PROBLEMS FOR TOLERANCE SUPPORT FOUNDATION IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000829

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: PROBLEMS FOR TOLERANCE SUPPORT FOUNDATION IN
NIZHNIY NOVGOROD


Classified By: Political M/C Alice G. Wells. Reason: 1.4 (d).

Summary
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1. (C) On March 20, law enforcement officials in Nizhniy
Novgorod raided the offices of the Fund in Support of
Tolerance (FST),the successor organization to the
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) and confiscated
the organization's computers. At the same time, in what
appeared a well-organized operation, the homes of more than
30 staff members were searched and personal computers and
cell phones confiscated. FST leaders see the raids as part
of a pressure campaign, linked to their plans to publish a
report on human right abuses in Chechnya, which alleges that
Russian forces committed war crimes and calls for
accountability under international law. They also suggested
that the raids may have been part of a broader nationwide
campaign against the banned National Bolshevik party, since
many of the staff are associated with that organization as
well (septel). Our contacts told us that the Fund in Support
of Tolerance will continue operating temporarily out of
individuals' apartments until the report is completed. We
will continue to raise our concerns with GOR officials over
the treatment of the RCFS and its FST successor. End summary.

The Raids
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2. (C) On March 20, law enforcement authorities in Nizhniy
Novgorod searched the offices of the Fund in Support of
Tolerance (FST),a human rights group established by the
leadership of the former Russian-Chechen Friendship Society,
Oksana Chelysheva and Stanislav Dmitrievskiy. Dmitrievskiy
described the raids as well organized and, as he has long
maintained, directed from Moscow. Press reports indicated
that militia showed up at the homes of 20 staff members of
the FST in Nizhniy Novgorod and 10 other staff in Arzamas at
the same time -- 7:00 am. Militia confiscated all computers
and cell phones of those searched. Dmitrievskiy maintained
that such a major undertaking was beyond the abilities of the
local law enforcement agencies and required organization and
support from Moscow.


3. (C) Chelysheva and Dmitrievskiy posited two explanations
for the search: First, the FST plans to complete a major
report on human rights abuses in Chechnya in the next two
months. Second, both noted that most staff at the FST were
also members of Other Russia and closely associated with the
National Bolshevik party, which is the target of a nationwide
pressure campaign.

FST Continues to Operate
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5. (C) In the three days since the raid, Dmitrievskiy told
us that he had set up facilities in various apartments
throughout Nizhniy Novgorod for staff to complete the report
on Chechnya. He noted that the militia did not raid his home
as it would have caused too great a scandal. He said he was
too visible of an individual and his name appearing in the
press reports would have received wide coverage. As a
result, he felt the FST staff could continue to work on the
report until completion.


6. (C) Dmitrievskiy told us that the authorities had not
been able to use the 2006 NGO law to put pressure on his new
NGO, the Fund in Support of Tolerance, because he had
carefully and thoughtfully worked out the legal intricacies
of the law. After the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
(RCFS) was liquidated in Russia, he re-established it in
Helsinki. He then set up the FST as a separate, Russian NGO
in Nizhniy Novgorod. The Helsinki-based RCFS receives
international grants and then, through cooperative agreement
with the FST, transfers the work and money to Dmitrievskiy in
Nizhniy Novgorod. He said that the Ministry of Justice had
recently audited the FST and found no problems with the
arrangement.

Forthcoming Human Rights Report on Chechnya
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7. (C) Dmitrievskiy told us that the FST had put aside its
public political activity to focus on producing a report of
human rights abuses during the Chechen campaigns. The report
could be completed in two months if, as Dmitrievskiy noted,
the organization is left to do its work. The report will
compile statistics from numerous sources including Memorial,
Human Rights Watch and FST's own monitoring of the conflict.
He said it would include information on tens of thousands of
incidents and cover almost 900 pages. Because of FST's

previous police raids, he told us that they had routinely
saved copies of their work off-site thus saving about 98
percent of what they had produced up to March 20. He expects
the full report to be published simultaneously in both
English and Russia.


8. (C) In an advance copy of the report's introduction,
provided to Embassy by Chelysheva, the FST alleges that the
Chechen conflicts of 1994-96 and 1999-2007 are analogous in
scale and tragic effect as those that took place in
Yugoslavia in the 1990s, with up to a hundred thousand
victims, most of whom were civilians. The report claims to
have evidence to accuse Russian forces of war crimes and
"crimes against humanity" -- arguing that the perpetrators
should be criminally liable under international law.

Comment
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9. (C) There is little doubt that the FST continues to be a
target of politicized legal pressure, but it is difficult to
determine the full story of what's going on in Nizhniy
Novgorod, whose local government has a well-deserved
reputation for heavy-handedness. Our primary source of
information is the leadership of the FST itself, who may or
may not have an understanding of government motivations. For
a Kremlin beset by paranoia about Western "interference" in
Russia affairs under the "guise" of humanitarian interests,
allegations of war crimes that could put Russian officials
under the scrutiny of international bodies are unwelcome and
could have led to a decision to again disrupt the work of the
FST. The authorities' tactics appear to follow a pattern of
periodic harassment, which can be traced back to the
government's pique at Dmitrievskiy's involvement in the
"Dissenters' March" last April. Whatever the motivations,
given Dmitrievskiy's and Chelysheva's determination to
continue with their work, we can expect further harassment in
the coming months and potentially an escalation of
administrative pressure against the FST leadership. We
frequently have raised the treatment of the RCFS with GOR
officials and the Ombudsman's Office, and will do the same
for the FST.
BURNS