The former director of the UCSJ-founded Kazakhstan International Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law, Eugeny Zhovtis was released today after two-and-a-half years in a labor camp. In a phone conversation with UCSJ International Director Leonid Stonov, Zhovtis expressed gratitude to President of UCSJ Larry Lerner and all who supported him during his struggle.
The new Israeli Ambassador does not know there are political prisoners in Belarus.
On February 15 at his press-conference in Minsk the new Israeli Ambassador to Belarus Yosef Shagal stated that he knows nothing about existence of political prisoners in Belarus.
“I am a citizen of Israel, we do not have political prisoners. As for Belarus, I do not know, I should scan through newspapers. I will answer your question in half a year,” the Ambassador said answering the question of BelaPAN. “I am a journalist, and I know perfectly well how articles are written. Have you been in camps for political prisoners yourself?”
Read the rest of the story here: http://charter97.org/en/news/2012/2/15/48045/
When and where were you born?
Moscow, USSR 1931
How did you get involved with human rights in the Soviet Union?
Ever since I was a child I was interested in politics, and I even wanted to study humanities in history. But before I graduated high school, my father was arrested. He was accused of making anti-Soviet propaganda. Many of our friends and family thought it was a mistake. We knew it was government policy. Read more…
By Daniil Meshcheryakov, Executive Director of the Moscow Helsinki Group
Politically active groups continued to advocate for a nationalist agenda within the broader protest movement. Read more…
“‘Lviv is known in the world not because of hotels but because of its common cultural heritage,’ said Meylakh Sheykhet, who heads Lviv’s Jewish community. Sheykhet is part of a group that filed several lawsuits to stop construction of the hotel.”
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/general/detail/96873/#ixzz1lLgL8x2P
“Meylakh Sheykhet, Ukraine’s representative in the Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union, is a driving force in preserving western Ukraine’s decaying Jewish cultural heritage. He said his aim is to try to preserve as much of it as possible, however challenging that may be financially or practically.”
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/108659/#ixzz1lLgqvQPr
State obstruction will keep the Russian democratic party of the ballot this year. They were required to collect two million signatures, which they did, but since a portion were scanned and not originals–something they had to restort to to meet the dealine–their entire petition was discarded. Putin’s party will benefit as a result: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/yavlinsky-says-yabloko-is-in-the-right/452038.html
This is a good editorial from “The Moscow Times” which discusses lack of ideas on ethnic policy. The 20% of the population that is non-native Russian will have to wait for new policies.: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putins-nationality-dilemma/451918.html
On the night of January 1 in the town of Kremenchug (Poltavskaya oblast’) an unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail at a local synagogue. The reinforced concrete beam at the entrance to the synagogue was damaged as a result the arson.
12/08/2011 14:42 By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
A memoir about a brave, doomed refusenik and her courageous American friend.
Photo by: Courtesy of the kitrossky family
Moscow in the 1980s was a grim and dangerous place where talking to an American on the street was enough to attract the unwanted attention of the KGB. This is where Lisa Paul, then a University of Minnesota coed, came to work for two years as a nanny for an American businessman’s children. Read more…
Union of Councils expresses solidarity with democratic forces in Russia who strongly protest against the falsification of parliamentary election results. Today, big rallies in Moscow, Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, and many other cities and towns across Russia showed that Russian civil society not only exists, but is fighting for democratization and political-economic reforms.
We support the demands of human rights organizations to cancel the results of the election and initiate new ones under strong monitoring by local and international organizations and media. We were pleased that the protests have been peaceful and cooperative with police.
UCSJ wishes great success to our Russian human rights friends and partners in developing democratic practice, institutions and traditions. We are ready to help them approach these high goals.
