Anti-extremism, anti-terrorism legislation
Two Defendants In Russian ‘Network’ Case Receive Lengthy Prison Terms
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Two Russian activists from a group known as Set (Network) have received lengthy prison terms on charges of being members of a terrorist group that planned to overthrow the country’s authorities. On June 22, the Second West Territory’s Military Court sentenced Viktor Filinkov to 7 years and Yury Boyarshinov to 5 1/2 years in prison in a case opposition figures and rights defenders have called “fabricated.” Filinkov’s lawyer, Yevgenia Kulakova, announced that the defense would appeal the verdict, which sparked protests near the courthouse. Several dozen people gathered there chanting slogans such as “Shame!” and “Freedom for political prisoners.” RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Clooney Foundation To Monitor Russian Journalist’s Trial For ‘Justifying Terrorism’
PSKOV, Russia — The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), a human rights watchdog founded by Hollywood star George Clooney and his wife, Lebanese-British lawyer Amal Clooney, will be monitoring the high-profile trial of Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva, who is accused of “justifying terrorism.” Prokopyeva’s lawyer Tatyana Martynova told RFE/RL on June 22 that the CFJ will be represented at the trial in the northwestern Russian city of Pskov by lawyer Maksim Kuznetsov, who will monitor the trial’s legality. Prokopyeva told RFE/RL that the monitoring “will play the role of a ‘social searchlight’ that will permit the evaluation of the case that we were hoping to get,” adding that because of coronavirus restrictions many international organizations have been unable to attend the trial. RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Member of Pussy Riot protest group detained by anti-extremist police
A prominent member of the protest group Pussy Riot was interrogated for hours and charged with petty hooliganism after his sudden disappearance sparked concerns he had been kidnapped. Pyotr Verzilov, an activist and artist, was seized at his apartment by unidentified men who broke down his door with a sledgehammer on Sunday morning. Verzilov is a veteran member of Pussy Riot who launched a pitch invasion with three other activists at the 2018 World Cup finals to protest against police brutality and subsequently complained of a poisoning attempt, which he blamed on the Russian government. He rose to prominence during the 2012 trial of three members of Pussy Riot for launching a punk protest in a Moscow cathedral. The Guardian, 22 June 2020
Member Of Russia’s Pussy Riot Jailed For ‘Swearing At Police’
A court in Moscow on June 22 sentenced a founding member of the protest music group Pussy Riot to 15 days in jail for allegedly swearing at police, local media reported. Pyotr Verzilov, who is also a publisher of Mediazona, was detained on June 21 after police searched his residence in connection with an investigation into Moscow protests last year. Verzilov said that when he was released later that day after questioning and was walking toward the subway, he was followed by a group of people he believed were police officers. One of them attempted to trip the activist twice and police arrested them for fighting, keeping Verzilov in jail overnight. “The description of this situation leaves no doubt that we were in a situation of a classic police provocation, which played out very badly,” he told the court. RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Administrative detention of ex-Pussy Riot member for hooliganism upheld
MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld a 15-day administrative detention imposed on ex-member of the art group Voina (War) and notorious punk group Pussy Riot Petr Verzilov for petty hooliganism, the court’s press service told RAPSI. On June 22, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow found Verzilov guilty of violating a public order by talking obscenities near a police station he left after interrogation. RAPSI, 25 June 2020
Danish Jehovah’s Witness Jailed In Russia Granted Early Release
A court in southwestern Russia has granted early release to a Danish member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been imprisoned since 2017, the religious denomination says. It said a judge in the Lgovskiy District Court on June 23 released Dennis Christensen from prison, three years into a six-year sentence. A spokesman for the denomination’s world headquarters in the United States said Christensen was ordered to pay a fine of 400,000 rubles ($5,800) in place of serving out the rest of his sentence. RFE/RL, 23 June 2020
Joint Letter by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to Russia’s Prosecutor General
On the Unfounded Criminal Prosecution of Emir-Usein Kuku, an Ethnic Crimean Tatar Human Rights Defender from Crimea, and His Five Co-defendants. Human Rights Watch, 22 June 2020
Russian court refuses to consider proof that Crimean Tatar rights activist and 5 other political prisoners should be acquitted
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued a joint letter to Russia’s Prosecutor General on 22 June, demanding the release of Crimean Tatar human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku and five other Ukrainian prisoners of conscience. Their concerns about this appalling case were clearly shared by representatives of the European Union and Dutch Embassy who were also present at the court in Moscow. It is likely that such international attention forced the court to at least pretend to give the appeal due consideration, however the rejection of all legitimate applications from the defence leave little scope for optimism about the ultimate decision. Human Rights in Ukraine, 23 June 2020
Huge sentences upheld for defending human rights and integrity in Russian-occupied Crimea
Russia’s Military Court of Appeal has upheld horrific sentences against Crimean Tatar human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku and five other Ukrainian Muslims despite the lack of any crime and a record-breaking number of falsifications. The gross flaws in the case have been spelled out by, among others, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and noted by the EU diplomats who attended the first appeal hearing, yet the ‘judges’ did not make even a symbolic reduction in the sentences. The six recognized Ukrainian political prisoners and Amnesty International prisoners of conscience have been imprisoned since 11 February 2016, with their arrests marked by particularly shocking brutality and cynicism. Human Rights in Ukraine, 26 June 2020
Young father sentenced to seven years for refusing to collaborate with the FSB
The first time Russia’s FSB demanded that Arsen Dzhepparov give false testimony against four Ukrainian political prisoners and he refused, they got him fired from his job. A week later, the FSB caused a minor road incident involving Dzhepparov’s car, stopped him and, when he still refused, got him fined for supposed drunken driving. On that occasion, the traffic police officer told the 25-year-old Crimean Tatar that, whatever the FSB wanted, he should agree to, since, otherwise, they’d destroy him. A week later, on 18 April 2016, armed FSB and other officers burst into his home and arrested him on the same ‘terrorism’ charges as the political prisoners he had refused to tell lies about. Human Rights in Ukraine, 25 June 2020
Russian-Controlled Court In Crimea Postpones Hearing Into Case Against Rights Activist
ARMYANSK, Ukraine — A court in Russia-controlled Crimea has postponed a preliminary hearing in absentia against a veteran Crimean Tatar leader and prominent Soviet-era dissident who has vehemently opposed Russia’s illegal annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. The court in the Crimean city of Armyansk was scheduled to start the hearing for Mustafa Dzhemilev on June 25, but postponed it after it turned out that neither the defendant, nor his legal team, had received official papers from prosecutors, Dzhemilev’s lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, said. RFE/RL, 25 June 2020
Freedom of expression
Prosecutor Seeks Six Years In Prison For Russian Director Serebrennikov
MOSCOW – Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence acclaimed theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov to six years in prison on embezzlement charges he denies. Prosecutor Mikhail Reznichenko said at the trial as it resumed on June 22 that it had been proven Serebrennikov and other defendants in the case had embezzled almost 129 million rubles (more than $1.86 million). All of the accused have denied the accusation. Reznichenko asked the Meshchansky District Court to sentence three other defendants to prison terms of between four years and five years. RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Kirill Serebrennikov
UPDATE: On June 25, 2020, ARC together with Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Film Network, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) and its initiators, the European Film Academy (EFA), the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), as well as the International Documentary Association (IDA), the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) and the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), call on the prosecution to immediately drop the criminal charges against them. Artists At Risk Connection, 25 June 2020
Drop Charges Against Russian Theater Director Kirill Serebrennikov
On Friday, June 26, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court is expected to deliver the verdict in the criminal embezzlement case against Kirill Serebrennikov, a prominent theater director in Russia, and his co-defendants, Sofia Apfelbaum, Alexei Malobrodsky, and Yuri Itin.
PEN America’s Artists At Risk Connection (ARC), together with Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Film Network, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) and its initiators, the European Film Academy (EFA), the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), as well as the International Documentary Association (IDA), the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) and the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), call on the prosecution to immediately drop the criminal charges against them. Human Rights Watch, 25 June 2020
Top Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov convicted of fraud
A Moscow court has convicted an avant garde theatre director of embezzlement but declined to give him a prison sentence in a case seen as a bellwether for artistic freedoms in the country. Likely bowing to public pressure, a Moscow judge gave Kirill Serebrennikov a suspended sentence, meaning he would walk free on Friday, ending a three-year legal ordeal that had galvanised Russia’s arts community in support of the celebrated director. The Guardian, 26 June 2020
Blogger Targeted by Russian Authorities for Anti-Racism Posts
Mariya Tunkara, a biracial Russian blogger from St. Petersburg, posted on her social media account this week that officials from the local prosecutor’s office visited her to caution her against “spreading extremist materials.” She presumed this was prompted by a complaint against her recent social media video posts, in which she discusses the prevalence of racism in Russia. After she posted them, she was subjected to bullying and threats online. Human Rights Watch, 19 June 2020
Resident of town in Russia fined $450 for fake COVID-19 news resulting in mass panic
MOSCOW, June 22 (RAPSI) – A district court in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia upheld a 30,000-ruble (about $450) fine imposed on a local resident for disseminating a fake news on the coronavirus pandemic, which had caused panic among the population, the press service of the Interior Ministry informs on Monday. RAPSI, 22 June 2020
So long, Vedomosti! What happened to Russia’s leading financial media
It’s been 20 years since the Kremlin openly started the war against the Russian press. Throughout all these years, this financial daily managed to survive – until recently. OpenDemocracy, 19 June 2020
Russia Investigates Toy Protests Against Vote on Putin’s Term Limits
Criminal investigators in St. Petersburg have attempted to question an activist who used children’s toys to protest against a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule into 2036. Sonya Ulyasheva, a spokeswoman for the Vesna democratic movement, had posted photographs of the toy protests as on offshoot of the #MiniProtest social media campaign in which participants post photos of fruits and vegetables holding anti-amendments posters in public spaces. The Moscow Times, 23 June 2020
Interview with Andrei Soldatov on Digital Rights in Russia
Andrei Soldatov, interviewed by Human Rights Watch in April, is an investigative journalist, nonfiction writer and a top expert on Russia’s security services. His book “The Red Web,” co-authored with Irina Borogan, tells the story of the Russian internet and the Kremlin’s war on digital freedoms. How would you describe the current state of digital rights in Russia? Which developments do you identify? I think today we are in an age of declining digital rights in Russia. This process began in 2012, but in 2019, things got really bad – we saw significant negative developments. The first one is the ‘sovereign internet’ law, which actually develops a system enabling the authorities, among other things, to switch off the internet in specific regions of the country or separate those regions from the rest of the country. The second law is on mandatory pre-installation of Russian-made apps, which means that every Russian user will have those Russian apps pre-installed on his or her smartphone. This law will come into effect in December 2020. The idea is to make Russian customers use Russian developers’ applications, which can be easier to control than foreign apps. Human Rights Watch, 19 June 2020
Tatar Activist Loses Job After Publicly Challenging Coronavirus Numbers
NABEREZHNYE CHELNY, Russia — An activist in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan claims he has been dismissed as head of a branch of the local government-funded World Tatar Congress in the republic’s second-largest city, Naberezhnye Chelny, after publicly challenging the official municipal statistics on the coronavirus. The Tatar Congress announced on June 23 that Galimzhan Zaripov had been relieved of his duties at his own request and that his deputy, Danis Shakirov, will take over the organization’s branch. RFE/RL, 24 June 2020
Mass media outlets in Russia’s Tver region reportedly have instructions to stop covering all ‘negative’ stories
For the week and a half before July 1, when Russia finishes its nationwide plebiscite on constitutional amendments that could extend Vladimir Putin’s presidency to 2036, mass media outlets in the Tver region are prohibited from reporting any “negative news,” according to local journalists at Politver. Sources told the website that outlets in Tver have been asked to avoid any stories that “foster a level of negativity about the region,” though local publications have not admitted to these allegations. Meduza, 25 June 2020
Anti-Putin Shaman Recognized as Political Prisoner
A self-described Siberian shaman critical of President Vladimir Putin is a political prisoner being persecuted for his beliefs, the Memorial human rights organization said Thursday. Authorities committed Alexander Gabyshev to a mental asylum earlier in June following his three attempts to trek 8,000 kilometers from his hometown of Yakutsk to “banish” Putin from the Kremlin. Observers have compared his case to Soviet-era punitive psychiatry exercised on political dissenters. The Moscow Times, 26 June 2020
Viktor Tsoi: The undying icon of Soviet dissident rock
June 21, 1962, is the birth date of Viktor Tsoi, a Korean-Russian rock star from the late years of the Soviet Union who now enjoys cult status across Russian-speaking countries, 30 years after his tragic death. Tsoi was born in Leningrad to an ethnic Russian mother, Valentina Guseva, and an ethnic Korean father, Robert Tsoi. Tsoi’s father traces his origins to today’s North Korea via Kazakhstan, as his family was deported to Soviet Central Asia during Stalin’s rule. Global Voices, 20 June 2020
Right of assembly
Take everyone who shouts ‘Freedom!’ St. Petersburg ‘Network’ terrorism case verdicts spark protests and dozens of arrests
On June 22, a military court in St. Petersburg sentenced two suspects in the high-profile “Network” (“Set”) terrorism case to a combined total of 12.5 years in prison, for their roles in organizing an alleged terrorist group among left-wing activists in Penza and St. Petersburg. Twenty-five-year-old computer programmer Viktor Filinkov was sentenced to seven years in prison, while 28-year-old alpinist Yulii Boyarshinov — who was also convicted of illegal possession of explosives — was sentenced to five and a half years. After the verdicts were announced, law enforcement began arresting activists protesting in support of the accused outside the courtroom en masse. Meduza recounts how the verdicts in the “Network” case sparked the first group protest in St. Petersburg since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Meduza, 22 June 2020
Two pensioners detained in Sochi for pickets against constitutional amendments
Galina Lazorskaya and Lyubov Nikolaeva have been detained by law enforcers of Sochi during their action against amending the Constitution. The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, set July 1, 2020, as the voting date on constitutional amendments. The 62-year-old pensioner, Galina Lazorskaya, told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that on June 22, the day of remembrance and grief, she decided to go out to a solo picket against the adoption of constitutional amendments. She went out to the Flag Square near the Sochi Mayoralty with posters “I express distrust of Putin and Government”, “No to the usurper!” and “Don’t be fooled!” Caucasian Knot, 23 June 2020
Right of association
Ensure transparency of Anastasia Shevchenko’s Trial
The Solidarity Task Force of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum is calling on you to participate in the campaign for publicity of the high-profile trial of activist Anastasia Shevchenko, which has begun today, 17 June 2020. You can help by sending a request to organize a broadcast of the court hearing on this case through the section “Citizens’ Appeals” of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don at https://ej.sudrf.ru/letters?fromOa=61RS0005. You can download a template of the appeal at the bottom of this page. The template was prepared by the Forum member organisation, Citizens’ Watch (Saint Peterburg). Anastasia Shevchenko is an activist with the Open Russia movement and its board member from Rostov-on-Don. In January 2019, She was charged with participating in an undesirable organization and put under house arrest [1]. She is facing six years in prison. Shevchenko is a mother of two. Her third daughter died in hospital while Shevchenko was already under house arrest. The Human Rights Centre “Memorial” recognized her as a political prisoner [2]. EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, 17 June 2020
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: FURTHER INFORMATION: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER AND DOCTOR ON TRIAL: YANA ANTONOVA
The trial of Yana Antonova, a human rights defender and paediatrician from Krasnodar, southern Russia, resumed on 23 June. She faces up to six years in prison for commemorating a slain activist and other peaceful activities as a member of the “undesirable organisation” Open Russia. Amnesty International, 25 June 2020
Freedom of conscience
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: JEHOVAH’S WITNESS APPEALS LONG SENTENCE: GENNADIY SHPAKOVSKY
Gennadiy Shpakovsky, a 61-year-old Jehovah’s Witness from Pskov, western Russia, was sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment on 9 June for his faith. He is appealing his sentence, the harshest so far against a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia. Gennadiy Shpakovskiy is a prisoner of conscience prosecuted solely for exercising his right to freedom of religion. All charges against him must be dropped and he must be released immediately and unconditionally. Amnesty International, 24 June 2020
Human Rights Defenders
ECtHR awards human rights defenders with compensation for their beating in Ingushetia
Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has obliged the Russian authorities to pay am amount totalling to 28,000 euros to employees of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”, two of whom – Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya and Shamsuddin Tangiev – were beaten, while Zina Mukusheva, Zoya Muradova, Fatima Yandieva, and Albert Khantigov were detained for holding a picket in Nazran in memory of Anna Politkovskaya. The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on October 16, 2006, in Nazran, law enforcers dispersed a picket dedicated to the memory of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed shortly before. Caucasian Knot, 23 June 2020
Treason & Espionage
Another Russian Scientist Sentenced On High Treason Charge
Another Russian scientist has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term on a high treason charge in an ongoing spate of similar secretive cases targeting Russian academics. The Moscow Regional Court on June 22 sentenced Roman Kovalyov, a former senior official at the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash), to 7 years in prison. TsNIIMash is Russia’s leading rocket and spacecraft scientific center located in the city of Korolyov near Moscow. Kovalyov was arrested in June last year and charged with treason after his apartment and summer house near the Russian capital were searched by police. RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
LGBT rights
Russia ‘Accidentally’ Recognizes Gay Marriage
Russia appears to have recognized a gay marriage by sending a tax return to a prominent LGBT rights activist who had married his husband in the United States, the activist said Monday. This is at least the second time Russian officials have unintentionally recognized a gay marriage due to a legal loophole in the country’s family law. Russian LGBT Network director Igor Kochetkov said he received a tax deduction from Russia’s Federal Tax Service on his husband’s behalf earlier this month. The Moscow Times, 23 June 2020
Russian Court Rules Transgender Woman’s Firing Unlawful
A transgender woman in St. Petersburg, Russia has won a final court battle with a former employer who fired her in 2017 after she changed her legal gender. The woman, known as “Anna,” had worked for a decade as a quality control checker at a company that manufactured plates used in printing presses for candy wrappers. Human Rights Watch, 25 June 2020
Voting
Coronavirus Frontline Doctors Ordered to Vote on Changes Allowing Putin to Stay in Power
Russian health workers treating coronavirus patients across the country say they are being pressured by their superiors to vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power through 2036. “We simply don’t have a choice,” a doctor at the Syktivkar Republic Infectious Diseases hospital in Russia’s remote northern republic of Komi told The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity. The health worker — whose region was one of the country’s first coronavirus hotspots — said staff were called in for a meeting last week where it was “made clear” that voting was “obligatory.” The Moscow Times, 23 June 2020
Voting as an ‘inter-corporate event’ This is the system Russian enterprises plan to use to track employees’ participation in a nationwide plebiscite on constitutional amendments
Meduza has learned that an electronic system is active in several regions across Russia that will monitor turnout among employees at major enterprises in the country’s upcoming plebiscite on new constitutional amendments (including reforms that could extend Vladimir Putin’s presidency to 2036). Using the website votely.ru, the executives of various organizations can preload staff rosters and assign a unique QR code to each individual. Meduza, 24 June 2020
Russians Start Voting On Reforms, Multiple Voting Already An Issue
Russians have begun casting ballots in a vote on constitutional reforms that could pave the way for an extension of President Vladimir Putin’s rule by 12 years. Voting stations opened on June 25 in all 14 administrative regions of Russia’s Far Eastern federal district, regional election commissions and administrative bodies said as the seven-day voting period on the measure kicked off. The opening of polling stations for a week is aimed at helping avoid crowds on July 1, the day designated for the nationwide vote, as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. RFE/RL, 25 June 2020
‘Some kind of technical error’ Electoral officials can’t seem to explain Moscow’s unusually high online-voter registration numbers
More than one million Muscovites registered for online voting in Russia’s constitutional plebiscite — overall, that’s every seventh voter. According to official statistics, in several precincts the number of voters wanting to cast their ballots online is actually greater than the total number of voters in that area. The strangest numbers have appeared at Moscow’s polling station No. 3395 in the Troitsky Administrative Okrug, where three times the total number of voters in that precinct filed applications to vote online. Meduza spoke with a representative of the territorial electoral commission and the chairman of the local electoral commission in charge of this voting district, and it turns out they themselves don’t understand how this happened. Meduza, 25 June 2020
Police show up to question journalist who voted twice in constitutional plebiscite
On the morning of June 26, police arrived at the home of Pavel Lobkov, a journalist for the independent television station Dozhd, claiming they needed to question him. Lobkov reported the police’s arrival to the rights organization “Apologia Protesta.”Lobkov has refused to let the police in until his lawyer arrives, Dozhd reports. “I’m waiting for a lawyer, the police are outside the door, I’m still home. They said that [they are here] to collect a statement from me,” the journalist told MBKh Media. Meduza, 26 June 2020
‘It looks like a gameshow’: Russia’s pseudo-vote on Putin’s term limits
The people of Moscow received text messages this week telling them they had been registered to win “millions of prizes”. The catch? They have to vote on constitutional amendments that include allowing Vladimir Putin to remain in the Kremlin potentially until 2036. Organisers of Russia’s pseudo-referendum to amend the constitution – originally scheduled for 22 April but delayed owing to the coronavirus outbreak – appear to be making up the rules as they go along. The Guardian, 26 June 2020
Environment
Activists Allege Cover-Up as Toxic Siberian Fuel Spill Reaches Arctic Ocean
Toxic fuel from a massive leak in Siberia may have already reached the Arctic Ocean despite officials’ claims of successful cleanup efforts, a Russian environmental activist said as he called on the international community to declare the accident a global disaster. More than 21,000 metric tons of diesel leaked into soil and rivers near the city of Norilsk after a power plant’s fuel tank collapsed on May 29. Officials have said that cleanup efforts had stopped the fuel from spreading further north, where it risked entering the Arctic Ocean. The Moscow Times, 25 June 2020
Investor Breathes New Life Into Major Arctic Coal Project
Roman Trotsenko, one of Russia’s richest businessmen, plans to invest 33 billion rubles ($476 million) into a major Arctic coal extraction project, Forbes Russia reported. Trotsenko on June 18 formalized the acquisition of 75% of shares in the Arctic Mining Company and intends to forge ahead with big plans for coal production on the tundra. The Moscow Times, 26 June 2020
Remembering the past
Remains Of People Executed By Nazis Reburied In Russia
The remains of more than 500 men, women, and children executed by Nazi troops during World War II have been reburied in Russia’s northwestern region of Novgorod as the country commemorates Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. A June 22 ceremony marked the Day of Memory and Sorrow in the village of Zhestyanaya Gorka, where the remains of hundreds of people were discovered last year. Further investigations revealed that the people found at several sites were executed during the Nazi occupation in 1942-1943. Last month, Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a probe into the “genocide of the residents of the Novgorod and Pskov regions.” RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Russian Communist Unveils Stalin Statue on WWII Anniversary
A Russian communist businessman has unveiled a monument of Josef Stalin that local authorities dubbed illegal on the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II. The statue is being unveiled as Russia grapples with how to treat the Soviet leader’s legacy and amid a contentious worldwide debate over which historical figures deserve to be celebrated. The Moscow Times, 25 June 2020
Putin Ever More Frequently Talks about Benefits of War Rather than Its Costs, Inozemtsev Says
Staunton, June 21 – As his Victory day celebration approaches, Vladislav Inozemtsev says, Vladimir Putin is focusing on the past and stressing all the benefits war brought the Soviet Union and Russia while largely ignoring its enormous human costs. Indeed, he refers to the latter only in terms of some super-human cost-benefit analysis.
In his essay on the prelude to World War II and in his remarks on today’s Moscow.Putin.Kremlin television show, the Kremlin leader discusses the past in terms of the lessons it has for today be they the division of the world into spheres of influence or the negative consequence of denigrating any country (echo.msk.ru/blog/v_inozemcev/2664287-echo/). Window on Eurasia, 23 June 2020
