Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Vladimir Putin creating 'worst human rights climate since Soviet times'

Vladimir Putin is presiding over the worst era for Russian human rights since the Soviet Union, according to two new reports by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

Mr Putin, who was re-elected as president almost a year ago, stands accused of bringing in new laws to stifle criticism of his regime and adapting existing laws to silence dissent.

"The Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society unprecedented in the country's post-Soviet history," the HRW report states.

"The authorities have introduced a series of restrictive laws, harassed, intimidated and in several case imprisoned political activists, interfered in the work of NGOs and sought to cast government critics as clandestine enemies."

 In a move that Amnesty described as "deliberately reminiscent of the Cold War," Mr Putin has brought in a new law which requires any organisation that receives funding from abroad to describe themselves as "foreign agents" if they are considered to be involved in undefined "political activities". Full story...

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