Blogs

12 March 2023

By Simon Cosgrove

Simon is chair of Rights in Russia but writes these comments in a personal capacity and they may not necessarily represent the views of the organisation

This week in Russia a sixteen-year-old woman was forcibly kept in a rehabilitation centre and not allowed to see her father, who is her main carer, after he was charged with ‘discrediting the Russian army’; two defendants prosecuted for ‘discrediting the Russian army were given sentences of seven and eight-and-a-half years in prison; three young men were detained for reading out anti-war poetry on Moscow’s Mayakovsky Square and one of the three along with his girlfriend were allegedly tortured by the arresting police; a journalist was sentenced to eight months ‘correctional labour’ for discrediting the Russian army; the authorities seized the apartment and dacha of a journalist for failing to pay a 5,000 rouble fine imposed for not labelling an NGO a ‘foreign agent’; and the Buryatia Supreme Court dismissed an appeal imposed on an imprisoned Ukrainian citizen for discrediting the Russian army. In Ukraine, meanwhile, Ukrainian POW Maxym Butkevych was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment by the so-called Supreme Court of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), an area of Ukraine currently occupied by Russia; two other men were also convicted by the courts of the LNR in sham trials; Amnesty International in a report on the situation for women in Ukraine urged the international community to support and stand in solidarity with the women suffering human rights violations amid Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

In Russia

Sixteen-year-old Maria Moskaleva, OVD-Info reported, is not being allowed out of the rehabilitation centre where she was placed after her father was detained under house arrest in connection with a criminal case of ‘discrediting the Russian army. She is not allowed to see her father or receive any visitors.

Maria Moskaleva is being illegally detained in the rehabilitation centre: after Aleksei Moskalev was put under a restraining order, his daughter should have been returned home. […] but staff of the centre would not release her, citing a decision of the commission on minors’ affairs. In the meantime, Moskalev cannot even go out to buy groceries without his daughter’s help; being under house arrest, he does not have right of contact with anyone except the investigator, his lawyer and people who are registered at the same address as him.

OVD-Info

Two defendants in an anti-war case have been sentenced to prison, OVD-Info reported. The author of the Telegram channel “MSU [Moscow State University] Protest” Dmitry Ivanov and Bulat Shumekov, an activist from Kemerevo, were convicted of disseminating ‘fake news’ about the Russian army. Ivanov was sentenced to eight and a half years’ imprisonment; Shumekov was given seven years. Amnesty International condemned the convictions in what it called ‘brutal repression of anti-war dissent.’

The Russian authorities continue to harshly punish those who speak out about the war. According to our data, at least 144 people around the country have been prosecuted under the article of the Russian Criminal Code about spreading ‘fake news’ about the Russian army. A person may find themselves under investigation just because, for example, they decided to share information about the war in Ukraine on social media. In this way, the security forces want to silence Russian citizens, keeping them in constant fear of being imprisoned. 

OVD-Info

Dmitry Ivanov’s case is another demonstration of the brutal repression of anti-war dissent by Russian authorities. It shows that anyone who alleges Russian forces have committed war crimes will pay for it with years behind bars. The judiciary is no longer trying to maintain even the slightest appearance of impartiality. Both the prosecutor and the judge treated the statements of Russian officials as factual and truthful, that didn’t need independent verification. Anything that contradicted them was dismissed as false information. Both the prosecutor and the judge treated the statements of Russian officials as factual and truthful, that didn’t need independent verification. Anything that contradicted them was dismissed as false information. Dmitry Ivanov is a prisoner of conscience. He and all those prosecuted and convicted for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should be immediately and unconditionally released, and all charges against them dropped. The articles criminalizing criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should be repealed as violating the right to freedom of expression.”

Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director

The defendants in the ‘Mayakovsky Square readings’ case are facing a new charge, OVD-Info reported. Artem Kamardin, Egor Shtovba and Nikolai Dainenko have now been charged with incitement to group action intended to undermine state security, in addition to the earlier charge of incitement of hatred. The three have been held on remand since September 2022. The reason for the criminal investigation was a reading by Kamardin of a poem, ‘Kill me, militiaman’, by the Mayakovsky monument on 25 September 2022 during  an ‘anti-mobilisation’ poetry reading. When his home was searched the next day, he and his girfriend were reported to have been tortured by police officers.

The criminal article on public incitement to carry out activities against  state security only appeared in 2022. The charges against Kamardin stem from the fact that, during his appearance at the ‘Mayakovsky readings’ he called for people to ‘pay attention to the rules’, that is ‘not to take’ summonses from the hands of military representatives, ‘not to sign’ documents about having received summonses, and ‘not to appear’ under summons. Stovba and Daineko are considered his ‘accomplices’ because they ‘repeated Kamardin’s piece aloud and raised their arms’. Under this article of the Criminal Code, the young men could face up to seven years in prison – all for involvement in a poetry evening.

OVD-Info

The apartment and dacha of the chief editor of RosBusinessConsulting have been seized over an unpaid fine of 5,000 roubles levied over a breach of the rules regarding ‘foreign agents,’ OVD-Info reported. The media organisation allegedly failed to label an NGO as a ‘foreign agent.’ Kanaev had previously been fined several times for the same offence.

Under total censorship and the authorities’ efforts to get rid of independent media, even a reference to ‘foreign agents’ can be a pretext for prosecution. And if there is no legal basis for serious pressure on journalists, the police find a way to apply it anyway. The ridiculous behaviour of bailiffs in Peter Kanaev’s case is an excellent illustration of this. His case bears out the fact that the state is prepared to use the widest variety of methods to force the press to act as it wishes.

OVD-Info

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentencing by a Russian court of journalist Andrey Novashov to eight months’ correctional labor. On 6 March a court in the southern city of Prokopyevsk convicted Novashov of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced him to eight months of correctional labor, along with a one-year ban on journalistic activities.

Russian journalist Andrey Novashov’s case demonstrates how authorities are using wartime censorship measures to silence members of the press who report independently on sensitive issues. Authorities should not contest Novashov’s appeal, lift all the restrictions imposed on him, and stop prosecuting journalists for their work.

Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator

Amnesty International condemned the earlier (on 7 February) rejection by the Buryatia Supreme Court of an appeal by Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Marchenko, serving a ten-year sentence on charges of espionage, against an administrative fine for ‘discreditation of the Russian armed forces.’ Marchenko intends to appeal this decision.

Following his appeal, the penal colony authorities incarcerated him in a confinement cell for six months on spurious grounds. He is still denied contact with his partner. On 17 February, he was transferred to a penal colony FKU IK-2 in Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude.

Amnesty International

Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Human Rights Watch condemned the sentencing of Ukrainian POW Maxym Butkevych to 13 years’ imprisonment by the so-called Supreme Court of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), an area of Ukraine currently occupied by Russia,man. as a ‘cynical farce.’ Amnesty International also condemned the sentencing of prisoners of war to terms in prison following what it called sham trials in Russian-occupied territories. Amnesty International said the ‘so-called “convictions” of Maksym Butkevych, Viktor Pohozei and Vladyslav Shel arising from these sham trials should be considered null and void.’

Maxym Butkevych was captured by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in June 2022. Russian military investigators built the bogus case against Butkeyvich. Russian authorities published a video of him speaking to an apparent investigator clad in fatigues. In the video, Butkevych’s face looks swollen and the flesh around his eyes is dark and puffy. He stares into space as he mechanically states how he supposedly fired a grenade launcher at civilians. Maxym Butkevych, Max to us, is a beloved friend and colleague. A prominent rights defender and journalist, in March 2022 he wrote that he “put on hold [his] human rights and humanitarian work” and joined the military. “I have been an anti-militarist all my conscious life and remain so by conviction. But at this time, I feel [this is] my place. These are tragic times,” he wrote. Max was Ukraine’s leading advocate for refugees and migrants. He stood up for the most marginalized, promoted tolerance, and condemned hate speech. The very idea of Max deliberately targeting civilians is ludicrous. […] There is abundant evidence that authorities in Russia-controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions torture detainees and deprive them of all due process rights. Max’s “confession” was undoubtedly obtained by force, likely through torture. Torturing or convicting a Prisoner of war without a fair trial is a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions. That makes the “trial” against him not only a cynical farce, but also a likely war crime.

Human Rights Watch

The so-called ‘convictions’ of Maksym Butkevych, Viktor Pohozei and Vladyslav Shel arising from these sham trials should be considered null and void. By handing ‘justice’ over matters such as alleged war crimes to an unrecognized judiciary in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, Russia itself is violating international humanitarian law by denying Ukrainian prisoners of war their fundamental right to a fair trial. Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war of the right to a fair and regular trial constitutes a war crime. It is abundantly clear that these show trials are nothing but an act of ruthless retribution against Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia must fully respect the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and end such sham trials and other such violations. Russia must fully respect the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and end such sham trials and other such violations.

Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Amnesty International

Amnesty International in a report said that women in Ukraine face grave risks, an increased burden of caring responsibilities and immense stress and hardships when living in war zones, as Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its second year. The organisation said ‘the full-scale invasion has been having a detrimental effect on women’s mental, physical and sexual and reproductive health,’ raising concerns over sexual and gender-based violence. Amnesty said women should have a proactive role in decision-making processes and urged the international community to support and stand in solidarity with the women suffering human rights violations amid Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

Time and time again, women bear the brunt of war’s brutality. They are consistently on the frontlines of conflict – as soldiers and fighters, doctors and nurses, volunteers, peace activists, carers for their communities and families, internally displaced people, refugees, and too often as victims and survivors. Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine is no different. Women confront increased sexual and gender-based violence and perilous health conditions, while being forced to make life and death survival decisions for their families. At the same time, women are often excluded from the decision-making processes and their rights and needs remain unprotected and unmet.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

This week saw a bizarre range of apparently arbitrary treatment of individuals for alleged offences of ‘discrediting the Russian army.’ A man was place under house arrest while his daughter was incarcerated in a rehabilitation centre and deprived of access to her father; two men were sentenced to long terms in prison (of seven and of eight-and-a-half years) for discrediting the Russian army; three young men were detained for the same offence and are currently under investigation for publicly reading anti-war poetry on Moscow’s Mayakovsky Square (some of them allege they were tortured when detained); a journalist was given an eight-month sentence for discrediting the Russian army; while a Ukrainian citizen serving a ten-year sentence for alleged espionage was further punished for ‘discrediting the Russian army’ while in prison. Meanwhile under the equally flexible ‘foreign agent’ law the authorities seized an apartment and dacha of a journalist who had failed to pay a 5,000 rouble fine. In Ukraine this week human rights organisations (notably Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International) directed attention to the sham trials in occupied territories that have handed down long prison sentences to Ukrainian POWs, including a 13-year sentence to Ukrainian human rights activist Maxym Butkevych; and Amnesty International in a substantive report condemned the human rights violations to which women in Ukraine have been subect as a result of Russia’s war of aggression.