MEP Donskis: “Sooner or later Russia will start thinking about life without Putin”

Leonidas Donskis

On Tuesday, a hearing on Russia was held during the Subcommittee on Human Rights meeting. Several representatives of civil society and human rights defenders from Russia attended the Subcommittee meeting in order to share information about elections, and problems relating to violations of the freedom of association, discrimination and the rule of law.

The European Parliament has adopted more than one resolution concerning Russia which stressed the importance of Russia`s efforts to promote human rights protection, which is important for the development of the EU-Russia relations. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that after the Russian Duma elections and before the upcoming presidential elections the situation in Russia is not improving, as the long-standing problems are not addressed. Furthermore, worrying cases, like that of Sergei Magnitski`s, are not moving forward, and facts brought to light by human rights defenders still frequently remind about the methods used by Russia for the fight against “inconvenient” citizens.

Board member of the „Memorial“ organisation Alexander Cherkasov took part in the meeting instead of Sakharov Prize winner Oleg Orlov and presented the information collected by “Memorial” about more then three thousand civilians who disappeared during the war in Chechnya. According to A. Cherkasov these people were imprisoned without any court proceedings, killed, and their bodies were hided. The speaker pointed out that Russia, as a member of the Council of Europe, can be demanded to comply with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which classifies forced human disappearances as a crime against humanity.

The Director of SOVA, Centre for Information and Analysis, Aleksandr Verchovski spoke to MEPs about the weaknesses of Russian anti-discriminatory laws and the impunity of the promotion of hatred. According to him such cases almost never have any chances to reach the court. The fact that extremism is not legally defined by laws allows the persecution of, for instance Muslims, or other organisations of ethnic or religious minorities, in the guise of the fight against terrorism.

Civil society activist Evgenia Chiriakova expressed her concern in the hearings about the failures to realise the Russian citizens` right to elect their own authority, i.e. political parties or opposition candidates cannot be registered for the elections. She also presented shocking information to the MEPs about protestors who seek to challenge this current situation and are therefore put in mental hospitals, thereby suffering again from methods used in the Soviet Union. The speaker was sure that after Sunday`s elections there will be repressions and violence again.

Vadim Kleiner, who is a partner of „Hermitage Capital Management“, the employer of jurist Sergei Magnitsky, who was tortured and killed in prison, reminded the audience about this case, which has received a broad response in the international arena. He regretted that although two years passed after his death, the investigation into the death has still not been carried out, the officers are not punished, some of them even been promoted.

MEPs also watched a video of Ella Kasajeva, who is a vice-president of „Voice of Beslan,“ an organisation uniting the families of victims of the Beslan tragedy.

MEPs did not hide their shock which resulted from the information presented by the speakers and regretted that cooperation between the EU and Russia is hardly possible in the situation of such gap of values. “It seems that we are coming back to the Soviet Union,” said one of the participants of the discussions. However, MEP Leonidas Donskis drew attention to the recent intensification of the activities of the civil society, and called upon others to see encouraging signs of hope as well.

“Russia is different from what it used to be. Putin has become a comic character in this new Russia. Sooner or later Russia will start thinking about life without Putin – this day is coming,” said Leonidas Donskis in his speech.

The MEP continued the discussion with the civil society representatives and human rights defenders from Russia in a private meeting. быстрые займы на карту онлайн займ https://zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php срочный займ на карту онлайн