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Read our selection of the past week’s news: Rights in Russia week-ending 20 March 2020

Listen to our latest podcast [in Russian]; our guest this week is Galina Arapova, director of the Mass Media Defence Centre, Russia’s leading media rights NGO, based in Voronezh: Simon & Sergei: Human rights in Russia – with Galina Arapova
– You can also find these podcasts on iTunes and Spotify

‘I can’t imagine what else there is to ban. Article 4 of the law “On mass media” already prohibits the promotion of drugs.’   
– Galina Arapova on the authorities measures to combat the promotion of illegal drugs on the Internet. Translated by Nicky Brown, Simon Cosgrove, Mercedes Malcomson and Nathalie Wilson 

‘You can’t deprive a person of their liberty on the basis of a decree from the Mayor of Moscow or a decision of the chief doctor at a hospital, as is now being done in Moscow.’  
– Pavel Chikov on human rights aspects of the struggle against coronavirus in Russia. Translated by Anna Bowles and Nina dePalma. 

‘On 16th March, mayor Sergei Sobianin issued a decree limiting freedom of assembly until 10th April, because of the coronavirus.’ – OVD-Info’s Weekly Bulletin includes information about measures by the Moscow authorities to combat the coronavirus. Translated by Judith Fagelson

‘Russian courts, for example, have already cut back on their work, having effectively closed hearings off from spectators and journalists. And the Federal Prison Service has announced, under the pretext of the fight against the Coronavirus, a ban on meetings with detainees.’
– Team 29 points to the alacrity with which the authorities have adopted certain measures in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. Translated by Lindsay Munford. 

‘I approached police colonel A. A. Makhonin, who was in charge of the security forces, and asked him why he was breaking the law, and demanded he stop this violation. Colonel A. A. Makhonin told me personally that I was allegedly participating in an unsanctioned protest and ordered me to be detained.’ – Lev Ponomarev describes his arrest at a peaceful Moscow protest on 14 March 2020. Translated by Nicky Brown, Mercedes Malcomson and Simon Cosgrove   

‘We believe that the country has hanging over it the threat of a profound constitutional crisis and an illegal anti-constitutional coup forced into a pseudolegal form.’   
– Karinna Moskalenko and other lawyers, scholars and journalists condemn the proposed changes to the Russian Constitution and the method of their adoption. Translated by Marian Schwartz

‘One cannot deny that in our country the opposition is not allowed to freely participate in elections, that authorities prosecute people for the free expression of their opinions in the form of peaceful protest, that the right to freedom of self-expression is de facto violated, and that there is no free mass media.’  
– Sergei Lukashevsky comments on the recent Freedom House report on Russia. Translated by Mark Nuckols. 

‘We believe Domnin was in the zone of military conflict for a short time, did not take a direct part in the conflict and presents no danger to the public.’- Memorial Human Rights Centre has declared Vladimir Domnin to be a political prisoner. Republished by kind permission.