Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Berlin Critical Of Khodorkovsky's Prison Conditions

The penal colony in the Chita Region, close to China, where Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving his sentence (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)

August 3, 2006 -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the conditions in which one-time Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is being held in a Siberian prison as "unacceptable."

TEXT SIZE - +

August 03, 2006

Merkel says the German government has demanded Russian authorities respect international standards of human rights.

Merkel's comments came in response to a plea from Germany's opposition Free Democrats for her to raise Khodorkovsky's case with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Her letter was released by the Free Democrats and published today in the "Berliner Zeitung" newspaper.

In the letter, Merkel says violations of human rights in the prison worry the German government greatly.

Khodorkovsky, the former chief of the now bankrupt oil giant Yukos, is serving an eight-year sentence for fraud in the Krasnokamensk prison colony.

Many observers believe he was arrested because he represented a political threat to President Vladimir Putin, a claim denied by the Kremlin.

Yukos was declared bankrupt by a Moscow commercial court on August 1.

(AFP, AP)

RFE/RL In Russian

UPDATED CONSTANTLY: Visit RFE/RL's Russian-language website, featuring news, analysis, features, streaming audio, and more, in Russian, from RFE/RL's Russian Service.

ARCHIVE

RFE/RL's English-language coverage of Russia.

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More