David Miliband

Foreign Secretary

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Monday 02 March, 2009

Human rights in Russia

A spokesperson for the OSCE has said the failure to try those who murdered Anna Politkovskaya signals "a human rights crisis" in Russia  Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch in Moscow has also written powerfully about this case

In November, when I spoke at the Wilberforce lecture , where Anna Politkovskaya was given a posthumous medal for her contribution to democracy and human rights, I said that journalists like her are footsoldiers in the fight for freedom.  That another Novaya Gazeta journalist, 25 year-old Anastasia Baburova, was murdered only last month, indicates that the risks remain. Women like Politkovskaya and Baburova should never have had to become soldiers in such a literal sense.

At the same time there's been some commentary in the FT  and Huffington Post on the language Medvedev has used since Baburova's death. They suggest we are now seeing a shift of tone from inside the Kremlin. This is welcome.

Posted at 10:58 02 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

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Well done for speaking out about this, David. This is exactly the kind of leadership we should expect from a British cabinet Minister. Very well done again!

Posted by M on March 02, 2009 at 01:51 PM GMT #

The acquittal of the accused was certainly very disturbing, but the fairly recent innovation of trial by jury in Russia is surely to be welcomed. Trial by judge-only in Russia has consistently produced 90 per cent conviction rates, and we know that Russian prisons contain many men and women whose convictions are "unsafe" in the extreme. That would include all those now in prison following politically-motivated trials relating to the Yukos case including in particular Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who are today in court again facing charges described by their lawyers as "trumped up" and "laughable". The persecution of these men is another instance of Russia's human rights crisis. President Medvedev please take note.

Posted by Jeremy Putley on March 03, 2009 at 10:24 AM GMT #

Protracted dirty war tactics in counterinsurgency can gain the authority and will soon be directed against the civil society. This is now underway in Russia. Russia should be willing and committed to make use of preventive diplomacy against this trend. If not, sooner or later, Russia will become a victim of its own covert war.

Posted by Chamila Liyanage on March 05, 2009 at 10:16 AM GMT #

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