connection with an article about problems in Russia's troubled North Caucasus and another article about Politkovskaya's murder. One of the reporters also received a threatening text message on his or her cell phone, the paper said. Novaya Gazeta has specialized in investigative reporting, especially in the area of government corruption, and has ... >>full
MosNews A State Department official criticized Russian democratic backsliding on the eve of a conference on Middle East reform that Russia is co-chairing with Jordan, Bloomberg news agency reports. ``I think it’s clear that the trends in Russia are not good,’’ Barry Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, told State Department reporters en route to Jordan, where a conference on Middle East democracy is set to open tomorrow at the Dead Sea. ``We have highlighted these problems,’’ Lowenkron said, when asked if he saw any irony in Russia co-chairing the Forum for the Future, a three-year old initiative of the Group of Eight industrial nations designed to promote democracy in the Middle East, amid fresh allegations ... >>full
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