OSCE vocabulary – Newspaper Kommersant No. 157 (7358) of 08/29/2022

Ten Russian human rights NGOs sent a report on human rights in the Russian Federation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE). The document traces the dynamics of the last few years, but highlights the sharp deterioration in the situation in this area since February 24, 2022, the date of the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine. The Federation Council believes that such reports are prepared by citizens and organizations supported by countries that consider Russia their adversary in order to discredit it.

The report was prepared by ten human rights NGOs — OVD-Info, Sova, Vykhod, Sfera, Golos, Media Rights Protection Center, Public Verdict Foundation, Legal Initiative, Civil Control (all included in the registers of foreign agents) and the Agora international group. Each organization prepared a separate section on the topic of their work.

The authors of the report, in particular, argue that the restriction of freedom of association, as well as the administrative and criminal prosecution of human rights activists and journalists, have led to a “drastic decrease” in the number of media outlets and NGOs. Human rights activists remind that since February 24, “Roskomnadzor has blocked more than 138,000 web resources under various pretexts.”

Separately, the report examines the practice of applying the new articles of the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses on “discrediting” the army and disseminating “knowingly false information” about its actions. Human rights activists note the facts of the persecution of citizens for anti-war views, pacifist slogans – even in cases where the “forbidden” words in them are replaced with asterisks – for “posters or yellow-and-blue wardrobe items, and sometimes even for sermons condemning violence.” Here they also cite the most resonant case of criminal prosecution under the new Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code – the case of Moscow deputy Alexei Gorinov, who received seven years in prison after criticizing the Russian military operation, including a statement about the inappropriateness of holding a children’s drawing contest during the NWO. Recall that today at least 77 criminal cases and 3.3 thousand administrative protocols are known for discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation.

“The human rights situation in Russia has been deteriorating for at least a decade, but since February 24, the infringement of human rights has reached an unprecedented level,” the report says. However, it is not limited to 2022: in several sections, the authors talk about law enforcement practice from 2014–2016 to the present. For example, they remind that in 2016-2021, the Russian authorities refused to hold opposition rallies at least 5918 times. At the same time, in 2015–2021, 40,242 cases under Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on “violation of the rules for holding a public action”. “Over the past six years, OVD-Info has recorded more than 55,500 arrests at peaceful rallies,” the report says (we are talking about unauthorized actions.— “b”).- And in 2021-2022, the police and the investigating authorities 180 times refused to initiate criminal cases on allegations of law enforcement violence against protesters.

The authors hope that the OSCE Special Rapporteur will use their report in his work. Recall that on July 28, the OSCE announced the launch of the “Moscow Mechanism” and appointed Angelica Nusberger, a former ECHR judge from Germany, as a special rapporteur on the situation with human rights in the Russian Federation. Until September 1, Ms. Nusberger will have to analyze the actions of the Russian Federation in relation to its obligations to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens, as well as predict the further development of the situation.

Kommersant asked Senator Andrey Klimov, who heads the interim commission in the Federation Council to protect state sovereignty and prevent interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, to evaluate the initiative of Russian NGOs. “These are not human rights activists, but people who only call themselves that,” he said. “They are on the payroll of those who consider Russia their enemy. And it is they who use those who pretend to be human rights activists to discredit the Russian Federation. These so-called human rights activists operate according to the same schemes that are determined in Washington and other centers.” The senator stressed that Russia will have to “seriously and profoundly revise the strategy of dealing with organizations where the influence of NATO and similar structures is too great.” He added that he, as a politician, is now responsible for clarifying the situation for citizens: “We are surprised when they make such decisions regarding us. All of them are practically on the financial and advertising support of the Anglo-Saxon countries. There the command is given – to strike on all fronts. And we still have elections in which they want to get into without soap.

Maria Starikova