Human Rights Watch: Kremlin fights against civil society by confiscating office equipment

The Russian authorities should stop their attempts to suppress political dissidence by means of intimidation and oppressions of human rights groups. Another manifestation of such attempts was the yesterday's confiscation of computers by the militia from the office of the Nizhniy Novgorod Foundation in Support of Tolerance, the Human Rights Watch has stated.

Since August 29, the work has been paralyzed of the Foundation in Support of Tolerance, which was founded instead of the liquidated Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship.

Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, a human rights activist and the Foundation's analyst, has informed the "Novaya Gazeta" that at about 9:30 p.m. the Foundation office was visited by employees of the Chief Interior Department (GUVD) of Nizhniy Novgorod, who said that they would make a regular audit of the economic, entrepreneurial, administrative and other activities of the organization.

The outcome of their "regular audit" was as follows: four processors were taken out of the Foundation's computers. The leaders of the Nizhniy Novgorod Foundation in Support of Tolerance are accused of using non-licensed software. Director Oksana Chelysheva remarks: "The confiscation protocol runs that it was an administrative offence, but when they summoned me for explanations, the reference was made to the article of the Code of Criminal Procedure. We think that this is just the way to intimidate us."