On October 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch reported on a Russian trial court’s ordering the closure of an organization based in the Russian city of Nizhny Novogorod and known as the “Russian-Chechen Friendship Association.” The RCFA is a nongovernmental organization established by Russians to inform the public about the dire plight of Chechnya and Russian human rights abuses there. The decision came just after the group announced its intention to conduct its own formal investigation into Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Time magazine reported that Amnesty International had characterized the Kremlin’s action as one that “appears to be the latest move in a carefully calculated strategy to get rid of an organization that has been outspoken on behalf of victims of human-rights violations in Chechnya.” In 2004, the RCFA was the recipient of the International Helsinki Foundation’s Recognition Award for service to the cause of human rights in Chechnya.

Eight months earlier, after KGB officers raided the RCFA’s offices, the organization’s executive director, Stanislav Dmitrievsky (pictured, above), had been convicted of “inciting racial hatred” (Article 282 of the Russian Federal Criminal Code) for publishing articles in the RCFA newspaper Pravo-Zaschita (“Guardian of Rights”) about alleged human rights violations in Chechnya by Russian security forces. In 2006, Dmitrievsky was the winner of Amnesty International’s Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat. Anna Politkovskaya testified at his trial (click here to read an interview of Politikovskaya by Dmitreivsky from Pravo-Zaschita). Human Rights Watch reviewed the two statements that were the basis for the charges against Dmitrievsky and found that they did not contain any language that could legitimately be prohibited under international human rights law. Russian rights organizations also took up his cause. Dmitrievsky received a one-year suspended sentence, which seemed lenient at the time. It then turned out that the conviction was merely a pretext for not merely muzzling but liquidating the entire organization in a classic neo-Soviet act of censorship.

The Kremlin had already tried, unsuccessfully, to destroy the RCFA the year before. In 2005, the local tax inspectorate attempted to shut it down on charges that it did not pay taxes on a grant. The use of local authorities to carry out the national agenda is commonplace in Russia: Last year, as Publius Pundit reported, a blogger named Vladimir Rakhmankov was prosecuted by local authorities, supposedly just for violations of local ordinances, after he referred to Vladimir Putin as the “nation’s phallic symbol.” Of course, the Kremlin’s manipulation of the tax code for crass political purposes is well known, as it infamously used those provisions to jail oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky just after he started making noises about seeking the presidency. The assault on the RCFA was not limited to the use of judicial power. On several occasions, leaflets calling for attacks on various RCFA staffers were circulated in their neighborhoods, and the local prosecutor refused to take action. Dmitrievsky’s home was also broken into and searched by unidentified parties.

After Dmitrievsky’s trial, during which the pro-Kremlin youth cult “Nashi” (“us Slavic Russians”) organized protests against the writer outside the court, Radio Free Europe reported on his conviction: “Aleksandr Podrabinek, a former dissident and head of the Prima news agency, which reports on human rights abuses, mostly in the former Soviet Union, spoke to RFE/RL shortly after the trial had ended. ‘This is yet another defeat for Russian justice and perhaps the most powerful attack in recent years on freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Russia,’ Podrabinek said. ‘The sentence is clearly politically motivated. In my opinion, Dmitriyevsky is a man who deserves public gratitude not a conviction.’”

The charge of “inciting racial hatred” was based on a legal reform carried out in July of last year entitled a law “on combating extremist activities.” At the time it was enacted, many worried that it was a harbinger of a major crackdown on civil dissent in Russia, and those predictions seem to have been fully justified based on the treatment of the RCFA. Under the law, the RCFA had five days following Dmitrievsky’s conviction to disavow his statements and break its ties with him; failing to do so meant prosecutors could charge it with having adopted the statements, thus subjecting the organization to enforced closure.

The RCFA appealed to the Russian Supreme Court, and meanwhile the West shamefully failed to do adequate reporting on the persecution of the group or to put significant pressure on the Kremlin. Many human rights groups sounded the alarm bells, but the story failed to make headway in the mainstream press and the cause was not taken up by the West’s political leaders. The result was that last week the court ruled against RCFA, ordering it out of existence. In a press release, the RCFA stated:

The proceedings at the Supreme Court were observed by representatives of the European Commission Delegation as well as embassies of the USA, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Representatives of the Amnesty International and Human Rights watch also attended the court session. There were also observers from Russian human rights organizations, including Memorial human rights center, Civic Assistance Committee and For Civic Assistance Foundation. There were several journalists working for foreign media outlets as well as for ???????Echo of Moscow??????? radio. All of them became witnesses of absolute disregard to the law. Although we have expected this outcome, the undisguised farce of ???????considering??????? the appeal at the Supreme Court that the Russian authorities didn????????t hesitate to organize in presence of international observers was absolutely shocking. Although we did our utmost to prevent Russia from losing its face once again at the world scene, no miracle is possible under the current circumstances in Russia. We, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, have been liquidated as a Russia-based organization. Thus, the Russian authorities have proved once again that they remain absolutely indifferent to all voices of protest, regardless of what countries people who speak up in defense of liberal values and democracy come from or what is their level of recognition in the world community. We have been supported by more than hundred public figures from some twenty countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, Estonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Norway, Ukraine, Turkey, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Portugal, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Syria, Zimbabwe. More than one hundred Russian human rights people and journalists have signed their Open Letter to President Putin in support of our organization. We are definitely going to appeal to the European Court on Human Rights in the liquidation ruling as we deal with obvious violations of Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention.

Russia’s record before the ECHR is abysmal, so RCFA may well find nominal vindication there when its case is finally heard. Russia has received so many convictions before the body for violations of international law that it has been forced to undertake a reorganization and expansion just to deal with the massive Russian caseload. It has been convicted of everything from torture in Chechnya to persecuting religious organiziations like the Salvation Army and the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.

A prestigious consortium of international human rights organizations reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling as follows:

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, express their deep concern about the decision of the Supreme Court to upheld the decision of the Regional Court of Nizny-Novgorod to close down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). The Observatory strongly condemns the closure of the RCFS, which represents a further step into the muzzling of civil society, and blatantly contravenes the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly on December 9, 1998, which guarantees every person????????s right ???????to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels??????? (article 1), and ???????to form, join and participate in non-governmental organizations, associations or groups??????? (article 5). The Observatory urges the Russian authorities to put an end to any act of harassment against human rights NGOs and their members, as well as to revise their legislation so as to conform with international and regional standards relative to freedoms of association and expression, and to guarantee, in any circumstances, the independence of the judiciary. Finally, the Observatory calls the Russian authorities to conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 12.2, which provides that ???????the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration???????.

Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has also issued an official condemnation of the Kremlin’s action and has sent a bipartisan letter of protest to the Kremlin. But this is closing the barn door after the neo-Soviet horse has bolted. By waiting for the Supreme Court to act, apparently under the rationalization that this would show “respect” for the Russian judicial process, the West has effectively condemned the RCFS to oblivion. Unless the EHCR hears the case on an expedited basis, rules in its favor and this is followed up by some form of dynamic intervention to prop up the RCFS, the organization will have been effectively destroyed by the Kremlin.

The Kremlin has shown itself capable of erasing individual reporters who dared to tell the truth about Chechnya; Anna Politkovskaya, perhaps the greatest Russian patriot who ever lived, is the leading example. Now it shows that it can just as easily wipe out entire NGOs. How long before it moves on to more significant entities, like Anna’s newspaper Novaya Gazeta or the valiant little English language outfit The Moscow Times? How long will the world stand idly by watching it happen? If the world had more actively opposed the Extremism Law when it was being debated in the Russian Duma, and upon its passage had aggressively reached out to protect those like the RCFA who would be its first victims, the RCFA might not have been silenced. The Kremlin might have stayed its hand, or at least a great deal more publicity would have resulted when it acted. More important, the Kremlin would not so easily have been able to send the message throughout Russia that organizations like RCFA have no future in neo-Soviet Russia, thus chilling future such efforts. Now, we must redouble our efforts to see that the Kremlin’s further progress down the neo-Soviet road is inhibited to the maximum extent possible.

Kim Zigfeld publishes the Russia blog La Russophobe.