Moscow, 26 January: Over 4,000 civil activists were detained in the Russian Federation in 2011 during mass street actions and 117 were subjected to criminal prosecution, says a survey carried out by the interregional human rights association Agora received by Interfax today.
According to the association, some 730 pickets, actions and rallies with participation of over 400,000 activists were held in Russia last year. "Over 4,000 participants were detained before, during or immediately after these actions," Agora's report said.
Agora said that mass actions were devoted, in particular, to the issues of the falsification of the State Duma election, the arbitrary rule of the authorities, growth in public utilities and housing tariffs, the police reform, killed journalists and human rights activists Anastasiya Baburova, Stanislav Markelov and Natalya Estemirova. The actions were also carried out against the construction of a major road across the Khimki forest and in support of Article 31 of the Constitution and civil activist Taisiya Osipova who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
During the year, human rights activists registered over 850 reports on persecuting civil activists from 60 regions. As many as 603 facts of this kind were registered in 2010, 308 in 2009, and 144 in 2008.
Last year, 117 civil activists and leaders of non-commercial organizations were subjected to criminal prosecution, Agora said. "Apart from certain facts, rights activists noted three main risk groups: bloggers, anarchists and anti-fascists, and National Bolsheviks were persecuted more often," the report said.
"So-called extremism-related articles (Article 282, 280, part 1 of Article 213), libel (Article 129), insulting (Article 130), insulting of a representative of the authorities (Article 319) served as grounds for exerting pressure on activists," the document said.
Three civil activists were killed last year: Yakhya Magomedov, editor of the Avar-language edition of the Islamic newspaper As-Salam, Maksud Sadikov, rector of the (North Caucasus) Institute of Theology and Foreign Relations, and journalist and founder of (Dagestani) independent newspaper Chernovik Khadzhimurad Kamalov.
Also 45 attacks on civil activists were registered in 2011. "The risk group consisted of environmentalists, LGBT community activists, participants of public protests and activists in the North Caucasus," Agora said.
In 2011, rights activists registered 42 facts of detention of civil activists. Among them were supporters of the Other Russia party, Khimki Forest Defenders movement, Golos association, Aleksey Navalnyy, Ilya Yashin, Sergey Udaltsov, and others.
Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia, Human Rights - Russia News - Russia
Moscow, 26 January: Over 4,000 civil activists were detained in the Russian Federation in 2011 during mass street actions and 117 were subjected to criminal prosecution, says a survey carried out by the interregional human rights association Agora received by Interfax today.
According to the association, some 730 pickets, actions and rallies with participation of over 400,000 activists were held in Russia last year. "Over 4,000 participants were detained before, during or immediately after these actions," Agora's report said.
Agora said that mass actions were devoted, in particular, to the issues of the falsification of the State Duma election, the arbitrary rule of the authorities, growth in public utilities and housing tariffs, the police reform, killed journalists and human rights activists Anastasiya Baburova, Stanislav Markelov and Natalya Estemirova. The actions were also carried out against the construction of a major road across the Khimki forest and in support of Article 31 of the Constitution and civil activist Taisiya Osipova who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
During the year, human rights activists registered over 850 reports on persecuting civil activists from 60 regions. As many as 603 facts of this kind were registered in 2010, 308 in 2009, and 144 in 2008.
Last year, 117 civil activists and leaders of non-commercial organizations were subjected to criminal prosecution, Agora said. "Apart from certain facts, rights activists noted three main risk groups: bloggers, anarchists and anti-fascists, and National Bolsheviks were persecuted more often," the report said.
"So-called extremism-related articles (Article 282, 280, part 1 of Article 213), libel (Article 129), insulting (Article 130), insulting of a representative of the authorities (Article 319) served as grounds for exerting pressure on activists," the document said.
Three civil activists were killed last year: Yakhya Magomedov, editor of the Avar-language edition of the Islamic newspaper As-Salam, Maksud Sadikov, rector of the (North Caucasus) Institute of Theology and Foreign Relations, and journalist and founder of (Dagestani) independent newspaper Chernovik Khadzhimurad Kamalov.
Also 45 attacks on civil activists were registered in 2011. "The risk group consisted of environmentalists, LGBT community activists, participants of public protests and activists in the North Caucasus," Agora said.
In 2011, rights activists registered 42 facts of detention of civil activists. Among them were supporters of the Other Russia party, Khimki Forest Defenders movement, Golos association, Aleksey Navalnyy, Ilya Yashin, Sergey Udaltsov, and others.