RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – March 24, 2010
TODAY: Human rights activists call for European protection, blame corruption as a setback to Russia’s development; death penalty to stay; Putin meets Chinese premier; Luzhkov’s deputy investigated for corruption; police officers disappear after being publicly named in wrongful arrests case. Alcohol lowering life expectancy.
Veteran human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva is calling for European help in gaining visas and political asylum for Russia’s human rights workers whose lives, she says, are at risk. ‘Our people are being killed and injured and none of us knows who will be next.‘ What will Russia’s recent ratification of Protocol 14 do for the European Court of Human Rights? Dmitry Medvedev’s presidential human rights council count corruption as one of the major setbacks to the development of Russian civil society. Victory Day will not be accompanied by posters of Stalin, according to a presidential committee. ‘Such things weren’t even made in Soviet times.‘ Meanwhile, the death penalty isn’t going anywhere as long as Russia is threatened by terrorism, according to Boris Gryzlov.