The disks removed in the search by men in masks, armed with police batons, contain databases with biographical information about tens of thousands of victims of Stalin’s repressions gathered by Memorial over twenty years

The office of the human rights research and information centre “Memorial” is being searched by men in masks and with batons. It is understood that hard discs have been removed from the computer centre

A statement signed by a number of human rights and civic activists in Russia warns that planned changes to the law taking criminal cases involving “anti-State” crimes out of the jurisdiction of juries will bury all hope of creating a fair and effective justice system in Russia

«Recognition of the event as the latest NGO Congress of the Council of Europe would mean that CE structures were supporting the Russian authorities in their approach to civic society and thus strengthening and legitimizing the policy of control over NGOs and restrictions on their independence, used by the authorities of some of the countries of the region”.

A rally was held in the Moscow region town of Khimki on Saturday in support of journalist Mikhail Beketov, brutally beaten on 13 November. Around 200 people attended, carrying placards reading “The attack on Beketov is an attack on freedom of speech”

Given recent heavy-handed reactions, one wishes the Security Service could bear in mind that before any action, it is always wise to weigh the likely damage of the action against the harm from doing nothing

The Russian authorities have again deprived a person of Russian citizenship in order to extradite him to Uzbekistan The case is manifestly fabricated and thoroughly illegal. Please help if you can to ensure maximum publicity. …

On Wednesday the judge announced that the trial was to be behind closed doors, claiming that this was at the jury’s request. The next day one of the jury members informed the radio station Echo Moskvy that no such request had been made

A new Amnesty International report, Civilians in the line of fire: The Georgia-Russia conflict, says that over 20,000 ethnic Georgians are still unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia

The Khamovnychesky District Court must now accept the applications from „Memorial” to have the responses of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office in refusing to consider the appeals to rehabilitate 16 people of the Katyń Massacre illegal

Reporters without borders: “Regardless of the outcome of this trial, this case will not be over until those who ordered Politkovskaya’s murder and the gunman who carried it out have been identified and brought to justice.”

Mikhail Beketov, Chief Editor of the newspaper “Khimkinskaya Pravda”, is well-known for his critical articles aimed at the Khimki [Moscow Region] Town Administration

The owner of the opposition website Ingushetia.ru was was killed on 31 August by a police officer after being detained at the Ingushetia Magas Airport

Over the last 11 months 81 people have died at the hands of extremists and approximately 320 others have suffered. In fact, however, a representative of the Sova Centre says that there were around 700 attacks

The Supreme Court of Ingushetia has overturned the ruling of the Nazran District Court which had found elements of extremism in an interview with the opposition leader Musa Keligov posted on the Ingushetia.RU website

We have received an urgent plea for help from colleagues in the French-based organization “Human Rights in Central Asia” Their representatives are presently in Turkey where the Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights Committee has held hearings over the expulsion of 27 Uzbek refugees from Turkey to Iran

Abdumutallib Karimov, who witnessed the Andijan events of May 2005, is still under asylum procedure in the Russian Federation; he has been recognized as needing international protection by the UNHCR and would almost certainly face torture if returned to Uzbekistan

The European Court of Human Rights has accepted as admissible an application over the refusal by Russian legal structures to allow descendants of Polish officers murdered at Katyń access to information about the crime

Dagestan human rights activist Mustala Addurakhmanov who was a member of the organization “Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights”, was found dead in Makhachkale on Thursday, 30 October. Colleagues suggest that he may have been killed

In Russia there are usually two types of events, one attended mainly by elderly people remembering their own relatives. At the same time there are protests demanding the release of political prisoners and observance of civil rights.