Russia Convicted in the ECHR (again)

Filed under: Europe ~ Russia

On March 29, 2007, the European Court for Human Rights handed down yet another conviction against Russia on a charge of violating human rights. This time, however, it wasn't for violating the rights of a dark-skinned person in Chechnya, but for an attack on a Slavic Russian in the nation's "northern capital," St. Petersurg. The ECHR's judgment came in the case of Andrei Frolov v. Russia. It ruled that Russia was guilty of human rights violations against Frolov and ordered Russia to pay him over $20,000 in damages.

As reported in the Moscow Times, Frolov "was housed in 11 different cells at [St. Petersburg's] Kresty [prison], each measuring 8 square meters and equipped with six bunks. Twelve to 14 inmates were kept in the cells, forcing them to sleep in shifts. The cells were dimly lit; the ventilation system was blocked; inmates had to make curtains to separate the lavatory pan from the rest of the cell; all the inmates in the cell had six minutes, once a week, to shower together -- although there were only six shower heads -- with no toiletries."

The Moscow Times added: "The conditions endured by Frolov are not unusual in Russian prisons. A recent report compiled by the Council of Europe found that the mortality rate in Russia's prisons was 20 times higher than the national average. According to official statistics, the country's prisons hold more than 870,000 inmates." At least 37,000 of Russia's prison population are known to be HIV positive and at least 80,000 suffer from TB. While Russia constitutes one-fortieth of the total world population, Russian citizens account for one-eighth of the world's prison population.

The problem of the government violating human rights in Russia is accelerating dramatically. The Moscow Times reports: "Russia paid nearly $500,000 in damages awarded by the Strasbourg court last year. To date, the court has ordered Russia to pay 1.24 million euros ($1.65 million)." The Times continues:

Igor Kalyapin, a lawyer and head of the Committee Against Torture, a nongovernmental organization based in Nizhny Novgorod with branches in six regions, including Chechnya, has prepared several successful appeals to the Strasbourg court. The court's intervention has even saved lives, Kalyapin said. "It was only thanks to [the appeal to the Strasbourg court] that Alexei Mikheyev, a police officer unjustly accused of rape who was tortured for ten days, survived until the trial," Kalyapin said, adding that Mikheyev's condition was deteriorating. "He underwent two complicated operations in Oslo, with funding coming from Norwegian NGOs, including a policemen's union. Needless to say, the police in Nizhny Novgorod responsible for the torture did not pay a penny," he said.

But how many Russians are able to access the funding of foriegn NGOs? How many are even able to get their stories out within Russia, when all the national television broadcasters are state controlled and most newspapers cower in fear of the Kremlin (those that are not actually state-owned)? If a billionaire like Mikhail Khodorkovsky can be treated as he has been, what is currently happening to the hundreds of thousands of impoverished Russians languishing in remote prisons in anonymous cell blocks?