This week our guest on the podcast is Yury Vadimovich

Samodurov. Yury Vadimovich is a Russian civic activist, writer, museum workerand public figure. He also has a PhD in geological and mineralogical sciences.Yury Vadimovich was one of the initiators of the Memorial Society and theSakharov Museum and Public Centre. He himself was director of the SakharovMuseum from 1996 to 2008.

The issues discussed in the podcast include: writer and museum worker,

initiator of various projects -and human rights activist? - why the topic ofhuman rights is so relevant to Russia - a comparison between the Soviet periodand contemporary Russia - Andrei Sakharov and today's Russia - Elena Bonner -reforms - Yegor Gaidar - a generation and its destiny - the future of humanrights in Russia. 

This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to the

podcast on our website oron SoundCloud,  Spotify and  iTunes. 

The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is

performed for us by Karolina Herrera.

Sergei Nikitin writes on Facebook: "Yury Samodurov

does not consider himself a human rights activist. Frankly, I have a differentopinion. After all, the UN definition says that: "A human rights defenderis a term used to describe people who, individually or together with others,act to promote or protect human rights peacefully. Human rights defenders areidentified primarily by what they do." Last week Yury Vadimovich toldSimon Cosgrove and me a great many interesting things from his life: about hispersonal impressions from his meetings with A. D. Sakharov, with Elena Bonner,with Lev Ponomarev, with Konstantin Kotov, with many others: the list is long.I personally found it interesting to hear Yury Samodurov's opinion aboutSakharov's death: "I had the thought that Sakharov was killed. I must saythat this was my first thought back in December 1989. Sergei Grigoryants heldthe same opinion. And A. Sobchak, who himself died a strange death, wrote in1989: 'I don't believe in the naturalness of Sakharov's death - it was toounexpected and very opportune for his political opponents.' We have learned agreat deal in the past years that makes us think seriously about what happenedthen. Yury Vadimovich Samodurov is a very interesting interlocutor. The hourflew by unnoticed, we had time to touch on many subjects, and, probably, weshould meet again. For now - here is our conversation".

Simon Cosgrove adds:  A summary of some of the week’s

events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.