Week-ending 17 July 2020
On Thursday, 16 July 2020, Agora International Human Rights Group published a report that surveillance measures introduced by the authorities during the coronavirus pandemic could in the future remain in place to continue monitoring civilians. Damir Gainutdinov, co-author of the report, was quoted by The Moscow Times as describing methods used by the authorities as ‘immers[ing] us in a “brave new world” of total surveillance.’
Agora International Human Rights Group is an association of more than 50 human rights lawyers who work on high profile cases concerning human rights violations. At present the group’s lawyers are working on more than 300 cases in most Russian regions. Agora has permanent representatives in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Stavropol, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Lipetsk and Chita, as well as in Helsinki, Sofia and London.
Sources:
Russia to Keep Mass Surveillance After Coronavirus, Activists Say
Russian authorities’ massive surveillance campaign rolled out during the coronavirus pandemic could easily be used to monitor civilians in the future, research by the Agora human rights group said Thursday.
During the pandemic, the authorities have collected arriving citizens’ personal data; introduced pass systems that limited movement and violated citizens’ rights; and conducted video surveillance with facial recognition capabilities, the report’s authors say. Other forms of rights violations include delegating police functions to private entities and nationwide geo-tracking that was prone to embarrassing leaks.
The methods “immerse us into the ‘brave new world’ of total surveillance,” said Damir Gainutdinov, co-author of the “Surveillance Pandemic” research. […]
The Moscow Times, 17 July 2020
Agora International Human Rights Group website: https://www.agora.legal/
