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20261012 040000 UTC
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[00:00:23] Hello, my name is Mariana Tarachashnikova, and this is
[00:00:26] the program "Human Has the Right," which can be listened to and watched
[00:00:30] on Radio Free Europe and Current Time TV. Today's episode:
[00:00:34] выпуске.
[00:00:38] Exporting Fear: How Russian authorities persecute
[00:00:41] emigrants abroad. Sexualized violence
[00:00:45] has become part of the war in Ukraine. An overview
[00:00:48] of the new report by the UN monitoring
[00:00:51] group. If you attended OBZh, you won't get
[00:00:54] alternative civilian service. Conscription commissions have found a new reason to refuse
[00:00:58] alternative service.
[00:01:04] We will discuss this in more detail within the next hour, but first,
[00:01:08] let's see what else human rights activists, lawyers, and
[00:01:11] civil activists
[00:01:13] are discussing in Russia this week.
[00:01:18] The court sentenced a resident of Tyumen, Mikhail
[00:01:21] Antonovich, to eight years in a penal colony for financing
[00:01:25] terrorism. The accusations were based on paid reactions, specifically stars in Telegram, which
[00:01:28] Antonovich placed in... believes
[00:01:34] that these
[00:01:34] channels
[00:01:38] propagate terrorism and provide media support for terrorist
[00:01:42] organizations such as the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian
[00:01:45] Volunteer Corps. According to Mediazona, Antonovich placed stars
[00:01:49] in the channels totaling 292 rubles
[00:01:52] and 99 kopecks. The Memorial Human Rights Center
[00:01:56] recognized him as a political prisoner. Also for financing.
[00:02:30] help, in particular, he said that in the colony he is subjected
[00:02:33] to constant humiliation from the administration and cellmates,
[00:02:37] further quoting: the system of suppression of humiliation hits
[00:02:40] very hard, I'm afraid I won't endure, I'm still alive for one
[00:02:44] reason: the remainder of faith, that everything can still be, that
[00:02:48] something good will happen, I understand that this is in the realm of fantasy,
[00:02:51] probably my last chance not to fade out, hopes that
[00:02:55] the extradition of Russian political prisoners to
[00:02:58] EU countries will happen. Exchange. End of quote. Andrei Shabanov,
[00:03:01] a musician, a disabled person of the second group, suffering from severe
[00:03:04] diseases. For almost 2 years that he has been in a pre-trial detention center, he has not
[00:03:08] received medical care, and his diseases have worsened.
[00:03:12] On September 20, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
[00:03:16] Dmitry Muratov. On CNN called on US representatives
[00:03:19] in negotiations with Russian authorities to raise the issue
[00:03:22] of Russian political prisoners to facilitate the exchange
[00:03:26] of prisoners between Russia and Western countries. Among them he...
[00:03:30] Shabanov. In critical condition in the hospital
[00:03:33] of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Arkhangelsk
[00:03:37] region, is 58-year-old Crimean
[00:03:40] Tatar Lenur Khalilov, sentenced to 18 years for
[00:03:43] involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir party banned in Russia. According
[00:03:47] to the human rights project Aptus, they refuse
[00:03:50] to release him from custody, despite diagnosed liver cancer with
[00:03:54] metastases, chronic hepatitis C, hypertension, and
[00:03:57] other diseases. According to human rights activists, Khalilov
[00:04:01] can no longer move independently and is experiencing severe
[00:04:04] pain. He was detained in annexed Crimea in June
[00:04:07] 2019 along with three other Crimean
[00:04:10] Tatars. And in 2021,
[00:04:13] he was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for involvement in the Hizb
[00:04:17] ut-Tahrir party. In 2003, the Supreme Court
[00:04:20] of Russia included this party in the list of terrorist organizations, and after the annexation
[00:04:24] of Crimea in 2014, Russian authorities began
[00:04:27] to persecute alleged supporters.
[00:04:37] Poisonings, murders, kidnappings of relatives, in absentia
[00:04:41] sentences – a total of more than 400 documented
[00:04:45] cases of persecution are collected in a new UN report on how
[00:04:48] Russia reaches its critics outside
[00:04:52] the country. The document is titled "Nowhere
[00:04:54] is Safe: Exporting Fear Beyond Borders:
[00:04:58] Transnational Repression."
[00:05:50] Elena Pushkareva came to the Russian embassy in Canada for a routine
[00:05:54] consular service, but she was denied, with the explanation that she was
[00:05:57] a threat to security. She was considered a threat for participating in a Facebook
[00:06:01] group and in rallies for the release of Alexei Navalny,
[00:06:05] and this is just one, perhaps not the most prominent, of almost
[00:06:08] 400 stories collected in the UN report. Leaving
[00:06:11] Russia no longer means being safe; the system of pressure
[00:06:15] on dissidents, refined within the country, is now extending
[00:06:19] beyond its borders. At least nine departments are involved in this:
[00:06:23] the FSB, intelligence, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Foreign Ministry.
[00:06:27] Cases of persecution of Russians abroad have, on average, increased
[00:06:31] eightfold since the start of the full-scale war. In terms of attacks
[00:06:34] on its critics abroad, Russia is among the top three
[00:06:38] states, accounting for more than 70% of such attacks.
[00:06:53] In the report, stories are told about the murder of pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who defected to
[00:06:56] Ukraine and was killed in Spain in 2024. About signs
[00:07:00] of poisoning of journalists Elena Kostyuchenko in Munich and Irina
[00:07:03] Babalayan in Tbilisi, as well as human rights activist Natalya
[00:07:06] Arno. About the attack in Sweden on blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov,
[00:07:10] about how last year in... the plan to assassinate
[00:07:14] human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin was uncovered. More and more often, Russia
[00:07:17] acts through proxies, because its diplomats
[00:07:21] and intelligence officers have been expelled from many countries. Instead of them, recruited
[00:07:25] activists, criminal groups, businessmen, and people within
[00:07:28] diasporas work. In Britain, for example, a network of Bulgarian
[00:07:32] citizens working for Russian intelligence was uncovered, who
[00:07:35] spied on Bellingcat journalist Hristo Grozev
[00:07:38] and prepared an assassination attempt on him. Those whom they cannot reach physically
[00:07:42] are tried in absentia; in 2022, there were four such sentences,
[00:07:45] in 2025 already 157. They are tried
[00:07:49] for anti-war posts, journalism, opposition work. Producer
[00:07:53] Alexander Rodnyansky received 8.5 years for
[00:07:56] publications about deceased civilians in Ukraine, Navalny's associate
[00:07:59] Nina Volokhonskaya 5.5 years, and activist
[00:08:03] Alexandra Pugach was sentenced for speaking at a rally in Georgia.
[00:08:07] After the sentence, a person risks being detained in any country
[00:08:11] that cooperates with Moscow. Since August
[00:08:13] 2026, a law has been in effect in Russia that seriously restricts the rights
[00:08:17] of exiled government critics.
[00:08:20] They can first be convicted in absentia under articles ranging from discrediting
[00:08:24] the army to financing terrorism, and then their
[00:08:27] accounts and property will be frozen, passports denied, and access to
[00:08:31] public services cut off. Obligations of a citizen, however, remain. And
[00:08:35] the UN calls this civil death. Through the common CIS
[00:08:38] wanted system, Russia achieves arrests and extradition.
[00:08:42] The political motivation in such cases is not checked by anyone; critics of the authorities
[00:08:46] are sent back to Russia directly into the hands of the investigation. Thus, anti-war
[00:08:50] activist Alexei Rashkov was handed over to Russia from Kyrgyzstan; he
[00:08:53] says he was tortured. Last year, in a case concerning anti-war
[00:08:57] statements about the arson of a military enlistment office, he was sentenced to
[00:09:00] 16 years. Georgy Pirogov disappeared in Uzbekistan and
[00:09:04] ended up in a Moscow pre-trial detention center, and then received 23 years for
[00:09:07] treason. Deserter Semyon Bozhukov was tortured by Russian security forces
[00:09:11] directly on the territory of Kazakhstan. In a similar way,
[00:09:14] Russia uses Interpol, reporting on the search for terrorists and
[00:09:18] extremists. Approximately half of the Russian requests that
[00:09:21] Interpol considered in 2024, it
[00:09:25] recognized as contradicting its own charter.
[00:09:28] Political emigrants from Russia abroad have their accounts closed, because
[00:09:31] the Russian list of terrorists and extremists, which includes
[00:09:35] more than 21,000 people, automatically gets into databases
[00:09:39] that banks use to check clients, and the European bank
[00:09:42] simply repeats the decisions of Russian security forces. Russian authorities, meanwhile,
[00:09:46] track emigrants, hack their email,
[00:09:49] phones, and send journalists messages with their home
[00:09:52] addresses and routes. Their relatives remaining in Russia
[00:09:56] are threatened with criminal cases and mobilization. In
[00:09:59] Chechnya, relatives of those who have left are kidnapped
[00:10:02] and tortured.
[00:10:07] This is the "Human Has the Right" program. My name is Mariana Torocheshnikova. On the
[00:10:11] line with us.
[00:10:25] about the fact that the repressive practices of the Russian authorities
[00:10:29] have already crossed the borders of Russia, and
[00:10:32] now it has become a system, what is called in your
[00:10:35] report transnational
[00:10:39] repression of those people who criticize the actions
[00:10:42] of the Russian authorities, not only Vladimir Putin,
[00:10:45] by the way. Please tell us,
[00:10:49] from your point of view, how does this system work, why
[00:10:52] did you see it as a systemic one?
[00:11:55] that it is the rule of fear, not the rule of
[00:11:58] law, and this rule of
[00:12:01] fear has already crossed borders.
[00:12:05] You know, on August 4th,
[00:12:08] another law was adopted and
[00:12:11] signed by the President of Russia, and it was precisely
[00:12:14] aimed at those Russians who are abroad,
[00:12:18] who are already convicted under
[00:12:21] administrative or criminal cases, but who are located...
[00:13:25] State Duma Speaker, Mr. Volodin,
[00:13:28] called these people "traitors
[00:13:31] to the homeland," and these traitors to the homeland must be
[00:13:33] punished. It's not enough that he used absolutely
[00:13:37] the lexicon of Soviet repressions and even Stalinist
[00:13:40] repressions, yes, but all these Russians, and
[00:13:44] by different counts, almost 1 million, who
[00:13:48] left for various reasons, especially since
[00:13:50] the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
[00:13:54] A huge number of them were
[00:13:58] and continue to be every day persecuted,
[00:14:02] convicted in absentia
[00:14:04] precisely under these new articles
[00:14:07] of legislation for discrediting the army, for fakes about
[00:14:11] the army. The Russian government has developed
[00:14:14] a new strategy, where more and more Russians
[00:14:17] fall under transnational repressions, not only with this
[00:14:21] law of August 4th on civil death.
[00:14:55] in Russia, and this bureau reports to
[00:14:58] the entire Interpol system that specific people who
[00:15:02] are wanted for terrorism and extremism
[00:15:05] must be arrested and returned to Russia.
[00:15:09] Of course, it's fascinating that Interpol
[00:15:12] itself
[00:15:15] still allows such red
[00:15:19] flags, that there is a system
[00:15:21] of checking which of these cases...
[00:15:37] internal Interpol review
[00:15:41] found that approximately half of the cases
[00:15:45] related to the Russian Federation and
[00:15:48] reviewed by the Interpol oversight body in
[00:15:51] 2024 were deemed inconsistent
[00:15:54] with the organization's charter. This means that
[00:15:58] the Interpol oversight body itself proved
[00:16:02] that Interpol itself, in half of the cases, allowed
[00:16:05] these notices. This means that these people were on a very serious
[00:16:08] Interpol wanted list. In my report, I also give
[00:16:12] recommendations to Interpol. In addition
[00:16:15] to this, there is a unified system
[00:16:18] for CIS countries, CIS members,
[00:16:21] this is a wanted list
[00:16:23] that includes names from different countries.
[00:16:27] This list for this wanted list is not
[00:16:29] checked at all, so there isn't even a system,
[00:16:33] which, thankfully, exists. it follows, first, by
[00:17:07] passport, very often, because they are citizens of Russia, and against
[00:17:10] Russia, sanctions have been imposed. Secondly, they can be persecuted because
[00:17:14] they are on the Interpol wanted list or the CIS wanted list.
[00:17:18] They have problems related
[00:17:22] to the possibility of opening accounts, movement, and so on.
[00:17:25] This understanding of this, in your
[00:17:28] opinion, does it exist somewhere
[00:17:31] in the high international offices?
[00:17:34] Are they going to take any action on this?
[00:18:08] started the process of adopting and establishing
[00:18:11] an international UN convention, a human rights
[00:18:14] convention, which will
[00:18:17] consider, on the one hand, there will be a unified
[00:18:21] definition of what transnational repression is, who
[00:18:25] are the victims of these repressions.
[00:18:27] Then it will be spelled out what obligations these
[00:18:31] countries have, because no one is insured, today you
[00:18:34] may not have victims of transnational repression.
[00:18:37] but tomorrow they will be, or maybe they are, and you don't even know, you
[00:18:41] harass them, as you said, as - as
[00:18:45] falling under sanctions, and so on,
[00:18:48] therefore here - I am in Geneva
[00:18:52] - and this week - next week I
[00:18:56] initiated discussions with different countries,
[00:19:00] different groups, not only
[00:19:02] the European Union, but also other regional groups - with
[00:19:06] African countries.
[00:20:44] Conscripts in Russia began to be denied alternative civilian
[00:20:47] service due to lessons on the basics of life safety
[00:20:51] and the basics of security and homeland defense. According
[00:20:55] to the logic of the judges, if a former school student studied the topic of conscription into
[00:20:58] military service, it means he has no
[00:21:01] convictions against serving in the army. This was reported by the head
[00:21:05] of the legal department of the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, Artyom
[00:21:08] Klyga, citing court decisions in various regions of Russia. So
[00:21:11] legally avoiding conscription into the Russian army is becoming increasingly
[00:21:15] difficult, and the practice of forcing conscripts
[00:21:18] into contract service is not slowing
[00:21:22] down.
[00:21:26] Say, let her do it, this is
[00:21:28] there.
[00:21:31] This is an OBZh lesson in one of the Russian schools, children are taught to assemble and disassemble
[00:21:35] a Kalashnikov assault rifle, there are even competitions to see who can assemble the weapon
[00:21:39] faster. Now these lessons have become a reason to
[00:21:43] deny young men of conscription age alternative
[00:21:46] civilian service, the courts write like this: excellent grades in the basics.
[00:22:01] Conscripts in Khabarovsk, Perm, Arkhangelsk,
[00:22:05] Belgorod, Novgorod, Krasnodar, and Altai
[00:22:08] regions received similar refusals, according to the head of
[00:22:11] the legal department of the Movement
[00:22:12] of Conscientious Objectors, Artyom
[00:22:15] And once in the army, conscripts often face
[00:22:18] pressure from commanders.
[00:22:38] He and other soldiers were forced to sign contracts under threat. They were subjected to intense
[00:22:42] psychological pressure. According to the boys, either you sign the contract or
[00:22:45] you leave. years,
[00:22:48] and from there you still go to the SVO, only immediately to assault troops,
[00:22:52] have pity on mothers, my younger brother is 19 years old,
[00:22:55] he was called up for срочная service, at the assembly point he was offered to sign
[00:22:59] a document, explaining that it was not a contract, it was just a report that
[00:23:03] allegedly would help him to undergo срочная service on Sakhalin, near his
[00:23:07] home, while they said something like the following: you have parents,
[00:23:10] pensioners, it's better for you to stay near your family, this is not a contract, this is a guarantee
[00:23:13] to stay on Sakhalin, just after a year of срочная service, you will need to work for another
[00:23:16] year. salary, you'll want to go home,
[00:23:20] blah blah blah. In general, believing these words, he signed.
[00:23:23] At the same time, he signed only one sheet in a single copy.
[00:23:27] But the very next day he realized that, probably, it could have been
[00:23:30] about a contract. Document manipulation is a frequent
[00:23:34] practice, so 28-year-old conscript Emil Zhenizhbekov from
[00:23:37] Krasnoyarsk has been suing the Ministry of Defense for more than a year over
[00:23:41] a fake contract. Zhenish Bekov signed the document, thinking it was
[00:23:44] an application to transfer to the position of driver. His срочная service
[00:23:48] ended back in April, but Zhenizhbekov is not being
[00:23:51] allowed home. On September 10, he reported that he is in a military unit
[00:23:54] in the city of Yurga, Kemerovo region, from where they promise to send him
[00:23:58] via Rostov to the war in Ukraine immediately on a combat
[00:24:01] mission, as a malicious violator of discipline.
[00:24:05] The shell
[00:24:07] was thrown, they took me to the cell for 2 days,
[00:24:11] summoned me to the headquarters, offered to write a resignation report,
[00:24:14] saying that it was the only way out in a situation where the law doesn't
[00:24:18] work. On April 2, I wrote a report,
[00:24:21] on May 12, they held an attestation commission,
[00:24:24] promised to let me go within a month and a half. Three
[00:24:28] months passed, I received a reply from Lieutenant
[00:24:31] Permikov that the documents for my dismissal were refused
[00:24:35] to be signed by Major General of the Central Military District,
[00:24:38] Kudryashkin Alexey Viktorovich, allegedly
[00:24:41] saying that serving and fighting under a fake contract
[00:24:45] should be an honor for me. I demand
[00:24:48] to be released, my service term has expired.
[00:24:51] Probably, in part due to such stories, the number of requests for
[00:24:54] alternative civilian service is growing. Conscripts who
[00:24:58] share on social media how they managed to get ACS
[00:25:01] are followed by thousands of people. I'm that guy
[00:25:04] who is doing alternative civilian service in the city of Smolensk. And
[00:25:08] the most amazing thing is how I even got here. In the last day, an incredible
[00:25:11] number of people subscribed to me, 4,000 people,
[00:25:15] for me, this is just a cosmic number. And a lot of questions
[00:25:19] poured in. How did I get to ACS, how do I submit an application for the military enlistment office to accept
[00:25:23] it, and so on. Well, I've been home for literally
[00:25:26] the last week and I'm moving. I found
[00:25:30] out about this city myself just a month ago. This
[00:25:34] is the city of Balakovo, Saratov region. And I will be working
[00:25:37] in a retirement home, an internat for the elderly and disabled
[00:25:40] as an orderly. This is for the next year
[00:25:43] and 9 months. I'm ready for this, I'm coming, I'm coming to you, so
[00:25:47] welcome guests.
[00:25:53] This is the "Human Has the Right" program. My name is Mariana Torocheshnikova. About
[00:25:57] being forced to participate in the war, about how it happened that
[00:26:00] studying the basics of safety in school.
[00:26:40] parents or students that they have the right, for example, to replace this
[00:26:44] part with a theoretical one, because of conscientious objections, for example, or
[00:26:48] for health reasons, because they cannot march
[00:26:51] or, I don't know, run in a chemical protection suit at these military
[00:26:54] trainings, or there take a machine gun, even if it's
[00:26:57] a dummy, disassemble it, assemble it, and so on. This is not discussed, many students ultimately
[00:27:01] end up... those who don't like it, parents who also don't
[00:27:05] like it, they study, get some grades, well, fives,
[00:27:09] most often, because it's still an easy subject, and then this
[00:27:12] becomes an obstacle, that is, people apply for alternative service,
[00:27:15] it's logical that their convictions can be revealed, the law doesn't really
[00:27:18] require any specific event to happen in life,
[00:27:22] it's enough that convictions change throughout life, and yes, you could have gone
[00:27:26] to OBZh, but after 2-3 years, you applied for ACS,
[00:27:29] described what convictions you have, but now the draft
[00:27:33] commissions started saying that since you went to OBZh, got fives there,
[00:27:36] assembled and disassembled a Kalashnikov dummy, did something else
[00:27:40] there, then that's it, you have no convictions, that is, everything is evaluated
[00:27:44] from the perspective of how a person should literally be born with their convictions,
[00:27:47] not make any mistakes, although the state leads them to them, given the militarization in
[00:27:51] schools, if he didn't make any mistakes, then he's ideal, and if
[00:27:55] he went to OBZh, the scoundrel, then no
[00:27:58] alternative service for him... we won't change anything,
[00:28:01] let him serve with everyone on equal terms, so yes, this
[00:28:05] is a new practice, across different regions, it is developing roughly
[00:28:08] the same way, that is, it's also, you know, not to refer to
[00:28:11] some anomaly, like it's like that in Moscow, or it's like that in Kuban,
[00:28:15] or it's like that in Chechnya, it's an all-Russian, in essence,
[00:28:18] practice, which is recognized by absolutely different, completely unrelated to each other
[00:28:22] courts. Tell me, what then can a school student
[00:28:25] and their parents do, if, as you say, many didn't even
[00:28:29] know and don't know that
[00:28:32] one can refuse this subject, and how to
[00:28:35] refuse OBZh and not become a truant?
[00:28:39] You can refuse, you just need to know, first, your
[00:28:42] right to refuse, it exists, nothing is done for it,
[00:28:45] parents are not fined, no one is
[00:28:49] imprisoned, it's enough to ask, well, that is, you can't just
[00:28:52] refuse the subject, but you can ask to replace this initial military
[00:28:56] training with theoretical classes, precisely by referring to
[00:28:59] conscientious objections, that well, you have there disassembly. assembly
[00:29:02] of a machine gun, you have a laser shooting range, you have drones,
[00:29:06] uh, for my child, due to his convictions,
[00:29:09] this is not suitable at all, replace it with theoretical classes
[00:29:13] there from a textbook, so that without practice, so that - this conflict
[00:29:17] of conscience does not arise, and we have the right to freedom
[00:29:20] of conscience, but it is still theoretically protected by the constitution, parents
[00:29:24] persist, stand their ground, and schools, as it were, change in
[00:29:27] this part - the individual learning plan,
[00:29:31] replace all this with... theory, this is extremely important, and confirmation that,
[00:29:35] for example, the block on initial military training was replaced with
[00:29:38] theoretical classes, is extremely important, to get confirmation from the school directly on paper,
[00:29:42] or there, if the paper, there the school doesn't issue anything, then at least
[00:29:46] save the application that was submitted, so that later
[00:29:49] it can be used, among other things, to apply for ACS,
[00:29:52] so that there is no argument that the person attended
[00:29:56] OBZh classes and did not declare any of their convictions. And how
[00:30:00] is the situation in Russia generally at the present time? It was with
[00:30:03] the replacement of military service with alternative
[00:30:06] civilian service, if conscription events are now ongoing
[00:30:10] all year round, and if previously there were certain deadlines
[00:30:14] to submit an application for civilian service,
[00:30:17] now that's gone. What's happening now in general, and
[00:30:21] how many people actually achieve the replacement of military
[00:30:25] service with alternative civilian service? From the point of view
[00:30:28] of year-round conscription, it didn't significantly affect the right
[00:30:32] to alternative service itself; there are quite a lot of problems associated with it precisely because of
[00:30:36] the subjective perception by conscription commissions, and indeed, of the entire
[00:30:39] reality. There are no concrete criteria; the conscription commission
[00:30:42] subjectively evaluates all the conscript's arguments, so
[00:30:46] subjectively, again, because of the war, because of militarism, because
[00:30:49] of this whole military approach in everything, uh,
[00:30:53] this subjective approach has shifted in a negative direction. We now have, according to
[00:30:57] official data, well, if you look at them that way,