theglobaljournal.net: Latest articles of Kira Youdina

Fighting Censorship: An Interview With Grigoriy Okhotin

2013-04-16T17:45:45Z

Tell me a little bit about your project: OVDinfo.org. What do you hope to achieve? And what role does the Internet play?

Our project came into existence after the first major protest against mass election frauds in December 2011 during which a lot of people were arrested. We realized that something needed to be done after many of our friends were arrested – so we started gathering information about who was being incarcerated, where they were taken, and what was being done to them. Very quickly, however, it became clear that we could do something more interesting and practical than simply an emotional project.

OVDinfo.org was what we came up with. At the beginning, we had two leaders; I was responsible for the media part, whereas, my friend and colleague programmed our database and was responsible for the technological aspect. We decided that we would be the liaison between the media and the detained activists. We would gather the information, gain credibility and have the media use our information. Then, in order to liberate people, we would enable lawyers to use this information. Finally, the third stage – which evolved independently – was to demonstrate the level of political repression in Russia.

The information we gather daily shows the extent of the problem. The goal is to eradicate detentions, but if they do happen, they must be safe and legal. We scare the police with our evidence. As soon as their departments and their names show up in our database, the police become scared to physically abuse detainees. Law enforcement is scared to violate the law because they understand that they are being watched. This is our main vision.

Along the way, we’ve come up with new ideas. For example, we interview the detainees. These are psychological, not media interviews, that reveal how the system is structured – how the police, prisons and courts function and interact. This understanding is necessary for reform; we are collecting this information to be able to make our own suggestions and improve the system. Perhaps, this will not happen now, not in the current political situation, but someday, it will be possible.

Your second question was regarding the Internet. In many ways, I am not a supporter of the theory that the Internet significantly changes one’s life, nor that it changes activism in the sphere of politics or human rights. Because for me, one of the main roots of our movement are the chronicles of the samizdat; which were produced by soviet dissidents and human rights defenders of the 60s and 70s. The Internet did not exist during their movement, but they too gathered information and protected political detainees – these chronicles then became known in all the foreign embassies and all the foreign correspondents whom had offices in Moscow. As a result, the Soviet regime could no longer easily suffocate or kill or imprison these detainees. Of course, the Internet changes the circumstances, but mostly it speeds up and eases our tasks. Our main instrument is a hotline, so when someone is detained, people can call this phone number, but they can also do this via Twitter or an online form. However, this is only a question of speed, it does not make a principle difference. Of course, information spreads online much faster than the cycle of a daily newspaper. We publish a piece of news 15 minutes after we find out about it, and within 30 min it is already published in all Internet news publications. But if this was a newspaper; within 24 hours, the public may no longer be interested. However, the Internet is not the biggest factor. Media is media and the Internet is just another media.

More seriously, the Internet influences all kinds of instruments like crowdsourcing. We can say that crowdsourcing would not be possible without the Internet; it would just be too expensive. In this way, we can gather information from other cities without having our own branches and staff in those locations. For example, we made a video service with the help of crowdsourcing. [We put out a call] that if you have a video of people being detained at demonstrations, you can easily and comfortably upload it to our site. From there, lawyers or journalists can use it for their purposes. Of course, without the Internet, such services are impossible.

We want to use this aspect of the Internet to enhance coordination. For example, right now we are coordinating legal help by sending e-mails and making phone calls. This takes a lot of time. So we want to create a simple service where you can request legal help and this electronic request would automatically go out to ten human rights-defending organizations; one of them would then agree to help. This would all happen online without extensive moderation/efforts. These kinds of technologies and services are how the Internet contributes to human rights. What is surprising is that this is still very underutilized. Everyone is talking about it but there are so few in reality. We’ve searched many sites of international organizations and very few of them are using online instruments and online rights defense. This is truly new ground, everything else is just a question of speed; fifteen minutes instead of a day.

In comparison to television and printing press, the Internet is relatively uncensored in Russia. Of course, sometimes there are DDoS attacks that are carried out by groups who may have links to the government. In your activities, have you come across such attacks on your site?

No, our site has not been attacked. I don’t know why. But we did experience something that was more unpleasant for us, which was a DDoS attack on our hotlines. For example, when 500 telephone calls come in per minute, it is no longer possible to get through. Our site hasn’t been DDoS’ed [this is a verb], but this is a very widespread tool for fighting free media. Perhaps it hasn’t happened, because we are still a very new organization. Larger organizations, such as Memorial or Human Rights Watch, have yet to be DDoS’ed. They really do tend to attack mass services, such as blog platforms.

Furthermore, this doesn’t just happen randomly, but usually on the eve of some important event - to overload a site two days before a big demonstration, for example. They just take out the blog platforms completely so that people can neither communicate nor coordinate. Over the last two years, the instances of DDoS attacks on independent media have increased. As you rightly noted, this is somehow tied to the government yet it hasn’t been proved. Since it is the Internet, everything is quite anonymous, but the impression is that a budget is set aside in advance. Perhaps, they haven’t had enough time to include our website in their budget.

In relation to Internet media compared to television.

In response to your question regarding the difference between Internet and television as a form of media; we monitor very carefully who cites our website and uses our information. Surprisingly, our data is used by everyone, including government-owned newspapers, but mostly in the Internet versions, not the print versions. Television companies also use our information occasionally, but, once again, on their internet releases rather than on air.

Besides DDoS attacks, do you foresee more serious threats to Internet freedom in Russia now or in the near future?

Yes, the situation is rapidly getting worse. Indeed, the Kremlin became scared of Internet freedom after the revolution in Egypt and the killing of the Libyan leader. They believed the tall tale that the revolution was a result of Twitter and Facebook, which is, of course, not the case. Without grassroots activity, it would have been impossible. Internet is just an amplifier of activity. Without that activity, there would be nothing.

Despite this however, the Russian government started to adopt new legal measures to curb Internet freedom, such as black lists. In Russia, we love children, they are almost holy, so under the guise of protecting children from pornography, drugs, and suicide, the government created a black list which was formed via very non-transparent conditions. Yet what is most interesting is that the system used IP addresses; by using one IP address, there could be a pornographic site or my site, drug propaganda or a blog post. This is absurd. Everyone was very much against this law, including Yandex, the search engine. The government promised that it would take all this into consideration, but of course it didn’t.

Within one month of its creation, our Pirate Party released an analytical report that 95% of what goes into the Black List does not relate to pornography or drug propaganda. So far, this list hasn’t been used in political battles, but the government can close an IP address forever simply by registering a pornography site to the same IP address.

There is another negative development. Right now we have GONGOs, or so-called civil society organizations created with the help of the government. In one of the provinces the GONGO conducted an experiment to create a White List. This means that when you buy an Internet package, you will have access only to the White List of websites, which have been checked for the absence of “bad” content. Currently, in this list are 5,000,000 websites, which is less than 1% of all world websites. This is a Russian innovation. This doesn’t even exist in China. So this all happens when you sign a contract with your Internet provider. But if you don’t want this, you have to sign a separate contract saying that you don’t want to protect your children from pornography. This experiment is only in one province and remains unofficial – but still, it’s an alarming development.

Yet more than the above problems, there exist several other issues. For instance, companies that are close to the government acquire social platforms to exert control. Livejournal – originally owned by an American company - was the most popular blog service in Russia; and the government simply had it bought up by a Russian company.

Moreover, social media is being put to criminal trial for spreading extremism. This is just another tool for putting pressure on activists. The latest example was against activism to close a school – an activist organization posted a quote by Hitler that stated, “If you wanted to control your population, close your schools.” They were then blamed for spreading extremist propaganda. Of course, it had nothing to do with real extremism.

Another incident was somewhere in the provinces. A political activist received a warning that he was noted for extremist activity because another user put a photograph with extremist content onto his vKontakte [Russian version of Facebook] wall. But it was the owner of the wall that was blamed. Of course, this is a very alarming episode, especially in the provinces. In Moscow, such an act would not have been possible – people protest such human rights violations, and activists can usually get good lawyers. In the provinces, however, there are very few activists – it’s a difficult moment.

Yet the DDoS attacks remain the most common activity. It is very difficult to protect your site from them. Even the biggest sites cannot protect themselves. It is just too cheap to overload a site, about 200 USD for even the most heavily-securitized IP addresses. At the same time, to be DDoS’d is not catastrophic.

You mentioned the difference between Moscow and the provinces. But there is also a difference between generations. For example, the International Research and Exchange Board’s Media Sustainability Index of 2012 indicated that the younger generation has a bigger expectation of freedom because they use the Internet, which is less censored than television. What effect might this generational difference have on the situation in Russia?

There is a general sense that Russia is changing on a societal rather than political level; but they are mostly related to consumer behavior. Automobile insurance works quite well in Russia and people are becoming more used to following a contract. They know that if they are paying for insurance, they are promised a certain service and they will receive that service. Since we have a lot of drivers, this affects a big part of society. They become used to signing contracts and following through with them. This carries over and now people demand the same from the government with whom they feel that they are in a binding contract. They pay taxes, after all.

Another factor is that now in Russia you can buy 40 different types of cheese, 40 different types of jeans and so on - so people are used to choices. But despite this variety, we have Putin over and over again. So people who have become used to consumer freedom are beginning to carry this over to the political sphere. Internet works in the same way, when you can look at this site or that site and compare different sources of information, you begin to question what you’re told. You’re told something from the “box” [how Russians refer to the TV] but you say “I will check that on Wikipedia”. So those who are used to using the Internet have stopped trusting the “box.” It is true that the Russian television audience is aging and decreasing. In 2012, for the first time, daily Yandex users in Russia surpassed television viewers. This change clearly effects the way society thinks and behaves in regards to its rights.

Yet, I don’t think that this is such a difference in age. For example, I was an observer at a voting station and there were some elderly official that said “be careful because whatever you say, he will find something about it on the Internet”. They think the Internet is one, big wasteland. So this understanding [of checking information] is not just among the younger generation but everywhere.

What do you hope to achieve as a Freedom Fellow? You have come to Geneva and will continue on to Washington, D.C. What effect do you hope this will have for your activities in Russia?

Our project’s team is very interesting - we have journalists and programmers. We believe that throughout the world, NGOs do not fully utilize modern technologies for spreading their agenda. We are quite good at doing this in the context of Russian NGOs and we are interested in sharing our competences, to show them how to better utilize the Internet to spread their agenda. We would like to create trainings that emphasize knowledge sharing –that outline how an NGO site should look, and what activities that site should develop.

During this Fellowship, I will meet a large number of professionals in the NGO world. Their experiences will enrich my understanding and allow me to network. We then hope to collaborate in the future and help NGOs to modernize their websites and Internet activity. I ended up here unintentionally- I was invited to come here, so I came here. In the end it was timely and exactly what my colleagues and I believe we need.

Besides networking, do you hope to exert any pressure on a political level?

This fellowship was created to network and share experiences. There are many other forums that exert political pressure. We also engage in this by translating all of our reports into English and sending them around the globe. This fellowship is more about learning from each other. We are not alone - there are many people facing similar problems in other countries.

We love data and we love to make this data available to others for their use. This is, of course, only possible with the help of the Internet. This is the feature of the Internet that will change the world.

What is next for OVDinfo.org?

Besides software development of NGOs, we are expanding geographically - covering big cities outside of Moscow. We also want to expand our topics. Currently, we cover mostly detentions, but we want to also cover all types of political repression. We already cover police and freedom of assembly, so now we want to cover courts, prisons, and political migration. We are planning to do this in the next year or two. In a way, we want to become like propublica.org, an American, independent, non-profit media which produces investigative journalism on public interests by working with open data. They then distribute it via the Internet and by re-publishing at the partners’ traditional, off-line media.

Going Global: Russian Opposition Looks Abroad for Support

2012-10-02T17:04:53Z

Oleg Shein, a mild-mannered member of the opposition movement, came before Western audiences last week to discuss corruption in Russia. Shein was the Just Russia mayoral candidate in Astrakhan, a major city in the southwest of the country. After March elections brought victory to his opponent, Mikhail Stolyarov of the United Russia Party, Shein staged a protest in the form of a 40-day hunger strike. Supporters of Shein and anti-corruption activists also joined the strike to draw attention to election fraud.

At first glance, Shein is not the type of man who looks like he would pose a threat to corruption in Russia, but as the conversation turned to political rights, Shein’s determination and commitment to the cause was evident. Speaking at the Swiss Press Club in Geneva on Thursday (27 September), Shein explained that he had been visiting Western audiences in order to raise support and awareness of the falsified elections of 4 March. Although the victim himself of a fraudulent electoral process, Shein indicated that his focus was not on his own election, but on saving the city of Astrakhan from mafia-like government.

Illustrating the scale of the problem in Astrakhan, Shein accused the city government of deliberate destruction of property for monetary gain: “in the past seven years, 70 houses were burned in the city, which is an old and historical city. Thirty-five people died in the process. The houses were burned down to free-up space for new building projects. It must be understood that with the burning of a house, the territory comes under the ownership of the municipality. Today, city property is managed by a person who had spent time in jail with a famous criminal organization and was extradited to Russia for the trafficking of falsified Greek passports.”

The election, in the eyes of Shein and his supporters, was the last hope of eliminating such criminals from the municipal government. As results were announced, however, evidence of electoral fraud surfaced. “On election day, with the help of the police, the Election Commission eliminated the election observers and simply refused to show the markings on the voting ballots,” said Shein, displaying a copy of what he explained to be a court decision confirming the violations. “We have an incredible database of information.” In addition to the complaints of election observers, Shein indicated that he and his followers had gathered a collection of surveillance videos, posted on YouTube, showing Election Commission officials leaving before counting votes and refusing to show observers the markings on the ballots. With such evidence pointing to fraud, Shein attempted to make his case for annulment of the election results by appealing to local courts. He lost every time. “Russian Courts have concluded that our Election Commission can know the will of the electorate without allowing them to see the voting ballots.”

While the concurrent hunger strike did not achieve the annulment of the election results, Shein believes that it achieved two very important objectives. Firstly, video surveillance will now be installed at polling stations. Secondly, polling stations will be equipped with voting machines. Both technologies are intended to reduce election fraud. While surveillance cameras can help to prove violations, the voting machines help to reduce it. As Shein explained, “the difference between where there were automatic voting machines and where there weren’t is 37 percent. So, a candidate who received 40 percent of the votes would have either 77 percent or 3 percent according to the Election Commission. In Moscow, the difference was 16 percent.” At the same time, Shein refuses to place all of his hopes in technology, remaining committed instead to a bottom-up approach and increased participation in governance.

Despite some gains on the domestic front, Shein is currently appealing to European and international actors to assist in spurring change in Russia. He met last week with the French Socialist Party and colleagues from the European Parliament in Brussels, as well as with Russian expatriates, who are engaged on the issue of democratic reform. In Geneva, Shein was specifically interested in seeking help from the UN Human Rights Council. Although he believed that Russian delegates would react coldly to his complaint, he expressed hope that the Council would encourage Russia to annul the election results. If the request is taken into consideration, it will most likely be on the agenda of the next session of the Council, scheduled for February-March 2013.

(Photo © Ziyoda Kurbanova for The Global Journal)

Russia Behind Bars

2012-09-03T17:50:51Z

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Sergei Magnitsky, and now, Pussy Riot. While these highly publicized cases are mostly known for their political nature, they also hint at deeper problems within the Russian justice system. Unwarranted arrests, unjust trials and unfair verdicts. Members of the social movement ‘Russia Behind Bars’ have personally encountered these injustices. Now, the mostly female group dedicates its time and energy to helping others who have the misfortune to be going up against what Russians cynically call ‘the system’.

Lora Kudelko is a woman with presence. Blond, elegant and beautiful. Of Polish and Lithuanian descent, she has lived in Moscow with her husband since the mid-1990s. As a law-abiding citizen, she will not even cross the street on a red light, no matter how far away the traffic. She speaks to the point, gives instructions with an air of urgency and walks around with an overflowing notebook. Kudelko is an activist, a true rights defender. As one of the original members of the social movement ‘Russia Behind Bars’ (RBB), Lora spends her time attending court hearings, donating food to prisoners and raising awareness of corruption in the Russian justice system. Yet, until only recently Kudelko lived a carefree life as the wife of a successful businessman. All that changed five years ago when her family’s “journey into the whirlwind” began.

Kudelko’s husband, Nikolai, was one of the largest coffee distributors in Russia. In April 2007, while away on a business trip, police arrived at his warehouse and confiscated almost $2 million in goods, with no investigation launched for six months. The company’s entire import stock was seized, despite the fact that police claimed only one of the coffee brands was counterfeit. Upon returning to Moscow, Nikolai began knocking on every administrative door in an attempt to retrieve his merchandise. The police demanded $500,000 for its return. In a desperate bid to keep his business afloat, Nikolai paid the sum. His goods, however, were not returned. Indeed, friends were soon calling from outside of Moscow to warn that specific brands of coffee, which only Nikolai distributed in Russia, were showing up in the provinces. “[The police] thought that since he is a foreigner, he would just leave and not fight,” explained Kudelko. “When he gathered compromising material, which was very strong because there were some well known figures involved, they put him in prison for three years.” Kudelko was left alone to fight for the release of her husband. “The scariest are the first days of arrest, the first week of arrest. When you come back to your apartment after a search, you understand that your life has drastically changed,” recalled Kudelko with an air of sadness. She did not know whom she could trust or turn to for advice, changing lawyers eight times in three years. Each had been paid off, just like the police. In search of help, Kudelko turned to the Lithuanian authorities – the country of Nikolai’s and her own citizenship – but was informed by consular staff that they could not intervene in the trial until a verdict was issued. While Kudelko had plenty of prominent connections, an arrest is the type of affliction that most acquaintances prefer to avoid. Among Russians, misfortune is considered contagious, reflected in a common saying: “don’t bring misfortune into my home.”

As a result, Kudelko began a life of trials and jails. “When one person sits [in prison], the whole family sits,” she explained, recalling how her daughter was forced to suspend her studies in order to take care of her younger brother. Fortunately for Kudelko and her family, Nikolai was released after three years. The couple has continued to fight for justice, however, demanding the return of their goods as well as punishment for the corrupt officials involved. To date, their efforts have been fruitless. On 20 July, the Moscow City Court decided within a mere 15 minutes that Nikolai was not entitled to the return of his goods. Kudelko suspected that the confiscated items had been sold off and the money had “disappeared.”

To read the entire report, subscribe or order a copy of The Global Journal.

Report by Kira Youdina.

Photography by Ziyoda Kurbanova for The Global Journal.

Global Financial Crisis

2012-09-03T16:11:16Z

Why America Needs a Left: A Historical Argument, Eli Zaretsky, Polity, $19.95.

Eli Zaretsky’s Why America Needs a Left is a call to action to the young idealists of America in today’s crisis-ridden world. Traveling back into the history of America’s Left, Zaretsky argues that the Left is especially important in times of crisis, when the country’s identity must be redefined. Specifically, he cites the American Left’s role in defining the abolition of slavery in terms of racial equality and the New Deal in terms of social equality. At both points in America’s history, the country faced serious problems eventually leading to the Civil War and the Great Depression, respectively. Today, the US, like the rest of the world, faces another major crisis, the global financial crisis. According to Zaretsky, today’s problems are the result of neoliberal policies that began in the 1970s as a backlash to the counterculture of the 1960s. As inequality in the US continues to grow, Zaretsky calls upon the New Left, which formed in the 1960s, to rise again in order to help the country define a new identity based, once again, on equality. Disappointed with the failure of Barack Obama’s presidency to revive the Left, Zaretsky places his hopes on Occupy Wall Street. Whether this movement will bring about the return of the Left to American politics is yet to be seen. But in an increasingly globalized world still largely run by a single superpower, the revival of equality in American political discourse could help to decrease economic disparities. Why America Needs a Left is an interesting look into American history, which sheds light on contemporary problems and their possible solutions.

–K. Y.

Pussy Riot: The Punk Prayer That Rocked Russia

2012-08-06T14:01:04Z

On Friday, 3 August 2012, three men wearing bright balaclava masks climbed onto a building across from the windows of the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow, Russia. They waved flare torches and chanted “Free Pussy Riot” in a protest against the trial that was occurring in the Court at that moment. The men were eventually detained and the court proceedings continued despite the chaos.

The trial, which is expected to conclude in the following week, is of three young women who allegedly performed a “punk prayer” begging the Mother of God to rid Russia of Putin. The incident, which occurred on 26 February 2012, took place in the Christ the Savior Cathedral, in the center of Moscow. Four women, dressed in short dresses and colorful balaclavas barged into the Cathedral and danced around at the altar to a punk-rock song. The song criticized the link between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government with lyrics such as “the head of the KGB is their main saint” and “Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin. It would be better if he, *****, believed in God.”

The young women had previously conducted political protests through street performances on top of a detention center and a bus. Although several of the group’s members had been detained on those occasions, they only received fines for their antics. This time, however, the punk prayer touched a nerve. Several days after the performance, three young women were arrested: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (22), Maria Alekhina (24), and Ekaterina Samutsevich (29).

The trio is accused of hooliganism, but the women face up to seven years in prison due to the additional accusation that their act was motivated by religious hatred. Since the arrests in early March, the women have been kept in pre-trial detention, with the Khamovnichesky Court extending the detention several times. In late June, as Russian celebrities began a petition in support of Pussy Riot, the Court called an unscheduled session and decided to limit the time period during which Pussy Riot’s defense could familiarize themselves with their case.

Observers believe that the case of Pussy Riot is politically motivated; an attempt to send a message to all who want to demonstrate against the government. It has also sparked a debate about the uncomfortably close relationship of the government to the Russian Orthodox Church. But while Russian opinion is split, Pussy Riot has steadily gained followers both in the former Soviet Union and beyond.

Celebrities, politicians, NGOs and regular people have expressed concern and support for the feminist punk group. Many supporters of Pussy Riot have commented that they do not necessarily approve of Pussy Riot’s act, but they consider the authorities’ reaction to be disproportionate.

As Pussy Riot’s trial began on Monday 30 July 2012, the popularity of the group became undeniable. Everyday, news outlets release the latest updates from the court proceedings, describing and quoting the absurdity. In the transcripts from RAPSI News (Russian Legal Information Service), the judge mostly sides with the prosecution and has restricted the access of the defense’s witnesses into the Court several times. Furthermore, while it was the judge’s decision to limit the time period during which the lawyers could prepare for trial, she reprimands them for their lack of preparation.

According to members of “Russia Behind Bars,” a social movement advocating for rule of law and human rights, the Pussy Riot case is a typical example of the unprofessionalism that reigns in the Russian justice system. The publicity devoted to the case has brought problems of the justice system as well as the political situation in Russia to the forefront. If the Russian government wanted to make an example out of Pussy Riot, it seems that Pussy Riot has successfully made an example out of the government.

Unable to avoid the debacle, reporters asked Putin about the trial after a meeting with David Cameron in London on 2 August. “I hope the Court will issue the correct, justified decision,” stated Putin. He further indicated that if the young women had pulled something similar in Israel or the Caucuses, that they would face strong consequences. “But I don’t think that the young women should be judged so strictly for it. I hope they will draw their own conclusions,” expressed Putin.

Whether or not Putin’s statement foreshadows the Court’s decision, the three women are unlikely to be acquitted. Less than 1% of cases are acquitted in Russia, according to a 2009 report by the Center of Political Technologies. It is possible, however, that the public attention devoted to the case will affect the outcome.

But with the end of the trial only days away, Pussy Riot’s media domination is unlikely to continue beyond the verdict. So what will become of the punk feminists after the trial? In an e-mail interview, the group indicated that the battle will continue, regardless of the Court’s decision.

If the girls are released, Pussy Riot will carry on their political activism, specifically in the form of actionism (art protests).

However, in the event that the girls are not released, I asked the group if they have plans to fight the justice system itself. Pussy Riot explained that, “the group will definitely take action. We are waiting for the sentence and then we will begin. The justice system is not independent from the government, which why is there is a fight against it [the government], as well as a fight against the prison and judicial systems.”

When asked about the predictions for the political situation in Russia in the nearest two years, the group’s outlook was grim: “KGBzation of the country and the Belorussian scenario: no health, education, prison, or judicial systems.”

The sentiment is reflected among many opposition leaders who are demanding a “Russia without Putin.”