R 151648Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2646
INFO AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 
AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 
AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG

UNCLAS ST PETERSBURG 000192 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: RS PGOV PHUM
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION AND HUMAN RIGHTS THIS WEEK IN ST. PETERSBURG 
 
REF: ST. PETERSBURG 189 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY.  St. Petersburg was the scene of another Dissenters 
March December 14, conducted mostly peacefully, but well outside 
the city center and under control of overwhelming security 
forces.  Some 60 persons were arrested.  Human Rights Day 
December 10 was marked by dueling conferences - one organized by 
NGOs and another by the City Administration.  Authorities have 
returned some materials to Memorial, but not computer drives or 
the most important documents which were confiscated December 4. 
Memorial is suing over the raid.  END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Dissenters Protest 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  In the face of a daunting security presence, some 400 
Petersburgers participated in the Dissenter's March/Rally 
December 14 according to Pol / Econ Off eyewitness estimates. 
Participants spoke out against the constitutional change 
extending the presidential term as well as against government 
intimidation of civil society. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Organizers had been denied permission by city 
authorities to hold a march, and were instead given permission 
to hold only a stationary rally at a park some two miles from 
the city center.  Many rally participants nonetheless set off 
for the event from central Nevskiy Prospekt, walking to the 
location of the rally itself.  To ensure compliance with the 
city's regulations, the participants walked the distance between 
the sites on the sidewalks and without signs, placards, or 
sloganeering.  The route and the rally itself were heavily 
covered by some 1,000 uniformed police, OMON special forces and 
plainclothes personnel who appeared to be waiting for any sort 
of provocation from the participants so they could begin their 
crackdown.  Some 60 would-be participants were reportedly 
detained for minor infractions. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  The streets between the meeting site and the rally had 
groups of security personnel along the entire way, so it was 
very evident to participants that they were under the eye of the 
authorities.  The park where the rally was held was cordoned off 
such that ingress and egress to it was limited to only two 
gates, where several dozen security personnel were posted, 
brandishing clubs, and sporadically checking participants' bags 
and identification. 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
While Rights Groups Confer 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  On December 10, the 60th anniversary of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights, several of the most prominent human 
rights NGOs were represented at a conference held at the St. 
Petersburg office of the Soldiers' Mothers Organization.  Among 
the topics of discussion were rights violations affecting the 
most vulnerable groups of population: draftees, prison inmates 
and non-Slavs; the problems of refugees and migrants' rights and 
difficulties with legalization of the former citizens of the 
Soviet Union and others left stranded by its 1991 collapse. 
Activists estimate that between one and three million Russian 
Federation residents holding Soviet passports have no official 
Russian documents.  Children of those people also become 
"illegal."  Of about 3,000 members of the St. Petersburg Afghan 
community (mainly refugees from the Taliban regime), only 300 
have official status.  The ongoing clampdown on press freedom, 
and the financial failure of the liberal weekly Delo, has 
reduced the number of independent newspapers in St. Petersburg 
to three: Novaya Gazeta, Moy Rayon and the English-language St. 
Petersburg Times.  Corruption was cited as endemic and 
increasing. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Meanwhile, across town, the Smolnyy City 
Administration held a human rights conference of its own, mostly 
theoretical or celebratory in nature.  Problems, to the extent 
that they were discussed, were limited mostly to fairly 
non-controversial issues, such as tolerance and access to health 
care.  A hard-hitting presentation from a Soldiers Mothers 
speaker, the only one at the conference directly critical of the 
authorities, was treated to a chilly reception. 
 
 
And Memorial Goes to Court 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Memorial, whose St. Petersburg research center was 
raided December 4, has filed suit for the return of its 
materials and damages.  Some of the center's papers have been 
returned, but not its all-important eleven computer drivers. 
The group was grateful for the Consulate General's and 
Department's support. 
 
GWALTNEY