Dmitri Soloviev, a blogger and activist of the Oborona opposition movement, was notified on Monday of the December 31 decision. According to the document sent to the blogger, two groups of investigators found no evidence that any crime had actually been committed.

Soloviev had been charged in August 2008 with inciting hatred against police and federal security agents with a series of posts on LiveJournal.

Investigators had initially claimed that the five posts “instigated social strife” due to their content regarding the police.

The posts, under Soloviev’s username dimon77, included phrases accusing federal security agents of killing Russian children and assertions that the police would not succeed in breaking up the Oborona movement.

Advocates for the blogger maintained that the majority of the posts included material previously published elsewhere on the internet, and, furthermore, represented legitimate criticisms of specific actions of law enforcement officers.

As part of the investigation, Soloviev’s computer and notebook had both been confiscated, preventing him from completing his graduate dissertation.

Oborona leader Oleg Kozlovsky said that the decision to drop the case was “unprecedented in recent Russian history.” He added, however, that the case was very much an exception, as Soloviev’s case was only one of many similar, high-profile lawsuits against Russian bloggers.

In November, blogger Oleg Kozyrev launched a trade union for bloggers, citing the need for an organization to protect the rights and freedoms of the authors of online content.

Numerous Russian bloggers have been arrested and jailed under charges of extremism, inciting hatred, or instigating social discord. Most recently, 22-year old Ivan Peregorodiev was arrested in the southern city of Saratov in December and charged with disseminating false information related to an act of terrorism after he discussed rumors on his blog that victims of swine flu actually had pneumonic plague.

Kozyrev intends for the union to bring together Russian-language bloggers in an assertion of their rights and freedoms. That aside, he says, it will remain politically independent.

The manifesto enumerates seven “freedoms of bloggers” – of speech, entrepreneurial activity, dissemination of information, authorship, creative self-expression, preservation of content, and assembly. The union would work to defend all bloggers, including creators of podcasts, online videos, and photo galleries, from violations of these freedoms.

The first action of the trade union was to demand the release of jailed journalist and blogger Irek Murtazin.

Kozyrev said that the union will keep track of lawsuits against bloggers and have a database of the development of events. He additionally intends to track legislative initiatives that would have an effect on bloggers, to maintain an archive of correspondence with social and political organizations, and to set up contacts with the media.

The creation of the trade union follows the sentencing of Tartar oppositionist Irek Murtazin, former press secretary of Tartar President Mintimer Shaimiev, to twenty-one months in jail on charges of slander and “violation of the sanctity of private life.” Shaymiev says that Murtazin had disseminated information that he knew to be false, undermining Shaimiev’s reputation and disclosing personal secrets. In particular, Murtazin posted on his blog on September 12 that Shaimiev had unexpectedly died in Turkey.

In a statement to RFE/RL, Murtazin said that the trial was a “theater of the absurd” and that he plans to appeal the verdict. He also said that the decision sets a dangerous precedent for anyone with “any word of criticism” against a Russian leader.

A number of recent arrests of bloggers and have brought internet freedom in Russia into serious doubt. LiveJournal users in one southern Russian region found themselves without access to the website in June after courts ordered an opposition blog to stop publishing. Another blogger was arrested for lewd descriptions of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Writing for the Yezhednevny Zhurnal online newspaper, Oleg Kozyrev comments on the importance of the election, urging Muscovites to stand up for themselves and their right to choose their representatives.  The road is difficult for the opposition and independent candidates, but with public support, victory is entirely possible.

It’s Time to Think About the Moscow Duma
Oleg Kozyrev
July 14, 2009
Yezhednevny Zhurnal

Moscow is still lazily stretching out in the drowsiness of summer, but somewhere out there, far away, the dust is already billowing- the suitors are galloping, racing to the matchmaking.  Not all the parties have assembled their processions yet, and not all the movements have loaded up the necessary gifts, but time is ticking- October is coming soon.  And the politician heartbreakers are rushing to their Moscow bride.

The city had more luck than the country.  Aside from party lists there are single mandate districts – apart from helplessly falling into the Kremlin’s harem, there is still a chance to marry for love.  The bride will have to decide.  The independent suitors are as one – in a difficult life situation.  They’re written in as extremists, and chained into shackles every month, and the OMON [riot police] are sent in, and they’re prevented from registering, and stigmatized for no reason on all the harem’s television screens.

They’ll need to fight at the registration stage, when every candidate must gather a certain amount of signatures.  This is precisely where Moscow’s help can become crucial.  Independent candidates, unloved by the backward Kremlin system, are eliminated most often at the stage of collecting signatures.  Muscovites who want to restore their right to choose for themselves will have to do everything possible at this stage, to leave their own signature, and to convince their friends and acquaintances to support the independent candidate.

In the end, if it’s for love, it must be for love.  Perhaps we need to gradually abandon the vague campaign posters, where candidates show us their airbrushed faces, accompanied by an electoral platform of two to three shallow slogans.  Russia’s largest city has a right to expect a developed program from the contenders.

The wheelchair bound have a right to ask if at least one street in the city will be fully equipped, from start to finish, for the handicapped.  In an enormous city, if only one.  Dog owners have a right to know whether there will be at least one district in the capital, where there are playgrounds and areas for dog walking.  Drivers could get an answer for when the city will get rid of emergency flashing lights [that provide special driving privileges] for civil servants, at least at the city level.  Residents of Moscow’s “rustic” homes -whether the right to private property will be respected, or whether they be forced out to the pavement, as was done in Butovo.  And so forth on every topic.

Finally, will the deputies fight to restore the very right to choose for Muscovites?  Or will they stamp the Kremlin candidates for mayor, as it has been up to now (with the exception of the KPRF [Communist Party] fraction, who don’t support the Putin-appointed Yury Luzhkov)?

The Moscow City Duma is the only instance where Muscovites have a choice.  At the city level there is no opportunity to select even prefects.  Like it or not, they say, but love the beauty.  And so Moscow is compelled to live cooped up in the background of her wishes.  A marriage without alternatives.

The only possibility to return the mayoral elections – is to elect ones own Moscow City Duma.  A Duma that will fight for the interests of city residents.  A kind of Duma that won’t fear a crackdown for the sake of the townspeople’s interests.

It’s not worth deceiving yourself.  If today there are no deputies at our side as we defend our squares, fight for spots in the day care centers, for no lines at the medical clinics; if they are not at our side at meetings, at pickets, then there, in the Duma, they will not stand up for us.  Today it is not enough to be a manager.  Today, no one needs a manager who will exchange the city’s residents for a percentage of a business deal.  The time has come not for managers, but for those who will serve the masters of the city- the Muscovites.  We don’t need an official, but a subordinate.

The suitors are nearing Moscow.  Some of them think that the capital has stopped choosing, that she will obediently go where she is ordered.  Others are convinced that Moscow has her own voice, and that she has a right to decide where to go for herself.  We’ll see in the fall who is right.

translation by theotherrussia.org.

The debacle raises questions about freedom of speech on Russian television. Writing for Grani.ru, Oleg Kozyrev comments on the event, and the public fear associated with Putin’s name.

The series that played the bit, titled, “Phenomenon,” is hosted by magician and self-proclaimed mystic Uri Geller, and ran Friday, September 5th on the state-run “Rossiya” channel.

Russia rubbed Putin
Oleg Kozyrev
Grani.ru
09/09/2008

Millions of Russian television viewers were glued to their screens and couldn’t believe their eyes. In a live broadcast on a state-run TV channel, on a Friday evening, they were trying to erase Putin himself in front of the whole country! His surname, written in black, was rubbed with fingers, with some kind of rag, the host ran around the studio in a panic, but the president didn’t yield. Putin simply was. And wouldn’t be rubbed off. One word – a phenomenon.

The country was exhausted in its search for new wizards. [Magician and psychic Grigory] Grabovoy was sent on assignment to distant places. [Anatoly] Kashpirovsky was forgotten. [Allan] Chumak couldn’t find any new jars to charge [with healing powers]. And hardly anybody believed the politicians.

In this far-from-simple situation, the state-run “Rossiya” television channel acted patriotically: it ordered, from abroad, the local Ostap Bender – Uri Geller. A person, who bends spoons from a distance and who finds out for the oil companies where there isn’t any oil (that, at least, is how he was presented to viewers).

Uri Geller took the easy money, which fell into his lap at his ripe age, by the horns, and against the background of the astonished eyes of Russia’s good-night beauty, Oksana Fedorova, got into the habit of bending spoons in front of people, and showing other wonders, which during Soviet times would be demonstrated by visiting hypnotists in any run-down community center. He wasn’t David Copperfield, of course, but could be watched, when one was tormented by insomnia, heartburn, or politics.

Since Uri Geller didn’t have enough tricks on reserve for the whole broadcast, the [channel] started diluting the magician with Russian variants of seers and their descendants. Everything was great, yet the show’s organizers, evidently, wanted to earn some money on SMS-voting. For this, they needed a live broadcast. And one shouldn’t expect anything good from a live broadcast, especially if there are viewers, that is to say, a live audience, in the studio.

Disaster came about when Alexander Char decided to show off his abilities. (The show’s website says that his great-grandmother was a witness – no, not a Jehovah’s [witness], but of the Tunguska meteorite’s fall.) The starting point of the trick was good. The plot of a detective story is hanging in a safe. Through viewer’s mouths, the Russian magician would map out how to solve his story, and learn who the killer was. Char piercingly looked at the first viewer and asked her to name the first word in the riddle. “A knife!” the girl exclaimed. The second viewer, after some mental suggestion, named “Munich.” And here the live broadcast broke down. Since, naturally, after the word “Munich,” the third viewer named the first person who came to his mind – [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin. At this moment, [the channel’s General Director] Oleg Dobrodeyev, in all likelihood, tipped over in his chair.

KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN was written in black marker on the board. Uri Geller’s co-host went gray (despite a total absence of hair to begin with) right in the shot. “No, I’m being told here, that this won’t work,” “erase it,” “live broadcast, things do happen.” One heard, in every word of the unfortunate co-host, “don’t shoot me, this is a live broadcast, please, don’t shoot me!” The show’s technicians openly reveled in the effect. Again and again, KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN appeared in the shot. Some kind of assistant ran in and started to rub Putin’s name. But Putin didn’t want to leave the live broadcast. The black marker inscribed Putin’s name permanently. What was written with the marker didn’t want, by any means, to be cut from the live broadcast.

The live transmission continued, and something had to be done. Underneath, they wrote “Vladimir,” but KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN towered like a boulder over this weak apology. It threatened resignations and dismissals. Lubyanka [prisons] and Siberia. Exile to Ekho Moskvy [radio].

Having hurriedly brought the subject to a close, the television program’s leadership fell to their knees and prayed to the heavens that the program had a zero rating, that no one of the viewers had seen this disgrace. But there was a rating. And in a couple days the accursed Internet had also raised the shame up for discussion.

Weren’t the television executives right, that live broadcasts were becoming a thing of the past? Weren’t they right in trying to show as few live people in the shot as possible? They had forgotten the instructions of their TV-ancestors. They had relaxed.

It’s an entertainment show, they thought. And here’s how it turned out –it became necessary to rub the prime-minister in front of the eyes of millions of their countrymen. Most certainly thinking to themselves – what did happen there, in Munich? And why were they rubbing Putin?

From this day forwards, I started to respect Uri Geller. Whatever you may say, but all of Russia saw, how these people caved in. From just one name. From just one name they caved in, in a way that aluminum spoons hadn’t dreamed of.

And it seems to me, that the atmosphere in the country has nothing to do with it. It’s just this kind of phenomenon.

translation by theotherrussia.org
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