This Sunday people in St Petersburg will take to the streets for the fifth consecutive year running to demonstrate against racism in Russia. Members of Amnesty International from all over the world are sending messages of solidarity to the organisers of the "March Against Hatred".

The march was first organised after the murder of 64-year-old Nikolai Girenko, an ethnology professor who often testified as an expert witness on racism and discrimination in trials for racially motivated attacks.

Before his murder neo-Nazi groups had passed a "death sentence" on Girenko and posted it on the internet. On 19 June 2004 Girenko was at home. When the doorbell rang he went to answer it. He was killed by shots fired through his front door as he approached.

This collection of materials has been produced in August-September 2008 by a coalition of Russian NGOs for submission to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the course of preparation of Universal Periodic Review of implementation of international obligations by the Russian Federation in the UN Human Rights Council. The materials have been prepared in accordance with the Office of the HCHR guidelines and include recommendations and references to more detailed reports and publications.

We believe that today, as never before citizens – representatives of the different ethnic groups need to be united and consolidated. Public Movement “Multinational Georgia” welcomes good will of the Georgian government, namely the moratorium on the cease fire and the provision of the humanitarian corridor through village Ergneti, which we believe is a step forward towards the resolution of the situation in the region and establishment of peace.

Today Georgian citizens, residents of the conflict zone, government and all political forces manage to transform interethnic confrontation into the confrontation between political crime and injustice on one side and democratic civilized forces on the other.

Speech critical of the government, considered undesirable by the authorities, or which might incite “conflict,” has increasingly fallen prey to Russia’s vague anti-extremism law.

Interview with Mohammed Thamir -Assistant Director of programmes (ATHAR Center For Development) AND Ali Nais -Board member (ATHAR Center For Development)

Reporter: First of all, which are main issues Iraq has to deal with today?

Declaration on Building Georgian-Russian Civil Dialog

As a result of political crisis between Russian Federation and Georgia which has developed into military confrontation, the relationships between the two nations have sustained serious losses. The military confrontation and increase of political tension between Russian and Georgia  can be a cause for destabilization in the Caucasus region as a whole.

Today we talk not only about rupture of diplomatic relations between our two states, but about possible breaking off of any communication between people divided by unconscientious propaganda and anguish caused by losses in the conflict.  

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This morning in the village of Nahrem, in Azerbaijan's Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, a confrontation occurred between village residents and police. During the confrontation, three journalists; Radio Liberty correspondents Malahet Nasibova and Ilgar Nasibov, and Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety correspondent Elman Abbasov; were beat. The journalists were there carrying out their professional duties, reporting on the altercation. Elman Abbasov reported this to IRFS.

Russia and Georgia military involvement for quite short period of time had led to multiple victims among population and disastrous destructions on the territory of South Ossetia and Georgia. In these war crimes the guilt is owned to both sides – Georgia that had started military actions on South Ossetia territory, and Russia that had used such circumstances to invade Georgian territory. Both sides also guilty in nonselective use of fire, in use of heavy-weight ground arms and aviation in places of civilian population location, in that thousands inhabitants of South Ossetia and Georgia had become refugees. Neither one, nor the other side made no effective attempts for protection of local people living in the war conflict zone, supplied no safe evacuation from this territory.

Human Rights Watch researchers in South Ossetia on August 12, 2008, saw ethnic Georgian villages still burning from fires set by South Ossetian militias, witnessed looting by the militias, and learned firsthand of the plight of ethnic Ossetian villagers who had fled Georgian soldiers during the Georgian-Russian conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.