Watchdog

Croatia's Jewish communities will boycott a Holocaust commemoration at the country's parliament to protest what they say has been the government's tepid response to efforts by nationalists to glorify the country's World War II-era Nazi-collaborationist Ustasha regime.

The Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia announced on January 23 that it would skip the January 27 Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony because the government had failed to remove plaques placed around the country bearing the Ustasha slogan "Ready for the homeland."

One of the plaques has been installed at Jasenovac, the site of a Nazi-era death camp where some 100,000 people perished during the war.

The parliament's Constitutional Committee last year ruled that the plaque was an "insult to the victims of the Jasenovac camp" and urged local officials to remove it.

However, Jewish activists said, the Jasenovac plaque remained in place and others had appeared elsewhere in the country.

In April, the Jewish community boycotted the government's commemoration of Jasenovac victims and held its own to protest the government's tolerance of neo-Nazi nationalism and Ustasha nostalgia.

Moscow authorities have denied activists permission to protest in a central square against legislation that would decriminalize some forms of domestic violence in Russia.

Organizers wanted to hold a demonstration on Bolotnaya Square on January 28, with up to 1,000 people attending.

In rejecting the application, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin's office said that there is not enough room on the square -- the site of past protests attended by tens of thousands of people -- and that the gathering would disrupt traffic.

The bill would make "moderate" violence within families an administrative offense, rather than a criminal one, with those found guilty able to pay a fine instead of serving jail time.

It easily passed in the first of three votes in the lower house of parliament, and the second reading is scheduled for January 25.

Amnesty International on January 19 urged Russia not to adopt the legislation, calling it a "sickening attempt to trivialize domestic violence" that would undermine already weak protections against abuse.

The bill "is not going to improve the situation, to say the least," Irina Matviyenko, who runs a domestic violence hot line, told the Associated Press.

Based on reporting by Meduza, AP, and The Guardian