Russian President Approved Amendments Expanding Powers Of FSB At Preventing Crimes

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has approved amendments expanding the powers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) aimed at preventing crimes.

The security agency was given the right to issue official warnings to a person within 10 days after obtaining information that suggests he or she may be about to commit a crime.

For non-observance of FSB orders or hindering the agency from carrying out its official duties, Russians may face up to 15 days behind bars.

The amendments provoked strong controversy in Russia among the human righst activists. On the other hand, the initiators and the backers of the amendments said the new rules will allow combating terrorism more efficiently. The texts of the official FSB warnings will not be published in media.

Russia’s mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have seen an upsurge of militant violence lately. Experts see the poor social and economic situation in the region as the main reason for the numerous terrorist attacks in the country.

Court Banned YouTube For “Extremist” Content = Worries About Free Speech

A Far East court has banned YouTube and four other web sites for “extremist” content in a ruling that promises to raise new worries about free speech.
The Internet is widely recognized as the last uncensored media in Russia, and the ruling nudges the country toward the likes of Iran and Pakistan, which have blocked YouTube.

Incidentally, the court’s decision also bans videos by President Dmitry Medvedev.

YouTube.com was banned for the nationalist video “Russia to Russians,” which was ruled extremist by a Samara court in November and subsequently placed on the Justice Ministry’s federal list of banned extremist materials.
Judge Anna Aizenberg passed her verdict on YouTube on July 16, but the decision was only made public on Wednesday.

YouTube’s parent company, Google, denounced the ruling as unconstitutional. “In our opinion, the court’s decision … to limit access of Rosnet users to the whole YouTube.com site, not to a particular video, breaches the right for freedom of information, guaranteed by Article 29 of Russia’s Constitution,“ Google spokeswoman Alla Zabrovskaya said.

Туркменистан: Президент Запретил Въезд И Выезд Из Страны Людей, Внесенных В «Черный Список»

С 1 августа в Туркменистане вступает в силу новое секретное распоряжение президента республики Гурбангулы Бердымухамедова, направленное на утверждение так называемого «черного списка» нежелательных собственных и иностранных граждан.

Этот список состоит из 37.057 человек и включает следующие категории лиц: работники органов государственного управления; работники органов исполнительной власти на местах; граждане Туркменистана, находящиеся под постоянным наблюдением спецслужб страны.

Список людей, которым запрещен въезд на территорию Туркменистана, состоит из 18 пунктов и включает следующие категории лиц:

* Туркменские политические фигуры, находящиеся за рубежом в качестве политических беженцев – 268 человек;

* Представители международных организаций – 132 человек;

* Журналисты – 73 человека;

* Представители НПО, включая туркменские НПО, действующие за рубежом – 296 человек.

По информации «Нажот», в «черном списке» международных организаций указаны следующие: «Международная амнистия», Фонд Джорджа Сороса и Институт открытого общества, российский Правозащитный центр «Мемориал» и другие.

Videos Rouse Russian Anger Toward Police – Story of Aleksei A. Dymovsky

A nobody cop from a nowhere city asked on video: “How can a police officer accept bribes? Do you understand where our society is heading?
Aleksei A. Dymovsky recorded two video appeals to Vladimir V. Putin, 13 minutes in all. in Russian.

To Putin: …“You talk about reducing corruption. You say that it should not be just a crime, that it should be immoral. But it is not like that. I told my boss that the police are corrupt. And he told me that it cannot be done away with. I am not afraid of quitting. I will tell you my name. I am Dymovsky, Aleksei Aleksandrovich.”

The videos have been watched more than two million times, giving Mr. Dymovsky a kind of fame in Russia …But despite the attention, Mr. Putin, the prime minister, has spurned him. So has President Dmitri A. Medvedev, though Mr. Medvedev has conceded that police corruption has reached shameful levels. And local authorities quickly retaliated against the officer.
Mr. Dymovsky, 32, was immediately fired from his job here in Novorossiysk, a port on the Black Sea, 750 miles south of Moscow. The police interrogated him, his relatives and his close friends, and raided their homes.
Those who have helped Mr. Dymovsky or demanded a wholesale revamping of the police have also come under pressure.

Recently, he went to Novosibirsk to attend a protest. He said he was accosted by four plainclothes police officers, who told him that if he ever wanted to see his family again, he should leave and never return. – This is Putin’s and Medvedev’s democracy or fight against corruption.

If You don’t speak about Corruption – so it does not exists, Mr Putin?