#OVD-Info

[unfogging]

E' sbagliato dire che i russi non protestano

Se i governi e le persone all'estero vogliono che i russi protestino di più, dovrebbero sostenere la società civile russa e aiutarci a superare la paura #dissidenti #oppositori #dirittiumani #prigionieripolitici #Russia #protesta #OVDinfo

Il Financial Times pubblica l’analisi del caporedattore inglese di OVD-Info, un gruppo che monitora i diritti umani in Russia. A più di un anno dall’invasione su vasta scala dell’Ucraina, i miei amici occidentali spesso mi chiedono: perché i russi non protestano? La risposta è che alcuni lo fanno, ma la protesta è in gran parte inutile di fronte a una repressione decennale del Cremlino. A…

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#diritti umani #featured #guerra Russia - Ucraina #Oppositori #ovd-info #Prigionieri politici #Russia #Ucraina

[russianreader]

Russian Buddhists and the War

Telo Tulku Rinpoche, the now-former Supreme Lama of Kalmykia On Friday, January 27, 2023, the Russian Justice Ministry placed Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Erdni-Basan Ombadykov) on its registry of “foreign agents.” Rinpoche is еру president of the Association of Buddhists of Kalmykia and the 14th Dalai Lama’s official representative in Russia, Mongolia and the CIS countries. The ministry’s press service…

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#Anzhela Kalsynova #Buda Badmayev #Buddhism in Russia #Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia #Buryatia #Dalai Lama #Damba Ayusheev #Erdni-Basan Ombadykov #foreign agents #Jampa Donied #Kalmykia #OVD-Info #pro-war Russians #Russian anti-war movement #Russian Buddhists #Shajin Lama #Supreme Lama of Kalmykia #Telo Tulku Rinpoche

[seefasters]

hes so real for this

#this line gets more real for every year that the actual antiwar effort exits #>my ass who actually donated to the antiwar effort watching this for the first time last year #i dont have money this year otherwise........... #its me talking #google ovd info or come back alive if you DO have money this year #vanya watches mash #exists*

[perishrad]

The number was provided by russian OVD-info and the memorial organisations.

#ukraine #russian terrorism #russian invasion #russia is a terrorists state #bucha massacre #russian war on ukraine #russian war crimes

[morokinema]

Two years ago, russian atrocities in Bucha were discovered.

The russians tortured and killed over 440 people in one small suburban town. More Ukrainians were killed in Bucha alone than russians in the whole 140 mln 🇷🇺 were pressed with criminal charges for “protesting war”.

The number was provided by russian OVD-info and the memorial organisations.

#free ukraine #russia #russia must burn #russian #russo ukrainian war #free palestine #russian culture #ukraine #free gaza #war #save ukraine #save #save the children #genocide #russian literature

[coochiequeens]

Russia gave her a harsher sentence for placing stickers in a grocery store then they do men who kill women.

17 Nov 2023

Russian artist Alexandra Skochilenko has been sentenced to jail for seven years after being found guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian military by replacing a handful of supermarket price tags with messages criticising the war in Ukraine.

The 33-year-old, known as Sasha, is one of thousands of Russians to be detained, fined or jailed for speaking out against Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour amid an escalating crackdown on free speech and opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

Skochilenko was arrested in her native St Petersburg in April 2022, after an elderly customer at the supermarket found the slogans on the price tags and notified the police.

“The Russian army bombed an arts school in Mariupol. Some 400 people were hiding in it from the shelling,” one read, in reference to Russia’s brutal siege of the southern Ukrainian city. Another said, “Russian conscripts are being sent to Ukraine. Lives of our children are the price of this war.”

Judge Oksana Demiasheva delivered the verdict on Thursday hours after Skochilenko, who has a congenital heart defect and coeliac disease, had made a final statement to the court, asking for compassion and to be set free.

As well as the prison term, the artist was banned from using the internet for three years.

Skochilenko, wearing a colourful T-shirt decorated with a large red heart, reacted with shock to the sentence, covering her face and wiping away tears.

Supporters shouted “shame” and “we’re with you Sasha”, the AFP news agency reported.

Skochilenko’s lawyers left without giving any comment.

Skochilenko’s arrest came about a month after authorities adopted a law effectively criminalising any public expression about the war that deviated from the Kremlin’s official line.

Human rights group Memorial – now banned in Russia – said police spent 10 days interrogating supermarket staff and inspecting security camera footage before arresting the artist.

“They sometimes give less for murder than for five price tags in a supermarket,” Boris Vishnevsky, a politician linked to the opposition Yabloko party, told AFP.

“Hopefully, someday, the pendulum will turn the other way.”

Skochilenko was accused of committing what the state prosecutor described as a serious crime out of “political hatred” towards Russia. He had asked for her to be jailed for eight years.

Skochilenko admitted to swapping the tags but denied that the text written on them was false. She said she was a pacifist who valued human life above all else.

“How weak is our prosecutor’s faith in our state and society if he thinks our statehood and public safety can be ruined by five little pieces of paper?” she said in court.

“Everyone sees and knows that you are not judging a terrorist. You’re not trying an extremist. You’re not even trying a political activist. You’re judging a pacifist,” she said.

Skochilenko’s friends and supporters said the verdict was a disgrace [Olga Maltseva/AFP]

Amnesty International condemned the verdict.

“Her persecution has become synonymous with the absurdly cruel oppression faced by Russians openly opposing their country’s criminal war,” it said in a statement.

Memorial has designated Skochilenko a political prisoner and has launched a campaign calling for her release.

She has already been in detention for nearly 19 months, meaning that her overall term will be reduced by more than two years, since every day served in a pre-trial detention centre counts as 1.5 days of time served in a regular penal colony.

But she has struggled in custody due to pre-existing health conditions, and her need for a gluten-free diet, according to her lawyers and her partner.

According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that monitors political arrests and provides legal aid, a total of 19,834 Russians have been arrested between February 24 2022, when Russia began its invasion, and late October 2023 for speaking out or demonstrating against the war.

Also on Thursday, opposition politician Vladimir Milov was convicted in absentia of spreading false information about the army and sentenced to eight years. Milov, who was once Russia’s deputy energy minister and is now an ally of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has left the country.

#Russia #Ukraine #Alexandra Skochilenko #Sasha #Speaking up against war is now spreading false information #Censoring a woman by banning her from using the internet #Shame #We're with you Sasha #Memorial #Speaking out against war is now called political hatred

[ohsalome]

i think i remember you once talking about (or maybe reblogging) something about how the whole "in russia its impossible to protest, everyone who protests gets sent to prison" thing is mostly a lie and just an excuse - which i believe 100%. do you happen to have any links or resources regarding this? i'd love to have some on hand for these "every russian is just a poor little uwu baby who is terrified of their government" idiots

Yup, I've got you

One big source that is considered somewhat reliable on the number of russians arrested is OVD Info - a non-profit advocacy group that specialises in exactly cases like this. Just looking at their latest report you will see that there are very few people who actually got sent to prison, and for the most part protestes had deal with administrative punishment. And then you can just use simple math to calculate the actual % of protesters who got imprisoned.

For the lazy version, I also have this twitter thread. It is a bit outdated if you're looking for exact numbers, but since most protests happened during first month of war, the general picture will still remain the same.

#response #ukraine #russia #war in ukraine

[rostomanologist]

Russia Is Fucking Up Queer Lives. How Can I Help?

i kno there are several masterposts with links and etc, but i want to make one for our foreign friends

so, the help how? mostly, donations and signing petitions. for now ru-queers are in need for legal and psychological support, sheltering and evacuation, which is done by several organisations also, please spread the word. there's little info on what's happening here, so any reblog of news or info posts would be appreciated

Petitions

Quarteera's petition for providing easier access to refugee status for trans people from russia (since the transition is prohibited here) in germany. can be signed from any country. more details here

Sphere's petition for easier obtain of visas and travel documents for ru-queers in countries that have signed international human rights conventions

Donations

Coming Out - helping organisation, provides legal, informational and psychological support

Queer-Svit - organisation helping lgbtq and bame people; provides help for people affected by war in ukraine (relocation, financial support), national minorities in russia, belarus and other "post-soviet" countries, trans people in russia

SK SOS - crisis group working in north caucasus regions, including chechnya/ichkeria; focuses on evacuation of women and queer people from there

Centre-T - initiative group for trans and non-binary people

Dept One - advocacy organisation which also works with lgbtq community (accepts donations with crypto currency, for other currencies email them)

OVD-Info - advocacy organisation which also works with lgbtq community

Resource Center for LGBT in Ural - focuses mainly on helping people in yekaterinburg offline, but also provides online help

Parni PLUS - russian lgbtq media, which also provides informational support for people in need

some of the sites are in russian, so use translate if it's hard to navigate.

im afraid i didn't mention a lot of organisations and initiatives (sphere, russian lgbt network and etc are not included since i can't find links for donations. if you find them i'll add). so additions are welcomed

thank you!

#russia #lgbtqia

[gellavonhamster]

I’m sorry for your friends in Russia. How are they now? Do you think it is possible to do something for the people who are dissidents and are at risks of being targeted by the governement?

Well, the general mood is dejected and angry. Some people are bringing flowers to the monuments to victims of Soviet-era political repressions or creating improvised memorials, which get promptly dismantled by the police. Some are just quietly grieving. Like I said, most people didn't even really like Navalny, but his death is proof that if even a popular public figure like him may be disposed of with no trouble (even if it was not assassination proper and his health actually failed him, it's still murder - he was kept in harsh conditions on purpose), then the great number of other political prisoners who aren't as well-known are at even more risk. (And right now, people in Russia are getting thrown in prison for basically anything - one man, I kid you not, was imprisoned because his daughter drew an anti-war drawing at school). Besides, the Russian opposition is already atomized as it is, with leftist politicians disconnected from ordinary people nearly as much as the current government, and most prominent activists having been arrested or forced to flee abroad. Navalny, for all his faults and those of his team, was one of the very few people still in Russia who could pass for some sort of leader. The only two other such people I can think of, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, are also in prison.

Regarding what can be done, OVD-Info is a human rights defense group that provides legal aid to anti-war protesters and other people persecuted for their political views. It is possible to support them through GlobalGiving. Also, in terms of spreading awareness, Mediazona is a good independent media reporting, among other things, on politically motivated court cases. Here's the link to the English version of their page.

#asks #artemideaddams #russian tag #it is very kind of you to ask; thank you #all pages linked in the post are in english btw

[mariacallous]

Thousands of mourners gathered in Moscow on Friday for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, despite an ominous warning from the Kremlin that anyone participating in unsanctioned gatherings could face arrest. 

Crowds of people, many clutching red carnations, gathered amid a heavy police presence to pay their respects to the Kremlin foe, with some chanting “Putin is a killer” and “you weren’t afraid, we aren’t afraid.” 

More than 400 people have been detained in dozens of cities across Russia for participating in memorials in the two weeks since Navalny’s sudden and still unexplained death in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic Circle, according to OVD-Info, which monitors politically motivated arrests in Russia. At least 115 people were detained on Friday, according to the group. 

Navalny, who was 47 years old, was buried in Borisovo cemetery in his childhood neighborhood in southeast Moscow. The casket of the Putin critic, who was known for his irreverent sense of humor, was lowered into the ground to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” followed by the theme tune from his favorite film, Terminator 2.

Navalny’s sudden death has fueled concerns about the well-being of hundreds of other prisoners in Russia.

“If they could kill Navalny, they could kill anybody else,” said Grigory Vaypan, a senior lawyer at Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group. 

There are currently 679 people serving sentences on politically motivated charges, according to Memorial, although the actual number is likely much higher, Vaypan said.

“This number is the absolute minimum. It’s the most conservative assessment that we can get,” he said. 

Despite the international outcry over Navalny’s death, Moscow’s crackdown on dissent shows little sign of abating.

On Feb. 27, Oleg Orlov, chairman of Memorial, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Two days later, a court in Sverdlovsk rejected the appeal of a Russian American, Ksenia Karelina, who was detained on treason charges earlier this year for donating just over $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

The Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent has gathered pace throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 24 years in power, escalating dramatically in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The number of people in prison on politically motivated charges has increased 15-fold over the past decade, Vaypan said, with arrests surging further still since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

In 2022, more than 21,000 people were penalized for publicly opposing the war and faced detention and heavy fines, according to Amnesty International. 

Shortly after the invasion, Putin signed a new law that prohibits the “discreditation” of the Russian Armed Forces and the dissemination of so-called fake news about the country’s military. The law has been used widely to target critics of the war. 

Last year, a court in Moscow sentenced 63-year-old railway worker Mikhail Simonov to seven years in prison for making anti-war statements on the Russian social media platform VKontakte. “While killing children and women, we sing songs on Channel One [Russian state TV],” Simonov wrote. “We, Russia, have become godless. Forgive us, Lord,” Simonov wrote in a post.

“The approach is to target one person to create a chilling effect for another 1,000 or 10,000 people,” Vaypan said, of the haphazard way the law has been applied. “No one ever knows who is going to be targeted for what and who is going to be let off the hook,” he said. 

The length of sentences has also increased dramatically in recent years. In 2023, dissident and Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for condemning the war in Ukraine. Natalia Arno, president of the Free Russia Foundation, described the sentence as reminiscent of those handed down to dissidents in the Stalin era. 

With Navalny dead, Kara-Murza, a dual British-Russian citizen, is now the most prominent Kremlin critic imprisoned in Russia. “We understand that Kara-Murza is next, and he is very high on Putin’s target list,” said Arno, a friend of the jailed Putin foe.

Kara-Murza has survived two near-fatal poisoning attempts that have left him with lingering health issues and amplified concerns about his well-being in the Russian prison system, where health care is notoriously poor. 

Conditions in Russian prisons are equally grim. A 2021 State Department report described the country’s detention centers and penal colonies as “often harsh and life threatening,” noting that food and sanitation standards were low while overcrowding and abuse were rife.

A striking number of Russia’s political prisoners have been convicted on religious grounds. Their cases receive significantly less attention both within Russia and abroad. Almost two-thirds of the people considered political prisoners by Memorial have been persecuted because of their religious beliefs. 

Many are adherents of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamist political organization that Russia deemed a terror group in 2003. 

As with other politically motivated cases, Hizb ut-Tahrir followers were previously sentenced to two- to three-year prison terms, said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the Sova Center, a Moscow-based think tank that studies nationalism and racism, but in recent years they have been handed down sentences of up to 24 years. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses, which Russia labeled an extremist group in 2017, have also borne the brunt of an inexplicable and punishing crackdown.

Since 2017, there have been over 2,000 raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses, with 794 people facing charges, according to Jarrod Lopes, a spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States. Many of those facing charges are older adults; the trial of the oldest, 85-year-old Yuriy Yuskov, began in January.

On Thursday, a 52-year-old man in the Russian city of Tolyatti, Aleksandr Chagan, was handed an eight-year sentence for his membership in the church.

“We’ve noticed that the Russian authorities haven’t slowed down in religious persecutions. If anything, lately, things have continued to escalate,” Lopes said.

[unfogging]

I 'Casi' contro la guerra

Le persone parlano della guerra sui social e indossano simboli contro la guerra. Sono passibili di procedimento penale #prigionieripolitici #libertadiespressione #dirittiumani #humanrights @ovdinfo_en

La guerra con l’Ucraina ha cambiato irrevocabilmente la società russa. Dal 24 febbraio, le azioni contro la guerra si sono svolte quotidianamente, le persone hanno parlato della guerra sui social network e indossano simboli contro la guerra. Tali dichiarazioni diventano motivo di procedimento penale. OVD-Info è un gruppo di difesa dei diritti umani indipendente. Ci concentriamo sui diritti alla…

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#diritti umani #guerra Russia - Ucraina #Oppositori #ovd-info #Prigionieri politici #Russia

[beardedmrbean]

Russian riot police fired tear gas and hit protesters with batons in Bashkortostan on Wednesday after a rights activist was sentenced to four years in a penal colony.

Footage showed supporters of Fail Alsynov clashing with police - some throwing snowballs - near the court.

Alsynov was jailed for inciting ethnic hatred, which he denies.

One protester had a "smashed head", and dozens were detained and injured, monitoring group OVD-Info said.

The trial, and protests, took place in Baymak in southern Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan.

Authorities have opened an investigation against some of those demonstrating under "mass rioting" charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

"I advise you to come to your senses and not ruin your life," Bashkortostan's Interior Minister Rafail Divayev warned protesters.

Local journalist Artur Asafyev told BBC Russian that the authorities were trying to make an example of both the protesters and Alsynov. The sentence passed on the defendant was tougher than that requested by the prosecutor.

"They knew that a harsh sentence would make people angry," he said.

Some reports say there were a few thousand people at the demonstration, which went on for several days in temperatures of around -20C.

Mr Asafyev added people in Bashkortostan were already used to protests about environmental issues and had come from miles around to this remote town.

"People did not fear arrest and came out despite Baymak being five hours' drive from [regional capital] Ufa," he said.

Protesters were seen shouting their support for Alsynov, and there are reports that some tried to block the courthouse entrance after the sentence was announced.

Russian investigators said law enforcement officials were among those injured at the protests, and claimed demonstrators used "objects as weapons".

Tear gas was reportedly fired and protesters were seen throwing snowballs at ranks of police behind riot shields.

The activist has now been driven away from the court to applause from supporters, who have started to disperse, OVD-Info said.

Alsynov is accused of insulting migrants at a demonstration against plans to mine for gold, but supporters said it was delayed revenge for his activism in preventing soda mining in what locals consider a sacred place.

He is said to have called Central Asians and Caucasians, who make up most of Russia's migrant population, "black people", considered a derogatory term in Russian.

But he insists the words he used in the Bashkir language mean "poor people" and were mistranslated into Russian. He intends to appeal against the verdict.

He told journalists as he was led away: "I do not accept guilt. I have always fought for justice, for my people, for my republic, so we will see each other again...

"The people came to support me, and I do not know what is going to happen. We did not want this. A huge thank you to all who came to support me."

Alsynov has also in the past criticised military mobilisation in the region as "genocide" of the Bashkir people, a Turkic race closely related to the Tatars which inhabits the southern Ural mountains.

There have been long-running claims that a disproportionately high number of ethnic minorities in Russia are being sent to fight in Ukraine.

Alsynov was a leader of Bashkort, a grassroots movement set up to preserve the ethnic identity of the Bashkirs which was banned as extremist in 2020.

#nunyas news #keep it up lads and lasses

[lucy-sky]

Pinned post update:

I think it’s important to not let the heavy weight of current events to bring you down completely. Yes, it feels like you can’t do much, and it’s easy to sink into total apathy, but let’s not make it happen. If there’s a possibility to do at least a little something, well... I believe every effort matters. A little something is always better than nothing at all.

WFU.WORLD

This humanitarian initiative is raising money to buy portable wood burning stoves and electricity generators and deliver them to Ukranian residents. You can either donate or buy a heater online - all the instructions are on the website.

If you live in Russia and don’t have a foreign card, you can donate as well! Just contact one of the organizers and they will provide all the info on how to do it.

HELPDESK.MEDIA

Helpdesk Media helps the victims of war, consults people on different questions - legal help, immigration, even psychological help, etc. They also share people's stories on their instagram and telegram. And of course they raise money as well:

The initiative to support peaceful civilians of Ukraine. Here you can subscribe to a monthly donation — it will be debited as long as Russian missiles target Ukraine.

(helpdesk.media website where you can learn more about the organization)

OVD-INFO

OVD-Info is an independent human rights defense and media group. They help those who are unjustly persecuted (politically motivated detentions, dismissals from work, interrogations, house searches and arrests happen in Russia on a daily basis, so they provide legal support to the victims of repressions)

#important #current events #pinned

[myrddin-wylt]

(readmore)

me when I hear some super outlandish allegation about just how severe state censorship has gotten in Russia regarding people who speak out against the war: yeah there’s no way that’s true. that’s blatant clickbait. that would be too heavy-handed even for like Lex Luthor. that’s straight from Orwell’s 1984. it’s just too absurdly high-profile, even for Putin.

me when I see the source is OVD-Info:

#JESUS FUCK #I KNEW IT WAS BAD BUT HOLY SHIT //RUSSIA//

[kum-mer]

Activist and poet Artem Kamardin has been beaten and raped by Moscow police, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on Monday.

A source reportedly told the outlet that security agents “beat Kamardin severely and shoved a dumbbell into his anus.” They then forced him to apologize on camera for saying the words “Glory to Kyivan Rus — Novorossiya can suck it" at an anti-mobilization gathering.

Earlier on September 26, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that police had gone to the apartment where Kamardin lives to “inspect the premises,” citing Kamardin’s lawyer, Leonid Solovyov. After the “inspection,” Solovyov said, the police took Kamardin, along with activists Alexandra Popova and Alexander Menyukov, who he lives with, to a police station.

The Telegram channel 112 posted a video that shows Kamardin apologizing “to the multi-ethnic Russian people” with what appear to be bruises and cuts on his face.

OVD-Info reported later on September 26 that Alexandra Popova has been released from police custody. She told the independent outlet that officers pulled out her hair, applied superglue to her mouth and face, threatened to rape her, and showed her a video of them raping Kamardin.

On September 25, Artem Kamardin took part in a poetry reading dedicated to opposing Russia’s mobilization. It was there that he read the words he was later forced to apologize for.

#russia #war #ukraine #anti-war protests #police brutality #rape

[dostoyevsky-official]

what are some russian publications that you follow?

off the top of my head: meduza doxa NG fem anti war resistance mediazona paperpaperpaper (bumaga, for spb) moskvichmag (msk equivalent) dozhd rustamova stanovaya holod theinsider. chikov, refugeehelpdesk, refugee_help on ig (refugeehome on tg) and OVD-info to see what's happening with the refugees. there are more i don't check so often

#do you speak russian? #i used to have a pinned post on this but events took place