On 5/1 Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Election Commission, rejected protesters’ demands to step down. On 12/1 the OSCE in a report said the 4/12 State Duma elections had failed to meet democratic standards. On 12/1 PM Vladimir Putin said he would not take part in presidential election debates because he had no free time. On 23/1 a report by the PACE said Russia is technically capable of organizing fair elections but so far lacks the political will. On 24/1 Liliya Shabanova, director of independent election monitor Golos, said her staff had been forced to leave their offices in central Moscow. Golos said it plans to deploy 2,000 observers during the presidential election and launched its map of election violations on schedule. On 26/1 head of the OSCE observer mission said Putin's promise to equip polling stations with web cameras did not remove the need for election observers. On 27/1 the Central Election Commission disqualified Grigory Yavlinsky of the Yabloko party from running in the presidential election. On 30/1 Golos said Putin had illegally begun campaigning before the official start of the election campaign. On 31/1 the Central Election Commission said articles by Putin in three newspapers were not part of his campaign. 

Protest movement 

On 10/1 opposition groups said they would hold a rally on 4/2 against electoral fraud (on 25/1 Moscow City Hall agreed to permit a rally that day for up to 50,000 people). On 16/1 a League of Voters was founded by 16 individuals including journalist Leonid Parfenov, singer Yury Shevchuk and writer Boris Akunin (on 18/1 PM Vladimir Putin suggested Akunin had joined the oppositionist because of his Georgian heritage). 

Protestors 

On 4/1 Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Left Front movement (in detention since 4/12) and activist Yaroslav Nikitenko (who served a 10-day sentence for demonstrating in support of Udaltsov) were released from prison. On 7/1 Moscow's Tverskoi court ruled Udaltsov’s imprisonment had been lawful. On 14/1 Moscow police detained two Yabloko party officials after a rally against election fraud. On 19/1 hundreds marched in central Moscow in memory of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, gunned down in Moscow in 2009. On 20/1 police detained all eight members of an all-female singing group, Pussy Riot, who sang an anti-Putin song on Red Square. 

North Caucasus 

On 8/1 four Russian security personnel and at least three militants were killed in clashes in Chechnya. On 18/1 Igor Kalyapin, head of the NGO Committee Against Torture, was officially told the head of the Chechen special OMON police units had requested he be investigated for “disclosure of state secrets”. On 20/1 law enforcement officers reportedly shot dead Umar Saidmagomedov, a lawyer, and local resident Rasul Kurbanov, in Makhachkala, Dagestan. On the night of 21/1 Igor Kalyapin’s colleague, the lawyer Anton Ryzhov, was detained for some hours by police on his return to Nizhny Novgorod from Chechnya. On 27/1 officials said a rebel leader, seven militants, four officers and one civilian were killed that day in three separate incidents in the North Caucasus. 

Freedom of expression 

On 16/1 Chelyabinsk region Investigative Committee halted the prosecution of blogger Andrei Ermolenko for lack of evidence (experts had found that officials and deputies of legislative assemblies did not constitute social groups). On 19/1 investigators in the Urals Federal Districtsaid they had filed extremism charges against Vladimir Efimov, editor of the Vechernyaya Tyumen weekly, accusing him of inciting hatred against police officers. On 20/1 charges were dropped against Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial Rights Centre, for alleged slander of Ramzan Kadyrov, president of Chechnya. On 25/1 the international media rights group Reporters Without Borders downgraded Russia in its annual Press Freedom Index to 142nd from 140th place. 

According to election results issued by the Central Election Commission , United Russia won 49,3% of the vote held on 4/12. The OSCE said (5/12) the vote exhibited “limited political competition and a lack of fairness.” On 15/12 Vladimir Putin dismissed allegations of electoral fraud. On 23/12 the Presidential Human Rights Council called for Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Election Commission, to resign. 

Demonstrations

On 5/12 and 6/12 nearly 1300 demonstrators against electoral fraud were detained in Moscow and St. Petersburg. On 5/12 Aleksei Navalny and Ilya Yashin were jailed for 15 days for disobeying police during a 5,000 strong rally in Moscow. On 6/12 Boris Nemtsov was arrested at a similar Moscow protest. Memorial described the use of force by police to quell the protests as disproportionate and unlawful. An estimated 50,000 protested in Moscow on 10/12 at Bolotnaya Square against election fraud (about 600 protestors were detained that day in 35 Russian cities). On 24/12 up to 120,000 people took part in a Moscow rally against election fraud on Sakharov Prospect. On 31/12 police arrested around a dozen demonstrators in Moscow protesting in defence of the right of assembly. Some of those arrested wore white ribbons, the emblem of the protest against electoral fraud. 

Sergei Udaltsov

Sergei Udaltsov, head of Rot Front, was arrested (4/12) in Moscow in connection with a planned election protest. On 13/12 Amnesty International called for Udaltsov’s release as a prisoner of conscience. On 25/12, a Moscow court sentenced Udaltsov to a further 10 days in jail for allegedly resisting police at an October protest. On 29/12 several hundred took part in a banned Moscow protest against his continued detention. 

Freedom of expression

Kommersant Vlast editor Maxim Kovalsky and general manager Andrei Galiyev were fired on 12/12 over publication of an obscene photo lampooning Putin. On 14/12 over 100 journalists signed an open letter in protest. The Moscow Charter of Journalists issued a call for freedom of the press. Khadzhimurad Kamalov, journalist and founder of Chernovik, a Dagestan newspaper, was shot dead on 15/12 in Makhachkala. 

Internet

On 2/12 a Moscow court fined election watchdog Golos 30,000 roubles ($1,000) for breaking Russian law by publishing citizens’ complaints of electoral violations (on 29/12, a Moscow appeal court upheld the conviction). On election day (4/12) several liberal websites were attacked by hackers, including those of Golos, Echo of Moscow radio, HRO.org. VKontakte creator, Pavel Durov, said he had refused an FSB request to block opposition groups. On 8/12 top police official Aleksei Moshkov said Internet users should be obliged to use their real names. On 14/12 Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev called for “reasonable regulation” of the Internet. The LiveJournal blog and Gmail account of prominent author and opposition activist Boris Akunin were hacked. On 23/12 the head of Russia's Orthodox Church warned Russians against trusting social networking sites. On 20/12 a pro-Kremlin website posted recordings of Boris Nemtsov’s private phone conversations. 

Unfair trial / Pre-trial detention

On 21/12 the Presidential Human Rights Council said Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev had been jailed unlawfully in their second trial and their verdicts should be overturned. On 27/12 the Presidential Council in a report called for a thorough investigation into the death in pre-trial detention of Sergei Magnitsky (on 8/12 the police ministry had again claimed Magnitsky died from heart failure and not as the result of beating). On 26/12 businesswoman Natalia Gulevich, in pre-trial detention on fraud charges since 12/2010 with acute kidney failure, was given a three-year suspended sentence (Gulevich said she would appeal). On 29/12 a Smolensk court sentenced opposition activist Taisiya Osipova, in pre-trial detention since 11/2010, to 10 years for drug trafficking.

The Investigative Committee said (1/11) the prosecution case was ready against two doctors at Moscow's Butyrskaya pretrial prison charged in the 2009 death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Moscow Helsinki Group head Ludmila Alekseeva said (16/11) human rights defenders promised to secure a full investigation into Magnitsky’s death. Investigators declined (24/11) to close a probe against Magnitsky, extending the investigation by two months. A report by Hermitage Capital (28/11) said Magnitsky died after a beating ordered by prison officials. In two other high profile cases of detainees in pre-trial detention, the Investigative Committee blamed (17/11) the death of Vera Trifonova on the criminal negligence of a hospital doctor; and Natalia Gulevich, gravely ill, was transferred (22/11) to a hospital after a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. 

Moscow-based NGO Golos said (9/11) it had registered more than 1,000 violations of election-related laws. Later in the month Golos became the object of a smear campaign by state-runmedia. Among election offences reported during the month were officials asking subordinates to confirm in writing they would vote for United Russia (Voronezh); United Russia election materials being displayed in schools (Krasnoyarsk); the banning of political ads denouncing “crooks and thieves” on the grounds they could only be seen as an attack on United Russia (Novosibirsk); election authorities prohibited the Communists from satirizing PM Putin in caricatures on the grounds he had not given permission (Nizhny Novgorod); officials asked priests to campaign for United Russia (Volgograd); Moscow metro ads by Yabloko were removed from stations (Moscow); ads by opposition parties were banned on state television by order of Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Elections Commission. Churov announced an investigation into whether preparations for an observer mission by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly might have violated the law. An interim report on the election campaign by the OSCE registered concerns about the fairness of the electoral process. On the eve of the State Duma elections transport police monitored the movements of the leaders of informal groups. Fifteen protestors were detained at an unsanctioned protest at Moscow State University on 19/11 against the use of the university to promote the United Russia party. Oleg Prudnikov of Left Front was sentenced (22/11) to 7 days in jail for not following police instructions at a Moscow demonstration against election abuses (21/11). 


LGBTI rights

St. Petersburg legislators approved a bill in first reading (15/11) that would impose fines on gays or lesbians who openly profess their sexual orientation. Participants in a rally in the city (20/11) against the bill were attacked. On 18/11 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the city authorities not to enact the homophobic bill. 

An estimated 10,000 Russian nationalists marched in Moscow on 4/11, National Unity Day. In mid-month Russian officials rounded up hundreds of Tajik immigrants for possible expulsion in apparent retaliation for the jailing of Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy in Dushanbe. According to reports, the detentions of Tajik migrants continued after the release of the Russian pilot and a fellow Estonian pilot by the Tajik authorities on 22/11. 

Media rights

The State Duma passed (17/11) amendments decriminalizing defamation and slander and making threatening journalists a criminal offence from 2013. Nineteen out of 20 Moscow cinemas refused to screen Cyril (Kirill) Tuschi’s documentary Khodorkovsky.

A report (1/10) said Britain had blacklisted at least 60 Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Police investigator Nelli Dmitriyeva, implicated in the Magnitsky prosecution, has been charged (6/10) with extorting a $3 million bribe. Anti-corruption blogger Aleksei Navalnylost (17/10) a defamation case to Vladlen Stepanov whom Navalny had alleged was a beneficiary of tax fraud Magnitsky sought to expose. Private e-mails by Navalny were later leaked online (25/10). The Foreign Ministry announced (22/10) an entry ban on unspecified U.S. officials, ‘mirroring’ a US ban on Russian officials linked to Magnitsky’s death. 

Yukos affair

Former Yukos vice president Vasily Aleksanyan, denied treatment for AIDS-related illnesses in pre-trial detention until freed on bail in 2009, died (3/10) aged 39. Maksim Dudarev, a jailed former employee of Russia's state property agency, was reported (24/10) in solitary confinement after telling media(11/10) the authorities’ 2004 sale of a major Yukos stake had been fraudulent. Opposition activists rallied (25/10) in St. Petersburg on the 8th anniversary of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest. Aleksandr Kuchma was reported (28/10) to be seeking political asylum in Britain after saying officials had forced him to attack his former cellmate Khodorkovsky and accuse him of sexual harassment. 

Prison conditions

Rights activists launched an investigation into the death (8/10) of Moscow high school principal Andrei Kudoyarov, in pre-trial detention for five months on suspicion of taking bribes. Footage of a Russian prison official beating female inmates was leaked online. Amnesty International said (21/10) ethnic Chechen prisoner Zubair Zubairaev, a victim of torture, urgently needs an independent medical examination and treatment. 

Media rights

A group of media NGOs launched (4/10) a new database on violations of the rights of journalists in Russia on 4/10. Amnesty International called (5/10) on the Russian authorities to bring the perpetrators of attacks on journalists and rights defenders to justice. Human Rights First said (8/10) anti-extremist legislation is used to persecute journalists, independent media, rights groups and religious organizations. Leonid Nikolayev, of the art group Voina, said (11/10) he is seeking compensation for unjustified prosecution after charges against him were dropped (1/9). Professor Mikhail Suprun and former police archivist Colonel Aleksandr Dudarev went on trial in Arkhangelsk (17/10) on charges of violating privacy laws in the course of research into ethnic Germans exiled to the region by Stalin. NTV withdrew (30/10) a documentary about human rights violations in Chechnya. 

Right of assembly

Forty people were detained (1/10) by police in Moscow during a gay pride rally. Moscow police detained 24 and dispersed an opposition rally (5/10) against PM Putin. Four were arrested of about 200 participants in a Day of Wrath rally (12/10) in Moscow. Sergei Udaltsov, Left Front coordinator on hunger strike after being sentenced to 10 days' in prison (13/10) for resisting police, was released (20/10) after his health deteriorated. Police detained more than 20 (25/10) participating in an unsanctioned Moscow rally protesting the authorities' refusal to register opposition parties. Police detained Marat Zhalaliyev, a Tatar activist, for unstated reasons (15/10) at a Kazan commemoration of the 1552 conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Several Moscow State University students of journalism were detained by the Federal Guard Service (20/10) when President Medvedev arrived at the campus. Strategy-31 held unsanctioned protest rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg (31/10). In Moscow, police detained at least 10 of the 50 demonstrators. 

North Caucasus

Human Rights Watch said (11/10) celebrities who attended the Chechen leader’s birthday in Grozny (5/10) should not keep money or gifts they received.

In a letter to the Government of the Russian Federation (9/9), Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, said the Russian authorities should act to uphold freedom of assembly. 

LGBT rights 

As reported on 27/9, charges were dropped against Russian Orthodox activist Roman Lisunov for an assault on Novaya gazeta reporter Elena Kostyuchenko at a gay rights rally in May. On 28/9 Arkhangelsk region approved in a second reading a bill to ban all events promoting homosexuality, among them Gay Pride marches. 

Yukos case 

On 13/9 the Supreme Court ruled that former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev had been illegally held in pre-trial detention for six months during their trial last year, and should have been kept in jail. On 16/9 an Arkhangelsk regional court upheld the denial of parole for Platon Lebedev. That day a group of politicians, human rights defenders and figures from the arts called on the US Senate to apply sanctions, similar to those used in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, against Russian officials complicit in the Yukos prosecutions. On 20/9 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Russian government over the demise of the Yukos oil company but rejected claims its failure was the result of a government vendetta. The Court has yet to rule on the issue of compensation sought by the former management of Yukos. 

On 12/9 Warrant Officer Vyacheslav Gerzog who fed dog food instead of canned beef to conscripts in the Far East, was found guilty of neglect and abuse of office and fined 202,000 rubles ($6,600). Major Igor Matveyev, the former officer who exposed the story, was jailed (9/9) for four years on unrelated charges. Memorial Human Rights Society said on 14/9 that officials investigating the murder of rights defender Natalia Estemirova were checking possible involvement of local government agents in the crime. Hermitage Capital Management released (8/9) a new exposé about officials implicated in the death of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, accusing them of embezzling 1bn roubles through illegal tax refunds. As reported on 26/9, the mother of Sergei Magnitsky has filed a criminal complaint against top judicial and law enforcement officials, alleging a conspiracy to murder her son. On 27/9 a Smolensk court extended for three months the pre-trial detention of opposition activist Taisiya Osipova held on charges – contested by supporters - of possessing drugs. 

A report by Memorial and a joint statement by a group of five international human rights groups said (14/7) the government investigation into the 2009 killing of Natalya Estemirova was on the wrong track and the authorities had made little attempt to effectively investigate possible involvement by local officials. On 15/7 the Investigative Committee said the killer was an insurgent motivated by Estemirova’s media publications and by a wish to discredit the Chechen leadership. However on 21/7 the Committee said it would examine possible involvement of Chechen security forces. 

A report by the Presidential Human Rights Council presented to President Medvedev on 5/7 named police and judicial officials implicated in the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and said eight prison guards severely beat Magnitsky before his death. President Medvedev admitted (6/7) Magnitsky’s death in prison was the result of ‘criminal actions.’ The day (18/7) that Physicians for Human Rights announced Magnitsky suffered calculated and deliberate neglect and inhumane treatment in police custody which ultimately led to his death, investigators said a criminal case had been opened into two prison officials. Towards month end the US placed a visa ban on Russian officials linked to the death of Magnitsky. The Russian foreign ministry said the US action could harm diplomatic relations. 

A court in Krasnoyarsk released human rights defender Aleksei Sokolov, imprisoned on charges many believe to have been fabricated, on parole on 27/7.

A Moscow court convicted (18/7) Antonio Valdes-Garcia, a Spanish citizen, in absentia of embezzling $13bn from a Yukos oil company subsidiary. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was allowed (20/7) to see his mother for the first time since December at Segezha labor camp in Karelia. An Arkhangelsk region court rejected (27/7) a parole plea by Platon Lebedev, saying he was ineligible because of two breaches of prison rules. The Presidential Human Rights Council condemned the refusal to give parole to Lebedev as ‘shameful’. 

In a ruling (28/7) in a case brought by Agora Human Rights Association, the Presidium of the Supreme Commercial Court ruled Russian non-profit organizations should not pay profit tax on donations from foreign organizations. 

Federal Security Service director Aleksander Bortnikov warned (6/7) that the Internet was used to lure people into extremist groups. Journalists from Volga TV company in Nizhny Novgorod alleged they were assaulted (23/7) by military personnel while filming a fire at a military base in Nizhny Novgorod. LiveJournal.com said 27/7 it was experiencing hacker attacks which at times made the service inaccessible. 

Evgeniya Chirikova, campaigning to stop a new road through Khimki Forest, and about ten supporters were injured (3/7) in a confrontation with staff of a private security firm. Police broke up regular demonstrations at the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad protesting against the trial in Smolensk on drug dealing charges of civic activist Taisiya Osipova. Police regularly detained protestors – detaining 19 on 20/7 – and detainees reported abuse. Three Russian activists and a journalist protesting against the special traffic sirens used by some high-ranking officials were arrested in Moscow on 21/7.

The European Parliament called on Russia in a resolution (7/7) to guarantee free elections and lift curbs on the opposition Party of People's Freedom. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the resolution a blatant interference into Russia’s legislative process, and warned of negative consequences for such actions. 53% of voters believe upcoming State Duma elections will be rigged, independent pollster Levada Center said on 28/7.

Elena Bonner, widow of Andrei Sakharov and a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, died on 18/6 in Boston aged 88. Bakhrom Hamroev of Memorial Human Rights Centre was brutally assaulted on 6/6 near his Moscow home. 

Right of assembly 

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said city authorities will permit access to the capital’s squares and streets to large political forces but not to “a few dozen troublemakers.” On 7/6 Moscow City Court upheld the 2.5 year sentence given last June to Sergei Mokhnatkin for allegedly using force against a police officer at a December 2009 Strategy-31 rally. On 12/6 police broke up a Day of Wrath demonstration planned for Moscow’s Teatralnaya Square, detaining about 30 people. A “Slavic Gay Parade” on 25/6 in St. Petersburg ended with 14 activists detained. On 26/6 about ten people were arrested at an unsanctioned rally in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Moscow’s Arbat street. 

Yukos case

On 10/6 Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said authorities informed Khodorkovsky's wife he had been sent to a prison camp, but not to which one. On 17/6 lawyers for Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev requested the Federal Penitentiary Service tell them where their clients were. Unofficial sources said Khodorkovsky was at Penal Colony No. 7 in Karelia and Lebedev in Penal Colony No. 14 in Arkhangelsk. Investigators dismissed (14/6) evidence by Judge Danilkin's ex-assistant Natalia Vasilieva that the judge at Khodorkovsky’s trial had been pressured by superiors as ‘unconvincing’. 

North Caucasus

On 1/6 a Vienna court sentenced three Chechen men, and one of them to life in prison, for the 2009 murder of Umar Israilov, a Chechen refugee who alleged Chechen President Kadyrov had committed torture against him. In Chechnya (10/6) Aslambek Shataev was abducted released from a police station on 11/6 with severe injuries. Amnesty International said the Chechen authorities must end harassment of rights defenders after Grozny police threatened members of the Committee Against Torture and broke up a peaceful rally on 24/6. The Committee against Torture won the 2011 Human Rights Prize awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in recognition of outstanding action in defence of human rights in Europe on 23/6. Reports said Shamkhan Mukhidovich Aziev in prison in Chechnya was denied medical aid for a life-threatening condition. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia (7/6) for the disappearance of three Chechen civilians in 2000, 2002 and 2004; and in Isayev and Others v Russia (21/6) found Russia responsible for the 2004 torture and death of 25 year-old Zelimkhan Isayev in Chechnya. 

Freedom of expression 

A Moscow court acquitted (14/6) Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial, of charges he slandered Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov when he said Kadyrov was responsible for the killing of Natalia Estemirova. A Moscow court cleared (21/6) Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin in a defamation lawsuit brought by top Kremlin official Vasily Yakemenko whom Kashin had suggested on his blog had organized an assault on him. 

Political parties 

The Justice Ministry refused to register (22/6) the liberal opposition Party of People's Freedom on grounds its membership list had dead and underage members. 

Freedom of conscience

A Moscow region court declared books and brochures by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard extremist, the Prosecutor General's Office said on 30/6. The works will now be on a Justice Ministry list of banned materials. 

Constitutional Court 

The Constitutional Court on 30/6 ruled that state employees cannot be punished for engaging in whistleblowing activities against their superiors.