Pressure on Russian Muslims as Putin seeks suitable heir by M A Shaikh (Friday September 09 2005)
"...it is not only Putin and his officials who are alarmed at “the rise of Russian Muslims,” as one newspaper report put it. Russian Orthodox Church leaders and ultranationalists are alarmed about the increasing numbers of Muslims in the Russian Federation, the conversion to Islam by non-Muslims, and the huge increase in the number of mosques since 1991. In the entire Soviet Union there were only 500 mosques, but now there are 5,000 in Russia alone."
Because president Vladimir Putin cannot be elected for a third term unless the Russian constitution is amended, he and Kremlin officials are preoccupied with the parliamentary elections in 2007 and with ensuring the election of an approved successor as president in 2008. His main strategy for achieving the desired result is to pose as the man best able to suppress the ... >>full
The Federal Court of Arbitration for the Moscow District has confirmed the lawfulness of the warning of the Federal Service for Supervision over the Observation of Legislation in Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage with regard to Kommersant newspaper over the publication of an interview with ex-leader of Chechen separatists Rights defenders stripped of fundsAslan Maskhadov, says RIA Novosti. The court thus rejected the appeal of the Kommersant Publishing House.
The article in question was published on 8 February this year. In the opinion of experts from the Federal Service, the interview contained information that substantiated and justified extremist activities. In this light, the agencies issued a warning to the newspaper. However, Kommersant believed there was no accurate definition what exact information could be a justification of extremist activities.
The newspaper's management applied to court, but their arguments were recognised unconvincing and the capital's court of ... >>full
13.9.2005 14:19 MSK Demand for Putin’s resignation is considered extremism Roman Dobrokhotov Roman Dobrokhotov RUSSIA, Moscow. The prefecture of the central region of Moscow refused to allow the movement "We" to conduct a picket on September 11th demanding the resignation of Vladimir Putin. The refusal was issued because the call for the resignation of Putin is allegedly extremist.
On September 11th, activists of "We", members of the Ukrainian movement "Time", the Kirghiz movement "Birge!", Kazakhstan’s "Kakhara", Azerbaijan’s "Yokha" and the Belorussian movement "Mladodemokraty" walked to the monument to the heroes of Plevny in Ilinskiy Square with flags and without transparencies. The mouths of the youth movement participants were glued as a sign of protest against media censorship. The leader of "We", Roman Dobrokhotov, was detained.
Dobrokhotov is currently being held in the police department.
This is not the first time city authorities have, under different pretexts, prevented the activists of “We” from conducting demonstrations, according to a ... >>full
13.9.2005 14:07 MSK Did the authorities drown out protests RUSSIA, Moscow. On 12 September a meeting took place on Pushkin Square in Moscow to show solidarity with Mikhail Khodorkovski and Platon Lebedev. The meeting took place in the build up to the appeal against the sentence given by the Meshchansk court against Lebedev and Khodorkovski (nine years each in prison) which will be heard on 14 September.
The meeting was designed to draw the attention of the authorities and the public to the issue of constitutional rights and freedoms in Russia, including the right to a fair and impartial trial; to protest against the use of law enforcement agencies and legal bodies for political aims, and also against the repression of politicians by the authorities and the infringement of their civil rights and freedoms; and to demand the release of the political prisoners Mikhail Khodorkovski and Platon Lebedev.
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