Amnesty International Condemns Russia Once Again
The Associated Press reports:
Russian authorities have intensified pressure on civil society and the independent media and are turning a blind eye to the growing number of hate crimes targeting foreigners, immigrants and sexual minorities, an international rights group said in a report released Wednesday.
Amnesty International's criticism is the latest in a growing chorus from human rights groups and Western nations about Russian society under President Vladimir Putin.
In its 2007 global report, Amnesty said Russian authorities "deliberately fomented fear to erode human rights," restricting freedom of expression.
"The authoritarian drift in Russia has been devastating for journalists and human rights defenders," the report said, noting the assassination of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and new laws clamping down on rights organizations.
Authorities have also ignored the abduction of civilians in war-wracked Chechnya, which it called a "forgotten" conflict, the London-based organization said.
The chairwoman of Russia's government-appointed human rights council said that authorities should consider the report, but disagreed with some aspects, including on rights abuses in Chechnya.
"I respect their viewpoint and unbiased work, but the situation in Chechnya has improved dramatically," said Ella Pamfilova, the council's chairwoman.
Russian civil and non-governmental groups are "left vulnerable" to new government regulations and Russia's leaders are failing to confront "racism, xenophobia and ideologies that promote hate crimes," the Amnesty report said.
Labels:
human rights,
neo-soviet crackdown,
russia
4 comments:
The report also cited the disgusting Kremlin directed show trial that was perpetrated on Khordorkovsky.
• Former YUKOS oil company head Mikhail Khodorkovskii and associate Platon Lebedev, serving nine-year prison sentences following convictions in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion, were denied the right to serve their sentences in or near their home areas. Mikhail Khodorkovskii was unlawfully held in a punishment cell for two weeks in January for having a copy of publicly available government decrees on prisoner conduct. He was also held in a punishment cell for a week in March for drinking tea in an unauthorized place.
What a sham.
That the Russian sheeple failed to get the full meaning of that sham is appalling. It means that any Russian no matter what their circimstances in life can be treated in their courts as unfairly. While they rail and shake their tiny fists at Khordorkovksy because he accumulated wealth by the same rules or lack of them at the time, afforded to all of the others who cashed in on that period, he's probably the most decent man in Russia today.
Of course, there will be some moronic apologist following me to comment that he deserved what he got when they would never accept such awful treatment as fair in their own life.
The cycle of cruelty in Russia never ends, nor does the vicious culture of envy and vengence.
China is gaining on them. They will be a dangerous but much reduced backwater given time if they continue as they are now.
Thanks Penny! Your comments are always required reading!
You and Robert Amsterdam's blog are required reading for anyone interested and not deluded about what is happening in Russia. It's not like you are making things up. The facts stand on their own.
Russians don't have clean hands in the re-Stalinization of their country. Their days are long over as pathetic passive victims.
I comment because it's time and the technology is there for them to hear just what other normal folks, an American in my case, really think about their craven behavior.
That Putin has a 70% approval rating, I'm sure that is correct when you look at the tiny handful that take it to the streets in support of free elections, reveals the real Russia.
Th place is a dump, will always be a dump, until Russians change it.
Amnesty International actually took time to mention something that can not be blamed on Jews and capitalists? Did they tell Putin he was risking becoming almost as bad as John Howard?
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