Human Rights
Tuesday 27 August 2019
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“The European Court has recognized as manifestly unfounded the complaint about the arbitrary nature of Magnitsky’s deprivation of freedom, recognizing that his detention and incarceration fully complied with the established Convention requirements.”
The Russian Justice Ministry along with the state media misrepresented the European Court of Human Rights ruling shifting the focus from the key findings incriminating Russia to a the circumstances of Magnitsky’s arrest. -
“I am on every existing sanctions list in the world, and I cannot travel anywhere. Why? Only because I am defending the rights of Muslims. Their morals, customs, traditions – that is the only reason I am on these lists, nothing else.”
Ramzan Kadyrov has been blacklisted for atrocities against civilians that, according to Human Rights Watch, are “so widespread and systematic, they constitute crimes against humanity.” Based on data from well-documented human rights cases, the absolute majority of Kadyrov’s victims are Muslims. -
“…And we know that Russia has ratified a number of international treaties and conventions, under which the country must provide its citizens with fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and so on. And therefore, so many people were worried about the events that took place in Moscow: arrests and so on, all those detentions that were made by the legal authorities.”
The Kremlin’s translation of Macron’s comments omits his references to free elections in Russia and free elections in general. -
"By the results rarely anybody could compete with my battalion. All we had been doing was simply a pure mayhem. And this especially makes me laugh because of the attacks on me, especially the ones about how I'm a 'fake field commander.' No one, not one field commander, has got such results as I have. I can’t even talk about it, but one day the documents will surface and everybody will learn at which locations there were most human losses and that my battalion was there."
Zakhar Prilepin was deputy commander of a "battalion" formed in 2016, well after the last major combat operations in Donbas. He spent much of his time in Donetsk hosting a TV show. A former battalion leader claimed it was not a combat unit. -
“Russia has endorsed India's move of abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state of Jammu & Kashmir, saying the exercise was ‘carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India.’”
No reference to this subject is found in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s briefing of August 9, the date cited in the article. No such quote can be found on the foreign ministry’s website, and ministry has not responded to a question on the quote. -
Russian state TV ran a hit piece on a recent opposition rally, claiming it was cooked up abroad by Russia’s enemies while the attendees were primarily interested in music. That report fits into a Kremlin narrative, seeking to neuter protests which have brought thousands to the streets of Moscow.
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“Sanctions and accusations are poor substitute for evidence. And the latter lacks utterly.”
Following additional U.S. sanctions on Russia over the March 2018 Novichok poisoning, Russia's U.K. embassy claimed there is no proof linking Moscow to the attack. However, the presence of Russian GRU officers near the Skripals’ Salisbury home and other evidence points to the Kremlin's culpability. -
“A division of the State Department of the United States -- and, directly, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow -- published the itinerary of the so-called walk that lay ahead on Saturday.”
The U.S. State Department routinely publishes warnings to U.S. citizens about demonstrations in foreign cities, especially if there is a danger of clashes with law enforcement. -
“Thought police is already here - @twitter suspends account of the Russian Embassy in #Syria (!) after it posted factual criticism of the #WhiteHelmets, quoted @mod_russia data. Wasn't verified account yet - only proves "ordinary" accounts not allowed to have differing opinions”
Twitter did not say why it banned the account in question. However, the Twitter accounts of a number of Russian embassies have repeatedly disseminated false information about the White Helmets. -
“And so, the attempt to organize mass unrest in Moscow through provocations to elicit a extremely harsh police reaction have failed.”
After protests against a ban on opposition candidates in Moscow’s upcoming municipal elections turned violent, a pro-Kremlin pundit claimed that the protesters had tried to provoke a harsh police response. But journalists and rights organizations say the police crackdown was swift and unprovoked. -
“Women are weaker intellectually [than men]. Of course, there are some Marie Curies, though that is rare.”
Biopsychosocial studies show significant differences between the sexes. How these differences affect general intelligence remains a subject of academic discussion. Smirnov’s comment made headlines throughout Russia and sparked a public discussion. -
"#Ukraine’s language law comes into force, prohibiting Russian from being spoken by doctors and teachers. Clear violation of human rights and #MinskAgreements."
Ukraine’s new language law does not prohibit doctors from using Russian or any other language with a patient. Doctors can be penalized only if they refuse to speak Ukrainian.