The Moscow Times: Russia on Thursday recorded its highest coronavirus death toll for a third day running. A government tally reported 23,888 new coronavirus cases and 867 deaths.
The Guardian: Russian authorities are seeking to detain a prominent investigative journalist, in another sign of increased government pressure on independent media, opposition supporters and human rights activists. Roman Dobrokhotov, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Insider news site is being investigated on charges of “illegally” crossing the border, and has been placed on a wanted list as part of the investigation, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday.
The Moscow Times: Russian authorities added prominent investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov to the country’s wanted list, his lawyer said Thursday, charging him with illegally crossing the Russian border.
Amnesty International: Valentina Chupik, a recognized refugee and migrant rights defender, has been held in the transit lounge at Sheremetevo airport in Moscow since 25 September. She has been told that she has been stripped of her refugee status, banned from Russia for 30 years, and is threatened with imminent forcible return to Uzbekistan. She must be immediately released and allowed to remain in Russia so that she can continue her work.
The Moscow Times: Russia’s LGBT, radical feminist and child-free groups should be recognized as “extremist,” the chairman of an influential government commission said Wednesday. “LGBT ideology, radical feminism and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism — an extremist ideology,” the state-run TASS news agency cited Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the Roskomnadzor communications regulator, as saying Wednesday.
CPJ: Russian authorities should allow the independent news outlets Mediazona and OVD-Info to work freely and without government harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
RFE/RL: Amnesty International has condemned a Russian court’s rejection of an appeal by a Yakut shaman against a decision to confine him to a psychiatric clinic as he campaigned to drive President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin.
Human Rights in Ukraine: Despite a recent micro stroke and the real likelihood that Servet Gaziev will not live to the end of his internationally condemned trial, Russia is refusing to release the 61-year-old Crimean Tatar political prisoner. He was, instead, placed at the beginning of September in the neuropsychological unit of a Penitentiary Service hospital for tuberculosis patients, in a cell together with men with mental disorders. It was staff of this institution who took part in beating Gaziev and forcibly cutting off his beard.
