Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2004 - Russian Federation

Since his election as President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin has put the restoration of order at the core of his political project, which he himself has called the "Dictatorship of the Law".

The concrete implementation of this project has translated into a growing tendency to control governmental and nongovernmental actors. In this context the Russian State intends to restore order in terms of relations with civil society and associative movement, as was established by an international fact-finding mission mandated by the Observatory in September and December 2003, and again in May 2004.⁶¹

Vladimir Putin has undertaken a policy of rapprochement between the State and the many non-profit associations created since the demise of the USSR, intending to ensure the efficiency, rationalization and co-ordination of the activities of the State and the associations. In reality, this may express a will to control the associations, particularly those devoted to the defence of human rights in the country.

The methods used by the Russian authorities to control the associations effectively consist primarily in strengthening the legislative arsenal. In addition, the Russian Government uses the pretext of the financial support provided by some of the major Russian businessmen to certain human rights associations in order to discredit the latter. Finally, the many pressures and direct attacks on human rights defenders are carried out with the greatest impunity.

In the meanwhile, human rights defenders have lost the little support on which they could still count in the Duma and are concerned about the crushing domination, within the Parliament, of the nationalist and patriot parties that are facilitating the adoption of laws severely restricting fundamental liberties. They are also gradually losing their intermediaries within the independent media, which is itself increasingly controlled, and therefore find it more and more difficult to make their activities known by the population.

Indirect obstacles to the activities of human rights defenders

Restrictive legislation

Renewed tax pressures⁶²

A draft law on taxation and tax collection was adopted at first reading by the Duma on 5 August 2004. Three readings are required for the final adoption of this text.

This draft law provides for the list of organisations whose subsidies are exempt from tax to be extended to include Russian foundations, whereas this exemption only applied to international organisations and foundations so far. This means de facto that the subsidies of foundations that are not included in the list will be taxed and there is every indication that this list will be drawn up based on arbitrary criteria.

Furthermore, the new bill provides that NGOs, if they wish to benefit from the tax exemption provided by the law, must register their subsidies with a special commission. This commission has been in existence since 1999, but registering was optional.

Restrictive legislation on demonstrations⁶³

A new law on "meetings, rallies and demonstrations" was adopted by the Duma on 4 June 2004 and signed by President Putin on 21 June 2004. In spite of a revision of the initial draft which was considered to be too restrictive, this law seriously limits freedoms of assembly and demonstration and creates considerable obstacles to the planning and holding of such events. A request for prior authorisation, including the programme of the event on an hour by hour basis, must be submitted to the authorities at least ten days in advance, and there is a ban on demonstrations close to the residence of the President of the Republic, to court rooms and to prisons. As no safety guidelines are specified in this law, there are left to the discretion of the authorities. Furthermore, demonstrations may not take place after 11:00 p.m., thereby banning all long-term demonstrations. Finally, local authorities are allowed to change the location of the event and inform the organisers of this decision only three days in advance. This law contravenes Article 31 of the Russian Constitution that states that every Russian citizen has the right to demonstrate freely if he is not armed.

Creation of a National Committee for the Protection of Human Rights⁶⁴

At the end of September 2004 President Putin signed a decree relating to "additional state measures for supporting the human rights movement in Russia" and providing for the creation of a National Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Russia and the integration of human rights NGOs in the work of the consultative bodies created by representatives of the President at regional level. This Committee was established on 9 November 2004 and took over the Presidential Human Rights Commission. It is composed of former members of this Commission as well as members of Russian human rights NGOs. Although the outward aim of this new piece of legislation is to consolidate civil society and the respect of human rights, there is a fear that it is in fact just another way of controlling more effectively the movement of NGOs.

Smear campaign against independent NGOs⁶⁵

In 2004, NGOs were targeted by virulent smear campaigns orchestrated at highest State level. These campaigns mainly focused on NGOs' sources of funding and inclined to compare their members with criminals. These campaigns not only aimed at discrediting human rights defenders in the eyes of the population but also at weakening them by establishing a pernicious distinction between "good" and "bad" NGOs.

– On 7 May 2004, during a press conference on the situation of Russian prisons, General Valerii Kraev, head of the General Direction of Sentence Enforcement of the Ministry of Justice, declared that human rights NGOs were funded by "criminal groups". He also accused certain NGOs of destabilising the Ministry of Justice by putting pressure on the prison administration system and by disseminating false information in the press. General Kraev declared that his accusations were based on information obtained through "phone tapping" and "on the Web", without going into greater detail. He also stated that 163 organisations "claiming to defend human rights" were in fact financed by oligarchs, and he specifically mentioned the following NGOs: the Tchelabinsk and Ural branches of Amnesty International, the Irkutsk Civil Information Initiative, the All-Russian Public Movement for Human Rights and the Committee in Support of the Detainees. He also mentioned that it was possible to work with more than 360 other human rights organisations, including the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Committee for Civil Rights, thus making a distinction between "good" and "bad" associations. These declarations followed the condemnation by these NGOs of the poor conditions of detention in Russian prisons. Mr. Lev Ponomarev, head of the Movement for Human Rights, immediately filed a complaint against General Kraev for slander. During a press conference held on 14 May 2004, General Kraev denied having accused Mr. Ponomarev and his NGO. In late 2004, the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court was investigating the case and a hearing was scheduled for 21 January 2005.

– On 26 May 2004, Mr. Vladimir Putin stated in his speech to the upper chamber of the Duma that the "main objective of some of these organisations is to receive funds from influential foreign foundations, while for others the aim is to serve dubious groups and commercial interests". Mr. Putin added that when it came to violations of human rights and "to the real interests of the people, these organisations remain silent. And there's nothing happenstance about that; they simply cannot bite the hand that feeds them". These words referred in particular to businessmen Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gousinsky, both in exile, and to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, currently in prison. All three were being prosecuted for fraud, which the NGOs condemned as being due to the fact that they were well-known political opponents.

– On 19 July 2004, in a radio interview, the patriarch of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Cyrille, head of the foreign affairs department of the Russian Orthodox Church, asked the human rights movement to find new leaders, and claimed that "the most well-known so-called human rights organisations do not like Russia. They try to find human rights violations all over this country, but never investigate into violations against Russians in Baltic countries and in the North Caucasus or elsewhere." He added that newly-elected leaders of such associations should "be able to face up to bureaucrats, to be incorruptible and not even to think of accepting foreign subsidies".⁶⁶

Direct attacks on defenders and human rights defence associations

Saint Petersburg

Extrajudicial execution of Mr. Nikolay Girenko and death threats against Mrs. Stephania Koulaeva⁶⁷

On 20 June 2004, Mr. Nikolay Girenko, head of the Minority Rights Commission of the Saint Petersburg Scientific Union and president of the Ethnic Minority Rights Association, one of the most active organisation fighting against racism in Saint Petersburg, was murdered at his home by unidentified individuals who rang his doorbell and shot him dead through his house door while enquiring after the identity of the visitors. This murder was a reprisal against the work carried out by Mr. Girenko, who was known for his expertise provided at trials of fascist groups, including of Skinheads, in Saint Petersburg and all across Russia.

Since the murder of Mr. Girenko, Mrs. Matvienko, Mayor of Saint Petersburg, has declared on regular occasions during press conferences that this murder was a criminal act and had no political significance.

As at the end of 2004, the investigation into Mr. Girenko's assassination had produced no result.

A few days after Mr. Girenko was killed, Mrs. Stephania Koulaeva, president of the Anti-Fascist Commission and of the Northwest Centre for Social and Legal Protection of Roma (Memorial Saint Petersburg), received several telephone calls threatening her with death. The authors of these threats alluded in particular to Mr. Girenko's assassination, saying that this was "just a start" and she was next on their list. The next day, the door to her apartment was covered with swastikas and insults. When Mrs. Koulaeva filed a complaint, the police advised her to leave Saint Petersburg for a few months, but she nevertheless stayed at home.

As at the end of 2004, none of the results of the investigation had been made public.

Continued judicial harassment of the Association of Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg⁶⁸

The legal proceedings for defamation initiated in June 2003 by Mr. Bukin, director of the Nachimov military school, against the Association of Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg⁶⁹ and the newspaper Smena, are still pending. Smena had published information supplied by the association concerning the physical and psychological torture of pupils, and these acts had already been acknowledged by Mr. Kuroedov, admiral of the Russian fleet, who had stated that the officers responsible had been punished. The Kuibychev Court had adjourned the trial until 18 January 2005.

Moreover, in 2003, an enquiry had been opened against Mr. Bukin by the general prosecutor at the request of the mothers of the pupils, so that the crimes of torture should be recognised. The Court announced that the results of this investigation would be made public at the end of January 2005.

Finally, on 17 July 2004, the prosecutor of the Kalinin district of Saint Petersburg opened a criminal investigation against Mr. Sergueï Mikhailov, an orthopaedic doctor who worked as medical expert with the Association of Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg. Dr. Mikhailov was accused of "complicity" in cases of desertion. At the end of 2004, the proceedings were ongoing.

Attacks on Mr. Vladimir Schnittke⁷⁰

On 26 September 2003, Mr. Vladimir Goliakov was arrested in relation to the investigation into the attacked on 14 August 2003 on Mr. Vladimir Schnittke, president of the Saint Petersburg Memorial association, and two of his colleagues. Mr. Goliakov was arrested after Memorial had hired private detectives because of police inaction in the investigation. Another assailant identified by detectives was left free.

On 22 June 2004, Mr. Goliakov was given a suspended sentence of five years imprisonment by the Kuïbychevsky Federal Court of Saint Petersburg for the attack on M. Schnittke, and was then released. The political nature of the attack was not acknowledged.

On 11 December 2004, Mr. Schnittke was attacked a second time. He was hit on the head with a club at the entrance to his home. His laptop computer was stolen from him and he suffered from cerebral trauma. An investigation was opened, which remained ongoing as at the end of 2004.

Moscow

Judicial proceedings against members of the Sakharov Museum⁷¹

Following a resolution of the Duma dated 2 September 2003, the Moscow Prosecutor initiated legal proceedings against Mr. Yuri Samodorov, executive director of the Sakharov Museum, Mrs. Ludmila Vasilevskaya, in charge of the exhibition "Beware, Religion" and Mrs. Anna Mikhalchouk, one of the artists in the exhibition, for contravening Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code ("incitement to racial, ethnic and religious hatred"). On 25 December 2003, the investigator for the Moscow prosecutor's office, Mr. Tsvetkov, indicted the artists and organizers of "incitement to hatred" and of attacking the dignity of certain religious groups.

In the course of these proceedings, the defence of the Sakharov Museum members refused to acknowledge the expert report on the exhibited works of art produced by non-specialist experts, and requested on several occasions that the Court mandate new experts. The Court always refused to take this request into account and endorsed the first expert report.

Many witnesses were heard during sessions held in November and December 2004, including those responsible for vandalising the exhibition on 18 January 2003, and who were released shortly after the events. On 22 August 2004, the trial of the attackers was closed for lack of grounds for prosecution.

Mr. Samodorov, Mrs. Vasilevskaya and Mrs. Mikhalchouk have been banned to leave the city of Moscow since 25 December 2003. The judge announced that the verdict would be returned in February 2005.

Smear campaign against the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees⁷²

On 19 October 2004, Mr. Viktor Alksnis, deputy of the Duma and member of the "Rodina" ("motherland") party, introduced a request to the Duma for opening an investigation into the funding of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees. Since its creation in 1991, this organisation has regularly condemned the human rights violations perpetrated within the Russian army, and actively advocates for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Chechnya. On 13 October 2004, the Union published a statement titled Give peace a chance in support of initiating negotiations between the Russian authorities and representatives of the Chechen separatists.

On 20 October 2004, Mr. Alksnis justified his initiative in a radio interview, during which he accused the Union of "undermining Russian defence capabilities" and of being "funded by the West for at least the past ten years". Mr. Alksnis stated that the members of the Committees were not soldiers' mothers but "political professionals who received a salary, who head hundreds of offices throughout Russia and organised propaganda activities".

On the evening of 20 October 2004, Mr. Alksnis repeated his accusations on NTV, one of the main Russian television channels. He accused the organisation of receiving 15 million dollars a year from abroad for "antimilitary promotion and for helping citizens to avoid military service".

On 22 October 2004, during another press conference, Mr. Alksnis announced that he had lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor in the name of the Duma, so that an enquiry into the Union's funding could be opened.

At the beginning of December 2004, inspectors from the economic crimes police department showed up at the organisation's headquarters and requested its financial documents. The organisation complied with this request; however it later learnt that the documents had been sent to Mr. Alksnis.

As at the end of 2004, this case remained pending.

Repression of NGOs in the Krasnodar Region

Judicial proceedings against the Krasnodar Centre for the Defence of Human Rights⁷³

The Krasnodar Centre for the Defence of Human Rights, headed by Mr. Vassily Rakovitch, has been subjected to suspension proceedings since 2002 under the 2002 law against extremism, for having carried out "activities contrary to the statutes of the organisation".

In February 2004, the Russian Federal Supreme Court referred the case to the Krasnodar Regional Court for re-examination into the background of the case. Following a longer period than legally allotted, the Court ruled that the activities of the Centre should not be suspended and decided that 1,500 roubles (41 euros) should be paid to the Centre as partial refund of the trial costs.

In October 2004, the Centre took the case to the Supreme Court of Appeal to demand the refund of the full amount of the trial costs (50,000 roubles – 1,385 euros). Following referral of the case by the Supreme Court, the Krasnodar Regional Court ruled that 2,000 roubles (55 euros) should be refunded to the Centre, which again appealed this decision. As at the end of 2004, the case remained pending.

In the meanwhile, in 2003, the Krasnodar Centre for the Defence of Human Rights referred to the European Court of Human Rights about the suspension order. The Centre was at the end of 2004 considering modifying this request to ask the ECHR to also rule on the refund of its legal costs.

Harassment of Mrs. Tatiana Roudakova⁷⁴

On 17 May 2004, Mrs. Tatiana Roudakova, leader of the Mothers' Civil Organisation for the Protection of Prisoners, was arrested in the Republic of Adygheya, Krasnodar region, while she was on her way to penal colony An5/1, accompanied by family relatives of detainees and her driver, in order to verify information alleging ill-treatment of the prisoners. A policeman got into their car and forced them to drive to the police station. Mrs. Roudakova and her car were searched without a warrant. Mrs. Roudakova was then taken to the office of the Prosecutor, who informed her that a criminal investigation had been opened against the detainees in the colony for possession of weapons and drugs and that she would be called in as a witness. The authorities also accused her for demonstrating in front of the penal colony from 1 to 10 May 2004, with the sole aim of distracting the attention of the wardens from the traffic that was being organised amongst the prisoners.

As of the end of 2004, the enquiry against her remained pending.

Since then, a smear campaign was launched against Mrs. Roudakova and her organisation in the Krasnodar and Moscow media, which presented Mrs. Roudakova as an alcoholic and a drug addict and asserted that she was accused in a case of arms and drug trafficking. Mrs. Roudakova filed several complaints for attack on her dignity against several newspapers and television channels.

In October 2004 she won her case against the director of the Press Service of the Republic of Adygheya Department of Sentence Enforcement. As of the end of 2004, the other complaints she lodged had not been brought to trial.

Repression against the Kazan Human Rights Centre and its members – Tatarstan⁷⁵

On 5 May 2004, members of the Security Division of the Ministry of the Interior asked for a copy of a report published by the Kazan Human Rights Centre (KHRC), entitled Torture in Tatarstan, Facts and Figures, to be forwarded to the Ministry for editing prior to publication.

On 6 May 2004, the KHRC held a press conference for launching another report entitled The Law and Its Victims, Torture in Tatarstan, released jointly with Khater, a publishing company. This report is a compilation of articles that were published on human rights violations perpetrated by the Tatarstan police, and based on 140 complaints filed between April and May 2004. Pressure was put on local journalists attending the conference to limit dissemination of the report. On 7 May 2004, the second broadcast of the press conference held on 6 May was cancelled, while it had already been broadcast in the previous evening during the Time of Kazan, a programme on television channel Varian T. The cancellation by the channel's managers was justified by the journalist's and chief editor's alleged lack of objectivity.

On 13 May 2004, the Ministry of the Interior opened a judicial inquiry into fraudulent use of Khater's logo, on the basis of a complaint filed by Khater, which denied being associated with the publication of the book. Several days earlier, however, Khater had informed KHRC that they had encountered "problems" relating to the publication of the book. On 1 December 2004, the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Tatarstan dismissed Khater's complaint.

Within the framework of this investigation, the Office for the Fight against Economic Crime (OFEC) of the Ministry of the Interior, started auditing KHRC's accounts on 14 May 2004, in the absence of the KHRC director, Mrs. Natalia Kablova. The audit, which covered financial documents, lists of KHRC members, as well as professional activities and family information of KHRC employees, did not reveal any irregularities.

Furthermore, on 25 May 2004, the Ministry of Justice's Head Office for the Republic of Tatarstan announced the official launch of an investigation concerning the activities of KHRC, starting on 1 June 2004. The one-day enquiry did not reveal any misappropriation of funds.

The human rights defenders working with KHRC and their families also received threats. An F-1 grenade was found near the apartment door of Mr. Vladimir Chikov, father of the former KHRC president Mr. Pavel Chikov. Mr. Vladimir Chikov had also been contacted by the Office of Economic Crime Department on 17 May 2004, in connection with the audit of KHRC accounts.

An investigation into the presence of the grenade was opened and then suspended sine die, since the instigators could not be identified.

On 27 May 2004, KHRC premises were broken into and ransacked after a press conference denouncing the harassment of KCHR was organised jointly by KHRC, the Nizhny Novgorod Committee Against Torture and the Civil Verdict Foundation. Two men wearing masks and gloves broke into the premises, destroyed computers, a scanner and a television set, and then fled.

An official inquiry was opened and then suspended sine die as the two individuals were not identified.

Repression against NGOs in Chechnya and Ingushetia

The Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship targeted⁷⁶

– Abduction, torture and extrajudicial execution of Mr. Aslan Sheripovich Davletukaev⁷⁷

On 10 January 2004, Mr. Aslan Sheripovich Davletukaev, a volunteer with the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship (SRCF), who had been investigating human rights violations in Chechnya since 2000, was abducted from his home in the village of Avtury in Shali Region, Chechnya, by around 50 soldiers from the Russian armed forces.

On 16 January 2004, Mr. Davletukaev's body was found by the roadside by a Russian army patrol, near the city of Gudermes. His body showed evidence of torture and mutilation. His arms and legs were broken, and there was evidence of wounds caused by a blunt metal object. Mr. Davletukaev was killed by a bullet in the head.

Two criminal inquiries were opened. The Shali Prosecutor opened an investigation into Mr. Davletukaev's abduction, whereas the Gudermes Prosecutor opened an enquiry into his murder. The two investigations were merged and then suspended sine die in August 2004, since the perpetrators could not be identified.

– Threats against Mr. Imran Ezhiev⁷⁸

Mr. Imran Ezhiev, president of the SRCF Information Centre in the Northern Caucasus and regional coordinator of the Moscow Helsinki Group, came under tighter surveillance in January 2004. He was constantly followed, and his home and office in Ingushetia were permanently watched by four vehicles without registration plates. The surveillance was mainly related to his enquiry into the murder of Mr Davletukaev.

On 29 January 2004, Mr. Ezhiev, accompanied by Mr. Khamchiev Kuchiev and Mr. Adlan Ibragimov, two other SRCF members, were arrested by a group of armed men wearing military uniforms, as they were driving to meet Mrs. Ella Pamfilova, head of the Presidential Human Rights Commission, in order to visit Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia. They were then taken to the police station in Sunzhenskoye, in the village of Sleptosovskaya, Ingushetia, where Mr. Ezhiev was violently beaten up and threatened with death. In addition, one of the policemen offered to release them if they "confessed" several unsolved thefts. In the end, they were released later in the day on Mrs. Pamfilova's request.

When Mr. Ezhiev tried to file a complaint for arbitrary detention with the Ingush Ministry of the Interior on 5 February 2004, Mr. Alayaludin Kutyev, Vice-Minister of the Interior, told him that the police had complied with the law that stipulates that only State representatives are entitled to visit refugee camps.

In March 2003, Mr. Ezhiev had been abducted in Chechnya by masked individuals while investigating human rights violations. He had been released after three days of detention as a result of international pressure.⁷⁹

– Hampering dissemination of SRCF newspaper

On 11 March 2004, after the Territorial Division of the Ministry of Communication filed a complaint against the newspaper Pravozaschita, published jointly by the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society and SRCF, officers from the financial crime investigation division of the Nizhny Novgorod regional police seized 5,000 copies of the newspaper from the Riyad Balakhna printing company. The police officers presented a search warrant for the printers' storage facilities and completed a declaration of temporary seizure of all equipment and financial documents. The newspaper covers events in Chechnya and this particular edition contained articles criticising the action of the Russian authorities, notably that of President Vladimir Putin in Chechnya.

In May 2004, the Sovietsky District Court in Nizhny Novgorod ruled on the territorial division's complaint, accusing the newspaper of failing to provide the full names of the newspapers' founders, and sentenced the editor-in-chief to a fine of 500 roubles (13 euros). The Court ruled that the seized copies should be returned, which was done several days later.

– Illegal search and arbitrary detention⁸⁰

On 12 July 2004, police officers entered SRCF premises in Karabulak, Ingushetia, without a warrant. More than 20 armed men searched the third floor of the building, while other officers guarded the entrance, including the chief of police of the Republic of Ingushetia, Mr. Ruslan Khamkhjoyev. The police confiscated computer equipment and documents (testimony of victims of human rights violations by the Russian federal forces in Chechnya, the names of the suspects and the details of vehicles used for abductions), before making the people present sign a blank document, evidently a search warrant.

Shortly afterwards, armed men found two empty jars of powder and Mr. Khamzat Kuchiyev, SRCF correspondent who was in the premises, was taken to the Department of Internal Affairs of Karabulak on suspicion of "terrorist activities". Mr. Kuchiyev was released the same day, after Mrs. Pamfilova called the President of Ingushetia, on Mr. Ezhiev's request. Mr. Ezhiev was advised not to file a complaint about these events.

However, the SRCF lodged a complaint with the Ingushetia and Karabulak Prosecutors' offices, denouncing the illegality of the search of 12 July 2004, the arbitrary detention of Mr. Kuchiev and the fabrication of evidence. Mr. Ezhiev expressed his fear that the jars of powder had been placed in their office deliberately by the police.

At the end of 2004, no official investigation had been opened.

Abduction of Mrs. Fatima Gazieva and Mr. Ilyas Ataev⁸¹

On 3 September 2004, Mrs. Fatima Gazieva, co-founder of the human rights organisation Echo of War, and her husband Mr. Ilyas Ataev, were abducted by armed men in Kalinovskaya, Naur Region, Chechnya. They were taken to Shelkovskaya district, then to the military base in Hancala. While being detained, Mrs. Gazieva was questioned about her activities at Echo of War. She and her husband were released the next day.

Harassment of members of Memorial in Nazran⁸²

In February 2003, an armed group went to the permanent address in Grozny of Mrs. Libkhan Bazaeva, one of the directors of Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia, to find her. The house had been bombed in October 1999 by the Russian air force and is inhabitable since then. On two different occasions – in October and November 2003 – a group of masked men broke into Mrs. Bazaeva's family home in Grozny, and terrorised the people present. Not having found Mrs. Bazaeva, they left again. The many letters that Memorial had sent to the Russian authorities asking for an inquiry into the attacks at her family home since October 2003 had received no positive reply.

In October 1999, the column of Chechen refugees, with which Mrs. Bazaeva and her family were travelling, was bombed by the Russian air force and Mrs. Bazaeva lost all her possessions. When the inquiry into the bombing was closed for lack of results, Mrs. Bazaeva referred the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In January 2003, her complaint was judged admissible; the first hearing took place on 15 October 2004.

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[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

61. See report of the international fact-finding mission Russia: Human Rights Defenders faced with the 'Dictatorship of Law', September 2004 and Press Release, 12 October 2004.

62. Idem.

63. See Press Release, 13 July 2004.

64. See report of the international fact-finding mission Russia: Human rights Defenders faced with the 'Dictatorship of Law', September 2004 and Press Release, 12 October 2004.

65. See Open Letter to the Authorities, 24 May 2004, Press Release, 28 May 2004 and Report of the Fact-Finding Mission referred to above.

66. See report of the international fact-finding mission, Russia: Human rights Defenders faced with the 'Dictatorship of Law', September 2004.

67. See Urgent Appeal RUS 003/0604/OBS 049.

68. See Annual Report 2003.

69. In 2004, the Association of the Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg was awarded the Aachen Peace Prize.

70. See Annual Report 2003.

71. Idem.

72. See Urgent Appeal RUS 006/1004/OBS 081.

73. See Annual Report 2003 and Report of the International Fact-Finding Mission Russia: Human rights Defenders faced with the 'Dictatorship of Law', September 2004.

74. See report of the international fact-finding mission Russia: Human rights Defenders faced with the 'Dictatorship of Law', September 2004.

75. See urgent appeal RUS 001/0604/OBS 045.

76. See Annual Report 2003.

77. See Urgent Appeal RUS 001/0104/OBS 006.

78. See Urgent Appeals RUS 001/0303/OBS 012.1 and 012.2.

79. See Annual Report 2003.

80. See Urgent Appeal RUS 004/0704/OBS 059.

81. See Urgent Appeals RUS 005/0904/OBS 067 and 067.1.