On 22 March 2007, police officers arrived at the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia with the suspected intent of detaining two of its leaders, Stanislav Dmitrievsky and Oksana Chelysheva.
The two human rights defenders managed to obstruct the police officer’s plans by immediately contacting international human rights organizations and western diplomats in Moscow officers. The attack on the office is the latest in a series of police actions against the leaders of human rights organizations over recent days. Both Stanislav Dmitrievsky and Oksana Chelysheva have been subjected to heavy police surveillance, and uninvited visitors have presented themselves at their residences.
On January 23, the Federal Supreme Court of Russia denied an appeal of a lower court's order to close the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). The RCFS, based in Nizhny Novgorod, was one of the few remaining organizations in Russia that was reporting on human rights conditions in Chechnya and the North Caucasus.
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society has since reconstituted itself as three new organizations and moved the legal entity to Finland. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society in Europe has been registered there with Stanislaw Dmitrievskiy, Oksana Chelysheva and Tatiana Banina being board members. The Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for Promoting Tolerance established in Nizhny Novgorod and another regional Tolerance association was registered in Chechnya in March 2007.
Both Stanislav Dmitrievsky and Oksana Chelysheva are going to appeal to the European Court on Human Rights in the liquidation ruling as we deal with obvious violations of Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention.
The escalation of tension in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s third largest city precedes a protest march scheduled for 24 March. The planned “March of Dissent,” which follows on a similar event held in St. Petersburg on 3 March, brings together a broad coalition of opposition political parties and civic organizations that are critical of the policies of the government of President Vladimir Putin.