RUSSIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SAVORS SMALL VICTORY IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000459 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2018 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINR SOCI RS SUBJECT: RUSSIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SAVORS SMALL VICTORY IN ALEKSANYAN CASE REF: A. MOSCOW 325 ¶B. MOSCOW 378 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Alice Wells. Reasons: 1.4 (B) & (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: Members of Russia's beleaguered civil society feel that they have achieved a small, but noteworthy victory in the recent court decision to transfer former Yukos Oil vice president Vasiliy Aleksanyan to a medical facility where he can be treated for life-threatening illnesses. Aleksanyan's deteriorating health while in custody had convinced his former boss at Yukos to begin a much-publicized hunger strike, with leading Russian human rights activists and political figures joining the call for Aleksanyan to be treated at a medical clinic. This very public outcry galvanized Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin and Putin's own human rights advisor Ella Pamfilova to complain to the Ministry of Justice about his treatment and call for his transfer to a medical facility. According to media reports, Aleksanyan's lawyers were finally allowed to meet with him in the hospital one week after he was transferred and he remains handcuffed to his hospital bed. This rare but focused public backlash appears to have convinced the authorities they went too far in their targeted pursuit of Yukos defendants. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Following an outcry from Russia's leading human rights activists and repeated requests from the European Court of Human Rights, a district court in Moscow on February 7 suspended the embezzlement and tax evasion hearings against former Yukos Oil Company vice president Vasiliy Aleksanyan and ordered that he be transferred to a medical facility for treatment. While leaving the courtroom after the decision, Aleksanyan was greeted by cheers of "Freedom" from journalists covering the proceedings. Aleksanyan was arrested in April 2006, is HIV-positive, has been diagnosed with lymphoma, and may have also contracted tuberculosis while in a Russian jail. In November 2007, the European Court of Human Rights sent Russia a request asking for Aleksanyan to be transferred to a specialized hospital for the treatment of AIDS. The Strasbourg-based court sent the request three additional times, according to Aleksanyan's legal representative there. Aleksanyan's AIDS became public knowledge in January after the Russian prosecutor in the case revealed it in a Supreme Court hearing. ¶3. (SBU) Imprisoned oligarch, Yukos Oil Chairman Mikhail Khodorkovskiy helped draw public attention to the Aleksanyan case when he began a hunger strike on January 29 in support of Aleksanyan. Khodorkovskiy had asked Aleksanyan to rejoin the company in 2006 as a vice president in order to represent it in bankruptcy negotiations. In early February, a group of human rights defenders, politicians and other public figures called on "all who value the principles of law and the good name of Russia" to support Aleksanyan. The list included Russia's civil society glitterati: Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Vladimir Bukovskiy, writer and Soviet-era dissident; Garry Kasparov, leader of the United Civil Front; Yevgeniy Kiselev, journalist; Yuliya Latynina, writer and commentator; Boris Nemtsov, politician; Georgiy Satarov president of the Indem Fund; and Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former Duma member and head of the Republican Party of Russia. In addition, several rallies have been held in Moscow in support of Aleksanyan. The latest, on February 17, was a sanctioned demonstration in support of political prisoners, including Aleksanyan and Khodorkovskiy, at which over 100 people from Other Russia, the United Civil Front and other human rights organizations participated. ¶4. (C) Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin told Ambassador February 7 (ref. A),that he had written to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to request that Aleksanyan be provided with appropriate medical treatment in a hospital. The Federal Prison Service, a branch of the MOJ, announced that same day that Aleksanyan would be moved to a Moscow hospital for treatment, but that he would not be released from custody and would be kept under guard in the hospital. The Moscow Simonovskiy court had earlier suspended the pending trial of Aleksanyan after an independent medical examination confirmed that he had cancer and was too ill to stand trial. In one of its last requests to the court, his defense team asked that on humanitarian grounds, Aleksanyan be allowed to receive visits in the hospital from family members, including his five year-old son, while he undergoes chemotherapy and treatment for HIV/AIDS. On February 11 the head of Putin's Council on Promoting the Development of Institutions of Civil Society and Human Rights Ella Pamfilova told Ambassador that she too had complained to the Ministry of Justice and sent three letters to the courts (Ref. B). She also told reporters that Aleksanyan's case should be resolved with "mercy and humanity." ¶5. (SBU) Aleksanyan's lawyers were reportedly not allowed to meet with him until February 16, over a week after Russian authorities transferred him from the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison to the hematological unit of a local Moscow hospital. Prison officials reportedly told them that the hospital's chief doctor has determined that it would not be suitable for Aleksanyan to take part in judicial or investigative activities. According to one of Aleksanyan's lawyers, he is handcuffed to his hospital bed and is not even released to walk to the bathroom. Comment: -------------- ¶6. (C) The Aleksanyan trial has taken on a life of its own, separate and apart from the case against Khodorkovskiy. The indifferently harsh treatment of a young man suffering from AIDS and dying of cancer, with pictures of his condition portrayed in the international media, helped create a rare public backlash to the Kremlin's targeted prosecution of Yukos-related defendants. The rallying of support around Aleksanyan from Russian civil society -- particularly the criticism from within the government -- convinced the Kremlin that perhaps it had gone too far. BURNS