YouTube and LiveJournal Are Blocked In Turkmenistan

Turkmentelecom, the only Internet-provider, updated and expanded the list of websites, blocked for local users. From now on, the ordinary Turkmen web users are not able to visit Youtube. In the last 6 months it was hard but still possible to visit this popular resource. Another famous LiveJournal service for bloggers was also blocked.

Besides websites, unwanted by the government, Turkmentelecom also blocked some Internet connection channels; therefore, some foreign companies, owning corporate networks, cannot access them.

Moreover many private users, owning web resources (websites, email and other), hosted outside the republic, have troubles accessing them.

Russian Court: Arrest Of Mikhail Khodorkovsky Partner Platon Lebedev Illegal

Russia’s supreme court today ruled that the 2003 arrest of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s main business partner, Platon Lebedev, was illegal.

The judgment came two years after the Strasbourg-based European court of human rights (ECHR) ruled in Lebedev’s favour in a complaint attesting to the illegality of his arrest.

The surprise arrest of Lebedev in July 2003 was the opening shot in the state’s campaign against Yukos. Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, was arrested three months later. The two men are currently serving eight-year sentences and if found guilty of the new charges could face a further 22 years in prison.

Both Lebedev and Khodorkovsky were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in 2005, and are now facing trial together on new charges of embezzlement and money laundering. Their lawyers say the Yukos case was designed to hand the company’s assets to the state while ridding the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, of a politically and socially active opponent.

“This is nothing more than a reaction to a European court ruling that Russia couldn’t ignore. It doesn’t change anything,” said Yevgeny Baru, a former lawyer for Lebedev who helped bring the case to the ECHR. “It gives the illusion that justice exists. It’s just a game.”

Российские Блоггеры Под Прицелом

Пару месяцев назад российский милиционер Алексей Дымовский выложил в интернете видеосообщение, в котором рассказал о невыносимых условиях службы и коррупции в рядах российской милиции. Его откровенность в сети вызвала нешуточные дебаты в российской блогосфере: около миллиона пользователей просмотрели и прокомментировали сообщение 32-летнего Дымовского.  “Многие стали использовать интернет как дешевую и действенную платформу для выражения собственного мнения. Однако делать это в России становится все опаснее”.

Как опасаются правозащитники, в будущем контроль над блогами будет только ужесточаться: уже сегодня против отдельных блоггеров заведены уголовные дела по обвинению в экстремизме или разжигании национальной розни.

Так, посредством введенного в 2007 году параграфа в закон об экстремизме, в прошлом году на год условно был осужден блоггер Савва Терентьев, который подверг критике российские правоохранительные органы. А в конце июня, продолжает издание, перед судом предстал 30-летний Дмитрий Кириллин. Следователи нашли в его блоге от 2006 года заметки, в которых он якобы призывал к свержению существующего политического строя.

Комиссия Сейма Литвы: В Стране Были Два Центра ЦРУ

Глава комитета по безопасности парламента Литвы Арвидас Анушкаускас заявил -  доклад следственной комиссии уже одобрен и в ближайшее время будет опубликован.

В соответствии с выводами комиссии, в первом из американских центров были созданы условия для содержания заключенных, однако помещения так и не были использованы.

Что касается второго центра содержания, то парламентариям не удалось получить прямые доказательства присутствия там подозреваемых в терроризме. Согласно данным парламентской комиссии, у высших чинов была лишь обобщенная информация о сотрудничестве с США, о конкретных проектах руководство не знало.

Члены комиссии также признали, что в 2005-2006 году на территории Литвы приземлялись американские самолеты, которые после посадки не проверялись властями.Эксперты и журналисты предполагают, что литовские центры использовались ЦРУ для секретной перевозки и содержания заключенных, подозреваемых в причастности к деятельности экстремистских групп.

Duma Prepares to Ratify Strasbourg Court Reform – Protocol 14

Key State Duma deputies said Monday that they would finally discuss a reform proposal for the European Court of Human Rights.

The reform, Protocol 14 of the European Human Rights Convention, would help eliminate a massive backlog of cases in the court but had been blocked by Moscow. The Duma is acting after Medvedev told it last week to take a new look at ratifying Protocol 14.

Pavel Krashennikov, chairman of the Duma’s Legislation Committee, said the positions of all parties represented in the Duma had become “maximally close” to one another. Vladimir Gruzdyev, the committee’s first deputy chairman, told  that ratification would most likely be discussed in the Duma plenum Jan. 15.

Russia has irked many in the 47-member Council of Europe by being the only country that has not ratified two amendments to the human rights convention. Apart from Protocol 14, the Duma has rejected Protocol 6, which requires signatories to restrict the use of the death penalty to times of war.

Alexei Makarkin, an analyst with the Center for Political Technologies, said the reform was easier than abolishing the death penalty, which has not been enacted since the early 1990s.The Constitutional Court ruled last month that capital punishment could not resume next year, effectively extending a moratorium on the death penalty indefinitely.

The Strasbourg court, which is run by the Council of Europe, has a backlog of more than 120,000 cases, which might require seven years’ work. Almost a third of those cases stem from Russia.

Uzbekistan: Pressure Grows on Opposition, Rights Activists

In recent weeks, authorities in Uzbekistan have harassed, detained, and beaten political opposition and human rights activists. Authorities have placed dozens of activists throughout the country under de facto house arrest in an apparent effort to thwart any civic activism, warning them not to leave their homes until after the elections. At least six activists had their passports temporarily confiscated, and one was severely beaten and otherwise ill-treated in detention. The authorities also expelled an opposition movement leader from the country.

“This pre-election crackdown in Uzbekistan is as chilling as it is predictable,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “What should not be predictable is the international community’s response. Uzbekistan’s partners need to speak out and call for an immediate end to these abuses.”

The intensified crackdown on the political opposition and human rights activists, coupled with the pro-government parties’ monopoly in parliament and the absence of independent media, will again deprive the Uzbek electorate of the right to choose their representatives.

Kyrgyz Journalist Dies In Kazakh Hospital After Attack

Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk has died in an Almaty hospital nearly a week after police say he was thrown out of a high-rise building in Kazakhstan with his hands and feet bound.

Pavlyuk wrote for several newspapers, including “Argumenty i fakty” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda v Kirgizii.” Pavlyuk’s supporters have described the incident as an attack on press freedom.

A Kazakh police spokesman said the death is being investigated as a murder.Pavlyuk is the third ethnic Russian journalist from Kyrgyzstan to have been attacked or seriously injured in the past two weeks.

Kadyrov: West Using Rebels To Destroy Russia

Russia needs a military strategy to resist the United States and other Western powers which are stoking disorder in the North Caucasus to destroy Russia, the president of Chechnya  told in an interview. Ramzan Kadyrov, a 33-year-old former rebel turned Kremlin loyalist, said last year’s attack by U.S. ally Georgia on the pro-Russian rebel region of South Ossetia was part of a Western plot to seize the whole Caucasus region.

“If they get control of the Caucasus, you could say they’ll get control of virtually all of Russia, because the Caucasus is our backbone. The Russian government needs to work out a strategy, it needs to attack….Georgia, South Ossetia, Ukraine, all this will go on and on. It’s Russia’s private affliction. Why should we always suffer if we can eradicate this for good? We are a great power, we have everything — an army, technology. We need to attack.” Said  Kadyrov.

Human rights groups have linked him to the murders of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya, activist Natalya Estemirova, opposition Chechen exiles in Austria and Turkey and rival Chechen clan chiefs shot dead in Moscow and Dubai.

Kadyrov said:  “I don’t want to kill. Who did I fight? I fought terrorists. … They accuse me of killing women and children. It’s not true. Today there are very few (rebels) left. This year we destroyed a great many terrorists in (the neighbouring Russian republics of) Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya.” “If I knew how many and where, I would have destroyed them a long time ago.”

Kadyrov said the remaining rebels were kept going by Western money and guns. “The West is financing them. I officially declare this: those who destroyed the Soviet Union, those who want to destroy the Russian Federation, they stand behind them.”

U.S. President Barack Obama has offered to “reset” relations with Russia after a tense period during the presidency of George W. Bush, and Kadyrov said it would be good for Washington if the United States followed more friendly policies towards Russia.

“And if not,we have a very strong politician of global stature, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. There is no one like him on the world stage.”

Кризис Научил Россиян Ценить Свои Права

За последние несколько лет россияне стали больше ценить свои конституционные права. Социологи связывают эти изменения общественного мнения с кризисом и деятельностью Дмитрия Медведева.

Важнейшим правом для россиян является закрепленное в Конституции право на жизнь. На протяжении последних восьми лет право на жизнь стабильно возглавляет список ВЦИОМа, однако за этот период изменился процент граждан, которые считают его самым важным. Так, в 2003 году самым важным назвали право на жизнь 45% респондентов, через год — уже 49%, а в 2005-м – 58%.

Первостепенное значение россияне также придают праву на свободу и личную неприкосновенность (54%), на труд (51%) и на охрану здоровья (51%).

Lithuania’s Intelligence Agency Helped CIA To Set Up 2 Secret Prisons

The report by the Lithuanian legislature’s National Security Committee based on testimony of top politicians and national security officials confirmed that the State Security Department provided two facilities to the CIA.

One was a small cell set up in 2002 that could only house one suspect. The other was set up in 2004 and was big enough to hold eight suspects, the panel said.  Aircraft involved in transporting prisoners had entered Lithuanian airspace and landed in Vilnius, the country’s capital, on several occasions in 2002-2005.

“Those airplanes were not checked by border police and customs, (and) persons travelling and cargo were never identified.”

The panel didn’t give details on the two alleged detention.  An ABC report last month identified the second facility as a former horseback riding school in Antaviliai, a village 12 miles (20 kilometres) northeast of Vilnius. It was privately owned until 2004 when it was sold to Elite L.L.C., a company that no longer exists.  The State Security Department bought it in 2007 and used it as a training center. The facility has no address and uses a post office box number in the village.

There was no evidence that the State Security Department had informed the president, prime minister or other political leaders of its cooperation with the CIA. The panel also did not found any evidence that any suspects were interrogated in Lithuania.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has demanded that the former director of the State Security Department, Mecys Laurinkus, immediately leave his post as ambassador to Georgia.

In a 2007 probe conducted on behalf of the Council of Europe, Swiss politician Dick Marty accused 14 European governments of permitting the CIA to run detention centers or carry out rendition flights between 2002 and 2005.