Drawing a screen around the realities of life for gay Russians, President Vladimir Putin and the organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympic games are presenting a decidedly friendly face to international visitors. Elena Vlasenko reports
Elena Vlasenko
Putin’s cold calculation on Arctic drilling
Greenpeace prosecutions show the lengths the Russian president will go to to protect his oligarch friends, says Elena Vlasenko
Shutting down Russia’s LGBT community
Russia's drive against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people continues unabated as the country's Duma considers a law banning "homosexual...
Putin’s war on dissent in Russia
A year after the mass protests marking Vladimir Putin’s controversial presidential win, Elena Vlasenko reports from Moscow on the heavy-handed repression confronting the Russian opposition.
Self-censorship’s chill on artistic freedom in Russia
Self-censorship has poisoned Russian media, art and other spheres. In the past few years, criminal prosecution of artists and new laws have made it...
Self-censorship’s chill on artistic freedom in Russia
Self-censorship has poisoned Russian media, art and other spheres. In the past few years, criminal prosecution of artists and new laws have made it clear for those who criticise the Kremlin or Russian Orthodox Church in their creative work, will face consequences for portraying either of these institutions negatively. Just last week, the State Duma passed two controversial laws in the first hearing. One forbids obscene language in movies, books, TV, and radio during mass public events. The other stipulates criminal punishment — including five years in prison — for “insulting believers’ feelings”. Both laws, as far as human rights activists are concerned, limit artists’ freedom of expression, and encourage self-censorship. Index spoke to three notable artists to find out […]
Prosecutors crack down on Russian NGOs
Russian non-governmental organisations are facing a wave of state inspections, which some believe are taking place as revenge for united protests against a law classifying international NGOs as “foreign agents”. The list of NGOs visited by prosecutors and other inspectors during last days, is impressive: Transparency International, Amnesty International, Memorial, Moscow Helsinki Group, Human Rights Watch, Agora, For Human Rights (Za prava cheloveka), GOLOS, and numerous regional NGOs. Even regional organisation Shield and Sword of Chuvashiya, which actually appealed to the Ministry of Justice seeking “foreign agents” status, has received a notification of an inspection. According to the law, an NGO that receives financing from abroad, has to register as “foreign agent” or face criminal charges. “Foreign agents” are obliged to […]
Court dismisses appeal for Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina
A Russian court yesterday dismissed the appeal of Maria Alekhina, one of the three members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot. Alekhina, 24, appealed...
Russia’s anti-gay laws no laughing matter
The gay community is one of the most vulnerable minorities in Russia, and homophobia is one of the country’s most rampant prejudices. According to...
“Journalists will be persecuted until power in Russia changes”
Mikhail Afanasyev is a veteran of the libel courts. As one of the few independent journalists in Russia’s Urals he has faced 13 defamation suits in...
INDEX INTERVIEW: “Punk prayer is not a crime,” says released Pussy Riot member
MOSCOW. 29 October 2012 (INDEX). Earlier this month a Moscow court freed Ekaterina Samutsevich, one of three imprisoned women from Russian punk band...
INDEX INTERVIEW: “Punk prayer is not a crime,” says released Pussy Riot member
Ekaterina Samutsevich told Index on Censorship’s Russia correspondent that Pussy Riot is here to stay.