Civil society in Russia faced a massive tightening of legal regulations affecting its activities last year, said Walter Kaufmann, head of the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe department of the German Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Foundation, at the opening of an organized by the foundation online conference “Civil Society in Russia 2021/2022: Strategies for Survival in the Country and Abroad”, which took place on the evening of February 15.
As an example, Kaufman called the extension of the law on “foreign agents” to individuals, the tightening of the law on assemblies, the recognition of opposition organizations and the media as “extremist.” Kaufman recalled that a number of foreign NGOs in Russia, including several German ones, were declared “undesirable” organizations last year, forcing them to leave the country.
A significant number of Russian NGOs were also given the status of “extremist” and were closed. As a result, many members of civil society have been forced to travel abroad to avoid persecution or simply to be able to continue doing what they love.
More than 100 “foreign agents” and 1000 political prisoners in Russia
2021 has become one of the most difficult years for civil society in Russia, although the downward trend in its situation has continued for many years without changes, Aleksey Kozlov from the public association Solidarity with the Civil Movement in Russia (Solidarus Berlin) pointed out. In his words, last year was “a year of frank and numerous repressions” in Russia.
If in 2020 five people were declared “foreign agents”, by the end of 2021 their number exceeded 100, among them are civil activists, journalists, scientists, NGO employees, Kozlov said. At the beginning of this year there were 50 “undesirable” foreign organizations in the Russian Federation, a third of them received this status last year. In addition, the number of political prisoners in Russia in 2021, according to Memorial, has reached 1,000 people.
According to Kozlov, “Russian civil society will live,” despite all the repressive practices of the authorities, and, perhaps, it will live outside the Russian Federation. But one of the main tasks is “to preserve people who have expertise, experience and a desire to continue their activities so that they become a reserve of the democratic Russia of the future,” the expert explained.
“Memorial” is an “uncomfortable symbol” for the Russian authorities
As Walter Kaufman admitted at the beginning of the conference, the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the forced liquidation of the International Memorial historical and educational society for its alleged violations of the law on “foreign agents” was especially painful for the Böll Foundation. Elena Zhemkova, executive director of International Memorial, for her part, called the accusation of the prosecutor’s office “not a very truthful statement,” since, according to her, out of the many thousands of materials of “Memorial” there were only a few without the “foreign agent” mark.
Walter Kaufman
Zhemkova called “demonstrative” the prosecutor’s speech at the last court hearing, in which he said: “We don’t like that you are forcing us, a nation of winners, to repent … that you remind us of our bad past.” According to her, “Memorial” has become an “uncomfortable symbol” for the current Russian state. Closing “Memorial”, the authorities show – “we can do anything”, and “this, of course, scares people.”
According to Russian journalist Sergei Parkhomenko, in recent years Memorial has become the place where the life of civil society in Russia took place: “The repressive Russian state noticed this and tried to somehow cope with it.”
There is a high demand for legal assistance in Russia
When asked why Memorial is trying to get the liquidation decision canceled in a Russian court, although the result is predictable, Zhemkova replied that the organization adheres to a principle formulated by Soviet dissidents who demanded that the state “obey its own laws.” There is no other way to peacefully defend one’s rights, in her opinion, even in a non-legal state.
Pavel Chikov (archive photo)
As Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights organization, noted, Memorial did not choose the legal path, but the Prosecutor General initiated this process, and Memorial is only defending itself against the Prosecutor General’s Office in court. In general, according to Chikov, there is a very high demand for legal protection in Russia, even considering that in most cases it does not lead to the desired result.
The head of “Agora” also added that Russian lawyers have recently formed such a concept as “palliative advocacy”, when it is important for “a lawyer to hold a person by the hand at a difficult moment, explain to him the inevitability of certain troubles, calm him down.” At the same time, some success has been achieved. Of the roughly 2,000 protest cases filed by Agora’s lawyers across the country last year, Chikov said nearly 200 were dismissed in courts.
Is it possible to influence the situation in Russia from abroad?
The conference also discussed whether the Russians, forced to leave the Russian Federation, have the opportunity to continue to influence what is happening in the country. According to Pavel Chikov, after leaving Russia, the opportunities for journalists and activists working in the public space even increase, as there are fewer issues related to security, self-censorship due to the threat of “responsibility for specific words or pictures, which has become in Russia with daily background pressure and repression”.
Ivan Pavlov, April 30, 2021
As an example of successful influence, he recalled the torture scandal in Russian prisons that erupted after the publication of materials by the Gulag.net group, which is not in Russia. It led to amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and tougher penalties for torture. The information and public space is unified, and the Russian authorities are unlikely to be able to completely isolate it from the outside world, Chikov is sure.
According to the expert, the situation with lawyers is more complicated. Repressions did not bypass them, it is enough to recall the lawyer Ivan Pavlov from Team 29, who was declared a “foreign agent” and forced to leave the country. Lawyers in Russia, Chikov continued, have to limit their presence in the public space, otherwise it will be more difficult for them to provide legal assistance on the ground. And activists and journalists in Russian cities need a lawyer on the spot when they have a detention, search or trial.
Is there any benefit for Russians from Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe?
During the conference, the issue of relations between Russia and the Council of Europe and the role of the Russian Federation in this structure was also raised. According to Pavel Chikov, Russians have two common stereotypes and misconceptions about this. The first is that people tend to expect a lot from the ECtHR, the Council of Europe and other international institutions when it comes to the situation in their country.
There are almost no examples when international organizations or courts have influenced the political regime or state structure of a particular country, especially such a large one as Russia, the head of “Agora” specified. In his opinion, the Council of Europe and the ECtHR are doing a lot, but they will never meet people’s high expectations.
The second misconception, Chikov emphasized, is a direct consequence of state propaganda and is very beneficial to the Russian authorities. It lies in the fact that alleged amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation devalue the role of international law, and the decisions of the ECtHR are no longer binding on Russia. This is not true, the expert said, since the article of the Russian constitution on the priority of international law has not changed in any way.
Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe remains the same, the decisions of the ECtHR continue to be implemented in Russia, Chikov assured. In his opinion, after the crisis in relations between the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe was overcome in 2019, they are now going through a good period, and Russia in some cases changes the legislation, including in connection with the decisions and requirements of the ECtHR and the Council of Europe. And for Russian citizens, the ECHR is often almost the only court where they can expect real justice. In this sense, the situation is improving in many cases, Pavel Chikov summed up.
See also:
