The human rights organization Amnesty International has declared jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev to be prisoners of conscience, Kasparov.ru reports.

The announcement came the same day as a Moscow City Court ruling to uphold a December 2010 verdict that extended the pair’s current prison sentences through 2017, reducing them slightly for a 2016 release. The case is recognized internationally as politically motivated, specifically at the behest of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“For several years now these two men have been trapped in a judicial vortex that answers to political not legal considerations,” said a press release from Amnesty International on Tuesday. “Today’s verdict makes it clear that Russia’s lower courts are unable, or unwilling, to deliver justice in their cases.”

Just last week, the organization said that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev could not be considered prisoners of conscience, telling Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe that “a prisoner of conscience is a person who was sentenced for his or her views or beliefs,” while “anyone who might be involved in wrongdoing or even crimes, but whose case was launched only for political reasons, can be called a political prisoner but not a prisoner of conscience.”

However, Tuesday’s statement indicates that the new verdict has definitively pushed Amnesty over the fence.

“The failure of the appeal court to address the fundamental flaws in the second trial and the fact that Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have already spent eight years in jail on barely distinguishable charges, points to the conclusion that their second convictions have been sought for political reasons relating purely to who they are,” said Nicola Duckworth, director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program.

Vadim Klyuvgant, a lawyer for the prisoners, said that “this is a somewhat belated statement of a perfectly obvious fact – about seven years so.”

Harsh criticism of the upheld ruling has resounded throughout Europe and the United States. In a statement released on Tuesday, European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton said she was “troubled by allegations of numerous violations in due process which reflect systemic problems within the Russian judiciary. The Khodorkovsky and Lebedev case has become emblematic for the lack of confidence in how the law is applied in Russia today.”

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek was also appalled at the behavior of the Russian judicial system. “This case was marred with alleged violations of due process and fair trial from the very start. It shows unfortunately that there is still a very long path for Russia to take to improve its rule of law and protection of human rights,” he said.

Russia’s Public Chamber and Ministry of International Affairs both criticized Amnesty International’s about-face as “unexpected” and “one-sided and politicized,” respectively.

On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights announced that their own ruling on a complaint filed by Khodorkovsky would be issued on May 31. A press release on the court’s website outlined a list of the prisoner’s complaints against the Russian government:

Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), Mr Khodorkovskiy complains in particular about the conditions in the remand prisons where he has been detained and in the courtroom during his trial. He also complains under Article 5 (right to liberty and security) about the unlawfulness of his arrest and subsequent detention pending investigation and trial, excessive length of the detention and unfairness of the detention proceedings. Lastly, he alleges that the criminal proceedings against him are politically motivated, in breach of Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights).

“The government has decided to use administrative violence,” said Eduard Limonov. “It has descended upon the opposition and, clearly, repressions are going to continue.”

In Limonov’s opinion, the trial and conviction of the oppositionists indicates that the authorities are moving towards becoming a fascist regime. “For the first time in history, five opposition leaders wound up in the same detention center,” he noted. “The authorities wavered, but Putin and Medvedev chose the Belarusian variant.”

Boris Nemtsov agreed with Limonov’s judgment – which is significant, he noted, given that the two hold generally opposing views. “If people with such contradictory views about democracy turn up behind bars, it speaks to a terrible illness in our country,” he said.

Nemtsov also noted that the independent human rights organization Amnesty International had declared him, Ilya Yashin, Konstantin Kosyakin, as well as Limonov and his bodyguard, Kirill Manulin, prisoners of conscience.

At the same time, fellow arrestee Vladimir Tor was not awarded this status. Tor heads the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration, known for its propensity to violence. Still, Nemtsov defended him on the basis that he had not received due process: “I don’t think this is right…he was detained for speaking with journalists.”

Members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia attempted to cause a scene before the press conference began. Fifteen young people approached the building and began passing out discs labeled “The Truth about Strategy 31.” A fight broke out when they were not allowed inside the building, and police soon arrived to arrest those involved.

Young Russia later released a statement on its website accusing Nemtsov’s supporters of staging the attack and breaking one of its member’s fingers.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups have been known to physically attack opposition leaders, particularly Nemtsov. Just days earlier, members of the notorious group Stal attempted to stage a provocation but were scared off by Nemtsov’s numerous supporters.

Nemtsov described the event on his blog:

When I came out, I was glad to be greeted at the detention center entrance by my compatriots – Sasha Ryklin, Ilya Yashin, Sasha Podrabinek, Mikhail Sheyder, Vladimir Milov, Sergei Aleksashenko, Seryosha Davidis, my daughter Zhanna and son Anton. Surkov’s provocators tried to do something, but were frightened by the supportive crowd and quickly scattered off.

Anton, Zhanna and I then set off for a cafe. When we left, I was again despicably attacked from behind with a butterfly net by Surkov’s cockerels. They didn’t catch anything, the poor wretches, but my children were in shock from the sight. After that, Zhanna said that she would definitely be coming with me on January 31 to Triumfalnaya Square, since it is deeply repugnant to live in a country governed by scoundrels.

Khamroev, a member of the Russian civil rights society Memorial, was attacked in Moscow on December 7.

According to Interfax, the rights advocate was visiting an acquaintance – a Russian citizen who emigrated from Kyrgyzstan – who had called Khamroev and complained that armed men had broken into his apartment.

“Bakhrom came out to the place. They didn’t let him in the apartment, they forced him to leave the entrance,” said Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial. “Then a man came out of a microbus parked nearby – we know the number – and asked Bakhrom several questions and suddenly hit him several times on the head. Bakhrom lost consciousness and was hospitalized.”

The leadership of Memorial believes that Khamroev was beaten by law enforcement officers.

Khamroev had previously been attacked in January 2007. The human rights activist was beaten by three men and suffered from a concussion.

The Tverskoy Court handed down the ruling on September 7, convicting the 69-year-old leader of the organization For Human Rights of insubordination to a police officer. The accusations stemmed from Ponomarev’s participation as a co-organizer of an unsanctioned opposition protest dubbed the Day of Wrath, part of a series of demonstrations in which about 300 protesters gathered in Moscow on August 12 to demand the resignation of the Russian federal government and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. According to police figures, 35 people were detained at the event.

Ponomarev decided to face the court on Tuesday without a lawyer. He denounced the ruling as politically motivated.

As a result of his sentence, Ponomarev told Interfax, he was unable to attend a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday between Russian rights leaders and United States presidential advisor Michael McFaul.

William Burns, the United States under secretary of state for political affairs who attended the meeting, was critical of the ruling. “I should note that it is regrettable that Lev Ponomarev, who was supposed to be at the meeting, was not able to attend,” he said in remarks to the Interfax news agency. “The freedom of assembly is very important to the United States and very important for any democratic society.”

The Russian bureau of the international human rights organization Amnesty International expressed concern at Tuesday’s ruling. “Lev Ponomarev, who was just recently named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, has now received yet another punishment,” said bureau chief Sergei Nikitin.

Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio, Memorial civil rights society chairman Oleg Orlov said that Ponomarev’s sentence was part of a disturbing pattern of crackdowns on human rights activists in Russia. “These kinds of sentences are becoming typical. They are repressive actions,” he said.

According to Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the Russian authorities are altogether scared of people coming out and protesting in the streets. This, she explained, is what explains “Ponomarev’s ridiculous punishment.”

The two other Day of Wrath organizers were also convicted of insubordination to an officer back on August 14. Konstantin Kosyakin was sentenced to three days of administrative arrest, and Sergei Udaltsov to four. Ponomarev’s court date was postponed after he fell ill in during holding in a police station and, fearing a hypertensive crisis, was hospitalized.

The video was created by the French branch of Amnesty International, a human rights organization that has reported on rights violations in Russia numerous times. The Belarusian human rights group Charter’97 reported today that 30 members of the organization had also attempted to project the video onto the facade of the Russian embassy. Upon arriving, however, they were met by police and told not to bother nearby residents by playing the clip. The group was then forced to disperse.

Amnesty International France has also set up an online petition calling for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to respond to a variety of rights abuses in his country, including problems involving racism, the persecution of journalists, restrictions on the freedom of expression, the volatile situation in the North Caucasus, and torture, among others.

In a statement on Tuesday, Director Holly Cartner of Human Rights Watch in Europe and Central Asia said that the baseless detention of lawyers Dmitri Egoshin, Roman Veretennikov and Vadislav Sadykov of the Joint Mobile Group of Russian Non-Governmental Organizations should be properly investigated by the Russian authorities.

The three lawyers were detained without charge by regional Chechen security forces on February 7. After being illegally held for 15 hours, they were released on February 8 with no explanation of the basis for their detention. Security officials destroyed tape recordings confiscated from the rights advocates, who fear that their offices may also have been raided.

Cartner stressed the importance of bringing the offending officers to responsibility and of assuring safe working conditions for human rights advocates in Chechnya and the other volatile republics in Russia’s North Caucasus.

Referring to a January 23 statement by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Cartner said that “this arbitrary detention clearly demonstrates that the Chechen law enforcement agencies continue harassing human rights defenders despite Prime Minister Putin’s recent call for a healthy working environment for human rights groups.”

The rights organizations Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders and Front Line also issued statements condemning the incident.

The three detained lawyers meanwhile plan to file charges against the security officers in court.

The incident is a disturbing reminder of last year’s increase in violent persecution of human rights workers in the North Caucasus. Natalia Estemirova of the Memorial human rights organization was kidnapped and murdered in Chechnya in July, leading the organization to close its operations in the area. One month later, charity workers Zarema Sadulaeva and Umar Dzhabrailov were found dead in their car in the Chechen capital of Grozny. Domestic and international human rights groups have continually blamed the Russian authorities for allowing continued violence to endanger activists and reporters in the volatile area.

The press-conference coincides with Amnesty International’s annual “State of the World’s Human Rights” report, and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Duckworth said that the political landscape and power distribution has changed drastically since 1948, when the Declaration was enacted, largely as result of the dozens of new states formed around the world.

According to the human rights defender, the United States, as the world’s most powerful nation, sets the standard for the behavior of global governments. In doing so, US authorities have done everything in their capacity to weaken the prohibition of torture and other forms of cruel treatment, the group believes.

“Hundreds of prisoners of Guantanamo and Bagram, and thousands of detainees in Iraq are still being held without trial or investigation,” Duckworth said. Many of the imprisoned have been behind bars for upward of six years, she noted. “Furthermore, the US government has not taken any steps to make employees of the US secret services or military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan fully accountable for their actions,” Duckworth added.

Russia was also highly criticized in the group’s report. Major problems include a crackdown on political dissent, pressure on journalists, ethnic violence and new measures of legislative control over nongovernmental organizations.

One of the group’s Russia researchers, Fredericka Ber, said that serious violations were recorded in recent years, and that Russian citizens now have difficulty expressing their civic and political rights.

She noted that peaceful demonstrations have been dispersed with force; that attorneys, human rights activists and journalists have received threats; that the Russian judicial system is subject to pressure from the executive branch. She added that corruption constantly trumps the rule of law, and diminishes public trust in the judicial system.

Ber said that human rights activists in Russia have sent a memorandum on human rights to president Dmitri Medvedev, calling on him to do his part in improving the situation in the country. She said that Amnesty International will continue to observe how well Medvedev sticks to the promises he made in his inaugural address.

Amnesty International’s yearly report describes human rights violations in 150 countries. The publication calls on all nations, regardless of their political system, to comply with human rights accords.