Regional Ombudsmen Stopped Defending Political Rights Long Ago and Now aren’t Defending Social Rights Except of Those Fighting in Ukraine, ‘New Tab’ Study Finds

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 1 – Regional officials responsible for the defense of human rights, commonly referred to as ombudsmen, stopped defending political rights long ago and since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine in 2022 have been ever less willing to take up issues of social rights except for those involving soldiers fighting in Ukraine, Dmitry Shishkin says.
    The “New Tab” journalist reaches that conclusion after examining more than250 annual reports of these officials for the period  2021 to 2023 and talking to ombudsmen about their experience in handling more than 600,000 appeals during those years and others earlier (thenewtab.io/pravila-igry/).
    Shishkin says that ombudsmen have concluded that they can do little or nothing to defend the political rights of Russians and that their role in defending social rights of ordinary citizens is limited as well except in the case of protecting soldiers, something the Kremlin prefers that they focus on.
    What this means is that offices set up more than two decades ago in which so many placed so much hope have been gelded, but this trend may backfire: Not everyone will be pleased with this latest indication that in Russia, veterans of the war in Ukraine are a protected species at least in comparison with everyone else.