Chronicle of current events*

The press in Russia is becoming more and more unfree. The investigation got to Nikita Belykh. It's still not safe to rally

January 28, Monday

The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced nationalist Konstantin Krylov to 120 hours of compulsory labor for "extremist statements" during a "Stop feeding the Caucasus" rally on October 22, 2011. The nationalist was found guilty under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity).

January 29, Tuesday

The head of the Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights, Mikhail Anshakov, was charged with slandering the fund of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The victim in the case is the executive director of the fund, Vasily Poddevalin. Earlier, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, Anshakov claimed that a business center operates on the territory of the temple, in which many companies belong to Poddevalin's relatives.

In 2012, the situation with press freedom in Russia worsened. The country now ranks 148th out of 179 in yet another press freedom index released by the independent organization Reporters Without Borders.

January 31, Thursday

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) called 2012 the worst year in terms of human rights in the history of post-Soviet Russia. This is stated in the annual report of HRW.

In the window of the House of Human Rights in Voronezh, traces of shots from traumatic or pneumatic weapons were found. None of the employees were inside at the time of the attack. According to human rights activists, the incident is related to the activities of public organizations.

During the action "Strategy 31" on Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow, 26 people were detained. Among the detainees was a couple of newlyweds holding a poster in support of Vladimir Akimenkov: "Putin, go blind yourself." Nine people were caught by the police at a similar action near the Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg.

February 1, Friday

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin approved the idea of ​​renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad . The day before, more than 50,000 signatures for changing the name of the city were handed over to the presidential administration, and local deputies decided to rename Volgograd into the “hero city of Stalingrad” during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The court once again fined the Novosibirsk artist Artem Loskutov for "insulting religious feelings." A thousand rubles will cost Loskutov to distribute T-shirts in support of Pussy Riot.

It became known that the imprisoned member of Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was placed in a prison hospital . It is expected that she will be examined there in connection with headaches, which began to torment her even before the verdict was passed.

Leonid Razvozzhaev, who is in SIZO-1 in Irkutsk, claims that he is under pressure. He handed over a letter through a lawyer in which he writes: "As I expected, my exile in Siberia will only be a pretext for exerting monstrous pressure on me so that I give the necessary evidence against the leaders of the opposition." Razvozzhaev fears that "under certain circumstances, they will kill me, presenting it as death from illness or suicide."