Corporate report

Russia - Country of Concern: latest update, 30 June 2014

Updated 21 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

During the last three months, the negative trend in the human rights situation in Russia has continued. In particular, pressure on civil society and restrictions on freedom of expression online and offline has increased.

Civil society

On 7 April, NGO Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial lost its appeal against an earlier ruling that it was acting as a “foreign agent”, taking the decision to liquidate the organisation. The following day, on 8 April, Russia’s Constitutional Court rejected an appeal against the “foreign agents” law filed by Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Lukin and several NGOs. The court ruled that the law was constitutional, and that there were no legal grounds on which to claim that the term “foreign agent” had a negative connotation. In May 2014, a second wave of NGO inspections under the “foreign agents” law began and is continuing .

On 23 May, a Moscow court rejected an appeal by NGO Human Rights Centre Memorial against an earlier ruling and ordered the NGO to register itself as a “foreign agent”. On 4 June, Russia passed an amendment to the “foreign agents” law allowing the Ministry of Justice to designate NGOs as “foreign agents” without a court order. On 9 June, the Ministry of Justice added five NGOs to the “foreign agents” register, stating that earlier court decisions had confirmed that the organisations were conducting political activities using foreign sources of funding. The Minister for Europe, David Lidington, made a statement on 16 June expressing our deep concern about the increasing pressure on NGOs in Russia, and urging the Russian authorities not to place advocacy groups under special scrutiny. On 20 June, Human Rights Ombudswoman, Ella Pamfilova, who criticised the 4 June amendment, announced that several NGOs would receive presidential grants, including two of the organisations that were added to the “foreign agents” register on 9 June.

Freedom of expression

In April, Russia passed legislation to strengthen Russia’s control of internet traffic within its borders, requiring internet companies to retain data travelling through Russia and enhancing Russian authorities’ access to it.

In April, Pavel Durov, founder of Russia’s most popular social networking site VKontakte, fled the country after being fired by the company’s board. He claimed his dismissal was on account of his refusal to hand over the personal details of users involved in Ukraine’s Maidan protests, and to shut down the page of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. On 7 May, Russia passed a law requiring bloggers with more than 3,000 daily visits to register with the authorities and be constrained by the same legal responsibilities as mass media outlets (the term “blogger” also applies to Twitter and social media sites). Human Rights Ombudswoman, Ella Pamfilova, and Chair of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, spoke out firmly against the legislation. The Russian internet industry has also sharply criticised the trend on internet freedom.

On 5 May, Russia passed legislation imposing heavy fines for swearing in the arts, including literature, films, and theatre.

On 5 June, director of the Regional Press Institute, Anna Sharogradskaya, was detained at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport without explanation and her files and other electronic devices were confiscated. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s representative on freedom of the media expressed concern about the detention in a statement: “The authorities’ detention of Sharogradskaya without due cause serves a clear signal of harassment of all media freedom defenders in Russia.”

Rule of law

On 9 June, the Moscow City Court sentenced five men for being found guilty of plotting and killing Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya on 7 October 2006. Whilst welcoming the sentencing, Politkovskaya’s family and human rights activists expressed disappointment that those behind the killing had still not been found and held to account. The UK government has repeatedly raised concerns about Politkovskaya’s murder with the Russian authorities, and will continue to follow the investigation.

On 16 June, eight former policemen from Tatarstan were sentenced to between two and fifteen years in prison for torturing detainees at the Dalny detention centre in Kazan, including 52-year-old Sergei Nazarov who died from injuries sustained there in March 2012. They were all convicted of abusing their authority and causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death.

On 22 April, opposition figure Alexei Navalny was convicted of libel and fined 300,000 roubles (around £5,000) for allegedly calling a Moscow City lawmaker (councillor) from the United Russia party, Alexei Lisovenko, a drug addict in a post on Twitter. Navalny denied the charge and said that he would appeal the conviction. Two days later, on 24 April, a separate libel lawsuit filed by deputy speaker of the Duma, Sergei Neverov of United Russia, was upheld. The Deputy Mayor of Moscow, Maxim Liksutov, also announced that he was suing Navalny for slander over allegations that Likstov owned a company registered in Cyprus whilst at the same time holding a position in public office. On 24 April, Navalny’s period of house arrest in relation to the so-called Yves Rocher case was extended by another six months. On 11 June, two of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund colleagues, Nikolai Lyaskin and Konstantin Yankausakas, were charged with fraud. Along with the fund’s director, Vladimir Ashurkov, they are alleged to have siphoned off 10 million roubles (around USD290,000) from online donations made to Navalny’s election campaign for the Moscow mayoral elections held in September 2013. Some commentators have suggested that the various charges brought against Navalny and his supporters are politically motivated.

On 30 April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of lawyers and judges released a report on a 2013 visit to Russia. The Special Rapporteur expressed “strong concern about allegations of direct and indirect threats to, and improper influence, interference and pressure on the judiciary, and threats, intimidation, attacks, groundless prosecution and, in the gravest cases, murder of lawyers who discharge their professional duties.”

On 29 April, Umid Yakubov, a refugee from Uzbekistan, was abducted on the street in Moscow. Human rights defenders fear that he was abducted with the involvement of Uzbek security services, and may now have been forcibly returned to Uzbekistan. The European Court of Human Rights has previously ruled that if Russia returned Yakubov to Uzbekistan, Russia would be in violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Freedom of assembly

Six people currently remain on trial for their alleged involvement in the anti-government protests that took place in Bolotnaya Square in May 2012. In May, Moscow City authorities refused to give permission for an opposition rally to commemorate the second anniversary of the protests. 13 people were detained by the Russian authorities for holding a small unsanctioned protest near Bolotnaya square on 6 May 2014. In a welcome development, a Moscow court ruled in June that Mikhail Kosenko, sentenced in October 2013 to compulsory psychiatric treatment for his role in the protests in 2012, could leave hospital.

In May, Moscow City authorities officially turned down a request to hold a Gay Pride march in 2014. This is the ninth year in a row that permission for the Pride march has been refused in Moscow. British officials attended the Side-by-Side LGBT film festival in Moscow on 24 April, and the rally in St Petersburg to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on 17 May.

Elections

In April, the Russian parliament passed a bill abolishing direct mayoral elections in many Russian towns (but not Moscow or St Petersburg). Instead, mayors will be chosen by city legislatures.