Journalist Ruslan Totrov complains to UN Human Rights Committee

Ruslan Totrov, a political journalist from Ossetia, lodged a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee regarding two court’s decisions pronounced against him in Russia.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in October 2023, in Vladikavkaz, a court fined Ruslan Totrov for his post about the detention of a young woman who was reading a book in Ukrainian. The court regarded the Ruslan Totrov’s comment on the woman’s detention as inciting hatred or enmity. The journalist declared that the fines would not make him more reticent in expressing his opinions.

Earlier, Ruslan Totrov had been fined twice under the administrative article on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. The journalist filed appeals against both fines, but the Supreme Court (SC) of North Ossetia upheld the court’s decisions and dismissed all defence arguments, including the fact that Ruslan Totrov lives abroad.

The journalist believes that the actions of the Russian authorities violated his rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, not only under Article 19 (the right to free expression), but also under Article 20 (prohibition of war propaganda), and Article 26 (prohibition of discrimination, as the journalist claimed discrimination against people with pacifist beliefs took place).

Ruslan Totrov has called his appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee a “conscious decision.” “There are no longer any ways left to effectively challenge the sentences passed on me in Russia,” said the journalist. He has noted that decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are now “also not working” in Russia. Ruslan Totrov has emphasized that for him, filing a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee is a “symbolic step.”