Meeting to protect NGOs takes place: riot squad detains representatives of human rights organizations

As reported earlier, the picket "FSB - hands off the civil society!", announced but not sanctioned, took place. The "Caucasian Knot" has obtained information on the details of detaining NGO representatives by the riot squad.

The main exit from the "Lubyanka" metro station was blocked by militia and riot squad officers. The picketers did not manage to approach the FSB building. Instead, they went to the other exit and at the Mayakovskiy Museum they managed to display their slogans and posters for 10-15 minutes.

According to the information provided through mobile by Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the public movement "For Human Rights", the following persons have been detained and brought to the Meschanski district militia station: human rights activists Lev Ponomaryov, Valentin Gefter, Mikhail Schneider, Yuri Samodurov, journalist Alexander Mnatskanyan, representatives of the youth human rights movement "Left Turn" Ivan Kolesnik and Andrei Tatarinov, and Andrei Mironov, member of the "Memorial" human rights centre. A lawyer has been dispatched to the Meschanski district militia station.

An interesting detail: the riot squad officers were arresting young participants in the picket, and the experienced human rights activists had to take the blow. When Lev Ponomaryov asked the question: "Why are you detaining young people?," the riot squad officers responded - "then we shall arrest you! - and detained the well-known human rights activist, runs the message of the "Public Information Centre."

In his turn, Henry Reznik, member of the Public Chamber, who came to the meeting venue, told journalists that such dispersal is illegal. "Dispersal may only take place when the participants either hamper traffic or block something. As far as I understand, the action organizers filed a notification on holding this action, specifying the exact place. Legally, they have done everything correctly," noted Reznik.

For reference, today, two actions of human rights activists titled "Authorities against civil society" are planned in Moscow.

By their action with a common title "Authorities against civil society", human rights activists intend to draw the public attention the provocations and ungrounded attacks on human rights organizations, in particular, against Moscow Helsinki Group accused last week of being financed by foreign secret services.

Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the movement "For Human Rights", specified the main target of the FSB building picketing: "It is of principal importance for us to demonstrate our attitude towards FSB which is engaged in provocations against human rights activists. A picket is one way of expressing public opinion. Pickets, meetings, press-conferences, demonstrations... At some moment we have decided that, apart from the press-conference which we are holding, it would be useful to hold a picket."

Note, that the picket organizers received a response signed by A. V. Litoshkin, deputy prefect of the Central Administrative Okrug, which runs that "it being impossible to accommodate the participants of the action on the selected area, the CAO prefecture suggests that the picket be held... on the area by the "Solovki Boulder" on the Lubyanka Square, with the number of participants not exceeding 50 people."

The picket organizers informed the CAO that such a response is not in line with the RF legislation and that it lacks motivation for the refusal. In this connection, the organizers still intend to hold the picket in the place and at the time specified, and to maintain contacts with the CAO management for settling the issue.

Liudmila Alekseeva, chair of Moscow Helsinki Group, following accusations addressed to her organization, declared that human rights activists intend to protect their reputation in court as well.

"We have decided to file a court suit for damage to business reputation, says Liudmila Alekseeva. "A suit at the court of arbitrage against TV Channels One and Two, against journalist Mamontov and against Mr Vasiliev, chair of the Committee on Security under the State Duma, who also claimed that we are financed by foreign intelligence services. We are not children, we know how our courts judge, therefore, if their ruling is not in conformance with the law, as we see it, we shall continue the process in the International Court of Arbitrage in Zurich."

Valeri Borschev, member of the Commission on Human Rights under the Russian President, gave his opinion on the possible consequences of pressure exerted by authorities on the human rights community.

"The campaign against human rights activists destroys the system of interaction between the civil society and the authorities which takes years to build. It is detrimental both for the society and the state. Everyone loses. If the authorities think that only NGOs stand to lose they are deeply mistaken, the whole country stands to lose. It is very dangerous," says Valeri Borschev.

For reference, Russian FSB announced the exposure of four British intelligence officers who worked under the cover of the UK embassy in Moscow and were ostensibly connected with the financing of a number of non-government organizations (NGOs) in the RF.

The Russian secret services got interested in four British diplomats, Paul Cronton, assistant of the official representative of the British intelligence service in Moscow, Mark Dow, second secretary of the embassy, Christopher Pierce, embassy secretary-registrar, and Andrew Fleming, secretary-registrar, reports NEWSru.com.

In their turn, several hundreds of representatives of Russian non-government organizations signed the statement "Spy scandal": the stand of civil organizations," in which they protest against the campaign of discrediting NGOs unleashed upon the FSB initiative. The document was signed by Yuri Dzhibladze, president of Centre for Development of Democracy and Human Rights; Elena Bonner, head of Andrei Sakharov Foundation; Sergey Kovalev, Oleg Orlov, Alexander Daniel, Alexander Cherkasov - representatives of the "Memorial" Centre; Anna Karetnikova, Anti-war club coordinator; Mikhail Kriger, one of the leaders of the Committee for Anti-war Action; Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society; Svyatoslav Zabelin, co-chair of Socio-environmental Union, and other well-known civil society activists. The collection of signatures continues at the web-portal "Human Rights in Russia."