Судебная коллегия по гражданским делам Верховного суда Республики Марий Эл вынесла кассационное определение по делу марийского жреца Танакова, обвиняемого в разжигании вражды и ненависти, сообщает сайт «Права человека в России». Ранее прокуратура настаивала на признании его брошюры «Онаен Ойла» ("Жрец говорит") экстремистской литературой.

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Evidence has emerged over the last two weeks of a coordinated, Soviet style campaign against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Charges of extremism have been filed against two congregations, FSB and other officials have interfered with over 30 Jehovah's Witnesses congresses this summer, and a series of articles demonizing Jehovah's Witnesses have appeared in provinical newspapers throughout the country, in some cases on the same day. Many of these articles focus on an alleged kidnapping by Jehovah's Witnesses of a young man supposedly seeking sanctuary inside a Russian Orthodox church in Elista.

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По инициативе адвоката из Татастана Рустема Валлиулина в Евровейский суд по правам человека в Страсбурге была направлена жалоба на российский власти, наложившие неказконный запрет на ряд публикаций по исламу под тем предлогом, что они якобы носят эктремистский характер. Это решение было принято судом г. Бугурсуслан.

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The Coalition Against Hate received recognition as UCSJ leaders briefed the congressional joint Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission) both on the coalition, the current status of hate crimes in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and the importance of the impunity of hate crimes to assessing rule of law and to the conduct of foreign policy.

UN racism rapporteur Doudou Diene, another witness, concluded, "There is an unmistakable resurgence in racist violence conducted, primarily, but not exclusively, by neo-Nazi groups."

Click "read more" for more text...

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The latest issue of Bigotry Monitor came out last Friday. Incase you haven't had a chance to read it, please do.

The issues that come out after Hitler's birthday always seem to filled with more stories of violence than the other issues. For back issues, please visit UCSJ's Bigotry Monitor Archive.

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Here's this week's Bigotry Monitor. If you'd like to be directly subscribed to our Bigotry Monitor newsletter, please see the information contained at the bottom of the issue. It will provide you with everything you need to know to un/subscribe.

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Today you'll find a new issue of Bigotry Monitor on the UCSJ site.

Bigotry Monitor is an internet weekly newsletter that covers events and incidents important to human rights in the former Soviet Union and Europe. You can also received the newsletter in your inbox every week. Just send an email with the subject "subscribe" to ucsj [at] ucsj.com.

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Moscow NGOs Respond with Coalition Against Hate

In a conference of 75-to-80 human rights NGOs and their leaders in Moscow to discuss the negative rule of law implications of religious discrimination and "Hate Speech, Xenophobia and Antisemitism in Russia, Century 21," the discussion became further animated because, coincidentally, it came a day after Vladimir Putin's rant against America at the Munich international security conference.

The meeting was called in part to continue NGO planning to organize the first-ever bi-lingual, interactive human rights blog for Russia (and, soon, Ukraine and Belarus): Coalitionagainsthate.org, and an international NGO human rights monitoring coalition of the same name (Coalition Against Hate).

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The latest issue of Bigotry Monitor is here. Highlights include: Neo-fascists march in Moscow, Volzhsk police round up Gypsies, Vladimir prosecutors give up on mosque arson case, and a new report on human rights abuses in Chechnya is released. Info on how to subscribe to Bigotry Monitor is at the bottom of the issue.

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Michigan State University Professor Vladimir Shlapentokh recently posted this essay on Johnson's Russia List and gave UCSJ permission to post it here.

The money quotes:

1. "Political life in Russia revolves around two issues: corruption and xenophobia."

2. "[T]he role of xenophobia in Russia will increase in the next years. With the elites' growing self-confidence, which is based on the country's massive revenues from oil and gas, and with the high level of social polarization, xenophobia in its various forms (anti-Americanism, hostility toward the former Soviet republics and various ethnic minorities) will be the single most effective ideological tool for the elites."

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