Yelena Mizulina, chair of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Childrens’ Affairs, is the infamous Russia politician who co-authored the “homosexual propaganda” law that banned advocating for gay rights. She is a member of the Just Russia party who has also been elected to parliament from the Communist Party, Yabloko, and Union of Right […]
Photographer Denis Sinyakov, who covered the Greenpeace action at the Prirazlomnaya on assignment from Lenta.ru, was the second person out of 30 arrested in the Arctic Sunrise case to be freed on bail. On November 21, he was released from Kresty Prison pre-trial detention in St. Petersburg and told The New Times how the foreigners […]
The Russian government may be moving to ban a coloring book in advance of the Sochi Olympics. We believe that the book in question talks about how same-sex couples are discriminated against in Russia, and are even beaten. It is interesting that the pro-Kremlin Izvestia makes no specific mention of the book in question, however, […]
Russia laws against “gay propaganda” make it a crime to promote homosexuality, or perhaps even gay rights, but they stop short of outlawing being gay. The explanation given by the government is that promoting homosexuality is an attack on children. Many have also worked to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia, despite the fact that social scientists […]
Galina Starovoitova was a pro-democracy activist in the 1990s, a prominent member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a defender of ethnic minorities. She was assassinated in 1998, soon after becoming the leader of “Democratic Russia,” a registered opposition party, she was assassinated outside her apartment building in St. Petersburg. Two men were arrested for […]
A Russian court has sentenced a protester to mandatory psychiatric treatment in a case that has been widely criticized by human rights watchdogs. Mikhail Kosenko, who has been voluntarily seeking mental-health treatment for much of his life and is a productive member of society, was accused of assaulting a police officer during the Bolotnaya riots […]
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is missing. Authorities say that she has been transferred to another prison, but her lawyers and family have had no contact with her since October 21st. Some have suggested that, based on standing regulations, she will be able to contact the outside world within five days of transfer. Below, we have published a […]
All bordering states dream of unconditional sovereignty over the Arctic where, according to estimates from the US Geological Survey, up to 13% of the world’s oil reserves are located (90 billion barrels) and up to 30% of the world’s gas (47.3 trillion cubic meters). Vladimir Putin himself called the suggestion of a Russian scientist to […]
Russia has had several high-profile human rights cases in recent weeks, highlighted this week by the decision to sentence a protester to a mandatory term in a psychiatric hospital, despite the fact that many high profile mental-health professionals say that he was misdiagnosed for political expediency. Even before that court decision was announced, the news […]
A Russian court has sentenced a protester to mandatory psychiatric treatment in a case that has been widely criticized by human rights watchdogs. Mikhail Kosenko, who has been voluntarily seeking mental-health treatment for much of his life and is a productive member of society, was accused of assaulting a police officer during the Bolotnaya riots […]
