SAMODUROV DEPARTS SAKHAROV CENTER UNDER LEGAL,

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002582

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2018
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PHUM PREL RS SOCI
SUBJECT: SAMODUROV DEPARTS SAKHAROV CENTER UNDER LEGAL,
FINANCIAL PRESSURE

REF: 07 MOSCOW 5365

Classified By: Classified by Political Minister Counselor
Alice G. Wells for reason 1.4 (d)


1. (C) Summary: Sakharov Center Director Yuri Samodurov quit
his position after facing mounting financial shortfalls,
legal difficulties, and strategic differences with the
Sakharov Foundation leadership. Arguing that his fate was in
the hands of a Kremlin leadership heavily influenced by the
Russian Orthodox Church, Samodurov said he was dependent on
the support of leading human rights activists to try and
convince Medvedev to intervene in reducing any ultimate
punishment. The criminal prosecution against Samodurov
became more lopsided, with witnesses for the prosecution
outnumbering those for the defense by 142 to 2. Samodurov
hoped that the museum would again be able to attract
benefactors in the wake of his departure.

Abandoning Ship
--------------


2. (C) Sakharov Center Director Yuri Samodurov told us
August 26 that he left his position at the museum because he
could do nothing more to help it develop as an artistic
center. Samodurov resigned from the post he held for 12
years on August 19, claiming that the art museum's financial
troubles and differences in opinion with the museum's
trustees encouraged his departure. Samodurov's decision to
quit came after the June 30 decision of the museum's
constituents not to present a sequel to the controversial
exhibit "Forbidden Art - 2006" (reftel) that led to a
criminal prosecution against Samodurov and exhibit curator
Andrei Yerofeev under Article 282 of the Criminal Code for
the incitement of racial, national, and religious hatred.
Yerofeev was subsequently fired from his position as curator
at the renowned Tretyakov Gallery.


3. (C) Samodurov lamented that the Sakharov Center had come
under negative scrutiny during his tenure. In addition to
the Russian Orthodox Church's (ROC) public criticism, he
believed that the ROC played an unhelpful role behind the
scenes in his legal battle. He added that the museum had
entered a period of stagnation, suffering from poor finances
and a fear of government repression, and suggested that he,
like all museum directors, wanted to give the art a chance to
speak for itself while also balancing the museum's budget.
Recent legal action and financial hardship proved too great
an obstacle for him to continue. Samodurov claimed to have
no future plans, nor to have heard additional details about
his court case, even though he expected more details to
emerge in the coming weeks. He also noted that the Board of
Directors for the Sakharov Foundation, led by Edward Kline,
had not asked him to leave; he chose to depart on his own
accord. Numerous press outlets covered his departure,
including the Kommersant daily which said Samodurov had grown
quite nervous about the lawsuit.

Financial Problems
--------------


4. (C) Samodurov told us in an earlier July 30 meeting that
the museum faced extremely difficult financial straits. The
Sakharov Center operated on a budget of USD 450,000 per year;
however, Samodurov complained that the institute had managed
to raise only an estimated USD 100,000 to that point in 2008
for the Center's archives (Note: he deemed the archives to be
noncontroversial). As Russia's only non-governmental and
non-commercial museum and community center, the Sakharov
Center consistently needed wealthy patrons to maintain
operations, conduct research projects, and house permanent
exhibitions. Part of the problem, Samodurov noted, stemmed
from the U.S.- based Sakharov Foundation Board of Director's
decision to reduce funding drastically in the wake of the
2007 presentation of "Forbidden Art - 2006." Additionally,
he mentioned that fewer international agencies offered grants
to the Sakharov Center, probably due to their reluctance to
be associated with an organization in poor favor with the
government. Since the museum did not charge an admission
fee, Samodurov knew it would need to fire the majority of its
staff, including the guards and maintenance personnel charged
to keep the museum running.

Legal Troubles
--------------


5. (C) Samodurov acknowledged that human rights advocate and
Moscow Helsinki Group leader Lyudmila Alekseyeva offered her
assistance for fundraising purposes in 2007. Samodurov told
us that Alekseyeva had written letters to the ambassadors of
numerous European countries, including Portugal, Spain,
Norway, Estonia, Italy, and Germany in recent weeks,
soliciting their support, but with mixed results. He also
noted that SPS Leader Boris Nemtsov had appealed to two
undisclosed billionaires in Russia for their patronage, and
added that he hoped for help from Garry Kasparov. That said,
he doubted any significant financial assistance from outside
donors would be forthcoming.


6. (C) Samodurov maintained that the court case filed
against him for the 2007 exhibition would not be decided by
the court itself, but by Medvedev. Drawing a comparison to
his 2005 legal proceedings, in which the government reduced
his penalty to 100,000 rubles, Samodurov stated that Putin
himself authorized the reduced punishment after receiving
several appeals for leniency from human rights advocates. In
late July, Samodurov received a legal document from the
prosecution detailing the case's status. Samodurov told us
about two interesting items from the prosecution's case:
first, the prosecution admitted that no victims existed in
the case; second, the procuracy had identified 142 witnesses
for the prosecution, but only two witnesses for the defense,
both of whom served on the Board of Directors for the
Sakharov Center. Samodurov asked for an explanation on both,
but the prosecution simply told him that they were "just
doing their job." Samodurov reluctantly conceded that in a
rigged legal proceeding in Russia, one does not really need
any witnesses anyway -- the result will be what the
authorities want. Again facing prison time, Samodurov
believed the best course of action to avoid imprisonment
would be a personal letter to Medvedev in conjunction with
additional appeals from Alekseyeva and Lev Ponomaryov.

Comment
--------------


7. (C) Samodurov's departure from the museum is emblematic
of the reduced government tolerance for dissent, and the
inability of civil society and the Sakharov Center to build a
constituency for their work. The Center's difficulties were
compounded by the provocative nature of some of their
exhibits, which often differed from mainstream tastes and
became the easy targets of antics, including outcry from the
Russian Orthodox Church.
BEYRLE