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November 2013

Greenpeace
On 12/11 St Petersburg Prison Service confirmed the arrival of the detained 30 Greenpeace activists from Murmansk. On 22/11 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to release the Arctic Sunrise and the 30 detainees. On 22/11 Murmansk regional court rejected an appeal against the arrest of the Arctic Sunrise. The last of the 30 activists was granted bail on 28/11.

Pussy Riot 
On 2/11 the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said he had received no news about her for 10 days. On 8/11 the prison service said Tolokonnikova was on her way to a new penal colony. On 14/11 Tolokonnikova’s husband confirmed she was in a Siberia prison TB hospital. On 20/11 lawyers for the Pussy Riot members filed new appeals at the Supreme Court. Pussy Riot’s Ekaterina Samutsevich called for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics.

Bolotnaya Square 
On 6/11 Moscow police detained at least 14 people at a rally in support of the Bolotnaya defendants. On 21/11 the Human Rights Council members appealed to Vladimir Putin to amnesty the Bolotnaya prisoners. On 6/11a court rejected a challenge to the house arrest of Sergei Udaltsov. On 7/11 Moscow City Court upheld a decision to extend custody for Leonid Razvozzhaev. On 25/11 the Investigative Committee completed its inquiry into Udaltsov and Razvozzhaev on charges of organizing alleged Moscow riots.

Right of association 
On 5/11 the trial of Mikhail Savva began on charges of fraud. A Perm district court court dismissed charges against Perm Civic Chamber (on 7/11) and Perm Youth Memorial (on 27/11) under the ‘foreign agent’ law. On 27/11 a Saratov court ordered the Centre for Social Policy and Gender Studies to register as a ‘foreign agent’. On 20/11 a court in Ekaterinburg quashed a warning issued by prosecutors against the local Memorial group.

Freedom of expression 
Two Norwegian TV journalists were harassed by police from 31/10 to 2/11 near Sochi. On 4/11 OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media expressed concern about the closure of Rosbalt news agency. On 15/11 police opened a criminal case for ‘hooliganism’ against performance artist Petr Pavlensky. On 26/11 Russian opposition blogger Sergei Reznik was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Rostov-on-Don. On 26/11 Gazprom Media announced it was buying Vladimir Potanin's Profmedia. Journalist Oleg Kashin accused the FSB of failing to investigate the 2010 attack on him. 

LGBT rights 
On 3/11 a violent attack on a gay-rights NGO in St. Petersburg left two people injured. On 11/11 a court gave a suspended sentence to Gleb Likhotkin for causing loss of sight in one eye to an LGBT activist. Under the law banning ‘gay propaganda’, the authorities began administrative proceedings against the editor of Molodoi Dalnevostochnik and a court fined Lady Gaga’s concert promoter over a December 2012 gig.

Foreign citizens 
On 4/11 thousands marched in Moscow to protest against higher levels of migration. On 4/11 a citizen of Uzbekistan was murdered in St. Petersburg. On 11/11 migrants’ rights campaigner Mais Kurbanov was shot from a traumatic pistol in Moscow. Police detained detained over 1,600 people at Moscow markets on 19/11 and 20/11.

Other high profile cases 
On 12/11 a Moscow district court seized the bank accounts and assets of Aleksei Navalny and Oleg Navalny in an embezzlement case. On 14/11 Moscow City Court disbanded the jury in the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial. On 14/11 the Russian Supreme Court rejected an appeal lodged by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. 

Legislation 
On 3/11 President Putin signed a bill into law under which terrorists’ relatives would pay damages for terrorist attacks. The State Duma (on 12/11) and the Federation Council (on 27/11) approved a bill to merge the Supreme Commercial Court with the Supreme Court, a plan criticized by both the Supreme Commercial Court and lawyers.