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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">
"Lucida Sans Unicode",sans-serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">This week we our guest on the podcast
is Svetlana Astrakhantseva, executive director of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
Svetlana Astrakhantseva is an economist, lawyer and law professor, and human
rights activist. She has been working with the Moscow Helsinki Group since 2008
and has been executive director of MHG since 2016. She is co-coordinator of the
Group for Assistance to the Russian-Ukrainian Human Rights Dialogue and a
member of the Coordination Council of the Civic Solidarity International Platform.
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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">The topics discussed on our podcast are:
why be a human rights defender in today's Russia; what MHG does; whether there
is a dialogue today between the human rights community and the authorities; is civic
oversight relevant today in Russia; and the prospects for human rights in
Russia.
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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">The questions we ask Svetlana
Astrakhantseva are:
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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">1) What brought you to the Moscow
Helsinki Group? Why did you become a human rights activist?
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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">2) The mission of the MHG is to
promote human rights and democracy in Russia, expose human rights violations
and ensure that Russia complies with its international human rights
obligations. To what extent is monitoring and pressure on the authorities possible
nowadays, when the Kremlin is putting so much pressure on human rights NGOs?
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color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">3) Liudmila Alekseeva, one of the
founders of the MHG, was known for her ability to conduct dialogue with
representatives of the authorities (Kolokoltsev, Putin). How far is it possible
now to continue dialogue in the way that Liudmila Alekseeva did?
"Lucida Sans Unicode",sans-serif;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">4) A workshop on civic oversight of
the police is planned for December this year in the Krasnodar region, with a
face-to-face meeting planned to be held in Sochi. Do the authorities put
obstacles in your way?
