Window On Eurasia: ‘Without Independent Courts, Russia’s Opposition Won’t Achieve Anything’
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posted by eagle on October, 2009 as Human Rights
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 26 – Russia’s opposition might be close to achieving one of the requirements for achieving fundamental political change – winning enough votes to plausibly claim their victory in an election had been stolen – but unless the courts have the independence needed to rule that is the case, one analyst says, the opposition “won’t achieve anything.”
In an essay on the Kasparov.ru portal, Valery Promyslovsky argues that the powers that be thus have even more reason than ever before to maintain political control over the court system rather than allowing the judiciary to develop “genuine and not just formal independence” as the Russian Constitution requires (www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=4ADEC9A352C32).
That in turn has two consequences which are sometimes overlooked. On the one hand, the powers that be are going to rely ever more frequently on the judiciary to keep ...
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Reuters: Russia iI U.N. Rights Dock For Journalist Murders
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posted by eagle on as Human Rights
Russia in U.N. rights dock for journalist murders
* U.N. experts grill Russia on Politkovskaya, other murders * Ask about independence of judges, Chechnya abductions
* Debate follows Moscow visit of Hillary Clinton
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Russia was grilled on Thursday by U.N. human rights experts over murders of journalists and activists, the independence of its judiciary and abductions during counter-terrorism campaigns in Chechnya.
Georgy Matyushkin, deputy justice minister, led a 24-member delegation sent to defend Russia's record at the U.N. Human Rights Committee, where debate continues on Friday.
The discussion came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Moscow and called on Russia to prevent attacks on activists challenging the Kremlin. [ID:nLE140486]
"The physical danger to people who speak out on human rights in Russia is still striking," said Ruth Wedgwood, an American expert on the U.N. panel. "People who are either journalists ...
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Index On Censorship: RUSSIA: SECURITY AGENT TALKS PRESS FREEDOM
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posted by eagle on as Human Rights
12 Oct 2009An international conference on press freedom in Vienna, reports Andrei Soldatov, included a suprising guest: a Russian security service agent.
For the first time in almost a decade. the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has decided to take part in a discussion on media coverage of the war on terror. In early October it sent one of its officials to the “War on Words” conference on this subject held by the International Press Institute in Vienna. The presence of the Russian security services at an international discussion about press coverage of counterterrorism was surprising. After all, this is precisely the area of press freedom that is most systematically suppressed in Russia. And the originator and the main beneficiary of this strategy is the FSB. The process has actually started in 1999 with the Second Chechen war: the Kremlin appeared to have learned the lessons of the conflict in ... >> full...
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Window On Eurasia: Russian Nationalists Take Credit For Conviction Of Non-Russian Immigrants
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posted by eagle on as Human Rights
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 10 – Russian nationalists have long complained that Russian prosecutors and courts have used that country’s anti-extremist laws almost exclusively against ethnic Russians rather than applying them to non-Russian immigrants, who, the nationalists insist, violate these laws far more often.
But now for the first time, according to the Russian media, a Moscow court this week convicted six young people from Azerbaijan who had been charged with beating two ethnic Russian teenagers in May 2008 while shouting “Kill the Russians!” and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms (www.vremya.ru/2009/186/46/239281.html).
And while Russian nationalists say that the six, who the media but not the courts have said are members of a gang called the Black Hawks, should have received even more severe punishments and would have had the ethnicity of the perpetrators and victims had been reversed, ...
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RFE/RL: HRW Says Russia Ignoring Chechen Rights Rulings
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posted by eagle on as Human Rights
HRW Says Russia Ignoring Chechen Rights Rulings Natalya Estemirova is just one of the most recent rights activists to have been murdered in Russia's beleaguered North Caucasus. September 28, 2009 MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia has ignored a series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights on Chechnya, fueling a cycle of violence in the North Caucasus, a prominent rights watchdog has said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said not a single perpetrator had been brought to justice despite court judgments naming individuals directly involved in disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and torture.
The cases relate to violations during Russian military and intelligence operations in Chechnya from 1999 to 2004.
Rights groups accuse pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov of ruling effectively since 2004 with a climate of fear to keep control over the mainly Muslim region on Russia's southern flank, where Moscow has fought two wars against separatists in the past 15 years.
An increase in suicide ... >> full...
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