Ojuland, a member of the Liberal Democrats, is in charge of presenting a report to the European Parliament in September on an EP resolution that threatens visa and asset freezes against the Russian officials involved in Magnitsky’s death if they remain unprosecuted by the Russian judicial system. Kasparov and other oppositionists at the meeting emphasized the importance of this resolution at a time when the Putin regime has accelerated the persecution of activists in Russia.

Having just been arrested, tried, and acquitted of spurious administrative charges of holding an unsanctioned rally, as well as having been falsely accused (but not even charged) with biting a police officer, Kasparov was a prime example of the kind of persecution discussed during the meeting. At the same time, Kasparov’s acquittal was almost unprecedented among cases against Russian oppositionists, and he stressed that international lawmakers needed to provide leverage to help ensure that lawbreakers, such as those responsible for Magnitsky’s death, actually pay a price.

Aside from Kasparov’s case and the high-profile case of the punk group Pussy Riot, other recent repressive moves by the Putin regime include the conviction of Other Russia activist Taisiya Osipova, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, and a search by Russia’s Investigative Committee of blogger Aleksei Navalny’s parents’ business. Additionally, a Moscow court has upheld the legality of a raid on Navalny’s own apartment back in May, despite the fact that the warrant had a different address on it than the one police actually searched and confiscated computers and other materials from. Disturbingly, all three of these events occurred on Monday. A court upheld searches of oppositionists Ilya Yashin’s and Boris Nemtsov’s apartments earlier. All these cases clearly show that Kasparov’s acquittal was an isolated event.

Another oppositionist present at the meeting with Ojuland was A Just Russia deputy Dmitry Gudkov. He discussed the possibility that Gennady Gudkov – his father and another deputy from the same party – could be kicked out of the State Duma for allegedly illegally profiting from a business. He denies any wrongdoing and insists that the charges are politically motivated because of his support for the wave of mass anti-governmental rallies over this past winter.

Ojuland agreed. “We believe that this is a political process, and not something criminal. How can European Parliamentarians help their colleague in this situation? This Thursday, for example, at the interregional meeting of European Parliament deputies with State Duma and Federation Council deputies in St. Petersburg, we can put this issue on the agenda and hear about what exactly happened and what kind of legal basis there is for the case against Gudkov,” she said.

Despite the fact that this is a domestic Russian issue, Ojuland noted, it’s possible for the European Union, and the European Parliament in particular, to collegially try to help Gudkov.

According to Nemtsov, who says he only learned of the ban today, the about-face was influenced by today’s resolution by the European Parliament criticizing Russian authorities both for refusing to officially register his political party and for introducing the travel ban.

“Seven hundred deputies – every single faction and party in the European Parliament – demanded the immediate annulment of the ban on my ability to travel outside of the country,” Nemtsov said in response to the announcement. “Naturally, Putin’s corrupt entourage got scared that it would be banned from Europe in return.”

The opposition leader said that decisions made by European institutions have a serious influence on the Russian government and that “this resource has to be used.”

“Here [in Europe – ed.] they have children, bank accounts, real estate, yachts that they ride on,” Nemtsov said of Russian civil servants. “They need to be brought to their senses precisely through Europe; they don’t understand anything else. As a matter of fact, this was a very optimistic incident; this needs to be kept up.” He added that other parts of the European Parliament’s resolution could be carried out in Russia under due pressure from Europe.

The Federal Bailiff Service, which first denied the travel ban altogether, said that an enquiry had concluded that the ban had been “premature” and would now be lifted.

According to Kasparov.ru, the ban was initiated by businessman Gennady Timchenko, who accused the two politicians of failing to fulfill a judicial order to change two remarks in their opposition report “Putin. Results. 10 Years” that he says damaged his reputation.

The ruling ordered Nemtsov and Milov to publically retract their assertion that Timchenko used his friendship with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to become a billionaire. While a retraction was published in the newspaper Kommersant, “Mr. Timchenko was unhappy that the font was too small in that retraction, so he demanded that we should be kept inside the country for six months,” Nemtsov explained to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

While providing an unexpected but immediate benefit to the two oppositionists, the European Parliament’s resolution was first of all dedicated to a scathing criticism of Russia’s recent refusal to register their new political party, Parnas, thus preventing its representatives from participating in upcoming elections for the State Duma and presidency.

Parnas’s predicament united virtually every political faction in the European Union, with the resolution garnering support from liberals, socialists, conservatives and members of the Green Party.

The document calls on Russian authorities to lessen the requirements for new parties to register and to guarantee equal conditions for all parties and candidates during upcoming electoral campaigns, including access to television broadcast media.

As a general rule, many oppositionists – including Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov, Eduard Limonov and others – are not allowed to be shown on Russia’s state-controlled television.

Commenting on the resolution, Estonian Deputy Kristiina Ojuland said that “Putin has until September to come to his senses, although it’s already clear how the rails to the future State Duma have been laid.”

On April 10, a conference on the international monitoring of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011-2012 was held in Moscow. Russian human rights advocates called for fundamental reform of legislation governing elections, parties and public associations.

Noting that Russia no longer has direct elections for regional governors and arguing that parliamentary and presidential elections “have turned into an empty ritual,” Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva said that it was only possible to change the situation through protests and demonstrations. Head of the electoral watchdog Golos, Liliya Shibanova, spoke of “a multilayered system of filtration during and falsification of elections” and called for “strict monitoring and an appeal to international organizations.” And leader of the Interregional Association of Voters, Andrei Buzin, added that the new makeup of the Central Electoral Committee (TsIK), headed by Vladimir Churov – famous for what has been called his “unsurpassed” loyalty to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin – “provides the basis to assume that the coming elections will be held like past ones.”

The activists said the TsIK should only “point out violations committed by candidates” and that the courts should be responsible for denying parties registration or taking them off the ballot, not them.

The minimum number of members needed to form a party should be reduced to 5,000 from the current 45 thousand, they added.

Members of the conference called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Parliament to use their influence to “assist with the registration of parties,” to do away with censorship of the mass media and to stop “the persecution of the opposition” in Russia.

European Parliament deputies Kristiina Ojuland and Heidi Hautala said the parliament already has a group doing preliminary monitoring of upcoming Russian elections that includes members of all of the country’s political forces.

“We should have the same policies toward Russia as we do towards Belarus,” Hautala said, noting that the European Union has already placed sanctions on Belarusian civil servants.

Russian opposition politicians present at the meeting spoke about the persecution of the opposition. Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov said the recently created People’s Freedom Party was “doomed to be denied registration” and that there was no point in directly monitoring elections if they “are already being falsified right now,” when the authorities have already denied registration to seven other opposition parties.

One of the leaders of the People’s Freedom Party, Boris Nemtsov, said the Russian authorities are not preparing for elections, but for “a special operation to preserve money and power under the slogan ‘we’re going to fight to the end.'”

On February 17, the European Parliament issued a critical resolution on Russia’s human rights situation. Deputies expressed concern over the conviction in the second criminal case against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, and called upon the Russian authorities to do everything possible to institute a fair and transparent judicial system in the country as previously promised by the Russian president.