NOVEMBER 2006

18.11.2005 11:54 MSK
PRIMA-News correspondent advances in Freedom Prize competition
SPAIN. Palma de Mallorca. The 175th session of the Executive Committee of Liberal International - the Association of Liberal Parties and the World Peace Movement, was held on the 5 – 6th of November. The Secretary for International Relations of the Cuban party of Democratic Solidarity and correspondent of the Russian information agency PRIMA –News, journalist Adolfo Fernandez Sain, has advanced in the competition for the Freedom Prize given out yearly by Liberal International.

Chairman of the Liberal Party of Cuba, Hector Maseda Gutierrez is also a finalist. Both dissidents are now in prison. Adolfo Fernandez has been sentenced to 15 years, and Hector Maseda to 20 years in prison. In a resolution on conditions in Cuba, accepted at the Executive Committee session of Liberal International, they noted that the present Cuban regime manifests a persistent unwillingness to voluntarily begin the process of ...
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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

6 October 2006
Press Freedom in the North Caucasus Poses no More Danger to Federal Center

Свобода слова на Кавказе более не грозит федеральному центруPRAGUE, 28 September, Caucasus Times. Press freedom situation in Russia is currently marked by the fact that the level of mass media independence here is defined by direct or indirect dependence on state authorities. According to quite widespread opinion in Russia, mass media can be considered free and independent only if that media is not belonging to the authorities, that is, if it is not directly paid from the budget.

As a rule, those relatively independent media usually belong to the Russian oligarchs or high state officials interested in media business. In the first place, those media serve their owners. However, unlike those media paid by the state, they are capable of providing some criticism. However, it should be noted that federal center is usually not criticized. Criticism is ...
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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

«…to talk about the KGB's use of terrorist groups»
Publication time: 3 November 2006, 09:57
A new US citizen, Oleg Kalugin, who served 32 years with the KGB, visited a counterterrorism class at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville last month to talk about the KGB's use of terrorist groups and aspects of his former work, Loudoun Times-Mirror writes. Anonymous letters and death threats still find their way into the now-peaceful suburban life of Kalugin, 72. He told the class that "they still continue to kill political opponents." The former Soviet intelligence general added, "I send whatever I get to the FBI, so they can be aware that there is a threat on my life."

Kalugin completed six years of counterintelligence and foreign language training in Russia, then entered the United States in 1958 at age 24, posing as a journalism exchange student at Columbia University. During the next 12 years, he made two ...
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