RFE/RL: Russia says 780 people died from coronavirus-related causes over the past 24 hours, the highest number of fatalities confirmed in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly registered cases reached 24,702 nationwide for the same period, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported, bringing the total number of cases to 5.7 million. The overall coronavirus death toll stands at 144,492.
The Moscow Times: Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to recognize same-sex unions in a new ruling on Tuesday. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s ruling came in response to complaints filed in 2010 by three Russian same-sex couples whose attempts to register their marriages in Russia were rejected.
Amnesty International: Reacting to the news that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia is in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights by not providing same-sex unions with the ability to gain legal recognition under domestic law, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director, said: “This landmark decision underlines that the Russian government is on the wrong side of history, supporting and enabling homophobia and depriving LGBTI people of their basic human rights. The court explicitly stated that the Russian state is obliged to respect the human rights of same-sex couples and guarantee their equal recognition under the law.
RFE/RL: Fyodor Krasheninnikov, an outspoken Kremlin critic and noted political observer, says he has left Russia for Lithuania for the “foreseeable future” after coming under pressure from authorities for his work. Krasheninnikov wrote on Facebook on July 12 that he has been in Vilnius for some time but remains a Russian citizen, has not asked for political asylum, and “does not plan to do so.”
RFE/RL: The jailed father of Ivan Zhdanov, a close associate of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has been transferred to a prison hospital for unspecified reasons. Zhdanov tweeted on July 12 that his 67-year-old father, Yury, had been transferred from a detention center in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk to the Federal Penitentiary Service’s regional hospital for inmates “for tests.”
RFE/RL: Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov says he has stopped his campaign to repatriate foreign-based Russian businesspeople over concerns they may face arrest upon arrival. Titov’s report to Russian President Vladimir Putin, parts of which were published by the RIA Novosti news agency on July 12, says that the decision to stop the campaign was made due to a failure by the Prosecutor-General’s Office to guarantee that Russian businessmen from the so-called London List would not be arrested on their return.
RFE/RL: Police in Moscow have detained more than 100 Central Asian labor migrants after a mass brawl erupted between Kyrgyz and Tajik citizens in the Russian capital’s southeastern district of Kuzminki. The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry’s representative in Moscow, Nurlan Jabaev, told RFE/RL on July 13 that more than 70 of the detained individuals are Kyrgyz nationals, adding that a probe has been launched into the brawl, which took place overnight.
