Watchdog

For the second time in less than a month, a Moscow prosecutor wants to try to revoke the parental rights of a couple for bringing their children to a rally in the Russian capital.

The Apology of Protest human rights group said on August 26 that the Nikulinsky district prosecutor in Moscow had officially asked a local court to revoke the parental rights from Pyotr and Yelena Khomsky, who brought their children on August 3 to an unsanctioned demonstration against local election conditions.

According to the Apology of Protest, which said it will defend the couple in court, Pyotr Khomsky was characterized as a bodyguard for Russian opposition politician and anticorruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny. The Khomskys and their children were recorded on video attending the rally.

The Nikulinsky district court confirmed the case to the Interfax news agency, adding that a hearing has been scheduled for September 2.

The case follows a similar move on August 6 when the Moscow city prosecutor's office requested Dmitry and Olga Prokazov have their parental rights removed for bringing their 1-year-old son to an unsanctioned rally in front of the Moscow mayor's office on July 27.

That move by the prosecutor's office sparked harsh criticism among ordinary Muscovites and human rights organizations across Russia.

Several sanctioned and unsanctioned rallies have taken place in Moscow in recent weeks in which protesters have demanded that independent and opposition candidates be allowed to run in the upcoming municipal elections.

Police detained more than 1,300 people at the July 27 demonstration to demand free municipal polls, and more than 1,000 people were detained during a similar rally in Moscow on August 3.

Dozens of protesters have since been fined or given jail sentences for organizing and participating in the unsanctioned rally.

Several other are facing criminal charges for taking part in "mass unrest" and allegedly assaulting police and are being kept in pretrial detention until at least September 27.

With reporting by Interfax

People expressing any form of Ukrainian identity in Russian-annexed Crimea can expect prosecution or get on a “hit list,” say two members of the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG).

Displaying the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag or its colors on property can lead to civil fines, criminal prosecution, and land “Ukrainian activists” on an online forum where people “hunt” for them, Olha Skrypnyk, head of CHRG, and group member Volodymyr Chekryhin, told the public broadcaster’s Radio Culture program.

An online forum exists in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet, called “Burn the Banderites in our city,” a reference to devotees of the mid-20th-century Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

“There are open calls for the massacre of Ukrainian activists, information is collected -- there are 150 pages” on the forum, Chekryhin said. “There are photos of Ukrainian activists, addresses, information about where the families live, and the routes they take with their children to the kindergarten. And it is suggested to find them and deal with them.”

Hanging a Ukrainian flag or displaying its colors can lead to a civil fine, Skrypnyk said, and usually is prosecuted as an “unauthorized” demonstration.

If Ukrainian colors are painted on property, that could lead to criminal charges and jail time for committing “vandalism,” she said.

Other times, criminal cases are “fabricated,” Skrypnyk said, to imprison Ukrainians who “express any form of Ukrainian identity.”

Volodymyr Balukh was mentioned as an example.

Currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Russia, Balukh displayed a Ukrainian flag on his farmstead after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

Balukh was originally arrested in December 2016 and convicted on a weapons- and explosives-possession charge in August 2017 that he said is false.

Rights groups like the Memorial Human Rights Center consider him a political prisoner and maintain the charge against him was trumped up.

“On the whole, there are risks in general with the manifestation of Ukrainian identity,” Skrypnyk said. “As for the flag and directly Ukrainian colors, it can very often be used for persecution.”