Show notes
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">8. What prospects are there for human rights ingeneral? Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen tothe podcast on our website or on SoundCloud, Podcasts.com, Spotify, iTunes and Anchor. The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for SoloViola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">SergeiNikitin writes on Facebook: "I remember well the1990s when we crossed a certain threshold, everyone more or less attained adegree of material well-being and began to think about having some rights,about restoring democratic values in the country. I saw that the judicialsystem was developing, there were some hopes. This trend lasted until about 2004or 2005, but then developments took a rather different direction. Every personlooks for some stability in their life, something on which to base their decisions.In a society governed by the rule of law, that stable basis is the law. A statewhere there is the rule of law is considered the most stable. But if the law isnot stable, and the only ‘stability’ is that a single person has been in powerfor a long time, it becomes easier for people to look for the signals that comefrom that one person rather than to the law, which is one thing today andanother tomorrow. Officials today are not guided by the law, but by signalsthat come from that one person. The ability to change by democratic means thosein power ensures the quality of life in a democracy." This is what the humanrights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who specializes in freedom of information andtreason cases, told us. For several years, Ivan was the head of Team 29, aninformal association of lawyers and journalists that fought the growing lack oftransparency of the state in Russia. I vividly remember that in Soviet times,wherever I went to apply for a job, the hiring process necessarily included avisit to the First Department, a room with an iron door, where - as a rule -some retired man with a crazy look was sitting. These First Departmentsactually embodied the closed nature of the state, the total control overeverything: why the hell do you need the First Department in the offices of a buildingrestoration organisation where I worked in my youth? Ivan Pavlov in ourconversation mentioned his team's new project, which he called the FirstDepartment. On Monday, he told a wider audience: "The First Department ofthe state bodies was engaged in the classification of documents and protectionof state secrets. Often what was going on behind closed doors in the FirstDepartments had little to do with the law and was simply arbitrary. Our FirstDepartment will fight to ensure that employees of all first departments throughoutthe country comply with the law, so that they do not violate your rights."Listen to our conversation with Ivan Pavlov, who temporarily left Russia butcontinues to do his fantastic work.windowtext"> mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;mso-ansi-language:RU;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;letter-spacing:.3pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">SimonCosgrove adds: ‘For further information about the past week inRussia, visit our website here.’