International human rights organizations: human rights activists feel worse in Russia

Yesterday, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) presented their annual report on situation with human rights activists in 90 countries of the world. According to these organizations, in Russia the conditions for the activities of human rights activists become worse day after day, since the authorities ban their meetings, intimidate and accuse them of having ties with western special services, while any criticism of Vladimir Putin's regime "is severely punished," the "Kommersant" newspaper writes.

The experts assert that the authorities have corrected the legislation so that to complicate as much as possible the registration process of non-commercial organizations (NCOs). A special point is the "growing intolerance" in relation to sexual minorities, whose actions are dispersed by "fascist movements."

The report also mentions "extreme tolerance" of the authorities towards any actions of nationalists.

A very tough comment on the situation with human rights organizations in Russia was made by Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Society "Memorial": "For the authorities, now any dialogue with NCOs means only interactions with the Public Chamber, which is becoming a sort of 'Central Committee' for NCOs. Intervention of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) into the work of NCOs has sharply increased: our employees are intimidated and tempted to lodge information against their colleagues. Never in Russia the situations with human rights activists was worse than today."