Radio Liberty, October 23, 2013
Allan Davydov
The imprisonment of Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky ten years ago was arguably a turning point in the Russian government’s attack on the rights and freedoms of its citizens—an attack that is culminating today. This topic was discussed by the participants of Tuesday’s conference in Washington DC, entitled “Russia: Ten Years of Injustice.”
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitsky, Pussy Riot, Alexei Navalny, Bolotnaya Square—these names and titles, which have become widely known in Russia and beyond, were mentioned on [Tuesday] at the conference “Russia: Ten Years of Injustice.” The event, which was held on Capitol Hill, was dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of the Russian energy company Yukos.
Among the organizers of the conference were the Institute of Modern Russia, an independent nonprofit organization headquartered in New York; the nongovernmental human rights organization Freedom House; and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, named after late U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos. The conference featured a photo exhibition presented at the Senate building. The exhibition’s preamble read: “Gross abuses of human rights, a lack of political and civic freedoms, and unjust persecutions have become the norm in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Repressions are no longer limited to a few prominent individuals, but target broad sections of society.”
The conference was opened by Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s son, Pavel Khodorkovsky, who currently resides in the United States and heads the Institute of Modern Russia:
“This week—to be exact, October 25—marks the tenth anniversary of my father’s imprisonment. His story, as Russia’s most recognized political prisoner, has become a symbol of all that is wrong in Russia today. It is the story of government intimidation, government corruption, of the manipulation of courts, of torture, and of the institutionalization of oppression by Vladimir Putin’s government as part of his plan to rule through the destruction of Russian civil society. What is inspiring about the individuals and the Bolotnaya Square case highlighted in this exhibit is the determination of the Russian people not to be cowed, not to be intimidated, and to fight back against Putin’s attacks against individual freedom and the rule of law. The outpouring of support for Alexei Navalny in his [Moscow] mayoral campaign and the regime’s decision not to jail him is proof that a new dynamic is changing Russian society,” Pavel Khodorkovsky said.
David Kramer, president of the nongovernmental human rights organization Freedom House, noted that he is awaiting Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s release in August 2014 with impatience. Meanwhile, he drew attention to the events of the past year and a half in Russia:
“It is important to understand how grave the situation in Russia is today. Since Putin formally returned to the presidency in May of last year, lawlessness has continued. One of the accused in the Bolotnaya Square case, Mikhail Kosenko, has been sentenced to forced psychiatric treatment—this has not been seen since the Soviet times. Opposition member Leonid Razvozzhayev, who was seeking asylum in Ukraine, was kidnapped by Russian special services and tortured into a confession of anti-state activities. Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to a five-year prison term but was not sent to prison, and the Damoclean sword of imprisonment can fall on him at any moment if he steps too far out of line. The posthumous conviction of Sergei Magnitsky has brought the abuses by the Russian authorities to a new level, while the ban on adoptions of Russian orphans by American families was an abhorrent sacrifice of the most vulnerable members of Russian society in response to the Magnitsky Act that was passed by Congress in December of last year.”
As the Freedom House president noted, the Russian authorities are using legislative mechanisms to lend legitimacy to their attacks on the opposition forces and civil society:
“Punishment against unsanctioned protests has been toughened, insults and slander have been recriminalized. The definition of treason has been widened and depends on the authorities’ discretion. Campaigns are being waged against public organizations, immigrants, and members of the LGBT community, who, as Freedom House states, are increasingly seeking asylum in countries neighboring Russia.”
David Kramer suggested that all these facts and tendencies might become a serious reason for altering U.S. policy toward Russia:
“In the next few months we will witness two major events. The Winter Olympics in Sochi are a good opportunity to draw global attention to the situation regarding human rights and problems of civil society in Russia. Next year, Russia will also chair the Group of Eight—this poses various problems for those members of the group that really are, unlike Russia, industrial democracies. We also expect that U.S. lawmakers will vigorously update the Magnitsky Act, and that the current list of corrupt Russian officials who are subject to U.S. visa and financial sanctions will not only grow in number, but will also include higher-ranking officials. It also probably makes sense for the U.S. not to approve Russia’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We need to hold our leaders accountable and make sure they uphold the principles and values of democracy in the face of what Freedom House has called the worst crackdown against human rights and civil society since the fall of the Soviet Union. The arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in October 2003 was arguably the main tipping point in this direction, when we, including myself at the State Department, didn’t do enough. I hope we don’t repeat that mistake again,” David Kramer said.
Katrina Lantos Swett, head of the Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, reminded the audience that those Russian fighters for justice whose names are known to everyone are just the tip of the iceberg. Most cases of corruption, human rights abuse, and the persecution of civic activists in Russia remain unseen.
“And yet I am convinced that Russia is waking up. We have seen, in various countries and regions, the sense of justice, civic self-consciousness, and courage defeating the fear in people and becoming prevalent among a significant part of society, and, in the end, this cannot be stopped,” Katrina Lantos Swett believes.
