In December 1994, days after the first modern invasion of Chechnya by Russian forces, Time magazine wrote, “Unless someone backs down, Moscow's advance into Chechnya threatens to start a guerrilla war that could wreck Yeltsin's presidency or end Russian democracy.”
Yeltsin is long gone, and so now, following the recent re-election of President Putin, with the attendant, and embarrassingly muted, concerns about it perhaps not being entirely free and fair, is an ideal time to revisit…
The FSB, one of the successors to the KGB, have accused humanitarian organisations working in Chechnya and Ingushetia of producing “anti stability” propaganda harmful to the efforts made by the Governments involved to seek a resolution of the “Chechen Problem”.
These organisations have been working with refugees from the continuing bloodbath in the Caucasus, providing necessary materials for the refugee camps in which they live. The FSB has been monitoring these organisations for…
At times worryingly naïve this is a book that goes some way to readdress the myth of “transition” in Post Soviet Russia.
Packed with tables and charts there is no doubt that Mssrs Haynes and Hasan have done serious research, and it shows. They avoid many of the cliche's that appear in books about Russia: centuries of endurance, the mysterious Russian Soul etc, and for anyone new to that part of the world, the facts and figures of (Post)Soviet life and death will be truly horrific.…
In spite of mounting state repression of campaign groups - the spurious arrests of ecological activists, the death in suspicious circumstances of Mr Shekochikhin, the Minister of Defence accusing the Soldiers' Mothers Committee of being a dodgy outfit funded by shady organisations - campaigners in Russia are as active as ever on a wide range of issues.
In Azov, Kaliningrad, blockades organised by Rainbow Keepers and Autonomous Action - and supported by local residents and…
Since 1991, the democratically oriented public in Russia had advocated for the legal regulation of an alternative civil service as a substitute for military service by conscription. All such attempts met with active resistance by the military lobby. However, in the winter of 2002 the Russian government submitted an Alternative Service (ACS) bill to the Duma; drafted in the ministry of defence, the bill had a number of discriminatory provisions.
Alternative service is not necessarily…
Appearing in English for the first time, this fascinating little book tells the story of Nikolai Trofimovich Iziumchenko (1867-1927), a peasant conscript to the Imperial Russian Army whose Tolstoyan beliefs led to his two-year imprisonment in a penal battalion.
Following a short, and informative, introduction from the book's editors, Iziumchenko's story is reproduced in translation with minimal annotation, making the account both accessible and readable for those with no prior…
For two years, with a small break of a couple of months, our human rights organisation “Soldiers Mothers of St Petersburg has held a picket every Thursday on Nevskij Prospekt, where members of the group gather opposite the Kazanski Cathedral.
With banners like: “Peace in Chechnya” , “I am against war, and you?” , “From war to reconciliation” , “Forgive us Chechnya” , and “You can t stop terrorism by using terrorism” , we protest against war in general and against the war in…
Pasko, who worked for the Russian Pacific Fleet's newspaper, was originally arrested by the security police in November 1997.
He was accused of high treason through espionage, for handing over secret information regarding nuclear safety in the Pacific Fleet to the Japanese TV channel NHK. However, while he was acquitted of treason in 1999, he was convicted of “abuse of authority”. His three-year prison sentence was cut short due to his having served 20 months in pre-trial detention.…
This has included renewed heavy exchanges around Grozny and a series of more isolated incidents, including the death of an entire family who were crushed by a Russian military APC and the execution of three Russian soldiers by Chechen fighters, while they walked through a market.
At the end of October Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 99-page report entitled Welcometo Hell , detailing the torture and abuse of thousands of Chechens who have been detained by the Russian forces in…
