In self-immolation by Olympic torch, Putin gives NGOs millions and may pardon punkers and activists
Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past several days has engaged in a series of moves that appear to be geared toward earning him some angle’s wings this Christmas season, and would appear to redress some of the bigger human rights botch jobs of his administration.
Yesterday, Putin submitted an amnesty request to Parliament that would free the still jailed members of the punk collective Pussy Riot, and the so-called Arctic 30, the 28 activists and two journalists who were arrested for their protest of oil drilling in the Arctic.
The bill, submitted to the Duma by Putin himself, is meant to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, adopted on December 12, 1993.
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Putin is further dispensing largesse to Russia’s down trodden NGO community – a community he has spent much of his presidency dismantling – by dispersing some $15 million in state funding through 2015 to many of the civil society organizations that were, at his behest, harassed and raid by prosecutors under the “foreign agent” law, including Bellona.
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The 30 Greenpeace activists arrested in October, now free on bail and awaiting trial for “hooliganism” for their attempt to hang protest banners on an Arctic oil-rig owned by state energy monopoly Gazprom, would also be amnestied.
“Around 1,300 people will be released from prison, and 17,500 people will be relieved of non-custodial sentences,” Vasiliyev was quoted as saying. “In addition, criminal proceedings against nearly 6,000 can be terminated.”
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/putin_olympic_turnabout
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