Uzbek citizen Yusup Kasymahunov kidnapped in Russia

20.12.2012 16:55 msk Human Rights Russia

On 14 December 2012 Uzbek citizen Yusup Kasymahunov was kidnapped in the Moscow region. It appears that he was kidnapped and taken out the country by Uzbekistan’s security services with the help of Russian border guards: Tashkent was vying for Kasymahunov’s extradition, but official extradition was stopped through efforts by the Strasbourg court and Russian human rights activists. Russian authorities and the office of the Russian representative to the European Human Rights Court (EHRC) were against the extradition, yet these warnings did not result in any action: Yusup has disappeared and is now probably in one of the detention cells in Tashkent or Andijan. Elena Ryabinina, manager of the “Right to Shelter” programme at the Institute of Human Rights, talks in more detail about the kidnapping of Yusup Kasymahunov.

Azimjon Askarov, jailed for life in Kyrgyzstan, gets International Press Freedom Award

14.09.2012 20:14 msk Human Rights Russia

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.org), a New York based organisation, announced that it has given four journalists, who risked their lives and freedom, to talk about abuses of power and human rights violations in Brazil, China, Kyrgyzstan and Liberia, the 2012 International Press Freedom Award. Azimjon Askarov, journalist and human rights defender, is an ethnic Uzbek from the Southern Kyrgyz town of Jalal-abad, who was sentenced to life in jail on 15 September 2010. He was detained three months earlier on suspicion of organising mass disturbances during the tragic events in Southern Kyrgyzstan and charged with complicity in a police officer’s murder.

Kazakh opposition speakers jailed for rally

29.01.2012 23:35 msk Politics Russia

Russia-Tajikistan: Symmetrical Disgrace

15.11.2011 12:34 msk Politics Russia

The original causes of this story are vague. They say that Tajikistan’s special service was keen to lay hands on the very valuable Russian aircrafts that recently worked for the country’s ministry of defense. Planes are pretty good: they can fly when cold and when hot, and can easily land amid a cotton field. On the other hand, the authorities of that highland republic are pretty good at raider practices, as readily confessed by Tajikistan’s businessmen. There is an alternative version, saying that an unrighteous trial over the Russian pilots has been an act of vengeance for conviction of Rustam Khukumov over a drug possession charges (the man is a son to the director of Tajikistan’s railroad Amonullo Khukumov who, in his turn, happens to be the father in law for the president’s daughter…

Second violent attack against Memorial employee in Moscow

09.06.2011 13:15 msk Human Rights Russia

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is deeply distraught to learn of yet another violent attack on human rights activist and employee of Human Rights Center Memorial, Bakhrom Khamroev, in Moscow on Monday June 6th 2011.

“Oriental bazaar”: Rays of Eastern sun in cold Moscow

13.04.2011 11:38 msk Arts Russia

The first international exhibition and fair “Oriental bazaar” has brought together some of the most versatile handcrafts from the Central Asia, China, India, Japan, Northern Africa, south-East Asia, Turkey and Middle East at the “Flakon” design factory between the 8th and 10th of April.

Behind the scenes of Russia’s deportations

24.03.2011 16:45 msk Politics Russia

When the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Luke Harding was deported from Russia last month, his editor called it “a bad omen” for press freedoms, describing it as the first such case since the end of the cold war. Yet, as many observers have pointed out, Harding merely joined a long list of foreigners who have found themselves on the Kremlin’s bad side. An omen this was not - the ban system for journalists and human rights defenders in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is very much a thing of the present.

High up on a tightrope… and only sky is above

15.03.2011 10:30 msk Russia

A tightrope. The audience stares breathless. Tension is growing with each and every split second as 4-year old Sarvarbek who’s made it in the Guinness Book of records as the youngest rope-walker in the world is balancing high up on a tightrope, 50 feet above the ground. He is going to end his trip momentarily and make the audience roar. The Kamilovs from Uzbekistan, a rope-dancers’ dynasty that has now moved to Saint-Petersburg astonishes the Russia’s northern capital with its shows. Uzbek equilibrists keep on shocking the audience with their tightrope walking miracles, acrobatics, kettlebell juggling and an amazing feat of strength by a mighty athlete who lies down under a wooden platform and lets a Russian automobile drive over his chest.

Sanobar Shermatova passes away at 59

09.03.2011 17:07 msk Russia

Our colleague, a beautiful woman and a renowned journalist Sanobar Shermatova has passed away untimely in Moscow, on March 7, 2011. She died of a sudden heart failure in slightly more than one month before her 60th birthday on April 13. Her death is an unbearable loss. It is a tragedy that young and active people like herself pass away. Sanobar was very considerate and soulful person, an excellent friend and a thoughtful interviewer.

Orkhan Jemal: Moscow is turning into Osh

20.12.2010 19:10 msk Analytics Russia

"Why Kyrgyz do not like Uzbek minority? The reason is that Uzbeks claim to be full-fledged citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz view this as the expansion of aliens; ultimately, the name of the country is Kyrgyzstan and this is already the reason why Uzbeks must know their place. The fact that the cities of southern Kyrgyzstan have been populated by Uzbeks since Pea king period is disregarded. Why do not Russians like Caucasians? Delving into this, we will find the problem in the same "expansion". Russian Muscovites, for example, do not like that Caucasians have a right to dance lezginka in the downtown Moscow. Is the dislike of Kyrgyz in relation to Uzbeks only enough to start "Osh massacre"? No! The pogroms took place when the question of power was being discussed. Meanwhile, the pre-election years in coming up in Russia and entire political establishment is busy with discussing the strengthening collapse of the Medvedev-Putin tandem…"

US think tanks are interested in the migration processes in Russia and religious situation among migrants

03.09.2010 10:40 msk Migration Russia

US think tanks, specifically, the Kennan Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies, explore various aspects of labor migration in Russia. In order to collect preliminary information about migration flows, statistics and opinions of Russian experts the research teams visited the number of big Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg. Ferghana.Ru correspondent met the scholars and learned about the migration aspects, interesting for American researchers.

From Lenin square to Shakhidon square: 20 years after February massacre in Dushanbe

16.02.2010 15:36 msk Analytics Russia

It has been twenty years since tragic events, no one remembers today for some reason. In February of 1990 dozens of people were killed and hundreds were injured in the dispersal of the opposition forces in the Tajik capital. The bloody event in Dushanbe became the prologue of the multi-year and big civil war in Tajikistan – one of the most bloody military conflicts in the post-Soviet area that killed hundreds of thousands people. In February of 1990 the political and military conflict was initiated in Tajikistan that continued through June of 1997.

Children of immigrants

16.07.2009 18:53 msk Russia

Everything began with a call from friends in Europe. Resolved to adopt a child in Russia, they regularly scan the web sites featuring data on prospective kids (photos, ages, names). "How come there are so many abandoned children in Russia with Moslem names and Asian features?" they wanted to know once.

Russia: SCO Summit Promises to be "Afghani"

15.06.2009 11:36 msk Politics Russia

The heads of states comprising the Shanghai Cooperation Organization converge on Yekaterinburg for another, two-day, summit. The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are coming from Moscow where they attended a meeting of the CIS Collective Security Council, yesterday. Chairman Hu Jintao is expected from Beijing. When the summit is over, Jintao will make a visit to Moscow, too.

Pavel Bardin: It is possible to bring skinheads round

30.04.2009 12:34 msk Interview Russia

Russia 88, a story of skinheads, is finally released. Officially certified, the film by Pavel Bardin is shunned by movie theaters. When it was to be run within the framework of Spirit of Fire film festival in Khanty-Mansiisk, organizers of the film festival got a call from the Kremlin. They were told in no uncertain terms that Russia 88 was to be left without the grand prix. The jury opted for a compromise then and gave Bardin's film a special award. Here is an interview with Pavel Bardin, author of the film that is bordering on being a taboo.