An estimated 10,000 people participated in a protest held in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square yesterday, according to a report by The Moscow Times. This reduced figure testified to the effects of the repressive legislation introduced since the beginning of the large-scale protests against electoral fraud in December 2011—a movement which, at its height, attracted crowds of […]
To the Chairman of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Krasnov From Natalya Nikolayevna Magnitskaya 07 June 2013 Open Letter on the Case of Sergei Magnitsky Dear Dmitry Anatolevich, From media reports, I have learned that on 22 April 2013, the Council of Judges of the City of Moscow issued a […]
[The expatriation of Sergei Guriyev, a highly regarded Russian economist, was a major story both in the Russian and in international presses last month. By his own admission, Guriyev left Russia because he feared imprisonment after continued harassment by Russia’s Investigative Committee, which searched his office and seized thousands of emails related to investigation into […]
[In 2008, Moscow businessman Aleksei Kozlov was arrested on fraud charges. His wife, Olga Romanova, a veteran financial journalist, investigated his case and debunked the evidence against him. The Russian Supreme Court overturned Moscow City Court’s conviction, but Kozlov was simply put on trial again for the same charges. On May 31st, City Court found […]
Gary Kasparov, leader of the United Civic Front, has decided to refrain from trips to Russia. At a press conference in Geneva, the chess grand-master announced that he is afraid of criminal prosecution in his homeland in connection with the investigation of cases against the opposition. “I went there back and forth right up until […]
[Few of the Kremlin’s moves since Putin’s return to the presidency have engendered more homegrown protest than the NGO Law, which forces civil society groups that receive foreign funds or engage in nebulously defined “political” activity to register as “foreign agents.” Here, Aleksandr Rubtsov highlights the “theatre of the absurd”-qualities to the law’s implementation. –ed.] In […]
Sergei Guriev has spoken about his decision to flee Russia, stating frankly that he left because “I don’t want to sit in jail.” Guriev, a leading economist once very much part of the Russian establishment who wrote speeches for Dmitry Medvedev, described how the increasing pressure from investigators over a report he had authored criticizing […]
The new “Foreign Agents” law is affecting not only NGO’s, but also some of the country’s most respected economists. These economists have penned an open letter in Vedemosti detailing the damaging effects that the new law will have on economic research, and in turn economic activity in the country. The events of recent years, including […]
Police have detained officers of the Center for Financial and Legal Support of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Russian Federation Administrative Department of the President, suspected of extorting bribes for help in signing leases on buildings in the center of Moscow. The government officials charged 10 million rubles for their services. According to […]
The news this week that the prominent economist Sergei Guriev has resigned from his posts and has departed for France—perhaps permanently—is the latest in a series of rumored planned emigrations by liberal public figures such as journalist Masha Gessen. As has been recounted in translations published on The Interpreter this week, Guriev’s resignations and his […]
