On January 12, 2013, the head of the Central Asia programme of the Human Rights Centre “Memorial” Vitaliy Ponomarev received e-mails with death threats. Several messages were sent in both Russian and Uzbek from different e-mail accounts within about two minutes.

Svetlana Gannushkina: Yury Markovich Schmidt – our friend, colleague and defender – has passed away. We cannot say that his passing was unexpected: we all knew how seriously ill he was and how terribly he suffered. But this knowledge offers no comfort or preparation for the shocking blow of realising that something is gone and will never return...

This morning Vladimir Andreevich Shaklein passed away at an untimely age in Ekaterinburg. He had recently celebrated his 75th birthday. It is normally public figures from Moscow that receive all the attention, but this time I would like to write a few words about a simple engineer from the Urals, who was really a living legend. And perhaps I will also help readers to better understand what is meant by the expression ‘old dissident’.

Editors of the website Stopgulag.org have now made it possible to view online material from the Ryazan Memorial Society’s unique documentary exhibition “Ryazan 1937. Black Jubilee”.

On Thursday, December 20, “Memorial” held a round table discussion on Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. The Article envisions criminal sanctions for “incitement of national, racial, or religious enmity” and is part of the legislation aimed at combating extremism. Opponents say that the authorities more often than not use Article 282 to persecute their political opponents.

The premises of the Human Rights House-Voronezh were searched today by the police. Altogether eight plain-clothes police officers entered the premises, searching through all documents, but refusing to identify themselves and maintaining that they do have a search warrant for all organisations registered at this address (including commercial organisations and political groups). However, no search warrant was given to the representatives of the organisations.

On December 19, 2012, the State Duma of the Russian Federation will consider in the first reading a draft law banning the so-called “propaganda of homosexualism” nationally.

Thursday, November 8, Russia’s Non-Governmental Organizations presented their report to the members of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) as part of the official hearings on Russian Federation’s compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Thirty-eight years ago, on 30 October 1974, prisoners from camps in the Mordovia and Perm regions, along with those from Vladimir Prison, marked a 'Day of the Political Prisoner' for the first time in the USSR with hunger strikes and other acts of protest.

On October 24, 2012 the Khudjan city court approved the complaint of the local Department of Justice and delivered a judgment ordering the closing of the Young Lawyers Association “Amaro” (further – “Amparo”). The reason for the judgement was a discrepancy between the activity of the NGO and its charter.