AI: Russia’s onslaught on protest

A right, not a crime: Violations of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia analyses legislative and policy changes introduced since President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a third term two years ago. It comes as the Russian parliament is adopting legislation that will criminalize organisations that repeatedly breach highly restrictive regulations on public assemblies.

“The uncompromising reaction to the spate of demonstrations in Moscow in February and March this year has shown just how difficult and dangerous it has become to organise and participate in protests. The right to freedom of assembly has long been limited in Russia, but it is now in danger of being lost altogether,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.

The stringently applied draconian legislation means that:

All public gatherings must be authorized in advance, unless held in remote designated areas. Failure to comply leads to heavy fines for organizers and participants. Those accused of resisting police face up to 15 days of detention;
Assemblies organised by those with critical, dissenting or minority views are almost always denied approval in requested locations;
Only single-person pickets are allowed to take place without authorisation and even these have been targeted arbitrarily in recent months;
Spontaneous assemblies are automatically considered to be unlawful and are routinely dispersed. Peaceful participants risk arbitrary arrest and the likelihood of being fined or briefly detained.

After a lull in protest activity following the crushing of the Bolotnaya Square protest in May 2012, Amnesty International documented 10 protest events in February and March this year in Moscow; of these, at least seven were dispersed by police who detained over a thousand peaceful protesters. Hundreds were heavily fined and over dozen a sentenced to several days of detention in unfair trials. ... On several occasions, counter-demonstrators have been allowed to intimidate and even physically attack protesters prior to their dispersal. Likewise law enforcement officials have enjoyed near-total impunity for the frequent use of abusive force.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/russia-s-onslaught-protest-2014-06-03