Human rights in Russia. March 16-31, 2006

The review offered to the attention of readers is devoted to the situation with human rights in Russia: the main events and the attitude of the human rights community towards them. The review was prepared by the Demos Center with the support of the OSI - Assistance Foundation.

**LEGISLATION

Conscription Reform**

On March 27, a package of bills related to army reform was submitted to the State Duma. They fix the transition from a two-year to a one-year term of service for "conscripts" soldiers from 2008. Instead, the Ministry of Defense proposes to introduce punishment for contractors who decide to retire from the army ahead of schedule and - most importantly - to cancel a significant part of army deferrals.

The law abolishes almost all social and professional deferrals - the children of pensioners and the disabled, fathers of young children (up to three years of age) and conscripts whose wives are pregnant will go to the army. The deferment for employees of military-industrial enterprises will also be canceled. Only medical ones have not been touched - the military is not going to patch the holes in the equipment with sick conscripts.

At the same time, the reduction of the so-called educational deferrals stands apart in the draft law of the Ministry of Defense. The military did not send schoolchildren and students of vocational schools and technical schools to the army, but announced that they could receive education without fear of conscription only up to 20 years.

More than others, creatively gifted young people - the so-called "balalaika players" - suffered. Presidential decrees of 1992-2002, which exempted young workers of culture and art from service, are proposed to be declared invalid. Together with them, the priests, who received the right of deferment four years ago, will replenish the troops. The Ministry of Defense also proposes to donate deferrals for rural teachers and doctors.

The Ministry of Defense also proposes to require the cadets of military schools who refused to conclude a contract with the troops to return the money spent on their training. The same will be demanded from "undisciplined, underachieving cadets who do not want to study and do not fulfill their curricula." True, not all the money will have to be reimbursed, but only those spent on military training.

Human rights activist Lev Levinson, "Institute of Human Rights" comments : *This decision is not final. I think the State Duma will be allowed to win back a couple of delays in its favor, so that it, too, will receive some dividends from this case. But in principle, there is not one of the postponements proposed for exclusion that could be painlessly canceled. Postponements are socially conditioned, they are tied to the family responsibilities of citizens, which no one has canceled. The Family Code obliges to take care of children, take care of parents, bear responsibility for the life support of the family. How does this fit in with the abolition of deferments for the care of the disabled? For children under three?

It is absolutely unacceptable to cancel the postponements of secondary technical institutions, vocational schools and colleges. Because it destroys vocational education. This is a serious blow to the training of qualified workers. On the other hand, the largest percentage of conscripts who actually go to serve on conscription are just graduates of vocational schools and colleges, who first use the deferral, and then, at the age of 20-22, for the most part go to serve. Now they are coming untrained, and as a result, contrary to declarative statements, we will get an even less professional army.

There remains a serious conflict between the timing of the abolition of deferrals and the introduction of a reduced service life. If you can still agree that reducing the service life to 1 year is a significant mitigation of military service, but it is stated that deferrals are canceled first, and then the service life is gradually reduced. Distrust arises: not for the first time, political dividends were earned by reducing the service life, and then the people were deceived. They can reduce it to a year and a half, and then play it back and stop for a year and a half.*

Taxation of NGOs

Deputies intend to return tax benefits to NGOs. Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation want to make the corresponding amendments to Art. 251, 265 and 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. This will make it possible to provide non-profit organizations with tax benefits on property and land plots and to abolish income tax for companies providing charitable assistance.

According to the deputies, the approach to preferential taxation should be differentiated. "If the activity of an NPO brings public benefit and is in demand, then the state can make concessions," said Olga Dmitrieva, a participant in the round table "Problems of functioning of NPOs", a member of the RF State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes. Currently, those who want to donate money to charity are required to pay taxes on that amount.

To ensure greater stability and long-term work of public organizations, it is necessary to allow the non-profit sector to participate on an equal footing with the state in the provision of social services, as well as to enable businesses to donate money to charitable programs, Andrey Topolev, co-director of the Social Information Agency, believes. At the same time, new steps in the field of taxation should be clearly correlated with the activities of NGOs in order to prevent the possible use of charity for personal gain by organizations that are not actually engaged in socially useful activities.

Tougher liability for the dissemination of extremist information

Amendments to the legislation, toughening responsibility for the dissemination of information of an extremist orientation, have passed all the stages of coordination and are ready for consideration at a meeting of the State Duma. Experts agree that if they are adopted, a serious threat will hang over the Russian segment of the Internet - under the pretext of fighting extremism, political dissent will be suppressed there.

Amendments to the law "On counteracting extremist activity" provide for the prevention of the use of "public communication networks for carrying out extremist activities." Those electronic information resources that are used to distribute extremist materials or provide links to relevant sites will be punished.

Chief editors of the media, as well as organizations that produce and distribute extremist information, are planned to be punished with an administrative fine (from 40 to 50 minimum wages for officials and from 1,000 to 2,000 minimum wages for legal entities). That is, the maximum punishment will be equal to 200 thousand rubles. The draft law does not explain which authorities will be involved in identifying "hotbeds" of extremism in the Russian segment of the Internet and what they will do if a particular site is not registered as a mass media outlet.

Svetlana Gannushkina, an expert at the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Promotion of the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, said that the amendments tightening the legislation on extremism in terms of the dissemination of nationalist appeals on the Internet "will be used in law enforcement practice for political purposes, to combat dissent, with the opposition, but not for the purpose of eradicating extremism." "The fascists will walk, as before, and none of the law enforcement agencies will touch them," she believes. "Therefore, there is no point in those draconian sanctions that are laid down in the law." For example, the website of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), which disseminates overtly nationalistic information, has not been closed. When she turned to the Prosecutor General's Office and the proceedings began, the site quickly changed its domain name, re-registering in the United States. "American providers said they were not responsible for the content of the sites, and offered to go to court to prove the guilt of the owners of the site. That was the end of the whole trial," said Gannushkina.

**LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

Claim for unlawful detention for taking photographs in front of the UFSB building**

On March 15, the Nizhny Novgorod District Court held a preliminary hearing on a civil suit filed by Nizhny Novgorod resident Anastasia Trumalova against the Federal Security Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region with a demand to compensate her for moral damages in the amount of 40,000 rubles. The plaintiff claims that a year ago, together with her foreign friend, because of the actions of the Chekists, she suffered a fright and was deprived of liberty for several hours.

On February 25, 2005, he and a friend, a Swedish citizen who had come to study civil society in Russia, were walking around the center of Nizhny Novgorod. Passing by the building of the FSB, the Swede decided to take a picture "against the background of the terrible KGB", and his companion managed to take a couple of pictures.

After that, according to Trmalova, “a giant in uniform jumped out of the control doors” and dragged the couple into the building by the collars of the sheepskin coats. The FSB officers said that it was impossible to take pictures against the backdrop of a secret facility, and it was better not to call lawyers. After a four-hour check of documents, the Swede was informed that he had no right to be in Russia. Pictures of the FSB building were erased and the citizens were released.

After a direct acquaintance with the state of civil society in Russia, the Swede hastily returned to his homeland, and Trmalova turned to the military prosecutor's office with a request to initiate a criminal case against the FSB officers under Art. 286 and Art. 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Exceeding official powers" and "Illegal deprivation of liberty"). The prosecutor's office refused to initiate a criminal case, then Trumalova's lawyer filed a complaint with the Nizhny Novgorod military garrison court.

The chairman of the garrison court, Vladimir Tsigulev, denied Trmalova's complaint and upheld the decision of the military prosecutor's office to refuse to open a criminal case. The main argument of the prosecutor's office was the regime status of the building of the regional FSB. At the end of July last year, the lawyer unsuccessfully tried to appeal the decision of the garrison court in the Moscow Military District Court.

The plaintiff was not present at the preliminary hearing on March 15, and her interests were represented by Yuri Sidorov, lawyer of the Committee against Torture.

The Moscow City Court upheld the sentence of a policeman who shot a stowaway in the mouth

On March 16 , the Moscow City Court dismissed the cassation appeal against the verdict against Boris Kostruba, a former sergeant of the 1st police department of the Internal Affairs Directorate on the Moscow Metro. Previously, he was sentenced to nine years in prison to be served in a strict regime colony.

On July 31, 2004, a 20-year-old worker from Tajikistan, Rustam Baibekov, together with a friend, tried to get to the Sokolniki metro station on the same ticket. Sergeant Boris Kostruba detained the stowaway, checked his documents and found out that Baibekov had no registration.

At the police station, a sergeant, threatening to be deported outside the Russian Federation, offered the stowaway to pay a thousand rubles. When Baibekov replied that he had no money, the policeman took out a pistol and shot Baibekov in the mouth with a service weapon with an unaccounted cartridge. The bullet passed through the mouth and exited through the back. The victim miraculously survived and underwent several complex operations.

Wanting to hide the crime, Kostruba did not provide first aid to the victim, did not allow an ambulance to be called, and drove the victim and eyewitnesses of the crime out of the police room. During the investigation, the defendant fully admitted his guilt.

Sentence to policemen in Kazan

the Aviation Construction Court of Kazan On March 25, found the employees of the patrol service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan, Valery Gusev and Vladimir Semenov, guilty of abuse of office with the use of special means (Article 286 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Both were sentenced to 3 years of probation with 1 year of probation. In addition, police officers are not entitled to hold any positions in public authorities for two years.

As follows from the indictment, on February 19, 2001, 56-year-old retired major Rafael Suleimanov was stopped on the street by the PPS officers, who demanded to show them the contents of the bag, without any reason. Showing a bag and a certificate of a veteran of military service, the man asked the policemen, in turn, to introduce themselves and present a document on the basis of which they inspect his personal belongings.

In response, the policemen took Suleymanov to a stationary police station, beat him until he lost consciousness, put handcuffs on him and put "Cheryomukha" tear gas into his mouth. Then they stole 5,000 rubles from the man, and later, at the police department, they made fictitious reports about administrative violations allegedly committed by the detainee.

On February 20, the district court, on the basis of these documents, decided to release the veteran, collecting a fine of 40 rubles from him. Suleimanov appealed to the Prosecutor's Office of the Aircraft Building District of Kazan and to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan. The court recognized that Suleymanov did not commit any administrative offenses, thereby confirming the illegality of his detention. Meanwhile, the district prosecutor's office for five years 10 times (!) Decided to refuse to initiate a criminal case, and then - to terminate the criminal case.

In 2004, Suleimanov turned to the Kazan Human Rights Center, whose lawyers conducted a public investigation into the case and brought the case to court. "At the last session, the court dropped the policemen's charge of theft. They themselves did not admit their guilt at all," the human rights center noted. They did not rule out that they would appeal the verdict, considering it too lenient. In addition, the lawyer intends to initiate an official investigation into the inaction of the prosecutor's office.

Trial of a policeman who beat children began in Ulyanovsk

On March 22, a trial began in Ulyanovsk against a policeman who severely beat children and adolescents aged 12 to 20. Himself 22-year-old senior police lieutenant Alexander Kuznetsov claims that he was only in charge of Operation Kvadrat, which was carried out to prevent street crimes. In fact, "prevention" turned into a mass beating of teenagers.

The incident took place on the evening of December 23 in the courtyard of city school number 70. Police officers detained more than two dozen teenagers. According to the victims, the policemen drove up in several cars in full ammunition and with weapons. Without saying a word, the teenagers were thrown face down in the mud, and then they were beaten and illegally taken away for interrogations. To the question of one of the detainees "By what right?", the policeman pointed a pistol at his eye and answered: "Here is my right." Three young people after this "cleansing" sought medical help.

Eyewitnesses of what is happening claim that Senior Lieutenant Alexander Kuznetsov several times jumped on the head of a guy lying in the snow, as a result of which he was seriously injured. Another teenager lying on the ground was kicked in the face by Kuznetsov for raising his head. Denis Tikhonovich suffered the most, having received a closed craniocerebral injury, a concussion of the brain, and a closed fracture of the bones of the nose.

According to the prosecutor's office, after the "cleansing" in the school yard, ten teenagers were taken to the juvenile department, where they began to ask if they knew anyone from their circle who was engaged in street robberies and robberies. Closer to the night teenagers were allowed to go home. No charges were brought against them.

They themselves are still in shock from what happened. In dealing with the press, relatives are afraid to give their names, especially since one of the mothers has already been threatened over the phone, demanding to withdraw the application from the prosecutor's office.

The indictment recorded the testimony of all the victims and the accused Kuznetsov himself. Today, a 22-year-old detective is accused of beating a group of young people. The policeman passes under Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code ("abuse of official powers with the use of violence"). Meanwhile, the lawyer of the victims, Talkin Utambaev, says that several police officers took part in the beating operation. That is why Utambaev has already filed a petition to summon for interrogation all the policemen who were present when Kuznetsov beat young people.

"The very fact that the 'school purge' case was brought to court speaks volumes," said Dmitry Gavrilov, head of the Ulyanovsk Human Rights Group. "We will do everything to ensure that the policeman gets what he deserves." Human rights activists from the youth human rights organization of Ulyanovsk "Guarantee", to which one of the injured young people turned, got involved. When they tried to hush up the case. In addition, it is possible that the case was nevertheless launched because one of the parents once worked in the police in a rather high position.

Trial in Pumane case ends

On March 29, the Presnensky Court of Moscow found the policemen guilty in the case of the death of submarine officer Alexander Pumane, the court reported. "The court found that the defendants committed negligence, which entailed grave consequences, that is, the death of Pumane," the verdict says.

Pumane was detained in the Presnensky district of Moscow on September 18, 2004 at about 01.30. He drove a VAZ-21053 vehicle, which contained two MON-50 mines with electric detonators, a 200-gram TNT block, an electrical circuit control unit, and a 20-liter canister of white liquid.

The detainee was taken to the police department, from where he was hospitalized to the Sklifosovsky Institute for Emergency Medicine, where he later died. Preliminary results of the prosecutor's check showed that Pumane's death was due to bodily injuries.

Militia officers, violating job instructions, did not register Pumane delivered to the department to the registration book, handed over the detainee to "unidentified persons" from among the police authorities and gave them the special equipment "RP" (rubber truncheon).

Iosif Smereka, senior duty officer for the shift of the Presnensky district police department, was sentenced to 2 years in prison in a colony-settlement. Andrey Semigin, head of the police department, received 2 years probation. The person suspected of actually killing Pumane - Major Konstantin Dushenko - is still on the wanted list.

**RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL

The verdict in the Shcherbinsky case was canceled**

On March 23, the Altai Regional Court overturned the conviction of Oleg Shcherbinsky, who was convicted in the case of the death of the governor of the region, Mikhail Evdokimov. The court fully acquitted him and decided to stop the criminal prosecution against him. The defendant himself was not at the meeting, he is in the pre-trial detention center of the city of Biysk. The board of the court decided to release Shcherbinsky from custody.

On February 3, the Zonal District Court of the Altai Territory recognized Shcherbinsky as the culprit in an accident in which the Altai governor died, and sentenced him to four years in prison with a term to be served in a colony-settlement and deprived him of a driver’s license for three years.

The accident, which killed the governor of the region Evdokimov, his driver and bodyguard, occurred on August 7 last year on the highway near the village of Pleshkovo. The governor's Mercedes, moving at high speed, while overtaking, hit a Toyota car traveling in the same direction, in which, in addition to the driver, there were two women and two children, flew off the road and crashed into a tree. In the same accident, Galina Evdokimova, the governor's wife, was seriously injured.

Investigators of the department of the Prosecutor General's Office in the Siberian District, who conducted the investigation, charged Shcherbinsky under part 3 of Article 264 of the Criminal Code of Russia - "violation of traffic rules that resulted in the death of two or more persons." According to the investigation, Shcherbinsky did not give way to the governor's car, which was driving with a flashing beacon on and therefore had priority on the road. Shcherbinsky's defense argued that Evdokimov's driver violated the rules: he was driving at a speed of 200 km / h and lost control.

Shortly before the trial, motorists held protests all over Russia in defense of Oleg Shcherbinsky. More than 6,000 signatures in support of the driver have been collected in Primorsky Krai alone. "The fact that a high-ranking person was injured in a traffic accident should not affect the impartiality of the court. Shcherbinsky's verdict calls into question the citizens' confidence in the fairness of the judiciary in protecting their interests," the statement said.

**CIVIL LIBERTY

One of the authors of the website of Chechen separatists "Kavkaz-Center" was detained**

On March 21, Boris Stomakhin, one of the activists of the anti-war movement, a permanent contributor to the Kavkaz-Center website, editor of the Radical Politics newspaper, was detained in Moscow. Stomakhin's detention was related to a criminal case initiated in December 2003, within which, in April 2004, he was charged under Art. 280 part 2 (public calls for extremist activity committed with the use of mass media) and 282 part 1 (incitement of religious hatred committed publicly or with the use of mass media) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. However, the case did not reach the court, and investigative actions were not carried out on it for a long time.

During the arrest, Stomakhin, trying to escape through the window, fell from a height of the 4th floor and was taken to the hospital with a broken leg and processes of two vertebrae. In the hospital, the investigator of the prosecutor's office of the North-East Administrative Okrug S.N. Kolobov with the materials of this criminal case, after which he was transferred to a closed department of the hospital, where security was assigned to him.

International human rights activists managed to get a telephone interview with Boris Stomakhin's mother. Boris’s condition remains very difficult despite the fact that he himself is conscious and talking, human rights activist Larisa Volodimerova said from Amsterdam: “Boris Stomakhin’s mother, Regina Leonidovna, turned to all human rights activists in the world with a request to give the case the maximum and the immediate intervention of journalists from other countries will protect Boris from even greater danger. Regina Leonidovna tries to do everything herself, but asks for help: "First of all," she repeats, "we need publicity. And money to pay a lawyer. We need professional advice, material support. Boris must lie down for at least three months. But he is constantly transported from place to place, injuring his spine. Regina Leonidovna warns that Boris may die."

The pastor's daughter was removed from the post of the head of the institute for talking about her faith

On March 6, students of the Slavic-on-Kuban State Pedagogical Institute were summoned to the dean's office to visit the church of the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union (ECMS). Student Nina Fedotova, whose father is an EHMC pastor, was accused of luring fellow students into "their organization" using her position as head girl. Deputy Dean S.A. Sheptiy asked her why she told her classmates about her faith at all and why she invited them to visit. As a result, the leadership of the dean's office decided to deprive N. Fedotova of the position of headman. She was also warned that if she did not stop talking about her faith, she would be expelled from the institute.

** RIGHTS OF MILITARY PERSONNEL

PACE criticizes the violation of human rights in the armies of the countries of the Council of Europe**

On March 15, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe published a report on the situation with human rights in the armies of the CE member states. The position of servicemen in Russia and some former republics of the USSR was subjected to particular criticism. Some observers view the report as an intermediate step towards a resolution to be discussed at the April PACE session.

The authors of the report define the situation in the Russian army as "extremely disturbing", almost a fifth of the text is devoted to it. With reference to the data of human rights activists and the servicemen themselves, the document says that conscripts already in the early stages of military service begin to be subjected to torture, which can only be imagined "in a nightmare." It is alleged that between 50% and 80% of young military personnel are victims of psychological and physical abuse by seniors and old-timers. The main reasons why conscript soldiers die every year are the difficult conditions of service and hazing, the natural consequence of which is desertion. The authorities, as before, are unable to even assess the scale of this problem.

The authors of the report also talk about the most difficult conditions in which the military is serving. In addition, commanders often use soldiers as slaves, renting them out to commercial structures for harvesting or construction work. Cases of extortion by seniors were also noted. The report highlights that corruption exists at all levels of the armed forces - starting with the military registration and enlistment offices, for money, recognizing young people as unfit for service.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces denies beating Private Andrei Sychev

On March 20, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel-General Alexei Maslov, said that there were no bullying by the old-timers against Private Andrei Sychev: "I can report that there are facts of mass drinking on New Year's Eve among the military personnel of the battalion (battalion for ensuring the educational process of the Chelyabinsk Military Institute ) was not. The facts of beating, mockery, and other bullying in relation to Sychev by the old-timers of this battalion are not confirmed. "

According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, in the investigation of the incident with Private Sychev, certain employees of the military prosecutor's office showed bias. Perhaps Maslov's statement is due to the fact that a week before that, three recruits-witnesses who were with Andrei Sychev on the night when they were bullied by drunken "grandfathers" of the Chelyabinsk Tank School disappeared.

Earlier, Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov stated that Andrei Sychev lost his legs as a result of hazing. According to Savenkov, the amputation of the soldier's legs was the result of "beating by colleagues and the crime they committed." In this case, Junior Sergeant Alexander Sivyakov, who directly mocked Private Sychev, is being held in custody. He was charged under Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official powers, entailing grave consequences).

Now, after two and a half months, the doctors of the Burdenko hospital allegedly revealed thrombophilia in a soldier - a severe hereditary blood disease of a genetic nature, and it was impossible to diagnose such a level when drafted. And the beatings only provoked its aggravation. Thus, the military department can question the degree of bullying of Sychev and reduce the level of criticism of the army from the public.

***

The very next day, on March 21 , the prosecutor's office of the Volga-Urals Military District refutes the words of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces Alexei Maslov that the old-timers did not mock Andrei Sychev. According to a source close to the investigation, all the evidence has been collected and they have no doubt that Sychev suffered from hazing. As for the words of Commander-in-Chief Maslov, the source said: "The Ministry of Defense is defending the Ministry of Defense. They have descended to a banal lie, but we have everything, all the evidence. And we don't need anything else." An employee of the prosecutor's office confirmed that the case would soon be completed and its materials would be presented for review to junior sergeant Alexander Sivyakov.

Olga Shepeleva, Center "Demos" comments : *Commander-in-Chief voiced the version of events offered by the military. It cannot be ruled out that this version is true. However, one should not forget that the position of the military in this case is the position of the accused party. The military prosecutor's office, which is investigating the case, may have a different opinion. She has not yet made any official statements on this issue. Only anonymous statements "of a source in the prosecutor's office of the Volga-Urals military district" were heard in the press. Apparently, the prosecutor's office will officially present its version of events already in court.

In his statement, the Commander-in-Chief did not agree with the yet-to-be-voiced official version of the prosecutor's office, accusing prosecutors of bias and abuse of power. It is difficult to judge how justified the accusation of the Commander-in-Chief is: to assess the quality (including the level of impartiality) of the work of the investigating authorities is possible only after reading the materials of the criminal case.

It seems to me that the public will be able to understand who is right in this conflict - the military or the prosecutor's office - when the investigation is completed and the case goes to court. That is why it is so important that the trial in this case be public. The press and the public must have access to the proceedings.*

The Movement "For Human Rights" appealed to the Chief Military Prosecutor in connection with the case of the death of Private Roman Grigoriev

the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights" sent In March, a statement to the chief military prosecutor of the Russian Federation, V. Savenkov, about the violation of the law by the commands of military units and the inaction of the military prosecutor's office. The basis for the complaint was the death in a military unit near Moscow for an unknown reason of the already commissioned private Roman Grigoriev.

As the chairman of the Penza regional public movement for the protection of the rights of military personnel "Soldiers of the Fatherland" Dmitry Pyslar said, "according to the statement of R. Grigoriev, he was repeatedly beaten; throughout the entire service life of the soldiers, his units were used to build garages for civilians, work for farmers to clean harvest, unloading looms at a weaving factory. A criminal case on the fact of the use of servicemen by the commander of a military unit for other purposes was not initiated by the prosecutor's office of the North Caucasus Military District." According to him, at the funeral of the deceased soldier, the commander of the unit voiced the "official version" of the private's death - "he died of joy that he was going home."

Grigoriev was discharged from the Armed Forces for health reasons and died at the door of the company's office, where a "contract worker", who had previously beaten a private, was sent to accompany him to his hometown. The military prosecutor's office of the Balashikha garrison, which examined this criminal case, did not allow the mother of the deceased soldier to get acquainted with the materials of the investigation, and then closed the case due to the lack of corpus delicti. Roman Grigoriev was expelled from the lists of personnel of the military unit "retroactively", a few days before the date of death. "It turned out that the soldier died already in civilian life, there is no monument to his grave, and neither insurance nor pensions will be paid to his parents," the human rights activist stressed.

The government will consider the issue of "de-militaryization" of a number of state bodies

In the near future, consideration is expected at a government meeting of the issue of abolishing the institution of secondment of officers and generals to state authorities. Under this bill, a proposal has also been made to "de-military" the Main Military Prosecutor's Office and military courts, where about 3,000 people serve.

On March 28, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation began to distribute "guidelines on issues of interaction with representatives of preliminary investigation bodies." They were approved by the order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Ivanov and should create a barrier between the investigators of the military prosecutor's office and the minister's subordinates.

The main document regulating legal work in the troops remains the Manual on Legal Work in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, approved by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation in 2001. In it, the protection of rights, honor and dignity is mentioned only in three more articles out of 573, and even then in the general row with the "qualitative organization of legal education." And since there is not a word about hazing and hazing in the "Manual", no one is obliged to fight them. It's like they don't exist at all. The only state body that monitored the observance of the law in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and fought hazing was the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office.

The GWP has so far refused to comment on the order of the Minister of Defense, which threatens to provoke a new round of interdepartmental conflict. However, assistant chief military prosecutor Mikhail Yanenko denied any speculation about the conflict.

"The military prosecutor's office was created for the sake of people in uniform and works only for them and in the name of the state. Ask about this at the Ministry of Defense, the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the civil defense troops of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the border service and all other people who wear military uniforms," ​​he said. assistant to the head of the GWP.

Co-chair of the Republican Party Valentina Melnikova believes that the military department "is trying to destroy military lawyers as a class." She cited the words of Secretary of State - Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov that "a bill has already been developed according to which all military courts should be 'de-military' and referred to institutions of the state civil service." The same fate, according to Valentina Melnikova, awaits the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, since "military prosecutor's offices are nothing without military courts."

Anatoly Tolkachenko, adviser to the chairman of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, said that the relevant bill is being approved by the Supreme Court. No one cancels military courts, but service in them will gradually be "de-military". A decision has already been made that from 2007 military service will be abolished in the military collegium of the Supreme Court and the Main Directorate for Supporting the Activities of Military Courts of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. However, employees of garrison and district military courts (855 servicemen in total) will wear epaulettes until 2011.

**RIGHTS OF PRISONERS

Hunger strike in the Mordovian colony**

In March, in a Mordovian colony near the village of Udarny (Potma station), about 90 people serving time went on a hunger strike . Thus, they protest against the conditions of detention and bullying by the leadership of the colony. In early March, prison staff beat convicts who were on hunger strike to protest against the conditions of their detention. In response, the hunger strike was supported by other convicts. Then about 30 people without belongings were taken to the ShIZO of a neighboring correctional facility.

Recall that last month in Mordovia, 150 prisoners already went on a hunger strike in protest against life-threatening non-compliance with safety regulations when working in hazardous industries and did not go to work. In response to the protest action, the administration took the leaky tanks with harmful substances (formalin, urea, ammonia) out of the colony, and planned to transport known hunger strikers to other colonies.

**NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA

Verdict in the case of the murder of 9-year-old Khursheda Sultonova**

On March 30, the city court of St. Petersburg on Thursday announced the verdict in the case of the murder of a nine-year-old Tajik girl, Khursheda Sultonova. The participants in the attack on the child were sentenced to real terms of imprisonment from 1.5 to 5.5 years, one was acquitted. A week earlier, on March 22, the jury at the trial in this case delivered a verdict, according to which the accused of murder is guilty only of robbery, and the other seven are guilty of hooliganism. According to the Tajik girl's family lawyer Natella Ponomareva, according to the jury, "unidentified persons who are still on the wanted list are guilty of the murder." Earlier, the investigation found that at least 11 people participated in the attack on the Sultonov family, of which only eight were brought to trial.

The accused of murder managed to move the jury. "Besides the fact that he was found not guilty of the murder, the jury considered him worthy of leniency on the episode of hooliganism," the lawyer emphasized. According to the NTV television company, the injured party intends to appeal the verdict.

9-year-old Khursheda Sultonova was killed in St. Petersburg on the evening of February 9, 2004. A family of natives of Tajikistan was returning home from the skating rink. In the courtyard of the house they were attacked by a group of young men armed with baseball bats, iron bars and knives. The father of the family, 35-year-old Yunus Sultonov, was beaten, his 7-year-old nephew Akibar, having received several blows, was able to crawl to a car parked in the yard and hide under it, one of the attackers inflicted 11 stab wounds on 9-year-old Khurshede, she died before arrival " Ambulance".

The verdict in the case of Alexander Koptsev, who attacked the parishioners of the Moscow synagogue with a knife

On March 27, the Moscow City Court found 21-year-old Alexander Koptsev guilty of attempted murder of parishioners of a synagogue in Moscow and sentenced him to 13 years in a strict regime colony. On January 11, 2006, Alexander Koptsev, armed with a hunting knife, first broke into the kitchen of the synagogue, where, shouting "I will kill all the Jews!" began to stab people who came to hand. Then he made his way to the second floor, where he also cut several parishioners until he was tied up. In total, nine people suffered at the hands of the anti-Semite, including the rabbi of the synagogue, Yitzhak Kogan, who, together with his son, took an active part in the arrest of the criminal. Moreover, as the court noted, many of the victims survived only because they received medical assistance on time.

Judge Dmitry Fomin concluded that Alexander Koptsev is guilty under Part 2 of Art. 30 and Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Attempt on the life of two or more persons motivated by national and racial hatred"). However, he did not see the guilt of the anti-Semite in "Inciting national or religious hatred" (part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The court motivated this decision by the fact that "Koptsev's intent was to kill as many Jews as possible", and not to "incite hatred and hostility towards them." Moreover, inciting hatred towards Jews in the synagogue, according to the court, was simply pointless. And since Alexander Koptsev was going, in his words, to die at the “hands of parishioners,” the judge considered that the accused was not some kind of preacher of hatred for Jews, but rather he himself became a victim of anti-Semitism, the ideas of which he learned from nationalist books and from the Internet.

Russian Nazis distribute on the Internet "Manual on street terror"

Approximately at the same time on the Internet on the websites of the St. Petersburg Nazi organizations in the public domain appeared "Handbook on street terror", which tells in great detail how to deal with "foreigners".

The authors of the manual encourage teenagers to form groups called "white patrol" and roam the back streets in search of potential victims. At the same time, members of the "patrol" are recommended to dress classically, without any distinctive symbols. As soon as the victim is found, immediately proceed to destroy it. For an ambush, wastelands near dormitories, markets, and places of residence of foreign students are recommended. The authors refer to potential victims in the manual only as "animal", "monkey", "freak".

The law enforcement agencies of St. Petersburg reported that in the behavior of the Nazis of the city, familiarity with the manual is noticeable. “Recently, they have changed their behavior: they stopped robbing victims, they attack in deserted places, and not like before, when in the evenings almost every metro station had five broken noses ... What is happening now in St. Petersburg resembles a guerrilla war, and not just attacks by individual hooligans, as they try to present it.

The Federation of Jewish Communities is outraged by the presence of anti-Semitic literature at the book fair

On March 17, xenophobic and nationalist publications were discovered at the book fair of the exhibition-fair "Books of Russia" in Moscow. The representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin, said: "When anti-Semitic literature appears within the framework of the official fair, it seems to us that this is practically official solidarity with the most terrible, animal anti-Semitism."

He drew attention to the fact that "at the All-Russian Exhibition Center last year there were stands of anti-Semitic publications ... we then made a statement ... and after that, at the current exhibition, similar literature again appeared, and on a much larger scale."

In this regard, the head of Rospechat, Mikhail Seslavinsky, instructed the administration of the exhibition-fair "to give an order to the organizers of the stand, where the Russkaya Pravda publishing group and the Algorithm publishing house are represented, with information that if they place literature that incites national and religious hatred, the organizers of the exhibition reserve the right to remove stands from the territory of the exhibition." At the same time, M. Seslavinsky noted that "the powers of the agency without appropriate decisions of judicial and law enforcement agencies do not allow to carry out the necessary legal expertise and take any kind of prohibitive measures."

Two-thirds of Russians think fascists are a real danger

According to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, two-thirds of Russians (67%) believe that supporters of fascist views now pose a real danger to society. At the same time, a third of the respondents (32%) said that there are adherents of Nazi ideas in their city or village.

Most often, residents of large cities face manifestations of nationalism and fascism. Thus, in particular, more than half (54%) of Muscovites said that "there are many adherents of fascism in the city." At the same time, 47% reported that they had come across brochures and leaflets with fascist symbols.

Among the organizations adhering to fascist views, the respondents most often named RNE (11%), NBP (8%), and skinhead groups (7%). The LDPR (4%), the parties "Rodina" and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (1% each) were also mentioned.

Half of the respondents said that they see the germs of fascism in intolerance towards people of other nationalities, 30% called "the exaltation of their nation", and 11% described fascism as "an ideology of hatred, cruelty and violence in general."

Interior Ministry officers defiled the Koran

In the middle of the month , while conducting a search in a house in one of the villages of the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan, officers of the 102nd brigade of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs desecrated the Koran. According to an employee of the Dagestan newspaper Chernovik, one of the searchers, "not satisfied with the threats, took the Koran from the shelf and began to methodically tear out the pages from it", then began to cut its pages with scissors, and twice threw the Koran on the floor. The desecrated Quran was hidden by the locals, because unknown people came to pick up the holy book.

The Headquarters of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the details of the incident need to be sorted out, but in general "the case is serious." According to the head of the Islamic Legal Center, Mufti Ismagil Shangareev, "the blasphemous actions of the military in relation to the Koran are the result of a large-scale Islamophobia that is implanted in Russian society."

**KHODORKOVSKY CASE

Russian Orthodox Church priest banned from service for sympathy for Khodorkovsky**

On March 23 , it became known that the Orthodox priest Sergiy Tarukhtin, exiled a month ago for his sympathy for Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the city of Krasnokamensk, where the former head of the Yukos Oil Company is serving a prison term, to the mountain-taiga village of Krasny Chekoy, received a decree prohibiting him from serving, dated March 21 and signed by Bishop of Chita and Transbaikal Evstafiy. The two-page document contains a detailed motivation for the actions of the hierarchy: "for interference in political activities and for attempts to involve parishioners in it."

"This is a ban on professional activity for political reasons," Fr. Sergius. According to the priest, he was awarded this wording for calling Mikhail Khodorkovsky a political prisoner and for talking with parishioners about the fate of this prisoner. Blame o. Sergius is also charged with refusing to consecrate the administrative building of the Krasnokamensk colony: Father Sergius declared that he would not consecrate a colony where prisoners undergo undeserved torment.