2010 Manezhnaya Square riot trials

Last updated

The 2010 Manezhnaya Square riot trials resulted in verdicts against Igor Berezyuk, Kirill Unchuk and Ruslan Khubaev for violent clashes in Moscow. [1] Each was a member of The Other Russia party, and found guilty on charges such as inciting hatred and organizing the December 11, 2010 Manezhnaya Square riots. Berezyuk was also charged with assaulting a police officer. [2] Human rights groups have argued that the three are political prisoners, and that their imprisonment is chiefly the result of their involvement in the unregistered Russian opposition party, Other Russia. [3] [4]

Contents

Events at Manezhnaya Square

Manezhnaya Square, Moscow Mosdumanew.jpg
Manezhnaya Square, Moscow

The charges against the group relate to an incident on December 11, 2010, when football fans and local minorities clashed in a violent conflict that injured 32 people. Both groups, over 5,000-50,000 people, arrived at Manezhnaya square a week after football fan Yegor Sviridov was killed. [5] That case inflamed nationalist sentiment after the party involved in his murder were identified as five Dagestanis, and that the Russian authorities had released four from custody. [6] The Manezhnaya Square riots rose in the wake of that case, as protests from nationalist groups and counter-protesters clashed. [6] Shortly thereafter, Russian authorities raided the offices of Other Russia, which human rights organizations have flagged as a biased measure, claiming it selectively prosecuted the leftist party while ignoring the responsibility of right-wing nationalist organizations. [7]

Arrests and trials

Igor Berezyuk

Berezyuk, a citizen of Belarus and a member of the Other Russia party, was arrested in a series of raids on that party's office and party member's apartments in January 2011, the night before a planned opposition rally in Triumph Square, Moscow. [8] 11 other party members were detained and released. The Russian state had called for restrictions on public demonstrations following the outbreak of violent clashes between nationalists and minority groups. [8] He was sentenced to eight years in a prison camp. [3] This was reduced by three months after an appeal in 2012. [9]

At the trial, Berezyuk was identified by a witness as having struck an officer during the riot, a charge to which Berezyuk plead partially guilty. [10] However, no witness was on hand to verify that Berezyuk was an organizer of the riot. [11]

During the raids on Other Russia party headquarters in which Berezyuk was apprehended, police also seized "computer cases, notebooks, a printer, speech amplifying devices and telephones," and "leaflets and posters carrying Other Russia and Strategy 31 emblems and posters with the emblem of the banned National Bolshevik Party". [12]

Ruslan Khubaev

Khubaev was sentenced to four and a half years in a prison camp. [3] This sentence was reduced by two months after an appeal in 2012 [9] and he was released from prison on January 23, 2015. [7] Human rights groups noted that during the trial, no witness was able to identify him as a participant or organizer of the riots. [11]

Khubaev had been arrested previously for organizing protests against military conscription. In that trial, his arrest was combined with drug charges, and sentenced to 4.5 years. However, that case was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. He was released in 2010, and returned to political activity as an organizer of the Murmansk chapter of "The Other Russia." [7]

Kirill Unchuk

Kirill Unchuk was a known political activist, and had previously received a suspended prison sentence in 2008 for occupying a Foreign Ministry building. [13]

Unchuk was sentenced to three years in a prison camp [3] and was released on March 21, 2014. [7] As with the rest of the Other Russia defendants, no witness was able to identify him as a participant or organizer of the riots. [11]

Leonid Panin and Alexander Kozevin

Panin and Kozevin were arrested on similar charges and tried simultaneously. The two were not members of Other Russia. [2] Unlike the others, the two apologized in court, [14] and did not seek appeals to higher courts on the grounds of being denied a fair trial. [15]

International response

The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners [4] and the Memorial Human Rights Center of Russia (Memo) [3] have declared the Other Russia arrests politically motivated and declared the three to be political prisoners.

Memo asserts the trio are political prisoners owing to the selective nature of their prosecution. The group notes that while Other Russia is a left-leaning, anti-nationalist group, Russian nationalist protesters were present at the same rally. Memo asserts that the absence of arrests from nationalist groups from the same rally shows an inconsistency in applying charges, tantamount to selective persecution. [7]

The trio appealed its case to the European Court of Human Rights in 2012. The court accepted the case that same year. The most recent reports on that review show the case is still being evaluated. [16]

Russian officials have stated that there is no state process for convicting a person for a political crime. [17] [18] The Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights organization in Russia, argue that while there are no laws against political crimes, there have been cases of politically motivated charges. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikhail Khodorkovsky</span> Russian businessman and former oligarch (born 1963)

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman, oligarch, and opposition activist, now residing in London. In 2003, Khodorkovsky was believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15 billion, and was ranked 16th on Forbes list of billionaires. He had worked his way up the Komsomol apparatus, during the Soviet years, and started several businesses during the period of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in the mid-1990s, he accumulated considerable wealth by obtaining control of a number of Siberian oil fields unified under the name Yukos, one of the major companies to emerge from the privatization of state assets during the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larisa Bogoraz</span> Soviet dissident

Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz was a dissident in the Soviet Union.

Racism in Russia mainly appears in the form of negative attitudes towards non-ethnic Russian citizens, immigrants or tourists and negative actions against them by some Russians. Traditionally, Russian racism includes antisemitism and Tatarophobia, as well as hostility towards the various peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Asia and Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manezhnaya Square, Moscow</span> Square in Moscow, Russia

Manezhnaya is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District, at the heart of Moscow. It is bound by the Hotel Moskva to the east, the State Historical Museum and the Alexander Garden to the south, the Moscow Manege to the west, and the 18th-century headquarters of the Moscow State University to the north.

Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin is a Russian radical political activist, and editor of "Radical politics" periodical. He was convicted three times for hate speech, incriminating him advocating a dismemberment of the Russian Federation and inciting ethnic and religious hatred, and justification of terrorism. The convictions have been questioned by human rights organizations ARTICLE 19, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.

Freedom of assembly in Russia is granted by Article 31 of the Constitution adopted in 1993, where it states that citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to gather peacefully, without weapons, and to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets. In practice, the right to freedom of assembly is restricted by Russian authorities. According to a Russian law introduced in 2014, a fine or detention of up to 15 days may be given for holding a demonstration without the permission of authorities and prison sentences of up to five years may be given for three breaches. Single-person pickets have resulted in fines and a three-year prison sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexei Navalny</span> Russian opposition leader (1976–2024)

Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner. He organised anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia and against President Vladimir Putin and his government. Navalny was founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Egor Sviridov</span> 2010 murder in Moscow, Russia

The murder of Egor Sviridov refers to an FC Spartak Moscow fan's death in a clash between two groups of youth, one of which was composed of recent migrants from Russia's North Caucasus republics. The affair took place on 6 December 2010 at Kronstadt boulevard in the north of Moscow. Sviridov's death provoked a number of high-profile rallies and rioting in the capital as well as in Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and other cities across Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov</span> Unregistered National Bolshevik political party in Russia

The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov, formerly The Other Russia, is an unregistered National Bolshevik political party in Russia, founded on 10 July 2010 by Eduard Limonov. The Other Russia was reorganized in September 2020 and changed its name to "The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov", in honor of their deceased founder who had died the same year. As a Russian political party adopting syncretic politics, it has been variously called far-left and far-right by the likes of Malaysia's The Sun, France's Le Point, and BFM TV, Belgian's RTBF, and Eurasia Daily Monitor and the Czech Republic's Expactz.cz, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011–2013 Russian protests</span> Protests in Russia against Vladimir Putin between December 2011 and July 2013

The 2011–2013 Russian protests, which some English language media referred to as the Snow Revolution, began in 2011 and continued into 2012 and 2013. The protests were motivated by claims of Russian and foreign journalists, political activists and members of the public that the election process was fraudulent. The Central Election Commission of Russia stated 11.5% of official reports of fraud could be confirmed as true.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pussy Riot</span> Russian punk-rock collective based in Moscow

Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by 22 year old Nadya Tolokonnikova, it has had a membership of approximately 11 women. The group staged unauthorized, provocative guerrilla gigs in public places. These performances were filmed as music videos and posted on the internet. The group's lyrical themes included feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, and Putin's links to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Bolotnaya Square case is a criminal case by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on account of alleged mass riots and alleged violence against the police during the "March of the Millions" on May 6, 2012 on the Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. The demonstration was one of the biggest protests in Russia since the 1990s. By the number of accused, 37 persons, it is currently the largest criminal case against participants of public demonstrations in modern Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oleh Sentsov</span> Ukrainian filmmaker and activist (born 1976)

Oleh Hennadiiovych Sentsov is a Ukrainian filmmaker, writer and activist from Crimea. Sentsov has directed the feature films Gamer (2011), Numbers, and Rhino (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexey Gaskarov</span> Russian social activist and economist

Alexey Vladimirovich Gaskarov is a Russian social activist and economist who has been a major figure in the democratic, left-wing opposition to the regime of Vladimir Putin. He was a leader of the Russian antifascist movement, and a member of the Coordinating Council of the anti-Putin opposition. He became famous as a prominent critic of the government's destruction of woodland.

Vladislav Yurevitch Ryazantsev is a Russian politician, former member of the National Assembly of the Russian Federation and a journalist.

Evgeny Vasilyevich Afanasyev (1952-2014) and Svyatoslav Bobyshev (b.1953) were professors at the Baltic State Technical University. In 2012, after two years of detention, the two were convicted of treason tied to alleged sale of Russian missile information to a Chinese spy. Russian Federation Courts sentenced Afanasyev to 12+1⁄2 years in a prison camp, and Bobyshev to 12. Afanasyev died in prison. Russia's Memorial Human Rights Center identified the scientists as political prisoners, and determined that their detention was a violation of international human rights agreements.

Zarema Bagavutdinova was a member of a Dagestan regional human rights group, "Pravozashchita" or "Human Rights Defense." She was imprisoned in July 2013 on charges of recruiting on behalf of an armed Islamic insurgency in the region of Dagestan. She was sentenced to five years of incarceration.

Yaroslav Gennadievich Belousov is a Russian political-science student who was a participant in the May 6, 2012, Bolotnaya Square protest against President Vladimir Putin and who has been imprisoned since June 9, 2012, as a result of his participation in the protest.

In 1965 a human rights movement emerged in the USSR. Those actively involved did not share a single set of beliefs. Many wanted a variety of civil rights — freedom of expression, of religious belief, of national self-determination. To some it was crucial to provide a truthful record of what was happening in the country, not the heavily censored version provided in official media outlets. Others still were "reform Communists" who thought it possible to change the Soviet system for the better.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyub Titiev</span> Russian human rights activist (born 1957)

Oyub Salmanovich Titiev is a Russian human rights activist and the head of Memorial's Grozny, Chechnya office. In 2018 he was arrested on politically motivated charges, sparking an international campaign by human rights groups calling for his release. On October 8, 2018, Titiev was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which honours "outstanding" defence of human rights in Europe and beyond.

References

  1. ↑ de Carbonnel, Alissa (31 January 2011). "Russian police arrest dozens at anti-govt rallies". Reuters. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Manezh Square Riot Suspects Appear in Court". The Moscow Times. Moscow Times. 12 August 2011. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "The List of Persons Recognized as Political Prisoners by Russia's Memorial Human Rights Center". 22 January 2014. Archived from the original on 21 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Moscow extends arrest of "The Other Russia" activist accused of Manege Square disorders". Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot. 25 April 2011. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "Seven persons out of the list of political prisoners did not get into "Medvedev's list"". Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot. Archived from the original on 1 June 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Jury Rules Death That Started Race Riots Was Murder | News". The Moscow Times. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Манежное дело (Manege Case)". Memo.ru (in Russian). Memorial Human Rights Center of Russia. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Police make raids, arrests before Moscow rally". Kyiv Post. Reuters. 31 January 2011. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Moscow City Court reduces sentences for riots in Manege Square". Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  10. ↑ Buslavskaya, Julia. "Three defendants on case of riots at Manege Square in Moscow plead partially guilty". Caucasian Knot. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  11. 1 2 3 Buslavskaya, Julia (29 September 2011). "Witness fails to identify defendant at trial on Manege Square riots". Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "Other Russia activist detained in connection with Manezh events - Investigative Committee". Interfax. Interfax. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2016. – via  EBSCO 's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  13. ↑ "The Other Russia reports detention of its activists". Interfax. Interfax. 24 March 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2016. – via  EBSCO 's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  14. ↑ Buslavskaya, Julia. "Trial on riots in Manege Square starts questioning the defendants". Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "Convict appeals 2010 football riots sentence". Russian Legal Information Agency. RAPSI. 9 January 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  16. ↑ "ECHR requests additional materials in Moscow riots case". rapsinews.com. Russian Legal Information Agency. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  17. ↑ "There are no political prisoners in Russia - Moscow City Court chair". Interfax. Russia & FSU General News. 5 March 2014. p. 1. Retrieved 13 February 2016. – via  EBSCO 's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  18. ↑ "Putin denies existence of political prisoners in Russia". Russia & FSU General News. Interfax. 31 August 2012. p. 1. Retrieved 13 February 2016. – via  EBSCO 's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  19. ↑ "Russia has political prisoners - Moscow Helsinki Group chairman". Interfax: Russia & CIS Military Newswire. Interfax. 3 September 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2016. – via  EBSCO 's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.