Agora (organization)

Agora's current cases include:

• Oleg Kashin, journalist of Kommersant, beaten by suspected Putinist assailants
• Yevgeny Shipilov, journalist of Gazeta.ru, beaten by police
• Voina, a radical art group[2]
• Marat Gelman, art gallery owner[3]
• Artemy Troitsky rock music journalist, accused of insulting police[4]
• Artyom Loskutov, artist, accused of insulting police[5]

Their successful defences include:

• Lyudmila Kuzmina, head of the Samara branch of GOLOS election monitoring organization, harassed by authorities and prosecuted for unlicensed computer software[6]
• Lyudmila Kotova, editor of Samara newspaper VolgaInform
• Vera Dementieva, director of the Tambov Center for the Physical, Legal and Spiritual Development of Children and Adolescents
• Nina Maksimova, head of the Mari El organization Mari Ushem[7]
• Mikhail Afanasyev, editor of the internet magazine New Focus[8]
• Natalya Petrova, Kazan journalist and her parents
• Andrei Kutuzov and Rustam Fakhretdinov, Tyumen Anarchists
• Andrei Petrov, Izhevsk anti-fascist activist
• Vitaly Cherkasov, head of the Trans-Baikal Human Rights Center
• Dmitry Solovyov, blogger
• Sergey Kurt-Adzhiyev, editor of Novaya Gazeta in Samara
• Vladimir Pribylovsky, author of the website anticomprommat.ru
• Anastasia Denisova, head of the Krasnodar human rights organization "ETNIKA"
• Lidiya Rybina, head of the Tambov Human Rights Center
• Tatsiana Rutkevich, chief accountant of the commissioner for human rights in Tartarstan
• Aleksei Gaskarov, anti-fascist journalist from the Institute of Collective Action, for attacks on the Khimki administration
• Vladimir Yefimov, editor of Vechernyaya Tyumen
• Maksim Yefimov; Agora successfully challenged the court-ordered committal to a psychiatric hospital for a blog post critical of the Russian Orthodox Church;[9] in October 2012 granted political asylum in Estonia[10]
• Yekaterina Samutsevich of Pussy Riot; Agora achieved a high-profile success on 10 October 2012 when Irina Khrunova secured Samutsevich's release on probation.[11]

• Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia
• Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
• Moscow Research Center for Human Rights
• GOLOS, an organization which defends voters' rights and monitors elections[12]
• Novorossiysk Committee of Human Rights
• Movement for Nuclear Safety
• Planet of Hopes, a Chelyabinsk human rights organization

• attackers of Vadim Karastelyov in Novorossiysk
• attackers of Alexei Suslikov in Saratov
• Denis Fedorov, a Cheboksary human rights activist; police search found to be illegal
• Rustem Valiullin, an Izhevsk lawyer; compensation for moral damages following illegal police search
• Nasimi Nazarov, an army officer, convicted of selling a soldier into slavery in one of the first cases of its kind in Russia[13]
• 10 students from the elite Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School (NVVKU), convicted in connection to the death of 17-year-old student Radmir Sagitov. Head of NVVKU dismissed, family of deceased paid 3.5 million rubles compensation
• Vladimir Zhidkov, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Chelyabinsk and 17 subordinates; convicted in connection with the murder of prisoners in Kopeysk colony No. 1

AGORA, in conjunction with the Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) and the Higher School of Economics is working on legislative initiatives to improve the situation of Russian NGOs. They also participate in hearings of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and prepare manuals for Rospotrebnadzor.

On 4 June 2009 the Ministry of Justice included AGORA on the list of independent legal experts mandated to oversee the drafting of anti-corruption legislation.

Vladimir Lukin, the Russian Commissioner for Human Rights, also referred to as the Ombudsman, has spoken positively about Agora's work on more than one occasion. In the 2011 report of the Commissioner for Human Rights, he wrote:[14]

"In January 2012, the Interregional Association of Human Rights Organizations 'Agora', which is unnoticed in apologetics of government officials, published a review of, in its view, good judicial decisions during the reporting year. The human rights activists concluded that our courts have, in fact, shown a willingness to fundamentally assess hate crimes committed on nationalistic grounds, are gradually learning to distinguish between neo-Nazis and anti-fascists, and are refusing to recognize the highly questionable claims of law enforcement and government officials to be treated as 'social groups'."

Lukin also referred to Agora's work during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 28 February 2012:[15]

Medvedev: If they are filing fewer complaints, it is the first sign that the situation is more or less normal.

Lukin: This is the first sign that the situation is getting better. Granted, I am not the best messenger, because I work with complaints rather than complements, so I pay less attention to that aspect. But there is a whole set of positive factors. For example, AGORA organisation [Interregional Association of Human Rights Organisations] which may not be suspected of any warm attitudes toward the authorities, notes some very positive changes in certain court cases. On the one hand, people file complaints about judges and continue to complain, but on the other hand, there are elements that garner respect. For example, the courts have begun to take more adequate measures when dealing with aggressive nationalists, Nazis and some other destructive social elements.

Chief Editor of Novaya Gazeta Dmitry Muratov in the program Minority Report on Echo of Moscow, 20 July 2009:[16]

"I can tell you that 'Agora' and the Kazan Human Rights Center are committed to protecting Russian citizens from abuses by law enforcement. They were involved in cases of torture by the police, they're working on developing ways people can protect themselves from injustices on the part of the authorities. According to the Kazan Human Rights Center, several criminal cases was brought against the police officers who abused people. 'Agora' is currently representing, in part, the interests of the victims of Major (Denis) Yevsyukov, who, as you know, shot 9 people."

In 2008, Agora and the Resource Advocacy Center presented the book NGOs: a decade of survival.[17] It contains an analysis of existing law and judicial practice concerning the registration and control of NGOs. The study is based on more than 250 cases of judicial decisions on the liquidation and termination of the activities of NGOs.

In 2010 Agora and Novaya Gazeta published the book "Militsiya of disintegration era".

In 2012, they published the book "Methods of Conducting Public Events".[18]

In 2011 Agora reported 850 cases of harassment of activists, journalists and NGOs from 60 regions of the country. In 2010 they reported 603 cases from 50 regions; in 2009, 308 cases; in 2008, 144 cases; in 2007, 212 cases; in 2006, 118 cases.[19]

In 2011, reporting on actions against bloggers and journalists, they noted 11 attacks, 173 cases of administrative pressure, 38 prosecutions and 231 cases of restrictions on access to websites. They also noted 31 cyber-attacks, 11 civil penalties against bloggers and 5 proposals on regulation of the Internet from politicians and officials.[20][21]