Russia

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -2000
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 2001

The 1993 Constitution established a governmental structure with a strong head of state (a president), a government headed by a prime minister, and a bicameral legislature (Federal Assembly) consisting of the State Duma (lower house) and the Federation Council (upper house). Unlike its predecessor, this Duma is characterized by a strong pro-presidential center that puts a majority within reach of almost all presidential priorities. Both the President and the Duma were selected in competitive elections, with a broad range of political parties and movements contesting offices. President Vladimir Putin was elected in March, and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov took office in May. Both the presidential elections and the December 1999 Duma Elections were judged by international observers to be largely free and fair, although in both cases preelection manipulation of the media was a problem. There were credible reports in March of election fraud in some locations; however, there was no evidence that such abuses affected the outcome of the presidential election. There were some modifications to the legislature and administrative structures; however, democratic institution building continues to face serious challenges, in part due to significant limitations on the state's financial resources. The judiciary, although still seriously impaired by a lack of resources and by high levels of corruption, has shown signs of limited independence.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Procuracy, and the Federal Tax Police are responsible for law enforcement at all levels of government. The FSB has broad law enforcement functions, including fighting crime and corruption, in addition to its core responsibilities of security, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism. The FSB operates with only limited oversight by the Procuracy and the courts. The primary mission of the armed forces is national defense, although they have been employed in local internal conflicts for which they are prepared inadequately, and they are available to control civil disturbances. Internal security threats in parts of the Russian Federation in some recent cases have been dealt with by militarized elements of the security services. These same organizations are tasked with domestic law enforcement. Members of the security forces, particularly within the internal affairs apparatus, continued to commit numerous, serious human rights abuses.

Economic recovery following the August 1998 financial crisis and the steep ruble devaluation continued to exceed expectations. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.5 percent in 1999, and according to preliminary estimates was 7.6 percent in 2000. Industrial production increased by 9 percent in 2000. GDP was estimated at $197.1 billion for the year. In 1999 inflation was 36.5 percent; by year's end it was 20.2 percent. The ruble's devaluation continued to give domestic producers a significant cost advantage over imported goods, although the ruble has appreciated approximately 10 percent since the 1998 crisis. Economic growth during the year was led by a recovery in domestic demand, with net exports contributing less than in previous years. Real income grew in the first half of the year by 8.7 percent, compared with the same period in 1999 but remained 10 percent lower than in 1998 and 25 percent lower than in 1997. Average wages increased to $89 per month by year's end, compared with $66 per month in the fall of 1999. However, approximately 36 percent of citizens continue to live below the official monthly subsistence level of $35. Official unemployment was 10.2 percent, down from 12 percent at the beginning of the year. Reported levels of barter transactions--which make up a significant element in the economy--declined steadily in 1999, stabilizing during the last quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of the year. Corruption continued to be a negative factor in the development of the economy and commercial relations.

Although the Government generally respected the human rights of its citizens in many areas, serious problems remain, including the independence and freedom of the media and the conditions of pre-trial detention and torture of prisoners. Its record was poor in Chechnya, where the Russian security forces demonstrated little respect for basic human rights and there were credible reports of serious violations. There were numerous reports of extrajudicial killings by both the Government and Chechen separatists. Beatings by security officials throughout the country resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. Law enforcement and correctional officials tortured and severely beat detainees and inmates. Police also beat, harassed, and extorted money from persons. Prison conditions continued to be extremely harsh and frequently life-threatening. According to human rights groups, approximately 11,000 detainees and prison inmates die in penitentiary facilities annually, some from beatings, but most as a result of overcrowding, inferior sanitary conditions, disease, and lack of medical care. The Government made little progress in combating abuses committed by soldiers, including "dedovshchina" (violent hazing of new recruits). Military justice systems consistent with democratic practices remained largely underdeveloped. While the military Procuracy reported decreases in the number of reported crimes and hazing incidents in 1999, human rights groups continued to receive the same number of complaints of such abuses and claimed that only about 10 to 12 percent of serious cases are reported. Existing laws on military courts, military service, and the rights of service members often contradict the Constitution, federal laws, and presidential decrees, elevating arbitrary judgments of unit commanders over the rule of law.

Arbitrary arrest and detention and police corruption remain problems. Police and other security forces in various parts of the country continued their practice of harassing citizens from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa, and darker-skinned persons in general through arbitrary searches, detention, beatings, and extortions on the pretext of fighting crime and enforcing residential registration requirements. In August human rights groups in Moscow complained of increased detentions of persons from the Caucasus. Lengthy pretrial detention remained a serious problem. Institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs have attempted to educate officers about safeguarding human rights during law enforcement activities through training provided by other countries; however, such institutions remain largely unreformed and have not yet adopted practices fully consistent with standards of law enforcement in a democratic society. The President and the Government were mostly silent about violations of human rights and democratic practice. While the President made statements about the need for a "dictatorship of law," the Government has not institutionalized the rule of law required to protect human rights. Most abuses occur at lower levels, but government officials do not investigate the majority of cases of abuse and rarely dismiss or discipline the perpetrators.

The Government made no progress during the year in the implementation of constitutional provisions for due process, fair and timely trial, and humane punishment. In addition the judiciary often was subject to manipulation by central and local political authorities and was plagued by large case backlogs and trial delays. There were some indications that the law was becoming an increasingly important tool for those seeking to protect human rights; however, serious problems remain. For example, in August the Procurator appealed the December 1999 ruling by a St. Petersburg judge that found Aleksandr Nikitin, a retired Soviet Navy captain and environmental reporter, not guilty on charges of treason and espionage. The Presidium of the Supreme Court rejected this appeal on September 13, ending Nikitin's four year legal battle with the FSB and the Procurator.

Authorities continued to infringe on citizens' privacy rights. Government technical regulations that require Internet service providers and telecommunications companies to invest in equipment that enables the FSB to monitor Internet traffic, telephone calls, and pagers without judicial approval caused serious concern. However, in response to a challenge by a St. Petersburg journalist, the Supreme Court ruled in September that the FSB is required to obtain and show court approval to telecommunications companies before it can proceed to initiate surveillance. Past practices raised questions among many observers about whether the FSB would abide by this ruling.

The Government's record on media freedom worsened and significant problems persist. There was persistent evidence of government pressure on the media. Federal, regional, and local governments continued to exert pressure on journalists by: initiating investigations by the federal tax police, FSB, and MVD of media companies such as independent Media-Most; selectively denying access to information (including, for example, statistics theoretically available to the public) and filming opportunities; demanding the right to approve certain stories prior to publication; prohibiting the tape recording of public trials and hearings; withholding financial support from government media operations that exercised independent editorial judgment; attempting to influence unduly the appointment of senior editors at regional and local newspapers and broadcast media organizations; and removing reporters from their jobs and bringing libel suits against them. The disappearance and subsequent arrest and prosecution of Radio Liberty reporter Andrey Babitskiy caused great concern, since there was credible evidence that the Babitsky case was politically motivated and that units of the Federal Government were involved in trying to silence critical reporting about the Chechen conflict.

The Federal Government took few steps to mitigate the potentially discriminatory effects of a 1997 religion law that required national and local religious organizations to register or reregister with the Government. By year's end approximately 70 percent of religious organizations had managed to register or reregister their local organizations successfully. There were numerous reports that religious organizations from certain minority or "nontraditional" denominations either were denied registration or experienced long delays in reregistration. The delays in reregistration are in part due to the slow pace at which the federal Ministry of Justice at first disseminated the regulations and guidelines to local authorities and to understaffing both at the Ministry of Justice and at local levels. However, delays and rejections also are due in part to discrimination by some local officials. Religious organizations and human rights experts have suggested repeatedly that the law be amended to extend the period for reregistration to prevent a situation in which a large number of religious organizations are left unregistered and therefore vulnerable to legal liquidation by court order after year's end. No extension was implemented by year's end. While the previous presidential administration promised to implement measures to discourage local authorities from attempting to liquidate (i.e., eliminate the organization's status as a juridical person) unregistered religious organizations, President Putin and the Government did not to comment on the law by year's end. Critics of the Religion Law fear that, while the law does not require the closure of unregistered religious organizations, that may be the practical effect of losing legal status. Discriminatory practices at the local level were attributable in part to the decentralization of power that took place during the Yeltsin administration, as well as to government inaction and widely held discriminatory attitudes; it remains unclear whether President Putin's efforts to strengthen central authority throughout the country might in some cases affect the situation for religious minorities.

Despite constitutional protections for citizens' freedom of movement, the Government places some limits on this right, and some regional and local authorities (most notably the city of Moscow) restrict movement through residence registration mechanisms. These restrictions, although repeatedly challenged in city court (most recently in September with success by a human rights organization), remain largely in force and are tolerated by the Federal Government. The presence of these restrictions, which increased following terrorist bombings in September 1999 and were reinvigorated following an explosion in Moscow in August, demonstrated the continued obstacles to the enforcement of judicial rulings.

Government institutions intended to protect human rights are still weak and lack independence but are becoming more active. Human Rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov has played an increasingly public role in promoting human rights, speaking out on human rights abuses in pretrial detention, Chechnya, psychiatry, and on religious freedom. Mironov has an office with 150 staff members who investigate human rights complaints and promote human rights education. The Presidential Human Rights Commission, chaired by Vladimir Kartashkin, also investigates human rights complaints and promotes human rights education. Kartashkin currently is working with the armed forces to introduce human rights training manuals for soldiers. Nonetheless, the Presidential Commission has not played a vital role and receives limited financial support from the Government. The Office of Vladimir Kalamanov, the Presidential Representative for Securing and Defending Human Rights and Freedoms in Chechnya, is understaffed, underfunded, and has as limited mandate. While Kalamanov worked with the Council of Europe and the nongovernmental organization Memorial, he lacked a prosecutorial mandate and even the independence and resources to monitor human rights abuses adequately. Nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) in the human rights field documented and reported on human rights violations; however, they also reported some limited governmental interference. Some environmental and human rights groups complained of harassment from the Procuracy, tax police, and the FSB. In August armed masked men accompanied by a local police official in uniform raided the office in Moscow of the Glasnost Public Foundation, a human rights organization, holding personnel at gunpoint for nearly 40 minutes.

Violence against women, and the abuse of children remain problems, as does discrimination against women and religious and ethnic minorities. People with disabilities continue to face immense problems from both societal attitudes and lack of governmental support. Societal discrimination, harassment, and violence against members of some religious minorities remained a problem. Although there were improvements in some areas, there were continued reports of religious violence in the North Caucasus and several serious anti-Semitic incidents to which the government did not adequately respond. There were credible allegations of politically motivated government interference in the internal affairs of the Jewish community. There are some limits on worker rights, and there were reports of instances of forced labor. Trafficking in women and young girls is a serious problem.

Chechen separatists reportedly committed abuses, including the killing of civilians and Russian security forces they captured. Government officials accused separatists of organizing and carrying out a series of bomb attacks throughout the country beginning in September 1999 and continuing into the year; hundreds of civilians were killed or injured.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:

a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

There were no confirmed political killings by agents of the Government.

During the conflict in Chechnya in February, there were credible reports that the military used indiscriminate force in areas of significant civilian populations, resulting in numerous deaths (see Section 1.g.). There also were credible reports that military forces engaged in extrajudicial killings in Chechnya. For example, on February 5 Russian riot police and contract soldiers (men hired by the military for short-term service contracts) executed at least 60 civilians in Aldi and Chernorechiye, suburbs of Grozny. The perpetrators raped some of the victims and extorted money, later setting many houses on fire to destroy evidence. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), authorities suspended their investigation of the incident, and there were no indications that those responsible for similar incidents in late 1999 were apprehended or punished (see Section 1.g.). According to the Presidential press service, since the start of the second war in Chechnya, 35 cases relating to crimes committed by servicemen against the local population were initiated; seven have been found guilty. NGO's argue that this is only a fraction of the true number of cases and there is little or no progress in accountability. According to HRW, no one has been held accountable for the extrajudicial killings of 130 civilians in Alkjan-Yurt, Staropromyslovski, and Novye Aldi in late 1999 and 2000.

A number of government officials were murdered throughout the country. Some of these killings appear to have been politically motivated, connected with the ongoing strife in Chechnya, and others may be connected to local politics. For example, on December 5 Svetlana Semenova, SPS regional coordinator for the Leningrad Oblast was murdered; that same day the Mayor of Murom, Petr Kaurov was also murdered. It is not clear whether these incidents were politically motivated.

An estimated 11,000 detainees and prisoners died during the year (see Section 1.e.). Hazing in the armed forces resulted in the deaths of servicemen (see Section 1.c.).

On August 11, a bomb exploded in a crowded Moscow pedestrian way at the Pushkinskaya metro station, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 90. Government officials implied at first that Chechnya- based Islamic extremist groups were responsible for the bombing and arrested four Muslim suspects from the Northern Caucasus. However, investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the incident was a result of feuding between rival criminal gangs.

According to media reports in February, a woman was being held in connection with the murder of a prominent member of Parliament, Galina Starovoitova. Starovoitova was shot outside of her apartment in 1998 in what appeared to be a political killing. In 1999 a former police officer became a suspect in the assassination, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

There were no developments in the 1999 killings of the St. Petersburg Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Gennadiy Tuganov and Deputy Mayor Mikhail Menevich. In the case of St. Petersburg legislative assembly Deputy Viktor Novoselov, police arrested the killers but had no information on who hired them.

On November 9, a military court began hearings against five former military intelligence officers accused of organizing the murder of "Moskovskii Kosomolets" journalist Dmitri Kholodov. A sixth defendant, the head of a bodyguard agency, is charged with complicity. Kholodov was killed by a suitcase bomb in 1994; at the time of his murder, he was investigating widespread corruption among the military leadership.

There were no developments in the 1998 murder of St. Petersburg city official Yevgeniy Agarev, although the investigation into the case reportedly continues. There were no developments in the 1998 murders of Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the Chechen Republic Akmal Saidov, Dagestani mufti Said-Mukhamed Abubakarov, or Chechen official Shadid Bargishev.

Religious figures also were kidnaped and killed in Chechnya during the year (see Sections 1.b., 1.c., and 5).

There were credible press reports that Chechen separatists tortured and killed a number of civilians and Russian captives. For example, on September 10, separatists shot and killed Mayor of Oktyabrskoye village Bukara Akhmatov. Government officials accuse separatists of organizing and carrying out a series of bomb attacks throughout the country beginning in September 1999. Since then, authorities have tied incidents in Dagestan and several cities in Southern Russia to separatists. Authorities have produced evidence and tried and convicted at least six persons for bombings around Russia. In addition separatists have executed summarily Russian soldiers whom they have taken prisoner (see Section 1.g.).

There has been no resolution to the December 1998 beheading of four foreign telecommunications workers, whom kidnapers had been holding hostage in Chechnya for 2 months.

Government forces and Chechen Separatists have used landmines extensively in Chechnya and Dagestan since August 1999 (see Section 1.g.).

b. Disappearance

There were reports of Government involvement in politically motivated disappearances in Chechnya. According to credible reports, units of the Government were involved in the detention and the temporary disappearance of journalist Andrey Babitskiy in January. The Government at first denied any knowledge of Babitskiy's whereabouts, but after considerable international pressure officials asserted that the journalist was in the custody of "local Chechens." Despite assurances that Babitskiy would be released on February 2, Russian officials declared the following day that he had been delivered to Chechen separatists in exchange for three Russian prisoners of war. However, separatists denied they had participated in such an exchange or that they held Babitskiy. Almost 2 months after his initial disappearance, Babitskiy was released but then was held by Russian authorities at a detention center in Makhachkala, Dagestan. Authorities stated that he had been charged with carrying a falsified passport. Babitskiy subsequently claimed that the passport was thrust upon him, essentially to set him up to be arrested. Journalists and human rights activists believe Babitskiy was targeted by the Government for his critical reports on the conflict in Chechnya. Babitskiy was tried in Makhachkala in September and convicted of possession and use of a false passport. However, he was covered under the amnesty granted for the anniversary of World War II and was released (see Sections 1.g. and 2.a.).

The NGO Memorial claimed in October that the total number of detainees had exceeded 15,000 persons. Many of these persons disappeared, but the majority were bought back by relatives. Memorial estimated that the number of individuals unaccounted for was somewhere between several hundred to one thousand.

In a December report, Vladimir Kalamanov, the President's Special Representative for Human Rights in Chechnya, stated that his office had received complaints of 853 disappearances by year's end. His office forwarded a list of 462 missing residents of Chechnya to the Ministry of Interior. Forty-eight of the 462 were found to have been convicted and incarcerated into corrective labor institutions. According to this report, the Government began 34 criminal cases in connection with the disappearances of persons after their detention, including the Chairman of the Chechen Parliament, R.A. Alikhagiyev. Several media reports in October claimed that Alikhagiyev was being held in Lefortovo prison by the FSB; however, to at year's end there is no word on his whereabouts.

In 1999 Chechen president Maskhadov's adviser on relations with ethnic Russians, himself a Russian, was kidnaped in Grozny.

On March 5, 1999, unknown assailants abducted Major General Gennadiy Shipgun--the Interior Ministry's special envoy to Chechnya--from his airplane at Grozny airport. Although the motives behind Shipgun's kidnaping are unclear, Russian press reports indicate that his role in the 1994-96 Chechen war earned him much local animosity. Chechen law enforcement officials later claimed to have issued arrest warrants for six unnamed assailants. Russian authorities reported that what most likely were Shipgun's remains were found in May; forensics tests were being conducted in a laboratory in Rostov at year's end.

There has been no progress in the case against the alleged kidnapers of a foreign missionary and university instructor, who was kidnaped in the Dagestan capital of Makhachkala in November 1998. In 1999 Dagestani law enforcement officials told the Russian press that they had arrested four unnamed suspects in connection with the case. Russian and Ingush interior ministry troops later freed the victim on June 29, 1999. Other religious figures also were kidnaped (see Sections 1.a. and 5).

Kidnaping frequently is used by criminal groups in the Northern Caucasus, some of which may have links to elements of the separatist forces. The main motivation behind such cases apparently is ransom, although some cases have political or religious overtones. Many of the hostages are being held in Chechnya or Dagestan. For example, Alla Geyfman, the daughter of a Jewish businessman, was held for nearly 7 months by a Chechen gang demanding ransom. She was freed in February by security forces.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Article 21 of the Constitution prohibits torture, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment or punishment; however, there are credible reports that law enforcement personnel regularly use torture to coerce confessions from suspects and that the Government does not hold most of the torturers accountable for their actions. There were credible reports that Government and separatist forces in Chechnya tortured detainees. There are also claims of abuse of psychiatry by authorities. Institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs have begun to educate officers about safeguarding human rights during law enforcement activities through training provided by other countries but remain largely unreformed and have not yet adopted practices fully consistent with law enforcement in a democratic society. Since torture has never been defined in a subsequent law or the Criminal Code and is only mentioned in the Constitution, it is difficult to charge perpetrators. Police only can be accused of exceeding granted authority, a far milder violation of the Criminal Code.

Prisoners' rights groups, as well as other human rights groups, documented numerous cases in which law enforcement and correctional officials tortured and beat detainees and suspects. Human rights groups describe the practice of torture as "widespread." Numerous press reports indicate that the police frequently strike persons based on little or no provocation or use excessive force to subdue those whom they arrest. Reports by refugees, NGO's, and the press suggest a pattern of beatings, arrests, and extortion by police against persons with dark skin, or who appeared to be from the Caucasus, Central Asia, or Africa. However, press reports and human rights groups indicate that police in some republics engage in beatings and torture as part of investigative procedures as well. Police also increasingly harassed defense lawyers, including beatings and arrests, and intimidated witnesses (see Section 1.e.). Police are reported to plant drugs and other false evidence as pretexts for arrests, arrest and detain persons based on their political views and religious beliefs, and conduct illegal searches of homes. Police also are reported often to extort money from suspects, their friends, and their relatives.

According to Human Rights Watch's (HRW) report on torture in Russia released in November 1999, torture by police officers usually occurs within the first few hours or days of arrest and usually takes one of four forms: beatings with fists, batons, or other objects; asphyxiation using gas masks or bags (sometimes filled with mace); electric shocks; or suspension of body parts (e.g. suspending a victim from the wrists, which are tied together behind the back). Allegations of torture are difficult to substantiate because of lack of access by medical professionals and because the techniques used often leave few or no permanent physical traces.

Research conducted by HRW indicates that the country's justice system encourages police to resort to torture and hampers an adequate defense of the accused. Law enforcement entities are expected to meet an unreasonably high 80 percent target rate for solving crimes, despite the loss of experienced officers and underfunding since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The official rate for crimes solved in 1998 was 74.4 percent; experts consider a 30 to 40 percent rate to be consistent with democratic practices and international standards for due process.

In 1999 Sergey Pashin, a Moscow judge and rule of law activist, stated repeatedly that, in the cases that come before him, confessions often have been coerced from suspects through beatings. He also charged that "witnesses" often have been beaten to force them into testifying, when in fact they may have no knowledge of the case. As Pashin has told the press, he estimates that out of 1,200 official torture complaints received in the country annually, only 20 criminal investigations are opened, and only 3 or 4 go to trial. Human Rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov estimated in October that 50 percent of prisoners with whom he spoke claimed to have been tortured. In April 1998, the Permanent Human Rights Chamber, an advisory presidential committee, concluded that torture was "common" among representatives of the Ministry of Interior, and that it was "widespread and systematic," especially in the pretrial stages of law enforcement. Yakov Pister, head of the administration of the Procurator General's office, testified to the Chamber that the Criminal Code has no definition of torture, and that no statistics were gathered on the use of torture. He blamed police reliance on torture as a means of gathering evidence on a lack of professional training.

HRW noted that, assuming that they are aware of their rights under the law, defendants often are not granted access to defense attorneys or to medical treatment. Pretrial detention conditions are so miserable that defendants sometimes confess simply to be moved to relatively easier prison conditions. Retractions of forced confessions usually are ignored. The accused can spend many months or even years in pretrial detention because the current criminal procedure code allows judges to send cases back for investigation an unlimited number of times (see Section 1.e.).

Under the "Operation Clean Hands" program, created in 1995, MVD officials continued to combat police crime. By the end of 1998, more than 34,000 citizen complaints were lodged against police officers. Over 2,100 cases were initiated against police personnel. Of that number, 922 were group crimes, and 127 included civilian perpetrators. For example, in Ulyanovsk court, proceedings were initiated against five militiamen on charges of "exceeding their authority," for regularly subjecting young male suspects to torture. A Ministry of Justice (MOJ) official estimated that during the first nine months of the year, the number of cases initiated against police personnel was similar to the number registered during the same period in 1999, with 108 convictions in the first six months of the year.

Various abuses against military servicemen, including but not limited to the practice of "dedovshchina" (the violent, sometimes fatal, hazing of new junior recruits for the armed services, MVD, and border guards), continued during the year. Press reports citing serving and former armed forces personnel, the Military Procurator's Office, and NGO's monitoring conditions in the armed forces indicate that this mistreatment often includes extortion of money or material goods in the face of the threat of increased hazing or actual beatings. Press reports also indicate that this type of mistreatment resulted in permanent injuries and deaths among servicemen. Soldiers often do not report hazing to either unit officers or military procurators due to fear of reprisals, since officers in some cases reportedly tolerate or even encourage such hazing as a means of controlling their units. There are also reports that officers in some cases use beatings to discipline soldiers whom they find to be "inattentive to their duties."

In July 1999, the Main Military Procurator's Office (MMPO) reported that cases involving the abuse of military position or authority increased by 23 percent. Half of such cases involved physical violence. However, the MMPO also recorded a 14 percent drop in reported crimes during 1999 and a 10 percent decrease in reports of hazing. Statistics for the year were unavailable, although MMPO officials estimated that from January to June, over 4,800 investigations into allegations of human rights abuses were initiated.

Both the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committee (USMC) and the MPPO also noted an increase in the number of reports about "nonstatutory relations" in which officers or sergeants physically assault or demean their subordinates. This tendency commonly is attributed to stressful conditions throughout the armed forces and to the widespread placement of inexperienced reserve officers, on active duty for 2 years, in primary troop leadership positions. In 1998 every second draftee expressed concern that his life, health, or sanity would be threatened during the period of military service by such incidents.

In the navy, investigations reportedly uncovered about 20 incidents of nonstatutory treatment of sailors since the beginning of 1999 just on the aircraft carrier cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov. Similar activity, including the theft of hardware and weapons by sailors seeking to escape hazing, reportedly was uncovered on the heavy nuclear cruiser (and flagship) Petr Velikiy in 1999. According to press reports, in September, a warrant officer on a Pacific Fleet ship became drunk and began to beat enlisted men on board. As a result, 41 sailors, over half the ship's company, left the ship and went to the Pacific Fleet Headquarters to complain about repeated, savage beatings by drunken noncommissioned officers. Admiral Rasskazov told the press that sailors complain to him or to prosecutors every day. In the same article, a prosecutor revealed that, as of July 10, criminal cases had been filed in Vladivostok against naval officers and sailors who "tortured" their subordinates and shipmates.

Other reported abuses of armed forces personnel included the practice by officers and sergeants of "selling" soldiers to others as slave labor (to build dachas, etc.) or to other officers who have a military need for personnel but are not able to work through the system, most often linked to units in the Northern Caucasus military district. The USMC reported that such practices continue. In one recent complaint received in the USMC's Moscow office, a soldier was allegedly sold for approximately $2 (50 rubles) to another unit. In another case, an officer bought a soldier for 10 bottles of vodka. The USMC continues to receive complaints about the Ministry of Internal Affairs and accused it of being among the worst of the branches in its human rights record.

The MMPO continues to cooperate with the USMC to investigate allegations of abuse and established telephone and postal "hot lines" to receive reports directly from soldiers. Nonetheless, the USMC believes that the majority of hazing incidents and assaults are not reported, due to fear of reprisals, indifference of commanders, and deliberate efforts to cover up such activity. The USMC estimates that only 10 to 12 percent of serious incidents are reported; it received nearly 4,000 complaints in its Moscow office alone during the year.

According to the armed forces' Medical Service, approximately 45 percent of military personnel committing or attempting suicide were driven to it by either physical abuse or the often inhuman conditions of military service. Nonpayment of wages could also be a factor, although nonpayment decreased significantly during the year. (However, contract soldiers serving in Chechnya complained of chronic nonpayment, and in some cases, such as in Rostov on the Don in September, they engaged in protests). The USMC reported in 1997 that in 60 percent of the cases brought to the authorities attention, there was an official finding that abuse had taken place, and that some disciplinary action was taken as a result. These figures remained unchanged by year's end. The deteriorating quality of the armed forces, cited as the main reason for the breakdown in discipline, is aggravated by negligence during the conscription process. A rise in the acceptance of draftees who are unfit for military service allegedly also is contributing to crime within the armed forces. Draft evasion is common, including the reported "purchase" of unwarranted medical deferments by potential conscripts otherwise ineligible for one of the many categories of legal deferment. The Military Procuracy continued its campaign against draft evasion and cracked down on conscription abuses. The USMC reported that after the spring draft, police often dragged unsuspecting recruits without documents, regardless of their mental or physical health, into draft board offices.

Degrading and substandard living conditions persist throughout the armed forces, principally due to insufficient funding. August television reports of naval housing in the Murmansk region showed decrepit, crowded apartments even for officers.

Despite the acknowledged seriousness of the problem, the leadership of the armed forces has made only superficial efforts to implement substantive reforms in training, education, and administration programs within units to combat abuse. Their limited efforts were due at least in part to lack of funding and the leadership's preoccupation with urgent reorganization problems and the fighting in Chechnya.

There was still no law providing for the constitutional right to alternative civilian service, and the proposal for an all-volunteer armed forces has been put off indefinitely by the Government's inability to raise military pay sufficiently. Although some regional authorities have attempted to introduce alternative service programs, national legislation necessary to implement the constitutional right to alternative service has not been passed by the Duma. Without such legislation there is no legal basis beyond the constitutional language itself for any alternative service program. As a result, the courts often rule against the individual based upon the legal requirements relating to military service.

The systematic abuse of psychiatry as a form of punishment prevalent during the Soviet era has ended. However, human rights groups charge that psychiatric hospitals continue to conceal their archives and their practices. Further, authorities reportedly still sometimes abuse the practice of psychiatry for other purposes. The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, along with several human rights organizations, has criticized the use of psychiatry in "deprogramming" victims of "totalitarian sects" and in testifying against "nontraditional" religions in court cases. In deprogramming cases, authorities allegedly use pseudo-psychological and spiritual techniques to "treat" persons who had been members of new religious groups (see Section 2.c.). Human rights groups are concerned about court-appointed "expert commissions" charged with evaluating rituals, beliefs, and the mental health of believers. Groups assert that the commissions lack objectivity and often act under pressure from regional authorities negatively disposed toward the religious denominations.

Yuriy Savenko, Head of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (originally formed during the Soviet era when psychiatric hospitals were used to punish dissidents), and other human rights activists such as the Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Aleksyeva, criticized the trial of Platon Obukhov, a Russian diplomat charged with espionage. Although independent psychiatrists deemed Obukhov mentally unfit to stand trial, a court-appointed commission found him competent. Human rights activists charge that the evaluation was based on political considerations and pressure from the FSB. Obukhov's case is currently under appeal.

Prison conditions are extremely harsh and frequently life threatening. Since 1998 the penitentiary system has been administered centrally from Moscow by the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Education all maintain penal facilities. There are five basic forms of custody in the criminal justice system: Police detention centers, pretrial detention (SIZO's), correctional labor colonies (ITK's), prisons designated for those who violate ITK rules, and educational labor colonies (VTK's) for juveniles. Responsibility for operating the country's penal facilities falls under the Ministry of Justice's Main Directorate for Execution of Sentences (GUIN). The country's penal institutions remain extremely overcrowded. According to January statistics of the Public Center for Penitentiary Reform (PCPR), 1,060,000 persons were incarcerated in the prison system run by GUIN. By year's end, PCPR estimated there had been a decrease of prisoners that brought the total to 912,100, approximately 655 per 100,000 persons of the population at large. While this number only includes prisoners in the GUIN system, PCPR estimates that approximately 90 percent of all prisoners fall into this system. Conditions for detainees and prisoners in most government facilities remain extremely harsh. According to the 1995 Law On the Detention of Those Suspected or Accused of Committing Crimes, inmates must be provided with adequate space, food, and medical attention. Although most of the law's provisions went into effect at the end of 1996, the authorities were not able to ensure compliance, due in part to lack of funds, most judges' failure to use the option of bail, and a very large prison population.

Conditions in police station detention centers vary considerably, but as a rule are harsh. In most cases, detainees are not fed and have no bedding, places to sleep, running water, or toilets.

Suspects awaiting completion of criminal investigation, trial, sentencing, or appeal, are confined in a Special Isolation Facility (SIZO), which is a pretrial detention facility, mainly for a person who is awaiting trial. Persons can spend up to three years awaiting trial in a SIZO. Around 280,000 persons are held in the 195 SIZO's. Around 65,000 are held in police detention centers with another 5,000 to 6,000 in special facilities for the homeless. Convicts on occasion are imprisoned in SIZO's because there is no transport to take them elsewhere. Conditions in SIZO's remain extremely harsh and pose a serious threat to life and health. Health, nutrition, and sanitation standards in penal facilities remain low due to a lack of funding. Head lice, scabies, and various skin diseases are prevalent. Prisoners and detainees typically rely on families to provide them with extra food. The PCPR estimates that SIZO's are filled to 230 percent of capacity. In larger cities such as Moscow, the average space per prisoner amounts to 0.5 cubic meters. In the majority of police detention centers there is no shower and no outdoor exercise, and inmates are fed only twice a day. To alleviate overcrowding, the Government announced an amnesty (to reach 120,000). According to PCPR, on September 1 more than 99,000 inmates were released in an amnesty (358 of them were juveniles). The total number amnestied was expected to reach 120,000 by November. While the amnesty has affected the overall number of prisoners, by most accounts the greatest decrease is due to the increased use of alternative punishments such as selective parole for certain offences. In some regions such as Murmansk, more than 70 percent of all convicted offenders are given sentences not involving incarceration. In 1998 the occupancy rate for the overall penitentiary system was 112 percent. Special facilities exclusively for women are filled to 1.5 times of capacity, according to a study financed by Penal Reform International. As of September, there were 40,800 women held in correctional labor colonies, according to the MCPCJR. Under such conditions, prisoners sleep in shifts, and there is little, if any, room to move within the cell. In most pretrial detention centers and prisons, there is no ventilation system. Poor ventilation is thought to contribute to cardiac problems and lowered resistance to disease. Cells are overcrowded and stiflingly hot in the summer.

Correctional labor colonies (ITK's) hold the bulk of the nation's convicts. Of the 742 ITK's, 644 are designated for men (122 of these are "timber" correctional colonies). Although they are not as crowded as SIZO's, guards reportedly severely discipline prisoners to break down resistance. Prisoners sometimes are humiliated, beaten, and starved. According to the PCPR, conditions in the ITK's are better than in SIZO's prisons only to the extent that there is fresh air. In the timber correctional colonies, where hardened criminals serve their time, beatings, torture, and rape by guards reportedly are common. A total 678,500 male prisoners and 40,800 female prisoners are held in the ITK's. Of the 34 colonies for women, there are a few special facilities for children to be held with their mothers (465 children up to 4 years old). In the educational labor facilities, there are 19,000 males and 1,100 females. The country's "prisons"--distinct from the labor colonies or ITK's--are penitentiary institutions for those who repeatedly violate the rules in effect in ITK's.

Educational labor colonies for juveniles (VTK's) are facilities for from 14 to 20 years of age. The PCPR's September statistics indicate that there were approximately 20,000 persons in the 64 educational colonies, some 19,000 males and 1,000 females. Conditions in VTK's are significantly better than in ITK's, but juveniles in VTK's and juvenile SIZO cells reportedly also suffer from beatings, torture, and rape. The PCPR reports that such facilities have a poor psychological atmosphere and lack educational and vocational training opportunities. Many of the juveniles are from orphanages, have no outside support, and are unaware of their rights. There currently are two prisons for children in Moscow. Boys are held in small crowded, smoky cells with adults. Schooling in the prisons for children is sporadic at best, with students of different ages studying together when a teacher can be found.

According to statistics provided by the PCPR, the proposed federal budget as of the end of September allocated $778 million (14 billion rubles) for the upkeep of the GUIN system. According to GUIN, $1.3 billion (23 billion rubles) are needed to maintain the system adequately. However, the full allotment is not always spent. For example, in a Ryazan educational colony for females, less then $1 (18 rubles) per day for each inmate is considered necessary. In the budget, the institution is allotted only 10 rubles per inmate, while in actuality, less than four rubles actually make it to the institution. There are no steps underway at present to increase the portion of the budget allotted to GUIN.

According to the PCPR, conditions in penal facilities vary among the regions. Some regions offer assistance in the form of food, clothing, and medicine. NGO's and religious groups offer other support.

Inmates in the prison system often suffer from inadequate medical care. Detention facilities have infection rates of tuberculosis far higher than in the population at large. Tuberculosis in the general population and especially in prisons is considered by health and human rights experts to be not only a national, but an international health threat. PCPR estimates that 96,000 prisoners suffer from infectious tuberculosis--approximately 42 to 43 percent of all tuberculosis patients in Russia. A total of 25,000 of these prisoners are infected with a drug-resistant form of the disease. Some 90,000 of the overall patients, mostly under 30 years of age, are incarcerated in SIZO's. Of these, 26,000 are in special prison hospital wards for tuberculosis, 42,000 in medical facilities, and 17,000 in isolation in prison facilities, with the rest being held among the healthy prison population. The Saratov oblast administration, concerned with the tuberculosis crisis in facilities located there, fully funded the tuberculosis-related medicinal needs of prisoners, according to the PCPR. GUIN is working the with Soros Foundation to develop programs in some regions to combat tuberculosis.

HIV/AIDS infection rates are also a source of concern. The PCPR estimated that there were 8,000 prisoners infected either with HIV or who had developed AIDS, but the lack of adequate health care precludes estimating the true number of such prisoners and suggests that this is an underestimate. Space shortages do not allow for separate facilities for prisoners with AIDS.

Statistics on the number of detainees and prisoners who were killed or died and on the number of law enforcement and prison personnel disciplined for the use of excessive force are not released publicly. PCPR estimates that around 11,000 prisoners died in penitentiary facilities during the year (2,500 of whom died in SIZO's). Most died as a result of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, or lack of medical care (the leading cause of death was heart disease), but some died due to beatings. The Procuracy General claimed that it receives approximately 1,000 complaints of torture per year, but no reliable figures are available. The press often reports on innocent individuals mistreated, injured, or killed in various SIZO's; some of the reported cases include habitual abuse by the same officers.

Violence among inmates, including beatings and rape, is common. There are elaborate inmate-enforced caste systems in which informers, homosexuals, rapists, prison rape victims, child molesters, and others are considered to be "untouchable" and treated very harshly, with little or no protection provided by the prison authorities.

At a March 1999 joint hearing at the Human Rights Chamber of the President's Political Consultative Council, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Supreme Court, and the Procuracy General developed a plan to address the "critical" state of the national penal system. The proposals forwarded to the Government and the State Duma included provisions such as another amnesty and changes in the Criminal Code that could yield a prison population decrease of 400,000 over 1 year.

According to the PCPR, Aleksandr Zubkov, Deputy Director of GUIN in the Ministry of Justice, stated that the only way to reduce the prison population is to change the Criminal Code provisions regarding pretrial, parole and probation, and postconviction release measures. Zubkov stated that the Criminal Code is too severe and allows unjustifiably wide use of custody as a measure of restraint (as opposed to bail or release on the prisoner's own recognizance, for example). The PCPR called for greater use of alternatives to custody, such as bail and house arrest. Moreover, the PCPR reported that detainees spend too long in pretrial detention, in many cases as long as 3 years or more. The Ministry of Justice concurs with the PCPR that limits must be placed on time in detention awaiting trial.

Moscow-based human rights groups make infrequent visits to prisons in the Moscow area, and they have neither the resources nor a national network to investigate conditions in all 89 regions. The pretrial detention centers and filtration camps for suspected Chechen fighters, are not usually accessible to human rights monitors (see Section 1.g.). In May, the ICRC began to visit persons detained by Russian authorities. The ICRC works throughout Russia and is especially active in the North Caucasus. They are currently carrying out regular prison visits, but by agreement with the Government, their findings are kept confidential. The ICRC provides advice to authorities on how to improve conditions.

In January and February the remand prison at Chernokozovo was the principal detention center for those detained in Chechnya. Prolonged beatings to the genitals and to the soles of the feet, rape, electric shocks, tear gas and other methods of torture were used at the center. Guards subjected detainees to humiliation and degrading treatment. At least one person was beaten to death. Often prison guards and other law enforcement officers use torture to coerce confessions or testimony. Conditions improved at Chernokozovo in mid-February; however, an increasing number of detainees subsequently were held elsewhere and continued to suffer abuses, including torture, according to Human Rights Watch. The Government has allowed ICRC access to some facilities in the North Caucasus where Chechen detainees are held.

In one of many reported incidents, a Chechen man described how he saw federal guards puncture detainees' eardrums and file their teeth and damage their lips with a file forced into their mouths--an apparently new form of torture. In another reported incident, a Chechen man was pulled from his cell, homosexually raped, and taunted with anti-Chechen epithets. In the case of the Chernokozovo prison, the torture of prisoners by federal guards came to light in part through reports of Andrey Babistkiy, a reporter for Radio Liberty who was himself detained and beaten there. According to credible reports, units of the Government were involved in the detention and disappearance of Babitskiy in January for his reporting in Chechnya (see Section 1.b. and 2.a.).

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

Arbitrary arrest and detention remain serious problems. The Constitution provides that the arrest, taking into custody, and detention of persons suspected of crimes are permitted only by judicial decision. Under the 1997 code the maximum sentence for all offenses increased from 15 years to 30 years. Criminal proceedings continue to be governed both by the 1997 Criminal Code and the Soviet Criminal Procedure Code, adopted in 1960.
Efforts to achieve Duma approval of a new Criminal Procedure Code have been unsuccessful.

There are credible reports from throughout the country that police detain persons without observing mandated procedures and fail to issue proper arrest warrants or receipts for confiscated property. This is especially true for persons from the Caucasus. There are credible reports that security forces continue regularly to single out persons from the Caucasus for document checks, detention, and extortion of bribes. In 1999 Moscow city law enforcement authorities frequently detained persons unlawfully for alleged violations of registration requirements, especially in response to the terrorist bombings in September 1999, when authorities detained some 2,000 persons and deported more than 500, according to NGO's. Russian forces commonly rounded up and detained groups of Chechen men at checkpoints along the borders and during "mop-up" operations following military hostilities, and engaged in severe beating and torture.

In the absence of measures to implement the procedural safeguards contained in the Constitution, suspects often were subjected to uneven and arbitrary treatment by officials acting under the current Criminal Procedure Code and presidential decrees. The code gives procurators authority to issue an order of detention without a judge's authorization and, if police believe that the suspect has committed a crime or is a danger to others, to detain him for up to 48 hours without a warrant.

The Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code provide that detainees are entitled to have a lawyer present from the time of detention, during questioning following detention, and throughout investigation up to and including the formal filing of charges. This procedure generally is followed in practice. The PCPR reports that detainees are given the opportunity to have access to a lawyer in accordance with their rights. However, the Center notes that the high cost of legal fees and the poor quality of court-appointed public defenders for those lacking the funds to engage counsel effectively deny the majority of suspects competent legal representation. As a result, many prisoners do not exercise this right because they believe it useless. Families have access to individuals in pre-trial detention; however, in initial detention by the police in precincts, they may at times not be granted access.

Articles 47 to 49 of the Criminal Procedure Code provide that in certain cases the court, an investigator, or a procurator is to provide the suspect with an advocate free of charge if the suspect cannot afford one. A president of a collegium of advocates must appoint a lawyer within 24 hours after receiving such a request. However, lawyers (advocates) try to avoid these cases since the Government does not in fact reimburse them for this work as it is supposed to do. As a result, in many cases indigent defendants receive little or no assistance during the investigation stage of the case, and such in-court assistance as they do receive may be rendered by poorly trained lawyers. At times the right to a lawyer during pretrial questioning cannot be exercised even when the suspect can afford to pay for a lawyer. Human rights NGO's report that in many cases investigators deny access to a lawyer by various means, including restrictions on the time when the suspect can see his lawyer (which may mean that the lawyer has to wait for days to get a meeting with the client).

A 1997 presidential decree allows police to detain persons suspected of ties to organized crime for up to 10 days without bringing charges. The law overturned two previous presidential decrees (of 1994 and 1996) that allowed detention for up to 30 days. The 1997 decree also instructed the Government to submit to the Duma a draft federal law on preventing vagrancy and providing social rehabilitation of the homeless. However, according to Duma and NGO sources there is not yet any such draft law under consideration.

The Criminal Procedure Code specifies that only 2 months should elapse between the date an investigation is initiated and the date the file is transferred to the procurator so that the procurator can file formal charges against the suspect in court. However, investigations seldom are completed that quickly. Some suspects spend 18 months or longer in detention under harsh conditions in a SIZO while the criminal investigation is conducted. The PCPR reports terms of pretrial detention extending up to 3 years, with the average ranging from 7 to 10 months. However, in some extreme cases the PCPR reports detention periods of up to 5 years due to financial constraints and poor investigative and court work.

The Code provides that a prosecutor may extend the period of criminal investigation to 6 months in "complex" cases. If more time is required in "exceptional" cases, the Procurator General personally can extend the period up to 18 months. Extensions of the investigation period often are issued without explanation to the detainee. Until the investigation is completed, the suspect is under the jurisdiction of the Procurator's office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is no procedure for a suspect to plead guilty during the investigative period, although if a suspect informs the investigator that he is guilty, the period of the investigation usually is shorter than if he maintains his innocence. Suspects frequently fear exercising their right to request judicial review of their detention due to fear of angering the investigating officer.

There also were credible reports that persons were detained far in excess of the permissible periods for administrative offenses, in some cases so that police officials could extort money from friends or relatives of detainees. The situation has improved somewhat since the issuance of the 1997 presidential decree that annulled a previous decree that had allowed for 30-day detentions. However, the practice of detaining individuals in excess of permissible periods is common, and this often is done for the purpose of extorting money.

The use of bail is rare, even if suspects are not flight risks or have not been charged with violent crimes. This aggravates overcrowding in pretrial detention and, due to delays in bringing cases to trial, results in many suspects remaining in pretrial detention for longer than the maximum penalty they might face if convicted. In the juveniles' prisons, boys and girls (in separate facilities) are incarcerated in the facility for up to several years while they await trial and sentencing.

Delays also plague the trial stage. Although the Criminal Procedure Code requires court proceedings to begin no more than 14 days after the judge issues an order designating the location of the trial, congestion in the court system frequently leads to long postponements. Judges often do not dismiss cases involving improper investigations or indictments, particularly if the procurator's case has political support or if the case is controversial. Such cases often are returned to the procurator for further investigation.

Some regional and local authorities have taken advantage of the system's procedural weaknesses to arrest persons on false pretexts for expressing views critical of the Government. Human rights advocates in the regions have been charged with libel, contempt of court, or interference in judicial procedures in cases with distinct political overtones. Others have been charged with other offenses and held either in excess of normal periods of detention or for offenses that do not require detention at all (see Section 4).

On June 2, Taisa Isayeva, a Chechen journalist, was arrested at the border checkpoint "Nizhny Zaramag", between North Ossetia and Georgian controlled Ossetia. Isayeva, who works for the Chechen Press agency based in Georgia, was detained at the border because she was carrying a video camera and a portable computer.

On October 3, Primorye Regional FSB authorities opened a criminal case against Vladimir Schurov, Director of the Sonar Laboratory of the Pacific Oceanographic Institute (POI). He was charged with divulging state secrets, unlawful transfer of dual use technologies, and also for organizing a criminal group. Schurov has denied all charges.

Russian authorities took measures in two "espionage" cases involving foreigners who worked with Russians and obtained information the authorities considered sensitive. In both cases, proceedings took place behind closed doors and the defendants and their attorneys encountered difficulties in learning the details of the charges. In both cases, the circumstances suggested that the security services were seeking to discourage foreigners on issues they considered to be sensitive.

In November 1999 disarmament researcher Igor Sutyagin of the USA Canada Institute was detained on suspicion of espionage. No information about the specific charges was made public. At first the case appeared to focus on his work on a study of civil-military relations funded by the Canadian Defense Ministry. Sutyagin's family stated that the study did not deal in secret matters and was partially funded by the Russian Defense and Foreign ministries. Evidence in the case is secret and lawyers stated that Sutyagin received copies of the details on December 15. The trial was recessed until January 9, 2001.

Throughout the year there have also been numerous other cases of individuals charged with treason and detained. In August 1999 Vladivostok environmental scientist Vladimir Soyfer filed a complaint in Vladivostok municipal court alleging that in early July 1999 the FSB confiscated a large number of documents from his apartment, the removal of which was not covered by its warrant and not documented in the FSB's official record of the search. While under investigation the FSB dropped the case stating that Soyfer fell under the November amnesty. Soyfer appealed this decision to clear his name, arguing that he was innocent, and that there was no basis or need to amnesty him. The court agreed, passing the case back to the FSB for either investigation and prosecution, or dropping charges.

In October 1999 Vladimir Slivyak, director of the antinuclear organization Eco-Defense, announced at a press conference that Moscow police detained and questioned him for a few hours in September about his possible involvement in the August bombing of the Manezh shopping center in Moscow. One of Slivyak's coworkers reportedly had been framed on charges of drug possession. Natalya Minonova of Chelyabinsk also was detained and questioned by police officers in September as she and four other activists were on their way to city hall to deliver a letter protesting the potential import of spent nuclear fuel into the country. Authorities charged all five with hooliganism. Reportedly authorities told another activist in Voronezh to report to the police station for an "informal conversation" on the topic of an antinuclear camp near the Novo-Voronezh nuclear power plant and threatened him with drug possession charges if he failed to appear.

St. Petersburg judge Sergey Golets ruled at the end of 1999 that Aleksandr Nikitin, an environmentalist and retired Soviet Navy captain, was not guilty on charges of espionage and treason. Although prosecutors later appealed the decision, the Presidium of the Supreme Court on September 13 upheld the acquittal. Legal observers believe that the legal foundations of the Golets ruling were sound and that it, along with the Supreme Court decision, may provide an important precedent in combating abuses by the FSB.

Nikitin's case was characterized by serious violations of due process. There were credible charges that his detention was politically motivated. The FSB detained Nikitin in St. Petersburg in February 1996 on suspicion of espionage and revealing state secrets, crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Nikitin had been working with the Bellona foundation, a Norwegian environmental NGO, on the publication of a report detailing the hazards posed by nuclear waste generated by the Northern Fleet, in which Nikitin served. Indictments cited classified decrees that were made available to Nikitin's defense team only at the beginning of the trial, which finally commenced in October 1998, nearly 3 years after Nikitin's detention. In his December 1999 ruling, Judge Golets argued that the secret decrees used to charge Nikitin violated every citizen's right to access to the law and therefore were not binding under the Constitution. Moreover, according to the ruling, investigators failed to adhere to the Criminal Code during the investigation and violated Nikitin's constitutional rights. The case against Nikitin was finally closed by the September ruling of the Supreme Court presidium that the prosecutor's appeal of Nikitin's acquittal was without merit. However, the Federal Tax Police continued to harass him, claiming that the money provided by Bellona for his legal defense was taxable income.

Media-Most chairman Vladimir Gusinskiy was detained in Moscow's Butyrka Prison for three days in June, in connection with the General Procuracy's criminal fraud case against him. Gusinkiy left Russia in July, shortly after the Procuracy dropped its criminal case against him. Later it became known that Gusinskiy signed an agreement with Gazprom-Media chief Alfred Kokh just before leaving the country in which he pledged to sell a controlling share of his media enterprises to Gazprom. Gusinskiy insisted publicly that he had signed under duress, citing a protocol to the agreement that was co-signed by Press Minister Mikhail Lesin. Many observers interpreted the protocol as a quid pro quo in which the Government agreed to drop its criminal investigations of Gusinskiy and Media-Most in exchange for receipt by Gazprom of a controlling share in NTV and
Media-Most. Later in the year, the General Procuracy cited Gusinskiy's refusal to appear for further questioning on a broader criminal fraud case against Media-Most as grounds for seeking his extradition. At year's end, Gusinskiy remained in Spain under house arrest as Spanish officials considered the Government's extradition request.

No new arrests of human rights monitors were documented during the year.

In July 1999 after 20 months in pretrial detention, military journalist and active-duty officer in the Pacific Fleet Grigoriy Pasko was sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment for dereliction of duty but immediately was released under the prisoner amnesty. However, prosecutors subsequently appealed the sentence and the military collegium of the Supreme Court dismissed the earlier conviction and sent the case back to Vladivostok to be retried for the more serious charges of espionage and treason. The trial is expected to begin in March 2001. Pasko originally was charged with treason and espionage after reporting on radioactive contamination by Russian Pacific Fleet sailors dumping radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan. The trial was marked by a number of irregularities, including the judge's decision to remove one of Pasko's defense attorneys for contempt of court and also a key witness recanting earlier testimony claiming it had been made under duress from investigators. The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Glasnost Defense Fund observed that the case is still a powerful disincentive to investigative reporting (see Section 2.a.).

The Government does not use forced exile.

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and there are signs of limited judicial independence; however, the judiciary does not yet act as an effective counterweight to other branches of government. Efforts to develop an independent judiciary continue. Judges remain subject to some influence from the executive, military, and security forces, especially in high profile or political cases. The judiciary still lacks sufficient resources and is subject to corruption.

The judiciary is divided into three branches: The courts of general jurisdiction, subordinated to the Supreme Court; the arbitration court system under the High Court of Arbitration; and the Constitutional Court. Civil and criminal cases are tried in courts of primary jurisdiction, courts of appeals, and higher courts. The general court system's lowest level is the municipal court, which serves each city or rural district and hears over 90 percent of all civil and criminal cases. The next level of courts of general jurisdiction are the regional courts. At the highest level is the Supreme Court. Decisions of the lower trial courts can be appealed only to the immediately superior court unless a constitutional issue is involved. The arbitration court system consists of city or regional courts as well as appellate circuit courts subordinated to the High Court of Arbitration. Arbitration courts hear cases involving business disputes between legal entities and between legal entities and the state. Qualifying Collegium nominate judges for approval (by the President), remove them, and approve requests by prosecutors to investigate judges. Approximately 1,000 justices of the peace were appointed in 33 regions throughout the country during the year. These judges handle family law and criminal cases where the maximum sentence is 2 years.

Low salaries and lack of prestige make it difficult to attract talented new judges and contribute to the vulnerability of existing judges to bribery and corruption. Judges have received some incremental salary increases aimed at improving the quality of judges recruited and raising the retention rate. Although judges' pay has improved, working conditions remain poor, and support personnel continue to be underpaid.

The 2000 government budget increased funding for the judicial system; however, it is not enough to cover all of the system's needs. Not all of the money allocated was dispersed and regional administration support is still needed.

Judges are subject to intimidation and bribery from officials and others. As judges generally bear responsibility both for reaching a verdict and handing down a sentence, they are logical targets for intimidation. In July 1999, the chair of the Primorskiy Kray arbitration court, Tatyana Loktionova, announced that Primorskiy Kray Governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko had been interfering in the court's activities and that she and her colleagues feared for their personal safety. The governor blamed the court for bankrupting the region's enterprises and destroying its economy and persuaded then-Prime Minister Putin to authorize an internal investigation of the arbitration court for possible illegal conduct. Loktionova was removed from the court but appealed to the Supreme Court for reinstatement. On August 23, the Supreme Court's Board of Appeal upheld the lower court's ruling removing Loktionova from the bench. Loktionova appealed to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In October the Moscow City Collegium of Judges removed Moscow City Judge Sergey Pashin from the bench for ostensible infractions of professional etiquette. However, most observers believe that Pashin was removed for political purposes, as punishment for his outspoken views criticizing judicial colleagues on cases ranging from the conscientious objector Neverovskiy in Kaluga to the legal procedures surrounding Media-Most. Pashin appealed the Collegium's decision to a higher body and he was later reinstated.

The Criminal Code provides for the court to appoint a lawyer if the suspect cannot afford one. The Society for the Guardianship of Penitentiary Institutions often is called upon by judges to provide legal assistance for suspects facing charges and trial without any representation. This society operates primarily in Moscow, although it uses its connections throughout the country to appeal to legal professionals to represent the indigent. However, in many cases the indigent receive little legal assistance, because funds are lacking to pay for trial attorneys for them and public defenders are poorly trained.

Because the right to a lawyer during pretrial questioning often is not exercised (see Section 1.d.), many defendants recant testimony given in pretrial questioning, stating that they were denied access to a lawyer or that they were coerced into making false confessions or statements. Nevertheless, human rights monitors have documented cases in which convictions were obtained on the basis of testimony that the defendant recanted in court, even in the absence of other proof of guilt.

In the 80 regions where adversarial jury trials have not yet been introduced, criminal procedures are weighted heavily in favor of the prosecutor. The judge or panel of judges conducts the trial by asking questions based on a prior review of the evidence. Reports indicate that in practice the constitutionally mandated presumption of innocence often is disregarded. Judges are known to return poorly developed cases to the prosecution for additional investigation rather than risk confrontation with powerful prosecutors. Moreover in certain cases the Criminal Procedure Code allows them to do so with no limitation on the number of times the case can be investigated. The Constitutional Court partly addressed this issue in an April 20, 1999, decision that held that part of the article of the Code providing for this practice was unconstitutional. The practice of repeatedly returning cases for further investigation greatly increases the time that defendants spend in SIZO's (see Section 1.c.).

Defense attorneys, defendants, and the general public reportedly favor jury trials and the more adversarial approach to criminal justice. Prosecutors and law enforcement officials continue to prefer trial by judges and the inquisitorial system.

The Independent Council of Legal Expertise reported that defense lawyers increasingly were the target of police harassment, including beatings and arrests. Professional associations at both the local and federal levels reported abuses throughout the country. They charge that police are trying both to intimidate defense attorneys and to cover up their own criminal activities. For example, on March 28 Moscow defense lawyer K. Moskalenko was assaulted by members of Moscow's Organized Crime Unit of the MVD while attempting to assist a client illegally detained by the Unit at a residence. Moskalenko complained to the Procurator, but her complaint was rejected at the end of April. The Glasnost Public Foundation criticized the September 30 arrest of public defender Mikhail Konstantinidiy in Novorossiysk. Konstantinidiy was arrested for purported "illegal entrepreneurial activity," which human rights activists believe was concocted in retaliation for the lawyer's successes against an oil company and a local politician.

There were no reports of political prisoners.

f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

Authorities continued to infringe on citizens' privacy rights. The Constitution states that officials can enter a private residence only in cases prescribed by federal law or on the basis of a judicial decision. It permits the government to monitor correspondence, telephone conversations, and other means of communication only with judicial permission. It prohibits the collection, storage, utilization, and dissemination of information about a person's private life without his consent. Legislation to implement these provisions was passed as part of the country's new criminal code, which provides for criminal penalties. However, problems remain, and no one has ever been convicted of violating those safeguards. There were reports of electronic surveillance by government officials and others. Moscow law enforcement officials reportedly entered residences and other premises without warrants. For example, on October 19, three investigators from the Organized Crime Unit and Economic Crime Unit of the MVD entered the premises of the Moscow Choral Synagogue without a warrant and searched the offices of Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (see Section 2.b.).

Internet experts and right-to-privacy advocates say that interagency technical regulations called SORM-2 (SORM is the Russian acronym for System for Operational Investigative Measures), which were issued by the Ministry of Communications, the FSB, the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information, and other agencies present a serious threat to privacy rights, and violate the Civil Code, the Constitution, and international norms. SORM-2 is an amendment to SORM telecommunications regulations. The original SORM, issued in 1995, granted security services the power to monitor all telecommunications transmissions for investigative purposes. It required a warrant to carry out such monitoring, in accordance with the Constitution and other provisions of the law. SORM-2 extends to the FSB the same kind of monitoring power over Internet communication that it had for telecommunication, but without ensuring judicial oversight.

Internet service providers were required to install, at their own expense, a device that routes all Internet traffic to an FSB terminal. Those providers that did not comply with the requirements faced either loss of their licenses or denial of their license renewal. While SORM-2 framers claim that the regulation does not violate the Constitution or the Civil Code because it still requires a court order, right to privacy advocates say that there is no mechanism to ensure that a warrant is obtained before the FSB accesses private information. There appears to be no mechanism to prevent unauthorized FSB access to Internet traffic without a warrant.

On July 25 Minister of Communications Leonid Reyman issued an order implementing the last stage of SORM. According to the order, registered by the Ministry of Justice on August 9, the FSB is no longer required to provide to the telecommunications and Internet companies any court documentation or any information about targets of interest. Human rights activists suggest that this order only formalizes the practices established since SORM was introduced. However, Pavel Netupskiy, a St. Petersburg journalist, challenged Reyman's order in court, claiming that it was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court examined the case and ruled September 25 partially in Netupskiy's favor, leaving the requirement that the FSB conduct monitoring only by court order and that it provide information to the company about the target of surveillance. However, despite the court ruling, adequate oversight and enforcement of this constitutional provision and the court order are lacking. On September 12 Putin signed the "Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation" which offers general language on protecting citizens' constitutional rights and civil liberties but also includes specific provisions that would justify greater state intervention. The Doctrine gives much leeway to law enforcement authorities in carrying out SORM surveillance of telephone, cellular, and wireless communications.

Allegations continue to circulate that officers in the special services, including authorities at the highest levels of the MVD and the FSB, have used their services' power to gather compromising materials on political and public figures as political insurance and to remove rivals. Similarly, persons in these agencies, both active and retired, were accused of working with commercial or criminal organizations for the same purpose.

There are credible reports that regional branches of the FSB continue to exert pressure on Russian citizens employed by Western firms and organizations, often with the goal of coercing them into becoming informants.

Government forces in Chechnya looted valuables and foodstuffs from houses in regions that they controlled (see Section 1.g.).

g. Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal Conflicts

The indiscriminate use of force by government troops in the Chechen conflict resulted in widespread civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons, the majority of whom sought refuge in the neighboring republic of Ingushetiya. The Federal Government has been fighting a war against separatists in Chechnya since August 1999 following attacks by Chechen separatists in neighboring Dagestan. In the fall of 1999, government forces launched air and artillery attacks against numerous Chechen villages along the republic's eastern border with Dagestan in the territory controlled by Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev. Attempts by government forces to regain control over Chechnya were accompanied by indiscriminate use of air power and artillery, particularly in the fall 1999 campaign to retake the capital, Grozny. There were numerous reports of attacks on civilian targets, including the bombing of schools and residential areas. In early 2000 a large-scale offensive military campaign by government forces continued against the separatists. That offensive campaign largely ended following federal occupation of most of Chechnya by late spring, although federal forces remained engaged in an intensive anti-insurgency campaign against separatist guerillas. The security situation prevented most foreign observers from travelling to the region, and the Federal Government enforced strict controls on press access. NGO's reported that federal authorities in some cases confiscated recording devices and communications equipment at the border. These restrictions made independent observation of conditions and verification of reports very difficult. Nevertheless, there were numerous credible reports of human rights abuses and atrocities committed by federal forces.

Federal authorities continued to claim that government forces utilized "high precision" weapons and tactics against the rebels; however, a wide range of reports indicated that government military operations resulted in many civilian casualties and the massive destruction of property and infrastructure. The number of civilian fatalities caused by federal military operations cannot be verified, and estimates of the total number of civilian dead vary from the hundreds to the thousands. For example, on December 20, seven students were killed when Russian forces fired mortar rounds on Grozny State Pedagogical Institute. The procurator was investigating the incident at year's end. The number of civilians wounded by federal forces also could not be verified, although reports from hospitals that still were operating in the region indicated that the majority of patients were mine or ordnance victims, and that such weaponry was the primary cause of death. Throughout the conflict, accusations were made by both sides about the use of chemical weapons. However, no credible evidence has been offered to support these claims.

In addition to casualties attributable to indiscriminate use of force by the federal armed forces, many atrocities reportedly were committed by individual federal servicemen or units. Command and control among military and special police units often appeared to be weak, and a culture of lawlessness, corruption and impunity flourished. This culture fostered individual acts (by government forces) of violence and looting against civilians. For example, according to HRW and press reports, on February 5, Russian riot police and contract soldiers (men hired by the military for short-term service contracts) executed at least 60 civilians in Aldi and Chernorechiye, suburbs of Grozny. The perpetrators reportedly raped some of the victims and extorted money, later setting many of the houses on fire to destroy evidence.

According to HRW and other NGO reports, Russian soldiers executed at least 38 civilians in the Staropromyslovski district between December 1999-January 2000. Most of the victims were women and elderly men, and all apparently were shot deliberately by Russian soldiers at close range. Similar events also occurred in Katr Yurt, were hundreds of already displaced persons were forced to flee, persons were killed, and houses were burned. Russian forces allegedly did this because Chechen fighters had passed through the village after the retreat from Grozny on February 5. In November 1999, government troops opened fire on doctors and other medical staff at a psychiatric hospital, injuring three persons. According to human rights NGO's, government troops raped civilian women in Chechnya in December 1999 in the village of Alkhan-Yurt and in other villages.

According to human rights NGO's, federal troops on numerous occasions looted valuables and foodstuffs in regions they controlled. Many internally displaced persons (IDP's) reported that they were forced to provide payments to, or were otherwise subjected to harassment and pressure by, guards at checkpoints. There were also widespread reports of the killing or abuse of captured fighters by federal troops, as well as by the separatists, and a policy of "no quarter given" appeared to prevail in many units. A private wounded in the conflict told representatives of the Union of Soldiers Mother's Committee (USMC) organization that the commander of his unit gave the order that no prisoners should be taken and no one should be left alive in Grozny. Federal forces reportedly beat, raped, tortured, and killed numerous detainees. The human rights NGO Memorial compiled a list of 300 missing captured rebels, some of whom had not been seen in 6 months. Federal forces reportedly ransomed Chechen detainees to their families. Prices were said to range from several hundred to thousands of dollars.

Armed forces and police units reportedly routinely abused and tortured persons held at so-called filtration camps, where federal authorities claimed that fighters or those suspected of aiding the rebels were sorted out from civilians.

There were some reports that federal troops purposefully targeted some infrastructure essential to the survival of the civilian population, such as water facilities or hospitals. The NGO Physicians for Human Rights reported that that physicians in Grozny Ambulatory Clinic #5 and Grozny City Hospital #4 stated that their hospitals were destroyed. The indiscriminate use of force by federal troops resulted in massive destruction of housing and commercial and administrative buildings, as well as the breakdown of gas- and water-supply facilities and other types of infrastructure. Representatives of international organizations and NGO's who visited Chechnya also reported little evidence of federal assistance for rebuilding war-torn areas.

International organizations estimate that the number of IDP's and refugees who left Chechnya as a result of the conflict reached a total of about 280,000 at its peak in late spring. Of this total, most went to Ingushetiya (245,000). Some 6,000 Chechen IDP's were reported in Dagestan, 3,000 in North Ossetia, and 6,000 in Georgia. About 20,000 Chechen IDP's reportedly went to other regions of the Russian Federation. Federal refugee policy aimed at repatriating IDP's as soon as possible back to Chechnya. However, as of early fall, federal authorities promised that no one would be repatriated forcibly. Reliable information on the number and status of displaced persons within Chechnya was especially difficult to obtain, due to heavy fighting and limited outside access to the region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that at times as many as 150,000 persons were displaced within Chechnya and lacked access to humanitarian assistance. There were approximately 6,000 Dagestani IDP's in Dagestan. NGO's also estimated that at least a quarter of a million residents, including almost the entire Russian, Armenian, and Jewish populations, migrated from Chechnya as a result of the current conflict and the first war of 1994-96.

At various points during the conflict, authorities restricted the movement of IDP's fleeing Chechnya. According to some reports by NGO's, early in the conflict border guards at times permitted only ethnic Russians to cross into Ingushetiya. According to the Russian press, some displaced persons were transported by bus back to parts of Chechnya that were under government control. In 1999 refugees at the border sometimes had to live in the open, without access to food or water. Russian border guards and police officers on the border between Chechnya and neighboring regions reportedly required Chechen refugees to pay money to pass. According to UNHCR, the authorities early in the year prevented medical supplies destined for hospitals from entering Chechnya. There also were many credible reports that Russian guards at checkpoints within Chechnya demanding money to allow persons to pass. Some refugees also had trouble moving about because their documents had been lost, stolen, or confiscated by Russian authorities. Currently 8,000 persons live in railway carriages in the region. During the year, 4,000 others who had been living in railway cars were transferred to a winterized tent camp. According to the Council of Europe (COE), about 2,000 persons live in harsh conditions in rail wagons in Sernovodsk without sufficient heating and appropriate sanitation facilities, which puts them at risk of contagious diseases.

While Russian media coverage of events in Chechnya was extensive, most journalists and editors appeared to be exercising self-censorship and avoiding subjects embarrassing to the Government (see Section 2.a.). Since the resumption of the war in October 1999, federal authorities--both military and civilian--limited journalists' access to war zones and confiscated reports and equipment, citing threats to the safety of reporters. After November 1999, additional accreditation--besides the usual Foreign Ministry accreditation--was required for entry to the region. In some cases, foreign journalists publicly complained that military officials in the northern Caucasus region made it excessively difficult for them to receive local press accreditation. In one instance in September, Associated Press reporter Ruslan Musayev was detained, beaten, and held in a covered pit for 24 hours until he paid Russian soldiers to release him.

In April U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) Mary Robinson visited Chechnya to investigate allegations of human rights abuses. However on the visit, according to Robinson's report to the UNCHR, Russian authorities denied her access to a number of locations, including five detention centers where Amnesty International alleged that Russian guards committed abuses against Chechen detainees. She also was denied access to villages near Grozny where Russian troops were accused of killing and raping civilians. Robinson did meet with IDP's in Ingushetiya, who provided firsthand testimony of alleged violations of human rights by Russian military, militia, and Ministry of Interior forces in Chechnya. Authorities asserted that Robinson distorted the true nature of the state of affairs and that Russia never hid the truth about the situation in Chechnya.

In response to international criticism of the human rights situation in Chechnya, several official Russian organizations were established to examine alleged human rights violations in the republic. In February President Putin appointed Vladimir Kalamanov as special Presidential Representative for Human Rights in Chechnya. Kalamanov's office, with a staff of 25 persons, including 3 experts on loan from the COE, opened branches in Moscow and a number of locations in the North Caucasus to take complaints about alleged human rights violations. In April Pavel Krasheninnikov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Legislation, was elected head of a newly created Independent Commission on Human Rights in the North Caucasus. In September the Commission opened nine offices in Chechnya and three in Ingushetiya. Together Kalamanov's office and Krasheninnikov's Commission heard thousands of complaints from citizens, ranging from destruction or theft of property to rape and murder. However, neither organization was empowered to investigate or prosecute alleged offenses and had to refer complaints to the military or civil prosecutors. By the end of the year, the prosecutors had opened more than 100 cases of alleged crimes. Almost all of these concerned alleged violations of military discipline and other common crimes. The Presidential Administration press service reported that 38 cases relating to crimes committed by servicemen against the local population were opened, and that seven servicemen were convicted by year's end. The charges against the seven service men were not known. The Federal Government did not comply with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolution's calling for a broad-based, independent commission of inquiry to investigate alleged human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Chechen separatists also committed abuses, but--as with the many reported Russian violations--there were difficulties in verifying or investigating them. According to unconfirmed reports, separatists killed civilians who would not assist them, used civilians as human shields, forced civilians to build fortifications, and prevented refugees from fleeing Chechnya. For example, the rebel fighter Akhmed Ibragimov reportedly murdered 34 fellow villagers, including 3 children, after 1 of the villagers refused to dig trenches. One witness described seeing four bodies of persons who were crucified on spikes by separatists for cooperating with federal authorities in Grozny.

Separatists allegedly killed and attempted to kill numerous Chechen officials loyal to the Federal Government. For example, on May 31, Grozny Mayor Supyan Makhchayev was wounded and his aide and a Russian official were killed by a car bomb. According to press reports, Chechen rebels opened fire on an EMERCOM (Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies, and the Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters) Car on June 9 in Grozny, killing three Russian epidemiologists and wounding three others. In July Ruslan Khamidov, head of the administration of the settlement of Alkhan-Yurt, was killed in his home. On August 4, head of the Nozhay-Yurtovskiy Rayon Administration Isita Gayribekova was wounded and her brother and sister killed in a bomb explosion at the home of their mother. Chechen separatists started a series of suicide attacks in June. Two Chechen women detonated a truck packed with explosives at a Russian army base west of Grozny.

Human rights NGO's reported that Chechen separatist units abused civilians and endangered their lives by provoking Russian counterattacks on civilian areas. The rebels took up positions in populated areas and fired on Russian forces, thereby exposing the civilians to Russian counterattacks. When villagers protested, they sometimes were beaten or fired upon by the rebels.

Separatist military units also reportedly abused, tortured, and killed captured Russian soldiers. In one incident, rebel sources reported that they executed nine Russian prisoners after Moscow refused to exchange them for a Russian officer accused of raping and killing a Chechen woman. In another incident reported by an NGO, a Chechen witness described seeing the body of a Russian soldier with his throat cut. When asked by the witness why the soldier was killed, the rebel fighters purportedly replied that it was their standard practice to slit the throats of Russian captives.

Individual rebel field commanders were reportedly responsible for funding their own units, and some allegedly resorted to drug smuggling and kidnaping and ransom to raise funds. As a result, it often was difficult, if not impossible, to make a distinction between rebel units and simple criminal gangs. Some rebels received financial and other forms of assistance from foreign supporters of international terrorism. The international terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden reportedly sent funds, personnel, and material to elements in the rebel camp. According to press reports, as many as 400 of Bin Laden's followers may have joined the rebels from his base in Afghanistan (see Section 1.a.).

Government forces and Chechen separatists have used landmines extensively in Chechnya and Dagestan since August 1999. In April, the country announced plans to mine its border with Georgia. There is not accurate information on the number of those killed by landmines throughout Russia.

Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and numerous national and regional media reflect a multitude of opinions; however, government pressure on the media persisted and in some respects increased significantly, resulting in numerous infringements of these rights. The Government exerted pressure on journalists, particularly those who reported on corruption or criticized officials, by: selectively denying them access to information (including, for example, statistics theoretically available to the public) and filming opportunities; demanding the right to approve certain stories prior to publication; prohibiting the tape recording of public trials and hearings; withholding financial support from government media operations that exercised independent editorial judgment; attempting to influence the appointment of senior editors at regional and local newspapers and broadcast media organizations; removing reporters from their jobs; and bringing libel suits against journalists. Faced with continuing financial difficulties and increased pressure from the Government, many media organizations saw their autonomy erode during the year. The Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF), an NGO that tracks violations of the rights of journalists in the countries of the former Soviet Union, estimates that several hundred lawsuits and other legal actions were brought by government agencies against journalists and journalistic organizations during 1999, the majority of them in response to unfavorable coverage of government policy or operations. During the year, judges rarely found for the journalists; in the majority of cases, the Government succeeded in either intimidating or punishing the journalist. On October 4 the Kirovskiy district court of Kazan ordered the local television company "Efir" to compensate Anatoliy Vasilyev, a former candidate to the State Council of Tatarstan, for airing a program which, according to the court, falsely accused Vasilyev of deceiving his business partners. On November 1, Kirovskiy district court in Yekaterinburg ruled that an article in the local newspaper "Vecherniye Vedomosti Yekaterinburga" accusing Arkadiy Chernetskiy, the mayor of Yekaterinburg, of applying illegal methods in his election campaign, was false. The court ordered the newspaper to print a disclaimer, and to pay damages to Chernetskiy. On November 9, the Sovietskiy district court in the city of Bryansk required the local newspaper "Bryanskoye Vremya" to print an apology and to compensate Bryansk governor Yuriy Lodkin, who sued the paper for criticizing him in a way that he considered insulting.

With some exceptions, judges appeared unwilling to challenge powerful federal and local officials. Stiff fines for journalists were a common result of these proceedings; jail terms occasionally were handed down as well. Such rulings served to reinforce the already significant tendency toward self-censorship. Not infrequently journalists were attacked physically, although in the majority of these cases, no direct link was ever established between the assault and the authorities who reportedly took offense at the reporting in question. The financial dependence of most major media organizations on the Government or on one or more of several major financial-industrial groups continued to undermine editorial independence and journalistic integrity in both the print and broadcast media.

The concentration of ownership of major media organizations--already a serious threat to editorial independence in 1999--increased during the year. The largest media empires (including media outlets owned by the federal, regional, and local governments) remained intact. However, Media-Most, the country's largest independent company was under pressure by the Government and the Government resumed operational control of ORT. In particular, government structures, banking interests, and the state-controlled energy giants UES and Gazprom continued to dominate the Moscow media market even as they extended their influence into the regions. Continuing financial difficulties exacerbated this problem during the year, weakening the fiscal positions of most news organizations and thereby increasing their dependence on financial sponsors and, in some cases, the federal and regional governments. Although advertising revenues began to return to 1998 levels, they did not do so completely. As a result, the media's autonomy and concomitant ability to act as a watchdog remained weak. In key respects, private media organizations across the country remained dependent on the Government during the year. According to the GDF, some 90 percent of print media organizations continued to rely on state-controlled concerns for paper, printing, or distribution, while many television stations were forced to rely on the state (in particular, regional committees for the management of state property) for access to the airwaves and office space.

Moreover, journalists continued to depend on local authorities for accreditation to major news events. Reports of both favoritism toward reporters associated (or aligned) with the federal or local administration and denial of access to journalists representing independent media organizations were widespread. The Presidential Administration, for example, refused to accredit a reporter from the Moscow-based newspaper Novyye Izvestiya for President Putin's summer visit to China and Japan. Novyye Izvestiya has frequently criticized the President since his election in March. Kommersant Daily has also reportedly been denied access to some official sources. Moreover, in the immediate aftermath of the Kursk submarine sinking, the Government denied site access to all media except the official network, Russian Television and Radio (RTR), a decision that gave rise to heavy criticism from the majority of media outlets.

The GDF also reported that officials continued to manipulate a variety of other "instruments of leverage" (including the price of printing at state-controlled publishing houses) in an effort to apply pressure on private media rivals. The Foundation noted that, as in 1999, this practice was more common outside the Moscow area than in the capital itself. Private print and broadcast media, like other enterprises, were vulnerable to arbitrary changes in the policy and practice of tax collection. Although media still routinely receive tax breaks on high-cost items such as paper, the GDF and other media NGO's documented numerous instances of use by the Government of tax levers to pressure media across the country. Further, the Government occasionally sought to limit reporting on tax matters. In Volgograd oblast, for instance, local tax police in November declared the entry into force of an "Agreement on Cooperation" which stipulated that all information related to the activities of the tax police should be "cleared" with the relevant authorities prior to publication. In certain cases, journalists were even forbidden to cite sources from the local tax service. A number of local newspapers, including Volgogradskaya Pravda, Inter, Gorodskiye Vesti, and Delovoye Povolzhye were reportedly pressured into signing the agreement. This agreement came on the heels of a similar agreement with the FSB in Volgograd, binding the same publications to inform the FSB before they publish any materials related to the security service. National independent media, such as NTV, expressed concern that such contracts would serve as examples for other regions around the country.

The private media continue to face more direct challenges from the Government as well. The Government owns about 150 of the 550 television stations in the country and nearly one-fifth of the 12,000 registered newspapers and periodicals. Of the three national television stations, the State owns Russian Television and Radio (RTR) and a majority of Russian Public Television (ORT); it also maintains ownership or control of major radio stations (Mayak and Radio Rossii) and news agencies (ITAR-TASS and RIA-Novosti). At the regional and local levels, governments operated or controlled a much higher percentage of the media than in Moscow; in many cities and towns across the country, government-run media organizations were the only major source of news and information, according to the GDF. Thus, in many media markets, citizens received information mainly from unchallenged government sources. In efforts to control the media, federal authorities issued orders and formulated doctrines designed to limit free expression and electronic privacy. On June 22 President Putin signed an amendment to the law on mass media that places restrictions on media coverage of narcotics issues, banning reporting on: "The location of illegal trade in drugs;" "methods of narcotics consumption;" and "the composition of drugs." Media outlets which violate these bans could be closed after two warnings. Newspapers did not successfully challenge the legality of the amendment during the year. On September 12 President Putin approved an Information Security Doctrine which had been adopted by the Security Council on June 23. The 40-page document outlined "threats to Russian national security" in the fields of "mass media, means of mass communication, and information technology." Sergey Ivanov, Secretary of the Security Council, claimed that the goals of the document are "the protection of the rights of the individual, freedom of speech, and the prohibition of censorship." However, the doctrine immediately raised concerns among journalists that its real purpose may be to consolidate government control over the mass media. Many observers viewed it as an indication that the Kremlin considers the media as "yet another sphere subject to the administration and control of the government." Although the document reaffirms the state's commitment to preserve the freedoms of expression and of access to information, it contains numerous clauses that are extremely vague, and which according to critics, can be interpreted very broadly by lawmakers and bureaucrats. Of particular concern, for example, were the clauses calling for an "increase in propaganda activity to counter the negative effects of the dissemination of misinformation about the internal policies of the Russian state;" and "clarification of the status of foreign journalists and media outlets" working in the country, in order to "place them on an equal footing with the domestic media."

The system of operative and investigate procedures (SORM) continued during the year to limit the electronic privacy of both citizens and foreigners (see section 1.f.).

Government intimidation and censorship, both direct and indirect, remained a significant problem during the year. On January 17 Aleksander Khinshtein, a journalist with Moskovskiy Komsomolets and TV-Center known for his frequent vitriolic attacks on senior Government officials, was visited at his home by armed FSB agents who demanded that the journalist accompany them to the city of Vladimir for "psychiatric testing." (Khinshtein produced documentation to the effect that he was ill and, in the end, was not forced to leave his home.) Police also charged the journalist with falsification of his Moscow driver's license; Khinshtein denies any wrongdoing. Khinshtein and many other independent observers characterized the arrest as "an act of intimidation designed to send a message." The case was closed on February 16. On March 15 the Moscow daily Novaya Gazeta reported that its computer network was hacked, preventing the publication of that day's edition. Dmitriy Muratov, the newspaper's editor in chief, told the GDF that the hacking occurred on the very day that the newspaper was to publish a number of articles exploring irregularities in the financing of Vladimir Putin's election campaign. Muratov categorically ruled out any possibility of an "accidental" or "technical" failure. Muratov also stated that his newspaper had come under "increased pressure from the authorities" in connection with its reporting on corruption in the Government and the war in Chechnya. Moreover, Muratov stated that the newspaper was offered financial "favors" on a number of occasions in exchange for "reconsidering its political stance." The perpetrators of the computer attack were never identified.

The Government has also brought considerable pressure to bear on the largest media conglomerates. The most notable example of this phenomenon was the high-profile conflict between the Kremlin and Media-Most (owned by Vladimir Gusinskiy). The conflict, which became public in the summer of 1999, intensified significantly in 2000. Government-controlled media, including the RTR and the government-aligned ORT, continued to "expose" Media-Most's debts to state structures, including the energy giant Gazprom. The state filed a lawsuit against Media-Most and demanded repayment to the state-controlled Vneshekonombank of a $42.2 million credit. In March the state-backed Gazprom repaid Credit Suisse-First Boston a $211 million Media-Most loan that the firm had guaranteed in 1998. Immediately following the repayment, Gazprom demanded that Media-Most repay this debt, refusing to accept shares in the holding's outlets as a form of repayment. Media-Most executives and most media experts maintain that Gazprom acted at the behest of the Putin administration. On October 18 a district court in Moscow found for Media-Most in its suit against the FSB for "slandering its business reputation" as a result of information the FSB made public earlier in the year. The court held that the FSB must apologize for this on ORT during prime time; the FSB has appealed this decision.

Notwithstanding this pressure, the Media-Most media companies (including the NTV, the radio station Ekho Moskvy, the news daily Segodnya, and the weekly Itogi) which are generally well regarded for their relative professionalism and independence, did not cede editorial ground. These media outlets continued to criticize President Putin and his administration on a wide range of problems, including the Kremlin's media policy. On May 11 masked law enforcement officers raided the offices of Media-Most in central Moscow and confiscated documents and technical equipment. The authorities charged that the holding's security service illegally recorded telephone conversations. Media-Most called the raid "a politically motivated attack on freedom of the press." In a statement, the Russian Union of Journalists termed it "an unconstitutional act aimed at intimidating the independent media." On June 11 Media-Most chief Vladimir Gusinskiy was arrested on charges of embezzlement of state property in the course of the 1995 privatization of Russkoye Video, a television production company in St. Petersburg. (The head of Russkoye Video remained in jail, although no formal charges have yet been brought against him.) While observers expressed differing opinions on the legitimacy of the charge, most disinterested analysts considered the arrest to be an "excessive" measure. Gusinskiy was released 3 days after his arrest following widespread domestic and international criticism. Although the progovernment media defended the arrest, arguing that "everyone is equal before the law," politicians, journalists, and observers in opposition to the Kremlin agreed that the case was politically motivated and that it augured poorly for the future of freedom of expression. After Gusinskiy's release, law enforcement officers once again raided the Media-Most headquarters and Gusinskiy's private residence, where they inventoried his property, reportedly in connection with the "Russkoye Video" case. On July 27 Gusinskiy left the country to join his family in Spain. On September 19 both Media-Most and Gazprom Media acknowledged that Gusinskiy, Media Minister Mikhail Lesin, and Gazprom Media head Alfred Kokh signed an agreement in July to sell Media-Most for $300 million in cash and $473 million in debt to Gazprom Media. The agreement, published in the media in September, contained a paragraph on the dropping of criminal charges against Gusinskiy, who later declared the agreement "null and void" for having been signed under duress--in his own words, "at gunpoint"--and indeed under the direct threat of imprisonment. Gazprom alleged that Media-Most hid assets in offshore companies. Deputy Procurator General Vasiliy Kolmogorov said on September 19 that if these allegations were substantiated, he would launch a criminal case against the holding (see Section 1.d.).

On December 8 the Media Ministry ordered independent privately-owned MAKS-TV in Sochi closed. According to the Ministry, the Station had violated both the law on advertising, by running a commercial for Ararat cognac in September, and the law on elections in early December. MAKS-TV went back on the air in late December.

The Kremlin has also reportedly sought to strengthen its control over the country's most widely watched television network, ORT. In September the weekly "Sergey Dorenko Show," a widely watched news analysis program, was taken off the air abruptly after Dorenko aired a program on September 2 highly critical of President Putin's handling of the Kursk submarine disaster. ORT General Director Konstantin Ernst, a Putin appointee, reportedly instructed Dorenko to produce "a program the Kremlin could be happy with." When Dorenko refused, the program was terminated on September 9. Other senior journalists at ORT, such as Tatyana Koshkaryeva and Rustam Narsikulov, were also dismissed. On December 5 a group of law enforcement agents wearing masks and bulletproof vests searched the offices of ORT, confiscating boxes of financial documents. ORT had allegedly failed to pay customs duties on imported films that it broadcast between 1996 and 1998. The Prosecutor General stated that "there was no need to apply force" during the search and demanded the resignation of the investigator who led the raid.

Freedom of the press came under the greatest challenge in the country's farthest regions. On April 14 local authorities in the city of Saratov made changes to a front-page article in the local issue of the Moscow-based daily, Izvestiya, which leveled criticism against Saratov Governor Dmitriy Ayatskov. Phrases containing "unfriendly" content were edited out prior to the publication. Mikhail Kozhokin, Izvestiya's editor in chief, described this censoring action as an example of "the new phenomenon of oblast-level censorship." On April 19 St. Petersburg police confiscated the entire issue of the local newspaper, Moya Stolitsa, saying that the newspaper "lacked proper registration documentation." However, according to editor in chief Aleksey Razoryonov, the real issue was the newspaper's political leanings, not the registration documentation. The newspaper frequently carried articles critical of St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev. According to the GDP, on April 26 police once again confiscated issues of Moya Stolitsa from street vendors. However, the newspaper continued to publish. On May 1, police in Kamensk-Uralskiy, Sverdlovskiy Region, ordered Artyem Schadrin, a cameraman of the local television company Gong-TV, to erase a videotape showing participants at a May Day rally beating up his colleague, Gong-TV correspondent Konstantin Litvinenko. The police also warned Denis Poteryayev, a photographer of the local newspaper Novyy Kompas, not to publish the pictures he took during the rally. Later that day, several police officers visited the newspaper and ordered Poteryayev to expose the film containing the photographs in their presence. The journalist complied. On May 5, local authorities in Rostov-on-Don ordered the destruction of an entire issue of the local newspaper Perekrestok Kentavra. The newspaper contained an editorial about the upcoming inauguration of President Putin and a collage depicting Putin as a Nazi officer. The publication of "fascist symbolism," including Nazi imagery, is prohibited by law.

On July 26, local authorities arrested Irina Grebneva, the editor of Vladivostok newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti, on charges of "petty hooliganism." Grebneva published uncensored, profanity-ridden transcripts of phone conversations of top regional officials, including Primorye Governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko. Grebneva was convicted of the charges on which she was arrested and sentenced to 5 days in jail. When she was denied the right to appeal the decision, she launched a hunger strike to protest the sentence. Arsenyevskiye Vesti is one of the few local newspapers which regularly criticized Governor Nazdratenko and his allies. The governor and local authorities have sued the paper for libel 22 times since Nazdratenko was elected in 1995. All of the cases are pending.

Journalists who publish critical information about local governments and influential businesses, as well as investigative journalists writing about crime and other sensitive issues, continued to be subjected to threats of physical violence, beatings, and murder. A number of independent media NGO's have characterized beatings of journalists as "routine," noting that those who pursued investigative stories on corruption and organized crime found themselves at greatest risk.

The press and media NGO's reported a number of killings of journalists, presumed to be related to the journalistic work of the victims, and dozens of other bodily assaults on journalists. As in 1999, police seldom identified the perpetrators of crimes against journalists. On July 16, Igor Domnikov, a Moscow journalist from Novaya Gazeta died in the hospital after a brutal beating in April. According to Dmitriy Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, the killing was directly linked to his professional activities. Press reports after the incident speculated that Domnikov was mistaken for his colleague Oleg Sultanov, an investigative reporter who has written extensively on alleged corruption in LUKOIL and the FSB. On July 18, Andrey Barys, a reporter from Uralskiy Rabochiy, was attacked by three unidentified assailants in the city of Kachkanar (Sverdlovsk oblast), where he had traveled to do a story on a criminal group headed by Valeriy Volkov. Shortly after his arrival in Kachkanar, Barys discovered that he was being followed by a group of men. Later, the men attacked Barys, telling him, "Don't poke your nose into Volkov's affairs!" After the beating, the men advised Barys to leave the city. The next day, Barys attempted to contact the local police, but the police chief refused to hear his complaint. On July 21, a correspondent of the local Yekaterinburg TV company ASV Prestige, Sergey Melnikov, was badly beaten; Melnikov and his colleagues contend that the attack was the result of his reporting on the city's illegal drug trade. The journalist had to be hospitalized with serious head injuries. No arrests were made.

On July 26 Sergey Novikov, president of Smolensk's only independent radio station, Vesna, was killed in his apartment building. Since 1999 the radio station had repeatedly denounced corruption within the ranks of the regional administration, the courts, and the police. A month before his death, Novikov wrote an open letter to Smolensk governor Aleksandr Prokhorov that included the names of officials suspected of corruption. The Ministry of the Interior classified the murder as a contract killing and has not ruled out a link to Novikov's work as a journalist. On August 23 journalists from local Pskov newspapers were denied access to a meeting of Governor Mikhaylov with the employees of the farm Krasnyy Luch. When a journalist from Pskov Lenta Novostey, Tatyana Mustaykina, tried to convince the guards to let her in, Yuriy Kusov, an officer of local administration, arrived, grabbed Mustaykina by the hair, and attempted to force her to the ground. When Kusov realized that the episode was being filmed by a cameraman, he tried unsuccessfully to confiscate the camera. In October, the Pskov Procuracy decided that Kusov could be charged on administrative charges. Kusov was summoned to but replied he was sick. On November 9, the GUVD Chief received Kusov's request to close the case due to expiration of statute of limitations and the case was closed.

On September 22, Iskander Khatloni, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist was murdered in Moscow. The police have opened an investigation but have not so far released any information.

On December 17, Oleg Lure, an investigative journalist for Novaya Gazeta was severely beaten by five assailants. The assailants did not take either his money or valuables. Lure believes the attack was related to his articles touching on the interests of such individuals as the presidential chief of staff, the State Duma deputy, and his most recent article on alleged kickbacks to Kremlin officials. Police are investigating the incident.

No progress was made in the investigation of the August 1998 beating death of Anatoliy Levin-Utkin, deputy editor of Yuridichesky Petersburg Segodnya.