(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, Aug. 2, 2013) Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking classified information on US surveillance programs and who was granted temporary asylum Thursday by Russia, has decided where he is going to live and is in a safe place with friends, a Russian lawyer who helped him with his asylum bid said […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Kirill Koroteev – Aug. 1, 2013) Kirill Koroteev, a Russian lawyer, has worked with Memorial Human Rights Centre (Moscow) and European Human Rights Advocacy Centre on numerous cases lodged against the Russian Federation with the European Court of Human Rights. He was also a charge de mission for the International Federation for Human Rights (Paris) on Belarus and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 31, 2013) Most of Russians have no trust in the national judiciary, Levada Center told Interfax on Wednesday referring to the July poll outcomes. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (61%) suspect that an average person cannot expect fair justice, and 27% disagree. The attitude to the Russian judiciary has been changed for the past five years. […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 1, 2013) As if Fyodor Dostoyevsky wasn’t depressing enough, Russian court marshals have added a touch of Kafka to his legacy, investigating the Russian literary giant for contempt of court and only clearing him because he is no longer alive. The amusing story began with an “idiot” both the title of an 1869 […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Yuri Dzhibladze – July 30, 2013) Yuri Dzhibladze is founder and president of the Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, a Russian public policy and advocacy NGO. The Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights has achieved much in fifteen years, but now, like so many NGOs, it has been branded a ‘foreign […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – July 26, 2013) All autocracies have two things in common: They exaggerate the threats they face from leading opposition figures and take extreme, repressive measures to limit or remove those threats. Russia is certainly no exception, and the trial and conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a case […]
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(Interfax – July 25, 2013) The Thursday resolution by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding a complaint lodged by Yukos ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev should prompt the Russian authorities to annul their first conviction. “The court recognized a violation of [the right to] a fair trial. The conviction should be annulled,” Khodorkovsky’s […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Witold Jancszys, special to RBTH – July 23, 2013) The business landscape in Russia has changed in the last decade and, now, more and more foreign nationals are starting businesses in the country, attracted to the opportunities for growth and space for new ideas in the Russian market. Foreign entrepreneurs doing business in […]
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(Interfax – July 23, 2013) Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov, who proposed the idea of economic amnesty, has said that it is difficult to grant it now to opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy and former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovskiy from the legal standpoint. Titov said this at a news conference in Moscow on 23 July, as reported by Russian news agency […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The trial of the alleged murderers of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya that is starting on Wednesday will be “patently illegitimate,” the journalist’s son and daughter said on Tuesday, refusing to attend the trial. “In our absence and that of our lawyers, the judge began to select jurors and approved the jury,” Ilya Politkovsky […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 22, 2013) Head of research at the Higher School of Economics Yevgeniy Yasin has described the Russian government instruction placing heads of state companies under obligation to account for their income and spending on par with officials as “absolute piffle”. Instead of building these mechanisms, one should continue the course to privatization, the economist has […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – July 22, 2013) After the latest in a series of murders in the North Caucasus, Russian Duma deputies are proposing an increase on the maximum prison sentence for violence against journalistsfrom six years to ten. On Wednesday, July 10, a bill toughening the penalty for offenses against journalists was […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 23, 2013) Former Tula Governor Vyacheslav Dudka will spend nearly 9 1/2 years in a high-security prison in what marks the first time a former governor has received such a harsh sentence in modern Russia. Dudka was sentenced by a local court Monday for accepting 40 million rubles ($1.3 million) in […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The first thirteen businessmen have been set free in Russia as part of an economic amnesty for white-collar criminals that came into effect earlier this month, business ombudsmen Boris Titov said Tuesday. “As of now, 13 people have been released under the amnesty,” Titov told reporters. Eight people have left pre-trial detention […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 19, 2013) Moscow Bar Association President Henri Reznik has called the release of opposition activist Alexei Navalny from custody with travel restrictions the day after his incarceration unprecedented. “I must tell you I cannot recall a similar situation. I cannot remember a single case of a prosecutors’ objection to the measures chosen by a court after […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko & Oleg Sukhov – July 22, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, unexpectedly freed by a Kirov court a day after being jailed on embezzlement charges, got a hero’s welcome from hundreds of supporters when his train arrived in Moscow over the weekend, and he immediately announced that he would pursue his long-shot bid […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – July 18, 2013) Opposition politician and anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny got all the press during the nearly four months of his trial. But he was not alone in the dock, as he took pains to point out during his closing remarks on July 5. “First, I would like to take this opportunity to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 19, 2013) The Kremlin was hit with what is like to be a serious of extremely expensive bills following the conviction of opposition blogger Alexei Navalny to five years in jail on corruption charges by a court in Kirov on July 19. Russia’s stock market tanked as the […]
» Read more(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) The Russian opposition will try to take advantage of Alexei Navalny’s conviction in pursuing its political ends, but protests against this will not be very significant, says Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst and a member of the Public Chamber. “Some actions have been prepared and will be held, but they will be very […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) Russian public figures and foreign diplomats on Thursday weighed in on the five-year jail sentence handed down to anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny, with opinions ranging from grim pessimism among liberals and “disappointment” from the U.S. ambassador to mixed forecasts by economic analysts and claims of a fair trial by pro-Kremlin pundits. – […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) The sentence of opposition activist Alexei Navalny is affecting the interests of small and middle-sized businesses and will lead to the outflow of young lawyers and businessmen from Russia, leader of the Civil Platform party Mikhail Prokhorov said. “The sentence passed on Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov is not just a sentence to the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) The Russian presidential Human Rights Council will conduct an independent public analysis of the criminal case in which a Kirov court sentenced opposition activist Alexei Navalny to five years in prison on Thursday. “I have already talked with a number of Council members. I believe the Council will decide to arrange a public legal […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jason Corcoran & Henry Meyer – July 17, 2013) Alexey Navalny faces possible imprisonment tomorrow in the highest-profile case against a critic of President Vladimir Putin since the prosecution of former oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A judge in Kirov, 900 kilometers (560 miles) northeast of Moscow, will rule on charges that Navalny defrauded state-owned timber company […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – July 17, 2013) RFE/RL correspondent Tom Balmforth asked Moscow residents ahead of the verdict on July 18 what they expected in the embezzlement case against Aleksei Navalny. Here are some of their answers: Igor, 25, transportation sector “I think Navalny will be found guilty. It’s most likely a political case and possibly was initiated to stop […]
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(Interfax – YAROSLAVL, Russia. July 16, 2013) Supporters of the arrested mayor of Yaroslavl, Yevgeny Urlashov, have held a rally in the city on Tuesday. “We estimate that about 5,000 people took part in the rally,” one of the meeting organizers, Andrei Alexeyev, told Interfax. The head of the press service of the Yaroslavl regional police authority, Alexander Shikhanov, told […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) Russia’s Investigative Committee has denied allegations that the investigation of the 2009 assassination of Chechen human rights activist Natalya Estemirova has stalled and reiterated that, contrary to what is claimed by rights defenders, it sees militant Akhazur Bashayev as the primary suspect in the case. Investigations into Estemirova’s murder “have never been suspended” and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 16, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny will be registered on Wednesday as a candidate for the Moscow mayoral elections, just one day before the verdict for the KirovLes embezzlement case is scheduled to be delivered, Kommersant reported. The Kremlin critic is awaiting the verdict in a criminal case alleging that he embezzled 16 million […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Grigory Tumanov – July 11, 2013) Grigory Tumanov is a Moscow based journalist and blogger. He is a staff correspondent for Kommersant daily, one of Russia’s most respected publications. Favourite lawyer of the Russian far right, Dmitry Bakharyev is developing a network of ‘sports’ clubs for like-minded nationalists teaching knife, rather than ball, skills. He hopes the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin has denounced the postmortem conviction of late Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky by Moscow’s Tverskoi Court. “I object to trying people post mortem. There is an element of some ancient pagan mentality in this,” Lukin told Interfax on Thursday. “Then let’s arrange the trial of Ivan the Terrible […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) British investment fund Hermitage Capital has attacked Thursday’s posthumous conviction of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in absentia conviction of its chief executive William Browder. “This trial reflects the authorities’ disrespect for fundamental international legal values and personal rights and freedoms,” Hermitage said in a statement made available to Interfax. Moscow’s Tverskoi Court convicted […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Anton Doroshev & Ilya Arkhipov – June 9, 2013) Police, judges and lawmakers, as well as bureaucrats, are seen in Russia as the most corrupt groups, fueling popular discontent with the government, according to a global survey by Transparency International. Five percent of Russian respondents rated President Vladimir Putin’s anti-corruption campaign as effective, a sharp drop […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 10, 2013) The receipt of payment for professional services cannot be considered a bribe, the Supreme Court has ruled, a news report said Wednesday. A bribe is the receipt of money or services in return for actions performed by a public official using the authority delegated to him, the court said. The ruling may […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, July 9, 2013) Website owners are obliged to delete information discrediting citizens posted in comments sections, the Russian Constitutional Court ruled. The resolution was made at a session on Tuesday. According to the materials of the court’s press office, the implementation of the right to freedom of speech imposes relevant obligations and responsibilities, including the respect […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 8, 2013) Penalties for violating the rules of water use and harmful emissions in Russia, which aim to stimulate energy conservation and environmentally clean technologies, have grown by a degree of magnitude, the Russian Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said in a press release. The administrative fine for violating water use rules when taking water without […]
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(Moscow News – Anna Arutunyan, Editor & Correspondent at themoscownews.com – July 8, 2013) With the verdict in opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s trial scheduled for July 18, the bets are on: will he get six years in jail like the prosecutors asked? Or a suspended sentence? What’s interesting about this question is that the answer has very little to do […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. July 3, 2013) Convicts eligible for the economic amnesty, which comes into effect on July 4, will be released in several days because the procedure of releasing convicts under amnesty is held in several stages, spokesperson of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service Kristina Belousova said. “From the day the amnesty comes into effect, head of a correction […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 4, 2013) Yaroslavl mayor Yevgeniy Urlashov has pleaded not guilty to charges of extorting a bribe, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 4 July. He made the statement at a court session that had been convened to decide whether to keep him in custody. Urlashov, who belongs to Mikhail Prokhorov’s Civil Platform opposition party, […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 5, 2013) A court in Yaroslavl ruled early on Friday to arrest an opposition politician who won a rare landslide victory against the ruling United Russia party in a mayoral election last year. Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov was charged along with four of his colleagues on Thursday with extorting a 14 million ruble ($420,000) bribe, investigators […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 5, 2013) Investigators officially charged Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov and a group of his subordinates with attempted bribery Thursday as members of the Kremlin human rights council met to discuss the case, which Urlashov’s supporters say they suspect has been fabricated by his political enemies. But members of the council, generally […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW,. July 3, 2013) The defense team of Hermitage Capital’s auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a detention facility, said that a guilty verdict within the framework of the trial in absentia of Magnitsky was needed to justify his death. “The trial is needed just for this – to tell the entire world – here, look, the court […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jake Rudnitsky – July 3, 2013) A Russian mayor who won a landslide victory against a candidate backed by President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party last year was detained by police on suspicion of demanding a 14 million-ruble ($421,000) kickback. Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov and two deputies threatened to stop payments to a local businessman for a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – July 3, 2013) The State Duma on Tuesday passed in the third and final reading the long-awaited economic crimes amnesty bill, which will free several thousand businessmen from the nation’s prisons. But despite the fact that the legislation was supported by all of the Duma parties when it was being prepared, only […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he expected the economic amnesty, declared by the Russian State Duma on Tuesday, to have positive effect. “Any amnesty of not very serious criminals is a positive deed. I welcome this amnesty,” Lukin told Interfax on Tuesday. “Arguments on how wide and deep the amnesty is are […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) Russia’s oldest human rights activist, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva said she criticized the economic amnesty declared by the Russian State Duma on Tuesday. “The obligation to repay damages undercuts this entire amnesty. This is a fly in the ointment,” Alexeyeva told Interfax on Tuesday. “If a person indeed did steal, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) The Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) has for the first time proven a case of insider trading on the Russian market, the head of the regulator, Dmitry Pankin said on his official blog. The case concerns transactions with shares in cosmetics firm Kalina (RTS: KLNA) in the fall of 2011, ahead of the announcement […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – June 26, 2013) A Moscow court on Tuesday opened the trial of 12 people suspected of taking part in “riots” and clashing with police at a now-infamous anti-government rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad last May. More than 400 people were detained at the protest on May 6, 2012, and at least 14 participants […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) Mikhail Subbotin, a participant in the public expertise of the second Yukos case and senior scholar from the Institute of Economics and International Relations, who is expected at the Investigative Committee on Wednesday, has drawn a parallel between the current case of experts and “doctors’ plot” at the end of the Stalin era. “It […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. June 25, 2013) Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are not eligible for the economic amnesty, their defense said. “As we have suspected, although hope dies last, this amnesty was not intended to release Khodorkovsky and Lebedev,” Lebedev’s lawyer Vladimir Krasnov told Interfax on Tuesday. “Comparing what was planned at the start […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 25, 2013) Two of the co-authors of the expert report into the second Yukos case have been asked to attend interviews by the Investigative Committee, a news report said Tuesday. Lawyer Mikhail Subbotin told Kommersant that he would attend an interview Wednesday, while earlier this week it was reported that former Constitutional Court Judge […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – rbth.ru – Interfax, Combined report – June 23, 2013) Russian officials are puzzled in what country former CIA officer Edward Snowden is going to apply for political asylum. Amid media reports about former CIA officer Edward Snowden’s arrival to Moscow, some Russian officials comment on the consequences of granting political asylum to him. Chairman of […]
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