Chechnya Video War

During the year, the Government took a number of measures to consolidate the levers of political power in the hands of President Putin. The October 25 arrest of Khodorkovsky removed a powerful and wealthy critic of the administration of President Putin who had become increasingly active in providing financial assistance to opposition political parties, as well as to NGOs (see Section 4). Khodorkovsky, who was charged with fraud in connection with privatization of industrial assets in the 1990s, was the latest of a number of wealthy "oligarchs" who represented centers of potential political and media opposition to the President. In the view of many human rights observers, Khodorkovsky's arrest was intended as a warning to other oligarchs against involvement in political affairs and independent financial support of civil society. Whatever circumstances led the authorities to move against magnates such as Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovskiy and Vladimir Gusinskiy-- the latter two ... [Read More]

Russia

Authorities attributed bombing incidents in Dagestan and several cities in southern areas of the country to Chechen rebels.Government forces and Chechen fighters have used landmines extensively in Chechnya and Dagestan since August 1999 (see Section 1.g.); there were many civilian landmine casualties in Chechnya during the year. b. Disappearance There were reports of government involvement in politically motivated disappearances in Chechnya; however, there were fewer reports of kidnapings than in previous years. The NGO Memorial claimed that federal military forces detained thousands of persons from Chechnya. Some of these persons disappeared, but most were released, often after their relatives paid a bribe. Memorial estimated that the number of individuals unaccounted for was somewhere between several hundred and a thousand. Former Presidential Representative for Human Rights in C ... [Read More]

2004 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Russia

International agreements permit persons with outstanding warrants from other former Soviet states to be detained for periods of up to 1 month while the Prosecutor General investigates the nature of outstanding charges against the detainee. This system was reinforced informally, but effectively, by collegial links among senior law enforcement and security officials in the various republics of the former Soviet Union. Human rights groups continued to allege that this network was employed to detain opposition figures from the other former Soviet republics without legal grounds. According to Memorial, some detainees were kept in custody for more than 1 month. For example, a teacher of Arabic from Uzbekistan was detained in Saratov region and spent a year in custody from 2002 to 2003 before the authorities decided not to carry out the Uzbek warrant of extradition. He was then released, but abducted in July and transported back to Uzbekistan where he remained in jail at year's end. ... [Read More]

Russia

Internet service providers are required to install, at their own expense, a device that routes all Internet traffic to an FSB terminal. Those providers that do not comply with the requirements face either loss of their licenses or denial of their license renewal. While SORM-2 framers claim that the regulation does not violate the Constitution or the Civil Code because it requires a court order, right to privacy advocates state that there is no mechanism to ensure that a warrant is obtained before the FSB accesses private information. There appears to be no mechanism to prevent unauthorized FSB access to Internet traffic without a warrant. ... [Read More]

Russia

Notwithstanding this pressure, the Media-Most media companies (including the NTV, the radio station Ekho Moskvy, the news daily Segodnya, and the weekly Itogi) which are generally well regarded for their relative professionalism and independence, did not cede editorial ground.  These media outlets continued to criticize President Putin and his administration on a wide range of problems, including the Kremlin's media policy.  On May 11 masked law enforcement officers raided the offices of Media-Most in central Moscow and confiscated documents and technical equipment.  The authorities charged that the holding's security service illegally recorded telephone conversations.  Media-Most called the raid "a politically motivated attack on freedom of the press."  In a statement, the Russian Union of Journalists termed it "an unconstitutional act aimed at intimidating the independent media."  On June 11 Media-Most chief Vladimir Gusinskiy was arrested on charges of ... [Read More]

Russia

In August after a number of television stations showed footage of Chechen leaders in their reports on the conflict in Dagestan, the Ministry warned the companies against "giving air time to Chechen field commanders," stating that this "violates Article 4 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the Mass Media" (which forbids the inciting of racial violence or hatred). Days earlier, a city-owned station in St. Petersburg was issued an almost identical warning for airing anti-Semitic material (see Section 5). Later that month, Minister Lesin issued another stern warning to the ORT in connection with a news report by the station that allegedly displayed "flagrant disrespect for the flag of the Russian Federation" and allegedly contained "disrespectful comments about the Russian President." Minister Lesin informed the station that "such violations might lead to the revocation of the station's broadcasting license." In late August, the Ministry again warned the ORT that it could lose its bro ... [Read More]

Europe and Eurasia

The Embassy conducted an exchange program to demonstrate how the United States combats trafficking, disseminated State Department reports and other relevant documents and targeted small grants at NGOs to raise public awareness about human trafficking. The United States allocated $595,000 to anti-trafficking activities, including a variety of activities with NGOs, media education campaigns and police training. NGO activities include development of television programs and brochures, focus groups and town hall meetings, especially in eastern Macedonia and rural areas, to raise low-income women's awareness of the issue. A network of organizations will be formed throughout the country to provide services and counseling to victims, potential victims and their families. The Embassy also sponsored a Human Trafficking Reporting Awards program in 2003 to encourage local media to investigate and report on issues related to trafficking. ... [Read More]

Digital Video Conference With Bratislava, Moscow and Rome

There are a tremendous number of programs that we will be discussing with Ukraine when the new government is put into place there after, finally, successful elections, successful re-vote in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago. We look forward very much to finding ways to quicken Ukraine’s integration in Europe and in the transatlantic community, whether it be through programs that are sponsored by the European Union or through programs that are sponsored by NATO. Those will be very important programs. Of course, there are other programs that relate to WTO membership, to market economy status that are also very important for Ukraine that we will be working on together. France and Germany play a very, very important leadership role there as well. In the Caucasus and Central Asia (the Caucasus in particular), in countries like Moldova and Belarus, we have constant discussion about the best way to assure the stability, security, good governance in each of these countries. There is a long way to ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Transcript: Terrorism Expert Says War on Terrorism May Take Years

Now, obviously, it's tragic when civilians are killed in the course of war and in military operations, but I still think there's a world of difference between military operations that, in a theater of war, in a theater of declared war, that inadvertently or accidentally kill civilians and the acts of terrorists, which deliberately and specifically attempt to inflict violence and harm on civilians. That's firstly. ...

I mean, certainly, the wars that were fought most recently in Afghanistan and in Iraq conformed to the rules of war. And I think that's a very important distinction right there, is that we live in an imperfect world, and, of course, the rules of war that exist at times, unfortunately and tragically, especially for innocent civilians in military parlance, you know, the collateral casualties that are inflicted in the course of military operations, the consequences are equally tragic, whether you're killed or harmed in a terrorist incident or in a bombing raid. ... [Read More]

Public Diplomacy for the 21st century

Research. Whether they are the views of the Russian electorate, the mood on the Arab Street, or attitudes toward U.S. trade in Europe and Japan, American policymakers need more than ever to know what foreign publics think and why. ...

Prior to the Gulf War, USIA's polls and reports from Public Affairs Officers showed differences among Arab publics in their views of Sadaam Hussein. This information gave the United States added leverage in seeking support from Arab governments for the allied coalition. ... [Read More]