Paris-Geneva, September 2003

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of their joint program, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, note with concern that the work of Human Rights Defenders in Russia has been increasingly difficult over the past few months. It seems that a new campaign of harassment has been initiated against NGOs.

Of particular concern is the situation of the non-governmental human rights organization “Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg”. Soldiers' Mothers has worked in Saint Petersburg for 12 years, not only defending the rights of soldiers who come to their organization for help, but also teaching them and their families how to use and observe the laws and the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

According to the information received, in mid January 2003, 24 soldiers deserted the army and contacted Soldiers' Mothers, claiming they had been tortured. Following this, S. Ivanov, the Russian Federation Minister of Defense, publicly declared that “if soldiers run from the army to Soldiers' Mothers and not to the Prosecutor, it makes you wonder: who actually funds 'Soldiers' Mothers'?,” alluding to the fact that their money comes from the Western world.

On 20 January 2003, Igor Lebed, Military Prosecutor of the Leningrad military district, addressed a letter to the Ministry of Justice of Saint Petersburg requesting an investigation of the activities of “Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg.” The aim of this letter was to find out if its activities corresponded to the ones set out in the officially registered Status. The letter was shown to the staff of Soldiers' Mothers only once the investigation had started, while the plan of the investigation was simply not disclosed.

In his letter, Mr. Lebed accused Soldiers' Mothers of calumnies, of “propaganda for desertion”, which according to him is “an appeal to crime”, of monitoring the conditions and procedure of the conscriptions and, furthermore, of distributing the results of their investigation, which does not correspond to the activities mentioned in their Status.

During the investigation, Mrs. Kaznacheeva, the Ministry of Justice's chief of department on associations (religious and other), in charge of enquiring, insisted on looking through the private files of the soldiers defended by the organization, which is in total violation of the principle of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. None of Mr. Lebed’s accusations were proven but a number of details gave the investigators an excuse to make negative conclusions. They noticed, for instance, that the organization's name on the door and on its stamp is not written out completely (instead of “Saint Petersburg Regional Civil Human Rights Association,” only “Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg” appears). A crucifix and written prayers hung in the office were also seen as a violation of the Status since the Soldiers' Mothers “is not declared as a religious organization”.

On 23 June 2003, the organization received the conclusion of the investigation, which stated that their Status was incompatible with their activities. This same conclusion informed them of the changes to be made and included recommendations concerning the registration of their new Status. The Status was changed according to the recommendations, and on 26 July 2003, the new version of the Status was presented for registration to the Ministry of Justice. On 7 August 2003, the registration was refused.

Around the same time, “Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg” was informed that the Ministry of Justice plans to put a hotel in the building where their organization rents office space. In addition, they were informed that they would have to be ready to leave it “soon” - that is, as soon as the construction work would begin. They were advised to look for another office. It should be noted that no one else among the owners of the flats in this building had been warned.

Finally, on 11 September, three unknown men, who tore the signs of peaceful demonstrators and hardly beat up one of them, attacked the weekly picket line of Soldiers’ Mothers held on the main street of Saint Petersburg to protest against the war in Chechnya. A fourth person watched aside what was happening and spoke by a mobile phone. Once he saw a TV reporter (accidentally present there) who was filming the aggression, the man ordered the others to leave quickly and reported to someone by a mobile phone “We are leaving, we won”.

Meanwhile, on 14 June 2003, A. Bukin, the director of the Nachimov military school, initiated proceedings against Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg, against the mother of one of the school's students who was recently defended by the organization, and against the newspaper Smena which had published information on the psychological and physical torture practiced at the military school, information which was provided by Soldiers' Mothers. Bukin demanded from both Co-Presidents and the organization a total of 2,000,000 roubles, or approximately 67,000 euros. The Admiral of the Russian Fleet, Kuroedov, had previously informed Soldiers' Mothers that the information given by them on that subject had been found true and that the guilty officers had been punished; nevertheless, a trial has been scheduled to take place on 22 September 2003.

The activities of Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg are unsettling for the senior representatives of the Russian Army for obvious reasons: over the period 1 January 2003 to 30 June 2003 alone, the organization was contacted by 307 soldiers, among whom 241 complained of the forced conscription of sick children, 113 of torture, 40 of extortion, 35 of psychological pressure, 14 of slave labour for officers' personal needs, etc.

In mid-August, the Observatory received alarming information from VTsIOM (the Russian Center for Public Opinion and Market Research), which has existed as the most reliable source of opinion polls in Russia for 15 years. VTsIOM opinion polls on the war in Chechnya, on the presidential and municipal elections as well as on most aspects of Russian social and political life was the basis for the work of researchers and political scientists all over the world. The Center had had problems for already half a year with various administrative problems. In August they discovered that a new VTsIOM Board of Directors was being formed, and without the Head of the Center or staff having been informed and without any invitation for them to participate in the procedure. The Center was informed that once appointed, the Board would chose an executive director that would draw on the strategies of VTsIOM. The Observatory wishes to express its great concern over the government's and president's attempt to take over an independent public opinion center. This attempt was considered as a serious threat to the democracy in Russia by prominent European researches and sociologists.

Now, after weeks of uncertainty, the researchers at the helm of respected polling agency VTsIOM have quit their jobs to set up their own independent agency, VTsIOM director Yury Levada said on 9 September. Levada said that he and dozens of his staff have decided not to wait any longer and have set up a polling agency named Analytical Service VTsIOM, or VTsIOM-A for short. He said VTsIOM-A has been registered as an autonomous non-commercial organization and will keep the VTsIOM logo, which appears on everything his team publishes. According to Levada, most of his 90 staffers have decided not to work under new VTsIOM management and that they would try to get by on commercial contracts – as they had done at VTsIOM for more than a decade, having seen no government funding.

The Property Ministry, which is overhauling VTsIOM on behalf of the government, welcomed the researchers' departure, saying it offered an easy solution to a potentially tough problem. The new board of directors has also been appointed, and includes at least seven officials from various ministries (Ministry of Labor, Ministry of State Property, the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, etc. )

According to the information received, on 14 August 2003, of the office of the human rights organization “Memorial Saint Petersburg” and its staff (see the urgent appeal of The Observatory RUS 001/0803/OBS 042). On 14 August 2003, a young man arrived at the Memorial office, allegedly looking for those in charge of the anti-fascist commission. The anti-fascist commission staff not being available, the man came back later on with another man to see Vladimir Schnitke, the Chairman of Memorial Saint Petersburg. They came masked and claimed they belonged to the "Committee for the defense of Budanov", which nobody appears to have heard of. (This name refers to Colonel Budanov, a Russian colonel convicted of having abducted and murdered a young Chechen woman in 2000.) The two men threatened members of staff with hammers, tore off the telephone cable, gagged two employees and Mr. Schnitke and tied up their hands; finally, they locked all of them in the closet. They then blocked the door of the closet, and the assailants claimed (which later proved untrue) they had booby-trapped it. They seized the Chairman's laptop computer and his mobile phone, as well as Vladimir Schnitke's pocket computer, his diary and his address book. They left a note saying "Free Buda...", obviously referring to Colonel Budanov.

The Press Department of the Department of Internal Affairs (MVD) declared that the attack was an ordinary burglary and that it was not politically motivated. The police consequently opened an investigation for burglary. However, the two men had not stolen any money or other computers besides Vladimir Schnitke's. The Observatory fears that the aim of the attack was to obtain information on the activities of Memorial Saint Petersburg, as well as its members and contacts.

According to the information received, the "School of Peace" Foundation based in the city of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Territory has increasingly come under threat of closure. Federal authorities justify taking action on the grounds that it no longer has the three founding members that such organizations in the Russian Federation require by law. The "School of Peace" Foundation had reportedly been told by the Ministry of Justice in 1999 that they could continue to work despite the fact that they had less than three founders.

The "School of Peace" Foundation works for the protection of human rights of children, human rights education and the promotion of tolerance. Over the past two years, it has fought discrimination against Meskhetians in Krasnodar Territory. Local human rights defenders say that local authorities have begun threatening the foundation with closure since they took up the protection of the human rights of Meskhetians. Allegedly, representatives of "School of Peace" were recently called "for talks" with the regional administration during which they were told that they would be closed down unless they ceased their activities in defending the rights of the Meskhetians living in Krasnodar Territory.

This is at least the fourth NGO that had been harassed by the authorities of Krasnodar Territory over the past year.

The Sakharov Museum in Moscow - part of a complex called Museum and Civil Center “Peace, Progress and Human Rights”, established by the family and colleagues of famed Soviet dissident and human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov and dedicated to his name - has been at the centre of a controversy over religion and art in recent months.

On 18 January, six men from a Russian Orthodox church in Pyzhi who said they were offended at provocative works of art, burst into the museum and destroyed the artworks, leading to court battles that have left the museum vulnerable to serious charges. Police were summoned and arrested the intruders, but eventually released them pending trial.

The State Duma passed a resolution condemning the museum and the exhibition's organizers and the courts announced that an investigation into the museum should ensue on charges of "incitement of racial and ethnic enmity" for alleged affronts against Russian Orthodoxy.

The prosecutor confiscated the works of art and the curator, Arutyun Zulumyan, was forced to go into hiding to avoid harassment. A commission was formed by the court to determine whether the works incited hatred, but it is seen as unfair for it was not made up of art experts. If found guilty, under Article 282 of the criminal code ("incitement of ethnic, racial, or religious enmity"), the organizers could face heavy fines and up to three years of probation or even three to five years in prison if aggravating circumstances of a crime committed by an "organized group" are found.

The museum had already suffered attacks in the past. In May 2002, unidentified vandals spray-painted a mural of Andrei Sakharov outside the museum with anti-Semitic and obscene slogans. Last May, Moscow city officials ordered the museum to take down a panel on the side of its building which read: "War Has Been Going On In Chechnya Since 1994. Enough!" According to the information received, city officials threatened the museum with a fine of 45,000 roubles (1,300 euros).

These facts constitute severe violations of regional and international human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the OSCE Copenhagen Document. They also contradict the disposals of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which explicitly stipulates the obligation of the State to protect human rights defenders in its article 12.

The Observatory calls on the Russian authorities to fulfil their obligations to international and regional human rights standards, allow Russian non-governmental organizations to continue freely their work in defending Human Rights and ensure their protection in any circumstances.