In This Article
Subscribe to Politics UpdatesKremlin Moves to Disbar Human Rights Lawyer
May 16, 2007 03:38 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Distinguished Russian human rights advocate Karinna Moskalenko, whose clients include Garry Kasparov and the family of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya, may lose her right to practice.
30 Second Summary
Moskalenko is the founder of the Moscow-based International Protection Center (IPC). The IPC brings Russian cases before the European Court of Human Rights, whose jurisdiction Russia officially recognized in its 1993 constitution.
In the Yeltsin era the IPC's cases numbered in the dozens, but under the current administration it receives 12,000 requests for representation a year.
One of Moskalenko's most well-known clients is former CEO of Yukos Oil Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was Jailed for fraud in 2005. He was found guilty of fraud. However, Putin's critics say that Khodorkovsky's real crime was to support the Kremlin’s political opponents.
On April 18, the prosecutor general's office ruled that Moskalenko failed to adequately represent Khodorkovsky. Allegedly, she breached the rules of proper conduct by leaving a conference early to attend to her sick son.
The IPC claim that the Russian prosecutor's move is the latest in a series of Kremlin acts designed to intimidate human rights advocates and lawyers.
In the Yeltsin era the IPC's cases numbered in the dozens, but under the current administration it receives 12,000 requests for representation a year.
One of Moskalenko's most well-known clients is former CEO of Yukos Oil Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was Jailed for fraud in 2005. He was found guilty of fraud. However, Putin's critics say that Khodorkovsky's real crime was to support the Kremlin’s political opponents.
On April 18, the prosecutor general's office ruled that Moskalenko failed to adequately represent Khodorkovsky. Allegedly, she breached the rules of proper conduct by leaving a conference early to attend to her sick son.
The IPC claim that the Russian prosecutor's move is the latest in a series of Kremlin acts designed to intimidate human rights advocates and lawyers.
Headline
As head of the IPC, with its staff of 8 lawyers and 20 trainees, Karinna Moskalenko has been elected to the International Commission of Jurists and, in 2006, she won the Internal Helsinki Federation's Human Rights Recognition Award.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
In a nine-page statement from February of 2007, Karinna Moskalenko details the unethical, and often illegal, harassment and intimidation the Khodorovsky defense team has endured at the hands of the Russian government.
Source: Jurist.com
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, a 25-year-old international NGO, “appeals to Russian authorities to end harassment against human rights lawyer Karinna Moskalenko and her organization.”
Source: The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Karinna Moskalenko’s Notable Clients
Moskalenko is currently serving as a member of the defense team for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of Yukos Oil.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow. At one point he was the wealthiest man in Russia, the sixteenth wealthiest man in the world, and the CEO of the Russian oil giant Yukos. Now Khodorkovsky is in a Moscow prison on charges of tax fraud and embezzlement.
Source: Mosnews.com
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow. At one point he was the wealthiest man in Russia, the sixteenth wealthiest man in the world, and the CEO of the Russian oil giant Yukos. Now Khodorkovsky is in a Moscow prison on charges of tax fraud and embezzlement.
Source: The BBC
The rest of Khodorkovsky’s defense team.
Karinna Moskalenko’s fellow defense attorney Robert R. Amsterdam writes about the harassment he and his fellow lawyers have had to endure since taking the Khodorkovsky case. Amsterdam details his “middle-of-the-night visit from plainclothes FSB officers and . . . subsequent expulsion from the country.”
Source: Jurist.com
Robert Amsterdam discusses the political and economic ramifications of the trial in a recorded audio speech given in 2005.
Source: Jurist.com
Khodorkovsky's ongoing trial updates.
In February 2007, Russian prosecutors filed new embezzlement charges against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev. Due up for parole later in the year, their defense team said the newest charges were meant to “keep our clients incarcerated at least through the next presidential election in 2008.”
Source: ABC News
Russian prosecutors have insisted that the charges against Khodorkovsky are not politically motivated: “This case does not involve politics, it is solely a criminal matter,” said a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s office.
Source: Russian News and Information Agency, NOVOTSI
“The continued prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the dismantlement of Yukos raise serious questions about the rule of law in Russia,” said U.S. State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack in response to Russia’s second wave of embezzlement charges.
Source: Mosnews.com
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s official trial defense Web site has statements and up-to-date information on the trial.
Source: Khodorkovsky.info
Moskalenko also provided legal services for the families of those killed in the Nord-Ost Theater siege.
In October 2002, 50 Chechen rebels took control of the Nord-Ost Theater. After a three-day siege, Russian special forces pumped gas into the building, killing approximately 113 hostages. The families of the deceased hostages protested that the Russian forces acted without due concern for the safety of civilians.
Source: The BBC
Russia conquered Chechnya in the late 19th century. At the end of the Second World War, the USSR deported the entire population of this satellite state to Siberia. No Chechen was allowed back for a decade. The Guardian provides an interactive guide to the Russo-Chechen conflict.
Source: The Guardian
Moskalenko is the legal advisor to Garry Kasparov and his coalition, The Other Russia.
Garry Kasparov became the youngest ever world chess champion in 1985, and in the last years of the Soviet system was a vocal critic of the Communist government. He retired from chess in 2005 to concentrate on his political activism. He is the founder of The Other Russia, a coalition of disparate anti-Putin groups.
Source: The BBC
April 14–15, police violently suppressed anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Kasparov’s movement The Other Russia, organized the rallies. Independent Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that “the suppression of the opposition demonstrators by police has never been more harsh.”
Source: Kommersant.com
Moskalenko is also legal counsel to the family of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya was a vociferous critic of Russia’s policies in Chechnya. On October 7, 2006, she was shot dead in her apartment elevator. She had received death threats for some time. Suspicion in the press has been concentrated on the Russian authorities. Reporters Without Borders campaign for freedom of the press and the protection of journalists; they are calling for an international commission into Politkovskaya’s death.
Source: Reporters Without Borders Web site
The International News Safety Institute (INSI) published a report last Tuesday titled “Killing the Messenger,” looking at violence against journalists between 1996 and 2006. Their findings showed that Russia is second only to Iraq in terms of the number of journalists killed during that period.
Source: International News Safety Institute
In 2006, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists published a report stating that 13 Russian journalists had been murdered since Putin came to power. Only three of those cases resulted in arrests and trials. “But, even then, prosecutions have fallen short of convictions.”
Source: The Committee to Protect Journalists Web site
Karinna Moskalenko was legal counsel to Valeriy Kalashnikov during her suit against the Russian government for human rights violations.
In 2002, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Russian government pay 8,000 Euros to Valeriy Kalashnikov for violating human rights laws during his close-to-five-year detention on embezzlement charges.
Source: Bellona.org
The official judgment on the Kalashnikov v. Russia case from the European Court of Human Rights.
Source: The European Court of Human Rights Web site
The Russian Federation ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998. According to the Russian Justice Initiative’s Web site, since the 2002 Kalashnikov case, the Court has passed ten rulings against the Russian government.
Source: Russian Justice Initiative’s Web site
Russia and Human Rights
A U.S. human rights report on Eastern Europe and Eurasia published in March identified the following as the most notable human rights developments in Russia: “the killings of the Central Bank’s pro-reform deputy chairman and of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Continuing centralization of power in the executive branch, a compliant State Duma, political pressure on the judiciary, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law, continuing media restriction and self-censorship, and government pressure on opposition political parties eroded the public accountability of government leaders.”
Source: The U.S. State Department
On March 13, 2007 both houses of the Russian parliament rejected the U.S. human rights report on Russia. Lawmakers stated that they viewed “the report as interference in Russia’s internal affairs … and as an unfriendly act capable of provoking extremist sentiments, and categorically opposes the accusations against Russia as ungrounded.”
Source: Russian News and Information Agency, NOVOTSI
Reference Material
Russia is approximately 1.8 times the size of the United States and has a population of over 143 million. More facts and an overview of the history, economy, and culture of the nation are available from the Washington Post.
Source: The Washington Post
“Human rights are international norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and social abuses,” according to an article that examines the idea and existence of human rights from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Source: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Russia added the European Convention on Human Rights to its Constitution in 1993. The European Council has the full text of the Convention on its Web site.
Source: The European Council Web site
Historical Context
In August 1991, Communists staged a coup in a last-ditch attempt to block democratic reform of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin made headlines in opposing the uprising from the top of a tank. CNN details the subsequent ten years of reform and the rise of the oligarchs.
Source: CNN
On Dec. 31, 1991 Russia and 10 other former Soviet republics founded the Commonwealth of Independent States, effectively erasing the USSR as a political and geographical entity. Since then, Russia has seen drastic changes both economically and politically.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
Opinions
The Other Russia unites unlikely allies on the right and left towards one goal: to find a candidate to win the 2008 presidential election. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kasparov says that he does not expect Putin to defy the constitution and run for a third term, but that his “mentality is just to run away––with all the Russian billionaires.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
There have been calls for a change in the Russian constitution to allow Putin to stand for a third presidential term in 2008. The president has rejected those suggestions, but Russian journalist Deliya Melyanova believes those demurrals “only bring a third term closer.”
Source: Mosnews.com
Politics and an interest in selling Yukos to a foreign investor distinguished Khodorkovsky from other oligarchs of his era, according to Slate. The state purchase of Sibneft, the country’s fifth-largest oil company, prompts this opinion piece, which concludes that “by marshaling Russia’s energy assets, the Kremlin wants to rebuild a bit of the global respect it used to enjoy.”
Source: Slate
At the time of Khodorkovsky’s arrest, worldpress.org put together a round-up of commentary from newspapers around the world.
Source: Worldpress.org
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