#politzeki

[politzeki]

Two Russian anti-Putin activists jailed over clashes

A Moscow court has sentenced two protest leaders to four-and-a-half years in jail for inciting "mass riots" against President Vladimir Putin.

Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev were found guilty of co-ordinating protests which turned violent on the eve of Mr Putin's inauguration for a third presidential term in May 2012.

Prosecutors had sought eight years.

The pair deny the charges and say Russian police provoked the clashes at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square.

Razvozzhayev was also ordered to pay a 150,000-rouble fine (£2,520; $4,286).

Lawyers for both activists - who denied the charges - said they would appeal against the sentences, including to the European Court of Human Rights.

Udaltsov, a radical leftist, also announced he would go on a hunger strike. He and his supporters shouted "Freedom!" in court on Thursday.

Controversial TV footage

Leonid Razvozzhayev alleges that Russian agents kidnapped him in Ukraine

"Udaltsov, Razvozzhayev... agreed between themselves repeatedly on the organisation of mass disorder," the judge said.

Before his arrest in October 2012 Razvozzhayev was an aide to opposition MP Ilya Ponomarev.

Razvozzhayev said he was abducted in Ukraine, smuggled into Russia and forced into signing a confession, which he later disavowed.

The case against them was based on a documentary broadcast by the pro-Kremlin television channel NTV, which purported to show them discussing efforts to topple the Russian government with an official from neighbouring Georgia - Givi Targamadze - and seeking financial support.

Udaltsov said the footage was a sham and the documentary "dirt and lies".

Anti-government protests erupted in December 2011 amid allegations that the parliamentary elections that month were rigged.

In the Bolotnaya Square investigation seven other protesters have been jailed and 11 acquitted. Eight others are still held on remand or under investigation. An arrest warrant has been issued in Russia for Givi Targamadze.

(Source: BBC News)

[politzeki]

Pussy Riot suffer burns and head injuries after being attacked at McDonalds

Two members of Russian protest group Pussy Riot have been left with chemical burns and head injuries after they were attacked by a group of men wearing patriotic symbols.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in the west of Russia to visit a local jail with members of their prisoners right group.

They were set upon while eating breakfast in a McDonalds restaurant.

The men, who were wearing St George ribbons which commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, used pepper spray and poured rubbish and green antiseptic over them.

The women have blamed local police for being involved in the attack. Police said they were investigating the case and refused to comment on the allegations.

Pussy Riot became known around the world after they were jailed for performing a protest song against President Putin in a Moscow cathedral. They were freed in December 2013 as part of a government amnesty.

(Source: Euronews)

[politzeki]

Pussy Riot vows no let-up in Russia human rights fight at Asia awards

Members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (R) and Maria Alyokhina (L) arrive at a preview of the nominees for the inaugural Prudential Eye Awards in Singapore on January 17, 2014. Photography: Sorlan Rahman

Two Pussy Riot members on Friday vowed no let-up in their campaign against human rights abuses inside Vladimir Putin's Russia as they made their first overseas trip since being released from jail.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who were freed from prison last month, are in Singapore for a video awards ceremony where they said they would keep using creative art to promote their cause.

A video of the group's controversial protest stunt inside Moscow's top church, the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, has been shortlisted for an award in the digital/video category of the inaugural Prudential Eye Awards in the city-state.

The stunt, which the band described as a denunciation of political ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church, led to three members being convicted on hooliganism charges.

"Right now we are mostly concentrated on human rights work which involves a huge amount of legal work," band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said through an interpreter at a media event Friday.

She said they will continue to use "video and other creative forms" to get their message across.

"We'll definitely continue our political activities and right now we are concentrated on a project which helps prisoners' rights because any such work in Russia is a political activity," said Tolokonnikova, clad in a black dress and dark tights.

Asked what the band would do with any prize money if they win, she said: "We will use our resources... including money to put (towards) this human rights project to defend prisoners' rights."

Their video has been nominated alongside works of China's Yang Yong Liang and Baden Pailthorpe and Daniel Crooks, both from Australia. The award ceremony will take place on Saturday.

Under the awards, which are sponsored by the Prudential insurance giant, the winner of each category will receive a $20,000 prize. The overall winner receives a further $30,000 and a chance to exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London later this year.

Pussy Riot's church protest came just ahead of Putin's re-election to the Kremlin in March 2012 and video footage of the stunt uploaded online was later banned in Russia.

Tolokonnikova on Friday credited the Russian government for the international attention the band has received, and sarcastically suggested that a state representative should be invited to share the award if they won.

But the duo said they would pursue their cause under their own names rather than as Pussy Riot members.

"We have to speak for ourselves", - Tolokonnikova said.

By Stefanus Ian

(Source: AFP)

[politzeki]

Russia denies visa to U.S. journalist critical of Putin

Russia has barred a U.S. journalist critical of President Vladimir Putin from the country for five years, in a move that could upset relations with the United States and has echoes of the Cold War.

Moscow's treatment of David Satter could fuel concern about freedom of speech before the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month, although Putin has tried to appease critics by freeing former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and members of the Pussy Riot protest group in the run-up to the Games.

"I was expelled from the country," Satter wrote on his personal website. "This is an ominous precedent for all journalists and for freedom of speech in Russia."

The Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Satter, author of three books on Russia and the Soviet Union, had been prevented from returning to Russia last month after grossly violating visa regulations.

In a website entry, he dismissed the official version of events, saying he had followed all instructions, and he blamed the foreign ministry, which handles foreign journalists' media accreditation, for causing delays that led to his expulsion.

In Washington, the State Department said it was disappointed that Russia had denied Satter a visa and had raised the issue with the authorities in Moscow.

"The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has raised our concerns on this case and the treatment of journalists and media organizations in general with Russian authorities," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a daily briefing. "We'll continue to monitor the case."

Satter said that he had flown to Kiev to receive a new letter of invitation but instead received only a statement read to him by a Russian diplomat there declaring him persona non grata.

"The competent organs have decided that your presence on the territory of the Russian Federation is undesirable. Your application for entry into Russia is denied," the statement said.

Such expulsions have been rare since the end of the Cold War and collapse of the communist Soviet Union in 1991. But the ministry dismissed suggestions by Western media that the move against Satter was politically motivated as "tendentious".

A former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, Satter was back in the Russian capital last year and advising Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a broadcaster funded by the U.S. government.

BOOK ON BOMBINGS

In one of his books, "Darkness at Dawn", Satter accused the Federal Security Service (FSB), a successor of the Soviet-era KGB, of being responsible for bombings of Russian apartment buildings in 1999 which killed more than 300 people.

The FSB, which was headed by Putin before he became prime minister and then president, has denied the charge. Russian authorities blamed the attacks on separatists from Chechnya in the volatile North Caucasus. The crimes were never solved.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement said Satter had failed to report to the federal migration service as required when he last arrived in Russia on November 21.

"In fact, from November 22 to November 26 this U.S. citizen stayed on Russian territory illegally," the ministry said, and a Moscow court had ruled on November 29 that he should be expelled. A court spokeswoman confirmed the ruling.

Satter said the ministry had delayed giving him an invitation, causing him to go to court and pay a fine before flying to Kiev to start the visa process again.

The ministry said Satter had left Russia on December 4 and was refused a visa when he wanted to return. He was just one of about 500,000 foreigners barred from Russia for periods of three to 10 years for breaking the law, the ministry added.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said the U.S. embassy in Moscow had sought an explanation from the Russian authorities, without success.

Relations between Moscow and Washington improved during U.S. President Barack Obama's first-term push to "reset" ties.

But they have deteriorated again amid disputes on Iran, Syria, human rights and Russia's decision to give temporary asylum to American fugitive spy contractor Edward Snowden.

Russia expelled a U.S. diplomat in Moscow last year, accusing him of working as a spy and trying to recruit a Russian agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Public announcements of such expulsions have become rare since the end of the Cold War.

Satter is currently in London.

By Timothy Heritage and Gabriela Baczynska

(Source: Reuter)

[politzeki]

A demonstration in Moscow in support of Russia's political prisoners.

27 October 2013

[politzeki]

Court remands Greenpeace activists for two months

Denis Sinyakov was the first to be remanded A Russian court has remanded seven Greenpeace activists in custody for two months for allegedly trying to seize a Russian oil platform.

Two Russian nationals, a Frenchman, a Pole, a New Zealander, a Canadian and the US captain were all ordered to be held pending the "piracy" inquiry.

A further 23 activists, including six Britons, are waiting to hear of their fate in the court in Murmansk.

Greenpeace says the activists were staging a legal, peaceful protest.

Coastguards arrested them on suspicion of piracy after two scaled an offshore drilling platform.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the activists are obviously "not pirates" but did not criticise their continued detention.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford: "This is the first time that Greenpeace have found themselves at the criminal end of the piracy law"

The charge of piracy carries a prison term of up to 15 years in Russia.

Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee - its equivalent of the FBI - said there was a possibility that the remand orders would be lifted early.

'Absurd' charge

Under Russian law the prosecution can ask a judge to detain people pending further investigation.

Denis Sinyakov, a Russian freelance photographer, and Greenpeace spokesman Roman Dolgov were both ordered to be held in pre-trial detention for two months.

Photos showed Mr Sinyakov, whose photographs of the arrest have been used by Reuters among others, inside a metal cage, still wearing handcuffs, in a room of Murmansk's Lenin district court.

The other five to be remanded are French deckhand Francesco Pisanu, Polish activist Tomasz Dziemianczuk, New Zealand crew member David John Haussmann, Canadian crew member Paul Douglas Ruzycki and the US captain, Peter Willcox.

The court's decisions were met with dismay among journalists and photographers in Russia. A protest has been called outside the office of the Investigative Committee - Russia's equivalent of the FBI - in Moscow, the Guardian's Shaun Walker said in a tweet.

The 30 activists were being heard in groups, in six different rooms of the courthouse.

Dmitry Artamonov, a Greenpeace co-ordinator, told the Associated Press that the charges were "absurd". "There can be no other decision except for the release of all the people, including the crew members and all passengers," he said.

Greenpeace says that all of the activists have now been questioned in the presence of lawyers.

Sue Turner, mother of UK detainee Iain Rogers, told BBC News on Thursday she had not heard from her son since Monday.

"I can't understand why Putin says they're not pirates but they're now in this position," she added.

"Greenpeace are updating me but they're saying he might be in custody for two months. He'll be extremely annoyed. He was doing a job and he didn't cause any damage. It's a very, very worrying time."

The drama began a week ago, when two activists successfully climbed on to the side of a platform operated by Gazprom, Russia's state gas monopoly.

They were detained after a short skirmish in inflatable dinghies in which armed Russian FSB officers in balaclavas fired warning shots into the water.

The ship, the Arctic Sunrise, with all its crew was then towed to Murmansk.

Russia views its huge fossil fuel deposits under the Arctic as vital to its economic future, which is why it takes any threat to their exploitation very seriously, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.

The campaigners on the ship are from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Russia, the UK and the US, Greenpeace said.

Detainees by nationality

Argentine: Activist Camila Speziale, second mate Miguel Hernan Perez Orz

Australian: Radio operator Colin Russell

Brazilian: Deckhand Ana Paula Alminhana Maciel

British: Communications officer Alexandra Hazel Harris, videographer Kieron Bryan, logistics co-ordinator Frank Hewetson, activist Anthony Perrett, activist Philip Ball, 2nd engineer Iain Rogers

Canadian: Bosun Alexandre Paul, first mate Paul D Ruzycki

Danish: Third mate Anne Mie Roer Jensen

Dutch: Campaigner Faiza Oulahsen, chief engineer Mannes Ubels

Finnish: Activist Sine Saarela

French: Deckhand Francesco Pisanu

Italian: Deckhand Cristian D'Alessandro

New Zealand: Boat mechanic Jonathon Beauchamp, electrician David John Haussmann

Polish: Activist Tomasz Dziemianczuk

Russian: Spokesman Roman Dolgov, photographer Denis Sinyakov, Dr Yekaterina Zaspa

Swedish: Campaigner Dima Litvinow

Swiss: Activist Marco Weber

Turkish: Volunteer assistant cook Gizhem Akhan

US: Captain Peter Henry Willcox

Note: only 28 names available (Source: BBC News)

[politzeki]

A protest "Recognise Osipova and others as Russian prisoners of coscience" opposite the Amnesty International Secretariat in London 31/07/13

Amnesty International refuses to recognize Russians Taisiya Osipova, Olga Shalina, Ruslan Khubayev, Igor Berezyuk, Kirill Unchuk, Sergei Cherepovsky, Daniil Konstantinov, Sergei Arakcheyev, Vladimir Kvachkov as prisoners of conscience.

The reason that Amnesty International has been unable to recognise these Russians as a prisoners is unclear, as the available evidence says that all the charges and convictions are false. One of the possible explanations could be reluctance of Amnesty International to anger opressive regime of Vladimir Putin.

We call on Amnesty International to recognise abovementioned activists as a prisoners of conscience and to respond as necessary to developments.

[politzeki]

Russia to issue verdict in dead lawyer's trial

Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky pictured on December 29, 2006 in Moscow. The tax evasion case against Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial detention in 2009 after accusing interior ministry officials of corruption, has been slammed by legal experts and Western governments

A Russian court is expected to convict a dead man on Thursday, completing the posthumous trial of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in detention led to one of the biggest Washington-Moscow rows in years.

The tax evasion case against Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial detention in 2009 after accusing interior ministry officials of corruption, has been slammed by legal experts and Western governments.

Judge Igor Alisov of the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow is expected at noon (0800 GMT) to pronounce the verdict in the case against Magnitsky and his former boss, US-born British citizen William Browder, the head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund who is being tried in absentia.

Magnitsky had accused interior ministry officials of organising a $235-million tax scam, but was then charged with the very crimes he claimed to have uncovered.

He was placed under pre-trial detention in 2008 and died of untreated illnesses less than a year later at the age of 37.

Browder insists Magnitsky was tortured to death with beatings and the refusal of proper medical care.

A onetime supporter of President Vladimir Putin who headed an investment fund that was one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia, Browder has become a vocal critic of Russian authorities and has lobbied Western countries to sanction officials believed to be implicated in Magnitsky's death.

The US earlier this year passed the "Sergei Magnitsky Act" which imposed a visa ban and froze the assets of officials implicated in the lawyer's death.

The legislation infuriated Moscow, which in retaliation passed legislation prohibiting Americans from adopting Russian children.

In April, Russia's justice and interior ministers met with staff included on the list, assuring them that they were in no danger of losing their jobs.

Western states have criticised the trial, with the US State Department saying Russia instead "ought to put its energy into investigating how he died".

Investigators closed the inquiry into the lawyer's death citing "lack of evidence" and last year, a court acquitted of negligence an official from the prison where Magnitsky was held.

Russia's Constitutional Court made it possible to try deceased people under a July 2011 ruling that allowed families of late defendants to push for their exoneration by the courts.

But Magnitsky's family, including his widow and mother, protested when prosecutors re-opened the case against him in August 2011. They have boycotted the trial and have asked the Moscow legal community to do the same.

The trial has gone ahead in a small courtroom since January despite only nominal participation of the two defence lawyers, Nikolai Gerasimov and Kirill Goncharov, who were appointed to the case by the judge at risk of disbarment.

Both have tried to distance themselves from the case, have repeatedly not shown up at the hearings, citing illness or other court engagements, and at one point asked the judge to remove them from the case, a request that was denied.

They were not available for comment.

Speaking to AFP ahead of Wednesday's hearing, Browder said he expected a guilty verdict.

"It will be proof that Putin is ready to misuse the courts and the entire Russian justice system to cover-up serious economic crimes and murder of his top officials."

A guilty verdict against Magnitsky would essentially deny him a chance to be exonerated.

Analysts say that Russia has pressed on with a case against a dead man to make a point.

"This trial is a gesture by Russia. Russia insists that it's not people on the list who are guilty, but Magnitsky and Browder," said Maria Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow.

"Since Browder is not facing the court and Magnitsky is dead, nothing can be proven, but that's not even needed," she said. "It's a gesture of resistance to the Magnitsky Act."

Browder said he would keep up his fight on behalf of the lawyer.

"On the day of Sergei Magnitsky's murder, I made a vow to his memory and his family that I would make sure that the people who killed him face justice, and I will not let this rest until they are all convicted and in jail."

By Maria Antonova

(Source: AFP)