Hi, Kolya Ovchinnikov here.

There’s a long weekend coming up next week, and the whole country will stop working.  Coming up to a weekend, it feels like everyone is just about holding things together – any longer, and it will all come crashing down.  Or already is.  I really want to take a breather and chill for a bit. I’m sure you do, too.

What’s happening?

§  The Federation Council has passed the bill to isolate the Russian internet.  The sovereign intranet edges closer.

§  An Amnesty International employee has sued [Russian network provider] MTS because her Telegram account was hacked.  Time to read up on how to protect your communications.

§  First, Yelena Muzilina said, “The more rights you have, the less free we are” (a pure Orwellian nightmare), and then she acted like she’d said no such thing and that her words had been taken out of context.

What is there to listen to and watch?

§  We relaunched our conversational podcast.  It’s called ‘High Pressure’ now.  In it, we continue to address complex human rights issues with the experts.  In the first episode of the new series, we explain what the ECHR is, why it’s important, and why the Russian government doesn’t like it.  Listen on VK, iTunes, Android, YouTube, and Soundcloud.

§  Physical violence doesn’t just come out of nowhere.  It’s often preceded by far less visible stuff, like psychological abuse, discussion of appearances, and put-downs.  You have to know how to spot it in order to avoid getting hurt.  Elena Bolyubakh, the head of a women’s crisis centre who is helping Team 29 with a new project on family violence, talks about how to spot the first seeds of such violence in advance.  Watch it on YouTube.

Wishing you (and all of us) a good rest.  See you in May!

Love from Kolya and T29

Translation by Lindsay Munford