Washington, D.C. — Human Rights First today welcomes news reports that the Russian government has pardoned Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot along with 30 activists who were arrested during a Greenpeace protest. Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina, and the Greenpeace campaigners will be released from prison under an amnesty bill drafted by President Vladimir Putin.
"Putin is clearly taking measures to improve his standing before the international community in advance of the upcoming Olympic games in Sochi," said Human Rights First's Robyn Lieberman. "While the release of these high profile activists is absolutely called for, it will take more than this amnesty to correct the human rights abuses caused by Putin's crack down on civil society and freedom of expression. We urge President Putin to repeal the anti-gay 'propaganda' laws and to permit Russian human rights organizations to partner with their supporters in the West to protect human rights and individual freedoms."
The amnesty bill was passed this week in the Russian Duma, pardoning 2,000 current prisoners in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the Russian constitution. Putin also a pardoned a well-known opposition figure, the former oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Many view these actions as an effort to improve the country's human rights profile before the upcoming Sochi Games.
"If Russia wants to be a recognized global power at the Olympics and beyond, it will need to improve its overall posture on universally-recognized human rights, including an end to the practice of selective enforcement of certain laws against Putin's critics," said Lieberman.
In interviews with the media, President Putin continued to call Pussy Riot's nonviolent protest against Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow's main cathedral "disgraceful behavior." Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were each serving a two year sentence for hooliganism and the Greenpeace activists were facing charges of piracy and hooliganism. The statutes, designed to combat the violent acts of neo-Nazi skinheads, have been misused against nonviolent dissenting voices including journalists, activists, independent media and religious organizations.
Human Rights First continues to urge Russia to end the systematic persecution of civil society, and eliminate the use of anti-extremism laws against voices of dissent. The organization also calls for an end to Russia's anti-gay laws, which have created a permissive environment for violence against minorities and threaten the livelihood of LGBT people.