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Human rights activists pay tribute to murdered lawyer and journalist
Published: 19 January, 2010, 11:11
Edited: 21 January, 2010, 15:36
Portraits of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova (AFP Photo / Alexey Sazonov)
(2.1Mb) embed videoTAGS: Anniversary, Crime, Russia, Human rights, Mass media
Tuesday marks one year since the murder of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in Moscow.
Hundreds attended memorial services in the Russian capital. Two rallies have been held to honor the memory of murdered Markelov and Baburova. People brought flowers to the building on Moscow’s central street of Prechistenka where they were killed in 2009. Dozens of candles were lit.
At least 24 activists have been detained in Moscow’s center for trying to hold an authorized march in memory of the murdered Markelov and Baburova.
Moscow authorities gave permission for the rallies, but warned that any marches would be considered illegal. Police say those at one rally were trying to march to join demonstrators at the other when they were arrested.
According to investigators, the human rights lawyer and the journalist were killed by neo-Nazi extremists. Last November, a Moscow court charged two suspects in the double murder – Nikita Tikhonov and Evgenia Khasis. The investigation believes they killed Markelov out of revenge because he represented the nationalists’ victims in court. Baburova was most likely not the intended victim.
Stanislav Markelov was also famous for defending Chechen victims of human rights violations. Anastasia Baburova worked for the same opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, as Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006.
19.01.2010, 09:29
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Bianca, have you ever heard an ordinary Russian, or one in a leadership role, say what he or she, personally, has learned from their country’s Soviet experience, and what they have committed themselves to do to ensure that totalitarianism can never return to their country? I haven’t. The concept of personal responsibility does not seem to be a big one in Russians’ minds, whether for the past, the present or the future. Of course people in Russia don’t like confusion – who does? But law-based order in which they themselves genuinely shoulder their own civic responsibility isn’t a priority, either. A big father-figure, be it the Tsar or Lenin or Stalin or Putin or whoever, serves instead. All too often, a citizen’s or a corporation’s personal security seems to depend not on whether they are law-abiding or not, but on whether or not they are in the good books of an appropriate official. Just as their chance of avoiding legal sanctions depends not on their innocence or guilt, but on whether an appropriate official has it in for them. And of course, Medvedev and Putin play the role of the good Tsar by grandly personally stepping in to some civic or industrial dispute, and ordering that this, that or the other be done. And sometimes the role of the bad Tsar, too. This is an echo of a feudal system where one's own safety depends on the right relationship with a feudal lord, not of a law-based society. My point being that heroics, whether lawful or otherwise, but certainly not within the context of a society based on law, seem to be fundamental to the Russian character. Wait until May 9, and you’ll see again what is probably the greatest annual heroics fest on the planet in which ugly realities are completely eclipsed by heroic gestures. This is what Russians seem to prefer. Display is of the essence, and substance is not.This is part of what makes it so difficult for Russia's neighbors to deal with it. They will not play along with the game of blinkered heroics.
The lawless heroics is today hardly an expression of Russian culture. Why do you think that majority of Russians do not like or approve of the foreign NGOs work? It is precisely because many of them engage is lawless heroics, but call this --- democracy! And the Russians who are fed up with this, are labeled as haters of democracy and lovers of autoritarian governance. I think that western propaganda will have to eventually make up its mind. Russians are either hopelessly incapable of respecting law, system, order or discipline, or are just the opposite --- craving autoritarian rule that will allow them to obediently live the disciplined life within a well known, predictable system. As it stands, propaganda is trying to have it both ways. As always. Propagandists never aim to be consistent, just loud and persistent. Russia has many challenges, but many of them are due to a slow pace of modernization, particularly beaurocracy. The slow pace of modernization at the level of citizen services indicates that reforms are aiming high, but fall short of promise where it counts --- the delivery of services. Some sincere appreciation of the reforms in US, for example, would do wonders to changing things much faster. The reforms in civil service produced much higher level of customer service, as more emphasis was placed on the front line services, and the layers of complexity collapsed. This modernization Russia needs, and could in a short amount of time bear fruit. I do not think that the resistance to change is the main culprit ---- not invented here is always more problematic obstacle. Large scale reforms are undertaken, but with modest results. I see some of the parallels with an early attempt here in US to modernize civil services. The fear of reform froze the system, and complex, top down structure failed to penetrate. Once the emphasis shifted to the front line customer service, the results were outstanding.
Haha, shoudln't you be charging for that kind of knowledge?!