From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 6/6/2007 12:28 PM
1.6.2007 20:35 MSK
Russian human rights activists speak out against "practical politics"
RUSSIA, Moscow. In connection with the G8 Summit from June 6–8, Russian human rights activists and public workers have called on heads of states and governments of Italy, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, the USA, and Japan "to clearly and unequivocally focus attention" on President of Russia Vladimir Putin for "blatant and massive violations by the country's leadership of basic human rights and democratic freedoms".
The human rights activists declared that they must "forego the practice of practical politics where connivance and antidemocratic actions dictate shifts of position on political and economic questions". The authors of the petition called on the seven democracies:
1) To secure the release of Russian political prisoners, including Zary Murtazaliyev – sentenced in the YUKOS case, pamphleteer Boris Stomakhin, scientists Igor Sutyagin and Valentina Danilova, and attorney Mikhail Trepashkin;
2) To focus close attention on the use of charges of extremism to prosecute human rights activists and opponents of the regime;
3) To call on the President of Russia not to violate the right, guaranteed by Russian legislation, of participants to take part in the peaceful Marches of Dissent planned for June 9 (Saint Petersburg) and June 11 (Moscow), to avoid more beatings and detentions of demonstrators ".
Signatories of the petition include: Ludmila Alekseyeva, Elena Bonner, Sergey Kovalev, Lev Ponomarev, Yuri Samodurov, Yulia Rybakov, Father Gleb Yakunin, Ernst Chernyy, Mikhail Krieger, Elena Sannikova, Malba Landa, and Boris Vishnevsky.
Translated by OM Kenney
PRIMA-News Agency [2007-05-31-Rus-24]