End Repression of Non-Violent Government Critics in Nizhny Novgorod

Alert Issued: April 9, 2008

On March 20, 2008, police in Nizhny Novgorod - Russia's third largest city located some 300 miles from Moscow - raided the offices of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance. The Foundation is an independent human rights organization that has been the target of a sustained campaign of persecution and harassment since 2005.

Police closed the offices and took away computers, mobile phones, and other office equipment. No charges have been laid against the organization or its staff members and Human Rights First is concerned that the police raid was intended to disrupt the work of a legitimate, non-violent human rights organization.

Please call on the Russian authorities to return the computers and other seized materials to the organization so that it can continue its work. More importantly, urge the authorities to put an end to the harassment of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation and other peaceful government critics in the Nizhny Novgorod region and throughout Russia.

Tell me more

On March 20, 2008, police raided the offices of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance, confiscated their computers and computer discs, and sealed the premises. During the raid, police also confiscated a mobile phone belonging to Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the Director of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society, now registered as a non-governmental organization in Finland. The Foundation is the successor organization to the Russian Chechen Friendship Society, the first independent human rights organization to be ordered closed under Russia's 2006 law regulating non-governmental organizations. This latest raid is part of a sustained campaign of harassment directed against the Foundation and its staff members dating back to 2005.

In addition to raiding the offices, police also conducted searches of the homes of several staff members of the organization, including Ilya Shamazov, Yelena Yevdokimova and Yury Staroverov. The police raids have paralyzed the work of this legally registered non-governmental human rights organization.

Stanislav Dmitrievsky was convicted on charges of "inciting ethnic hatred" in 2006. His conviction was based on articles he published in the organization's newspaper which criticized Russian policies in Chechnya and the North Caucasus and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The authorities used this conviction as a pretext to justify the closure of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society in January 2007.

Staff members of the organization fear that the authorities are seeking to build a criminal case against them as "extremists." The authorities have increasingly used a 2002 law designed to combat violent extremism in order to harass and intimidate its non-violent critics and political opponents. The law, supposedly intended to fight extremism, is being misused as a weapon to suppress legitimate peaceful dissent.

In addition to seeking the closure of the organization through the courts, the authorities have also resorted to administrative harassment, intrusive surveillance of staff members, and threats and intimidation. The organization's plans to hold an international conference in October 2007, on the first anniversary of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, were blocked by the authorities. International participants in the conference, including a representative from Human Rights First, were briefly detained by police. Dmitrievsky, and another of the organization's leaders, Oksana Chelysheva, have been the targets of anonymous death threats.

At the same time as the raids on the Foundation offices and the homes of staff members, police also conducted raids against supporters of the opposition political movement, The Other Russia, in and around Nizhny Novgorod. Activists in Nizhny Novgorod fear that the authorities may be preparing further prosecutions of non-violent government opponents in the Nizhny Novgorod area as an exemplary demonstration to all dissidents and would-be government critics in Russia of the possible consequences of speaking out.

More Information:
Russia’s Human Rights Defenders in Danger: The Example of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society

Sample Letter

President Vladimir Putin
c/o H.E. Ambassador Yuri V. Ushakov
Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States
2650 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Fax: 202-298-5735

Dear President Putin:

I am writing to express my grave concern about the March 20, 2008 police raid of the offices of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance, an independent human rights organization that has been the target of a sustained campaign of persecution and harassment since 2005.

Police closed the offices and took away computers, mobile phones, and other office equipment. During the raid, police also confiscated a mobile phone belonging to Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the Director of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society. No charges have been laid against the Foundation or its staff members and I am concerned that the police raid was intended to disrupt the work of a legitimate, non-violent human rights organization.

In addition to raiding the offices, police also conducted searches of the homes of several staff members of the organization, including Ilya Shamazov, Yelena Yevdokimova and Yury Staroverov. The police raids have paralyzed the work of this legally registered non-governmental human rights organization.

Staff members of the organization fear that the authorities are seeking to build a criminal case against them as "extremists." The authorities have increasingly used a 2002 law designed to combat violent extremism in order to harass and intimidate its non-violent critics and political opponents. The law, supposedly intended to fight extremism, is being misused as a weapon to suppress legitimate peaceful dissent.

In addition to seeking the closure of the organization through the courts, the authorities have also resorted to administrative harassment, intrusive surveillance of staff members, and threats and intimidation. The organization's plans to hold an international conference in October 2007, on the first anniversary of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, were blocked by the authorities. International participants in the conference, including a representative from Human Rights First, were briefly detained by police. Dmitrievsky, and another of the organization's leaders, Oksana Chelysheva, have been the targets of anonymous death threats.

I therefore call on you to urge the police who conducted the raid to return the computers and other seized materials to the organization so that it can continue its work. More importantly, I demand that you put an end to the harassment of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation and other peaceful government critics in the Nizhny Novgorod region and throughout Russia.

I will continue to closely monitor this case.