Human rights in Russia. April 1-15, 2006

The review by Alexander Mnatsakanyan, brought 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

Fight for Draft Delays**

The main legislative intrigue of the beginning of April was the adoption by the State Duma of a document on the abolition of nine "social" and "creative" deferrals from conscription into the army.

On April 1, an all-Russian protest rally was held in the country, timed to coincide with the start of the army draft. In Moscow, on Pushkin Square, a rally demanding the resignation of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov gathered about 300 people. The participants were in favor of the transition of a professional army and against the abolition of deferrals from military service. The rally in Moscow was organized by the Republican Party, but the flags of the Union of Right Forces, the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers and other organizations also flew at the rally. This event was held as part of an action timed to coincide with the beginning of the spring conscription into the army.

Similar actions were held in more than 30 Russian cities: in Omsk, Izhevsk, Voronezh. In Barnaul, during a one-hour picket, young people showed in their faces how an ordinary young man turns into an ordinary soldier. One of the participants of the action was given a set of army accessories - a military uniform, tarpaulin boots and a shovel for combat missions.

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And on April 2, the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrei Fursenko spoke in favor of the abolition of all profession-related deferrals from military service: “If we switch to one-year service and focus on creating a fundamentally new army, then it would be right to cancel any professional deferrals completely, so that there is no temptation to make certain exceptions."

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proposed its own way of solving the problem The Public Chamber - to raise the draft age to 20 years. According to the OP, in this case, "mature people with professional work skills, able to defend their rights" will come to the army. However, the Ministry of Defense refused to even consider this option. "This topic simply doesn't exist," said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov.

True, at the same time, the Public Chamber proposed amendments to the legislation, according to which citizens who had not completed military service could not hold high government posts and be elected to legislative bodies. Observers were surprised that the Public Chamber makes proposals that contradict the Russian Constitution. Thus, according to Article 32 of the Constitution, "citizens recognized by the court as legally incompetent, as well as those held in places of deprivation of liberty by a court verdict, do not have the right to elect and be elected." There are no other restrictions in the Constitution.

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The Ministry of Culture came to the defense of delays for "talented representatives of Russian art". Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov argues that Russia really runs the risk of losing talented young people, as it once did with "brains". "The most talented, already established young people will simply go abroad - this is quite clear. Understanding that the goal of their life is being threatened, and having every reason for this, because they are already in demand, they have the right to make their choice," the minister said. Russian culture.

Another reprieve that conscripts are at risk of losing in 2008 is a reprieve for young fathers and conscripts whose wives are at least 26 weeks pregnant. At the same time, Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov seriously believes that the abolition of the deferral for young fathers - accomplished and future - can stimulate the birth rate: "the Ministry of Health has prepared proposals to amend the federal law on the status of military personnel, which provide for the establishment of monthly cash payments to family members military personnel. They will be paid during the period of conscription." Later, the ridiculous amount of these payments was announced - about 2,000 rubles. At the same time, the average salary of a person aged 18-20 in the country is about 7 thousand rubles).

Mayors will lose independence

On April 4, it became known that the Kremlin had found a way to build mayors into the vertical of power without formally violating the requirement of the Constitution for the independence of local self-government from state authorities. On April 5, the State Duma Council considered a draft amendment submitted by United Russia to two federal laws that would allow regional governors to assume some of the functions of city mayors, taking control over housing and communal services and infrastructure.

The draft permits the regions to "temporarily exercise certain powers of local self-government bodies of settlements and urban districts, which are the administrative centers of subjects of the Russian Federation, in order to ensure the unity of their life support systems, communications and other infrastructure." Mayors can be stripped of up to ten critical powers, including the organization of heat, gas, electricity and water supply, the removal and disposal of household waste, the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, transport services, the establishment of rules for land use and development, and control over land use. The regions themselves will determine the terms of the "temporary" withdrawal of powers and the detailed grounds for such sanctions by their own laws.

With the help of these amendments, the Kremlin can find a way to deal with the intractable mayors of wealthy cities, who often come into open conflict with the governors. Representatives of local self-government and experts have already called the bill "political". The mayors of large cities fear that now they will completely lose their independence from regional authorities. And governors will get an effective tool to neutralize disloyal mayors.

According to the head of the committee of the Federation Council on local self-government, Leonid Roketsky, this law "returns us to Soviet power." “There was local self-government, which was part of the vertical of power, subordinate to the district committees and city committees,” the senator said. “And we are returning to this again. This is unconstitutional, undemocratic. .

Competitors of "United Russia" will be banned from uniting

On April 12, the State Duma Council considered a draft law prohibiting parties from including candidates belonging to other parties in their electoral lists. The explanatory note to the bill notes that it was developed in order to strengthen the multi-party system and increase the role of parties in society. Most likely, this initiative is designed to deprive party members of the right to create pre-election alliances, which were almost the only opportunity to compete with United Russia in the regional elections.

According to one amendment, a party is not entitled to nominate members of other parties as candidates for deputies and other elective positions in state and local government bodies. The other stipulates that a deputy elected on the lists of one party cannot become a member of another, otherwise he loses his mandate.

One of the authors of the amendments, Alexei Mitrofanov, said that the initiative had already been discussed "outside the Duma" and "the chances of its adoption are very high." And a source in the presidential administration made it clear that the idea was approved by the Kremlin.

**LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

Bosses are being taken out of Blagoveshchensk business**

In Bashkiria, the trial continues in the case of mass beatings by police of residents of Blagoveshchensk. The lawyer of the injured party, Stanislav Markelov, said at a press conference on April 6 that the case was being deliberately ruined and, probably, none of the bosses would be punished.

As a result of delays, the number of victims of police actions who were ready to come to court decreased from 60 people to two. Another eight are brought under escort from the places where they are serving their sentences. In total, 341 people were recognized as victims of beatings by law enforcement officers in December 2004 in Blagoveshchensk.

Outrage is caused by the decision to divide the case into two separate ones - for the chiefs and for ordinary policemen. Earlier, eight police officers were charged with abuse of power. Among the accused are three representatives of the leadership of the police: the head of the Blagoveshchensk GROVD Ildar Ramazanov, his deputy Oleg Mirzin and the commander of the OMON operational company Oleg Sokolov. On March 13, Judge Pisareva sent the criminal case to the prosecutor's office with a request to split it into two separate cases.

Lawyer Markelov is sure that the separation was carried out in order to "destroy" the case of the bosses, who will not incur any punishment for the mass beatings of the inhabitants of Blagoveshchensk.

For lack of insurance, the police break their hands

in Cheboksary On April 10, 2006 , court hearings began on charges of two employees of the Kanash traffic police department who broke the driver's arm. The defendants face from 3 to 10 years in prison for abuse of office with the use of violence. On November 3, 2005 the driver was stopped by the traffic police. After checking the documents, they drew up a protocol on an administrative offense (the term of the OSAGO contract had expired) and placed the car in a penalty parking lot.

Having extended the insurance, the owner of the car returned to the parking lot on the same day and asked to return the car to him, as required by law. However, the policemen refused to return the car to him. The driver began to insist, in response, the traffic police, without any legal grounds, decided to take him to the police department to draw up a protocol on petty hooliganism. Despite the fact that the victim did not resist, the policemen twisted his arms and began to force him into the car, and as a result broke his right arm.

The Ministry of Finance will pay for police laziness

On April 10, the Novo-Savinovsky District Court of Kazan satisfied the claim of Rifkhat Nizaev against the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Tatarstan. The Ministry of Finance, within three months from the date the decision comes into force, is obliged to pay Nizaev 9,000 rubles as compensation for moral damage caused by the illegal actions of a police interrogating officer.

In September last year, Nizaev filed a complaint with the police about the theft, clearly pointing to possible perpetrators. Two weeks have passed, during which no one notified Nizaev of the decision, which is a gross violation. According to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the decision must be sent to the applicant within 24 hours from the date of its issuance.

Nizayev turned to the Human Rights Center of Kazan for legal assistance during the action "Accept, do not lose, check!". Lawyers helped to file a complaint against the actions of police officers. The Sovetsky District Court satisfied the complaint and found the interrogator's actions unlawful. It was only after that that Nizaev found out that a refusal to open a criminal case had been issued regarding his statement about the theft.

Rifkhat Nizaev himself is pleased with the court's decision and believes that, regardless of the amount awarded, this trial itself is indicative.

Human rights activists point out shortcomings to the prosecutor's office

On April 11, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Tatarstan held a meeting of the Collegium following the results of the first quarter of 2006 with the participation of prosecutors from cities and regions of the republic. The basis for the discussion was the appeal of the Human Rights Center of the city of Kazan addressed to the prosecutor of the republic Kafil Amirov. It analyzes the situation with violations of the rights of citizens by law enforcement officers in 2005. Natalya Kablova, Chairman of the Council of the Human Rights Center of Kazan, took part in the work of the board.

According to human rights activists, in general, the human rights situation in Tatarstan continues to be tense. The main evil is the incomplete conduct of the check or preliminary investigation and the "selective approach": when checking the legality of the policemen's actions, the prosecutor's office "ignores" the leadership.

The second widespread violation is that law enforcement officers, having received an order from higher prosecutors and a court order, are in no hurry to comply with it in full. The applicant, having not received a proper answer, again applies to a higher prosecutor's office or court. The instruction or resolution again falls on the table to a negligent employee, he again does not fulfill it.

In addition, human rights activists pointed to the lack of proper prosecutorial supervision and violation of the procedure for considering citizens' appeals; red tape during inspections and criminal cases, as well as the release of prosecutors from liability for violations of the law. However, the prosecutor of the republic did not agree with the latter, noting that in 2005 the number of employees of the prosecutor's office of Tatarstan brought to disciplinary responsibility increased four times.

"This is the second Collegium with the participation of our specialists," said Natalia Kablova, Chairman of the Council of the Human Rights Center of Kazan. change in law enforcement practice in Tatarstan.

Preventive conversation of a policeman with teenagers: head on the table

On April 11, in Stavropol, a former police officer was sentenced to three and a half years probation for beating minors. In December 2004, a policeman, while in the building of the "Regional Polytechnic College", delivered several blows to the head and body of the victim, and then hit his head on the table three times. "Half an hour later, during a preventive conversation, the convict struck another teenager on the cheek with his hand, which caused a significant violation of the rights and legitimate interests of the victim," the press service said. As compensation for non-pecuniary damage, the former officer will pay five thousand rubles to the victims.

The policeman forced the detainee to eat shoulder straps

On April 12, it became known that the prosecutor's office of the Novgorod region sent a criminal case to court against a police lieutenant of the Novgorod police department, who is accused of abuse of office . On July 11, 2005, he forced a resident of the Novgorodsky district suspected of committing hooliganism to eat two epaulettes and a condom. When the suspect asked for water, a bottle of urine was brought to him.

The suspect was detained when he called the "hotline" of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Novgorod region and began to insult law enforcement officers in obscene language.

After the incident, the victim went to the hospital and to the internal security department of the Internal Affairs Directorate.

12-year-old teenager beaten by police officers

On April 12, in the center of Moscow, in broad daylight, two private security officers at the police department of the Basmanny district of the capital severely beat 12-year-old schoolboy Nikita Gladyshev. The boy was caught in the entrance of the house where he lives, handcuffed and escorted to the district department with his hands twisted. When Nikita's parents arrived at the police station, the policemen said that he had attacked them himself. The ambulance took the boy from the department with a concussion, all bruised and abrasions.

“Coming out of the elevator, I saw two policemen on the first floor,” says Nikita. “They started asking what I was doing here. adults and whether I have the keys to the apartment with me. I stepped back, at that moment I even thought that these were bandits dressed in police uniforms - such cases were talked about more than once on TV. " Having caught the teenager, the militiamen began to beat him with their fists and kicks on the head, on the body, interspersing the execution with selective cursing. The beaten child, in front of two of his classmates, was put into a patrol car and taken to the police department of the Basmanny district. According to Nikita, in the car, law enforcement officers threatened to strangle him and bury him in a landfill near the Lokomotiv stadium if he did not stop screaming about his innocence

Nikita's parents received a call from a pensioner who happened to be in the police department. According to Kira Gladysheva, she was asked to settle the issue with monetary compensation. But the mother, an employee of the bailiff service of the Central Administrative District, did not even discuss the deal: "I myself, on duty, monitor the implementation of the law and must act by legal methods."

From the Basmanny Department of Internal Affairs, an ambulance called by his mother took Nikita to the hospital with a diagnosis of "an injury to the cartilage of the larynx, multiple abrasions, bruises on the head, trunk and limbs, and moderate concussion."

One day of police officers: robbery, theft, beatings and rape

in the Bogorodsk City Court On April 14, a hearing began on charges of robbery, theft of documents from a citizen, and deliberate infliction of minor bodily harm on charges of three ordinary police officers. On September 18, 2005, during a quarrel with a resident of the Nizhny Novgorod region, four drunken men beat his 66-year-old wife and daughter, who suffers from a mental illness, and then openly stole their cell phone and documents. After that, one of the men, according to the victims, raped a 30-year-old mentally ill woman. Two of the suspects work in law enforcement agencies: one is an employee of the escort battalion at the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and the other is an employee of the private security department of the Main Department of Internal Affairs.

According to the victim, at the prosecutor's office in Bogorodsk, where she was summoned to testify with her daughter, a relative of one of the suspects offered her to withdraw her statement in exchange for 15,000 rubles. The victim refused.

The traffic police officer killed the driver. In his defense, he stated that he was aiming at another

On April 14, the Borzinsky City Court of the Chita Region sentenced a traffic police officer to 4 years in prison with a sentence to be served in a penal colony. In addition, the court ordered the convict to pay moral compensation to the victim in the amount of 150 thousand rubles.

On the road in the village of Sherlovaya-1, a police officer shot a car after its driver did not stop at the request of the traffic police. The deceased - the father of three children, a driver with 25 years of experience - received a bullet wound to the head, a bullet through the neck with damage to the spine and spinal cord.

The traffic police officer pleaded not guilty. He justified his actions by saying that he was trying to protect pedestrians from a motorcyclist driving at high speed. He allegedly was about to shoot the motorcyclist, but accidentally fired at another car. Meanwhile, witnesses to the crime denied the presence of a motorcyclist and two pedestrians on the road at that moment.

Fearing that during the trial the policeman would be able to avoid punishment, the wife of the deceased driver turned to the Chita Human Rights Center for help with a request for control and information support of the case.

80% of Russians are afraid to personally suffer from police brutality

On April 3, Yuri Levada's analytical center published the results of a sociological study commissioned by the Public Verdict Foundation in order to find out the level of Russians' trust in law enforcement agencies (police, court, prosecutor's office).

It turned out that almost 70% of Russians are apprehensive about law enforcement agencies. 75% of citizens consider the problem of arbitrariness of law enforcement agencies relevant for modern Russia. 45% of respondents believe that the authorities use law enforcement agencies to counteract their political opponents.

Almost 80% of Russians are afraid of personally suffering from the arbitrariness of law enforcement agencies. 55% of citizens doubt that the courts and the prosecutor's office will be able to protect their rights in case of arbitrary actions by the police. About 60% of respondents believe that in Russia it is impossible to restore their rights violated by the court by legal means. Only 4% of Russian residents speak confidently about their trust in law enforcement agencies.

**NORTH CAUCASUS

The federal shot three civilians - and asked the court to take into account his merits **

to 18 years in prison On April 6, the North Caucasian District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced contract serviceman Alexei Krivoshonok for shooting three civilians in Chechnya last November. From the military unit in which the convict served, the court exacted 200,000 rubles in favor of the families of each of those killed - a total of 600,000.

According to the investigation, on November 16 last year, on the outskirts of the village of Staraya Sunzha, contract soldier Aleksey Krivoshonok shot the driver and passenger of a car stopped for inspection from a weapon assigned to him. A local resident who happened to be nearby was also killed. According to the case file, Krivoshonok was in a state of alcoholic and drug intoxication.

In his last speech, the defendant also asked to take into account his services to the fatherland, marital status (two children) and positive characteristics.

The cases of two more defendants in this case - private Pavel Zinchuk and the commander of the reconnaissance group Anatoly Pyatnitsky - were separated into a separate proceeding and transferred to the Grozny garrison court.

**FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The Federation Council wants to toughen the situation of the media**

On April 6, the media reported that the Federation Council was preparing amendments to the federal law "On the Mass Media" and the Code of Criminal Procedure, which would strengthen the responsibility of journalists for the materials they publish.

Lyudmila Narusova, head of the Federation Council commission on information policy, said that the new amendments will affect the outdated provisions of the law "On Mass Media", and specifically those articles that relate to the situation of private newspapers and TV channels. In particular, Narusova stressed that after the adoption of amendments to the law, the media will be required to show or publish only previously verified information. In addition, the Federation Council, together with the State Duma, plans to introduce several amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, they will be related to liability for false information and inciting ethnic and religious hatred in the media.

At the same time, Narusova explained that freedom of speech, which is referred to in the law on the media, was understood by many media as permissiveness, and as a result, according to her, journalists began to take revenge on the authorities for their "long-term press" arrogant attitude towards everything that the authorities neither does. Today in Russia there is no unified state information policy, which is a pity, because "information policy is connected with ideology. One cannot live without ideology."

Aleksey Simonov, Glasnost Defense Foundation: *The Mass Media Law is the main object of protection for human rights organizations in the field of freedom of speech. So far, all attempts by a huge number of people who tried to improve the law, rewrite it anew, correct it in the direction of toughening and make it fundamentally new have been repulsed.

But everyone who comes again to some elevated place experiences such a kind of "pulmonary insufficiency" - and tries to somehow correct the law "On Mass Media". But to correct it is somehow one-sided: there has not yet been a single amendment that would expand the possibilities or strengthen the position of journalists. All of them, to one degree or another, established additional types of censorship.*

The chairman of the Muslim society demanded compensation for moral damages for the publication of "Danish" cartoons

The editor-in-chief of the Vologda newspaper Nash Region , which reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, could be fined 300,000 rubles and sentenced to two years in prison. Such a punishment for Anna Smirnova was asked by the state prosecutor, speaking on April 11 in the Vologda court. The journalist was charged under paragraph "b" of part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred using official position.

The chairman of the society of Muslims of the Vologda Oblast, Ravil Mustavin, asked the court to order the defendant to pay 1 million rubles for moral damage and to ban her from holding leadership positions in the media for five years.

On February 15, the regional newspaper "Our Region" published an article under the heading "Cartoon war: opinions." As Anna Smirnova explained, all quotes and cartoons themselves are taken from official Russian websites. At the same time, the comments were not changed by the journalists of the newspaper. And the most offensive cartoons have been corrected or partially printed.

**FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

SOBR and FSB promised to break the legs of Muslims**

On March 31, in Adygeya, police detained Muslims who were on their way to Friday prayers at a mosque in the village of Novaya Adygeya. Before the beginning of the lunchtime prayer, all entrances and exits to the village were blocked by special detachments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The operation was carried out by the republican UBOP together with a group of the FSB of Russia.

The Muslim community of Adygea said that the special services have a list of Muslims visiting the mosque in this village, and the numbers of their personal cars have also been rewritten. "Two buses with Sobrovites stood at the entrance to the village. They stopped only the cars of Muslims heading to the mosque for prayer. They searched with dogs. Nobody reached the mosque," says a resident of Novaya Adygeya.

Everyone who was going to the prayer was detained and taken to the police station in the village of Yablonovskoye. "They had a tough conversation with us: they promised to break our legs if we went to the mosque, then they let us go," says one of the detainees.

According to witnesses and detainees, the action of the special services was demonstrative: it all happened at noon with a large gathering of people.

The ROC is concerned about human rights. In my understanding

On April 6, the Church's "Russian People's Council " adopted the "Declaration on the Rights and Dignity of Man." One of the main authors of the document, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, assessed it as an "epoch-making" and "historical" document.

According to the authors of the declaration, "situations should not be allowed in which the exercise of human rights would suppress faith and moral tradition, would lead to an aggravation of religious and national feelings, revered shrines, would threaten the existence of the Fatherland."

The document calls it dangerous "the invention of such "rights" that legitimize behavior condemned by traditional morality and all historical religions ... We reject the policy of double standards in the field of human rights, as well as attempts to use these rights to promote political, ideological, military and economic interests, to impose a certain state and social system.

In other words, an attempt is being made through the lips of the clergy to convince the population that upholding the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of Russia is nothing more than working for the enemy. Metropolitan Kirill himself indirectly confirmed this, saying that the West is imposing its own concept of human rights on Russia and the whole world, which often serves as an excuse for lack of spirituality and immorality.

Police disperse a gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses

On April 12, Moscow police stopped a meeting of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the South-Eastern administrative district of the capital. At about 20:30, the police received a signal from citizens that a meeting was taking place in house number 19 on Sovkhoznaya Street, in which I was attending about 200 people.

More than 10 police units were sent to this address. The policemen suggested that the people disperse, and 20 people, the organizers of the meeting, were taken to the Lyublino police station. At the police station they were interrogated about the purpose of the meeting and two hours later, after giving explanations, they were released without explanation.

The decision to close the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow was made in March 2004 by the Golovinsky Court of Moscow and subsequently confirmed by the Moscow City Court.

** FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

The court pushes the NBP into illegality**

The Tagansky Court of Moscow upheld the refusal of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to register the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" (NBP) as a party. Thus, the court refused to satisfy the claim of the NBP, which insisted on the illegality of the decision of the FRS, which refused to register the party.

NBP leader Eduard Limonov said: “We did not doubt such a decision of the court. But we are still not going to stop - the next step will be to file cassations with the Moscow City Court and further through the authorities ... In case of illegal decisions of our courts, we intend to apply to the European Court on human rights, because we believe that our position is based on the law .... This is the fifth refusal to register the party, and today we once again protest against this and demand that we comply with the law in relation to us."

**STATE OF REFUGEES

The Ministry of Justice wants to close the "Forum of resettlement organizations" **

On April 13, Lidia Grafova, chairman of the executive committee of the Forum of Migrant Organizations, announced that the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation intended to achieve the termination of the activities of this largest public association of migrants in the country. Soon the Meshchansky Court of Moscow will consider the corresponding claim of the Ministry of Justice.

Refugees are being taken out of Ingushetia to the east and west

In 2006, it is planned to return to Chechnya from Ingushetia 10,000 internally displaced persons living in temporary accommodation centers on the territory of the neighboring republic.

"According to our data, there are currently just over nine thousand people in temporary accommodation centers (TAPs) in the Republic of Ingushetia. Another 13 thousand live in the private sector. We are talking about those persons who are officially registered with the Federal Migration Service," he says. "This year, it is planned to create all the necessary conditions for the return to the republic of at least ten thousand internally displaced persons from Ingushetia, mainly those living in TACs."

In total, the number of forced migrants in the territory of the republic exceeds 60 thousand people.

By April 10, more than 170 Ingush families from the Maisky refugee town have already been moved to a new place of residence in North Ossetia. They were allotted land plots in the Novy settlement, which is located not far from the administrative border of North Ossetia with Ingushetia. First of all, these are citizens who did not have their own housing in North Ossetia, as well as people from that part of Vladikavkaz, which was included in the so-called "water protection zone." Currently, there are still more than 40 wagons left in the Maisky refugee camp. Most of their inhabitants (mostly people from the so-called "closed" settlements) want to return to their places of permanent residence and therefore refuse to allocate plots.

"Those who agreed to move to new sites have already done so, and we want to return to our homes and villages, where we lived most of our lives and where our ancestors are buried. I cannot return to my own house in the village of Oktyabrskoye, because there now the Ossetian family lives in. The local authorities promise to solve this problem, and I would like to hope that this will be the case," says Magomed, an internally displaced person from the village of Oktyabrskoye.

Among the refugees who remained in "Maysky" there are those who have not yet decided on the choice of place of residence. They do not plan to return to the Prigorodny District (primarily for security reasons), but they are also not satisfied with the living conditions in the new settlement. People complain about the lack of basic living conditions: the town still has no gas supply, no social facilities, no road surface, etc.

However, the Ossetian authorities maintain that these inconveniences are temporary. According to them, the village has already been marked on the map of North Ossetia, it has a residence permit. The village has allotted land for 400 land plots. Light and water are already in it. The issue of gas supply is being addressed. To ensure law and order and security in the village, a post of a mobile detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was established.

The settlement "Maisky", in which forced migrants from various settlements of the Prigorodny district live, was formed after the tragic events of the autumn of 1992. It was inhabited mainly by residents of the so-called "closed" or "problem" settlements, the return to which, according to the Ossetian side, is still impossible, as well as citizens who previously lived in municipal housing. In total, 220 families of internally displaced persons found shelter here. Currently, there are no more than 50 wagons left.

** SERVICE SERVICE AND CONSCIOUS

FSB colonel who shot soldier declared sane**

FSB Colonel Sergei Stolba, who shot a conscript soldier, was declared mentally sane . This decision was made on April 4 by experts from the Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. Serbian. Now the colonel faces imprisonment for a term of 5 to 15 years for "causing grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim" and "illegal possession of weapons by a group of persons by prior agreement." At present, Colonel Stolba is in the pre-trial detention center in Tula.

On November 26, 2005, FSB Colonel Sergei Stolba, seconded to a military unit in Tula, fired a rifle at conscript Denis Zharikov. A few weeks later, Denis died in the hospital from his wound.

The next day after the incident, Colonel Stolba went to the regional military clinical hospital. The colonel referred to a head injury received a year ago, after which he allegedly often lost consciousness, but, nevertheless, did not go to the doctors. Fearing that Stolba would be able to evade responsibility by feigning a mental disorder, Zharikov's mother and brother turned to the Ryazan Human Rights Society "Memorial" and the "Public Verdict" fund with a request to help two hundred cases before the trial and not leave the killer of Denis unpunished.

After the first, outpatient examination, Stolbe was diagnosed with "twilight clouding of consciousness", which "appeared suddenly and proceeded for a short time." That is, according to the conclusion of the doctors of the Tula hospital, the colonel was insane only at the time of the crime and does not need compulsory treatment. However, experts from the Center Serbsky, who examined the colonel for a month, came to the conclusion that "during the period of the offense charged against him, Stolba did not show signs of any temporary mental disorder, he was in a state of simple alcoholic intoxication."

**COUNTERACTION TO NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA

Beating of singer Zaur Tutov and NTV producer Elkhan Mirzoev**

On April 1, in the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, was beaten up by unknown young people. a well-known baritone singer, People's Artist of Russia, Minister of Culture of Kabardino-Balkaria, Zaur Tutov,

The victim's wife reported that about 15 young people attacked children from the Adygi ensemble in the foyer of the house of culture, shouting nationalist slogans "Russia is for the Russians!", "Get out to your villages!". Tutov tried to stand up for the children, got a broken jaw and a concussion and was hospitalized.

Both Tutov himself and many witnesses called the police on mobile phones, but "the police were in no hurry." The prosecutor's office of the Eastern Administrative District of the capital gave the consent of the Internal Affairs Directorate to initiate a criminal case under the first part of Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate infliction of moderate harm). But the prosecutor's office did not see any nationalist background in the actions of the attackers.

Later, an official representative of the Prosecutor General's Office stated that his department demanded that the Moscow prosecutor's office change the grounds for initiating a criminal case to article 112 part 2, clause "e" of the Criminal Code - "deliberate infliction of moderate bodily harm, committed motivated by national, racial, religious hatred or enmity."

Soon five suspects were arrested in connection with the attack on Zaur Tutov. Three of them were identified by witnesses - they are unemployed young people aged 18 to 21. All of them are football fans. The suspects admitted their involvement in the incident, but denied beatings. As a result, only a 29-year-old detainee suspected of beating Tutov was left in custody.

Literally a day later, on the evening of April 2, NTV producer Elkhan Mirzoev was beaten up in the Moscow metro. The attackers shouted nationalist slogans. According to Mirzoev, he was on the subway when several young people entered the car at the Park Kultury station, all of them drinking beer. One of them, short-haired, dressed in camouflage clothing and high black boots, sat down next to Mirzoyev and began to explain to an NTV correspondent, an ethnic Azeri, "why he shouldn't live in Moscow." Another guy poured beer on Mirzoev's head, and a fight broke out. Mirzoyev was dragged out of the car at the Okhotny Ryad station and beer bottles were used. The attackers managed to get back into the train car and left. An ambulance delivered Elkhan to the Sklifosovsky Institute.

On the fact of the attack, a criminal case was initiated under paragraph "e" of Part 2 of Art. 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("intentional infliction of moderate bodily harm, committed on the basis of national, racial, religious hatred or enmity"). This article provides for punishment up to 5 years in prison.

“Oddly enough, the actions of militant youth are reliably protected by the law,” the prosecutor’s office explains. “A case under Article 282 of the Criminal Code can be initiated only in one case. If certain remarks, shouts or actions were made during the attack (for example, slogans were written on the wall), who could motivate other citizens to do the same." In addition, these words must be heard by other citizens.

In St. Petersburg, a student from Senegal was killed with a gun with a swastika

On the morning of April 7, an unknown person opened fire on a group of foreign students , as a result of which one of them - a citizen of Senegal - died. The bullet hit him in the neck and he died on the spot. The deceased student Lamzar Samba (born 1978) studied at the Institute of Communications and was a member of the public human rights organization "African Unity", which helps people from Africa living in the territory of the Russian Federation. In a nearby yard, investigators found a pump-action shotgun with a swastika painted on it.

On the fact of the murder, a criminal case was initiated under Article 105.2 (murder committed out of racial or national hatred). According to eyewitnesses, shots were fired in the direction of six young people for no apparent reason.

Recall that in St. Petersburg at the same place - at the intersection of Zhenya Egorova and 5th Krasnoarmeiskaya streets - on November 11, 2005, an incident occurred involving African students. A fight broke out between two Petersburgers of Slavic appearance and a group of students from Cameroon, who were also returning from the club. Then the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg opened a criminal case under part 1 of article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism). The term for the preliminary investigation of the case has been extended until April 11, 2006.

On April 8, in St. Petersburg, about 200 people came to the place of death of Lamzar Samba to honor his memory and lay flowers. The students who studied with him, the leadership of the Bonch-Bruevich University of Telecommunications, members of the African Unity organization, and activists of the St. Petersburg Anti-Fascist Association came to the place of Samba's death. On the roadway, about 25 African students formed a circle and prayed in memory of the deceased.

"We are waiting for a detailed investigation of the crime from the Russian authorities, the capture of the perpetrators and their punishment," the Senegalese ambassador said. According to him, the victim's mother, a teacher of the Russian language, studied in Moscow at the People's Friendship University of Russia and is the founder of the department of the Russian language and Slavic culture at one of the African universities.

On April 11, in St. Petersburg, an anti-fascist rally near the Church of the Savior on Blood, in which about 2,000 people took part, grew into an unauthorized procession along Nevsky Prospekt. The participants of the rally after its completion went to Nevsky Prospekt and shouted "Down with fascism!" began to move towards the Vosstaniya Square. They carried the slogans "Petersburg is a cemetery for foreigners!", "Valentina Ivanovna, you are also a mother!", "Was there a victory over fascism on May 9, 1945?".

Participants of the anti-fascist march were forbidden to walk along the roadway of Nevsky Prospekt, since such a march allegedly "discredits the city."

The march was organized by the Nashi movement, but the rally was also attended by representatives of the St. Petersburg Anti-Fascist Association, about 400 members of African Unity, fellow students of the murdered Senegalese, schoolchildren, students, members of the city government, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the city and St. Petersburg intelligentsia.

Skinheads attacked a gypsy camp

On the evening of April 13, in the city of Volzhsky, Volgograd Region, an attack took place on the Roma who lived in tents on the banks of the Akhtuba River. The attackers beat the Roma with metal rods. As a result of the beatings received, two people - a man and a woman - died, two more were hospitalized in serious condition.

Three young people, allegedly belonging to a group of local skinheads, were detained on charges of attacking a camp.

Half of Muscovites are supporters of apartheid

An express poll conducted on April 14 as part of the Ricochet program on the Ekho Moskvy radio station showed that 57 percent of those polled were opposed to apartheid. They believe that the owners of bars and restaurants, who do not let people of Caucasian nationality into their establishments, are wrong. The number is alarming, as it means that 43 percent of the station's most liberal listeners share xenophobic views.

Sergei Kovalev, Institute of Human Rights, Memorial: *Alas, these facts have become not only numerous, they have become ordinary. And this is the worst. The series of these terrible events does not attract the pinnacle of power. If I am not mistaken, Putin did not say a single word on these occasions. In addition, it cannot be considered an accident or an initiative of the lower ranks of the prosecutor's office and law enforcement agencies that they are trying to attribute all these bloody tragedies either to football fanaticism or to hooliganism. And then suddenly, abruptly, immediately they started talking about fascism, about national motives. Clearly - on command.

Here's the question - what's the matter? Various versions are discussed. Well, for example: the authorities need to show the layman such a terrible danger. In order for him to think, going to the urns, which is preferable: corruption, or fascism. And I would have preferred corruption, and left power in place, and did not go out into the street. You don't have to be a smart political writer to use it. Like explosions in Moscow.

But this kind of crime also has irrational reasons. According to which, at one time, criminals were divided into "socially close" and "socially alien". These pogromists - they are socially close. They are socially close to our government, they are socially close, alas, to a significant part of our people.*

**EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Russian human rights activist appeals against cancellation of gubernatorial elections**

On April 3, the European Court of Human Rights accepted for consideration the complaint of Nizhny Novgorod human rights activist Sergei Shimovolos about the violation of his electoral rights as a result of the cancellation of direct gubernatorial elections.

In the autumn of 2004, immediately after Vladimir Putin's statement about the upcoming cancellation of nationwide gubernatorial elections and the approval of the heads of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation by regional parliaments on the proposal of the president, an initiative group of Nizhny Novgorod residents, one of whose members was an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group Sergei Shimovolos, decided to seek to maintain the previous procedure for electing the head of the Nizhny Novgorod areas.

Initially, human rights activists tried to keep the popular election of the governor by holding a referendum. Having received a refusal, Shimovolos filed a lawsuit against the Legislative Assembly with the Sovetsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod, demanding that the federal law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation" violate the rights of citizens and allow the referendum to be held. The district court rejected the complaint, and then this decision was confirmed by the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. After that, at the end of 2005, Sergei Shimovolos sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Since this court considers cases only on violation of the rights of specific individuals or groups of individuals, the human rights activist prepared a complaint on his behalf and intends to prove that as a result of changes in the regional charter, his electoral rights were violated.

The Strasbourg court accepted the lawsuit of a mother of many children against the President of Russia

On April 5, it became known that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg accepted for consideration the claim of the Russian woman against the President of Russia. Yulia Bukhanova, a single mother with many children, demands from the state to increase payments for the maintenance of her three children.

"The fact that a mother of many children lives below the poverty line is contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to paragraph 1 of Article 39, each mother is guaranteed social security for raising offspring. Who is responsible for the implementation of this provision? We think the guarantor of the Basic Law, that is, our president," says lawyer Alexander Skovorodko.

However, in the Presnensky Court, at the location of the defendants, Judge Elena Litvinenko did not want to consider the application of a single mother: in her opinion, such serious issues are only within the competence of the Supreme Court. But Bukhanova was also not accepted in the Supreme Court - on the grounds that the president is beyond jurisdiction.

“In her native state, the woman could not find judicial protection, and this is a direct road to Strasbourg. So we were even glad of their refusal and wrote a complaint to Europe,” said the lawyer of the single mother.

Yulia Bukhanova demands to pay her an allowance for each child and for herself in the amount of 4 subsistence minimums until the children reach 18 years of age. As a non-pecuniary damage, Yulia also proposes to recover compensation from the state in the amount of 100 million rubles.

The President is interested in the Strasbourg losses of Russia

The presidential administration is actively interested in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in cases against the Russian Federation. This was announced on April 12 by the head of the thematic section on legal reforms and institutional support of the European Commission in Russia, Pierre Dibman.

Dibman clarified that the head of the State Legal Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Assistant to the President Larisa Brycheva, appealed to the lawyers of the European Commission with an official request to prepare a collection of documents relating to all the recent processes lost by the Russian Federation in Strasbourg, explaining this by the need to adjust Russian legislation in accordance with European standards. This collection should be ready by June 15 this year.

Last year, Russia lost 83 cases in the European Court, and according to the statistics of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, about 8,000 citizens of the country apply to Strasbourg every year.

See also: Russian cases before the European Court: overviews