Show notes
This week our guest on the podcast is Sergei Babinets. SergeiBabinets is a lawyer and head of the Orenburg branch of the Committee against Torture, whose head office isin Nizhny Novgorod.
The issues discussed in the podcast include: How did someone
who had intended to work in the prosecutor’s office went to work for a humanrights organisation? How does the work of the Committee Against Torture vary interms of city and region (Moscow, Grozny, Orenburg)? How did you become ajournalist (with Ekho Moskvy in Orenburg)? What are the risks that face a humanrights defender in Russia today? Is the work of a human rights defender at theCommittee Against Torture equally risky across the country? What do you thinkof the recent revelations of torture in Saratov region penal colonies? To whatextent is the state a positive and reliable partner in the work against torture?What is the future of the human rights movement in Russia in the light of whatis happening in the country now?This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to the
podcast on our website oron SoundCloud, Podcasts.com, Spotify, iTunesand Anchor. Themusic, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by KarolinaHerrera.SergeiNikitin writes on Facebook:
He dreamed since childhood of protecting people from criminals, following inthe footsteps of his soldier-grandfather and his father, who worked in thepolice force for 25 years. After receiving a law degree, he decided to work in theprosecutor's office, which oversees all law enforcement bodies. Four years asan assistant prosecutor and attempts to join the prosecutor's office as afull-time employee led him to realise that the prosecutor's office didn'treally seem to want him. The search for a job where Sergei Babinets couldrealize his dream led him to the Committee against Torture. Many years ago, Imet Sergei in Moscow. He had just started working in the Moscow office of thefamous Committee against Torture and he called on us at Amnesty International.Since then, I have kept in touch with Sergei, who after Moscow worked in manycities: Nizhny Novgorod, Grozny and Orenburg. The possibilities to combattorture and protect victims of torture varies from region to region. While inthe North Caucasus the office where Sergei worked was set on fire, if in NizhnyNovgorod the group’s exhibition was banned, if in Moscow ‘Basmanny Justice’simply does not want to pay any attention to human rights activists, inOrenburg the Committee Against Torture can hold events on any topic - here thereis no interest in opposing human rights defenders. Sergei Babinets successfullycombines his human rights activities with his work at Ekho Moskvy radio inOrenburg: he is good at this work too, and therefore it’s very interesting tolisten to him in our latest podcast.