Russia Launches Campaign Against a Blogger

Recently, Savva Terentyev, a citizen of the town of Siktivkar, 22, was charged for the first Russian case of posting abusive comments in the popular online blog LiveJournal.com. It all started with an insult of the Russian police, but Russia is charging him with "inciting racial and religious hatred and word abusing of law-enforcement authorities."

The spokesman of the Siktivkar Court said that “thorough text expertise concluded Terentyev’s comment to incite hatred on base of religious, political or cultural differences, and also to abuse people publicly by means of mass media”.

"In case proved guilty, Terentyev will be either charged the fine of 4 up to 12 thousand dollars or will have to pay off his 1 to 2-year minimum salary, or will be forced to obligatory work for 180 hours. The case started a year ago, when Terentyev posted a comment in the blog of one of komi’s journalist. The comment was a rough offence to the police. In a few days Terentyev’s apartment was raided and system block with floppies was withdrawn."

To read the full story, click here.

This shows just how controlled public speech and also that civil liberties are severely limited. I found this an interesting article because it is based around a blog post that resulted in such a huge "crime." A story like this makes one appriciate the fact that our government in the US can't charge the public with crimes like this yet.

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Free Speech 'Shrinking' in Russia

Amnesty International

Russian freedom of speech is "shrinking alarmingly" under President Vladimir Putin, says Amnesty International.

The murders of outspoken journalists go unsolved, independent media outlets have been shut and police have attacked opposition protesters, said the report.

It also said "arbitrary" laws were curbing the right to express opinion and silencing NGOs deemed to be a threat by the authorities.

The report comes ahead of Russian's presidential elections on 2 March.

The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said: "The space for freedom of speech is shrinking alarmingly in Russia and it's now imperative that the Russian authorities reverse this trend."

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The report goes on to say that if this problem is not fixed, more outspoken journalists could end up missing or dead like reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Russia has already prohibited some public demonstrations, like the Gay Pride Parade, and will undoubtedly curtail any more opposition in the near future since elections are Sunday.

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