Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 17 – As part of the
Kremlin’s effort to present the recent Moscow protests as “mass disorders,” its
siloviki are trying to find links between those who have taken to the streets
in the capital in defense of their democratic rights and activists in the North
Caucasus where there really have been “mass disorders” as the Russian
authorities understand them.
Novaya gazeta journalist
Irina Gordienko details what is known about these efforts including the raid on
the Moscow office of the Legal Initiative Foundation, a group that works to
defend people in the North Caucasus against official arbitrariness and abuse (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/08/17/81638-kruche-gor-tolko-sobry).
The raid took place, the journalist says,
because the Russian authorities cannot imagine
that Russians are standing up on their own for their rights but assume
that some outside force – the West in one or another guise or the North
Caucasians – must somehow be behind what is taking place in Moscow.
Olga Gnezdilova, a lawyer for Legal
Initiative, says that her group has “no relation” to the Moscow protests and is
too busy with its own responsibilities even to participate in them. She notes
that the Russian authorities not only don’t believe that but ar going after
other organizations involved with the situation in the North Caucasus.
Yesterday, for example, in Pyatigork, the
SOBR raided the office of the General Lebed Peace-Making Mission in search of
evidence for the Kremlin’s assumptions.
Aleksandr Mukomolov, the head of the group who is a member of the
Presidential Council on Human Rights, said they found nothing because there is
nothing to find.
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