They denounce that Russia is using the pandemic “as a pretext to continue to suppress the voices of the opposition”

The famous NGO Amnesty International on Tuesday published its report 2020/2021 on “the situation of human rights in the world”, where it highlighted the complaints of different types of repression in various countries in times of pandemic and has devoted several pages to the events that occurred in China, Venezuela, Libya, Syria and Russia.

In the chapter devoted to Russia, the annual report noted that there “the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the chronic shortage of resources in the health system” and that “The authorities have used the pandemic as a pretext to continue cracking down on all forms of dissent, with measures such as reforming an imprecise wording law on “fake news” and tightening restrictions on public gatherings ”.

The report warned that over the past 12 months in Russia “peaceful protesters, human rights defenders and activists from the civil and political spheres have been arrested and prosecuted” and “the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses has intensified. “.

He also reported that between 2020 and 2021, “torture remained endemic, as did the almost total impunity of those responsible. The right to a fair trial has been repeatedly violated and the legal reforms introduced have resulted in a further reduction in judicial independence ”.

“Reports of gender-based violence in the family have increased sharply during the application of containment measures due to COVID-19; despite this, the bill on this type of violence remained blocked in Parliament. LGBTI people continued to face discrimination and persecution“, He highlighted the part of the report devoted to the nation ruled by Vladimir Putin since 1999.

And he added:Thousands of migrant workers lost their jobs during the pandemic, but were unable to leave the country due to border closures. And there were indications which corroborated the denunciations of war crimes committed in Syria by the Russian forces ”.

In addition, the report pointed out that “The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the pressure on the health system ”, which “Official and independent figures on infection and death rates varied widely, indicating the government was lower than the real ones.” and that “members of the health-care workforce, or other groups, who have reported irregularities have faced reprisals, including disciplinary action and prosecution for disseminating ‘fake news’.”

At the same time, he noted that “The harassment, prosecution and physical assaults on journalists continued” in Russia, citing several cases: “On June 30, the St. Petersburg police assaulted journalist David Frenkel at a polling station and broke his arm. On October 15, masked men kidnapped Khabarovsk journalist Sergei Plotnikov, took him to a forest, beat him and subjected him to a mock execution. When released, Sergei Plotnikov reported the incident to the police, but by year’s end he had not been informed of the opening of an investigation. “

“Internet censorship continued (…) In December, President Putin signed a law establishing sanctions against foreign internet platforms for blocking Russian media content. Another law enacted in December introduced imprisonment for Internet defamation. “, Amnesty International repudiated.

Regarding the crackdown on dissent, the inquiry acknowledged that opposition activists and other dissenting voices in Russia have faced heavy retaliation. << In the context of a politically motivated criminal case against the Anti-Corruption Foundation of the Leader of the Opposition Alexei Navalny, In January, 126 bank accounts of his partners were frozen, after which criminal and civil lawsuits were opened against him and others for defamation. On August 20, Alexei Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk. He was urgently hospitalized and later airlifted to Germany, where he was diagnosed with poisoning with a military nerve agent. The Russian authorities have not investigated the poisoning, ”he said of the case of the opponent who was sentenced to prison in February and who is currently on hunger strike.

Amnesty International’s report also criticized “the active use of a legislation on “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” to defame independent NGOs, deprive them of funding and severely penalize their membership ”.

And he explained: “In December, new drastic legislative changes came into effect which, among other things, extended the provisions on ‘foreign agents’ to NGO staff, unregistered groups and individuals. In April, theEducational NGO Projectoria was forced to register as a ‘foreign agent’ to avoid fines, and its foreign donor, Project Harmony, was declared ‘unwanted’. In October, activist Yana Antonova from Krasnodar was sentenced to 240 hours of forced labor for association with an “undesirable organization”, disseminating Open Russia material on the Internet and participating in individual protests. Later, he was fined under new administrative procedures ”.

Finally, among the most salient points of the report, the NGO denounced that in Russia “torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread and the number of convictions handed down against those responsible was negligible. The prosecutions were normally for “abuse of power” and ended with the imposition of light sentences “.

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